Gwaine had his back to her as she came to the kitchen door. He’d made himself a mug, but not one for her. Bloody Gwaine.
“Where the hell have you been?” he snarled, without turning around. “You are meant to be training the squires.”
Billi put the sword down on the table. “Something more important has come up, Gwaine. Ivan’s gone. He’s been kidnapped.”
He turned slowly, and took a sip. “Oh? And what’s that got to do with me?”
Keep your head, SanGreal. He wants you to start a fight. Don’t let him. You need him. You need the Templars.
Gwaine continued. “He’s got himself mixed up with the Russian mafia. We all know it. Made himself the wrong enemies along the way. Those sorts of... domestic issues aren’t anything to do with the Templars. He’s missing? So go tell the police and get back to your duties.”
“It’s not anything that mundane. You heard of the Ouroboros Society?”
“I’ve heard of them,” said Gwaine. “So?”
“So? Is that your answer? One of them’s kidnapped Ivan! I’ve been looking into it.”
“You? By yourself?”
She’d started, so she might as well tell him everything. “Faustus too. I needed his help dealing with a haunting. It’s all tied up with artefacts being smuggled out of Iraq during the war. Not just that djinn jar but something much more powerful, much more dangerous.”
“And how’s this connected to Ivan? He wanting to get into the smuggling business himself?”
“You gonna help me or not?”
“You give me some proof of what you’re saying and I’ll have a look.” He finished the mug and walked past her. “Tomorrow morning. First thing. I want you down at the ossuary with your gloves on and training the squires.”
She gritted her teeth. He was doing this just to show he was boss. He didn’t care about Ivan, nor her. “This can’t wait, Gwaine. Ivan’s in danger.”
“You disobeying me? I am Seneschal, girl. While your dad’s away I am in charge.” Then he scoffed. “You’ll never change. You wonder why you’re still sitting on the outside? You think it’s because you’re a girl or some fool notion like that? We’re past caring. Being a Templar is about obeying the rules. And that’s something you just cannot allow yourself to do.”
And that was it. He didn’t slam the door as he left. Gwaine wasn’t even angry at her. He’d made his point. The Templars wouldn’t be helping her save Ivan.
That git! The moment her dad was out the picture, he was lording it over everyone. He wasn’t interested in achieving anything. Training the squires? What about dealing with what was out there?
She could go to Mo, speak to Carados and Idres. Try and persuade them to help her. But that would put them in an impossible position. They wouldn’t dare defy Gwaine. Being in the order meant everything to them, they wanted to be inside the circle. They belonged there.
She couldn’t call her dad. She knew he’d back up Gwaine. Not because Gwaine was right, but because those were the rules. Arthur, the biggest rebel of them all. It didn’t make any sense, but that’s how it was. He’d have to side with the Seneschal.
Billi stormed into her bedroom and tipped up her saddlebag over her bed. The dress fell out with the skipping rope and her pads. And something else.
A book.
It was a large kid’s scrap book. The sort you’d fill with drawings, birthday cards and postcards from relatives. Scrawled in painfully neat writing on the front was the title.
The Research Book of Erin FitzRoy, Aged eight and a half.
Billi flicked through it. A sheet of tissue paper had been carefully pasted onto each page. Tissue paper bearing cuneiform rubbings, taking from the tablets that Simon had brought from Mesopotamia, and that Erin’s mother had subsequently destroyed after his death.
Why had Erin given her this book? Why had she sneaked it in without telling her?
Damn it, SanGreal. You know what this means, don’t you?
Gwaine wasn’t going to help. She couldn’t ask the squires.
Billi picked up her mobile and dialled.
It didn’t ring for long before it was answered. “Whatever it is, I’m not interested.”
He sounded tired. “I need your help, Faustus.”
“Of course you do. Same answer. Goodbye.”
“Don’t hang up! Ivan’s been kidnapped by, er, a ghost! Possibly demons!”
