The Dove

by Brendan Carroll

  “Elves…” Jozsef shook his head. “I thought it only hair. A primitive decoration. Now my memory… or rather the memories of the one called Jozsef Daniel tell me otherwise. You are right, Abaddon. Great magick was used to create the white braid. It was not a part of the Knight, but something altogether independent of him. Apparently, it was simply using him as a resting place.” Jozsef crossed his arms over his chest and tapped his thumb against his bottom teeth thoughtfully. “Alchemy, no doubt.”

  “Apparently so.”

  “Send out a patrol, just in case and double the perimeter security.” Jozsef finished off his water. “I wouldn’t want any surprises during the night.”

  “Yes, Your Grace.”

  ((((((((((((()))))))))))))

  The ATV sputtered, bucked and then rolled to a stop as the engine died for the last time.

  “Now what?” Bari sighed and opened the door.

  “Out of gas, sir.” Colonel McGuffy got out as well and waved to the drivers behind them.

  “What do we do now?” Nicole opened her own door.

  “Stay inside, Miss Ramsay.” McGuffy told her as the other two vehicles pulled alongside them and stopped. “There may be more of those creatures hereabouts.”

  “I thought you said that someone would meet us?” Bari squinted into the westering sun. “Where are they?”

  “They will be here.” McGuffy went around to the rear of the vehicle and opened the hatch. The other soldiers came to help him unload the baggage. “Put everything on the roof racks.” He instructed them. “Throw out anything unnecessary.”

  “Sir, we are almost out of gas as well.” The sergeant told him mournfully. “We won’t get much farther tonight. Perhaps we should set up camp here.”

  The Colonel looked about the wide open place in which they had stopped.

  “There is no cover here. We should try to get to those hills.” He nodded at a dark line of low hills on the horizon.

  “We’ll never make it.” One of the drivers shook his head.

  “All right then. Siphon the gas from your truck and put it in this one.” He jerked his head to the nearest ATV. “Leave everything, but the food and water packs. Three can ride on top. One in the back and we’ll squeeze the other two inside.”

  The sergeant nodded and they began to unload the ATV, discarding everything except the plastic water bottles and ration packs.

  Mark Andrew had ignored the Colonel’s instructions and climbed out of the truck. He stood looking down at the bags lying on the ground. He rarely did anything that anyone told him to do except for Sophia.

  “Master.” The Colonel took his arm. “You should stay inside.”

  “Fight.” Mark nodded at the sword the Colonel wore on his belt. Most of the Fox officers now wore swords and daggers full time. Bullets were very scarce. If close combat could cure the ill, then bladed weapons were the primary choice, the ammunition was to be saved at all costs.

  “Fight?” The Colonel frowned. “With whom?”

  Mark Andrew pointed at himself and smiled.

  “Ahhh. You want me to teach you to fight?” McGuffy’s eyes lit up. He well remembered several skirmishes in which he had witnessed this man use the awesome sword he had worn at his side when he had accompanied Mark Ramsay through England. The aging Colonel would never be able to teach him to fight so well and the golden sword… he frowned and wondered where it might be.

  Mark Andrew nodded.

  “Barton!” McGuffy called to the sergeant. “Give the Master your sword.”

  “Wait just a minute!” Bari objected and then backed away quickly when Mark frowned at him. “You can’t be serious!”

  “Why not?” The Colonel frowned at him. “We may need him before we get to where we are going.”

  The sergeant took off his sword and handed it to the Knight. Mark Andrew held the sword in his hands and frowned at the silver blade.

  “I know it’s not as pretty as the one you had, Sir,” McGuffy drew his own sword and backed away from the ATV. “But it’s the best we can do. Now look…”

  Bari walked back to the vehicle in disgust.

  “What are they doing?” Sophia craned her neck to see out the window.

  “Working great folly.” Bari muttered and leaned against the open door. “They are teaching Grandfather to use a sword.”

  “Really?” Nicole perked up and stepped out of the truck. “This I have to see!”

