The Dark Age

by Traci Harding

  ‘Because I enjoy digging up the facts … you know, those little details you seem to forget all about.’

  ‘And what about the truth? You’ll never learn the truth about the treasures you find, because you can’t see beyond their surface value. How do you put a price on the greater mysteries of the ages, Professor?’ Tory paused, angry at herself for losing her cool.

  ‘Who are you, really?’ He sat back in his chair, intrigued.

  ‘I think it’s time I went to bed, where shall I sleep?’

  As she sounded exhausted, Miles stopped his inquisition and gestured towards his bedroom.

  ‘The couch will be fine.’

  ‘I’ll take the couch,’ Miles insisted. ‘I sleep on it more often than the bed anyway.’ The house did have a spare room once, but it had long since been turned into an office, cum library. ‘You don’t have to turn in so early. If I promise not to hound you with any more questions?’

  Tory shook her head as she collected her bag. ‘I am truly too tired, Miles, or I would love to. We can talk tomorrow. Goodnight.’

  Brian’s hunger woke him early. It was so snug underneath Naomi and all the blankets, towels and clothes that lived in the back of his car, that he was very reluctant to move anywhere just yet. The sun was barely up and as it was a Sunday, no one would arrive at the site for hours. With this revelation Brian decided to rouse Naomi, and he became so engrossed in the exercise that neither of them heard a car arriving.

  Professor Paradis approached the steamed-up vehicle to hear the sound of his daughter’s voice coming from within. The car windows were fogged over so he knocked. ‘Naomi, are you in there?’ he asked, sounding very calm though a little surprised.

  ‘Holy shit, it’s my father,’ Naomi whispered, thrown immediately into a panic as she searched through all the layers on top of her for her clothes. ‘Yes,’ she answered, mildly comforted that the windows were frosted over.

  ‘Well, what are you doing sleeping in the carpark, child?’ Paradis had to wonder, amused by her dismay. ‘She does have a bedroom at home you know, Brian, and you are both quite welcome to occupy it when on Mon.’ The professor laughed. He knew Naomi was not a child anymore, and since his wife had died he was just thankful to have his daughter still around to care for him in his old age. Her love life was her own business.

  Naomi relaxed a little. ‘It was rather late when we got here.’ She pulled on her jeans, battling with Brian to do so. ‘We were looking for Brian’s sister. You wouldn’t happen to know where she is?’ She slapped Brian away from her so she could finish dressing.

  ‘Why I believe she stayed at Miles’ place,’ her father informed them.

  ‘What!’ Brian was spurred into action, ripping on his jeans. ‘Do you know where he lives?’

  Naomi nodded.

  ‘Then let’s go.’ Brian, still half naked, burst out the back doors to greet the professor, pulling on the rest of his clothes.

  Naomi couldn’t believe him at times. Still, she had to admit his body did warrant exhibition. As she finished tying her laces and climbed out of Brian’s car, her father commented, ‘Your standards seem to have waned of late.’

  Brian, realising the old professor was having a dig at him, slapped a hand down on Paradis’ shoulder and said, ‘Disproving the age-old theory that quality is more important than quantity.’ Brian served him a wink, ducking very quickly towards Naomi’s car before she killed him.

  ‘Just promise me you won’t marry him.’ Paradis pretended to be concerned for her.

  ‘Come on Dad, I know how you treasure the thought of having five or six little ones just like him running around your feet in a few years.’

  Paradis appeared to be wounded, holding a hand to his chest. ‘No more please, my weak heart.’

  Naomi smiled and kissed her father’s cheek. ‘Later, Dad.’

  ‘Heaven forbid, you’re even starting to speak like him.’ His daughter just laughed as she ran off to the car. It was wonderful to see her so happy and, as far as sons-in-law went, he could do much worse than Brian Alexander.

  Miles was awake when Tory raised herself for kata at dawn the next morning. He had managed to sleep for a few hours during the night, yet even then his mind had been plagued by images of her. Such an erotic dream, he recalled, and so vivid! He could still feel her dress of shimmery white, still smell the lushness of the wood where he’d lain down beside her.

  He watched Tory creep through the early morning shadows of the cottage towards the back door, and he held his silence, wondering where on earth she was off to now. As soon as the door had closed, Miles quickly ran to watch her from the kitchen window; she was heading for the beach.

