Initiate

by Bill Bennett

  ‘Satan finally concocted a counter-charm to break free of the call, and killed the magic swan. In his rage he also killed every other swan in the land. He didn’t realise though that before its death, the swan had given birth to a cygnet. The baby swan hid and survived Satan’s purge, and Jennett soon discovered that it was capable of even greater magic than its mother. So she plucked a feather from the top of its head, to keep as a charm against evil.’

  ‘Why the top of its head?’

  ‘Closest to the crown chakra, which is the conduit to the etheric world. It’s said that the wearer of this charm, if it’s worn close to the heart chakra, will be imbued with special powers.’

  Lily looked closely at the tiny feather in the heart of resin. It looked innocuous. How could such a puny thing empower anyone? It didn’t seem possible. ‘Can I wear it? Try it out?’

  Luna shook her head. ‘No. Remember my analogy of the wand and the jet? It’s the same with the Cygnet charm. You’re not ready to wear it yet. You won’t know what to do with the power it holds. It could be dangerous.’

  Lily laughed. ‘What do you mean? How could it possibly be dangerous?’

  ‘Its energy could overload your mind, like too much electricity into an appliance. It could literally fry your brain. Send you insane. I’m not joking.’

  The tiny harmless feather suddenly didn’t seem so harmless after all. ‘Why wasn’t my mom wearing it the night she was taken? Maybe if she’d worn it, she would have been able to fight off those witches.’

  ‘Perhaps she didn’t want to risk having it fall into the hands of Baphomet, because she wanted you to have it, Lily. And she was prepared to sacrifice herself to ensure that you did.’

  Lily felt tears spring to her eyes. To think that her mom could have saved herself, had she been wearing the charm.

  ‘Don’t allow yourself to feel any guilt, Lily. Sacrifice is the ultimate expression of love. Your mother loves you.’ She paused. ‘And so do I.’

  Lily looked up at the wise old woman. She could see that love burning in her eyes. She felt overwhelmed. She didn’t feel as if she deserved her love, and didn’t know how to respond.

  She put the charm back in its pouch, and slipped the golden draw-tie cord around her wrist. ‘How will I know when I’m skilled enough to wear it?’

  ‘You’ll know the right time, Lily,’ Luna said enigmatically. ‘Believe me.’

  A sound, behind them. A scuttling sound from the passageway leading into the chamber. A chilling sound. They turned. Crawling out of the passage, coming towards them over the rocks and sand, were two large scorpions. They were identical, and they moved together as one, their stingers raised high.

  As the scorpions approached, they began to grow in size, as if they were expanding into the huge space of the chamber. They grew taller than Lily, taller than Luna. They towered over them both, blocking the sunlight from the crevice above, their gigantic stingers quivering and dripping with venom, poised to strike.

  ‘Run, Lily!’ Luna yelled, and they both turned and raced back towards the waterfall.

  The scorpions whipped around and followed, moving fast, the sound of their skeletal bodies clack clacking loudly as they gave chase.

  Lily felt a sudden rush of air and she instinctively swerved. A huge stinger pounded the sand where she’d just been only a second earlier. As she ran she looked back at Luna. The other scorpion had split off and was chasing her. Its huge stinger hammered down but Luna leapt aside at the last moment. She stumbled and fell as the stinger hit the sand beside her.

  Lily turned and raced back to help her, but Luna picked herself up and kept running. ‘The pool!’ she yelled.

  They both leapt into the pool. The two scorpions thrash­ed their stingers into the water, just missing their heels as they dived down to the bottom. Underwater, Lily looked across at Luna to follow her. They swam to where the waterfall cascaded down, through turbulence and bubbles, then surfaced at the back of the cave behind the falling sheets of water. They pulled themselves up out of the pool onto a rocky ledge.

  Lily couldn’t see the scorpions through the falling water. For the briefest of moments, she thought they were safe. And then a huge stinger came crashing through the veil of water like a bolt of bone aimed right at Luna’s body. She jerked out of the way. The stinger splintered against the rock wall behind her, missing her by inches. Then it withdrew.

