They were passing some of the most magnificent formations Juliet had ever seen but all they meant now was a choice of hiding places. There was nothing that would give them any real hope of evading a search. Constantly they looked behind but no lights were shining in this cave. They must still be searching for the way in.
The wall of the cave suddenly loomed out of the darkness and they were trapped. Juliet turned right and began to search for an exit route. They went fifty yards and found nothing.
“We'll have to risk both torches.” Juliet said.
They searched, roaming the beams all over the walls and in the many depressions in the floor about them. Nothing.
Then Cherie cried out. Look!
For a moment Juliet did not see what she was excited by but then she saw it in the beam of Cherie's torch and was utterly amazed.
About ten feet above their heads a part of the cave wall had been smoothed and a mural had been painted upon it. It was faded now but it was unmistakably a picture of a priest or Monk holding a five folded cross. The complicated cross of the Crusaders.
Beside it there was an arched tunnel opening in the cave wall.
Juliet stared and stared. It was beautiful, ancient and it was offering them hope; but only if they could find a way to get up to the tunnel.
They ran across and shone their torches from directly below it. The cave wall above them was smooth but into it had been carved hand and foot holds.
One by one taking turns with the torches they climbed up and entered the tunnel.
The first thing Juliet did was look behind them for signs of pursuit. There were none.
They made their way along the tunnel for more than thirty minutes. It was as straight as a Roman road. It must have taken months to cut through the solid red stone. Juliet recognised the sandstone as being of the type that forms the cliffs around Babbacombe and Watcombe and Corbyn head. They were close to the sea! How far had they come?
The tunnel ended in another cave but this one was not natural it had been cut and it had been a place of burial. Their torches lit two lines of stone sarcophagi. Around them on the walls were alcoves containing statues of Monks on one side and Knights in armour on the other. Below each statue words were inscribed but they were in Latin.
Juliet stared despite her fear of pursuit. This place was worth a king’s ransom. She had never seen anything like it. It was better than any cathedral in Britain.
Cherie pointed at the arches with the Monks. “They're the ones from my dreams!”
There was wonder in her voice. “They came from Jerusalem!”
Juliet stared at her. “Whatever do you mean?
Quickly Cherie told Juliet about her dream when she thought she had disappeared inside the crucifix. “It was so real! I felt like I was there with them.”
“We have to keep moving.” Juliet made herself say, although she was in awe of the room, the amazing contents and completely mystified by Cherie's unusual experience.
They crossed the room and there was a choice of tunnels - they looked identical. Juliet shone her torch along them in turn. In view along one was the bottom of a flight of stone steps, immediately she chose that way. They set off at a pace eager to see where the steps would lead them and conscious that any way upwards was towards the surface and the daylight!
At the top was another mural. It was identical to the first but less faded. At one time it would have been brightly coloured but now it was dull and a part of the legs was missing where the wall had fallen away.
Juliet pointed at the floor. “Someone has been here. The fallen pieces have been removed.”
“This is why they came here isn’t it?” Cherie said. “They were looking for something these Monks left behind like in my dream.”
“Yes I'm sure that you’re right. What was in the casket you told me about?”
“The Ark of The Covenant.”
Juliet was struck dumb.
“They brought it here from Jerusalem. In my dream I saw them carrying it from boats on a beach into an Abbey. A lovely Abbey set in trees, an Abbey built upon a Druid place of worship. There were Knights from the Crusades and Monks carrying crosses like that one, she pointed at the mural; exactly the same, identical. There was a Monk called Peter the Hermit. He said I'd taken some oath to fight Lucifer's emissary.”
Torre Abbey! The thought made Juliet's head spin. The Ark of the Covenant hidden beneath dear old Torre Abbey!
Hainsley-Sihl! A lifetime of searching for an unnamed treasure!
Juliet had been converted! That was exactly the sort of prize a man like Hainsley-Sihl would lust after enough to devote his entire life to it. He'd killed a girl for it! He'd financed miles of tunnelling for it. And if you believed all that, then you had to believe it was here!
A cold and terrible thought came to Juliet. Had Hainsley-Sihl taken Cherie because she was Leon Henry's niece or because she was something to do with this place?
“You've never been to Torquay before have you?”
“No never. Why?”
She realised that she mustn't frighten her. “Because you recognise these drawings.” she said to cover herself.
“It's very strange, I feel like I’ve always known them. But I only dreamed about them yesterday. Yet in the dream I knew him, Peter the Hermit. There was a girl too. A beautiful Druid Priestess inside a circle of stones.”
“Everything has become strange Cherie. There's been nothing in my life to prepare me for last night. I am not questioning anything anymore. I do know that we need to make sure that you don't fall back into their hands though. We have to get away!”
