Sarah shuffled forward on all fours, but almost slipped from the pentagram’s edge and into one of its voids. Flinging out a hand, she halted her momentum at the point of no return. She stared down into a darkness that rippled like liquid metal. Through this strange effect she could see another pentagram spinning beneath the first, although every now and then she glimpsed something different, something that enticed her into its depths – an incomplete image of somewhere … else.
Black oil still coated her from head to toe and before she could make sense of what she was seeing, chilling sounds attacked her senses. The hairs on the back of her neck bristled and a sense of fear washed over her like a plague. The assault on her mind returned with a vengeance and she grasped her head in agony. A familiar voice echoed through the ether. Why do you fear me? … you fear me … fear me? Her gaze was drawn to the void and its dull flicker of light. Am I not what you desire? … you desire … desire?
Sarah felt an overwhelming compulsion to let herself be dragged into the shimmering surface – to let it take her into its dark embrace. She toppled towards the void as the suction pulled her down, down into its depths. Something glinted in the shadows’ light … something gold. Sarah reached out shaky fingers and grasped her cross that hung down on its chain. The air continued to rush past as she stared, entranced, into the abyss. The wind howled and ghost-like fingers brushed her skin. She shut her eyes against the horror that consumed her and grasped the cross tighter. A vision of fire and smoke billowed into being. She felt her lungs choke and skin burn. Pain seared through her body and her hand clenched into a fist. Blood welled as the cross bit into flesh. A flash of light broke the dark and she willed herself back to safer ground.
Holding the golden keepsake before her like a shield, Sarah crawled forward, her hand bleeding, her mind a sea of pain. Time slowed and terrifying noises and wraith-like shrieks made her flinch in fear. Ghostly apparitions flew at her through the dark, their hideous forms tearing at her mind with raking claws. Terror seized tight and she gasped for air as her throat constricted before she saw something crawling under the skin of her hand. Her whole body rippled with parasites. She felt like her flesh was being eaten from the inside. The desire to tear them out, to rid her body of its torment, to stop the excruciating pain, was unbearable! She screamed and squeezed her eyes tight and the cross tighter still. Her body contorted in seizure before the flicker of fire fought back the dark and she saw the dais within reach.
Panic-stricken, she relinquished her blood-soaked grip on the cross to lurch onto stone steps. Thrust sideways by the mismatch in motion, Sarah found herself tumbling back towards the spinning pentagram. She scrabbled for purchase as she fell and halted her slide into oblivion by a hair’s breadth. The metal pentagram whooshed past below and she collapsed back onto the circular stairway in exhaustion.
Time continued to pass before she recalled her mission. Mustering an inner reserve, she got to her hands and knees and hauled herself up towards the altar.
The whirlpool of flame beyond the pentagram made the darkness flicker and writhe, and with no helmet display by which to see, Sarah reached out to search for the Anakim pendant with her hands.
Something rough, like fingers, skittered from her touch.
She stifled a scream and snatched back her hand.
‘It’s all in your head,’ she whispered, ‘it’s not real; it’s all in your head.’
She continued searching for the artefact, terrified by the thought of what she might encounter next.
Seconds of dread ticked by before she felt the cold of metal. Relieved, she coiled her fingers around her pendant and staggered to her feet, holding onto the altar. Her mind slowly cleared after its ordeal and she clipped the pentagonal disc to her chain.
She glanced up to see the distorted forms of her friends watching her through the flames and to their left, she could just make out Riley’s alcove and his mist-wreathed form within.
Sarah looked back down at the metallic altar and its deep runic carvings. All she had to do now was to figure out how to turn it on.
Chapter Fifty Five
Sarah stared at the five-sided altar, trying to find something that looked familiar. There was no circular indent, but she knew this didn’t mean it couldn’t be activated. She ran her hands over its surface and around its rim, before pressing them down in its centre. An icy chill permeated her skin, but nothing happened. She noticed a circle of symbols arranged around the altar’s edge. One in particular caught her eye, the constellation of Libra. She touched it. Again nothing happened, but she noticed the faintest flicker of light where she’d placed her hands before. She leaned down to inspect it, but it had disappeared. Wondering if her mind was still playing tricks on her, she saw the imprint of fingers on the surface – an imprint in blood.