  ‘What are they?’ Lily asked, breathless. Terrified.

  ‘They’re witches. Very advanced witches,’ Luna said, breathing hard. ‘I’ve heard of them. The Twins. Satan must really want you, Lily.’

  ‘What can we do?’ Lily tried to keep her voice strong, but she’d never experienced fear like this before. It was surging through her body, turning her to mush, making her incapable of thinking straight or moving fast.

  A huge scorpion pincer suddenly came thrusting through the curtain of water, its jagged bone jaws opening wide. Lily stepped back, pushing flat against the rock wall as the massive pincers snapped the air in front of her, inches from her face. The bone jaws snapped again and again, each time getting closer and closer. Lily pressed as hard as she could against the rock, the dead sound of clacking bone on bone filling her with terror.

  ‘Don’t let your fear overcome you, Lily!’ Luna shouted. ‘They feed off your fear.’

  Lily was so terrified she was shaking, but she searched within herself, and deep down, she discovered a source of pure white-light energy that she called upon, and it immediately infused her with a radiant power. She stopped shaking and a calm settled over her. Her thoughts became clear again and her body became her own once more.

  She lashed out hard with an aikido kick that caught the pincer on the side, snapping its upper jaw clean off. It splashed into the pool and sank to the bottom. She heard the creature scuttle back. The damaged pincer, spurting a putrid green fluid, withdrew through the waterfall.

  ‘Tell me, quickly,’ Luna asked, ‘when you travelled before, when you went out of your body, did you see where they’re holding your mother?’

  ‘All I can remember is these two boarded-up doors. In some kind of . . . industrial complex, or mine. Then I got pushed away.’

  ‘You must find it and go there.’

  ‘But how?’

  ‘Freddie will help you. Now, I’m going to run out and draw them to me. You make a dash for the exit.’

  ‘No, I’m not leaving you!’

  ‘Lily, listen to me.’ Luna’s normally radiant face was lined and grey. She looked old. She looked near death. ‘I’ve lived my life and I now have no more use, other than what I do in these next few minutes. I’ve known this for some time. That this is my destiny. And that you are our future. You are all we have, all we’ll ever be. Remember that.’

  Lily saw a movement through the sheets of water – a shadow on the other side of the waterfall, growing larger. One of the scorpions was peering in at them through the cascade. It was the uninjured scorpion, because two pincers slowly came through the water, one on each side of them, each with their bone jaws opened.

  Lily shook her head, trying to keep from crying. ‘No, Luna, I’m not leaving you. I’m not your future. I’m no one’s future.’

  ‘You want your mother back?’

  ‘Of course I do!’

  ‘Then do as I say. Because you’re the only one who can save her. Now . . .’ Luna leaned forward, and kissed Lily gently on her forehead, on her third eye. ‘Remember, like the Goddess Artemis, hold the light high and don’t be afraid to wield the sword!’

  She handed Lily her wand. ‘Keep it safe until you’re ready to use it. You’ll need it.’ She smiled, her eyes glimmering with love, then she turned and ran along the rocky ledge behind the waterfall and out into the cave.

  ‘No, Luna, don’t!’ Lily screamed out after her, but she’d gone.

  The scorpions quickly withdrew to chase her.

  Lily hesitated a moment, put the wand safely into the pocket of her robe, then ran out
the other way. She bolted from behind the waterfall and raced around the pool, looking over to where Luna was cornered against the cave wall. The two scorpions towered over her. Lily saw her try to invoke a spell, but both scorpions attacked with their stingers. Luna ducked out of the way, one of the stingers hitting the rock behind her, the other catching her in the chest.

  ‘No!’ Lily screamed as she saw Luna hurtle backwards with the force of the hit. The scorpions turned and saw her. One of them scuttled around and started bounding across the cave towards her, the other towered over Luna, now sprawled on the ground. The huge creature lashed out with its stinger, punching into her body again and again.

  Luna shuddered with each hit. She looked across at Lily, near death, and yelled out, ‘Run, child! I give you my life. Now run!’

  Lily ran.

