Page 181 of The Knucker King

Trewoofe lowered his head. “I can.” His ears pricked as he focused on the murkiness ahead. “There is a Faerie Queen in there, and she is weak.”

“A Queen!” Avice gasped. “How could a Queen be in there?”

“She needs our help,” Trewoofe asserted, nuzzling into her.

Neither moved.

She grasped her pendant, squeezing so hard the edges dug into her palm. How much damage had been inflicted on them by the church? How deep were the wounds? For both, this so-called ‘House of God’, was the last place they wanted to be.

“Now or never,” she murmured.

Avice steeled herself and stepped over the threshold. The plants had not penetrated the interior and her scruffy boots tapped loudly on granite floor. She wrinkled her nose at the staleness of the air. When she exhaled, her breath misted briefly more dissipating.

“Help me.”

Avice squinted down the nave. The cut of light from behind her illuminated the cross that hung above the pulpit. A thunderous crack made her flinch, and she covered her ears at the sound of splitting stone. She watched Trewoofe shove his head through the arched entry way. His horns ripped free the oaken frame, and Avice stifled a giggle as it hung around his upper neck like a collar. She brushed the dust and pebbles from his muzzle as he wriggled past her. Trewoofe jostled his shoulders through – the widest part of his body after his horns – and crawled the rest of the way inside. He ripped the doorframe from his neck and tossed it into the pews with an ear-splitting crash. Her Knucker sent a roll down his coils and dug his talons into the stone, sending spiderwebs of cracks in all directions.

“I do not like it in here,” he grumbled.

“Nor do I,” Avice agreed, rubbing circles on his bicep.

His unceremonious entry had split the walls wide enough that more beams of light illuminated the interior. Avice could see clearly now, and all her focus pinpointed to the massive hanging cross. She marched down the aisle, aiming for it like an arrow released from a bow.

“She is in there, I am sure of it,” she said, glancing back at Trewoofe. “Do you think you can take it down?”

He puffed up his chest. “Of course I can.”

Trewoofe strode ahead of her, flicking his tongue at her nape as he passed her. Avice giggled and rolled her shoulders at his caress. Before grounding herself back to the gravity of the moment, she allowed herself to feel joy at his touch, and gratefulness for her Knucker’s presence.

Avice grasped her pendant as he stood on his hind legs, using his long tail for balance. Trewoofe stretched to his full height, until his horns scraped the roof, knocking loose the clay tiles. Using his dextrous forepaws, he reached for the gleaming cross. He wrapped his talons around it and wrenched it free from the iron rings that held it in place, tossing loose dust and pebbles. She gritted her teeth as he waddled backwards on his hind paws, pressing the cross to his belly, and teetered for a moment.

“Be careful!” Avice shouted.

Trewoofe hissed before he found his balance again. Apprehension twisted her gut as he cautiously lowered the cross to the stone. She marvelled at that, how he was so huge, yet so gentle. Trewoofe dropped back to his four paws and inspected it. He flicked his tongue over the surface, pressed an ear to the wood, and beckoned Avice over.

He tapped it with his talon. “I can hear something inside.”

Avice dropped to her knees, brushed away the dust and pebbles, and pressed her ear to the polished wood. There was a slow, but regular, pattern of thumps.

One louder, one quieter.

“A heartbeat…” Her eyes widened in horror. “We must get this open.”

She stood and stepped back as Trewoofe brandished his thumb talon. He painstakingly sliced a straight line down the central beam of the cross. It reminded Avice of when she cut linen to make her clothing: careful, precise, and with determined purpose.

“I see a skull, Avice.” He peered into the split he had made. “With closed eyes behind it.” He moved his talon to the top again and made an identical slice. “I must make this wider, we have to get her out.”

Avice nodded. “Do what you must.”

Blood pounded in her ears as the dormant Faerie inside the beam was slowly revealed. Her long branch-like arms were wrapped around her emaciated chest, and her skinny legs were folded against her torso. Her skin was mottled green and brown, reminding Avice of a fallen log patched by moss. Her face was covered by an overgrown fox skull, and fluffy ears poked out of the temporal bones at the side of her head. Her clawed twiggy fingers enveloped something round that she pressed to her chest.

“Are we too late?” Avice asked.

“I do not think so,” Trewoofe replied.

He flicked his tongue out and licked across the Faerie’s crown.

One heartbeat.