by Phil Maxey
She ran up to the old gate, pushed up the latch and pulled it open and shrieked.
“Agh!” shouted Darren. “You scared the life out of—”
Before he finished, she ran in and pulled the gate closed, not looking behind her. She went to run past Darren, when she realized he was standing wide-eyed, looking at the space where the open gate used to be.
“The—There—things—” he said, pointing at the gate.
Kat was now near the back door to the shop, trying to get her key in the lock. “Come on!” she shouted to him.
The key rattled a little, but it was soon open and they all ran inside.
“Did you see them? The dark shadows moving this way?” he said to her, still bewildered.
“I don’t—” The gate at the back of the yard shuddered as if something had run into it. Chip started barking.
Again, it shook, this time more violently.
She went to run down the hallway, to find somewhere to hide, when she couldn’t help but look at the old wooden door to the basement. She didn’t know why, but she put her hand on the plain but ancient handle, and opened it. A musty cool rush of air, hit her.
She quickly looked back, through the rear door to the gate. The hinges were almost off. One more hit and it was going to give.
“We need to get into the basement,” she shouted to Darren, who looked perplexed by what he had come back to.
“OK …”
She pulled him and Chip into the top of a stairwell, and closed the door to the basement behind her. In the gloom, she just made out a piece of string hanging, which she pulled and instantly stone steps which looked like they belonged in a castle, descended into darkness.
“Why did I come back,” Darren said to himself, as he followed Kat down the steps with Chip at her side.
After stepping down at least twenty steps, they got to the bottom and for a few seconds they were in almost complete darkness with only Kat’s torch offering a small cone of visibility, when two wooden torches opposite each other ignited. They were standing on a cobbled stone floor, and directly ahead of them was a solid door standing at least twice the height of Kat, with a strange symbol carved into the wood. There was no obvious handle or lock she could see, only a hole in the middle of the symbol.
Above them sounding far away, scratching and hissing could be heard.
Darren looked back to where they had come from. “I don’t know where we are, but I don’t think going back upstairs is a good idea.”
Her grandfather’s words suddenly came back to her. ‘You will have to use the ring to gain access to my study.’
She ran forwards placing the back of her hand on the symbol. The ring neatly fitted the hole and instantly there was a sound of cogs turning, and the door opened.
CHAPTER 25
The bodies were taken one by one to the crypt below the palatial house. Justin helped carry them down, until they were all interned in marble sarcophagi. This crypt was larger than the Oxford one and looked better kept. Each of the sarcophagi had golden plaques that gave the name of who lay inside them. No words were said during this process, and he was glad to be back up top, in the large living room area.
Furniture lay strewn in pieces across the marbled floor, and paintings stood torn from the walls.
The decision had been made to stay in the house for the night, and the large fireplace was alight, burning strong, keeping everyone huddled around it warm.
Sparrow had spent most of the past few hours alone with her thoughts.
“I’m sorry for your loss,” said Justin, walking up to her.
She was sat in an alcove looking out into the night and gave a thankless smile in reply. “I would have liked you to have met Jennifer, she was more part of this place than I ever was. She had helped three house of Tristan custodians over the years. Without her encouragement, I doubt I would have taken on the role.”
“Are there other—”
“Members of the house of Tristan?”
“Yes?”
“Scattered around the land, of course. The people here were the scholars, or people needing—” she sighed before continuing. “—Sanctuary.”
“How did they get inside? Aren’t these places protected?”
“All the sanctuaries are warded by magic and have warriors on standby. Some though are better protected than others, but it still must have taken powerful magic to do what happened here. The kind of magic we haven’t seen used since before my time. They didn’t get what they came here for though …” she held up her ring.
“I noticed Finn did not have his ring on his hand …”
She nodded. “You’re right, whoever was behind the battle last night took it, which means they are now more powerful than they already were.” She stood in frustration. “They are one step ahead of us all the time! We don’t even know who we are fighting!”
“The Draugr?”
“They are just foot-soldiers, sent by more powerful beings. They have been used this way for centuries.”
A tall young man, that everyone referred to as ‘Pick’, due to his fondness of using a pick-axe as a weapon, came up to them with meat they had been roasting on the open fire. “Power is down, so no oven or microwave, but this is good,” he said, offering it to them, which they both took some of.
Justin looked at the others. Jax seemed to be sleeping and Carrie, a woman in her forties was replacing some bandages on a wound on her arm.
Sparrow put her food down and sprang forwards to Jax, shaking his arm. “I need you to get a message to Miss Toper, tell her we’re coming to London.”
He looked up at her blinking. “I thought we were going to Glastonbury next, I need to make sure my sanctuary is still in one piece.”
“We are doing everything that would be expected of us, after all our sanctuaries were attacked. It’s time that changed.”
Jax sat up. “OK, but I’ll need a drink before I start.”
