She scorned the disciples of Apollyon, puny men who had displayed cowardice in the face of their master’s all-powerful strength. They would beg for the salvation of death when their Dark Lord returned to walk amongst them. She prayed He would cause each and every one of them unending agony in payment for their services.
As the cowards peered cautiously from beneath their shielding arms, Val held aloft her arms. Her growling voice boomed out, echoing around the chamber. ‘Have no fear, the Great Lord Apollyon shall harm none of those faithful few amongst His brethren who have been loyal to His cause. Those who would seek to betray Him, as He was once betrayed by His brother, shall perish on this night of His resurrection.’
Two men stepped forward, their faces still hidden beneath the heavy black cowls of their robes.
In the disarray of thoughts from the panicked few, Val sensed dissent. She placed her talons upon the heads of the two men before her, closed her eyes and focused her thoughts on the others, reaching out her mind to enslave those few who had wandered from the path laid down for them to follow. One by one the remainder of the brethren fell beneath her bewitching spell, following their leaders until all ten were gathered around the sacrificial altar in the very centre of the chamber.
‘Now you are all truly loyal to the Lord Apollyon!’ thundered Val.
None of the ten coven members uttered a sound. Once around the altar, none moved. Not one of them breathed. In every sense of the word, all were dead, their thoughts wiped clean by Val’s powerful mind. Each was little more than a walking cadaver, controlled by Val, totally subjugated to Val’s overpowering will, able to do only as Val commanded.
‘The time has come to bring the Chosen One to this place. You know what to do.’
The ten cadavers began walking in unison, their movements not quite coordinated.
Val turned to face the man who stood behind her, unmoving and unflinching inches from Stan’s snarling presence. ‘You shall lead them,’ she said in a gentler yet still bestial voice.
Without uttering a word, Gerry Brosnan bowed low and walked slowly towards the cavern entrance, and the ten cadavers turned as one to follow.
* * *
In pairs, Lilly and Dolores, and Rob and Deiform in Jonathan’s body, expedited their search of Naghene Hall to locate the source of betrayal that Deiform had sensed.
Lilly and Dolores found the intruder semi-conscious in the bedroom directly above the sitting room. He did not resist as they dragged him downstairs, calling to the two men to join them, and when he saw the young man sitting on the sofa, clutching his bleeding head, Rob gasped.
‘That’s Barnabas! He’s the one who tried to kill me!’
Lilly disappeared into the kitchen to fetch a damp cloth, which she used to clean the wound on the young man’s head. ‘How long have you been hiding in this house?’
‘I been here since the night I attacked him,’ sighed Barnabas, wincing slightly as Lilly finished administering her rough first aid. ‘I been watching him careful like, making sure nothing happened t’ him.’
Rob frowned. ‘Why on earth would you try to protect me when you tried to kill me before?’
Barnabas turned to face him. ‘I couldn’t let the others know who I be, not even Everard and Kinelm.’
‘Just as well you didn’t trust them,’ said Dolores. ‘They were planning on betraying us all to Apollyon. But what didn’t you want them to know, Barnabas?’
The young man jerked his head in Rob’s direction. ‘He be the Chosen One, but he also be my father. I couldn’t let them know that, so I thought the only way t’ draw attention in the opposite direction were t’ attack him.’ He smiled apologetically. ‘I be right proper sorry, Dad.’
Each pair of eyes fixed upon him displayed their disbelief.
‘You are the child of Virginia Saunders and Rob Tyler?’ gasped Lilly.
‘Aye, tis true enough.’
‘But that means…’
Lilly’s train of thought as cut off by the sound of urgent banging coming from the front door.
‘Be ye expecting visitors?’
Dolores chuckled mirthlessly as she glanced at the clock on the mantelpiece. It was just gone ten o’clock. ‘On this, the Night of Madness, it can mean only one thing. They have come for the Chosen One.’
‘Us ought t’ get him out o’ here!’
