by Mike Crowson
Chapter 19
Inside the circle of rough, ancient and uneven stones was an altar stone.
"Lie there!" commanded the professor in a voice that brooked no argument.
Alicia obeyed and he put down the briefcase. He opened it as he said "In Medieval or Renaissance times, when Christianity dominated, it was enough to use a consecrated host to achieve power. However, in these days of weakened belief I need something a little stronger.
"You'd better both robe up," he added to the other two, taking a folded garment from the briefcase.
The garment turned out to be a full length, grey, one piece, hooded robe, rather like a cassock, which he pulled over his head and tied round his waist with a rope of twisted material. He picked out of the briefcase the beautifully carved dagger and continued to Alicia.
"Very fortunate for me that you interfered when you did, my dear. I'm going to send both the ring and the dagger a few seconds into the future and come back for them later, in another incarnation. For that I shall need a great deal of power and your death is going to provide it. You recognise the knife. It took one of your previous lives as well."
He turned to the other two, who were pulling on similar robes. "I will need you both as well," he added, and told them, "Stand one at each end of the altar."
They took their places.
"I will retrieve the other things and leave everything here for you to watch over while you wait for me."
From his briefcase the professor took a jar of incense, a thurible and charcoal. "Light this, Juliana, and when it's burning, charge the circle," he said.
The charcoal had been soaked in a saltpetre solution and dried and, when Juliana struck a match and touched the flame to it, there was a sparking and sputtering as it lit. She swung the thurible until the charcoal glowed, then held the censor out while Ian spooned incense onto the smouldering coals. She walked solemnly round the circle, sending the scented smoke spiralling into the still air. When she had completed her circle she resumed her place at Alicia's feet.
In Linksness, Steve suddenly backed the Landrover into the ferry turning and set off back towards the camp.
"Where are we going," Gill demanded.
"I think I know where he's taken Alicia?"
"Where?"
"Do you remember one of the local men talking about a stone circle just off the Rackwick road?"
"Vaguely."
"Well, I mentioned it to him yesterday and he seemed to know all about it. I don't see why he's gone there, but I'll bet that's where he is."
Although the others couldn't see her in the dark, Gill's face showed an expression of dawning comprehension. She sounded excited, as she said, "You're right, I'm sure of it. And I think I know why."
"I'm glad somebody knows something," Alan remarked, frustrated that both were being obscure,
The Landrover swerved right onto the much bumpier road and bounced about as Steve drove far too fast on just his sidelights.
"I don't have the map here," he said, "but it's two or three miles of straight road to the circle. That's somewhere off to the right about a couple of hundred metres from the road."
"We'd better start watching carefully soon, then," said Gill. "We don't want them to see us coming if we can help it."
"I will start with a banishing ritual," said the professor. "I don't want any other influences interfering with the operation."
He went to the east of the circle, where he was joined by the woman. He drew a pentacle in the air and she censed his handiwork with the thurible. The professor moved to the south of the circle.
The banishing ritual took time, but the atmosphere of the circle had changed. Before it had been quite neutral - just a cluster of old stones which was mildly interesting if one was interested in such things. Now there was a 'deadness' that even the untrained and non-pyschic person could have felt.
"That's better," said the professor, "Now to the real business." He unwrapped the knife again and laid it on Alicia's stomach.
Ian spooned more incense onto the glowing charcoal in Juliana's thurible and then they took their places at Alicia's head and feet again.
"I think that's the professor in the cloak," whispered Gill, her breath coming in gasps, "and that's Ali lying on the rock."
"What on earth is she playing at?" wondered Steve.
"She can't help it. I think she's somehow in his power."
"I'll soon stop him," said Steve, and straightened up. Before anyone could hold him back, him he stepped into the moonlight. "It would be rather a shame to destroy that beautiful ring," he said.
"It would not only be a shame but, as far as you're concerned, it would be impossible." said the professor and added, turning Steve's own words around arrogantly, "You really can't stop me," and he held up his hand to display the ring, fingers splayed. "You will stand there and witness," he said. "When I have finished, you will kill me and for all I care you can be blamed for both deaths. With your record you'll certainly have some explaining to do." Steve froze as if rooted to the spot.
"I can always come back in a future incarnation. I'll make sure the ring and this dagger don't have to wait too long for me. Of course, lesser people sometimes wait a long time for their next incarnation and they don't really remember much about their past. I do. I've learned to control the time between incarnations to my own ends, so I'll be back and there's nothing you can do about it."
Alan put his mouth close to Gill's ear and whispered, "There's obviously a great deal of power in that ring and I don't see how we can stop him. It's a pity we haven't got the talisman from my story."
"We have," Gill whispered back. "And I'm wearing it."
Alan stared at her in awe. "Well I'm damned," he muttered.
"No you aren't, but I hope he is," said Gill, swallowing hard as she stood up. She drew herself to her full height in the shadows. She fingered the talisman and hoped she and Alan were right about its powers.
"You may have controlled your lives and you may have power over the other two but you can't stop me," said Gill, stepping out of the shadows and standing in the moonlight inside the circle. "You will have to pay the full price of your actions in this and every other life, and you can start in your next incarnation."
"Like ... Benderman," and he spat the word out, "you likewise cannot stop me," snarled the little man raising his hand as before. "And as for paying the price of my actions, I have overcome that weakness."
"When we found the ring we also found the talisman to control it, and I'm wearing it. You have no power over me. What's more," she went on, "you haven't 'overcome' the price of your actions - your obsession has merely postponed payment of your 'karmic' debt - and it's about to become seriously overdue!"