  She ran towards the small passageway between the rocks. She could hear the massive scorpion behind her clattering over pebbles and sand, gaining on her, its spindly legs scratching the ground. Then a rush of air, and WHAP, a stinger landed in the sand right beside her.

  Lily kept running. She could see the passageway up ahead, barely big enough for her to squeeze through. The scorpion chasing her was the one with the injured pincer, the one she’d kicked. She sensed its fury.

  WHAP again.

  The stinger grazed her shoulder, missing her by inches.

  She was almost at the gap in the rocks.

  She felt a sudden searing stab of pain in her arm. The scorpion had grabbed her with its good pincer and was about to tear her limb clean off. She swung around, the pain now a thousand white-hot cutting knives. She grabbed the pincer with both hands, and with a neatly executed aikido tumble-roll and a sharp kick to its skeletal body, she hurled the scorpion over her head and into the rock wall.

  She heard its bony shell crack, then she swiftly rolled out of the way as it thumped back onto the sand beside her. She continued to roll back onto her feet, then threw herself into the crevice in the wall just as the scorpion thrashed at her with its stinger, missing her by inches as she disappeared into the hidden passage.

  She pushed herself along the narrow tunnel, grazing her arms and shoulders as she scrambled through, and finally she came out into the smaller dark cave with the phosphorescent spring. She stood there a moment, breathing hard, adjusting her eyes to the dimness again, trying to ignore the throbbing pain that had suddenly drained her of energy. She looked at her arm. It was gashed heavily and was bleeding freely.

  Then she heard the death-bone rattling of the scorpion again, coming down the passage.

  She looked back. It was much smaller now, scurrying along the sandy floor, dripping green fluid from a large crack in its body. Its two red eyes waved angrily on their stalks. Its stinger glistened with venom and quivered with rage.

  Lily bolted towards the blinding sunlight of the cave’s mouth.

  The scorpion scuttled out of the passage and immediately grew large again. It reared up and tore after her, its one good pincer snapping the air savagely as she raced towards the cave’s mouth.

  She felt it grab at her shoulder, its bony teeth slicing her robe and cutting into her flesh. She jerked herself free of its grasp and ran out into the sun, blinded by the sudden light – and nearly knocked over Skyhawk.

  He stepped nimbly aside and put Lily behind him as the scorpion charged out of the cave and rushed towards them. There was a sudden flash of movement – Skyhawk pushed Lily back as its stinger wheeled through the air and hammered the ground just where they’d been standing a second earlier. The earth shook with the force of the hit. Skyhawk whisked out his feather-handled knife and it glinted in the sunlight. The scorpion stopped, its two stalky eyes considering him. Swaying and wavering, unblinking.

  Skyhawk circled around, keeping Lily always behind him, as the giant creature began to circle too. Its pincer opened and closed, making a sound like the cracking of old bones.

  Lily was starting to feel dizzy from her wounds. If she fell to the ground, the scorpion would pounce and kill her. She had to keep on her feet, but circling around as she was behind Skyhawk, as he kept square to the gigantic insect, was making her head spin.

  The scorpion suddenly lunged with its pincer. Skyhawk pushed Lily to the ground as the gigantic claw snapped the air just above their heads. The sound was thunderous. Lily’s aikido training kicked in and without her even thinking, she tumble-rolled away. She turned and watched as Skyhawk reached for a large rock, stood to his feet and threw it directly into the face of the monstrous insect. It made a small crack in the exoskeleton, and the scorpion shuddered. It shook itself, as if the jolt from the rock had been a dose of smelling salts making it more alert, then it rushed forward – one injured pincer pulsating vile green fluid, the other thrust forward and clacking loudly, and above, its deadly stinger quivering, poised to strike.

  Skyhawk waited for the massive creature as it thundered towards him, waited until it was almost upon him, until he could smell its bone-dry stench of death, then he nimbly stepped to the side and jumped impossibly high in a flying arc. As he came back down and with both hands now on the hilt of his blade he stabbed down hard into the head of the creature, thrusting the blade deep between its stalky eyes. Green scorpion blood squirted out in a stinking fetid stream.

