Scenting Hallowed Blood (35 page)

‘Shemyaza, you really must put
aside your impatience with the Parzupheim and oblige them,’ Sofia
said, and took in a lungful of smoke. ‘They are your people, after
all.’

Shem glanced down at her. ‘I’m
no fool. Don’t think I’m not aware that
“
divine king
”
equates with
“
sacrificial king
”
. I’ve had enough of that. I will not be a
scapegoat.’

‘Perhaps you are right, but
there are others who see you in quite a different light.’

‘Others?’ Daniel
interrupted.

Sofia looked at him askance.
‘Yes. The Parzupheim aren’t the only Grigori power-wielders in this
country.’ She patted the seat beside her. ‘Shemyaza, please sit
down. There is something I must tell you.’

Shem hesitated a moment, then
complied with her request. Daniel noticed that Sofia swallowed
involuntarily as Shem’s body touched her.

‘Then tell me,’ Shem said.

She nodded. ‘I’ll get straight
to the point. The Parzupheim are relative small fry in the scheme
of things. Tell me, if you had the choice, who would you be working
with now?’

‘Daniel,’ Shem answered
shortly.

‘Yes,’ Sofia said, ‘but who
else, of your own blood?’

Shem frowned out at the garden.
‘No-one.’

‘Not even your brothers?’

Shem turned his head to look at
her intently. ‘What do you mean?’

‘You are not the only one to
survive,’ Sofia said. ‘I do not want the Parzupheim to know about
it, but Salamiel is nearby. He is waiting for you, Shemyaza.’

‘Salamiel?’ Shem peered at her,
his expression puzzled. ‘He is here?’

Sofia nodded, clearly holding
excitement in check. ‘Yes, very near. Like you, his consciousness
has survived into this time. He awaits your command. Soon, if you
are agreeable, I will take you to him, perhaps after this charade
of a coronation has taken place.’

Shem’s face had broken into a
smile. ‘I would like to see him,’ he said.

Daniel felt extremely on edge,
and his mistrust of Sofia seethed back in full force. He was
uncomfortable with the idea of Shem meeting with this person Sofia
had secreted away. The name Salamiel meant nothing to him, but he
was wary of it. ‘What about Shem’s work with the Parzupheim? Are
you suggesting he do something else, without their sanction?”

‘My, you are jumping on ahead,’
Sofia said dryly. ‘Did I say any such thing?’

‘No,’ Daniel replied, ‘but the
feeling’s there.’

Sofia shrugged. ‘Actually, what
the Parzupheim want is what I want, and what I want is the best for
Shemyaza. It was I who suggested he should reawaken the Shamir. The
only thing I’ve not seen fit to reveal to Enniel’s cronies is that
Salamiel should also be involved.’

‘Why not?’ Daniel insisted.
‘Why can’t you tell them about this other person?’

Sofia sighed. ‘It’s very
complicated, Daniel. Politics, you know. If the Parzupheim thought
that Shemyaza had allies, they’d worry that they wouldn’t be able
to control him as efficiently.’

‘You don’t have that fear.’

‘No,’ Sofia said, grinding out
her cigarette on the stone patio. ‘I don’t.’ She paused for a
moment, clearly coming to a decision about something. ‘There is
also another matter I’d like to mention. It should be of especial
interest to you, Daniel.’

‘What?’ Daniel’s suspicions
were engorged. He was frightened of being seduced by this woman
into believing she had their welfare at heart.

‘Your friends, Lily and Owen
Winter, are with Salamiel now. He is caring for them. We thought it
best to keep them away from the hubbub here.’

‘That’s good news,’ Shem
said.

Daniel said nothing. He
remembered the visions that had come to him in Taziel’s apartment,
and their horrifying flight to Cornwall. He knew then, with utter
conviction, that this Salamiel had been behind all that. Salamiel
and Sofia. He would have to speak to Shem privately about this. How
could he be taken in by this woman? Couldn’t he smell the danger?
Realising some kind of response was appropriate, Daniel said, ‘Are
they all right?’

Sofia nodded enthusiastically.
‘Oh yes. Soon, we shall restore Owen for you, Daniel.’

The implications were not lost
on Daniel. Sofia hoped to distract him a little, prise him away
from Shemyaza’s side, thus allowing herself freedom of access. She
did underestimate him, but not as much as he’d thought. He tried to
smile. ‘I’d like to see Lily and Owen very much. I’ve missed
them.’

