Iona Portal (The Synaxis Chronicles)

by Robert David MacNeil

  As they finished eating, Michael looked across the table to Erin. “At our second meeting, when Eliel described our gifts, she said Erin’s gift is the second sight… she can sense things before they happen. Erin, I know your gift isn’t fully activated, but are you getting anything?”

  “I have,” Erin replied nervously. “I’ve been hearing a strange phrase all morning… something like ‘Look for Ben,’ or ‘Watch for Ben.’ Do we know a Ben?”

  None of them recalled meeting anyone named Ben in Oban, but having no other leads, they split up again, revisiting every shop in the vicinity of the hotel. Again they came up empty. No one they met knew anyone named Ben.

  Finally, in desperation, they checked out of the hotel and boarded the last ferry of the day. “I called and made reservations for the night at the Torosay Inn in Craignure,” Holmes said as Michael guided the Mercedes down the ramp and onto the ferry. “The tourist guide said it’s just across the road from the ferry terminal.”

  “Why are we staying in Craignure?” Piper objected, “Why not just head across Mull to Iona tonight?”

  “We can’t get to Iona tonight.” Holmes explained, “I checked the ferry schedule. The last ferry to Iona will have already left before we get to Mull. Besides, we’re all exhausted. It’s better that we get some rest tonight, and head out at first light to cross Mull. We can still be on the first ferry to Iona in the morning.”

  As the MacBrayne ferry approached the Island of Mull, Erin Vanderberg stood silently with her companions on the observation deck, leaning against the cold steel rail.

  The scene before her was almost surreal in its beauty. To the west, the sky was glowing brilliantly with the last light of day, while the first faint stars of night glimmered over the eastern horizon. Directly ahead, Mull’s red granite mountains had already faded to near-black in the dying light.

  Though the sky overhead was clear, a stiff offshore breeze had begun to blow. The Isle of Mull’s deck shuddered continuously as its massive engine thrust the big ship through the rising seas. Erin drew her shawl more tightly around her body against the chill, watching numbly as the darkened island before her grew steadily larger.

  But Erin wasn’t really focused on her surroundings. In her mind she was revisiting the scene from the night before, experiencing again the horror of seeing Rex and his thugs on the streets of Oban.

  Finally looking up from her reverie, Erin noted, far above the glistening lights of Craignure, a strange, dark cloud that seemed to be approaching from the north. “What the… ” she muttered, but her barely spoken words were quenched by a sudden sense of foreboding.

  Tapping Michael’s arm, she pointed toward the cloud. “Michael, what do you make of that cloud?”

  Michael dug a pair of binoculars from his backpack and scanned the sky. Through the binoculars, the cloud resolved into an army of winged Archon warriors heading in their direction. Thousands of them. Michael’s mouth fell open. He shoved the binoculars into Holmes face, “Holmes, you better take a look at this…”

  Holmes fumbled with the binoculars, then lifted them to his eyes and adjusted the focus. He studied the cloud in silence for a moment. “They’re Archons... “ he said uneasily, “And they’re headed this way. I thought the Ancient Ones didn’t allow them to attack us in force. That sure looks like force to me.

  “Wait a minute…” He paused a moment, keeping the binoculars focused on the cloud. “Something new is happening... The leading ranks of the Archon army just went into a crash dive.”

  He traced the path of the cloud as the whole Archon horde began accelerating toward the earth. “That’s one of the damndest things I’ve ever seen.”

  He glanced at Michael, then to Piper and Erin, still trying to process what he’d seen, “They were heading straight for us, but at the last minute they took a nose dive. They’re diving right into the ground at high speed.”

  He handed the binoculars back to Michael, who watched in amazement as the vanguard of the Archon army entered the earth at the foot of a tall mountain. “That’s Ben More.” Michael remarked.

  “Ben More?” Holmes asked.

  “Yes… that’s the name of the mountain.” Michael explained, handing the binoculars back to Holmes. “It’s the tallest mountain on Mull. The remains of an ancient volcano, actually.”