  Sophia hurriedly followed the other woman out of the ATV as the sound of clanking blades filled the air. Bari climbed in the front seat and began to fish around under the seat. He came up with a small black bag and slung it over his shoulder, grumbling to himself all the while that they were all going to die. The vibration of the crystal within the bag was somehow comforting against his back. The power of the skull had attracted both Nicole and Mark Andrew on several occasions and he had been hard-pressed to keep them from rummaging through the supplies in search of the thing that bothered them inexplicably. Nicole complained of a humming in her ears and a tickling sensation in her backside. Mark Andrew had developed several headaches and complained to Sophia that something nasty was in the truck. Fortunately, he did not possess the verbal acuity necessary to explain more fully the nature of the ‘something nasty’. Bari clambered over the seats and stashed the backpack at the very rear of the truck under the water bottles as they were loaded.

  ((((((((((((()))))))))))))

  “And now as to the watchers who have sent thee to intercede for them, who had been aforetime in heaven: You have been in heaven, but all the mysteries had not yet been revealed to you, and you knew worthless ones, and these in the hardness of your hearts you have made known to the woman, and through these mysteries women and men work much evil on earth. Say to them therefore: ‘You have no peace.’” Lavon closed the book and looked in the Grand Master’s radiant blue eyes. Edgard blinked at him three times and then turned his gaze on Konrad von Hetz. The two Knights had cornered him as soon as he had retired to his room in Buckingham Palace.

  “You want answers?” Edgard got up from the settee and crossed the elegantly appointed sitting room to the well-stocked bar. King Ramsay had done quite well by his visitors, providing every convenience still available in London and then some after he had gotten over the initial shock of the Grand Master’s new appearance.

  The hour was very late and they had only just left a grand dinner and a long meeting with King Ramsay and his Prime Minister’s staff. Tomorrow they would finalize the transfer of the Royal seat to the office of the Prime Minister for administration while the King was on what Luke Matthew had insisted on calling a ‘Crusade’ to the Holy Lands, much to Edgard’s amusement. Luke was rearing to go and reminded the Master of the great white stallion he rode about the streets of London. Mark Ramsay’s brother was weary of his kingship and the confines of the city. He longed for the day when he would hand over the throne to Barry of Sussex whom he insisted was more of a Londoner than he. There had been many tears and many ruthless hugs and a great deal of information had exchanged hands in short order. Luke Matthew was not big on ceremony and the meetings had covered the meat of the problems at hand without all the rigmarole formerly associated with such royal audiences.

  Queen Meredith had been a full member of the proceedings, sitting next to her husband throughout the entire evening, with one ear and eye on the servants and proceedings of the household, while listening intently and making her own comments during the debates concerning modes of travel, numbers of troops, destinations, supplies, etceteras. Edgard had been very happily surprised to see that she had grown a considerable brain in the short time since she had come to England as Queen. It was quite evident that Luke Matthew kept no secrets from his wife and made no secret of her involvement in his ruling councils. She was personally engaged in much of the restoration work going on in the country and had designed a number of excellent programs for housing, medical relief and care for orphaned children. Luke had confided to Edga
rd that the immense workload he had allowed to fall on her shoulders, kept her out of his hair concerning the impending war and won her a great deal of love and respect from the people of England who had, at first, been reticent to accept a ‘foreigner’ as their queen. Some had even gone so far as to bring up the ancient past when a former King had abdicated in order to marry a divorced American woman. But Merry was not put off by snobbery and, of course her connection to the Scottish gentry had helped a great deal, but she still spoke with the same charming accent and style of her native upbringing in central Texas. She was quickly dubbed ‘the wee Scottish cowgirl’ much to her own amusement.

  She had been unable to hide her disappointment at not seeing the Healer with them, among others, though she had refrained from asking too many questions about the missing members, wishing to separate her personal concerns from the matters of state. Edgard had spent quite some time with her alone, filling her in on everything he could tell her about Michael and Galen and Lucio and Mark Andrew. She was truly upset to learn that Selwig had gone off with Simon. She had planned to retain his services at the palace and keep him from going off to the far places of the earth.