CHAPTER 26
After the large arched door closed behind Darren, Kat, and Chip, the sounds from the outside world fell away. What her grandfather placidly described as his study, was in fact a huge chamber, with stone pillars, and stairs which ran up to varying levels, most of which held antiquated shelves and books and even older scrolls. Elsewhere, cabinets contained bottles of illuminated liquid which seemed to constantly swirl, and in the centre was a large desk with chairs around it. There was also a large stone fireplace and close by, a small eating area, which had a large pantry full of tins, packets, and jars.
The whole scene was disturbingly like Arnold's home in her dream, although this place was real … she presumed.
And the room itself was not all there was, as there were two more arched doorways with closed doors, as big as the entrance, that led to who knows where.
They had been sitting in the two chairs close to the roaring fire which somehow ignited itself as the torches outside did, for half an hour before Darren started talking.
“You’re probably wondering why I came back.”
She had momentarily wondered when she saw him, but those thoughts were overtaken by whatever it was that had chased her the last part of her journey back to the shop. However, she smiled when he asked. “The motorway was blocked?”
“Kind of. I got halfway home, to the outskirts of London, when I couldn’t drive any further. I don’t mean the weather, I mean the things you said to me this morning.” He sighed. “I had just turned thirteen when I had my first experience. I was playing football with my mates, when I saw these creatures in the trees near us. I ignored them, hoping they would go away, but they didn’t, they just watched. I never told anyone until I told my therapist and only then because of the second time I saw them. I don’t know what this—” he looked around himself, “—is, but it feels real.”
She looked at him with earnest eyes. “I don’t think the things you were seeing, were aliens, I think they were something else. I have seen them too. Maybe we can figure all this out toge
ther.” Even though he was over twice her age, she felt like the guardian while they sat there warming their hands at the fire.
“Those things upstairs, they looked like people, but the light from the street lamps seemed to stay away from them, like they were just made of shadow,’ he said. “Do you know what they were? They seemed to be chasing you.”
She shook her head. “I don’t, but I mean to find out.” She looked at the library of shelves all around her. “My grandfather left me his shop, and all this for a reason. I think the answers are here somewhere.”
Darren smiled. “I guess, we better get reading then.”
* * * * *
Kat sat on a rug which covered the flat stones near the fire, surrounded by old books. Despite burning for the past three hours it still hadn’t wavered in its intensity. She had explained some more of the past week to Darren, her strange dream in the park, her encounters with the strange winged beast in her garden and even how Chip appeared. She thought he took most of it well, considering, but she noticed he kept touching his pocket, which had a bulge as if it was hiding a pill bottle.
Her stomach rumbled. There was no going back upstairs, and even if she did it wasn’t worth braving whatever chased her just to get a tin of olives. She got to her feet and rambled over to the pantry, pulling back the door, and peering inside. Row after row of tins looked back at her. Beans, soups, and tins of pies, which were something she had not seen since she was a kid. She reached for the closest tin and as she took it off the shelf a small piece of paper fell from it.
It was in her grandfather’s handwriting. “I had the pantry restocked, while I was away. Just in case you were down here for a while. Best wishes, A.”
She was glad for the food, but frowned. Arnold knew a lot more than he had told her, even in his letter. She shrugged, pulling a few tins down, and walked to the small kitchen area.
Darren approached her as she was rummaging through a drawer, looking for a tin opener. “I’ve been reading some of his old notes, found them in one of what looks like a hundred journals on the second floor. Listen to this—” she found what she was looking for and started opening the can.
“—Edinburgh Sanctuary, December the first, 1972. Oliver and myself returned from the highlands. The Bean nighe is probably still out there. Unfortunate about the young girl.” And this. “Isle of Wight. August Tenth, 1989. Problem with Basilisk taken care of, although it needed myself and another two Magi to capture. The creature is now in-prisoned in the catacombs.”
He looked up at Kat, who had just put down a pie into a bowl for Chip who was enthusiastically chewing away at it. “I think your grandfather was a wizard?”
A week ago, if someone had said that about her father’s father she would have burst out laughing. Now she thought Darren was probably right. “I agree, but there’s more to it than that. Those creatures we saw, they want in here, or they want me, or both.”
“You said things started happening once you put the ring on?”
She nodded.
“Then I think it’s the ring they want. They haven’t come charging through that door, so I reckon there’s magic protecting us in here. That’s the only thing that makes sense.”
“But we can’t stay in here forever, we need a way to protect ourselves out there.” She pointed upwards, then walked away into the centre of the room. “And what about this town? I can’t help but feel that man’s death is partly my fault, that he’s dead because I’m here.” She sat heavily on one of the ornate chairs. “What if there’s more dead in their houses around like us, like him?”
Darren knelt next to her. “Hey, are we not two of the best hackers in the whole of the south-east?”
“I guess—but this is like real actual magic, I’m not sure being good with computers is going to—”
He waved his hand in front of him. “I’m just saying, we’re smart. Book smart, we are experts with information, and we have all the data we could wish for right here with us. If there’s a way out of here and to help the people in this town, we’re going to find it!”
