Varquis spoke. “The myths and legends your people nurture have all been based on something. It is how you say, ‘no smoke without fire.’”
“I knew it,” Jesus announced, as he turned to Mia for affirmation. She smiled back with her eyes glazed with unshed tears.
Varquis continued as he leaned his shoulders against the twisted vines of the back of the chair. “Beyond the Nazca plains, in Peru is a place where more of God’s Angels dwell. It is another world beneath the earth’s crust, where the Watchers live alongside Kudos. It is the Kudos there who have campaigned to protect our earth from man and it is they who have instigated our rebellion.”
Mia was becoming excited again. “So, we can tell them about you. We can save them with the truth.”
“Perhaps. But it may be too late.”
Three watchers entered the room through the entrance. One approached the table and set down a bowl of fruit with an array of grapes and apples and plums. Another placed flat rounds of bread on the table and a large platter of oysters piled high on a stone coloured plate. One placed four clay cups on the table and filled them with red wine from a pitcher. It was a veritable feast, one which none of them had the stomach for.
“You must eat. It will give you strength,” Uriel said.
Mia was the first to taste the food. She tore away a piece of bread and put it in her mouth. It tasted salty and it was still warm from the oven. Just with one morsel, she was suddenly ravenous. She sipped the wine. She didn’t care for it when she’d tried it once at a family wedding, but this tasted different. It had a calming effect on her, not overbearing.
Varquis voice was deep and distinct. It was a voice no one would disagree with because whatever he said, it was the absolute truth from a wise and intelligent elder. “
Keri spoke as she rubbed her hands across her face. “Why have you brought us here?” she asked.
Varquis stared right at her. “We need you.” He wasn’t just talking about them as a group.
“What?” Keri asked.
“You, Keri Rains. We need you.”
Chapter 34
Maggie rose from the table with a grimace on her face, as if she was in pain. She leaned on her walking stick and hobbled over to the dresser on the far wall. There, Jay watched as she opened a small cupboard door and took out a bottle of malt whisky and two small glasses. She carried them all in one hand, clutching them between her fingers as she hobbled back to the table. "I'm going to have to take it off," she said.
Jay lined up the two glasses in front of him. “Take what off?”
“My leg.” She limped across the room to the bathroom and closed the door.
Jay checked his watch. Six o’clock! He’d been there several hours now. Maggie was getting more and more intense and since he was starving, he decided he should make his excuses and leave. “I think I’ll get going now, sweetheart,” he called, hoping she’d hear him.
"Stay where you are," she hollered back. "I haven't finished yet." Jay shrugged and unscrewed the top on the whisky bottle. He recognised the brand. A Scottish malt. He poured a small measure into each glass. "Pour yourself a drink," she shouted.
He grinned. Maggie really was a funny old broad. She had told him things that made her sound like her brain was addled, but despite her intensity, she was pretty entertaining, if you liked that sort of thing.
Maggie had maintained that the Glastonbury Tor was the entrance to Caer Sidi, otherwise named Unnwn, a Celtic otherworld, where she claimed Fran had been taken by the faeries, no less! She’d gotten all defensive when he had a chuckle about that. She’d pushed an accusing finger into his arm and said he was insulting her by his lack of ability to be open-minded. “But, Maggie, come on, honey. Do you really expect me to believe all this garbage?”
With the intent of embarrassing him, -or so he’d claimed-Maggie told him about the Tor resembling the female genitalia. A stylized vulva, she called it. “It is the entrance to the womb of earth’s mother and that’s nothing to laugh at. And it’s not garbage either. In my mind anyone who thinks its garbage is a garbage person with no soul or intellect.”
She said the moulded shapes around the Tor followed the Cretan symbol, a labyrinth, or maze, where the curve runs back on itself like a U-bend. She said it was a popular ancient symbol, and that she was surprised he had never heard of it. “It is even found amongst the Hopi of Arizona as the Mother Earth symbol,” she added.
