Sarah wanted nothing more than to lie down and sleep, but she recalled the evil Avery had disclosed about his secret Committee and turned away to stagger along the ethereal wall and into the dark labyrinth.
♦
We have to go back!’
Jason shook his head. ‘There’s no way back. We fell too far.’
‘He’s right,’ Ruben said, adjusting the grip on his sword. ‘We have to go forward.’
‘And why should we trust you?’ Trish said. ‘We don’t even know you!’
Ruben said nothing and brushed past her, the glowing walls around them lighting his way.
‘We need him,’ Jason said, lowering his voice. ‘Stop antagonising him.’
Trish glared at Jason in the darkness, her face illuminated by the dark mirrors which surrounded them. ‘I don’t care. Sarah’s up there all alone.’ Her eyes welled with tears. ‘We can’t leave her there.’
‘She was shot three times in the chest,’ Jason said, also struggling to contain his emotions. ‘You saw the blood and she wasn’t moving. If she wasn’t dead already—’
Trish touched his arm.
Jason put his hand to his eyes. ‘It’s all my fault. I abandoned her when she needed me the most. If I’d have just listened ...’
Trish didn’t respond. The reality of what had happened was too much for her to bear.
‘Come on.’ Jason wiped away a tear and squeezed her hand. ‘We need to find a way out.’ As Trish walked on ahead, he whispered, ‘Because there’s a Pharos out there,’ – he glanced back the way they’d come – ‘somewhere.’
♦
‘We know you’re down here, Sarah!’ Avery said. ‘You can’t hide from us forever!’
The mirrored walls of the labyrinth branched off in all directions, their dim light doing little to stave off a pervasive mist, which permeated the darkness.
Major Lanter motioned for his two Swiss guards to split up in their search.
Still cradling her chest, Sarah watched from around a distant corner, then backed away out of sight and leaned against a wall in exhaustion.
‘I promise I’ll make it quick, Sarah!’ Avery said, following Lanter, who led the way deeper into the network of twisting avenues. ‘I know you must be in pain. I can ease your suffering.’ He peered around a corner. ‘Why die alone?’
A noise made Major Lanter pause and retrace his steps. Blood glistened on a wall and Avery fell silent as Lanter raised his sword and darted into another passageway.
Lanter scanned the dead end with his visor.
Nothing stirred except for a rumble of thunder overhead. He shook his head to his cardinal and continued his search.
Thirty feet away, Sarah staggered into a narrower section of the labyrinth and clutched at her chest in agony.
‘Speak to me, Sarah!’ Avery said, his voice sounding too close for comfort. ‘We know you’re hurt. Major Lanter says you’ve already lost too much blood. You’ll be dead in minutes. Tell us where you are and you needn’t die alone!’
Sarah looked down at the blood oozing from between her fingers. She rested her head back against a mirrored wall and knew, despite her internal protestations, that Avery might be right. She was growing weaker by the minute.
Major Lanter appeared fifty feet away and she allowed herself to slide to the ground to be concealed by the mist.
Lightning flickered above and she crawled away around another corner, but she was now faced with another Swiss guard, whose glowing visor appeared at the next fork in the labyrinth.
Thunder rumbled through the unseen underground realm and more lightning illuminated a dark storm front which swept in towards them.
The soldier turned towards her. ‘I have her,’ he said into his radio. He tapped the side of his helmet. ‘Major, do you copy?’ He glanced behind as the storm touched down eighty feet away in a howling gale.
The mists swirled around her and Sarah watched the guard approach with his sword held before him. Helpless to do anything, she hung her head in defeat as he grasped her shoulder.
‘Where is it?!’ he said, searching her pockets as the howling winds grew stronger.
Sarah didn’t reply, she was too busy watching the storm’s approach. Lightning lanced from wall to wall, crackling and flashing. More thunder rumbled and a deep booming tone, like she’d heard in the pyramid, sent ripples running down the wall towards her.
The soldier found the scroll where Sarah had hidden it, inside her Deep Reach jacket.
‘Major,’ he said again, tugging open her jacket to reveal the prize within. ‘Do you read me? I have it!’