She smiled.
He stood up. “We better find some placemats, I don’t think this table was made to eat beans on.”
CHAPTER 27
When Miss Toper, Bartholomew, Eden, Eve, and the injured others arrived at the London sanctuary it too had been ransacked like the other places. Many of the ancient books had been destroyed, along with the artifacts which Bartholomew and the house of Bedivere members had built up over centuries. Luckily the vault which contained the vital items, residing in the basement was untouched.
They had spent the previous day and night cleaning up, and trying to secure as best they could, the four-storey building in the heart of London, close to the famous Museum of Britain, where Bartholomew worked as a curator.
By the following morning, Eve had worked throughout the night healing everyone as best she could. She couldn’t have kept going as long as she did, but Bartholomew gave her a necklace from the vault which was said to have belonged to Guinevere and had restorative abilities.
By noon everyone was sitting in the house’s large living room which unlike many similar houses in London was unchanged from when it was built, two hundred years earlier.
“They are after the rings,” said Bartholomew.
“If something good came from Arnold’s passing, it was that we all were in Oxford for his memorial. They couldn’t have planned for that,” said Miss Toper.
“They still got one of the rings,” said Eden, staring off into the fire which was burning strongly.
“I find it hard to believe that nobody knows anything about what is happening.”
“Arnold would have found out, he was always good at that kind of investigative stuff,” said Bartholomew.
“Do we know what happened to his ring?” asked Eden.
“His things were given to his remaining family, his step-daughter and granddaughter, I believe.”
Eden looked up. “Great, if whoever is behind all this hasn’t already got Arnold's ring, they soon will then. The nescients will not know what hit them.”
“We should send someone to protect them, or bring them to one of the sanctuaries, if it’s not already too late,” said Miss Toper.
“Do we even know where they live?”
“I believe somewhere in south London, I have the address around here somewhere, if it wasn’t …” Bartholomew stopped as if realising something. “Could that also be what they were looking for?”
Miss Toper sighed. “Probably.”
A loud bell echoed around the walls.
“Looks like they are here,” said Miss Toper.
The front door was opened, and several tired feet could be heard walking into the impressive hallway. The living room door opened and Sparrow, Justin, and Jax well-wrapped in a few layers of clothing, stood in the doorway.
Bartholomew waved them in. “Come, come, warm yourselves by the fire.”
Justin enthusiastically walked to the flaming logs and coal, while the two others removed their gloves and scarfs.
Sparrow looked around the room at the broken pieces of antique furniture and torn books on shelves. “I think it has been the same in all the sanctuaries.”
“We don’t know that for sure,” said Miss Toper. “Until we do we must not assume the worst. It is good that you decided to pay us a visit, we have a task for you,” Sparrow looked at her. “We believe Arnold Ambrose’s ring may be with his family, or at least we hope it is. They will need protecting, you will need to bring them and the ring here.”
“I should take care of it,” said Jax. “I am of house Merlin after all,” he said, pouring himself a drink from one of the few decanters that was not smashed.
“You are, but you know the rules Jax, no custodian should have more than one ring. Even two will start to corrupt the mind of the host.”
“Yes, of course, I just meant I will deliver it to whichever sanctuary is still safe.”
“Unfortu
nately, we do not know if any of them are safe. Your aunt has been busy healing us, she did not have enough mana left to put the wards back in place, not that they helped the first time, but we must try. So, this is something you can do.”
Jax stood sipping on his drink.
“The sooner the better, young man.”
“I'll get on to that then,” he said, placing his glass down and leaving the room.
“When do you want us to leave? Is it far to Arnold’s family house?” said Sparrow.
“It shouldn’t take you more than a few hours,” said Bartholomew, searching through some of the books. “No, I cannot find it … ah, I think it may be in my office in the museum, I will fetch it and return.”
Eden got to her feet. “I’ll go with you, I could do with some air.”
Bartholomew and Eden left the room leaving just Sparrow, Miss Toper, and Justin.
Miss Toper waved over Sparrow to come and sit with her. “My heart is heavy with the loss of Jennifer. We have known each other for, oh I think it’s over fifty years now, since the late 60s anyway and my time in New York City.”
Justin looked at Miss Toper confused, trying to better ascertain her age. He was beginning to realize that everyone was a lot older than they looked.
Sparrow’s face crumpled with emotion, and her head fell forwards onto Miss Topers shoulder.
The older woman hugged her. “She is at peace now child.”
“I’m going to kill whoever is doing this!” said Sparrow angrily, while sniffing.
“Justin, in the study next door, in the unit near the far wall, you will find some handkerchiefs, bring some.”
Justin sprang to his feet and moved into the next room, which was like the one in Oxford except with a higher ceiling. Jax was sitting at one of the tables, while an orange mist swirled around him as he whispered incantations. Justin stepped as quietly as he could around him, got the handkerchiefs and returned to the living room.