  She was also distressed to learn that Lucio’s son had gone as well and worried because Luke Andrew was not with them for obvious reasons that remained unspoken. The Grand Master did his best to alleviate her fears before retiring for the night. She had promised him that she would visit the islands as soon as possible and make sure that the Templars had everything they needed during the absence of the Knights. She had been surprised to learn that Lydia and Rachel had also been left behind even though they were apprentices, but the two women were needed more on St. Patrick’s and St. Ramsay’s Island where they would see to the administration of the two Orders there. Their primary concern would be the protection of the women and children in case things went badly though he did not reveal the contingency plan he and Semiramis had worked out concerning what would be done in the off chance that the ‘Crusade’ failed. The remnants of the two Orders would migrate to Ireland where they would join forces with King Corrigan. From there they would travel to the underworld and Semiramis would take care of the rest.

  “I am confused about this passage in the Book of Enoch.” Lavon frowned and shifted in his wingback chair.

  “There are many things in the Book of Enoch, the Scribe.” Edgard poured each of them a glass of Port and brought them back from the bar. “Most people disregard his writings as dreams and visions. Even the Church rejected the books when they assembled the Holy Bible.”

  Lavon smiled ruefully and Konrad slid down further in his seat, stretching his long legs out in front of him.

  Edgard sighed. “All right. I know why the Church threw them out as do we all. What is it that you want to know? Why do you continue to worry over your fate, my son? You are not Nephilim.”

  “Perhaps Lavon is not, but I believe I fit the basic description.” Konrad commented dryly. “I could have been much worse.”

  “True enough.” Edgard nodded.

  Lavon tapped the old book’s worn cover. “Enoch said that Uriel took him took him to the far north and taught him the times of the seasons. Harvesting and planting, presumably. That sort of thing. We all know Mark Ramsay’s connections to his beloved Scotland and the ‘far north’, and we know he is somehow connected with the Megalithic structures strewn from the Orkney Islands to France to Serbia and even Egypt. We know that these structures are all machines for making astronomical observations of great accuracy and particularly we realize that they were built by a race of people who disappeared about the time of Noah’s flood.”

  “Given.” Edgard nodded again when Lavon paused.

  “The flood, according to Enoch, was foretold to him by a shining presence inside a stone or crystal structure that vaguely matches the description of the Megalithic structure found at New Grange in Ireland. A figure that he was unable to look upon whom he called ‘God’. He said God told him of the coming disaster and that it was being sent to destroy the children of the Watchers. The Nephalim.”

  “Correct.”

  “Was it truly God that Enoch saw in the crystal chamber?” Lavon asked point blank.

  “No one has seen God, Lavon. Not even Uriel.” Edgard told him quietly. “No one can see God. It is impossible. Eyes are two flimsy to behold God, but with the inner vision we may see Him. It is simple as your Grandfather would say. He is in everything. Everything is in Him.”

  “Then it was not God that Enoch saw.” Konrad drew the obvious conclusion.

  “It was not God, but the one who sits on His right hand.” The Grand Master conceded and held out his right hand. He still wore the trappings of war in which he had returned from the underworld gathering. His bronze and leather wristbands caught the light as he moved and a golden ring flashed on his left hand.

  “Michael?” Lavon raised both eyebrows.

  “Michael. Melchizedek. Emmanuel. Yesua. Jesus. Whatever name you choose to call him. He has many names. He is the One.”

  Lavon turned his head slowly and met Konrad’s gaze. Konrad had already suggested that it had been the Son of God rather than God, Himself that had appeared to Enoch and to many others who had claimed direct contact with the Creator of the Universe. If not Jehovah, the demiurge, then Michael, the direct representation of the Father on earth.

  “If Enoch was taught astronomy by Uriel and then warned of the flood by Jesus Christ, why… I mean, what did he mean when he told Enoch that the Watchers would have no peace? What happened to the Watchers? What happened? If you are a Watcher, your Grace, I mean…” Lavon faltered. “The Apocalypse of St. John predicts that the world will be destroyed by fire and that Jesus will return to do battle with the Ancient Evil on the plains of Megiddo. But it has been over 2000 years! When is the destruction coming, Master? Is it coming to kill the Sons of the Watchers just as the flood did?” Lavon’s calm exterior evaporated as the true nature of his concern was revealed.

