Echoes Through the Mist: A Paranormal Mystery (The Echoes Quartet Book 1)

by K. Francis Ryan

  It had arrived. The moment had come and Julian’s waiting was, for better or worse, over.

  “Ailís?” Julian said softly.

  “Yes.”

  “Do you trust me?”

  “Yes,” she answered.

  “I need to know you will trust me no matter what,” Julian said.

  “What is this about? You are making me uncomfortable,” Ailís said.

  “I need to know you trust me.”

  “Yes, I do trust you, Julian,” she said.

  The mood was broken. The moment was lost between them. Ailís unwound herself from him, but reached down and took his hand. They walked on together in silence.

  She could feel his tenseness. Although he would not transmit it to the hand that held hers, the muscles of his arms and shoulders flexed and she felt something like an electrical charge building on his skin.

  They turned the corner and there, ahead of them, was the holy well. Standing in front of it was a tall, thin, pale man. His left arm was wrapped tightly around Timothy Dwyer. The Pale Man’s right hand was clutching a very short and very lethal double-barreled shotgun.

  Chapter Thirty-eight

  Ailís cried out and tried to rush ahead, but Julian pulled her back. “If there was ever a time to trust me,” he said, “this is it.”

  She looked into his light gray eyes, drew a deep breath, nodded her assent once, and said, “I trust you. I don’t know what this is about, but, Julian, you can’t afford to get it wrong.”

  He closed his eyes, exhaled and sent his thought out to her, “I would give up my life before I would allow anything to happen to Timothy or you. Know that. Please, do not move. Please, don’t speak. Know only that I love you. Keep to that and we’ll be fine.”

  Ailís mouthed the words, “I love you,” and he could see the pleading in her eyes.

  “Come now, you’ll need to come a lot closer than that,” the Pale Man shouted.

  Julian left Ailís, came to within two-dozen yards of the Pale Man, and stopped.

  “This is all you get. What is it you want?” Julian said quietly.

  “I suppose that is close enough, although I don’t know how we are ever going to become the sort of friends we might at this distance,” the Pale Man said.

  “The question hasn’t changed. What do you want?” Julian asked again mildly.

  “Want? Oh, it’s nothing really. I want to kill you and I’m going to do it. I’ve not determined if that is a want or a need though.”

  “Well then, why don’t you turn the boy loose and you can satisfy all your appetites?”

  “Do you know who I am?”

  “No, and strangely I don’t really care. It will suffice that you are the man who wants me dead and seems to have the means to make it happen. Oh, I do suppose you are the employer of those gentlemen who were delivered to the Garda.” Julian could feel the man’s hatred.

  “True, but perhaps a better question is, do you know who you are.”

  “It comes and goes. Sometimes I do and sometimes it is all a bit fuzzy,” Julian said.

  The Pale Man stretched his thin colorless lips back over his teeth into something approximating a smile and said, “To me you have been a constant irritant. You have gotten in the way of my preparations and in the end you stole from me that for which I have been searching for a very long time.”

  “I am terribly sorry. What is it I stole from you exactly?” Julian asked. His opponent was becoming darker by the moment and Julian watched and waited.

  “You are a funny man or rather, were a funny man. You stole my Roman coins.”

  “Hmmmm. In the first place, I don’t believe the coins were yours and in the second place, a professor from Trinity found them. It was in all the papers. Quite thrilling really,” Julian said and smiled.

  “There you go being funny again. That old fool didn’t find anything. You found them and turned the find over to him.” The Pale Man’s malice threatened to engulf Julian.

  “Let the boy go and he and the doctor can go back to the village. That will give you more than enough time to do what you need to do and still escape.” Julian took a step forward and the Pale Man brought the shotgun up to Timothy’s head. Julian heard Ailís gasp.

  “What seems to be the trouble?” Again, Julian’s tone was mild. It was everything he didn’t feel. “These two aren’t important to you. I’m the one you want. Let them go and we’ll settle what needs settling, eh?” Julian said.

