‘You’re late,’ he said.
‘Detention. Again,’ Billi said. She shrugged. ‘But didn’t you get my message?’ She tapped the side of her head. ‘I thought it really hard, “Kay, I’ll be late. Kay, I’ll be late -”’
‘You think this is some joke?’ He stood and turned up the collar of his coat. ‘Let’s get a move on. I’ve wasted enough time already.’
They walked down the high street, lined with shops hidden behind metal gratings and graffiti-coated roller shutters. The only unit open was the off-licence. A bald man with tattooed arms folded across his hefty stomach stood at the door, a growling pit-bull at his heel. It barked at them as they passed and pulled at the heavy chain round its neck. They turned the corner and Billi saw it ahead – Elaine’s Bazaar – lit by a lone street light.
It was a pawnshop, and had been there since the nineteenth century. The paint on the three golden orbs hanging above the door was flaking off, but they were the originals. Heavy steel bars covered the dusty windows, displaying hi-fi equipment, DVD players, a set of chrome weights and a kid’s bicycle; the flotsam and jetsam of a thousand bankruptcies and repossessions.
It was also the Templar reliquary.
Here lay hidden the last of the treasures of King Solomon. Billi couldn’t believe this old hovel was home to one of the greatest magical artefacts of the ancient world. But that was the point – who would ever suspect it?
The ground floor was dark. There was a single lit window in the flat above. Kay rang the bell and after a few moments the window slid open and an old woman stuck out her head, her grey hair a tangled mess.
‘Piss off!’
Kay stepped backwards into the glow of the street light.
‘Elaine, it’s me, Kay!’
The woman stared, mouth hanging open.
‘Kay?’ Suddenly she grinned. ‘Kay! I’ll be right down!’
Billi waited in the doorway as Elaine came downstairs and unlocked the door and then the steel mesh gate.
‘My sweet angel! C’mere and give us a kiss!’ She threw her bony arms round Kay and planted a fat wet one on his cheek. Billi saw him go rigid as her lips slurped free.
‘Hi, Elaine,’ he said, blushing. They stood in the unlit doorway of the rundown old shop. The wallpaper was faded and peeling, the paint of the ceiling crumbled into tiny flakes, and the carpet worn down to wiry threads. Elaine admired Kay, her legs apart and hands on hips like a pirate captain.
‘As handsome as ever. The girls must be dropping at your feet.’
Billi pushed past Kay into the cluttered shop.
‘Yes, dropping dead,’ she said. It annoyed Billi intensely how Elaine, who acted like a cranky old witch with everyone else, turned all soppy with Kay. Just because she’d been in charge of his early training.
‘Brought her majesty, I see.’ Elaine scowled. She had the face for it – weathered, wrinkled and stained by fifty years of heavy tar cigarettes.
Billi switched on the light.
Junk filled the interior. It had accumulated without any sense of organization: battered old trunks, doorless wardrobes, a penny farthing bicycle and a thousand other useless treasures that Elaine refused to get rid of. They’d probably been in this shop for generations.
‘How was Jerusalem?’ asked Elaine. ‘Who did you work with? Rabbi Levison?’
Billi smiled to think what the early Templars would make of their secrets being protected by a Jew. But after the last Templar Oracle had been killed, the Order didn’t have anyone psychically trained to guard the reliquary. Gwaine had gone mental when Arthur had nominated Elaine, but Arthur was Master. The old religious war didn’t concern the Templars any more, he said. The only thing that mattered was the Bataille Ténébreuse.
‘Him, and others,’ replied Kay.
‘Like who?’ Elaine’s eyes narrowed with curiosity.
‘The Sufis on the West Bank. Spent a month with the Nestorian monks in the Sinai. I learnt a lot, Elaine.’ He glanced away, embarrassed. ‘How emotions cloud my focus.’
‘More than I could ever teach you,’ said Elaine. She had some psychic talent, but wasn’t in the same league as Kay. No one was. Her skills in Tarot, astrology and the occult had come from years of hard graft. Skills Kay had been born with. She sighed. ‘But I suppose this ain’t a social call?’ She fished out a battered packet of Benson & Hedges from her faded pink dressing gown.