She held up her hand, the palm stained red where the cross had cut into her skin, and then remembered part of the vision induced by the orb: a bloodstained altar amidst a sea of black, and flanked by strange, glowing walls.
She looked beyond her friends to the faint light pulsing inside the crystalline structure and realised the orb had been showing her where to go. Has it been trying to help me save Riley? Her eyes drifted to the alcove where she’d laid him to rest. Has it been telling me more than just the destination? What if it has given me the key to the altar’s activation itself?
There was only way to find out.
Sarah put her hand back to her cross and squeezed hard. Blood dripped down through her fingers and onto the altar. She leaned in to see tiny tendrils of electricity crackling over its surface.
Her blood was the key!
She held out her other hand and cried out in pain as she reopened the wound given her by Locke’s knife. More blood flowed and she placed her hands back on the altar and the pendant grew warm.
♦
Goodwin held his breath as the spinning pentagram rose higher and a faint glow of light from the altar penetrated through the flames. He glanced at the crystal wall where its glow intensified, before the sound of stone grinding on stone made him look up.
High above, a crack of light appeared in the ceiling. Second by second the opening grew wider and longer, stretching down the sphinx’s entire length as the roof retracted to reveal the flickering storm clouds in the chamber beyond. Thunder rumbled and a cold wind swept down into the hall like the hand of Zeus. The roaring flames bent and fluttered and the pervasive mists curled into a swirling mix.
A sparkle of light tore Goodwin’s attention back down to ground level, where an armoured figure holding a glowing sword jogged towards them.
Goodwin could have wept with joy at the sight of the Darklight commander’s approach. It seemed like months since Hilt had departed on his mission to bring back Susan and locate the USSB, and by the look of the small figure that dogged the man’s steps, he’d lived up to at least half of his promise.
‘Sorry I’m late, sir,’ Hilt said over the growing storm, before glancing back at Susan, whose eyes were no longer bloodshot. ‘We need to get you both out of here.’
Goodwin gestured towards the giant silver statue. ‘I think that might be a bit of problem.’
Either side of the golden throne, cloaked in mist, the indistinct lights of two Pharos had appeared to hover in silent sentry.
♦
Sarah’s pendant continued to pulse with heat against her chest. Her bloody palms tingled against the altar and tiny fingers of purple electricity licked at her skin. She looked up as the ceiling retracted and storm clouds gathered. Thunder rumbled and lightning flickered through the sky before a spike of pain shot through her hands. The first symbol on the altar’s circular pattern lit up with an electrical glow, while either side of her hands the metal surface turned liquid and drained away to reveal two large handles.
Removing her hands from the altar, its centre distorted and melted down into a pentagonal indent. The size and shape was unmistakable: it matched the newly transformed orb. She withdrew the
discus-sized artefact from her coveralls and gazed at its strange surface. Should I be doing this? The thought came unbidden. Isn’t this too convenient? If the orb has brought us here for a purpose, why would that purpose be ours? Why would it be mine? I could just be a pawn in its plan.
‘Sarah,’ a voice said, ‘can you hear me?’
The communication system built into the bottom rim of her smashed helmet sparked and crackled beneath a layer of oil.
‘Jason,’ – Sarah peered through the flames – ‘is that you?’
‘Yes. Are you okay?’
‘I’m fine. The orb did bring us here. It all fits, the visions, everything.’
‘Then you’re doing what it wants.’ Jason sounded scared. ‘You have the pendant, come back to us.’
‘I know—’ An image of Riley flashed into Sarah’s mind and her reasoning faltered. I have to save him. She gauged the speed of the rotating pentagram; she couldn’t go back now even if she wanted to. She reached out and held the artefact over the altar before hesitating again. What is its real agenda? What do the Pharos want? An overwhelming compulsion to place the disc into the aperture forced her hands down and before she knew what was happening the disc snapped into position with a metallic clunk. A mechanism in the altar released and the handles rotated round and up to present themselves for Sarah to hold.