  Brian and Naomi arrived at Miles’ place to find the house empty.

  ‘Brian, they’re not here,’ Naomi said, to stop him from pounding the front door down.

  ‘Well, the car’s here,’ Brian roared. ‘He’d better not be up to anything with my sister.’

  Naomi was not bothered by his mood. ‘Well maybe they’re down on the beach.’

  ‘Good call.’ Brian’s spirits lifted as he headed off to check.

  He found Miles seated at the top of the stairs. Tory was further off along the beach, watching the ocean as she practised her art.

  ‘I had no idea Tory was into martial arts.’ Miles looked up at Brian as he came to a stop alongside him. ‘I knew you were, of course. But Tory?’ Miles shrugged, astonished.

  ‘A triple black belt, my friend. You obviously didn’t try anything, then.’ Brian patted the professor’s shoulder. ‘Good man, now I don’t have to kill you,’ Brian said, jogging off down the stairs to speak with his sister.

  Miles watched them closely. Tory seemed to have a strong objection to whatever Brian was telling her, and Brian seemed to be doing a lot of pleading.

  ‘Hi.’ Naomi took a seat beside Miles. ‘Sorry if we’re interrupting anything.’

  ‘Not at all,’ Miles assured her, sounding rather disheartened about the whole thing. ‘What brings you two here?’

  ‘I have no idea. You know what they’re like,’ Naomi said, looking down at Brian and Tory, and really meaning their whole family.

  ‘I’m beginning to.’ And what I wouldn’t give to know their secret. ‘You want some breakfast?’

  ‘I do,’ Naomi sighed.

  Brian and Tory followed them back to the house sometime later. Brian was quietly exploding with excitement, as he’d managed to persuade his sister to let him accompany her to see the High Merlin. They’d spent much time discussing how they could manage this without Miles and Naomi realising what was going on.

  Later that day, Tory accompanied Miles to the top of the cliff at the end of the beach to point out where the underwater cavern was to be found.

  ‘I didn’t go all the way in, you’ll need a chainsaw to get through some of it, but the passage used to lead to the west tower and to the dungeons of the Royal House of Aberffraw.’

  ‘But how can you be so sure the remains are of that particular castle? It was only ever mentioned in mythology, after all.’

  Tory, who’d already started to head back to the house, rolled her eyes. ‘I just am, okay?’

  ‘Was it a past-life thing?’

  Tory hated the way Miles spoke about anything he didn’t understand, he made it all sound so ludicrous and puerile. She stopped and looked back at him, too annoyed to even comment.

  ‘Look I’m sorry, Tory.’ Miles didn’t want her to get mad at him again. ‘But nothing you say ever makes any sense.’

  ‘Why does everything have to make sense?’ Tory was tired of having to argue with those of rational logic. ‘Just face it Miles, life’s not logical.’ She strode off and Miles followed.

  ‘Tory please … I just want you to tell me the truth. Is that so much to ask?’

  ‘Yes it is, as a matter of fact. I’ve given you everything you need to find the truth out for yourself, just like the altar. If you’d just put two and two together, you could
figure out what the site at Llyn Cerrig Bach is all about.’

  Tory considered that the nine statues should have been a large enough hint. Surely it was obvious that the statues represented the nine muses who guarded the cauldron, all he had to do was study the local mythology. The cauldron was also commonly referred to in druidic script as the Chair, the Honey Isle or Avalon. Thus, was it not as plain as the nose on his face that the site was considered by the ancients to be a doorway to the Otherworld?

  ‘The mysteries of this planet exist so you can solve them for yourself, Miles, not so I can solve them for you. For heaven’s sake, just open your mind. Anything is possible, until proven otherwise.’

  Miles looked very perplexed and he said nothing for a while. ‘I have a confession to make,’ he announced finally. ‘I had a dream about you last night.’

  The hair on the back of Tory’s neck stood on end, and her eyes opened wide at his words. ‘Describe it to me.’

  He grinned. ‘I don’t think I should somehow.’

  Oh shit! Tory raised a hand to her mouth. ‘Just tell me where it took place then?’

  ‘Well, actually …’ Miles scratched his head, seeming a little embarrassed about it now. ‘In a wood.’