‘You suppose right,’ said Billi. Elaine lit up a cigarette, wrinkling her eyes against the first bite of bitter nicotine.
‘C’mon then. I haven’t got all night.’ She shoved aside a dusty stuffed bear to reveal a small stout door set deep in the wall. She fished out a key from the cord round her neck and needed both hands to turn it in the lock.
The door groaned open. Steps led down into a cold damp basement, thick with the smell of slow, ancient decay. Elaine flicked the brown Bakelite switch and there was a long faint hum before the bulb came to life, gradually filling the catacomb with a soft golden glow. Ahead of them stood a large black cabinet. The dim light lit its bronze hinges and the ornate patterns laid on its surface with tissue-thin gold leaf, silver and mother-of-pearl. The images were faded, but Billi could just make out the imps, demons, animal-headed monsters, winged nightmares and the celestial hordes at war across an ebony field. In the centre, where the two doors met, was a large corroded copper disc, broken in half, bearing a six-pointed star.
The Seal of Solomon.
The mystical ward and the first defence against the supernatural. It was the principle symbol in the High Art, the magic of the Ethereal Realm. But the Seal was just the protection. Against what was inside the cabinet.
Billi felt a chill as she stared at it. She’d read the earliest Templar diaries, of how Hugues de Payens had found the cabinet and the treasure inside soon after the end of the First Crusade. How he’d taken it and made the Knights Templar the most feared organization in the medieval world. She’d often wondered how exciting it would be to see the treasure for herself. But now, with it in arm’s reach, Billi realized it wasn’t excitement buzzing in her heart. It was fear.
‘It’s in there, isn’t it?’ she whispered. The black cabinet seemed to shimmer, as though it radiated light from within. The chill deepened and Billi wrapped her arms round her body. What lay behind those ebony doors had been both the source of the Order’s power, and the reason for their near annihilation by the Inquisition.
‘The Mirror?’ Elaine nodded. ‘Of course. Where else would it be?’ She turned to Kay. ‘So, any luck with, y’know, next week’s lottery numbers? What about the Grand National winner?’
Kay shook his head. ‘You know I can’t do that. Prophecies aren’t my thing.’
She paused and looked at him curiously. ‘No, of course not.’
Kay dusted off a stool and slung his coat over it.
‘This’ll do.’ He stretched out his arms. ‘Thanks, Elaine. We’ll give you a shout when we’re done.’ Elaine looked at both of them, then nodded and turned away.
Billi waited until Elaine had left. ‘Why here?’
‘To help you.’ Kay pointed into the corners of the room. Billi squinted in the gloom and could just make out markings on the top row of bricks, all the way around the room. They were in cuneiform, the oldest writing in the world, and similar to those on the black cabinet. Talismanic protections from maleficia: black magic. Kay rummaged around in his coat pocket.
‘This chamber is psychically sealed. It prevents anything in this room being detected. It also dampens any supernatural or psychic powers. Gives you a bit more of a chance.’
‘Chance?’
He tossed a small red packet to her. Billi caught them: a pack of playing cards. ‘Shuffle them,’ he said.
‘I didn’t know we were here to practise your magic tricks.’
‘No tricks.’
Billi peeled off the shrink-wrapping and gave the deck a cursory mix.
‘No. Shuffle them properly. Use the table.’
/>
Billi reluctantly did as she was told. She spread the entire pack over a small coffee table and swirled them around until they were totally jumbled.
‘What exactly is the point of this?’ she asked.
‘Various types of the Unholy have the power to… influence thoughts. They can take command of our senses, our memories. Remember what happened with you and the ghost of Alex Weeks?’
‘How d’you know about that?’
‘I’m an Oracle, remember?’
Billi bristled. Obviously nothing in her life was private any more.
Kay motioned for her to collect the cards and turned his back on her. ‘I’ll teach you to strengthen your mind against undesired intrusion.’
‘Like yours?’
He sighed. ‘Just pick a card. Hold it in front of you but try not to think about what it is. Think about anything else, try and prevent me seeing the card through your mind.’
Billi picked a random card off the table. ‘Tell me when.’
‘Three of clubs. Next.’