The storm grew ever closer, its pitch-black centre a funnel of darkness as it closed on their position. Electricity crackled along the walls and the Swiss guard turned to face it, his eyes widening as the gale enveloped them.
Screaming winds tore over them and Sarah turned her head and gripped cracks in the stone slabs which paved the labyrinth’s floor.
Still standing, the soldier was sucked towards the seething epicentre. More lightning arced between the mirrors and he threw himself to the ground, scrabbling frantically for purchase to keep himself from being sucked into the roaring vortex. ‘Help me!’ he said, holding out his armoured hand to her.
Sarah glanced round to see the storm’s dark cloud wash over his legs. His armoured panels broke away to be sucked into the howling tempest.
The man screamed as he glimpsed something beyond Sarah’s sight. He fought back against the blackness that gripped him, struggling, writhing, kicking and punching, but the more he fought, the more he screamed.
The flesh on his legs peeled away to reveal sinews, bones and blood-filled arteries. The torment continued up his body and Sarah stared into his terror-stricken eyes in horror as he was consumed by the flickering vortex which now reared above her.
Something grasped her collar and she was hauled away from the monstrous vision, round a corner and across the ground into another section of the labyrinth.
Sarah gazed up into the hostile eyes of her saviour.
‘Where is it?’ Major Lanter delved into her pockets and produced the scroll, which he handed to Avery, who stood behind him.
‘We need to get away from that storm!’ Avery said over the din, as Lanter’s remaining Swiss guard rejoined them.
‘It’s coming from the other direction, too,’ said the soldier.
‘It’s forcing us northwards,’ Lanter said. ‘And it’ll tear apart anything in its path.’
The soldier pointed north. ‘The walls open up further ahead into some kind of plaza.’
‘Bring her,’ Avery said, and waved them onwards. ‘We’ve come too far to die now.’
Sarah felt herself hoisted over someone’s shoulder to be carried through darkness away from the storm that stalked them.
Moments later the soldier dumped her on the ground next to one of the walls and Avery said, ‘Wait, don’t let them see us.’
Sarah peered out across a large circular plaza surrounded by statues of grim-faced Anakim warriors. Each of these towering figures pointed towards an enormous Anakim sphinx, like the one she’d witnessed back in Sanctuary the year before. However, unlike that one, this sphinx had its head bent low over its outstretched forelegs. Its face was perfectly smooth and without features, except for a single mirrored eye at the centre of its forehead. A large unsupported ramp led up to the ten-foot-high eye, the pathway finishing in a steep incline which stopped four feet short of the eye’s ethereal glow, the gap in between plunging down sixty feet to the ground below.
But it wasn’t the sight of the sphinx that drew Sarah’s gaze, but the three people walking up the ramp towards it.
Avery moved behind her and put his hand over her mouth. ‘Look, Sarah, there are your friends. But they’ll never know you were here watching them, still clinging to your pitiful life.’ He grasped her face harder. ‘Don’t worry though,’ he whispered into her ear, ‘like you, I’ll make sure they die down here in the darkness,
because I have the power, now.’ He held up the pendant before her eyes with his other hand. ‘And you have less than nothing.’ He motioned to Lanter’s Swiss guard. ‘Keep her quiet and out of sight.’
The soldier nodded. He moved behind Sarah and clamped his hand down over her mouth.
‘But make sure she can see what’s happening.’ Avery stood up and gave Lanter his pistol. ‘It has one bullet left. When I give the word, kill Ruben, then gut her friends.’ He turned to stare down into Sarah’s eyes and held up the scroll. ‘I want her to see the consequences of her actions before she dies.’
Avery looked at the soldier holding Sarah. ‘If things don’t go as planned, a sword in Ruben’s back will suffice.’
The soldier nodded and adjusted his grip on Sarah, who looked past Avery towards Ruben, Trish and Jason in despair and knew there was nothing she could do – nothing, that was, except watch them die.
Chapter Two Hundred Seventy-Two
‘Where now?’ Jason said, staring up at the sphinx’s cycloptic eye.
A score of passages led off into the gloomy labyrinth surrounding them. Trish looked back up at the sphinx. ‘The eye,’ she said. ‘We need to go through the eye.’
