by S E England
A hot rush of blood shot up her neck, suffusing her face, and tears smarted in her eyes.
“So it will be one year of hard work before the final initiation process. This is not a school club or a child’s game – our ultimate aim is to disrupt the order of the entire civilised world as it stands. You can presently have no concept of how gravely serious this is. It could take ten years to effect the smallest changes, but that is okay because we have a hundred. Or more. A thousand, even.”
“A thousand? How can that be?”
She caught a glimpse then, a slip of words that revealed the startling splinter of illumination, another reality to this one. But just as quickly as the door had opened, it banged shut again, and the fog of confusion descended.
“A figure of speech,” he said, immediately lightening the tone. “We have decades if necessary, and decades are what it may take.”
“Yes, I see. Well, I hope I shall have fun before then – before I am enclosed in this terrible club of yours, with all its graveness.”
He held her gaze, and the strangest feeling of falling came over her.
“I think you will like the house I have chosen for you,” he said. “And the bedroom, it is…most restful. Come, let us drink to this – to Lenka and the start of her new life!”
“Thank you. To my new life!”
They clinked glasses in the university room neither would return to. By the following evening, the suite of rooms would be transformed into more conventional classrooms, and the visiting young lecturer known as Herr Blum would cease to exist.
***
Chapter Twenty-Three
One Year Later. Autumn 1891
The Initiation Ceremony
The Lodge was situated on the outskirts of Ingolstadt, on a salubrious tree-lined avenue. Devoid of windows with the grand front door permanently locked and chained, the building incited little interest, and most people walked by without a second glance. Shrubs obscured its lower half, and in the autumn of 1891, coppery leaves shimmered and danced in the sun on the pavement outside. A sparsely populated area predominantly used for offices and banks, it was particularly quiet in the evenings. As such, there was no one around to notice the elegant young woman dressed all in black, who alighted from a carriage on the drive at the side of the building, blindfolded with her hands tied.
Lenka, flanked by Aunt Sophia on one side and Heinrich on the other, was being guided towards the back door, shielded from unwanted curiosity by the body of the carriage. Heinrich knocked three times with a cane, and at the sound of bolts sliding back from inside, Sophia nodded curtly, retreating to the carriage. For now, her work was done.
Once inside with the door shut and bolted behind her, Lenka’s blindfold was removed. The room was small – an unlit vestibule or high-ceilinged porch with no windows. She indicated the binding around her wrists. “You can untie me? I will not run away. I do not see why—”
“Hush now. You must trust and obey. We have discussed how important this is, Lenka. Everyone entering der Orden der schwarzen Sonne must commit fully to the process. No more questions. Always questions.”
Indeed, she had been meticulously prepared for today’s initiation ceremony. Fully versed in Prussian and Hapsburg politics, royal dynasties and Serbian rebels, she now had the same vision as Heinrich, that of a whole new world. This was monumental – nothing would ever be the same again, and she fully accepted her role, aware of the vital secrecy at this delicate stage. These were the seeds being planted, seeds that would grow into something overwhelmingly and unstoppably powerful. Moreover, the identities of those involved were shortly to be revealed. Never had she been more excited or grateful. It had been a wonderful time and would now culminate in full membership.
Belonging to the Order had become increasingly important to her as the months passed – the desire to be one of them and move in the highest circles ever more attractive, necessary even, to her future self. It transpired that her great-grandmother had been a baroness and much revered at the Russian court before being ejected on catcalls of witchcraft. It was Lenka’s birthright to be among nobility, and no churchman was going to have her thrown out or he’d be sorry. This now was her place, her destiny, and it was right at the top – on the world stage. Olga had been stupid not to comply with the Order’s wishes – look how she had ended her days! But today, as for all initiates no matter how high their rank, humility and submission were necessary in order to bind with the others. Allied by the initiation, they stood strong and loyal, and there were no, not ever, not one, dissenters.
Today her courage, loyalty and trust were to be tested to the limit of endurance. She took a deep breath. Of course, she would fly through. It was just one day. One day. And afterwards, the best the world had to offer would be hers. Like marrying into royalty, she told herself…yes, exactly like that.
Her eyes adjusted quickly to the gloomy stone-walled chamber as the bolts to the outside world were shot home and a wooden bar slotted into place.
“We have been riding for hours,” she said to the masked man who had bent to remove her shoes. “This must be another city, not Ingolstadt?”
Beside her, Heinrich laughed. “My dear, we have simply been travelling in circles.”
On the right-hand wall was a large painting of an owl, on the left the same sigil that had been burned onto her wrist – a circle enclosing a pentagram, in the centre a black sun with black rays around it. But on this one, inscribed over the top in an arch, was the name ‘Der Orden der schwarzen Sonne’ underneath ‘Courage, Loyalty and Obedience’.
Obedience?
The man tending to her shoes stood up, and recognition flashed in her eyes.
He bowed slightly, this time with no conceit, amusement or contempt. “Fräulein Heller.”
“Asp?”
“Kommen Sie.”