  It was there, a flaw, a momentary shudder. The man he faced had power made more potent by his anger, but there was a flaw and Julian could sense it.

  “That’s rather the point, don’t you see?” the Pale Man said. “You are right. They aren’t important to me in the slightest. No, these two mean nothing to me, but to you they are the most important things in your life.

  “You see, Blessing, I know you. I know who you are and who you are trying to become. You are quite good, but not nearly good enough. I can feel it in you. I can feel your anxiety. Attachments are a weakness. I gave up attachments to people and places long ago to pursue my path. You are unable to do that and that makes you weak.

  “I have studied as you have,” the Pale Man said. “However I didn’t have a harridan in the village helping me, but then I didn’t need her to give me her help. I took what I wanted and left you with the rest. I’ll destroy you Blessing, and I’ll do it in the most painful way possible. I’ve already started.

  “Look at the good doctor. She is nearly paralyzed with fear. I am feeding that fear of course. She knows her son will die and you will be to blame. She will suffer torments beyond counting and she will hate you with a fierceness you cannot begin to imagine.

  “I could destroy you with a thought, but why bother? I can use their thoughts to crush you. I know, why don’t I kill the doctor and let her son watch. Perhaps his hatred of you for causing that would be greater than hers.

  “You took from me that which I valued. Why shouldn’t I return the favor?” the Pale Man said.

  Timothy squirmed and Julian dug his fingernails deeply into his palm. He relaxed and quieted Timothy’s thoughts.

  He saw the boy’s eyes go wide. “Timothy, remember what you said? Everyone believes in something that can keep them safe. I want you to believe in the love your mother has for you, that I have for you. The hate this man has inside of him is nothing but a lie. It’s love that is the truth. Do you understand?

  Timothy nodded his head once, his eyes filled with barely contained terror.

  Julian redirected his thought and continued, “Ailís, do you trust me?”

  He felt her nod her head and heard her whisper, “Yes.”

  Julian saw the shotgun in all its terrible efficiency. The man before him had both hammers cocked and his finger caressing the triggers. There would be no easy way to disarm the man. He was protecting his thoughts and countered Julian’s every move.

  The Pale Man said, “Don’t do it, my soon-to-be late friend. That old woman may have taught you a few parlor tricks and you may have a few paltry talents of your own, but none of it will be enough to stop me.”

  “There it is again,” Julian thought to himself. He felt it, he almost knew this man’s flaw. Julian took a deep breath and began to close his eyes completely when suddenly he felt something else. A powerful force gathering potency as it grew. He could feel them all. Coming.

  His eyes snapped open at the sound of a noise coming from his left. From out of the forest appeared Father Fahey. “Sure, you don’t want to be doing this thing, laddie,” he said.

  “Oi wouldn’t do it, boyo. If you do, you had better aim for me and pray to your God that you kill me,” said Sean Maher as he emerged from the trees behind the Pale Man. “If you don’t or if you hurt me friends, Oi’ll make you beg for death.”

  Julian glanced to his right and saw the Squire and Moira Hagan step in line with Ailís. In a low even voice the Squire said, “Put the gun down now, son. There is no sense making it worse no
w is there?”

  Moira added quickly, “Daniel, there is nothing you’ve done that is so bad your father and I can’t help you make it right.”

  The Pale Man snorted. “Why, if it isn’t me Ma and Da. Come to take me home have you? If it were under different circumstances, I would empty both barrels into the both of you. And there you stand together for the first time in almost forty years. Odd, don’t you think, that it takes something like this to... it makes no difference. You two are no longer relevant.”

  “And what is relevant, Daniel?” asked Father Fahey. “Surely it isn’t to be found in the ending of human life in this place.”

  “Save your breath, Priest. As you know, my father the Squire, stuck me away to be educated by the Christian Brothers. Taking life is a sin. I know that because the beefy, professed brothers used their broad belts to beat it into me. I had all your rules beaten into me.”

  There it was. Julian had it. He could feel it. Now it was a matter of timing.

