An image that was repeated in the tapestry. She was certain of the resemblance, even though the figure still had its back to her.
Yes indeed; the figure in the tapestry had changed once since she had acquired it, of that there was no doubt in Val’s mind… which meant that the woman Dolores could be the Custodian.
A supposition borne out by the fact that she had clearly taught her daughter how to shield her thoughts; a talent Lilly had passed on to Rob – with a marginal degree of success.
Val cursed her own blind stupidity. She should have realised the identity of the Custodian long ago.
Rob Tyler was now a liability. He knew far too much, and yet even as she reached out and surreptitiously caressed his thoughts, she could still sense doubt and disbelief within his mind. In spite of all that he seen, all that he obviously now knew, was it possible that he still did not believe? Could the human misconceptions of belief and the suspension and eradication of such beliefs really be so potent and strong?
Since it was clear that Rob allowed her access only to those thoughts he wished her to read, carefully shielding the remainder from her, it was obvious that he had learned far more than Val knew, and that fact alarmed her. Rob’s raw emotions betrayed him, however. His confusion remained; torn between common sense and rational disbelief in the paranormal, Rob had convinced himself that he would be safe because he believed, but deep rooted in his subconscious lurked the truth.
Rob himself appeared unaware of the truth, but Val’s mind had insinuated itself so deeply that she extracted the thoughts without his knowledge, and she drew strength from the facts. He was the Chosen One, and no matter how much he wanted to believe in what was going on, no matter what Dolores and Lilly showed him, he would always be an unbeliever. He had stayed in Naghene Hall long enough; the Night of Madness was but two nights away, and Rob’s destiny remained assured: Apollyon’s awakening could not be halted.
However, there was still the need for locating the Key to Gehenna. The sacrifice of the Chosen One alone at the appointed place on the Night of Madness would be insufficient. Only the Custodian knew the whereabouts of the Key, and Val prayed the two worthless imbeciles she had sent on the errand of extracting the information would not fail her.
She knew that Kinelm and Everard planned to betray her and her brothers to their father once He had awakened, but it did not matter. Apollyon would make His own choice; there was no room for mere mortals in the new world He would create. Kinelm and Everard had signed their own death warrants the day they joined ranks with their fellow Apollyonites. They still wanted Apollyon’s awakening to go ahead as planned, and so they needed the Key to Gehenna.
If they should succeed, she would reward the final task she had set them with a swift death when the time came. Failure would be punished with a lingering, agonizing death.
Val closed her eyes, concentrating her thoughts on Rob. She could see his borrowed sports car as it left Dorstville behind. Rob was alone in the car. She could see him clearly in her mind’s eye, concentrating on his driving. She had felt certain he would be accompanied by Lilly. She reached out with the talons of her mind, sinking them deeper into Rob’s thoughts, but found the channel suddenly closed.
‘Enough!’ growled the slavering monster beside her. ‘We waste time. There is still much to do before the Night of Madness!’
Val turned to her brother. ‘Indeed. Has Father drawn enough strength yet from the Chosen One?’
‘Enough to reveal Himself to the unwary.’
Val nodded with a vindictive grin. ‘Yes, and in a couple of short days He will manifest Himself in all His physical glory. I grow weary of this blasphemous image I have endured for so long. Does He have the power to restore me to my own natural state?’
‘Together we can restore you, sister.’
Val brought her hands up to the forehead of the slavering beast and closed her eyes, focusing her mind on the image of her father, channeling her thoughts towards his tomb.
Bestial Stan reached out with powerful talons, holding them to his sister’s forehead. Eyes closed, his own mind searched for their father.
Contact has been made. Welcome, my children!
‘Welcome, Father. Freedom is nearly yours. Two more days will you sup from the strength of the Chosen One, and then he shall be sacrificed.’
Daughter, you have served me well. I restore to you that which is rightfully yours.
Howling as though in sudden pain, Val threw back her head, her mouth widening, eyes bulging, tendons snapping. Sharp claws burst through her fingers, and in a rage, ripped away the flesh that had once been a woman, revealing dark fur and scales, matted with blood; the bestial face lengthened, snarling and salivating.
Discarding the tattered remnants of her human disguise, the beast that had once been Val stretched and screamed, and roared her approval at her freedom.
‘Come,’ she thundered in a deep growling voice, ‘we must finish the preparations.’
* * *
Once the speeding car had left Dorstville far behind, Lilly sat up, stretching away the cramp from where she had crouched low in the leg space of the passenger seat. When Rob had suggested it might be better to hide from view as he drove through the gates of Naghene Hall, Lilly had not argued. She knew Val’s spies were everywhere in the village, and she cursed herself for not thinking of it herself.
Only once they were well out of the range of Val’s inquisitive mind did Lilly agree it was safe to sit up.
‘I felt her mind sifting through my thoughts again,’ Rob said as Lilly fastened her seatbelt.
‘Did you do as I instructed?’ asked Lilly, tying her hair back from her face as the speed of the car whipped it in entangled tendrils around her neck.
‘Yes. She could sense all my confusion, and I’m pretty sure I gave a good impression of still being a non believer.’