She stepped across the soft, wiry moorland grass up to the altar stone in the centre of the circle, faced the professor across the stone and stood, impressive with her hair blowing in the slight wind.
The little man raised his arm and held up his hand, fingers splayed to display the ring. "Another witness," he sneered.
Gill held up both arms in a 'v' shape and acted with the authority of lifetimes as a priestess. She was also speaking and acting for some one or some thing beyond her comprehension: she was speaking words and thinking thoughts she did not entirely understand.
"To the ends of time and the ends of the Universe I say, you damn yourself, and again I say 'you damn yourself'. You will pay for your actions."
To Steve and Alicia she said in a clear ringing tone, "I free you from the power of the ring."
Steve and Alicia blinked and the latter sat up on the altar stone. Alan and Manjy ran into the circle. Alan made a grab at the bird watcher while the woman Juliana retreated into the shadows with the thurible. Steve rushed towards the professor, but he was collapsing, his face twisted into paroxysms of rage. By the time Steve reached him, he had fallen onto the grassy floor of the ring.
"Probably a heart attack." he said, feeling for his pulse "And
I can't find a pulse. I think he's dead."
Steve jumped to his feet and ran to help Alan. The latter had been thrown clear by Ian, who was now running with the woman to reach the station wagon.
"They've got too big a start on us," Steve said as the car doors slammed.
"Leave them," said Alan, getting up "They can't go far. This is an island."
He picked up the thurible, which Juliana had dropped in her haste, and brought it back to the altar stone, swinging it slightly so that the smoke rose. He put it in the stone with the little jar of incense.
"What's in the briefcase?" asked Gill.
By the light of the moon and helped by the flashlight Alicia held, Steve tipped the contents of the briefcase onto the altar stone and they all crowded round.
"A pack of Tarot cards," he remarked, opening the pack and rippling through them.
"The Waite-Rider version," Alan observed. "Traditional but classy."
"Another dagger," Steve continued.
"Plainer and much more modern." said Alan
"More charcoal. Several containers of what looks like incense." He took the cap off one and sniffed at it. "Incense?"
Alan took it from him and sniffed too. "Rather heady." he said, "I'd say there was a lot of musk or benzoin in that one." Manjy looked at him, seeing another side to him entirely and Gill was surprised as well.
Steve continued rummaging. "A couple of books. Direct the light down here Alicia. 'The Book of Thoth' by Alistaire Crowley," he read, "'The Golden Dawn' by Israel Regardie.' Light reading for an adept of many incarnations. I should think they couldn't teach him much, but they aren't what I'd expect a professor of archeology to carry around with him.
There'd be a lot about in The Golden Dawn' to indirectly help in the organisation of a modern occult group," remarked Alan.
"What shall we do with the Professor?" Steve asked.
"Leave him here," said Gill, "If we take everything but him, he'll be found here and it will look like natural causes."
"Can we get away with not reporting all this?" asked Alan.
"They'd never believe the truth," said Steve. "With my record especially, they'd think we were hiding something and send in the heavies. I'm for keeping out of it."
"What about the bird watcher and the woman," said Alicia. Now that she was starting to recover she was beginning to apply her mind more logically to problems. "And we'd have to tell Frank," she added.
"Tell him," said Steve, "but don't tell the police. Let them come to us. They can question us all they like but there's nothing to connect us with the professor and the other two are not going to come forward: they've more to hide than us. Besides," he added, "The bloke died of natural causes."
"Supernatural causes," said Gill, "but I think I agree with Steve. Now let's get away from here before we're noticed. Leave the incense and the burner and the plain knife after you've cleaned off any finger prints, but take the other things, especially the ring and the knife from Atl-Andes. Let's be quick about it. It'll be daylight soon."
Indeed the summer sky was already beginning to lighten a little.
Alicia nodded. Steve picked up the dagger and recovered the ring first and put them both in the briefcase, stuffed back the things he had emptied onto the rock, and picked up the case. Gill wiped the items left behind, except for the incense spoon, which they hadn't touched, using the edge of her T-Shirt.
Steve used a paper hanky to hold the knife and put it carefully in the professor's hand. "I don't think they'll bother to fingerprint these things because death was from natural causes and there won't be anybody else around. All the same, it would look odd if they did and everything was clean," he said.
Then, leaving the jar of incense, the burner and the spoon on the altar rock, he led the way back to the Landrover.
"I suppose you didn't recognise the other two, and what do we do about the car?" asked Alicia.
"The bloke was our bird watcher," said Alan, "but I've never seen the woman before. I wonder who she was? We can't do anything about the car."
The five of them crowded into the Landrover. Steve started it up, turned on the light, turned it round and they started back.
"It'll make a nice change to see where I'm driving," said Steve, and added "That was an impressive performance, Gill."
"I was impressed with it too," said Gill, "I suddenly knew that the same man was Professor, Victorian archaeologist, Renaissance gentleman, Celtic soldier in your story, traveller in mine, prehistoric priest, thief, high priest in both Alicia's and Alan's stories and goodness knows how many other unpleasant people. I knew he must be stopped and must pay for his actions. I don't know how or why I knew though."
Manjy had been silent since they left the dig. Now she spoke. "The nameless ones who see the rules obeyed must have gathered together a group of those they thought were suitable to curb the professor and force on him the rules of karma."
That was the sort of remark one can't comment on easily. Alicia, though, was not so sure the man was beaten.
"How do we know what his soul will do next?" she said. "We need to find the other rings and render them harmless."
"She's right," said Gill.
"Sleep on it," said Steve, and drove into the field by the camp.