  Holmes watched until the last of the Archons disappeared into the ground. “I wonder what that’s all about.”

  “I’ve a feeling we’ll find out soon enough,” Michael answered.

  They found the Torosay Inn right where the tourist guide had promised. Michael practically drove down the ramp from the ferry into the inn’s parking lot. Arriving at the inn, the four checked into their rooms, then met for dinner in the hotel pub.

  The inn was originally an 18th century drovers’ inn, part of a network of inns built for the benefit of men herding sheep across the island for shipment to Lismore and then on to mainland Scotland. In the early twentieth century, the inn’s stables had been converted to a dining room, greatly enlarging the pub, which is now rated as one of the best in Scotland.

  Though updated to twenty-first century standards, the pub still retained its historic character, including the stone walls, wooden floor and open fireplace.

  As they took their seats, Holmes glanced at the members of the group and commented. “I have more bad news. I’ve been trying to call Patrick but could never get a connection. The innkeeper just told me all communications with Iona and western Mull went out early this afternoon. We can only hope Patrick made it safely to Iona.”

  The pub keeper came to the table, handing out menus and taking drink orders.

  “I’ve eaten here several times,” Michael commented, studying the menu. “The food is excellent, and home-cooked. Back in the 19th century, Robert Louis Stevenson stayed here, you know. The Torosay Inn was actually featured in one of his novels.”

  When the pub keeper returned to take their orders, Michael chose the beef steak and Highland ale pie, while Holmes ordered the chicken stuffed with Mull brie and leeks.

  Piper closed the menu, looked up at the pub keeper and sighed, “After a day like today, just give me a great big vat of beer and a snorkel and I’ll be happy.” But she finally ordered the Tobermory salmon filet.

  Erin ordered only a salad, and barely picked at that.

  Erin had been unusually quiet all day. The darkness they’d seen over her in Dallas was now more pronounced.

  When the group finished eating, Erin turned to Holmes in obvious distress.

  “Holmes, I’m sorry…” she said haltingly. “I shouldn’t have come.

  “I thought I could do this. I truly wanted to. But when I saw Rex and his thugs last night, I knew…

  “I was going to talk to Lys about it this morning,” Erin continued, “but then she was gone. And then I was so focused on finding her that I just couldn’t think…

  “But I had time to think on the ferry… I can’t go to Iona if Rex is there. I just can’t.” Glancing from Holmes to Piper in desperation, she added, “I have to go back.”

  Holmes was quiet for a moment. It felt like the synaxis was disintegrating around him.

  Lys was gone, and now Erin.

  Eliel had said a synaxis needed at least ten people. Now they were down to seven. Could they accomplish anything when they did arrive on Iona?

  But they couldn’t just abandon Erin.

  “Okay, Erin,” Holmes sighed. “I trust you know what you need to do. We’ll make sure you get on the first ferry back to Oban in the morning.”

  After dinner, Holmes and Michael walked out into the cool night air. “Michael, you know the way across the island. Tomorrow morning, Piper and I will take the car and head off at first light. We need to get to Iona as quickly as possible to let Eliel know what’s happened with Lys and Erin.

  “The first ferry to Oban is due to leave at 8:45. Stay with Erin, and get her on the ferry. Then catch the next bus across Mull.”

  Holm
es headed to his room, wondering what would await them in the morning. It had been a long day and an emotional roller-coaster. He felt shakier than he had expected. Even the ground under his feet seemed to be trembling.

  Michael re-entered the pub and ordered a pint of Guinness.

  Erin was sitting at the table weeping. Piper had given up trying to console her. She was just sitting with her.

  Michael pulled up a chair. “Piper, let me talk to Erin for a while. You go on to bed. I’ll make sure she’s okay.”

  “Thanks, Michael,” Piper sighed. “It’s been a day.”

  Michael waited for Piper to leave, then leaned close to Erin and spoke quietly. “Erin, do you remember the night you told your story at the synaxis meeting?”