‘I wasn’t ready!’ She threw the three on to the floor. She took the next and held it in front of her.
‘Five of diamonds. Next.’
‘Wait!’
‘Four of diamonds. You did shuffle them properly, like I told you?’
Billi shuffled them again. Right, think about anything except the card.
‘Queen of hearts. Next.’
Damn it, this isn’t working.
‘Don’t swear, concentrate on the cards.’
She cut the pack twice, then a third time and snapped one out and -
‘Ace of spades. Next.’
‘You’re not giving me a chance!’
Kay spun round. ‘Why should I? This isn’t a game, Billi! If we were in a fight, would you back off? Take it easy? No, you’d go for the kill.’ He looked into her eyes, his eyes narrowed as he searched her face. ‘Of course you would. Start again.’
‘I’m not playing this game,’ Billi snapped. Who did he think he was? Her dad? She knocked the table over and kicked the cards so they scattered away into all the corners of the room.
‘You are such a child,’ he said. ‘You don’t like it so you’re going to leave, is that it?’
‘Well, Kay, you’re the one that knows all about leaving.’ There. It was out.
‘So this is what it’s all about, is it?’
Kay put his hand on her arm but Billi stepped away.
‘Do that again and I’ll break it,’ she said. ‘While you’ve been off on your holidays d’you know what I’ve been doing? Getting beaten up, getting bruised, battered and cut. All for the greater glory of the Knights bloody Templar. You remember how bad it was with my dad? Well, after you left – the one person I really had looking out for me – it got a thousand times worse.’
‘I’m sure he has his reasons, Billi.’
Reasons? The reason was simple: she was a Templar. They fought, they struggled, they suffered and they bled. But she could never bleed enough, not for her dad. He pushed her harder and harder, and she had no choice. Not like the others, not like Kay. He’d picked this life. She hadn’t. She’d been given no choice, no praise, no affection and definitely no reason.
Billi zipped up her jacket. She wasn’t going to waste her time here any more.
‘Where are you going?’
She raised her hood over her head. If she rushed she’d still be home before midnight. ‘You’re the psychic one – can’t you tell?’
‘Stop.’ The door ahead of her slammed shut. The table beside her began to shake, hopping up and down and the old swords hung on the walls clattered against each other.
His wild talent. Telekinesis. This was what first alerted the Templars to Kay’s abilities. When he’d been angry as a child objects had flown across the room.
‘Stop it, Kay.’
The table settled down and the swords stopped rattling. Billi looked at him.
His jaw was set hard and Kay slowly wiped the sweat off his forehead. He’d lost control.
‘What is it you want from me, Billi?’
‘What makes you think I need anything from you? I’ve passed the Ordeal. Have you?’
She might as well have slapped him, the way he reddened.
‘You know Oracles don’t have to pass the Ordeal. We’re too…’
‘The word you’re looking for is “afraid”, isn’t it?’
‘I am not afraid.’ But Kay looked uneasy.
It hurt him. Good. Now he knows how it feels, Billi thought.
She’d been afraid all those times in the past year when he hadn’t been there, when she’d needed him. Well, she didn’t need him now – not when she was searching for vampire graves and following werewolf tracks and he was tucked up at home. Afraid.
‘I said I’m not afraid!’ The table flipped and smashed itself against the wall. Billi flung her arms over her head as she was showered with splinters.
When she lowered them Kay was standing in front of the black cabinet. His fingers traced over the Seal.
‘You don’t know what I can do,’ he said, eyes fixed on the six-pointed star. ‘You think waving a bit of steel around and beating people up is all that matters.’ His fingers curled round the edge of a door. ‘You have no idea.’ He opened it.
What on earth was he doing? Billi grabbed his arm.
‘This is stupid,’ she said. ‘Don’t do it.’
Kay snatched it away.
‘This room’s safe, Billi. The wards will protect us.’ He pointed at the carved symbols on the edges of the wall. ‘Stop anything from getting out.’
He drew out a flat dark-blue velvet box, the type that might contain a necklace. He flicked it open.
