The Devil Rides Out (13 page)

She nodded. ‘If I am to place myself under his protection it is vital that I should see him before the meeting, for Mocata has eyes in the ether and will know that I am here by now.'

‘Come on then!' He took her hand and pulled her to her feet. ‘We'll get through to Claridges right away.'

Tanith allowed him to lead her out into the hall and when he had got the number he left her at the telephone. Then he returned to the lounge, poured himself another cocktail and began to do a little dance to celebrate his victory. He felt that he had got her now, safe for the day, until the Duke turned up. Then trust De Richleau to get something out of her which would enable them to get on Simon's track after all.

At his sixth pirouette he stopped suddenly. Tanith was standing in the doorway, her face ashen, her big eyes blazing with a mixture of anger and fear.

‘You have lied to me,' she stammered out, ‘Mocata is with the Countess at this moment, he got Simon Aron away from you last night. You and your precious Duke are imposters, charlatans—you haven't even the power to protect yourselves, and for this Mocata may tie me to the Wheel of Ptah—oh, I must get back!' Before he could stop her she had turned and fled out of the house.

In one spring Rex was across the room, another and he had reached the garden. Against those long legs of his Tanith had no chance. Before she had covered twenty yards he caught her arm and jerked her round to face him.

‘Let me go!' she panted. ‘Haven't you endangered me enough with your lies and interference.'

He smiled down into her frightened face but made no motion to release her. ‘I'm awfully sorry I had to tell you all those tarradiddles to get you to
this place, but now you're here you're going to stay, understand?'

‘It is you who don't understand,' she flashed. ‘You and your friend the Duke are like a couple of children playing with a dynamite bomb. You haven't a chance against Mocata. He will loose a power on you that will simply blot you out.'

‘I wouldn't be too certain of that. Maybe I know nothing of this occult business myself, and if anyone had suggested to me that there were practising Satanists wandering around London this time last week, I'd have said they had bats in the belfry. But the Duke's different, and, believe you me, he's a holy terror when he once gets his teeth into a thing. Best save your pity for Mocata—he'll need it before De Richleau's through with him.'

‘Is he… is he really an Ipsissimus then?' she hesitated.

‘Lord knows–I don't. That's just a word I picked out of some jargon he was talking last night that I thought might impress you.' Rex grinned broadly. All the lying and trickery which he had been forced to practise during the morning had taxed him to the utmost, but now that he was able to face the situation openly he felt at the top of his form again.

‘I daren't stay then–I daren't!' She tried to wrench herself free. ‘Don't you see that if he is only some sort of dabbler he will never be able to protect me.'

‘Don't fret your sweet self. No one shall lay a finger on you as long as I'm around.'

‘But, you great fool, you don't understand,' she waved miserably. ‘The Power of Darkness cannot be turned aside by bruisers or iron bars. If I don't appear at the meeting tonight, the moment I fall asleep Mocata will set the abhumans on to me. In the morning I may be dead or possessed—a raving lunatic.'

Rex did not laugh. He knew that she was genuinely terrified of an appalling possibility. Instead he turned her towards the house and said gently: ‘Now please don't worry so. De Richleau does understand just how dangerous monkeying with this business is. He spent half the night trying to convince me of it, and like a fool I wouldn't believe him until I saw a thing I don't care to talk about, but I'm dead certain he'd never allow you to run any risk like that.'

‘Then let me go back to London!'

‘No. He asked me to get you here so as he could have a word with you, and I've done it. We'll have a quiet little lunch together now and talk this thing over when the Duke turns up. He'll either guarantee to protect you or let you go.'

‘He can't protect me, I tell you, and in any case I
wish
to attend this meeting tonight.'

‘You wish to!' he echoed with a shake of the head. ‘Well, that gets me beat, but you can't even guess what you'd be letting yourself in for. Anyhow I don't mean to let you–so now you know.'

‘You mean to keep me here against my will?'

‘Yes!'

‘What is to stop me screaming for help?'

