The Dove (36 page)

“Lucio?”  Mark narrowed his eyes and wiped at his brow.

“And me, Luke Andrew.”  Luke smiled at him.

“Luke?  Where is Omar?”  Mark looked beyond them toward the rowdy Irishmen on the hill.   “Where is Sophia?”

“Sophia is with the Grand Master.”  Lucio told him.

“Ahhh.  The Master.”  Mark nodded and smiled.  “She is safe then.  I was worried about the child.”

Luke glanced at Lucio and the Golden Eagle jerked his head to one side.

“Let us give you a ride, Mark.”  Lucio offered and climbed back on his horse.  “We were just heading up that way.”

“Ahhh.  Yes.  That would be better.”  Mark eyed the horse with great interest.  “You are with the camel troops?”

“Camel troops?”  Luke Andrew was beside himself with confusion.

“Luke.”  Lucio shook his head emphatically.  “Give him a boost up.”  The Italian held down one hand and Luke helped his father onto the horse behind the Golden Eagle.  He smiled down at Luke with a look that Luke had never witnessed in his father’s eyes before.  Complete trust, childlike enthusiasm and, most shocking of all, innocence.  Luke backed away from him in alarm.  This man was not his father.  His worst fears were confirmed in that one brief moment when their eyes met and then Lucio kicked the horse and they were gone.

((((((((((((()))))))))))))

Mark Andrew tried to push the slab up once more and then gave up in aggravation.  They were trapped.  The stone would not budge.  He walked back to where Sophia stood watching him.

“I don’t know what is wrong.”  He told her and picked up his purple mantle from the floor of the dimly lit corridor.  “It’s as if something is jammed or a great weight is on top of it.”

“But there was nothing there.”  Sophia followed him back to the central chamber where the blue fire still burned in the basin.

“We will have to leave another way.”  He spread his mantle around his shoulders and pulled her close to him.  “Now hold on tight and don’t let go.”

Sophia wrapped her arms around him and he turned about quickly.  Nothing happened.  They stumbled across the chamber and bumped against the wall.

“What was that?”  She asked as he let go of her.

“I have no idea.”  He frowned down at himself.  “That should have worked.”

“What should have worked?”  She asked.

“The cloak.  Lemarik made it for me.  It always worked before.”  He dragged the cloth from his shoulders and held it up in the light of the fire.

“Then it is quite obvious that someone does not want us to leave this place.”  Sophia wrapped her arms about her own shoulders and shuddered.  “We should not have come here.”  She lamented their predicament.  Mark had been trying again and again to open the stone slab blocking the only way out of the subterranean structure.  “It’s my fault.  I’m sorry.”

“I brought
you
here… remember?”  He looked up at her.  “It doesn’t matter whose fault it is.  We are overdue.  We should have been more careful.  I had no idea.”

“Surely someone will come for us.”  She wandered aimlessly about the crystal chamber.

“That is highly unlikely.”  Mark began to inspect the walls for weak spots.  “No one knows where we are.”

“No one?”  Sophia’s heart sank.  “Not even John Paul or the Grand Master?”

“I didn’t think to tell anyone about this.”  He shrugged.  “I’m not used to filing a travel plan.”

“Oh.”  She nodded and began to help him search the walls for chinks or cracks.  There was very little space between the blocks that made up the structure.

He pulled his dagger from his belt and scraped at one of the seams.  A few tiny crystals fell away.  It would take years to dig out, if it could be done at all.

“How can we be trapped here?”  She asked him.  “I thought we were… I didn’t think we were…”

“Corporeal?”  He supplied the word.  “You thought we were spirits?”

“Yes.  Something like that.”

“We are.”

“Then how can we be trapped here?  This is a material space.  If we are not material creatures, then how is it that we cannot simply walk through these walls?”  She pressed on the stone with both hands.  It felt very solid, cold and damp.

“A few hours ago, I would have thought the same thing.”  He put his dagger away.  “In fact, a few hours ago, I am quite sure we might have been able to do just that.”

“Then what is holding us here?”  She asked and shuddered again.

“Something has happened.”  He sat down on the floor.  “Something very strange and mysterious.”

“Something very strange and mysterious happened
here
.”  She sat down in front of him.  “Do you think it has anything to do with what we did?  Perhaps you were right…”

Mark took her hand in his and then passed his other hand completely through hers.