Lying inside was a simple highly polished copper disc, about twenty centimetres in diameter. The Seal had been delicately engraved on its surface and the edges were slightly corroded and green-tinged, but otherwise it glistened in the low light. Kay stared at it, and slowly sat down on a stool, holding the box from underneath. He laid it on his lap, then gently touched the copper surface.
It rippled.
The Cursed Mirror.
The last of the Templar treasures. Legend had it that King Solomon had used it to perform his great magics. In Islamic lore he was master of spirits and commanded angels and devils. All through this Mirror. John Dee, the Elizabethan sorcerer and Templar Oracle of the day, had apparently contacted the Ethereal Realm through it. Heaven and Hell had opened up to him. But nobody had that sort of power any more. Nobody. Kay wouldn’t achieve anything. But looking at the cold emptiness of his eyes, Billi felt a prickling chill run through her.
‘I’m not joking, Kay. Put it back – now.’
‘I’m just looking,’ he whispered, more to himself than to her. He tilted his head backwards as his fingers stroked the metal surface and his eyes rolled back revealing only the whites. He let out a deep, long sigh.
And stopped breathing.
The Mirror shimmered and soft, sparkling trails of multicoloured lights followed the path of his fingertips like oil in sunlight. The surface swirled and within Billi thought she could see into dark, distant depths as though gazing into an infinite whirlpool. The streams of light threw out spinning patterns and the walls and ceiling became tapestries of dancing, chaotic colour. A small smile turned the edges of Kay’s lips. Billi stared at the kaleidoscopic display, hypnotized by the ever-transforming melange of reds, yellows, oranges, greens, golds and so many other twisting tinctures that she became dizzy, but she couldn’t take her eyes off it. She wanted to laugh, to cry; she’d never seen anything so beautiful. It was as though the walls, the world itself, was falling away into a universe of colour and grace. She turned to kiss Kay for showing her something so utterly amazing.
Kay sat there, his body quivering and froth bubbling out of his mouth. His teeth were clenched together so hard his gums bled, tainting the froth pink as it dribbled down his chin. The air around him trembled like a desert mirage, and as
the colours spun faster and faster Billi saw shapes forming out of the infinite hurricane of light. They were indistinct, vaguely humanoid, but growing and taking on more solid form by the moment. She could see arms, legs, heads taking on even, solid human proportions, fingers growing out of the blobs for hands.
Who summons us?
The voices echoed in her head and out of the shapes eyes, bright and keen, peered out at her.
We come, welcome us.
‘Stop,’ Billi whispered. She gazed around, awestruck.
But Kay didn’t hear. His eyes were squeezed shut and he was lost in some distant realm, his mind and soul roaming. More shapes began to form, growing more distinct and taking on human form.
Call to us and we will come.
Suddenly furnace-hot air roared out of the disc. The wards along the walls glowed an unbearable bright white and the forms began to take features. She saw the black silhouettes build faces, eyes, noses, mouths smiling with delicious eagerness and voices raised and multiplying until the cacophony became unbearable -
The door crashed open and Elaine charged across the room. Billi saw her mouth wide in a scream, but was deaf to everything bar the cries piercing her mind. Elaine swatted the Mirror out of Kay’s hands. He fell backwards as the disc spun into the air, crashed against the wall and rattled on the floor until it finally came to rest.
All the lights had vanished, all except the dull glow of the single bulb above her head. Kay lay on his back, staring wide-eyed at the ceiling, panting like he’d run a marathon. His body dripped with sweat and his white hair lay plastered against his scalp. He forced himself up, though his legs looked like they were about to give way. He gazed about him, utterly lost. Elaine stared at him, eyes wide with shock. She touched Kay’s face, checking he was OK, then slapped him. A row of thin red welts rose on his cheek, but Kay hardly noticed.
Around them the engraved wards glowed an intense red, like bricks just out of a kiln, then dulled and, with a hiss, cooled back to their usual brown clay. Billi’s ears echoed with the sudden silence.
She’d been wrong. She’d thought that power no longer existed. Billi looked at Kay as he swept his hand through his sweaty hair. Their eyes met, and his burned with feverish excitement. In four hundred years no one had picked up so much as a radio signal with the Mirror. No one since Dee, the Templars’ greatest Oracle.
Devil’s Kiss Page 4