Sofia touched his hair, and he
had to force himself not to recoil. ‘I know you have! Don’t worry,
everything will work out fine. It will just take a little time,
that’s all.’

When they returned to Enniel,
Daniel was disturbed by the fact that Shem seemed more animated.
Clearly, Sofia’s news had pleased him. He wondered whether his
misgivings were caused only by jealousy, the revelation that
someone who’d been close to Shem in the past had reappeared;
someone who might possibly take on some of Daniel’s position. Had
he become greedy and protective of his status and power? The
thought did not please him. He knew that power was a corrupting
force, and that Grigori power was more corrupting than most.

Before dinner, Daniel wandered
off into the house, ostensibly to look for Emma and let her know
what was happening, but he knew in his heart he had to confront
Taziel. He found Emma watching TV with Aninka in one of the drawing
rooms. He was aware that Aninka was a close friend of Taziel’s and
suspected she now harboured some hard feelings for him. His friend,
‘Eve’, seemed to have disappeared completely. When he asked her
where Taziel was, she replied. ‘You’re too late. He’s upstairs,
getting ready to leave. Lahash is driving him back to London.
Perhaps it would be best if you just left him alone now.’

Daniel offered no response, but
went directly up to the room he had shared with Taziel. When he
entered the room, Taziel was lying on the bed, wearing only a
towel, his wet hair spread out around him. Daniel couldn’t help
thinking it all looked too premeditated, as if Taziel had hoped he
would come.

‘I hear you’re leaving,’ Daniel
said. ‘I’m sorry if...’

Before he could finish his
apology, Taziel interrupted him. ‘I heard you scream. Was it pain
or pleasure? Hard to tell which with that creature, isn’t it?’

Daniel sighed. He didn’t want
to argue. ‘It’s a shame if we have to part this way, Taz, but if
that’s how you want it to be...’

‘You are full of him,’ Taziel
said, ‘I can see his glow on you.’

Daniel guessed Taziel wanted a
full-scale row that could end in sex and reconciliation, but Daniel
couldn’t be bothered. With only a curt ‘goodbye’, he left the room.
The incident left him feeling depressed and uneasy, as if he’d
closed the door on unfinished business, which might come back to
haunt him one day.

At 7.30 pm precisely, Austin
rang the gong in the hallway of High Crag to announce that dinner
was ready. Daniel had not had chance to speak to Shemyaza alone,
which he suspected owed rather more to Enniel’s design than it
appeared. Sofia had monopolised Daniel’s attention, quietly
interrogating him about his life. He felt something brewing in the
air, and found it difficult to eat. He found himself looking at
faces that he’d never seen before; Prussoes who had emerged from
the shadowy nooks of High Crag. Aninka picked at her meal,
occasionally directing caustic glances at both Daniel and Shemyaza.
At one point, Shem, who was sitting opposite and a few places down
the table from her, leaned across the silver-starred snowy linen
and said, ‘Aninka, you look very beautiful.’

Daniel thought Aninka would go
berserk, stab Shem with her knife, hurl her wine over him, but she
remained tight-lipped, if a little crimson along the
cheekbones.

Shem withdrew, apparently
without having taken offence at her hostile silence. ‘Perhaps, one
day, you will forgive me.’

Daniel saw Emma, who was
sitting next to Aninka, whisper something in her ear. Aninka smiled
tightly at her plate and resumed eating.

After dinner, Enniel took
Shemyaza off somewhere, presumably to prepare for the ritual to
come, while the Parzupheim, along with Sofia and Daniel made their
way to a temple in the heart of the house. Sofia was quick to point
out that this would not be the family temple, used for various
religious celebrations and festivals. No, this was the Parzupheim’s
domain, and used only rarely. Daniel assumed that when it was used,
the land around the house must feel it. Only the most important
rituals would take place there.

A silent servant of Enniel’s
ushered Daniel and Sofia through an enormous set of double doors.
From here, they were conducted down the side of the darkened temple
and up a curving wooden staircase, which led to a small gallery at
the back of the hall. Here, they sat down upon hard wooden seats,
and the servant departed. It was difficult to see through the fog
of sandalwood incense, but Daniel could tell that the room was
huge, perhaps three storeys high. The gallery was positioned about
twelve feet from the ground. Sofia began to cough discreetly behind
her hand, then shrugged and got out her cigarettes, whispering to
Daniel that no-one could possibly notice she was smoking. It amused
Daniel to see her flicking ash onto the floor of the gallery.