‘Nix, but since the Duke's not here the servants know I'm in charge, so they won't bat an eyelid if you start to yell the house down–and there's no one else about.'

Tanith glanced swiftly down the drive. Except at the white gates, tall banks
of rhododendrons, heavy with bloom, obscured the lane. No rumble of passing traffic broke the stillness that brooded upon the well-kept garden. The house lay silent in the early summer sunshine. The inhabitants of the village were busy over the midday meal.

She was caught and knew it. Only her wits could get her out of this, and her fear of Mocata was so great that she was determined to use any chance that offered to free herself from this nice, meddling fool.

‘You'll not try to prevent me leaving if De Richleau says I may when he arrives?' she asked.

‘No. I'll abide by his decision,' he agreed.

‘Then for the time being I will do as you wish.'

‘Fine–come on.' He led her back to the house and rang for Max, who appeared immediately from the doorway of the dining-room.

‘We've decided to lunch on the river.' Rex told him. ‘Make up a basket and have it put in the electric canoe.' He had made the prompt decision directly he sensed that Tanith meant to escape if she could. Once she was alone in a boat with him he felt that, unless she was prepared to jump out and swim for it, he could hold her without any risk of a scene just as long as he wanted to.

‘Very good, sir–I'll see to it at once.' Max disappeared into the domain of which he was lord and master, while Rex shepherded Tanith back to the neglected cocktails.

He refreshed the shaker while she sat on the sofa eyeing him curiously, but he persuaded her to have one, and when he pressed her she had another. Then Max appeared to announce that his orders had been carried out.

‘Let's go, shall we?' Rex held open the french-windows and together they crossed the sunlit lawn with its beds of tulips, polyanthus, wallflowers and forget-me-nots. At the river's edge, upon a neat, white painted landing-stage, a boatman held the long electric canoe ready for them.

Tanith settled herself on the cushions and Rex took the small perpendicular wheel. In a few moments they were chugging out into midstream and up the river towards Goring, but he preferred not to give her the opportunity of appealing to the lock-keeper, so he turned the boat and headed it towards a small backwater below the weir.

Having tied up beneath some willows, he began passing packages and parcels out of the stern. ‘Come on,' he admonished her. ‘It's the girl's job to see to the commissariat. Just forget yourself a moment and see what they've given us to eat.'

She smiled a little ruefully. ‘If I really thought you realised what you were doing I should look on you as the bravest man I've ever known.'

He turned suddenly, still kneeling at the end of the boat. ‘Go on, say it again. I love the sound of your voice.'

‘You fool!' She coloured, laughing as she unwrapped the napkins. ‘There's some cheese here–and ham and tongue–and brown bread–and salad–and a lobster. We shall never be able to eat all this and, oh, look,' she held out a small wicker basket, ‘
fraises des bois.
'

‘Marvellous. I haven't tasted a wood strawberry since I last lunched at Fontainbleau. Anyhow, it's said the British Army fights on its stomach, so I'm electing myself an honorary member of it for the day. Fling me that corkscrew, will you, and I'll deal with this bottle of Moselle.'

Soon they were seated face to face propped against the cushions, a little
sticky about the mouth, but enjoying themselves just as any nice normal couple would in such circumstances; but when the meal was finished he felt that, much as he would have liked to laze away the afternoon, he ought, now the cards were upon the table, to learn what he could of this grim business without waiting for the coming of the Duke. He unwrapped another packet which he had found in the stern of the boat, and passing it over asked half humorously:

‘Tell me, does a witch ever finish up her lunch with chocolates? I'd be interested to know on scientific grounds.'

‘Oh, why did you bring me back, I have been enjoying myself so much.' Her face was drawn and miserable as she buried it in her hands.

‘I'm sorry!' He put down the chocolates and bent towards her. ‘But we're both in this thing, so we've got to talk of it, haven't we, and though you don't look the part, you're just as much a witch as any old woman who ever soured the neighbour's cream, else you'd never have seen me in that crystal this morning as I sat in the lounge of your hotel.'

