♦
The mirrored walls continued to bathe the stone pyramid’s interior with their wraithlike glow and Avery Cantrell positioned the pendant in the altar’s centre, and then placed his hands down upon it. The stone block shifted and then slowly inched round in a clockwise direction.
Konstantin saw what he was doing and surged forward. ‘KILL THEM!’
The Knights of the Apocalypse let out a roar and leapt after their leader.
Major Lanter fired his gun – missed – and then the knights were on them. Swords glittered in the half-light and the clash of steel filled the air.
Another gunshot echoed out and Ruben parried a thrust and blocked another. The Swiss guard next to him went down and Ruben was forced back by three attackers.
Blades came at him from all angles. Surrounded, Ruben swung his longsword in sweeping arcs. The knights jumped back and then one plunged a blade towards his head. Ruben ducked, knocked the man from his feet and ran another through with his sword.
‘ENOUGH!’ Konstantin said. ‘Throw down your weapons!’
Ruben looked round to see Konstantin held a knife to Sarah’s throat, while another knight held his sword to Zinetti’s back.
One Swiss guard was injured and two knights lay unmoving on the floor.
‘Do as he says!’ Avery said, backing away from the altar.
Major Lanter surrendered his sword to a knight and the Swiss guards that were still standing also handed over their weapons. Their hands were swiftly bound behind their backs. Ruben, however, remained with his longsword at the ready, as four men encircled him.
‘Do you wish to die, monk?’ Konstantin said. ‘I do not give mercy freely.’
‘Relinquish your sword, Ruben,’ Avery said, his voice thick with defeat. ‘While you still have the chance.’
Ruben surveyed the knights around him as they prepared to attack. He gripped his sword tighter, then let out a growl of anger and lowered his weapon.
A knight strode forward and relieved him of his sword and forced him to his knees.
The fight was over as quickly as it had begun.
♦
The Knights of the Apocalypse positioned their captives on their knees in front their leader, and then bound their wrists with rope, the two cardinals and Ruben at the centre, with Lanter and his four Swiss guards on one side and Sarah, Trish, Jason and Nicola Dowling on the other. In front of them all, the altar continued to creep round, the sound of stone grinding on stone loud in the silence. The metal pendant still rested at its centre, unwanted by the grim-faced, black-robed men who stood around it.
‘Are you okay?’ Trish whispered to her friend.
Sarah gave a nod, but she felt far from well. Her strength had gone and her body shook from withdrawal. She needed her drugs and yet with her hands tied behind her back, she was in no position to administer a dose.
Konstantin was handed a Swiss guard’s sword by one of his men, the burning, oil-soaked cloth at the tip having been re-secured and re-lit after extinguishing during the clash.
The flame fluttered in the breeze that continued to whistle up through the holes embedded in the immense Anakim eye encircling the altar. Konstantin turned his gaze from his prisoners and onto the enormous stone sphinx behind him, and then to the dark metal sculptures on either side. He held the torch up to the massive Anakim figures, which writhed in their lust-filled decay, and then onto the mirrored walls, which continued to glimmer and gleam with an ethereal glow. The knight’s leader removed his hood to reveal his tattooed head, the black symbols and designs covering his bald pate, which glistened with sweat.
Like those around her, Sarah wondered what the fanatic would do next, as Konstantin turned again to look at the altar, which continued to rotate unaided.
‘Explosives,’ he said, and one of his men walked forward and presented him with a device, before moving to place others around the pyramid and mirrored walls of the chamber.
Konstantin placed his own device in the centre of the altar, on top of the pendant that Dowling had retrieved from the mirror.
‘You can’t!’ Zinetti struggled against his bonds. ‘You can’t destroy it!’
‘It’s priceless!’ Dowling said.
‘Listen to them, Alexander.’ Avery tried to get up, but was forced back down. ‘This can’t be done! It mustn’t be done!!’
Konstantin laughed. ‘It can and it will.’
‘You don’t understand,’ Avery said. ‘This device will save the world. You’ll be killing yourself and the Church you love!’
‘This device is the work of the devil, as is your witch.’ He looked at Sarah. ‘God has revealed your fates, as he has mine. We are to burn together, but whereas you go to hell, I rise to heaven.’