Barnabas rose to his feet, but Lilly restrained him. ‘Not so fast. You’ve been hiding in this house watching Rob for weeks now, and you were once a part of the coven worshipping Apollyon. Everard and Kinelm revealed their deception. I don’t think you can be trusted either.’
‘We don’t have time to argue, Lilly,’ said Dolores as the pounding on the front door intensified. ‘Whatever we know about him, I think it would be wise to get out of this house right now.’
‘But surely we’re safe in here?’
‘Only from the powers of evil, Rob. Any human would be able to break down that door with only marginal difficulty, and then it would be quite easy to knock you out and drag you from here. No, Barnabas is right; we must get out of here while we still can.’
The sound of breaking glass from the rear of the house made them jump.
‘Some of them have gone round the back,’ cried Rob.
The sound of more breaking glass came from the front of the house, followed by a voice that called out to them. ‘You cannot escape your destiny, Rob. We know you are in there. Come willingly and there will be less pain.’
‘That’s Gerry!’ gasped Rob in appalled shock. ‘They have us trapped!’
‘Come, follow me,’ commanded Deiform suddenly. He left the room, and not knowing what else to do, the Custodian and the Chosen One followed, with Barnabas trailing behind. Deiform led them out into the hallway and then through into the library, marching over to one of the bookcases where He located one particular book. He used it like a lever to release a secret catch, and the bookcase swung open from the wall to reveal a secret passageway that led downwards.
Dolores peered into the gloom. ‘That leads down into the inner sanctum, to the sacrificial chamber.’
‘You are correct.’
‘Well, that’s the one place we really don’t want to go!’
‘All other exits from this house are blocked by the brethren of Apollyon,’ Deiform stated matter-of-factly. ‘This is the only other way out, and the catacombs that surround and entwine the inner sanctum are the last place they would search for us. Those endless tunnels shall be our safe haven.’
The sound of splintering wood from out in the hallway was all that was needed to persuade Rob, and Lilly and Dolores followed.
Deiform turned to Barnabas. ‘You know what you must do!’
Barnabas nodded solemnly. ‘I’ll buy ye as much time as possible.’
When Deiform vanished into the secret passage, Barnabas closed the door, noting with some irony that next to the hidden catch was a copy of Rob’s debut novel. When the door was fully closed, he threw himself onto the floor, pretending to be unconscious.
When he felt the presence of the intruders surrounding him, he feigned grogginess, clasping a hand to his head as if in pain. ‘What happened? What place be this?’
Barnabas sat up slowly, focusing on the eleven men that surrounded him. All but one had the blank look of death about them; the eleventh had a mask of hatred, clearly the channel of some powerful evil.
But Barnabas was not scared. He was born for this moment, and knew what he had to do. With an emotionless grumble he clambered to his feet and faced Gerry. ‘They tricked me into coming here, tried t’ get me t’ answer their questions. They ambushed me when I tried t’ escape.’
‘Where are they?’
‘They must’ve left this place hours ago.’ Barnabas closed his eyes, deep in thought. ‘I know where they have gone. Shall I lead the way?’
His mind fine-tuned to the thoughts of Bestial Val, Gerry remained silent for a moment, then said, ‘Betray us at your peril. The High One com
mands that we follow you.’
With fear in his heart, but strength not of his own making protecting both his own thoughts and those of the evil he carried within him, Barnabas bowed and walked from the room. Gerry and the ten walking cadavers followed in silence.
* * *
Roughly hewn out of the very rock upon which the foundations of Naghene Hall had been built, the steps led the Custodian, the Chosen One and Deiform down into the depths of the Earth. Rob wondered whether there had been some other building standing on the spot before Naghene Hall, hiding these steps – which had probably been constructed immediately after the Final Battle.
He did not bother to count the steps as they descended; he felt as though he would have lost count anyway. They had clearly been hewn from the rocks by hand, a task that must surely have taken hundreds of years to complete.
Deeper and deeper they went, stumbling, moving slowly and carefully in the pitch blackness, aware that with one false move any one of them could tumble to their death. They cautiously felt their way down the treacherous steps, using the rough wall to guide them. Every so often, one or other of them tried hard not to scream as they encountered cobwebs that crisscrossed their path, festooned with scuttling spiders.