‘Sarah,’ Jason said, ‘can you hear me? Sarah?!’
What had Goodwin said? Sarah thought, as Jason’s calls fell on deaf ears. The oil was a test of faith. And I passed that. Now all I have to do is take the final leap …
Driven on by the heartache of grief, her doubts forgotten, she reached out to grasp the metal handles.
A sharp tingle swept up her arms and the altar twisted on its dais. More symbols on the altar flickered alight as the electricity continued to spread around its circumference. Sarah saw the alcove two along from Rebecca’s glow brighter as the altar turned towards it, the metal device forced on by an unseen mechanism. With a grunt of effort, she helped it round until Rebecca’s alcove lit up. The pendant around her neck grew hotter and she squinted through the wavering heat of the flames to see if the crystal was dissipating, but before she could tell if it was working, the altar resumed its leftward creep. She tried forcing it back, but her feet slipped and skidded on the slick surface and the altar continued its motion until Riley’s alcove glowed bright. She gripped the handles tight and managed to wedge her foot into a crack to halt its rotation.
Pinpricks of light glittered before her eyes before a flash from the void dragged her vision down. Strange shadows moved in the beyond, flashing in and out of reality in time with the spinning blur of the pentagram’s star. Sarah felt a sense of dread descend over her and two more symbols at the edge of the altar lit up – and then another … and another after that – each one adding to an arc of light that would become a circle. The altar jerked left and the light behind Riley’s alcove died. She tried twisting it into reverse, but an unseen force held it fast. She let out a scream of fury. The sinews on her neck stood out as she strained every muscle, and the altar inched back.
♦
Goodwin could tell Sarah was struggling. He’d seen Rebecca’s alcove brighten momentarily, but the crystal remained intact. Everything told him the Englishwoman needed his help, but the burning oil and spinning pentagram at its centre blocked off any route through. He felt helpless, but found himself moving towards the fires to join Sarah’s two friends, who continued to watch in similar impotence.
A mighty hand closed on his arm and he looked up into the face of Darklight’s leader.
‘She’s beyond our help,’ Hilt said, before gesturing towards an alcove. ‘And so is he.’
Goodwin looked at the body of the man Sarah wanted to save. ‘His name’s Riley.’
‘Sir,’ – Hilt grasped his shoulder – ‘we need to find another way out.’
Goodwin snapped out of his reverie and shook his head. He pointed at the other alcove where Joseph and Rebecca remained imprisoned. ‘I’m not leaving without them, not again.’
Susan, seeing her carer immersed in crystal, approached the wall to touch it with tentative hands.
Hilt raised his thermal sword. ‘Have you tried heat?’
Goodwin’s hope rose and he shook his head.
‘Stay here,’ Hilt said, and Susan stood aside to give him room as he strode to the alcove and placed his glowing blade against the face of the crystal.
The Darklight commander pushed his sword into the surface and then drew the weapon down inch by agonising inch.
At such a rate Goodwin realised it would take hours to cut Rebecca and Joseph free. He glanced back at the two creatures that remained lurking a hundred feet away and knew that time was something they didn’t have.
Goodwin felt his frustration rise and he searched around for something, anything, he could do to save those he held dear. His eyes drifted beyond the crater to the distant frieze, its night sky filled with constellations. He frowned and gazed back at the spinning pentagram in the middle of the burning whirlpool of oil. The rotation increased and he glimpsed something in its interior that shimmered translucent.
‘It’s a void,’ he said, and a sense of déjà vu struck him. He racked his mind and looked back into the flickering oil as the storm built overhead. Something silver and gold reflected across its silken surface. He glanced right to the giant silver statue ensconced on its golden throne. He then looked back to see the beautiful face of the Anakim god reflected in the pentagram’s void of metal and light.
‘And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters,’ he murmured and the spark of remembrance grew. He looked back to the frieze and its depiction of the heavens and the earth.