  “Nothing from you, Maher? No, you are a man of action. You’ll not be wasting time on a lot of words.”

  More rustling came from the trees and the bracken. Sisters Eugenia and Gertrude entered the clearing followed by Edmond Brady.

  The pub owners Mike O'Gavagan and Francis Mulherin entered the circle together along with Flynn of the general store. The Hackett sisters and Gwyneth Kirby were not far behind and approaching from Julian’s right was the Mayor Cahill, with Jimmy Grogan.

  Brendan Maher walked from the trees and stood between his father and Gwyneth Kirby.

  Julian was surrounded by most of the village, his village, and his friends. The surge of power he felt was profound and profoundly humbling.

  Daniel Lanigan, son of Squire Padric Francis Lanigan and Moira (née Hagan) Lanigan stood tall and gaunt. He wore a sneer on his face as he looked down on the villagers.

  “Mr. Lanigan, now is the time to let the boy go and to come along with me. All your men have already given you up. We know all about the operation. I did not learn your name because you were careful to keep it from your little band and protected your thoughts from me. Still, I have a few academic questions. Let’s go have a chat shall we?” Julian said reasonably.

  Julian was drawing strength from the combined force of the villagers. Channeling the unstinting goodness of his friends caused his skin to bristle with electricity and his hands shook with the effort to control the power. It gave him the ability to lay down a curtain of protection around everyone but Timothy and Daniel Lanigan and himself.

  “Not quite all my men I shouldn’t think,” Lanigan said.

  “Oh you mean Liam McMaster. I wouldn’t soil my jail with him. I can lay hands on that fool whenever I like. If the others sang, you can bet McMaster will give us an opera.”

  “Do you realize there is nothing that any of you ever did or said that McMaster didn’t report back to me? He was my mole, but in retrospect, I could have chosen better. In any case I don’t think it is going to work the way you have it planned,” said Daniel Lanigan.

  “You see I’m going to kill you, Blessing. The rest of you are going to clear a path while my little friend Timothy and I take our leave. I’ll set him free in a few miles and then I will be on my way. As long as no one does anything stupid, I don’t see why this can’t end well, do you? Well, it won’t end well for you,” the Pale Man said indicating Julian.

  “I can see a lot of reasons why this isn’t going to end well,” Julian said as he closed his eyes and took a deep, slow breath. He was within moments of obliterating this man’s mind when Moira’s supplication came to him.

  It was weak, strangled by fear and tears, “Don’t hurt my boy. Please don’t hurt him.” It was the pleading voice of a mother in the depths of terror and despair. Julian, let out the breath, nodded and selected another path.

  “Mr. Lanigan, let the boy go,” Julian said slowly as he advanced several steps. Ailís began to move forward. Julian sensed Moira reaching out and stopping the doctor. He sent a single thought into Ailís’s consciousness. It was filled with all the tenderness he had inside him, “Trust that I love you.” She looked dazed, and stayed where she was breathing with sharp gasps.

  Julian advanced another few steps. “Let the boy go. It’s me you want,” Julian said. He could feel the man’s hatred and bitterness beginning to overflow. Lanigan focused all of his anger and resentment, his frustration and his unrestrained rage on Julian.

  Julian could feel it. The power was enormous but erratic, and Lanigan lacked the control to sustain an attack. When the man struck it would be short and sharp and deadly. Julian knew it would have to come soon. Lanigan’s thoughts were starting to waver, become diffused and to weaken.

  Daniel Lanigan barked, “You and I are two of a kind you know. I don’t need this shotgun to destroy you or the boy or any and all of this rabble and you and my dear ol’ mum know it.

  “I like the shotgun though. It is the tangible representation of sudden death and this village needs to be reminded that life is brief, yes, painful.”

  The man’s lack of control worried Julian. It made his opponent unpredictable and therefore ultimately dangerous. Julian’s field of vision narrowed. He saw the world in stark relief. The edges and corners were smooth. He pierced the darkness surrounding Daniel Lanigan and what he saw was fear and something more. He saw shame.