There was a long pause. Then Faustus laughed. “I leave you alone just for a minute and look what happens. To lose a boyfriend is unlucky, but to undead? To demons? That takes some effort, congrats. He wasn’t for you, anyway.”
“Really?” Billi snapped. “In what universe do I ask for your advice on relationships? I know I don’t owe you anything but you know what? That shouldn’t matter when you’re being asked to do the right thing. There ain’t a price to that. Maybe you got better things to do, maybe you don’t want to take risks, maybe there are places you don’t want to go, or look. I know what you see, Faustus. You’re a medium. They’re out there, all the dead souls that never made it across, never found any peace. I know they hound you. If there was a way I could protect you from them, I truly would. But I need your help and I’ve no one else left to turn to. So, please. Do this for me. Not because I’ll owe you, we don’t bargain or haggle over peoples’ lives, but because it’s right.”
She heard him breathing. Then, in a low whisper, Faustus answered. “No.”
The final door had closed on her. She stood there, staring down at the scrap book, at the tangled dress. Her training gear. This was the extent of her life, wasn’t it?
“Not for any of those reasons,” said Faustus as he stepped into the lobby.
It took a second to realise what he’d done. “Then why?”
That look from him made Billi step back. He wanted to speak, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to hear what he was going to say. Instead Faustus chuckled to himself. “Show me what you’ve got and I’ll try my best to save your boyfriend.”
CHAPTER 18
Billi explained it all as best she could as she made the tea. It was a jigsaw, so many pieces scattered over the table and she didn’t even have the corners done yet. And time was running out.
Faustus sat, listening as he looked through the scrap book. He scratched his tattoos as he read, as if they were helping him translate.
“You understand any of that?” Billi asked.
“Understand what? Your story or this writing?”
“Either. Both.” Why was she feeling so flustered? “I thought Elaine taught you how to translate cuneiform.”
“It’s not that simple. Cuneiform was used for Ancient Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian, Assyrian to name but a few. It was used for thousands of years. There are plenty of different versions and the rubbings don’t give you the most perfect copies.”
Billi sat down heavily on chair opposite him. “You saying you can’t do it?”
“I’m saying it’ll take time, and I could do with Elaine’s help. I got a postcard from her last week.”
“She sent you a postcard?” said Billi. “She’s never sent me one.”
“Why should she? It’s not like you liked each other.”
“That’s not true. There was this one time...” she paused. Surely there was some story, some moment when she and Elaine had laughed together. But now she thought about it... “no. Actually there wasn’t. We didn’t get along over anything. How’s she doing?”
Faustus mimed lighting up a fag. “She’s got a side-racket smuggling cigarettes into the old people’s home. She goes there Fridays for yoga.”
“Elaine in lycra doing the ‘downward-facing dog’? Thanks for that image. It’s gonna haunt me forever.”
“You think Reggie is still alive?”
“No. Lawrence would have been thorough. He’s too old and canny to let something like that happen. I think Reggie’s ghost, or something, somehow made it back. You re
member when we saw Simon’s ghost? Someone had hounded him to take his life. They guy was a soldier, so it won’t have been some conventional threat. But how would you react if you saw your grandfather’s ghost?”
Faustus’s gaze darkened. “I know exactly how you’d react. You’d think you were going insane.”
“Was that how it was for you?”
He looked up suddenly. She guessed he’d never shared this with anyone, except maybe Elaine. He’d never shared because no-one had ever asked. They were afraid of what he’d tell them. But if he was willing to do this for her, then this was the least she could do for him.
“I thought they were my friends. My invisible friends. Kids have them. You ever wondered how many of them are actually ghosts? Kids are more sensitive to the supernatural, but they grow out of it. They’re raised not to believe until, one day, they don’t. I carried on believing. So they put me on medication. I still carried on believing so they put me in a ‘special place’. Trouble was, it didn’t feel that special, it felt like hell. There were lots of talks and when the psychiatrists didn’t make any progress, there were a lot of treatments. They didn’t work either.”