She told Jay how the lines around the Tor were believed to be paths or terraces for cattle, but she had a different theory. “They are terraces, but I believe that they were used for people, not for cattle.”
She embellished. "Have you ever heard of Ley lines?" She didn't wait for an answer, but frankly, Jay had never heard of them anyway. "They are electromagnetic lines of energy connecting places of spiritual or historical importance. They are everywhere, all over the world, in fact, …even in your country." Her quip was a deliberate challenge to his patriotism. "At a point in time, I believe the people of Glastonbury and neighbouring villages climbed the Tor, perhaps on the summer or winter solstice, to watch something marvellous occur. An event so spectacular that people all over Somerset had to rise to greater heights to witness it, to revere and worship it. There, in specific places, like the Tor, Cleyhill and Brent Knoll, people would create a beacon of light in the towers at the top."
“Welsh legend tells us that Caer Sidi means a spiral castle in the otherworld. They say one of the entrances to Caer Sidi is around Glastonbury and that a magic cauldron exists there. The cauldron, which belonged to the goddess Ceridwen is a factor in the making of the Grail story, did you know that? An early Welsh poem tells how King Arthur and his men went in quest of it. The quest involved threading the Tor maze to the summit.”
“So, have you ever tried it?” Jay asked.
She’d tapped her false foot with her stick. “Not with this thing.”
As the whisky began to filter through his veins and soothe him, he heard Maggie come out of the bathroom. She was wearing a long pink Egyptian Kaftan, covering the place where once long ago she had a leg, long and shapely. Under her arms, she balanced her body on old wooden crutches with home-taped padding on the part beneath her arms and the crossbar. She hopped back to the table and sat down, placing the crutches on the floor next to her.
"That's better." She picked up her glass and drained the whisky in one gulp. "I thought you Americans knew how to pour a shot. Get that bottle open and give me a decent measure." She banged the glass on the table.
Jay laughed. “Listen, Maggie. I’ll have to go soon. I must have overstayed my welcome here.”
“Nonsense. I’ll tell you when you’ve outstayed your welcome. It’s not up to you to decide that. Besides, we’ve got more to talk about. If you’re worried about your stomach, I’ll make us something in a minute.”
He chuckled. Crazy old broad, Jay thought. Crazy old broad.
Chapter 35
Mia awoke not knowing where she was until seconds passed and she remembered she was lying on a bed of pink and white coral. That was a first! She recalled the moment when she arrived in the chamber only a few hours before when she had placed her body upon a slab laden with fine coral protruding like a bed of nails. When she'd lain down it had softened beneath her and adapted to her shape like a memory foam mattress. The principle was the same as an executive toy when a hand or a face could be imprinted in the pins. Unlike nails, the coral was soft and warm, heating her body like an electric blanket.
She sat up and swung her legs over the side of the bed and as she pulled on her jeans, she looked across the room at Keri, still asleep in the cot opposite hers. She looked peaceful and happy, a far cry from how she’d looked last night.
Varquis had told Keri they needed her help. She was as surprised as anyone could be, having no inkling that she was there for any specific purpose. She’d always assumed she’d simply been caught up as an innocent bystander in the events that had led them to Caer Sidi. When Varqu
is told her he needed her help, her eyes had widened in panic and fear. “But, why me?” she cried. “I am nobody. How can I be any use to you? I have no power.”
As Mia comforted her, she asked Varquis why they were there. She was referring to herself, Tom and Jesus.
“You were instrumental in guiding her here. She would not have come alone. And you are all Kudos. You are special to us.”
Tom interjected. “Me too?”
Mia scowled at him as she held Keri’s hand beneath the table. She knew Tom was seeking Varquis’ reassurance after Jesus had challenged his Kudos status. Idiot!
“Of course, Stoney,” Varquis said. “Without you, they would not have found the entrance. You have great vision and insight.”
Mia and Jesus looked at Tom as if they were seeing him for the first time. Mia also wondered, momentarily, if the Watchers had gotten Tom mixed up with someone else.