‘Excellent.’
‘Why did you want her to know Dolores was the Custodian?’
‘She most likely knows the fact anyway, and it’s important that she be distracted from other events that are occurring beneath her very nose. By fully revealing that fact to her, we are protecting the other.’
‘What are you going on about, Lilly? I thought you’d started being straight with me, but now you’re being all cryptic again.’
‘Did you not see Jonathan’s eyes before we left? Did you not witness his odd behaviour.’
Rob took his eyes off the road momentarily. ‘Yes, I did. Is he under Val’s influence now?’
‘I don’t believe so. It could be Apollyon Himself, exerting His strengthening will, but I feel it to be a higher power.’
Rob slowed the car to a gradual halt, pulling over to the side of the road. ‘A higher power? You mean Him?’ He pointed upwards.
‘Perhaps. There are a number of possibilities.’
‘So this other you speak of is the one that’s now controlling Jonno?’
Lilly nodded. ‘I am uncertain of its nature, but I feel it is a force of Good. We must hope that Mother has uncovered something else, and we must hope that we are not too late in reaching her!’
Rob put the car back into gear and sped off again. ‘How do we know Dolores is still safe?’
‘They will not kill her until she has revealed her final secret, the one secret she has yet to pass on to me.’
‘Which is?’
Lilly sighed. ‘The secret of the Key to Gehenna. It’s a phrase, a sequence of words in a long dead language, passed on from the old Custodian to her successor at the moment of her death. Only the old Custodian knows the incantation. Mother will not tell her attackers the incantation, she will die before she does that, and the fact that I do not know the sequence of words means she is still alive.’
‘This incantation is passed on by telepathy?’
Lilly nodded. ‘Something like that, yes.’
‘Fascinating. So what’s to stop Dolores from revealing the incantation to her attackers? I mean, it’s all very wel
l keeping it a secret and swearing allegiance to the forces of Good, but if she’s being tortured, surely she’ll give in.’
‘Do not underestimate our powers, Rob. Although the mantle of Custodian has been passed to me, Mother still has access to the Custodial powers. No amount of torture will cause her pain. Only death will cause her to reveal the secret… and then, only to me.’ She sighed. ‘There is one possibility of failure.’
‘There was bound to be! Go on… tell me. I bet it has something to do with Val?’
‘Yes. Her mental agility is so powerful that if she is present at the old Custodian’s death she might intercept the transmission of the incantation. I would still receive it, but she would have access to it too.’
‘And no doubt she could use that information in some way?’
‘Of course. The incantation, when used at the appointed time will cause a shift in the rebirth of Apollyon. Instead of being all powerful, He will be reborn mortal, and as such, can be killed. That is what the Key to Gehenna is for. Should a force of Evil gain access to it, the opposite will happen.’
‘Apollyon would be reborn even stronger?’
‘He would be unstoppable. That is why the secret is guarded so well. Val doesn’t know how to access the Key; she doesn’t even know what form the key takes, so she won’t know that killing Mother will give her what she wants. On the contrary, Val will keep her alive as long as possible for the very same reason.’
‘And what of Kinelm and Everard? If they are acting without Val’s knowledge then there’s no telling what they might do.’
‘I agree, Rob, although I believe the pair of fools may have misjudged their own cleverness.’
‘You mean that by being too clever they have given their plan away to Val?’
Lilly nodded. ‘There is something else that I have not told you, something to do with your being the Chosen One.’
Rob sighed. ‘Of course, there had to be more, didn’t there. Go on… tell me everything.’
‘An aeon ago, in the final battle between Good and Evil, the forces of Good could not actually destroy all that was evil, for that would have made it evil itself. Apollyon was trapped in Gehenna, able to exert His influence over mankind, because in the order of things, the natural harmony of creation requires a balance between good and evil, right and wrong. All that is good cannot exist without the opposite trace elements.’
‘So, Apollyon and His children remained buried in their prison dimensions, until some of His children were able to free themselves.’
Lilly nodded. ‘Since they achieved their freedom, the world has gradually slipped towards the edge of hell, which follows Apollyon’s original grand design. As you know, the Custodians were granted powers to ensure Apollyon remains imprisoned.’
‘Yes, and you said that he could be made mortal with the incantation, and so if he can be killed now, why couldn’t he be killed way back then?’
‘Because he is the force of Evil, and if his influence is ended then all that is good will end as well… good cannot exist without evil, and vice versa.’
‘Okay, I get that, but what has that got to do with me being the Chosen One?’
‘The Chosen One shares the bloodline with one of Apollyon’s children.’
‘And that would have been Ginny, but she’s dead.’
‘She might be dead, but I fear the spirit of evil lives on, She had a child, you know… your child!’
When Rob slammed on the brakes, Lilly was relieved that she had fastened her seat belt. He turned to face her.
‘Am I really the father? Even your mother didn’t know for sure’
‘Mother was trying to protect you from the unsavoury truth. One of the reasons Virginia left you all those years ago, Rob, was because she carried your child… and when that child was born, the evil passed on to him… or her. Apollyon and His children are connected to one another by ties more powerful than mere blood. If you kill Apollyon you kill His children.’