‘These stairs can’t have been used for centuries,’ whispered Rob, chiding himself for stating what was blatantly obvious.
Leading the way, holding onto one another, Lilly and Dolores did not respond. They could not see where they were going, but used every one of their remaining senses to feel the way ahead, and eventually they found no more steps beneath their feet. Since it was still much too dark to see anything, they stopped suddenly, and Rob, who had not been concentrating on their thoughts, walked right into them.
‘Sorry,’ he said softly, reaching out in the darkness to steady himself. He was surprised at how loud his whisper sounded in the cold stillness of the air. ‘Where do we go from here?’
‘Keep to the right,’ intoned Deiform from behind them as He descended the final few steps, ‘and you shall find a tunnel leading off from this main passage.’
‘And then where do we go?’
Lilly answered Rob’s question. ‘We continue taking the first passage on the right each time we come to it. These tunnels are still leading us further down.’
Deiform’s voice echoed loudly around them. ‘You can get lost down here, though all paths lead to the inner sanctum eventually. Taking the right hand turn each time as we descend shall prevent us getting lost. It is the direct route, if not the quickest.’
They slowly felt their way along the wall, swiftly encountering a passage leading off to their right, so they took it. The ground beneath their feet was indeed sloping downwards, taking them deeper and deeper into the bowels of the Earth.
After taking several right-hand turns, Rob squinted ahead. He could make out the rough outline of the two women leading the way. ‘Is it my imagination, or is it getting lighter up ahead?’
Lilly sighed. ‘It’s your imagination. Your eyes are growing accustomed to the dark, that’s all.’
‘No, Rob’s right,’ whispered Dolores, halting in her tracks and grasping hold of her daughter’s arm. ‘There’s definitely light coming from ahead.’
For a few moments they all paused, staring ahead as their eyes grew accustomed to the gradually increased light. Hardly daring to breathe, in case they suddenly came face to face with something unwelcome and unexpected, they proceeded slowly. They turned at the next right-hand turn, and the tunnel down which they now faced stretched far into the distance ahead of them, illuminated every couple of dozen yards or so by a flaming torch mounted in an iron wall sconce.
Relieved to be able to see at last, and equally relieved that nothing loomed ahead of them, they continued on their way.
‘We seem to have lost Barnabas,’ muttered Rob as he suddenly realised the young villager was no longer with them.
‘Barnabas did not accompany us down here,’ stated Deiform coldly. ‘He has a task to perform.’
‘What, you mean to say we left him at the mercy of those men who were beating down the doors to get at me?’ Rob was appalled at Deiform’s apparent lack of concern for the young man, who most certainly could not have defended himself against however many men had intruded upon the house. He was equally appalled that only now did he himself realise his son was missing. ‘We must go back for him.’
Dolores restrained him gently. ‘Remember who he is… and what he is!’
‘My son!’
‘That he might be, Rob, but he also carries within him the spirit of the Maleficent Man!’
‘Then he will betray us all, however unwillingly.’
Deiform shook his head. ‘He will not betray us. His innocence will protect him; that, and also the remaining fragment of my own persona.’
‘What?’ Rob whirled round on Deiform. ‘You’re telling me that my son carries three individual spirits within him?’
‘Indeed. The Maleficent Man is the invasive spirit, kept at bay by the final fragment of my soul. It is that fragment which has prevented Apollyon’s other children from discovering his secret. If I were to recover the final part of my soul, Barnabas would not have the mental strength to prevent the Maleficent Man from taking control.’
‘So you are incomplete,’ said Lilly, ‘and will remain so for ever.’
Deiform nodded. ‘If that is how it is meant to be, then I must accept it. It alters nothing. Barnabas is up above, buying us time. We must do all that we can to prevent the sacrifice from going ahead as planned.’
‘And do you still intend to kill us all if the plan should go wrong?’
‘You know I have no choice, Lilly.’
