Something moved from within the remains.
Was he being reborn? Was the new Reginald sloughing his old self? The body within pushed and groaned at its prison of withered, old flesh.
A hand pushed out through Reginald’s slack, wide-opened jaw. Slim-fingered, delicate and desperate.
Was it possible?
Dropping her sword, Billi grabbed hold, locking her fingers around the wrist. “Guys! Help me!”
Faustus and Ivan were over in moments. A second hand emerged from the snake’s gullet and grabbed Billi’s. The boys pulled the jaws wider apart.
Erin was vomited out in a wave of blood and greasy saliva, and straight into Billi’s arms. Billi hugged her as she lay there, curled up, shivering. Ivan whipped off his shirt and covered her.
Billi wiped the worst of the gore away from Erin’s face. “You’re okay, Erin. I’ve got you.”
Her eyes were squeezed shut and she was trembling as if still in her nightmare. Billi pressed her own cheek against hers, saying nothing.
“Am I… alive?” whispered Erin. “I was in Hell, Billi. There was a devil there. He did so many —”
“He’s gone. You beat him.”
“Beat him? But he was so strong.”
Billi raised Erin’s chin. “And you were stronger.”
Erin slowly opened her eyes, afraid of what she might see. Was this some new trick? A fresh torture? Billi felt her fear, her dread.
The walls began to shake once more. The floor swayed as the crevasses opened up wider. Bricks fell from the ceiling and the remaining columns started to crack apart. The castle above them groaned as huge stones slid against each other. Ivan scooped Erin up in his arms. “We are leaving.”
Too right.
Faustus protected his own head as he scanned around. “The Anunnaki are losing contact with this realm, but they’re taking a piece with it. We really don’t want to linger.”
“Don’t wait for me,” said Billi as she grabbed her sword. The whole catacombs tottered, leaning this way then that, the cracks becoming chasms and the chasms collapsing down to crash into the churning waves below. They stumbled towards the stairs, Faustus leading and Billi helping Ivan as he carried Erin in his arms. The floor sloped wildly and Billi had to hook her arms around a column to stop sliding all the way into the rocks. The Anunnaki raged and their fury was cataclysmic. The dimensions buckled and fractured, then reformed to shatter again as the Old Ones struggled to cling onto this universe they so lusted for. Theirs was cold, lifeless and dark and here were all the things they hungered for.
Faustus held out his hand to haul Billi up to the stairs. Ivan though, gritted his teeth and, although weighed down with Erin, sprang the gap where Billi and Faustus caught him before he fell backwards. There wasn’t a moment to waste. The stairs themselves were collapsing in on themselves. There was a huge, deafening roar as the cliff tore itself further from the mainland.
“Up!” yelled Faustus, still leading. Billi was knocked side to side as the stairs pitched like a barrel over a waterfall. She glanced back and saw Erin with her head buried in Ivan’s bare chest as he determinedly ran up behind her. Erin seemed to weigh nothing in his arms.
They stumbled out back into the open, gasping and covered in dust. Billi fell onto the grass but the ground was moving. It ripped open a metre in front of her and she could hear the thunderous splashing as the cliff, piece by piece, crashed into the sea. The castle was collapsing around them. Huge stones, several tonnes each, tumbled down from the walls to smash upon the flagstones and bounce their way over the cliff edge.
Faustus groaned. “Just one break! Is that too much to ask?”
No point jumping into the sea. If they weren’t smashed upon the rocks they’d be crushed soon enough by the collapsing cliff. There had to be a way to survive this. Billi gazed ahead, as their broken section of land slid downwards, bumping and tearing against the opposite face. The keep itself was falling, section by section into the gap between but the top floor, the open battlements, were almost level now with the top of the opposite cliff.
It was lunacy, they could all be crushed in a moment, but the keep had stood for a thousand years, she just needed it to stay up one more minute. She ran for the keep. “Come on!”
Up and up they climbed. The FitzRoys had refurbished it a century ago, converting it into a modern interior with a broad wooden staircase that led all the way to the roof. They reached the top and Billi dashed to the battlements facing the mainland. Faustus was right beside her. “You sure about this?”
It was three metres, maybe a little more, and they were higher than the ground opposite. But it was all the chance they had.
Billi took a run up and then slammed her foot down on the battlement and launched herself out across the gap.
There was that second of freefall, and then the ground rushed up towards her and as she hit she rolled, knocking her head, elbows and backside over and over the patch of earth.