  He waited a moment for a response, but Erin kept her face buried in her arm, weeping quietly. He continued, “Something happened that night, right after Mendrion activated my gift. I looked at you, and I saw something on you. It looked like a strange, black fuzzy amoeba attached to your skin, and it had long, lumpy tentacles extending out and wrapping around your body.”

  Erin raised her head and clumsily wiped the tears from her eyes, then tilted her head slightly to the side and gave him a perplexed look. “Michael, if you’re trying to encourage me, this isn’t cutting it.”

  “It’s not encouragement, Erin. I believe it’s a sort of diagnosis. Eliel talked about the creatures in the shadow realm, the shades. She said they attach to us when we’re susceptible, and can play on our emotions.

  “Eliel also said my gift was the ability to dispel shades. I think that’s what I saw on you. There were several of them, and they appeared to be attached at the point of your bruises, as though the physical injury you suffered somehow gave them a place to attach.”

  Erin looked thoughtful. Tears were still trickling down her face, but she remembered how, at various points since her trauma at the ranch, inexplicable waves of emotion had crashed over her. She found she could swing from incapacitating depression through seething rage, and into mind-numbing fear, all within a few minutes. At times she felt she was losing her mind. Her emotions were totally out of control. It did sound like what Eliel had described.

  “Michael, I hadn’t thought about the shades. I was so focused on what I’ve been through, I hadn’t made the association. If you have the gift to get these things off, I’m all for it.

  “What do we do?” she asked.

  “I haven’t a clue, Erin. I’ve been pondering it ever since that night, but there hasn’t been an opportunity to ask Eliel.

  “I do recall that with both Reetha and Piper, some kind of physical contact activated the gift. May I place my hand on your shoulder?”

  Erin looked Michael in the eye. If this was a pick-up line, it was the worst in history. But Michael had never struck her as the dirty-old-man type. In his eyes she saw only genuine concern. “Sure, go ahead.”

  Michael felt a little awkward putting his hands on Erin. He had always been shy around women, and Erin Vanderberg was the most stunningly beautiful women he had ever met. Carefully moving aside her silken, chestnut-brown hair, he placed his hand softly on her shoulder with his fingertips extending onto her neck.

  At first, nothing happened, but as he watched, a shadow seemed to fall across her face. The shadow darkened and resolved into a large amoeba-like mass that now covered more than half her face. It had grown since the last time he’d seen it.

  The creature was covered in something like dark undulating fur, and from it extended three black tentacles. Two entwined around her head, while the other coiled around her neck and down her back.

  “I can see it, Erin. It’s on your face, but I’m not sure what to do.”

  “Michael, just do something. I trust you not to get weird. Get that thing off me!”

  Keeping his left hand in place on her shoulder, Michael tentatively extended the index finger of his right hand, and touched at the center of the creature, expecting to be able to feel it as well as see it. But his finger encountered nothing. It passed right through the shade, until his finger was gently touching the soft flesh of Erin’s face.

  “Erin, I’m sorry… this seems quite strange.”

  Michael’s finger traced the path of one of the dark tentacles around to the side of her head, thinking he could pull it free. But again, there was nothing tangible to grasp.

  “I don’t know what I’m doing,” he continued, “and this probably looks very strange.” Michael glanced around the pub, but all the other guests had gone back to their rooms, and he heard the clatter of the pub keeper washing dishes in the kitchen.

  Michael remembered that when Piper placed her hands on Lys, some kind of energy was transferred to release healing.

  “Let me try one more thing.”

  “Michael, just do it. It’s okay.” She said impatiently.

  He placed the palm of his right hand gently across her face, completely covering the dark creature’s body, and held it there. At first nothing happened, but then he seemed to feel a tingling, like a flow of energy, in his hand. Was that just his imagination?

  Then there was movement. The tentacles began to slither from side to side, as though trying to obtain a firmer connection. The creature clearly did not like what was happening.

  The creature continued to slither and squirm, but did not dislodge.

  “Erin, what emotion are you feeling right now?”

  “Fear,” she replied, “dark unreasoning fear. Incapacitating fear.” Her body was quivering as she spoke.