  Julian took a breath and let it out slowly. Moira watched as his shoulders relaxed and he began to move his hands away from his sides imperceptibly. She dare not ask him, beg him again to spare her son or she might lose them both.

  Sean Maher tensed as he watched his friend and shuddered. Julian’s stance was easy, his manner pleasant and relaxed. His face wore a gentle smile. But the intensity of his gaze spoke of raw power and a horrifying determination.

  Sean had faced many men in his life. They had been big men, strong, tough men. They had been men of experience who were calculating and cunning. Against these men he had won often, lost occasionally, but was never afraid. He looked at his friend, a gentle, kind and giving man who was admired and respected. Sean Maher looked at Julian Blessing and was terrified.

  Ailís Dwyer watched helplessly. A man she loved and the child she adored were entangled with an evil she never imagined existing. The air around the glen bristled with electricity. Then she felt his words again, “Trust and know I love you.”

  Julian knew the odds and with all that was riding on his actions, he could not afford to roll the dice. He couldn’t step outside of time, release Timothy and still manage to neutralize his opponent. The man would see it coming well in advance. Julian needed to force Lanigan deeper into the mist. He needed his opponent’s reality to be obscured, diverted. He needed Lanigan grounded solidly in the inky darkness of the man’s desolate reality.

  “I’m the one who stole your dreams,” Julian barked suddenly. “I am the one who ruined your life. I found the treasure you searched for, for so long. It wasn’t hard really. Only a fool would have missed it. It was so simple to find that I gave it away. I gave away what you would have sold for a fortune, what you sold your soul to possess. I’m the one you want.

  “Lift the shotgun and feel the release by squeezing the triggers. Do it. Do it now! True, you can kill me without it, but you need to feel it. After all, it is probably the only thing you can still feel.

  “You’ll not escape from this place. At least get some of the retribution you want. This is your only way, Lanigan.” Julian looked past the man with the shotgun to Sean Maher and nodded imperceptibly. Sean’s forehead wrinkled slightly before he heard the words in his head, “Get Timothy. Trust your instincts, you’ll know when.”

  Julian let loose a controlled rage onto the Pale Man. It was the man’s shame that was his weakness. “What seems to be the problem, Lanigan? Didn’t the brothers beat you enough to turn you into a man? Is that it? Maybe they saw you as soft and delicate and used you for some other purpose, eh?” Julian said with a snarl and continued walking for
ward.

  With that, Daniel Lanigan curled his lip. His face was a mask constructed of equal parts anger and hatred. The shotgun moved from beside Timothy’s head to bear on the center of Julian’s chest.

  The Pale Man felt Julian’s words, “Do it soon Lanigan or I will. You know I can and you know I will. You can feel your mind bending right now. You aren’t attacking any more. You are defending and that defense is buckling fast. Soon it will crumble. You are not strong enough, disciplined enough. As soon as your defense wavers, in that moment I will obliterate what is left of your mind. You can make it all stop.”

  In a clear, even voice Julian said, “One last chance at redemption, Lanigan. You have your target. Pull those triggers and be lost forever or don’t and live. The choice is yours.”

  “You’ll know the moment. You are the moment. Know and trust yourself.” Bridget and Moira had said those things and they now made sense. Everything he had studied, practiced and learned, it all made perfect sense. Then he heard it. He heard the echoes through the mist and smiled.”

  “Go. Now.”

  Timothy was in the loose grip of Daniel Lanigan as the man focused all of his attention on Julian. Sean moved with remarkable speed, grabbed Timothy’s arm and pulled him back behind the holy well. The Pale Man now had both hands around the shotgun. He snarled, took aim and pulled the right hand trigger.

  Lanigan flinched slightly anticipating the buck of the shotgun.

  No explosion. No recoil. No sound. Nothing but the snick of the hammer hitting the firing pin.

  He pulled the left trigger.

  Again, nothing.

  Daniel Lanigan, pale and bewildered, with tears coursing his cheeks, looked at the instrument in his hands unable to make out what was happening. He then looked up in confusion.