Despite her ability to tap into the thoughts of others, Asp’s mind was unreadable. Thanks to Sophia’s tuition, she now knew why, understanding the shroud of invisibility he protected himself with. He was hiding something, a complex web of emotions – chiefly, she realised, that of fear. Why fear? Yet the fear trapped in this building was palpable…maybe because all initiates would be afraid? No matter how well prepared we are, she thought, it’s the unknown that grips even the most intrepid of hearts. Swallowing a sudden lurch of unease, she followed Asp to a small door leading off from the side, and down an unlit flight of steps.
It looked like the entrance to a wine cellar. Peering down, she shot one last glance over her shoulder at Heinrich, who nodded encouragingly, then took one careful step inside. Immediately the door slammed shut behind, a key turned in the lock, and they were plunged into total darkness. Alone now with Asp, there was no choice but to walk down. Forty-four steps in all, each one felt for cautiously, each deeper than the last, the walls narrowing on the descent so that by the time they reached the bottom, it was claustrophobically difficult to squeeze through.
It was as black as a pit. Stepping inside, she stood perfectly still.
“Asp?”
His footsteps echoed and trailed away. A door then opened and shut somewhere along a far wall, followed by a shot of yet another set of bolts. A cold shiver ran up and down her back, upper arms, and into her hair. Fear crawled all over her. Was she alone? What was going to happen?
“Hello?”
Sophia had taught her a method of self-control, how to keep both mind and body alert and receptive while in a state of terror. If adrenalin flooded the brain, she said, the finer senses and perceptions will not come through – you will only feel the fear. Recalling what she had learned, Lenka took several long, deep breaths to stem the adrenalin rush, then tuned in. There was no one else here in this chamber. Nothing human. But there was something in here.
Something that slithered.
With a stab of panic, it came to her what it was. The floor was alive with snakes. Despite all her training, panic and anger blasted through her in equal measure. Damn, damn and dam
n! That had been a lesson and one she’d missed. Hell, oh no, hell, hell… Anything but snakes.
She had told Heinrich her one fear. And what had she been taught? That no matter what the relationship or circumstances, you never ever told anyone your greatest fear or what you prized the most. But they were on the same side, were they not? Not just on the same side but in love and to be married? She’d told him on a night of intense lovemaking, too, wrapped in satin sheets, he tracing a finger gently down her spine, kissing her shoulders with champagne lips. He had idly confided his own worst nightmares, asking for hers…
Stupid, stupid, stupid!
She had been five years old and lying in the sun when an adder had crawled across her legs. It had happened before she’d realised – at first, still sleepy in daydreams, she had shaken her leg. But the crawling sensation had grown heavier, moving upwards. She’d sat up to see a long, scaly snake with its forked tongue flicking in and out of a bulbous head, slithering up her thigh towards her chest. Jumping up, she’d run screaming down the field, convinced it was in her hair, climbing up her back, still on her! And night after night since, she woke with a violent lurch, expecting to see it wriggling across the floor in the moonlight, climbing up the bedclothes… Nothing frightened her as much as snakes. And she had told him!
She stood now, shocked and quaking, with a heart rate speeding up by the second. One of the snakes was winding its way over, its muscular contractions raspy on the stone floor, closer and closer. Her father always said they wouldn’t harm you if you didn’t invade their space, but that was not true. People could be swallowed whole by huge ones longer than a whale – there were pictures of them in books – of anacondas and reticulated pythons thirty feet long. How big was the one now slinking over on its belly? And how the hell could Heinrich do this to her? He must have known what was in this pit! Must have known as her shoes were removed…and when she’d turned to look at him before descending into the snake pit…
Barefoot, trembling from head to foot, she stood listening as more and more reptilian bodies slithered out of the walls and began to move around the room. A terrible thought occurred to her – what if they were above her head as well? In the rafters? And dropped down?
Her legs began to shake uncontrollably. Think…think…this is a test…you must think… There had to be a way out. Adrenalin had blocked rational thought exactly as warned – but there had been preparation for this, and it was crucial not to fail, to fall at the first hurdle. Sophia’s words replayed: ‘Your first test is courage – you must override terror and not panic. This is called the Gate of Men, and it is imperative. You can never give into personal fears, not even in the gravest of situations – not ever – or you jeopardise the Order, and we cannot risk weakness in our ranks.’
Prior to this, for three days she had been starved of food. Nothing except water had passed her lips. Nausea, dizziness and headache also threatened to cloud her judgement. Repeating the technique learned, she spoke out loud, “I will endure. I will endure. I will endure!”
Carefully, she backed to the wall, reaching out for the stones behind while suppressing with every breath the need to scream and run. Imagine if this was enemy territory…this is the lesson…you cannot cry out and be rescued… But it was not, so there had to be a door, there must be! Focusing more clearly now, she inched around the edge, shuddering as a heavy snake passed over her bare foot. “I will endure…I will endure…”
At last! The stones gave way to a wooden doorframe. Whirling around, she felt for a handle and, fully expecting it to be locked, was stunned to find that it gave way. Instantly she flew through it and fell onto a cobbled floor on the other side. Whipping back round, she kicked the door shut so none of the snakes could escape, then brushed herself down all over several times, checking her hair, visibly shuddering and shivering. How many had crawled over her feet or dropped onto her shoulders, she had lost count of, knowing only there would be nightmares about this for the rest of her life.