“So what did they do?”
He winced. “They turned up the dial.”
Billi put her hand on his. Him, Erin, even going back to the ghost of Simon FitzRoy she saw the pain running through them all, pain that she could do nothing to alleviate. The pain of the past couldn’t be fought. You had to accept it had happened, and that it wasn’t your fault. |Because the damage was internal, it could rot your soul as you blamed yourself for not stopping it, not being strong enough to cope. Billi fought her monsters face to face and when they were defeated it was done, it was over. Clean the weapons, patch up the wounds, and then move on. But who was she fooling? How much of her own pain was she ignoring, pretending all her problems could be solved with the swing of her sword?
Did she really care, the way Faustus did?
Why did she fight? Because it was her job. Because she had a talent for extreme violence. Was that something to be proud of? The problem was it was all she had.
That’s why she needed someone like Faustus and Erin. They showed what it really meant to be ‘good’. She’d fought monsters so long she realized she might become one herself.
Faustus closed the scrap book. “Reggie’s behind this. Somehow he tricked Lawrence. Given his worship of the Anunnaki it’s likely he found a way to come back from the dead. But there’s something missing.”
“The Vessel of the Anunnaki. It has to be. He needs it to claim full immortality. That’s the only thing that makes sense. But there is no vessel. Erin was adamant about it. Simon only possessed a bunch of tablets.”
Faustus nodded. “Which he hid from Lawrence. He knew enough about the occult to know they meant something. And why did his wife smash them as soon as he was dead?”
Of course. “To stop them from falling into the wrong hands. I thought she did it out of rage, but she knew they were dangerous.”
“And I’ll bet she knew nothing about these,” said Faustus, tapping the scrap book. “The answer’s in here, Billi. But I need help translating it. I need to use Elaine’s library. She had all the books on Ancient Sumerian magic. I need to go see Lionel and spend a day with the books.”
“What do you want me to do?”
“Stick close to Erin. If Reggie is behind this, then she’s our best connection to him. She gave you this book for a reason. She knows more than she’s letting on. You said she sat in her father’s study while he worked. Who knows what else she might have picked up, even by accident? If Reggie kidnapped Ivan then something’s coming to a head and Erin’s still got to play some part in all this. He’ll make his move, sooner rather than later.”
“I’m almost hoping he does. Then I’ll deal with Reggie once and for all.”
Faustus shot her a warning look. “Don’t get cocky. The Anunnaki are more powerful than you can imagine and since he’s been worshipping them for a hundred years Reggie’s more demon than human by now. Who knows what form he’s been corrupted into? What he’s capable of?”
“I’d better call Lionel and tell him the good news. You and he can catch on your stories about Elaine. I bet he’d love that.”
“Can you believe she was married once? I mean, Elaine?”
Billi missed the old woman. She was spiteful, miserable, rude to everyone and contemptuous of the whole order but she’d been the one holding it together in so many ways. She’d kept the other knights and squires honest with a snarl, sharp word or scowl. But she deserved her retirement. Lionel was doing a good job as her replacement. But he wasn’t answering his mobile this time of night. “Your best bet is seeing him in the morning.”
“Fine. Tell him I’ll be there bright and early.” Faustus tucked the book into his jacket. “I’ll need keys to the vault. That’s where Elaine kept the banned books.”
Hope. She had hope. They could do this. Save Ivan, and protect Erin. It felt good working with someone. “Stay here tonight. It makes more sense than you trekking back to the squat. I’ll make up the sofa.”
No clever, cocky line. No innuendo, no sidelong glances full of mischief. He just nodded. “I’d like that.”