They entered the tunnel which was again long and straight. At one point they could hear water but it was not to be seen anywhere. After about ten minutes the tunnel finished; there was suddenly no floor to walk on and ahead of them was a huge cave. It was natural not man made and it was like a huge cathedral space. They were stood on the lip of the tunnel staring down fifteen feet to the floor below. At their feet there had once been a flight of heavy wooden steps but they had rotted away until just the side supports remained in place. They could see that they too would not bear the weight of a person. There was no way down.
Juliet knelt down and examined the rock between them and the cave floor. It was too smooth to climb. The only option they had was to risk using the side supports. They were formed of two heavy beams, on one side the beam was completely eaten away; it certainly wouldn't support either of them. On the other it just might. The beam ran down to the floor and attached above it was the remnants of a hand rail with supports every few feet.
“I'll try it.” Cherie said quietly, but she was rightfully nervous. Juliet didn't want her to but they couldn't go back. After a moment she nodded.
“Hold my hand as long as you can.”
Cherie stepped onto the beam and let it take her weight. It didn't fall apart. “It feels quite solid here,” she said, and moved her weight onto it completely. Just by doing that she had put herself outside of any help Juliet could give her.
Heart in mouth, Juliet watched her test the next step. She moved again and stopped, she was a third of the way down. Juliet shone her torch onto the next section. It didn't look like it would hold her but Cherie moved onto it and it held. Another step and still if hadn't collapsed. She was only six feet above the floor and she never took the next step; without warning she jumped!
She stood up, smiling and was still smiling as torches flashed all around her and Harold grabbed her from behind. Juliet stepped back in shock. They manhandled her to the floor and several flash lights lit Juliet where she stood on the lip of the tunnel watching in horror.
Hainsley-Sihl stepped into her vision at the foot of the rotten staircase and looked up at her.
“There is nowhere to run. If you go back you will die in the caves or we will find you. Follow the girl down.” His voice was a cold hard command.
Juliet stared at him. She wasn't going anywhere near him. Her heart was morti
fied to see Cherie being manhandled to her feet by Harold.
Hainsley-Sihl turned his attention to the struggling girl. “Stand still or I will kill you here and now!” he barked.
Cherie stopped struggling and Harold let her go. She stood there looking up at Juliet and Juliet could see her tears in the torchlight.
“If you do not come down I will send my servant to get you.” He walked in closer and looked up at Juliet.
“I don't need you, only the time traveller.” He pointed at Cherie. “If I have to send him he can have you there and then. There is no escape from him as you know. You can spare yourself a most unpleasant death by following the girl.”
Behind him she could see the blond woman and a man with a bandaged hand. The blonde woman was smiling up at her obviously enjoying her predicament.
“Run!” Cherie shouted and threw herself forward and launched herself at the rotten staircase. It flew into pieces and went crashing down. Juliet turned and fled.
She ran as though the Devil himself was behind her which was not so far from the truth. She ran with her heart screaming for Cherie and her emotions shredded by losing her.
She rounded the corner, went past the footless Monk in his alcove and down the steps. At full speed she sped into the tunnel and along it until she was back in the Tomb chamber. Behind her the most awful wail she had ever heard broke her concentration and made her lose her footing. She crashed down knocking the wind out of herself and lay gasping on the floor.
The torch had gone careering across the floor and fetched up against one of the tombs. It was pointing at one of the Monks in his alcove and he looked serene and at peace as he held his Four Square Cross aloft. “Please help me” she whispered. “Dear god, please help me save her!”
Getting to her feet she looked back along the tunnel and it was there, the same dread entity that had been in her home. It shrieked again. A very high pitched noise from hell and she cowered back from it as though she’d been physically struck.
Some awful luminescence radiated from it. It reflected from the dark red tunnel walls and seemed to fill the air around it with dread. The red eyes gleamed malevolently at her and it stopped and screeched that awful screech again. This time it was a screech of triumph, there was no way she could escape it now.
It drew a step closer and Juliet prepared to battle for her life. She took a pace backwards and the light from her torch reflecting off the Monk’s cross behind her threw the reflection of the cross upon the floor at the entrance to the tunnel from which her death was approaching.
The creature drew back and hissed aloud. It screeched its defiance, louder now, enough to make Juliet cringe back.
It took a step forward again and Juliet thought it was going to spring at her. Its claws were moving, clasping and unclasping and she could see the deadly threat of them in its foul eyes.
The cross on the floor was brighter now, Juliet watched as it began to illuminate. It spread until the outer arms were touching the tunnel walls, sealing the way to the chamber. Behind her something flashed, a brilliant light that seared her eyes. The tunnel was suddenly lit as though the sun itself was at the end of it.