‘And if you kill His children does that also kill Him?’
‘It’s a possibility. But Rob, you are the Chosen One… should Apollyon die instead of merely remaining imprisoned then the emissary of good must also die to restore the balance. The emissary of good is the Chosen One.’
Rob stared ahead of him through the windscreen, scarcely able to believe that the conversation had come full circle. ‘So no matter what we do, I have to die! That hardly seems fair.’
‘Is it any more unfair than the burden Mother and I have had to bear?’ Lilly placed a hand on Rob’s arm. ‘If there is a way to end all this without the need for your death, then Mother and I will search for it. We have two days, so we had better hurry. We’d get to Exeter much quicker if you stopped halting the car every five minutes!’
Rob started the car again and as they continued in subdued silence, his thoughts centred on the one immutable certainty in all the chaos around him.
He was going to die, and nothing anyone could do would halt the inevitable.
* * *
Dolores struggled against the bonds that secured her to one of her dining chairs, whilst above her she could hear her two attackers crashing around as they ransacked the bedrooms in their quest. The ropes burnt the flesh of her wrists as she struggled to free herself, but she did not feel the pain.
She could feel the blood dripping from the corners of her mouth where she had been beaten, could feel the bruises and the welts where she had been whipped, could feel the lacerations where her attackers had cut her.
She could feel all that they had done to her, yet she felt no pain.
The pair had done all they could to get her to talk, to get her to reveal her one final secret, but they had proved no match for the discipline of her Custodial strength. They could have beaten her to within an inch of her life and she would still have told them nothing, and they obviously realised that.
Resting from her exertions for a moment, Dolores surveyed the carnage surrounding her. Every one of her books lay ruined on the floor, ripped apart by her attackers, all her cats lay dead around her chair, eviscerated by powers clearly granted to her attackers by Val. After much searching they had not found what they wanted downstairs, and now as silence overshadowed her ominously from above, it seemed they had finally finished their ransacking of her home. She had told them they would get nothing from her and they had not believed her, and she had told them they would find nothing in the cottage and again they had not believed her.
Finally, they realised the folly of their disbelief.
She half turned on the chair as her attackers came back into the room.
Kinelm and Everard.
She had known they plotted against Val, and she had sensed they plotted against her. There had been much doubt in her mind as to where their true allegiance lay, and even now, she was still unsure. Were they truly still Apollyonites, or did they actually have a secret agenda? They had played her for a fool, getting her to teach them her secrets for shielding their thoughts. How could she have been so blind as to not see through them?
‘Where be the secret, Dolores?’ demanded Kinelm. ‘Where be the Key t’ Gehenna?’
‘She bain’t gonna tell us, Kinelm. She be the Custodian all right. There bain’t no way we’s gonna get her t’ reveal them secrets.’
‘Then she’s outlived her usefulness,’ snapped Kinelm, pulling a gun from his jacket pocket.
In less time than it would have taken Kinelm to pull the trigger, both he and Everard were dead.
In less time than it took her to blink, Dolores heard the terrible wailing noise as it pierced the air around her.
In less time than it would have taken her to sneeze, she inhaled the sickly aroma of honeysuckle.
She could feel Val’s wrath in that instant, and in that split second, Everard and Kinelm exploded, showering bloody body parts all over the living room floor and walls, coating the ruined books with a dark crimson sheen, and spraying the bodies of Dolores’s cats with entrails and bone
fragments.
Not one drop of blood settled on Dolores, who had not even time to shut her eyes from the horrific sight.
And then it was over, and she waited with baited breath for Val to appear, gloating over her apparent triumph. But Dolores knew Val would see this as no triumph. She could feel Val’s mind invading hers, sifting through her thoughts as she struggled against the carnage and horror she had witnessed.
But then the icy talons of Val’s mind vanished as quickly as they had appeared, and the scent of honeysuckle receded into memory – just as Dolores heard a car pull up in the street outside.
She recognised the engine at once, and breathed a sigh of relief.
Rescue had come.
* * *
Somewhere not too far away but not close, not now, not in the past nor in the future, not quite real but in no way imaginary, something evil stirred, gathering strength from the fear and anger and disbelief surrounding Him.
Having grown in strength day by day, Apollyon knew the time of resolution was at hand. The Chosen One was selected, the Night of Madness approached.
Yet something was still not right, something remained missing.
The Key to Gehenna.
The Custodian still maintained the secret, curse her. Not one of His children had succeeded in locating it.
Apollyon’s rage grew at the incompetence of His children. New progeny would be required upon His reawakening. He would discard the five without a second thought once He was free of His damnable prison.
But they needed the Key.
Wait…
A carelessly unguarded thought slipped through the barriers put in place by the first Custodian, she who vanquished him originally. Her bloodline still maintained all of the secrets, passed on from one generation until the next, passing on the mantle of Custodian to the firstborn daughter… whilst keeping the secret of the Key to Gehenna until the moment of death.
So, that was how the Key had been kept secret for so long… there are two Custodians, with a shared memory split between the two people; mother and daughter, their strength combined to outwit those who would seek to control the secret.
The Five Tors Page 21