  Edgard turned up his glass and finished off the Port.

  “Ahhh! It’s grand to have a decent glass again!” He plunked the goblet on the marble and mahogany table in front of the settee, before laughing softly. Neither of the two Knights before him had ever seen this side of the Master. His eyes twinkled with elfish mischief as he looked from one of them to the other. “So you think God would destroy you, Lavon? Konrad? Do you think the Creator who is all love and light and compassion would kill Simon of Grenoble? Giovanni Dambretti? Or our little elf King, Il Dolce Mio? Have you not learned anything from Simon’s teachings? Or would you rather believe the doctrine of the pagans? You have seen men grieve and you have seen me grieve, but grief is a pathetic expression of selfishness. I gave over to my grief when I thought my son dead, and yet, I knew that he could not die. Oh, yes, he can leave me behind.” Edgard chuckled again and pointed one finger toward the vaulted dome of the ceiling. “God can take our loved ones to Him and we are selfish to wish it otherwise. Why would we want them to stay here in this place with us when the Creator has a better plan for them?”

  “It would seem to go against everything we have been taught to think that one could really die.” Konrad agreed and shrugged slightly. “But He did allow Jozsef Daniel, Omar and even Anna to be destroyed. Surely there was never a saint who compared to my granddaughter. What she did was an act of utter self-sacrifice, much as Lucia brought about her own destruction though she was a bit skewed in her thinking. My wife is still one of us, your Grace, I fail to see why she had to die. Why any of them had to die while we were spared.”

  “You speak of dying and destruction in the same breath, Konrad.” Edgard settled into his seat. “Dying and destruction are not the same things. And though Lucia died, she is not destroyed. And certainly Anna, Omar and Jozsef are not destroyed, neither did they die. Just as Lucifer and his warrior band were not destroyed but simply put aside for a while. Contained in crystal by powerful forces. They too have succumbed to a similar force. Have you forgotten t
he source of the Ancient Evil’s presence? The crystal skull?”

  Lavon’s mouth fell open at his words and Konrad straightened up suddenly.

  “It is only a matter of setting things aright. As for your own concerns, why are we constantly given warnings and prophecies if we are not empowered to do something about them? Besides, the war has come and gone just as prophesied and fully one third of the world’s population has been decimated by fire. Yet, again, we still sit here. Does that not tell you something? Armageddon is simply a small battle in the war. A particular place where something of particular interest will occur.” Edgard held out his glass and Konrad went for the Port decanter. “Why are you afraid of Armageddon, Lavon? Do you believe that the Creator’s Son can be defeated?”

  “No sir! I don’t believe such a thing is possible.” The Knight’s face grew pale at the thought. “Of course not! Sacre bleu!”

  “And why are you afraid of death? Death cannot truly touch you. No more than it can touch any of us or any man. The only way to see God is to become one with him in the All in All. We must shed these mantles of flesh and meet with Him in Glory. You should look forward to that time when He will take you home.” Edgard held out his glass to Konrad and waved the other hand about absently. “As for the Watchers, there will be no peace. And so there has been no peace for us. While the flood washed over our sons and the world was destroyed by the one who created us, we were condemned to live in a state of correction. Once our penance was accomplished, we began to work toward restoration and salvation. But since we had lived with men for so long, we continued to be a part of this material world and we continue to err, just as men do. We have become more like men than our heavenly brothers. In answer to your question, some might say we were punished for our transgressions, but the Creator does not punish, He corrects and we continue to be corrected until we can earn our salvation and become one with Him in much the same way as men must strive to live as the Creator and His Son have instructed us so that we might see God. God burns away our sins and leaves only that which is pure and, like different cuts of mutton, some of us take longer in the oven, but God is a good cook. We will all come out perfectly well done in the end.” He took a long sip of the port and smiled at them indulgently.