She’d had a best friend, once. Faustus was nothing like Kay. She’d grown up with Kay, his childhood would have gone the same, painful route as Faustus’s if the Templars hadn’t got him first. For better or for worse they’d grown up tighter, Kay learning how to control his gifts under the watchful gaze of Elaine while Billi had trained in the arts of war with her dad and the other Templars. Kay had eventually been sent to Jerusalem to continue his training, but when he’d come back, things had moved on, for both of them. In another universe he’d be sitting here. In that universe he’d not needed to die for her.
Faustus isn’t Kay. He won’t share the same fate. You’ll make sure of it.
Kay was her ghost. At sometimes the memory was painful, other times it made her smile, but sometimes she would just sit in the dark and wonder where it was all heading. What did fate have in store for her? Who else would fall by the wayside before she came to her own end? Why was she always the last one standing? Others were better than her, others deserved it more than her. Like Faustus. This wasn’t his battle but he was willing to fight it beside her. Why? She didn’t want to know. It would make things complicated and she didn’t need those distractions.
What was Erin doing, right now? Was she sitting in the dark, thinking about her? Or was she eating and laughing with her witches, as she called them? Billi felt envious. Not sure why, but she liked Erin more than she should. Maybe she was attracted to that wounded psyche? Like Kay and, yeah, admit it, like Faustus.
Ivan? He was different. He gave her a break from herself, from her brooding nature. He was the life and soul and being with him warmed her, like she was standing in the field on a summer’s day. But too long in the sun and you got burnt. It was a plain and simple truth.
Faustus, duvet rolled under his arm, stopped at the living room door. “You still get up for vigils?”
“Like a good little Templar.”
He scratched the back of his head. “That’s something I don’t miss. Goodnight.”
He shut the door the door and a few moments later she heard the springs of the sofa creaking.
She felt more at ease in the company of the wounded. But who was she trying save? Them, or herself?
CHAPTER 19
The sun beats down on her and the wind is parched, gritty. Billi shields her eyes from the blistering intensity of the noonday sun and gazes out across the desert, and the vast ruins.
Gigantic stone beasts, winged bulls with the faces of bearded men, lie half-buried in the white sand. Their gaze, sightless and solemn, warn Billi that nothing lasts forever. Once they guarded royal palaces and city temples but now?
What is she doing here? She’s looking for something. She couldn’t find it in the present,
so is searching the past instead.
Great friezes, dozens of metres long, cover the cracked and broken walls of the ruins. Ancient, nameless kings and gods perform meaningless heroics and celebrate victories against forgotten kingdoms whose own people and civilizations turned to dust thousands of years ago.
What is the point of it all?
How ever long you live, kingdoms rise, they fall, and are forgotten.
What’s the point of going through the same cycle, again and again?
Billi hears scraping, the sound of digging. She follows it to its source and there, clawing at the sand with her fingernails is Erin. “Come and help me, Billi. It’s got to be here, somewhere.”
Billi helps. She’s her friend, isn’t she? But while she is dressed in rough, practical clothing, Erin’s wearing a shimmering green and gold skin-tight one-piece. “I love your outfit.”
Erin holds out her arm. “It’s not an outfit. See?”
Not an outfit? The sun shines upon the scales that she has instead of skin. They change colour as she turns her arm, ranging from green to royal blues and gold to platinum.
“What sort of snake are you?” Billi asks.
“An eternal one. But I can’t find my new skin, Billi. Help me dig.” Erin’s frantic as she claws the dirt, tears swell in her eyes. “I don’t have much time!”
Billi starts digging. Erin rips her fingers bloody, sobbing. What is she looking for?
Then Billi feels something. Could this be it? “Look.”
Erin joins her as they pick away at the hard-packed sand. They break the pieces away and reveal... a face. A buried statue? But the skin is soft, and warm.
Erin laughs. “You did it, Billi! Thank you! Thank you!”
But dread builds in Billi’s heart. She brushes the sand from the cheeks, and centimetre by centimetre the face is revealed.
Ivan.
Then he opens his eyes. They are not the grey eyes of the boy she loves. But are deep emerald and bisected by vertical pupils. The eyes of a snake.
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