She wiped the mud and grass away from her eyes just as Faustus, Ivan and, now on her own feet, Erin, came flying over the edge.
Then there was a titanic cry as the keep’s foundations finally collapsed. The ancient castle seemed to cry out one last time in vain desperation before it was drowned out, literally, by the roar of the cliff tumbling into the sea. The thunder rolled on and on as the countless tonnes of stone and rock continued to tumble into the water, smashing against each other and the already submerged portions of the FitzRoy castle.
Billi lay down on her back, staring at the stars. The stars of her universe. She panted and let the blanket of exhaustion finally fall over her.
Then she felt fingers entwine with hers. She leaned her head sideways and found Erin, lying beside her, staring up at the stars and bright moon. Smiling.
CHAPTER 31
Two weeks later…
“Is that all you’re taking?” said Ivan as he looked at the three tattered suitcases sitting in the apartment building lobby.
It hadn’t taken long to pack. She owned less that she’d thought. There weren’t many mementoes, nor keepsakes. This was the beginning of a new life and Billi didn’t want to bring too much old baggage.
Still, she couldn’t shake off the feeling she’d forgotten something…
It was just nerves. She was leaving home, starting a brand new life in Russia. In Russia! As of Monday morning she would be a student at the Moscow Language School for a three month crash course. It promised she’d be swearing like a local by Christmas.
The bruises from Hollburgh had finally faded. The nightmares were vague now, merging with all the other previous horrors into a weird, helter-skelter montage of close calls and brutality. She’d learnt to live with that and who knew? Maybe Moscow would be the break from it all that she craved.
“Billi? Are you alright?” Ivan had two of the suitcases in his hands. He was keen to leave. The excitement had been growing day by day as he’d immersed himself back into the world of the Bogatyrs. The calls, the messages and the Zoom meetings would go long into the night and he’d pace his apartment, too edgy, too wired to sleep.
She’d been busy herself. Tying up loose ends, that sort of thing. Bors was keen to have her gone, but what was new about that? She’d spoken to Dad almost daily and planned to visit him in Dublin once she was settled.
Things were changing for the Knights Templar but she wouldn’t be part of it anymore. This was for the best. She nodded at Ivan, picked up the third suitcase and carried it out to the waiting taxi.
The morning sun shone brightly upon the cobbles of Middle Temple Lane. The dew made the ancient pebbles glisten and the wreaths of mist in from the nearby Thames clung to the doorways and archways. At the end of the street was a small group of tourists. The guide was pointing out the old buildings and regaling them with some of the stories of the Knights Templar. The tours weren’t as popular as they’d been a few years ago, but the legends never died, did they?
&
nbsp; If only they knew.
They loaded the suitcases in and climbed into the back. They were off.
Ivan checked his watch. “We’ll be in Moscow for lunch. I’ve booked us the suite at the Hyatt. It’s near the Kremlin and I’ve got meetings all day.” He patted his jacket pocket. “But the evenings are yours. I’ve tickets for the Bolshoi.”
“Good seats?” asked Billi.
Ivan winced. He knew how she felt about his outrageous royal privilege. “The royal box. The director insisted.”
“So I’m just going to sit around eating caviar and going on shopping trips at the GUM?”
He frowned. “You deserve a break, Billi. We talked about this.”
“We did. But it felt different, Ivan. I don’t know.”
The taxi rolled along the Embankment. Early morning joggers were huffing and puffing their way along the banks of the Thames. Across the river was the South Bank Centre. Was she going to miss all this? There were theatres in Moscow and she could jog along the Moskva river every morning if she wanted to.
She was losing her friends, but she was keeping Ivan. Wasn’t that the better deal?
What about Erin?
She’d spent a week with Erin, being by her side when the nightmares threatened to overwhelm her and she thought Reggie was still there, lurking at the foot of her bed. It would be years before she was finally rid of him, if she ever would be. He’d been hidden in her consciousness for most of her life and his taint lingered like mould in an old, old house. The inquest had been hard, awful actually, but the deaths of Ardhan, Brigid and Phoebe had been classed as accidents. They’d gone to a party at Hollburgh and the cliff had collapsed, Erin being the only survivor. But Erin was going to have to live with the guilt of their deaths forever, or find a way to make amends.