  Tory jumped into the air, slapping her hands together. ‘It is you!’ she announced excitedly, taking hold of Miles by the shoulders and giving him a hug.

  ‘What do you mean?’ Miles was happy to learn he’d said something right, yet he hadn’t a clue what that was.

  ‘You can’t make a mockery of my psychic episodes anymore my friend, because you’ve just had one.’ She laughed at his look of despair. ‘That’s the past you saw.’

  ‘I hate to be a stickler for convention, but you could never prove that.’

  ‘I was there, wasn’t I?’ Tory challenged him.

  ‘Alright then, what were you wearing?’

  Tory began to back up, a large smile growing on her face. ‘A dress made of a mysterious white shimmery fabric that sparkled the colours of the rainbow. Of a sort of seventeenth-century, nymphish design, I recall.’ Tory giggled at his bewilderment, and bounded back towards the house.

  ‘It’s psychological ambush, she’s trying to drive me mad!’ Miles concluded, in a daze. How could she have seen a dream? Perhaps Tory had more psychic ability than he’d given her credit for.

  They all drove out to the site that evening and waited around for Professor Paradis, the last person on the site to leave. Brian tried very subtly to persuade Naomi to wait for him back at her place, but she wasn’t about to leave him before she had to. So the four of them watched from the office window as Paradis drove out the gate.

  ‘Okay, now what?’ Miles was dying to know what this was all about.

  ‘Shut off all the power on the site and wait here,’ Tory instructed, grabbing her bag and heading for the door. ‘Brian.’ She beckoned for him to follow.

  Miles protested. ‘Hold on a minute, you said —’

  ‘I know.’ Tory cut him off. ‘But I have to check it out for myself first. No offence, but you’re like a walking negative charge. So please, just shut off the power as I ask and we’ll get this show on the road, okay?’

  ‘What about me?’ Naomi moved to follow Brian.

  ‘I’ll be back in a second.’ He kissed her then darted off after his sister.

  Naomi folded her arms, irked that he would rather spend time with Tory when he saw her every day of the week. ‘Who does she think she is, anyway? Just taking over like this?’

  ‘Unfortunately, I promised. And I do sort of owe her a favour or two,’ Miles explained, shutting off the power.

  ‘Wow, you can sound like a real bitch when you want to.’ Brian congratulated Tory on her performance as they made their way down into the dig.

  ‘You liked that?’ Tory was rather pleased with it herself. ‘Question is, did they buy it?’

  The lights went out.

  ‘Guess so.’ They both laughed as they paused for their eyes to adjust to the darkness. The waxing moon was nearly full, and after a moment they could see their way by the beautiful blue light it cast over the site.

  Tory approached the large hole in the ground where the altar stone lay, avoiding the other pits from whence the statues had been raised. She wanted to cry at the sight of the pillage, as the energy was so much weaker now. She slid down the earth bank, coming to land on the stone. ‘I hope this still works, or I’m in deep shit.’

  ‘Check it out!’ Brian admired the rock he landed on. ‘I kind of recognise this.’

  ‘No doubt,’ Tory assured him. ‘Let’s see if anybody’s home, shall we?’ Tory took a deep breath and prayed to the Goddess that the Merlin heard her. ‘Taliesin! In the name of the Dragon, I seek an urgent audience with thee,’ she cried out into the night sky.

  After a couple of minutes, when nothing had happened, Brian cocked an eye. ‘Are you sure about this?’

  Tory was looking a bit doubtful herself. Taliesin hadn’t met her yet, so it was no use announcing herself. Still, there was another whom he might answer. She gave Brian a pat on the shoulder for assurance, and readied herself for a second attempt. ‘Taliesin Pen Beirdd, my name be Sorcha Lawhir, wife of King Caswallon of Gwynedd and messenger of the Goddess. I ask thy counsel in her stead and in the name of the Dragon that guards this island,’ she yelled with zeal as the light began to burst forth from the ground beneath their feet.

  Miles was back at his desk, going over some data on his computer when Naomi entered with two mugs of coffee.

  ‘Thanks.’ Miles glanced up to find her staring out the window behind him, and he turned quickly to see what had her so mystified. A huge expanse of light emanated from the location of the altar. ‘God damn you, Tory!’ He made for the site as fast as he could with Naomi following close behind.