Panic, however, soon gave way to confusion. Was this supposed to happen? What was this? It looked like a jail. Dimly lit, there was nothing in it but a cage, and next to that a masked man standing with his arms folded.
“Asp?”
He nodded. “Turn around. I will untie you.”
Had she passed the first test, then? There would be two more, but surely that was the worst? Anything was better than the snakes.
“Into the cage, please.”
Approximately six feet by six, the cell was furnished with one small wooden stool and a table on which there was a jug of water and a glass. She gulped it down.
“Slow down. You will be here for two days, and there is no more.”
In the corner was a chamber pot. Yes, a prison cell, then…but no bed. As she took in the new surroundings along with the fact this would last for two days and nights – so not a day of initiation, then, but far longer – the cage door was chained shut behind her, the candles were snuffed out and the door to the room bolted.
She sat down on the stool in the dark, occasionally leaping up, convinced a snake had got in from under the door. Without any light at all, it was not possible to see even her hand in front of her face. Nothing. Except the sound of dripping damp.
After a while time ceased to exist, and a deep chill permeated her skin, sinking into her lungs, muscles and organs. Once or twice, she toppled from the stool with fatigue and lay curled in a tight ball on the freezing cobbles. And it was during this fitful, uncomfortable sleep that the lessons learned over the past twelve months began to replay. In a cinematic reel some were shown more than once, others slowed and then repeated with increasing lucidity – a theatrical show of moments missed and clues overlooked. It was as if someone or something was pinching her awake, determined to point out hurtful yet significant moments. Look…look…did you not see? You have been blinded, look, look again!
She moaned in her semi-consciousness. How her stomach cramped and her head ached. Nausea swelled and rose, and once the visions came, they piled in, one after the other. This had not happened in such a long time…why…why now…?
What was that? What did the whispers say?
She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to blank out the images. No, it could not be true. Had she been sleepwalking? Blind? Certain interchanges, glances and references not previously noticed, much less acknowledged, were now quite clear. Painfully so.
Suddenly, any notion of sleep became impossible. In fact, never in all her life had she been so awake. Why had she been sleepwalking all these months and not seen this? Dutiful, she had been a model pupil and enjoyed every minute. The house was luxurious, the clothes beautiful, the reading surprisingly interesting. It was vital to be healthy, Sophia had told her, and, as such, she had eaten everything provided and happily downed the healthy drinks Sophia made each evening. Every lesson had been absorbed, every test passed. Always she applied herself fully, longing, yearning to be admitted to the Order and begin travelling the world. Indeed, she had hardly left the house or seen another soul!
Sitting upright now, on the small stool in the underground prison, her mind sparked alive with information. All of this had been on show, all of it…yet she had seen nothing. Why?
Show me…show me…
The spirits that had been kept at bay with tricks taught by Sophia…
Show me!
Memories crowded in – Heinrich and Sophia laughing together, an exchanged conspiratorial glance, his hand on the small of Sophia’s back, distant chatter as Lenka drifted into sleep…a drugged sleep?
Had they lain together? Were they man and wife?
A gold ring on her dressing table, one which Sophia had quickly slid out of sight…
My God, they were man and wife!
And the house, it was theirs, yes?
A document flashed before her.
Image after image, truth after truth, was shown to her. Those milk drinks Sophia had brought in after studies in the evening… Yes, how quickly Le
nka had fallen asleep, how dreamy the mornings… And now, here without the sedation, without the hypnosis he’d exerted and the diversion of intense studies, the situation was clear! Her powers of clairvoyance were back. He’d been right on that night he’d walked her home this time last year – keep people distracted and they noticed nothing. No wonder the house had been ready so quickly. There had not even been time to pack. Instead, she’d been taken straight there to a fully furnished home.
The pain when it came, delayed by denial and shock, was immense, the wound searing, all dreams for the future and realities of the past a lie. Her heart squeezed into a fist, her throat constricted, and tears streamed down her face. Sophia and he were lovers, husband and wife. But she’d thought… Oh no, oh God no, the pain was terrible, terrible, like nothing ever in her life, not even Oskar. Heinrich and herself had been together so intimately, night after night after night!
Like a wild animal she howled, tilting back her head and roaring, screaming with soul pain.
He had not felt the same, had not even cared. All illusions lifted now, veils obscuring truth after truth removed. For him she had been nothing more than a job, a recruitment. It seemed odd, though. If she was nothing more than a task, that meant he was a puppet. So who, then, was the puppet master?
All tears dried. So what was really happening, then? If all she had been told was a lie and everything was an illusion, what the hell was going to happen now? Had nothing been true, including what would take place at the initiation? It was supposed to be one day, yet already it was two more… A cold wind blew against her face as if a door had opened somewhere. Yet the air was still, damp dripped, and silence hissed.
Who were der Orden der schwarzen Sonne? How had he found her and been in touch with her mother, a man like that?
We knew your great-grandmother, the baroness…
Why had she never even thought of this before, so blinded by desire and the wonderful thoughts he had projected for her future? Panic now gripped her. She’d been cornered.