  The giant insect screeched and fell back, its tail dropping, its pincer thrashing the air wildly, desperately, its spindly bone legs scratching and shaking. It toppled on its side, convulsing in spasms, and then it quietened, and stopped moving. It was dead.

  Lily stood behind Skyhawk, stunned. Then she looked back to the cave. ‘They killed Luna.’

  ‘They?’

  ‘There’s another one still in there. That’s the one that killed her.’

  Tears filled her eyes. Skyhawk went to her and hugged her. Lily began to cry. And then she suddenly pulled back, remembering.

  ‘Oh my God, I have to go back in,’ she said. ‘The suitcase.’ She didn’t want to tell Skyhawk about the Book of Light. Not yet. Later, maybe, when she could fully explain its magnitude.

  ‘Lily, if there’s another demon inside . . .’

  ‘I’ll go myself. Give me your knife.’ She held out her hand.

  ‘Why risk your life?’

  Lily remembered that her mom had risked her life to get the book from the farm.

  ‘Forget it,’ she said, and turned to walk back into the cave.

  Skyhawk grabbed her. Spun her around. ‘Lily, listen to me! You’re in shock. You’re hurt. Luna’s dead. And there’s another demon in there that will kill you if you go back in. If you die, Luna’s life will be wasted. And you won’t get to help your mom. Do you understand?’

  Lily hesitated. He was right. What was more important – getting the book, or staying alive so she could find her mother?

  Then there was the sound of a distant car, approaching. They both turned. Coming up the mountain track was a vehicle, moving fast and billowing dust. A white four-wheel drive.

  ‘We have to go now!’ Skyhawk said.

  They heard a scuttling from inside the cave, a vicious clacking of gnashing pincers, and the second scorpion rushed out, growing in size as it emerged from the cave’s mouth. It stopped for a moment when it saw the other scorpion lying motionless in a pool of green liquid, then it reared high, let out an ear-splitting screech of fury, and rushed forward maniacally.

  Lily hesitated a moment. The suitcase would be safe in the chamber. No one would find the entrance. She could come back later and retrieve it.

  ‘Lily, come on!’

  They ran over to his bike. He jumped on, Lily too, as the scorpion came thundering towards them, its stinger arching back, coiled and ready to strike. Skyhawk kickstarted the bike into a high-pitched squeal as the massive creature lunged forward.

  WHAP.

  The stinger grazed his arm as he wheeled away in a spray of dust. He looked down the track and saw the four-wheel drive coming up fast. ‘We have to go off-road. Hold on!’

>   He fishtailed off down a steep goat track that traversed the other side of the mountain. Lily looked back and saw the scorpion rushing up to the edge of the rocky ledge, watching them go, unable to follow. It rose up on its haunches, snapping the air, and emitted a high piercing shriek of rage, before scuttling back to check on its twin.

  Lily held on tight to Skyhawk’s lean and taut waist as he skilfully guided the bike along a narrow path with a drop to one side of several hundred feet. He jumped a crevasse and they flew through the air, not knowing where they’d land among the brush and cacti way below. But they landed safely and Skyhawk quickly revved the bike away through the boulders and brush. He pulled up in a shaded rocky glen.

  ‘Let me look at that shoulder of yours,’ he said, and inspected the wound where the scorpion had grabbed her. The bloodied flesh was swollen and red.

  ‘There’s witch’s venom in there, Lily. It’s going to need special treatment. I’m going to take you home, to the Needle. My mother will know how to fix it.’

  Lily could see the massive column of vertical rock through a gap in the mountains. It rose majestically from the plains, radiating a mystical power, as though it was not of this world.

  She suddenly realised she still had the leather pouch wrapped around her wrist, the pouch that contained the Cygnet charm, and her wand was in the pocket of her robe. For the first time in her life, she felt empowered. And proud. She was now a white witch, from a very special family, and she had a lot to live up to. And a lot to do.

  ‘Okay then, let’s go,’ she said, and held Skyhawk tight as he gunned the bike down the mountain, dodging rocks, leaping boulders, going aerial, skidding around corners, heading towards a place that seemed to draw Lily to it, mysteriously, inevitably, as if it were on her destiny path.