  They reached the excavation in time to see the last of the glowing mist retracting into the stone. Then all was dark and still as before, and there was no trace of Tory or Brian.

  ‘It’s some sort of doorway, Miles.’ Naomi freaked, she’d never witnessed anything like it.

  ‘That’s impossible, Naomi, people don’t just disappear. I’m sure we’ll find them around here somewhere.’

  ‘No Miles, you’re wrong. This place is even marked as sacred. It’s something beyond our understanding and we shouldn’t be messing with it.’

  Miles stared down at the cross that taunted him with guilt for ever daring to try to move it. Was that why he’d been denied passage to wherever it led?

  ‘You bastard, Brian, you’d better be coming back,’ Naomi yelled into the pit.

  ‘Don’t worry. Tory left her son behind, she won’t be long.’

  ‘But if she has no idea what she’s doing?’

  ‘She knows.’

  After dinner on Sunday night, Renford went upstairs to fetch the book he was reading from his bedside. As he passed Tory’s room, he was surprised to find Teo creeping around. The professor could have sworn he’d just heard Teo in the kitchen, but he quietly ducked to one side of the doorway to see what he was up to.

  Teo approached the cot where Rhun lay sleeping and watched the babe a moment, a smile crossing his face. He reached down to touch the child and a flash, like blue lightning, lashed out from the dragon medallion that hung above the child’s bed. Before he left, Maelgwn had given Tory his medallion and asked her to hang it over their baby’s bassinet to protect him. The impact of the energy force had obviously hurt Teo, and it cast him halfway across the room, yet he maintained his silence as he recovered from the shock of it. A moment later he bounced back up, appearing most annoyed. He held the palms of his hands out towards the child and his fingertips began to glow like hot coals.

  That was enough for Renford, he quickly and quietly crept to the stairs then thumped his way back down the hall to the doorway. He barged into the room to find nobody but the sleeping child. The professor searched all the possible hiding places, but to no avail. All the windows were shut and he hadn’
t taken his eyes from the door. Now he really thought he was losing his marbles! He took up the sleeping child, resolving to watch him until Tory returned. He fetched his book and returned downstairs to the kitchen to get a cup of tea.

  There, once again, he encountered Teo, wiping up dishes as Rose washed them. This confirmed what Renford had thought all along. ‘Did you just go upstairs for any reason?’ he asked; if Teo lied, Rose would certainly correct him.

  ‘No.’ Teo seemed surprised by the question.

  Renford looked at Rose, who shrugged. ‘We’ve both been in here since dinner.’

  The professor wasn’t so sure of what he’d seen, as any possible explanation for it escaped him. He’d never had any reason to distrust Teo, but he would keep Rhun close in any case.

  When they appeared at the Merlin’s hideaway, Tory attempted to set straight Taliesin’s initial confusion. He knew she wasn’t Sorcha, though he commented on the resemblance. She had every intention of introducing herself properly, but Taliesin interrupted her.

  ‘You are Tory Alexander, who I gather, was once Sorcha Lawhir … a sad, sad loss for Gwynedd and indeed all of Britain.’ He shook his head. ‘And Brian, my it’s good to see you.’ The Merlin shook his hand.

  ‘How do you know me, we haven’t met before?’

  ‘I seem to recall I was your sensei once.’ Taliesin struggled to recollect when exactly. ‘I’ve been doing a lot of past-life regression lately, I could have my lifetimes mixed up.’

  ‘What?’ Brian looked at Tory, who urged him not to worry about it.

  Tory dispensed with the formalities, preparing the Merlin for her tale. ‘This may sound a little strange — you told me yourself that you wouldn’t understand it all at first — but I promise, you will.’

  She recounted the story of her plight, informing the Merlin about the role he had played in it. Yet she omitted the part about the immortality potion he’d given her, as it was up to the gods to inform Taliesin of this, in accordance with what the Merlin had already told her. Moreover, Brian was present and Tory wanted no one to know her secret. As she spoke, she noticed that where once Taliesin’s abode was enormous, it now only comprised one chamber. Although it still housed many beautiful antiques, the room no longer contained anything dating beyond the period of 2000 BC–1994 AD, as this represented the span of Taliesin’s life so far.