‘Of course I am if you care to use such a stupid old-fashioned term. She drew her hands away and tossed back her fair hair as she stared at him defiantly. ‘That was only child's play-just to keep my hand in–a discipline to make me fit to wield a higher power.'

‘For good?' he questioned laconically.

‘It is necessary to pass through many stages before having to choose whether one will take the Right or Left Hand Path.'

‘So I gather. But how about this unholy business in which you've a wish to take part tonight?'

‘If I submit to the ordeal I shall pass the Abyss.' The low caressing voice lifted to a higher note, and the wise eyes suddenly took on a fanatic gleam.

‘You can't have a notion what they mean to do to you or you'd never even dream of it,' he insisted.

‘I have, but you know nothing of these things so naturally you consider me utterly shameless or completely mad. You are used to nice English and American girls who haven't a thought in their heads except to get you to marry them–if you have any money–which apparently you have, but that sort of thing does not interest me. I have worked and studied to gain power–real power over other people's lives and destinies–and I know now that the only way to acquire it is by complete surrender of self. I don't expect you to understand my motives but that is why I mean to go tonight.'

He studied her curiously for a moment, still convinced that she could not be fully aware of the abominations that would take place at the Sabbat. Then he broke out: ‘How long is it since you became involved in this sort of thing?'

‘I was psychic even as a child,' she told him slowly. ‘My mother encouraged me to use my gifts. Then when she died I joined a society in Budapest. I loved her. I wanted to keep in touch with her still.'

‘What proof have you got it was her?' he demanded with a sudden renewal of scepticism as he recalled the many newspaper exposures of spiritualistic séances.

‘I had very little then, but since, I have been convinced of it beyond all doubt.'

‘And is she, your own mother, your guide I suppose you'd call it?'

Tanith shook her head. ‘No, she has gone on, and it was not for me to seek
to detain her, but others have followed, and every day my knowledge of the worlds which lie beyond this grows greater.'

‘But it's extraordinary that a young girl like you should devote yourself to this sort of thing. You ought to be dancing, dining, playing golf, going places–you're so lovely you could take your pick among the men.'

She shrugged a little disdainfully. ‘Such a life is dull. Ordinary. After a year I tired of it, and few women can climb mountains or shoot big game, but the conquest of the unknown offers the greatest adventure of all.'

Again her voice altered suddenly, and the inscrutable eyes which gave her a strange, serious beauty, so fitting for a lady of the Italian Renaissance, gleamed as before.

‘Religions and moralities are man-made, fleeting and local; a scandalous lapse from virtue in London may be a matter for the highest praise in Hong Kong, and the present Archbishop of Paris would be shocked beyond measure if it was suggested that he had anything in common, beyond his religious office, with a Medieval Cardinal. One thing and one thing only remains constant and unchanging, the secret doctrine of the way to power. That is a thing to work for and, if need be, cast aside all inherent scruples for–as I shall tonight.'

‘Aren't you just a bit afraid?' He stared at her solemnly.

‘No, provided I follow the path which is set, no harm can come to me.'

‘But it is an evil path,' he insisted, marvelling at the change which had come over her. It almost seemed as if it were a different woman speaking or one who repeated a recitation, learned in a foreign language, with all the appropriate expression yet not understanding its true meaning, as she replied with a cynical little smile.

‘Unfortunately the followers of the Right Hand Path obsess themselves only with the well-being of the Universe as a whole, whereas those of the Left exercise their power upon living humans. To bend people to your will, to cause them to fall or rise, to place unaccountable obstacles in their path at every turn or smooth their way to a glorious success–that is more than riches, more than fame–the supreme pinnacle to which any man or woman can rise, and I wish to reach it before I die.'

‘Maybe–maybe.' Rex shook his head with a worried frown, ‘But you're young and beautiful–just breaking in on all the fun of life–why not think it over for a year or two? It's horrible to hear you talk as though you were a disillusioned old woman.'