‘Sarah,’ Trish whispered, struggling against her bonds. ‘We need to get out of here.’
‘You can’t trust her,’ Jason said, from nearby.
Trish ignored him. ‘Remember what I told you in the wall,’ she said, as Konstantin offered up a final prayer to God.
‘Then it was you I spoke to,’ Sarah said.
‘Of course,’ Trish said. ‘Who else would it be?’
Sarah didn’t know what to say.
‘They couldn’t hear or see us in the wall,’ Trish continued. ‘I think you were right when you said the mirrors were Heaven’s Gate. It’s a path into the spirit world. If you could open it ...’
‘It would merge that world with ours,’ Sarah said, ‘and show us what’s within us.’
‘It would release that thing inside you,’ Trish said. ‘And you might be able to control it.’
‘And it’s strong,’ Jason said, looking at Sarah as if seeing her for the first time. ‘Really strong.’
‘Thy kingdom come,’ Konstantin said, ‘thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.’ He raised his arms aloft as he finished his recital.
‘But how do I open it?’ Sarah said, and then recalled what Trish had said about the walls being a path into the spirit world. ‘Only in God’s light is the path unbroken,’ she whispered. ‘Only in God’s word is Heaven’s Gate opened.’ Sarah looked into Trish’s eyes. ‘The eyes are the gateway to the soul. The walls aren’t the gate. Oh, my God,’ – her eyes grew wide in realisation – ‘we are.’
‘What?’ Trish said.
‘We’re the gate,’ Sarah said. ‘Look into my right eye, quickly.’
‘I don’t understand.’ Trish said, but she stared into Sarah’s eye anyway, as Sarah stared into hers.
‘We’re ready,’ one of Konstantin’s men said, and he gave his leader a handheld switch. ‘All the charges are set.’
As Sarah stared into Trish’s eye, her friend’s face distorted in an optical illusion and then her eyes merged and became four. Sarah stared into one of the eyes and saw a light glowing within. ‘God’s light,’ she whispered. She stared into the glow in wondrous awe and realised something else on top of what she had before. If I’m possessed by evil and the eyes of others act like a mirror, then if I look into someone’s eye, I show evil to my soul and to theirs. Ruben’s words echoed forward through time: ‘God sees all,’ the monk had said and, ‘Your belief becomes your reality.’
Trish’s eye filled Sarah’s gaze and the white light continued to glow within.
It all became clear. If my belief becomes my reality, Sarah thought, then if I believe in God ...
... then God is real!
The thought stunned her.
And if God sees everything through our eyes and we’re Heaven’s Gate, then our soul is part of God. The thought astonished her as she stared into the eye of God.
Then she felt what she had previously: the presence within; the evil that possessed her, and her eyelids drooped down.
‘Sarah,’ Trish said, ‘wake up. If you’re going to do something, do it now.’
Then I don’t just show evil my soul, Sarah thought, reawakened by Trish’s voice. Sarah eyes grew wider as a horrific image emerged into her mind. I open th
e gate and show evil to God!
A sense of death flooded her body and Sarah screamed and shook as a rush of images bombarded her mind.
Sarah was back in her tent in the dig site and a dark figure leant over her in the half-light. The bloodshot eyes that stared back at her weren’t her own, they were Nicola Dowling’s. The expedition leader’s mouth opened wide and black fluid poured from her mouth and into Sarah’s, making Sarah choke and thrash in semi-conscious delirium.
It wasn’t a dream, Sarah realised in paralysed horror.
The images rushed faster and Dagmar Sorensen was there, cutting her chest open. The giant grasped her forehead and then Sarah was back in the tent again, as Nicola Dowling’s skin rippled and her bones shifted, until Sarah was staring at herself.
Sarah gasped for air and toppled to the ground as she stared past Trish at Dowling, who stared back at her in shock.
‘I didn’t kill anyone,’ Sarah said, breathing hard. Strength flooded her body and she snapped the bonds that bound her. She pointed at Nicola Dowling. ‘She did!’