A deafening clap of thunder made their ears ring and more lightning lit up the dark.
‘How do you know?’ Jason said.
Trish had no idea. ‘I just do,’ she said, and took a deep breath. ‘Trust me.’
Ruben approached the top of the ramp, which angled sharply up towards the glowing eye. ‘What now?’
‘We jump into it,’ Trish said, staring up into the mirrored surface.
Jason peered over the edge at the drop below and then back up at the incline. ‘The gap’s small, but we’ll lose all our momentum, even if we run at it.’
‘We can make it,’ Ruben said, gauging the elevation.
‘What if you’re wrong about the eye?’ Jason said to Trish. ‘We’ll just fall to our death.’
Ruben bent down and picked up a small stone, which he tossed towards the sphinx.
The stone hit the eye, bounced off and clattered down to the ground far below.
‘Maybe it only works if a person goes through it,’ Jason said. ‘Or an Anakim?’
‘Or it’s not a doorway,’ Ruben said.
‘Maybe this is your Heaven’s Gate,’ Trish said.
Ruben stared up at the giant sphinx’s head, which gazed down at them from above. ‘Only in God’s word is Heaven’s Gate opened.’
‘But what does that even mean?’ Jason said.
‘Ruben de Molay!’ a voice called out.
Ruben spun round and drew his longsword, the blade extending with a metallic hiss.
Avery Cantrell strode towards them, Major Lanter at his side with his own sword drawn.
‘What’s with all these swords anyway?’ Jason said, sounding nervous, as more thunder rumbled overhead.
‘Nano armour is impervious to many high-speed projectiles,’ Ruben said, watching the Satanists approach. ‘But vulnerable to specialised blades impacting at lower velocities.’
‘Except you don’t have any armour,’ Jason said.
‘No.’ Ruben walked down the ramp. ‘I don’t.’
‘Ruben,’ – Avery held out his arms – ‘come, let us not be enemies.’
‘What do you want, Avery?’ Ruben said, keeping his gaze fixed on Lanter, as they stopped twenty feet apart near the bottom of the ramp.
Avery held up the scroll. ‘You have no idea what I have, do you, Ruben?’ He smiled. ‘Did you know Cardinal Dolmante’s body was found in Rome soon after we left the Vatican?’
Ruben expression darkened at the news.
‘Yes, we believe Konstantin drove a sword through the old fool’s chest, but not before he gave away the very secrets you entrusted to him.’
Ruben stared at Avery in fear.
‘That’s right, Dolmante solved the prophecy. Or rather, the code you both suspected lay hidden within its words.’
Lanter moved round to Ruben’s left.
‘The scroll’s not complete,’ Ruben said in realisation, while following Lanter’s movement. ‘Konstantin took the location to his grave. That’s why you were so angry.’
‘He did,’ Avery said, ‘but there’s enough that our cryptographers will make short work of what we do have, and then we’ll have exactly what we want, and there’s nothing you, or anyone else can do about it.’
The storm closed in around the plaza and the winds ruffled Ruben’s mane of hair.
‘Nothing to say, Ruben?’ Avery smiled again. ‘Dolmante warned you against me, didn’t he? He was right, but it was his trust in you that got him killed.’
Ruben let out a growl of fury and leapt to the attack, but as he did so Lanter drew a pistol and Trish screamed, ‘LOOK OUT!’
The gun fired, but the bullet ricocheted off Ruben’s sword and the two men met with a clash of steel.
Avery backed away as they fought and then signalled to the other soldier lurking in the shadows.
♦
The Swiss guard pushed Sarah to the ground and ran forward into the fray.
Ruben turned to deflect a blow aimed at his back and then ducked a cutting thrust from Lanter, which left a bloody streak across his cheek.
Sarah struggled to rise as the fighting continued and the storm above swirled around the plaza like a hurricane.
A booming sound echoed out and Trish called out to Ruben as she pointed at the sphinx’s eye. Something was happening and Sarah called out to them, but her voice was lost in the wind.
Trish ran and leapt from the end of the ramp and vanished into the sphinx’s eye. Moments later, Jason followed, and then Ruben ducked away from another attack and ran up the ramp after them, until he too disappeared from sight.