The temple was magnificent, its
atmosphere at once solemn and electric. Its floor was of dark,
polished wood, into which had been laid a great circle of black and
white tiles. The walls were covered in wooden panelling, and the
room should have appeared large, plain and simple, a ballroom
perhaps. However, what was contained within the unadorned wooden
walls was something from a mad architect’s dream. It looked as if
it belonged out in the open air, on some wild Far Eastern hilltop,
or else hidden within the aromatic darkness of an ancient forest.
Not here in a rugged labyrinth of a house in Cornwall.

Around the circle on the floor
were positioned twelve ornate, stone pillars, that must have been
at least fifteen feet high, supporting an arched, domed canopy. The
pillars were covered in representations of serpents, most of which
were winged. Others were half human, or half Grigori: a woman’s
torso rising from a thick ophidian coil; a man with twin snakes for
legs whose gaping maw devoured a child with a viper’s head. The
dome above the columns was inlaid with a complex mosaic of blue,
white and mauve tiles: a circling frieze of winged beings, that
were depicted enacting weird and arcane ceremonies. At the far end
of the temple, opposite the gallery, stood the altar; a huge block
of stone, weathered and pitted, but covered in carvings. A further
two pillars reared just before it, supporting a section of the
canopy, which extended out over the altar itself. Around the walls,
tall brass censers on tripod legs exuded down-drifting clouds of
sandalwood fumes. Light came from long, red candles, held in ornate
iron sconces that were fixed to the wooden panelling. There were
round windows, high up, composed of the stained glass so beloved of
Grigori, but soon after Sofia and Daniel sat down, soft black
drapes whispered down from some high place to cover them. The only
sound was the soft pad of sandaled feet as a couple of dark-robed
servants moved elegantly round the temple, making sure that the
candles and incense were burning correctly, and adjusting the
placement of items on the altar. Then the last of their pattering
steps receded from the hall, and all was silent.

Sofia smiled at Daniel’s awed
examination of his surroundings. ‘It is supposed to be just like
Solomon’s temple,’ she said in a soft voice. The acoustics of the
place would ensure that sound travelled far.

Daniel shook his head, gazing
up at the imposing dome. ‘It’s incredible.’ He glanced at Sofia.
‘This seems weird, because I’ve never been here before, but I
recognise
it.’

Sofia took a puff off her
cigarette. ‘That’s not weird, Daniel. Think back. Relax. Where have
you seen this place before?’

Daniel surrendered his mind to
the flock of images that had come to flap against his
consciousness. It seemed Sofia’s words had unleashed them. He
closed his eyes. ‘They have made a copy of an ancient temple that
now is lost. The layout is the same.’ He opened his eyes and
glanced at Sofia nervously. ‘Did I once
work
within it, in
another life?’

She nodded encouragingly.
‘Perhaps. What was its name?’

Again, Daniel closed his eyes
to concentrate. ‘It was the Temple of the Royal Flame at Tak...
Takti el Sulamain.

‘Persia,’ said Sofia.

‘Yes. It was a fire temple. And
I served a great king there.’ He screwed up his face with effort —
the memories were fleeting and vague, mere ghosts across his mind.
‘Darius, his name was Darius, King of Persia.’

‘Ah,’ said Sofia. ‘The true
Solomon and his temple.’

Daniel shook his head. ‘This is
so strange. I’ve never had impressions like this before.’

‘Oh well,’ Sofia remarked.
‘There’s a time and place for everything, and you are surely in the
right place at the moment.’

Daniel gazed around the temple.
‘So many of these fittings are original, aren’t they,
plundered...’

‘Not exactly,’ Sofia replied.
‘Look at the altar. Carved from a single block of stone. It wasn’t
plundered, but salvaged, from an old Persian fire temple at the
time of the foundation of Islam. All the old temples were being
destroyed back then, because they were seen as pagan and heretical
monuments.’ The altar was intricately carved with symbols, but a
single image dominated the side that faced them. It was of an
equal-armed cross, cut to resemble the ripples of moving water.
‘You see that cross?’ Sofia said, pointing. ‘It represents the four
rivers of Paradise.’