  “My theory is that these creatures are somehow nourished by the emotions they induce.” Michael explained. “Try to resist the fear.”

  “I’m not sure I can. It’s overpowering.”

  “Yes, you can. Remember, that fear is not from you. It’s not real. It’s being placed in your mind by an outside force. Resist it. Stand against it. Will it to leave.”

  Erin closed her eyes, trying to find a way to stand against the engulfing current of fear that swirled around her. She repeated to herself, This is not REAL. This is NOT REAL!

  Her mind filled with pictures from the ranch. The manacles in the storm cellar. The derelict crying for help as Rex lifted the knife over his head. Then the pictures changed. She saw herself on the dais with Rex standing over her. Grat and Bryce were holding her arms. Rex was lifting the knife. It was beginning to descend.

  No! This is NOT REAL! She said to herself again as she struggled to push the pictures out of her mind.

  She remembered Eliel, risking her life to save her. She thought of Araton, waiting for her in the beat-up pickup truck. She remembered Holmes and Piper, rushing to her rescue in the middle of the night.

  She wasn’t alone. She had people and forces standing with her, defending her. She didn’t have to give in to this.

  “Erin, I don’t know what you’re doing, but it’s working. My hand is burning hot, and the creature on your face is waving its tentacles around wildly. I think it’s almost off.”

  “Now, Erin, tell it to leave. Command it to go.”

  Erin clenched her teeth. Every muscle in her body was tense and struggling… From deep within her rose something like a growl, and through clenched teeth came one word, barely audible, “Go!”

  “Again, Erin.”

  Again, there seemed to be a titanic struggle within her, a fight to even speak the word. But again she said, “Go!”

  There was a battle in her mind. Pictures of death and torture and destruction were struggling to hold their position, but scenes of life and hope and strong companions were pushing against them.

  “One more time,” Michael coaxed.

  She leaned hard against his hand and every muscle again tightened. The word rose from deep within her, and exploded out of her mouth, “GO!” And then her mouth opened in a scream that could be heard throughout the pub. She collapsed forward onto the table. But the creature was gone.

  “Are you okay, lady?” The pub keeper stuck his head into the room. �
�Is that man bothering you?”

  Erin lifted her head weakly and smiled.

  “No, it’s okay. I’m fine. It’s just a game we’re playing.”

  The pub keeper shook his head, and retreated into the kitchen.

  “I really am fine,” she muttered. “I feel lighter. The fear is gone.”

  “Now, let me check you over…” Michael said, “The one on your face was the largest one, but there had been others also.”

  Keeping one hand on her shoulder, Michael quickly looked over her body, feeling a little self-conscious about closely examining the body of a beautiful woman. He was greatly relieved to see that when the creature on her face had left, the others apparently had gone also. No other creatures were visible.

  Just then, the glass on the table in front of him began to shake and clatter. The remains of the Guinness were sloshing from side to side in the bottom of the glass. The glasses on the shelves behind the bar were shaking also. One tumbled to the floor and smashed.

  But before anyone could speak, the shaking stopped.

  Both Michael and Erin were looking around in confusion, not certain what had just happened. When no further shaking occurred, they both took a deep breath. “Well, Erin, I believe we just had a small earthquake. I’ve never encountered one of those in this part of the world. Quite a rarity.”

  The pub keeper was already at work with a broom and dustpan, cursing under his breath as he cleaned up the broken glass.

  “Can I get you anything to drink?” Michael asked.

  “No,” Erin answered, “I think I’m fine. I’m just very tired.”

  Michael walked Erin back to her room, and paused briefly at her door. She looked up at him, and for the first time in many days, Erin smiled. “Michael, thank you so much. I can’t tell you how much better I feel. I think I can go to bed now and actually sleep.”

  “Do you still want to turn back… go back to Oban tomorrow?”

  “I don’t know,” she said. “The unreasoning fear is gone, but Rex is still on Iona. I know the kind of man he is. If he ever catches me, I hate to think what he’d do.” She shook her head. “I just don’t know.”