Sarah sagged to the floor in relief. Her friends were safe for now, but before she had time to think, rough hands grabbed her.
‘Bring her!’ Avery said over the growing storm.
Sarah was dragged across the ground and up the ramp by Major Lanter, to be dumped at Avery’s feet. Lightning cut across the sky above him, silhouetting him against the sphinx’s great eye.
‘Your friends have abandoned you,’ Avery said, and motioned to Lanter.
The major grasped her mouth and forced it open.
‘You’ve lost your mind,’ Avery continued. ‘You’re possessed by a demon and you’ll die here alone in the dark.’ He bent down and forced a flask between her teeth. ‘And yet, still, you cling to life.’
Sarah struggled feebly against Lanter’s hold.
Avery squeezed the flask and a vile tasting fluid flowed into her mouth. She coughed and struggled, trying not to swallow, but Lanter let go of her jaw and clamped his armoured hand over her mouth and nose.
Avery gazed down at her in satisfaction. ‘This is a little something we collected after Nicola Dowling blessed you with one of her night time visitations.’
The oil sloshed around in Sarah’s mouth as she fought for breath, but moments later her reflex kicked in and she swallowed.
Lanter let go and she fell back to the floor, coughing and wheezing as she gasped for air.
‘Did you think Major Lanter just happened to have oil on him for the torches?’ Avery said. ‘No, of course not.’ He held up the flask to inspect. ‘This elixir has many uses, it seems.’ He laughed. ‘Perhaps we should patent it. What do you think?’
Sarah rolled onto her back and stared up at him as the winds howled louder. ‘Why ... why are you doing this to me?’
Avery crouched down beside her. ‘Because we want whatever’s inside you to come out. You should be honoured,’ – he stood up again – ‘to be chosen as a vessel for a god.’ He stood aside, allowing her to go free, and Sarah crawled forward on her hands and knees.
Avery strolled along next her, watching in mild fascination as she struggled to escape.
He sighed. ‘God, this is taking too long.’ Using his foot, he pushed her onto her back and acce
pted Lanter’s offered sword. ‘I think we need to speed things up.’ He rammed the blade into her stomach and Sarah screamed in agony.
More lightning lanced down into the labyrinth and around the sphinx.
‘Is that good, Sarah?!’ Avery gritted his teeth and twisted the blade and she screamed again.
‘I think that might do it, don’t you, Sarah? Who would want to stay in a corpse, after all? Not me, for one.’
Sarah gazed up into the raging tempest as she held her stomach, which overflowed with blood. Avery continued to talk.
‘I promise, I’ll kill your friends slowly, Sarah. Ruben, on the other hand,’ – he glanced at Lanter – ‘will need to be despatched quicker. Do you know who he really is, Sarah, beside his royal heritage? He’s the last of a new breed, recalled from history to protect Mother Church against her enemies. Yes, Sarah, the Knights Templar have been forged anew for the coming storm and Commander Ruben is the right-hand man of the Grand Master himself. Their only problem is, when I’m elected as the Church’s new spiritual leader, I’ll make sure disbanding them is my first decree.’ He gave Lanter another look. ‘We have our own guards, after all. The Templars will just muddy the waters. It’s funny, the current Pope only received his position due our imminent transition to the new underground world, otherwise I might have already been in white.’ He looked down at his robes. ‘Although I do like black, it’s more fitting, don’t you think?’
‘Sarah, where are you going?’ Avery said as she crawled away on her stomach. He laughed. ‘There’s nowhere else to go!’
Sarah wasn’t listening. All she knew was that she wanted to get away, get away from the pain that now pounded through her veins. She dragged herself across the floor towards the ramp’s end and Avery continued to talk as he crouched down next to her.
‘Do you know what this scroll contains, Sarah?’ He held up the offending article, which the winds tried to pry from his grasp. ‘Your prophecy, wherever it came from in that tortured mind of yours, pointed us towards our ultimate goal.’ Avery motioned to Lanter, who pinned her to the floor with a boot.
Ancient Origins: Books 4 - 6 (Ancient Origins Boxset Book 2) Page 136