“And me?” Jesus’ voice was like a whisper, afraid of what their answer would be.
“You will know soon why we have brought you here.” Varquis then turned to Mia. “Without you, Lakey, none of you would be here. You have relentlessly sought us. You have connected with us through your will and your mind and your purity.”
Mia felt her throat constrict. All the waiting. All that time at Stonehenge when she thought they weren’t listening…
Varquis and Uriel stood up. “We will explain everything after you have rested. You must go now.”
The Watchers had led them from the room, back through the main entrance and down the winding pathways once more. When they’d stopped outside two dwellings, set side-by-side, an Angel ushered Tom and Jesus into the first chamber, and then Mia and Keri into the second. Inside, it had appeared as if they were standing inside a lobby made of rock with nothing there, no lights, no beds…nothing.
“You must rest now,” the Angel had said, and then he retired.
“There must be something beyond the wall.” It had occurred to Mia that it must have been the same principle as the other entrances, so she walked towards the rear wall with her hands outstretched. She stood with her back against the rock and turned her head sideways to find layers, like the other entrances. But there was nothing. Then she turned her head the other way and saw a stairway leading downwards at the side of the cave. “Come on, Keri,” she whispered as they walked hand in hand down the stairs.
They entered a windowless room with subdued atmospheric lighting as if it was lit by an array of burning candles. Two coral beds were built into the sides of the room, where the walls above were decorated with patterned clay tiles; each wall displaying its own mural. The tiles were of random shapes and sizes, pieced together in symmetrical form and in mounting layers. Each hand-painted tile was painted with part of a picture, so that when they were joined together, they formed a dazzling three-dimensional image of life on earth.
The one above Mia’s cot was a picture of a forest and above Keri’s, a mountain landscape. Both of the pictures complimented each other by the use of the same colours and strokes of the brush, so that when she stood in the middle of them, the two images embraced her, making her feel as if she was in the forest, bordered by the mountains.
The far wall beyond the two beds was a wall of amber under a canopy of stone. It looked as if it was backlit, but of course, it couldn't have been, not there. The soft yellow-amber simply glowed, making the cave soft and serene. It was a room meant for sleep, Mia decided. Nothing more was required of it.
Now, just a few hours later, Mia had arisen from the coral feeling refreshed and ready to explore more of the Watcher’s world. “Good morning, Keri.”
Keri was pulling on her shoes. “What do you suppose we do now?”
"Go find the others, I suppose." Mia took one last look around the amber cave and then she went to the stairwell at the side of the room. "Come on."
“Wait!” Keri was still sitting at the side of the coral cot. “What?”
“What do you suppose they want me for, Mia? You know them better than I. What would they want with someone like me?”
Mia shrugged. “Who knows, Keri, but I guess we’re just about to find out.”
Tom and Jesus sat on a row of boulders on the beach, watching a turtle stroll out of the ocean. It was the most pleasant of images, not one they were in a habit of seeing every day. It was slowly making its way along the sand with its strong shoulders pushing its legs beneath the home it carried on its back. It was enormous and it surely weighed a tonne. Mia's dog was growling and dancing in puppy playfulness on the sand and the water's edge.
“There is no night here,” Jesus murmured as he stared transfixed at the revolving ball of fire that was the Watcher’s life force. “Which is strange, seeing as the Watchers only go up…” he raised his eyes upwards, to indicate their world above them, “…at night.”
“What’s your take on all of this, Tom?”
“Beats me, dude.” Tom was still watching the turtle. “I don’t know where to begin with the questions I want to ask. I mean, what’s it all about, you know what I’m saying? What the hell is it all about?” Tom reiterated. “Oh, excuse me!”
“Excuse you for what?”
“For saying the ‘h’ word.”
“Why?”
“Uh, you know, with your name an’ all.”
Jesus chuckled. “What? You think I’m the son of God?”
“Uhm, well…stranger things have happened.”
“You’re crazy, you know that? If you saw what I used to get up to in my youth...It would make your hair curl!”