Chapter Two Hundred Fifty-Five
‘What did you say, witch?’ Konstantin said, his finger resting on the detonator.
Everyone looked at Sarah.
‘I didn’t kill anyone,’ she said, looking at Dowling. ‘She did!’
‘Sarah, what are you saying?’ Avery said.
Nicola Dowling shook her head. ‘I don’t know what she’s talking about.’
Sarah stared into the woman’s eyes and an image of screaming and blood made Sarah flinch away. And that’s when she saw it and her blood ran cold. ‘Trish ... Jason, get away from her.’
Jason looked round at Dowling, ‘Why? What’s wrong?’
‘That’s how she could enter the mirror,’ Sarah said to herself. ‘And that’s why the giant wanted to stop her. It possesses me and it’s not evil at all. Look!’ She pointed to the mirrors. ‘She has no reflection. She’s not human!’
‘Sarah,’ – Avery glanced nervously at Konstantin – ‘you’re talking madness. If you’re going to do something, do it now.’
‘What alchemy is this?!’ Konstantin said. He paced around them in agitation, his glorious moment of martyrdom interrupted.
‘I know what it means,’ Sarah said, backing into the point of the drawn sword of the knight behind her. The metal bit into her skin, drawing blood, but still she pressed against it in fear.
‘What what means?’ Avery said, as Konstantin looked on in tormented confusion.
‘The seraph’s opposite is in us.’
‘Sarah?’ Trish said.
Nicola Dowling swallowed in discomfort as she looked into Sarah’s eyes.
‘What’s the opposite of a seraph?’ Sarah said.
‘A demon,’ Ruben said.
Nicola Dowling retched and coughed as she stood up, the rope that bound her falling to the ground as she stumbled towards Sarah.
‘And what’s seraph spelt backwards?’
‘Hpares?’ Jason said, confused. ‘Nicola, what’s wrong?’
Dowling fell to her hands and knees in a fit of coughing.
‘Swap round the first two letters,’ Sarah said, as everyone now created a widening circle around the expedition leader, whose body contorted in seizure.
‘Phares?’ Jason said.
‘Oh, my God,’ Trish said.
Sarah pointed at Nicola Dowling, as her skin rippled and a light flickered within. ‘PHAROS!’
Chapter Two Hundred Fifty-Six
Nicola Dowling grasped Sarah’s ankle, as she tried to escape.
Sarah screamed, but despite her own inhuman strength, she was unable to stop Dowling bearing her to the ground. A knight tried to pull her off, but Dowling knocked him away, the man flying thirty feet through the air to slam into a wall. Dowling’s face convulsed and Sarah saw her own features briefly reflected back at her. Dowling’s face reformed and she let out a bloodcurdling moan; it grew louder and louder until she opened her mouth and a flood of black fluid burst over Sarah’s face.
Sarah screamed again and tried to escape, but Dowling grasped her jaw, pressed her mouth to hers and pumped black liquid down her throat.
Sarah choked and fought, but was forced to swallow the vile fluid, and then she was free and scrambling away.
Dowling reared up and shrieked in agony. Her mouth extended and the skin on her face rippled, then tore open like splitting cloth. She screamed again. Her clothes tore down her back, and transparent limbs and a growing body erupted through flesh and bone. Larger and larger it swelled, its transparent form rippling with a shimmering blue-green light.
The mutilated human shell that had been Nicola Dowling slipped to the ground in a heap, the bloody mass making Sarah’s stomach churn in terror.
‘Sarah,’ Trish said. ‘Help us!’
Sarah turned to see her friends struggling to free themselves.
Sarah wiped black ooze from her face and spat more onto the floor, then rushed over to untie her friends.
Meanwhile, everyone gazed in horror at the monstrous form that had emerged in their midst. The beast’s veins and arteries pumped black blood beneath its transparent hide, and its huge lungs billowed in and out like oversized bellows.
‘The Devil is among us ...’ Konstantin said, backing away from the hellish vision.
Unseen, the altar in the centre of the room continued its steady rotation before halting with a clunk. The pentagonal stone block spiralled down into the Anakim eye until flush with the floor. The pendant at its centre glowed white hot and a massive stone block ground upwards to seal the pyramid’s entrance, while a stone throne emerged from between the largest sphinx’s outstretched legs and a deep booming tone blared out through the chamber.