The awful thing that Hainsley-Sihl had sent to kill her was shattered into a thousand pieces that burnt as they blew apart.
Juliet fell to knees. She was totally exhausted and unable to move. She knelt there for some time until something caught her eye.
Between her and the cross upon the floor a picture was appearing slowly. She watched fascinated as it solidified. It was a pale blue woman's face tilted to the left on a plinth. Juliet recognised it instantly and drew a breath. She knew exactly where that sculpture was. It was at Buckfast Abbey! Slowly it faded away again.
She turned and looked up at the Monk from which the torchlight was being reflected. She got up and crossed the space between them and then got back onto her knees, tears flowing she began to pray. The only prayer she could remember fully: The Lord’s Prayer.
She felt as though a warm breeze were coming down from above her and felt the tiredness and the fear leave her completely. She looked up. “Please help her too. I beg you don't let him harm her.”
She knelt and the beam of the torch drew her gaze, she felt it draw her in.
A cross lay upon a bed of mistletoe and gleamed in the moonlight. Above it a young girl knelt, a silver hair-band threaded with primroses in her hair. She turned and looked at Juliet. It was Cherie Leclerc. Juliet felt a sensation of healing envelop her, the fear inside herself retreating. The girl placed soil upon the cross and patted it down; upon the soil she placed a handful of daffodils. She said a prayer in a language Juliet had never heard and then stood up and walked away through a circle of stones surrounded by a circle of oak trees and Juliet could sense a strange power in her as though she were as one with the trees.
The torchlight was failing and Juliet realised that the batteries were gone.
She fumbled in the dark to change them. Inside herself she could still feel the healing power of the trees. Hainsley-Sihl had called her the time traveller. Just who was Cherie Leclerc she wondered? How old was the story she had become enmeshed in?
She made her way back along the tunnel her mind full of the strange vision she had just been given and managed to climb down the hand and footholds without a light as she couldn't use the torch and climb. Back in the cave of stalactites and stalagmites she managed after a brief search to find the spot where they had climbed and jumped down. The new batteries gave her a better light as she searched for a way to get back up.
It was hopeless; the first hand hold was a foot higher than she could jump. She needed something to stand on! She began to search. It took half an hour but in the end she had enough small rocks piled up to stand on and reach up.
It was a stretch but she could get a hold and she somehow had to heave herself up enough to reach up further where there was a good handhold. She took the first hold and tried to pull herself up. It was not going to work. She didn't have the strength in her arms to do what she needed.
Further away she found a good size boulder and tried to roll it to where she needed it. It was very hard work and it would only move where it wanted to go. It went this way and that frustrating her but in the end by sheer bloody mindedness it was forced into position. She was exhausted and sat down on it to recover her strength.
She sat in the darkness to save her batteries; it was as much as she could do to remain without the light. The fear was still inside her.
Standing on the boulder gave her all the height she needed to get her feet onto the side wall and she was up in no time at all, squeezing out under the roof to the top of the rock pile. It was only a few minutes before she was back in the tunnel below.
Knowing that she was heading back towards the mansion did not help her nerves but there was nothing else she could do but go back until she found a new way to try to go forward.
She was conscious that her batteries would now decide how far she could go. There were no more spares and once the torch stopped working, all she would be able to do was feel her way in the darkness. It was not a very inviting prospect.
The only alternative she could think of was to try to sneak out through the mansion. If they were all now in the caves would there be anyone there to prevent her? Could they get back there before her? Probably so as she had been in the Tomb for quite a long time recovering.
A dog was barking. Juliet shook her head did she really hear that? It barked again. It was coming her way!
Several torches came around the corner ahead of her and she saw a police uniform just as her heart was sinking, thinking that it was Hainsley-Sihl or his henchmen.
The dog was straining at its leash and beside it men broke into a run and she was surrounded by people. She collapsed into a pair of arms and it was some seconds before the after shave hit her. Michael! Oh my God!
She clung to him and for a minute didn't hear what was going on around her as he held her to his chest.
Then Cherie was in her head. “Michael there's a girl down there!”
“I know.” He told her. She is this gentleman's niece.
A man with a lovely smile was introduced to her. “I'm Leon Henry.” he said to her. “Do you know exactly where my niece is?”
“She helped me to escape. We got out and tried to get away but they caught her again.”
Juliet realised she wasn't making a lot of sense. “Hainsley-Sihl has her!”
They were interrupted by a horrendous noise of falling stones and a great cloud of dust rolled towards them through the light of many torches.
“Run!” David Copper shouted and they all turned and ran, the ceiling of the tunnel was caving in.
Lucifer's Abbey Page 23