Tom pushed a lock of curled hair from his brow. “Hey, have you got a cell phone?”
“No. I’ve had no need of one, nor the desire. Why do you ask? Thinking of making a call?” Jesus laughed.
Tom patted his jacket pocket. “No, I’ve lost mine, that’s all.”
“Hey, you two.” It was Mia.
Charlie barked and went running across the sand towards her, jumping into her arms to lick her face. “Hello, boy, hello baby,” she cooed and chuckled at his antics.
Tom watched her walk towards them as Keri trailed behind. Mia looked stunning. She was a natural beauty and this morning she had never looked lovelier. She had a glow to her skin that made her look…well, perfect.
“Hey,” he said.
“We’ve been looking for you. Did you have breakfast?”
“Don’t you mean did we have nourishment?” He was feeling a little tetchy. He didn’t know why.
She frowned back at him. “Okay, then. Did you have nourishment?”
“We did,” Jesus answered. “Bread and fruit and some sort of fish.”
“Smoked herring,” she said. “They have them hanging in a cave just behind the palace. And they are smoked naturally from a vent underground. I’ve seen them,” she said. “They look like bats hanging from the roof of a cave.”
“Is that right?” Tom snapped.
Mia kicked some sand towards him. “What’s wrong with you, grumpy?”
“Nothing, hun’, nothing at all. Hey, have you two girls still got your cells?”
“He means our mobile phones,” Mia said to Keri.
Keri shook her head. “I think I’ve lost mine.”
“Me too!” Mia patted the pockets of her jeans.
"The air-spirits took them," Jesus said. "When I was left on the ledge and they took you down, I saw objects fall from your pockets. They must have been your phones." Jesus chuckled. "Still, no need of them here."
“Well they haven’t taken my camera,” Tom patted the bag on his back. “Do you think they’d mind…?”
“Ask them, Stoney. You crazy American boy,” Mia snapped.
“You may take pictures.” It was Uriel. He was walking towards them followed by six other Watchers.
“Why do you move in groups of seven?” Jesus asked as they got closer. “Does it have anything to do with the book of revelations?” When the others looked at him for clarity, he said. “In the bible, in the la
st book called revelations, the number seven is prominently featured. It is said, seven is the number of completeness, of perfection, and the divine ordering of worldly affairs.”
Uriel stood on the sand as the other Angels spaced themselves out so that they were all standing in a circle. “Ah, yes, seven spirits before God’s throne standing for the infinite perfection of the Holy Spirit; seven churches which represent the entirety of the church of all ages; seven seals written on the scroll, the title deed of earth, and seven trumpets contained within the seventh seal, symbolic of the entirety of the judgments of God intended to break the power of evil.”
“Exactly,” Jesus responded, but he couldn’t have put it so precisely.
“Only God can give you the answer to that. Seven is indeed sacred to us. In practical terms, we are strong, but we are stronger in numbers. And we are brothers. Each of us live for the other. Our bond is indestructible.”
“What if you die?” Mia looked to the others for approval. Tom scowled at her.
“Then we all die.”
“How old are you?”
"It is difficult to say. We hold no regard for time. Perhaps in your time-zone, we could live for two or three hundred years."
“Wow!” Tom sang. “So…about some photographs. You’re going to let me photograph you?”
“No, not us. But you may take pictures of our land. Not inside the dwellings or on the other side, but…”
“The other side?” Mia interrupted. The group looked at each other with awe on their faces.
“Yes. That is where we will take you now. To see the rest of our world.”
Chapter 36
Jay could smell coffee brewing. He pulled his tired body up against the cushions on the sofa and reached over the back to open the drapes, just a little. The morning sun shot through the gap and blinded him. He let go and rubbed his eyes until normal vision returned to the darkness of Maggie’s apartment.
The night before, the two of them had drunk a whole bottle of whisky and at midnight, when Jay finally passed out on the couch, Maggie had thrown a blanket over his prostrate form and left him there. Now, his head was throbbing and aching and he needed a darn good dose of Aspirin.
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