Everyone who could, put their hands to their ears as the deafening sound sent ripples through the mirrors and Pharos alike, the energy cascading across the creature’s skin in a wave.
Having released Trish and Jason, Sarah moved onto Ruben, and soon the entire Vatican party was freed.
‘Stay here,’ Ruben said, and he collected his sword from where the knights had left it piled up with those of the Swiss Guard.
‘You can’t defeat it,’ Sarah said, grasping his arm. ‘You’ll die.’
But Ruben wasn’t listening and he shook her off to join Lanter and his soldiers, who stood beside the Knights of the Apocalypse – sworn enemies with forgotten differences united in the face of the beast before them.
‘We have to get out of here!’ Trish said.
‘The entrance is sealed,’ Sarah said. ‘The trial has begun.’
‘Trial?’ Jason said. ‘What trial?’
Sarah looked at the shimmering creature and then back at Jason, and said, ‘Ours.’
♦
The fearsome creature extended its eyeless, snake-like head and moved it from side to side, as if sniffing the air. Its breath sounded loud in the darkened chamber and rows of jagged teeth gleamed darkly with black mucus. The Pharos made a strange clicking sound as it continued to search this way and that for whatever its unknowable mind desired.
One of Konstantin’s men screamed a war cry and ran forward to plunge his sword into the beast’s hide.
The sword rebounded with a metallic clang and the Pharos swung its head and sliced the man clean in two.
Konstantin stared at his fallen comrade in dismay, then strode toward the monster, raised the detonator and screamed, ‘DIE, DEMON!’ He depressed the trigger and nothing happened.
The Pharos swung towards him and roared, its gaping maw filled with razor-sharp teeth.
More knights rushed in to attack and Trish grasped Sarah’s arm. ‘We have to find a way out!’
The Pharos thrashed its tail and smashed Konstantin into the stone sphinx. Avery and Zinetti cowered nearby.
Sarah shook her head. ‘No,’ she said. ‘I have to do something.’
‘What can you do?’ Jason said, still keeping his distance from her, his expression conflicted.
/> Another knight fell in a gush of blood and Sarah knew what had to happen. She walked forward, with the giant’s strength coursing through her.
‘Sarah?’ Trish said. ‘What are you doing?!’
‘The phrases, they have multiple meanings. God’s light guided me to safety. It opened the pyramid. It released my memory. All of those were leading me on a path. Only in God’s light is the path unbroken.’ She took another step towards the Pharos. ‘Only in God’s word is Heaven’s Gate opened. Heaven’s Gate is the mirror and it is us. And not just us, but all life. We are the mirror to everyone and everything around us, and vice versa.’
The Pharos roared again and another knight died in vain.
‘Sarah,’ Trish said, ‘what are you talking about?’
‘What is God’s word?’
Trish looked at her in bewilderment, her expression turning to fear as the Pharos came towards them.
Sarah turned to look at the beast. ‘It’s faith. God’s word is faith.’
‘Sarah, what are you doing?!’ Ruben leapt in front of her and swung his sword at the Pharos. ‘Get back!’
‘Ruben,’ Sarah said, her voice the calm within a storm. ‘What did you tell me about speaking in tongues?’
The Pharos smashed aside two Swiss guards and despatched another knight as it bore down on them.
‘What?!’ Ruben said, his sword raised in defiance.
Sarah touched his arm and moved to his side. ‘You told me speaking in tongues is the body’s way of allowing our soul to speak directly to God. Which means speaking in tongues is the word of God.’
She moved past him. He went to drag her back, but the Pharos flicked out its tail, hurling him from his feet.
‘SARAH!’ Trish screamed.
But Sarah couldn’t hear her friend. All she could see was the being before her, its enormous form filling her vision as it reared above her.
Sarah closed her eyes, opened her heart and spoke. ‘Bushniskata dorsh corsta. Mush deere mush dir masdiska.’
Ancient Origins: Books 4 - 6 (Ancient Origins Boxset Book 2) Page 128