They’d sat, talked endlessly about their lives, Billi revealing her role within the Knights Templar and Erin telling her about Reginald’s dark invasions, those long periods he whispered to her and she thought she was mad, as mad as her father had been. And they’d gone up into her loft and found a rucksack of her father’s, all but hidden in cobwebs, full of yellowed, crinkling letters and notebooks of Erin’s dad, her grandfather and Reginald himself. It seemed Eddie had investigated his family thoroughly, trying to find a way to beat Reginald at his own game. The papers were a treasure trove of occult research, and the machinations of the Ouroboros Society. The organization had its members and servants in government, in business, religion and crime.
The rucksack was waiting for Arthur to return. There was a war coming, a war between the Templars and the Ouroboros Society.
And where would she be? Holed up in a fancy hotel in Moscow.
“Stop the taxi.”
Ivan looked round. “What?”
Billi tapped the panel between them and the driver. “Stop the taxi!”
The driver glanced over his shoulder, then drew up by the side of the road.
“What’s going on, Billi? We’ve got to get to Heathrow.” But Ivan was worried. They knew each other too well. “You don’t want to go.”
How could she tell him? Was she wrong about this? Didn’t she deserve to put down her sword, have a life without the horror and the bloodshed? Let others fight her battles, for once? She had nothing left to prove. And yet…
“I can’t, Ivan. There’s unfinished business. I need to stay.”
“I thought you loved me.”
“I do. I truly do. But if I go with you that love will become bitter. It’ll end badly between us, both blaming each other and we don’t deserve that unhappiness, to see all this become poisoned. You know what I mean. This was a perfect time, you and me, being together, but we need to grow up. We need to accept ourselves for what we truly are.”
“And what’s that?” he snapped. He was angry, but that was his right.
“You’re a prince of Russia, leader of the Bogatyrs. Your place is with them. And you know what I am, what I’ve always been.”
“The Knights Templar isn’t everything, Billi.”
Billi put her hand on his. He gripped it. He didn’t want her to go. “It is, for me.”
She’d never seen him cry. Not once in the two years they’d been together. There’d been no need, not with them so happy.
“I love you, Billi.”
She squeezed his hand, smiling even as her own tears fell. “Then let me go.”
***
“I knew it. I knew you couldn’t leave,” said Carados as she entered the Sergeant’s Arms pub that evening. He dragged up a stool. “Here. Sit down.”
Mordred joined them, carrying a beer and put it down in front of her. “Want to talk about it?”
“Not really.” She took a sip and looked around the table at the others. Idres nodded sympathetically while Lionel had his head buried in one of Reggie’s occult notebooks.
“What do you think?” Billi asked.
He pushed up his glasses. “Once the Ouroboros Society know we have all this on them, they’re going to come after us. With everything.”
Billi nodded. “Reggie was just an ugly symptom of the disease. The society has been pulling the strings for centuries, and we’ve just been chasing after shadows. Our fight’s been the sideshow. Vampires, werewolves, the fallen angels have just been a distraction, keeping us occupied and unaware of the true evil preying upon humanity.”
Carados looked thoughtful, which was a new look for him. “So what are you proposing, boss?”
“We take the fight to them. They don’t know we have this on them. We strike hard and fast.”
“You think we’re the first to come after them? We’ll get a few hits in, but then what? They’ve got more resources than most governments. Hell, they’ve got governments willing to do their bidding. Charging up to the castle gates waving our swords is not going to get us anywhere.”
“I agree. But we’ll have someone on the inside to open those gates.”
Bors frowned. “Who?”
Billi turned towards the pub door and beckoned her in.
Erin stood at the table, looking at Billi and the others. She was nervous, but had that light in her eyes that Billi recognised. She’d spoken to Arthur about this, he’d taken plenty of persuading, but eventually agreed.
“You’re Idres. You’re Carados, of course. Lionel, and you must be Mordred. I’m —”
“We know who you are,” said Mordred. He shot an amused look at Billi. “I hope you know what you’re doing.”
Billi stood up and kissed Erin on the cheek. “I’m glad you accepted my invite.”
“What about Faustus? I thought I’d find him here tonight.”
Billi pulled up a stool. “He’s gone to Winchester for a while. There are people there who can help him manage his peculiar talents a little better.”
“People?” asked Erin. “What sort of people?”
“Witches.”
Erin laughed even as she shook her head. “I am never going to get used to this.”
“It takes time,” Billi admitted. “But you will.”
Erin hesitated. “Are you sure?”
“Yeah, I am.” Billi smiled. This was where she belonged and where her companions were, old and new. “Welcome to the Knights Templar.”
THE END
COMING NEXT…
THE TEMPLAR’S REVENGE
SUMMER 2021
The Templar's Curse Page 22