‘Genesis,’ he whispered and looked up at the sky, ‘Genesis, of course!’
He tried to use the Deep Reach helmet Sarah had given him, but he couldn’t activate it. He dropped the headgear and waved to Sarah to gain her attention and pointed at the statue. He cupped his hands to his mouth and shouted, ‘GENESIS!’
Sarah’s friends looked in his direction.
‘It’s Genesis,’ he said to them, ‘tell her to face the Anakim God, the statue!’
They looked at him, uncomprehending.
Goodwin let out a growl of frustration and ran to the frost-laden wall and drew his fingers across the surface to create a note for Sarah to read. He thought he saw her glance in his direction beyond the flames and he gestured to his message and then pointed at the statue and mouthed: ‘The other way! Face the other way!’
The wind from the storm continued to increase and the flames died down before the oil in the crater dropped lower. A small figure moved to the edge of the rapidly disappearing lake as the fires extinguished. Goodwin saw Susan look back at him. She held a large, blue crystal in her hand and she gave him a look of sorrow before jumping down into the oil.
‘No!’ Goodwin leapt after her and moments later he was splashing knee deep in the hot, viscous fluid. Shocking images flashed through his mind as the black oil’s hallucinations attacked him, but he managed to grab Susan round the waist and drag her back. The glowing rock fell from her hand and vanished into the disappearing ooze.
‘Susan,’ Goodwin said, as she fought him, ‘stop!’ He stared into her eyes expecting them to be bloodshot, but her whites were clear. In his moment of hesitation she plunged her teeth into his hand.
He cried out and let go.
The crater’s last drops of oil drained away to reveal the crystal, now glowing beneath a covering of black fluid. Susan dived for it and Goodwin leapt after her.
♦
Sarah gritted her teeth as she struggled with the altar’s handles to keep Riley’s alcove lit, but as she fought to bring him back from death she felt something enter her mind, something that controlled her thoughts, her actions, her life. Her hands shook as she sought to wrest back control and the light from Riley’s alcove died again as the altar moved left. The pendant burned hot
ter and another light lit up on the altar. A voice spoke in her mind. Let go … give in … it will feel so gooood … let go. Sarah felt her resolve weakening, the feeling of surrendering so wonderful, so easy … so right … so pleasurable. Another part of her mind screamed ‘NO!’ and her eyes inched from the pentagram’s spinning void and back to Riley. ‘I can save him!’
The flames had died out and the metal pentagram sank down and turned into a blur. The ground at Sarah’s feet shifted and a large ring of glittering metal twisted up from the floor around her. A curved section rose up a couple of feet on crystalline rods from the bottom of the ring’s interior surround, creating a platform which contained two circular indents positioned side by side. The altar split down the middle and shifted forward to connect to the bottom of the ring.
The speakers in her broken helmet crackled again. ‘Sarah,’ Trish said, ‘don’t get on it, you don’t know what it’ll do!’
‘I can’t …’ – Sarah clenched her teeth as she felt compelled to step forward onto the device – ‘stop myself … it’s controlling me!’
Her left leg moved against her will and she found herself mounting the platform. The altar’s handles shifted onto the interior of the ring, spreading her arms wide. She wanted to release her hold, but the entity inside her mind had other ideas. Her palms remained clenched against cold metal and clamps closed around her wrists, before two more encircled her ankles. The metal circle rose up and she felt herself lifted from the floor to hang suspended inside the vertical ring, her limbs forced out into the shape of a star like the Vitruvian Man.
She tried to fight back against the thing that controlled her, summoning every ounce of willpower to save Riley. The handles twisted and the metal ring turned towards his alcove before a surge of energy sent a rush of pleasure flooding through her body. She gasped in rapture. More voices whispered to her, telling her to relax, to enjoy – to be. Her eyes filled with the spinning pentagram and she felt an ache in her chest spreading through her skin. The ecstasy grew, but so did the pain. Her head felt too heavy to hold up and her chin dropped to her chest.
2041 Sanctuary (Genesis) Page 24