‘I really shouldn’t have come down here with you,’ Dolores whispered. ‘I’m a danger to the plan. If I should die…’
Lilly touched her mother’s arm gently. ‘Rubbish. We have more chance of protecting you down here than you have of protecting yourself somewhere up there.’
Dolores smiled wanly. ‘I am glad you have such faith in your abilities, Lilly.’
Rob touched her shoulder. ‘Not just Lilly’s… our collective abilities will protect each other!’
‘Remember to keep your guard up at all times,’ added Lilly. ‘Come on… we must keep moving.’
* * *
Barnabas led the brethren of cadavers and Gerry back into Dorstville, leading them into the catacombs beneath the village via the entrance hidden behind the tapestry in the doctor’s house.
‘How do you know they are down here?’ demanded Gerry icily, enunciating Val’s thoughts as she projected them to him.
‘The Custodian sought to turn me into one of her own acolytes,’ Barnabas replied coolly, displaying none of the fear he personally felt. ‘I am attuned to her thoughts.’
In his mind, a battle raged between the Maleficent Man and that other part of his mind that did not belong to him. He now knew that other invasive part was a fragment of Deiform, the spirit who had protected him since birth, mentally shackling the spirit of the Maleficent Man even as his own struggled for supremacy.
Within Barnabas’s mind, Deiform could shield both His own presence and that of the evil spirit from the intrusive thoughts of Val, and because Barnabas himself was not doing the shielding, none of his own thoughts were affected, so Val had been blithely unaware of her brother’s presence. Even now she did not know his whereabouts, but as Barnabas became aware that the Maleficent Man grew in strength within his mind, he hoped Deiform could contain him long enough for them to get through the Night of Madness.
‘Proceed,’ commanded Gerry, obeying Val’s mental instruction as she relayed it to him.
No more words were necessary as Barnabas led the way deeper into the catacombs.
* * *
Slightly ahead of the rest of the group, Rob stopped still, holding up a hand as Lilly, Dolores and Deiform halted beside him. Rob frowned, unable to decide why he had stopped. Whatever had alerted him to a danger up a
head was unclear in his mind.
‘What’s wrong?’ whispered Lilly.
In the flickering torchlight, Rob faced her, confusion etched on his face along with apprehension. ‘Can you not sense it?’ He struggled to open his mind to the Custodian without revealing all his other thoughts to any other presence that might be searching for them.
‘It is Barnabas… and Gerry,’ said the Custodian jointly. ‘Some way off still, but closing in even as we stand here.’
Rob peered back down the long passageway along which they had been travelling without coming to any right-hand turns. It trailed off into the distance, the torchlight receding into shadow. ‘I can’t see them, but we should keep moving if they are catching up with us.’
‘They come from another direction.’
‘What!’
‘Gerry struggles for control of his body; Barnabas faces a struggle for control of his mind.’
‘Is Val in control of them both?’
‘I am still in control of the boy’s mind,’ said Deiform in a dispassionate voice, ‘but control is slipping in favour of the Maleficent Man. Much longer, and he will dominate the boy irrevocably!’
‘If they’re up ahead of us, perhaps we should turn back?’
‘No! All is not yet lost since they do not yet have the incantation. We must maintain vigilance and protect ourselves!’
Lilly broke contact with the other half of the Custodian. ‘I shall lead the way. If it comes to it, I will lay down my life. I will not allow them to kill Mother before they kill me!’
‘I’ll join you in the lead,’ said Rob, unsure whether his bravado was false or not. He knew that as the Chosen One, they would do nothing to harm him; quite the reverse – until the appointed hour. If he placed himself between them and Dolores, that would aid in protecting her.
In wary silence, they continued onwards.
* * *
With their backs pressed against the rough-hewn rock wall of the tunnel, Gerry and Barnabas waited. Guided by Val’s thoughts, they reached the lowest level of the catacombs by a different route far more quickly than those they pursued. The silent cadavers who had accompanied them were absent, sent to carry out other duties at Val’s mental instruction.
The Five Tors Page 24