“You see?”  He smiled wanly at her and then sighed.  “We are not real.  Not in the material sense. We are only real to the extent that we think it.”

“This is preposterous!”  She passed her own hand through his arm.  “Are we fading away then?”

“I had an experience similar to this once before.”  He thought back on the time he had been in New Persia when Omar had only partially summoned him and he had become trapped there.  “Stand up.”

They stood facing each other in the blue glow.

“Turn around.  I want to try something.”  He told her and she obeyed reluctantly.

“Is it going to hurt?”

“Probably not.”  He said and then stepped into her completely.  At first nothing happened and he heard her giggle at the strange effect this union had on them.  It felt like a million tiny creatures crawled up and down his skin, like the static electricity in woolen blankets on cold dry days.  The sensation began to build and even he laughed as the feeling reached his neck and flowed up over his scalp.  When he noticed that the room was growing brighter around them, he made a move to disengage and found that it was not possible.

“Mark!”  He heard her voice again, now filled with a sense of urgency.

“Sophia!”  He answered her once and then could no longer speak.

A blue flash erupted in the chamber and they were no longer there.  They were falling together.  And the fall went on forever into oblivion.  And all was turned to darkness and there was no light and no end to the falling.  And Mark heard his name called as he passed through the aeons of timeless time.  Astaphaois.  Astaphaois. Astaphaois. Uriel. Uriel. Uriel. Chequetet. Chequetet. Chequetet. Arelich. Arelich. Arelich. Volmalites. Volmalites. Volmalites. Onnes. Onnes. Onnes. Thoth. Thoth. Thoth. Adar. Adar. Adar. Jacob. Jacob. Jacob. Hermes. Hermes. Hermes. John. John. John. Myrddyn. Myrddyn. Myrddyn. Marcus. Marcus. Marcus. And through the darkness, he saw the stories of his many lives associated with each of his many names.  And he tried to cry out and cover his eyes, but the journey continued.  And he saw the Sons of Light and the Sons of Darkness.  And he saw the plight of men before Sophia. And he saw the great flood. And he saw the Great kingdoms of the North.  And he saw the destruction of the Great Tower. The Akkadians and the Sumerians and Semiramis in all her splendid glory.  And he saw the men of Khem and the great Sphinx.  And he saw the people of Yahweh and their plight.  And he saw the rise of Egypt and the fall of Solomon and the exploits of Carlisle. And he saw the Master, the Rabbi as he died upon the cross. He saw the rise of Rome and the fall of Alexandria.  And he saw the great darkness, the heresy, spread over the land and the apostasy of the Church.  He saw the birth of Arthur and the rise of the East.  And he saw the fall of Jerusalem and the persecution of the Pure Ones.  And he saw himself lost in sin and despair.  And still he fell.  And he saw in darkness…

And he heard in silence…

And he spoke without words…

And he thought without thinking…

And he felt…

Nothing.

Chapter Thirteen of Sixteen

But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.

Lord Marduk stood up and backed away from Jozsef Daniel prone figure.  He no longer moved or spoke, but stared blankly into the smoke-filled sky above.  John Paul stood slightly behind him, shielding the Tuathan healer behind him. 

It was over
. 

Sabaoth had fled leaving Jozsef’s battered shell behind and he would not be able to take on another form in the physical word any time soon.  The Lord of the Sixth Gate had banished him into the beyond from whence he had come.

Marduk turned and stumbled, exhausted, into John’s arms and the Lord of the First gate lowered him to the ground before inspecting the body of his son.

“Jozsef?”  John Paul whispered the name tentatively, hopefully, but the eyes did not blink.  There was no flicker of recognition or life other than the ragged rise and fall of the chest and the slow trickle of blood from the wound in his side.  His face was extremely pale against the dark hair that lay in damp, twisted strands on the rock and grit of the desert floor.

John Paul motioned the Tuathan healer to his side.

“Do what you can for the wound, my friend.”  He told the healer and stood up again, shading his eyes against the glare of the setting sun, scanning the battlefield for signs of Mark Andrew.

Selwig, exhausted and bedraggled by his ordeal, set about cutting the cloth from the jagged puncture wound under Jozsef’s ribcage.

“And the hand, Master?”  He looked up at John Paul.  More blood oozed from the disfigured hand where the skin was now missing.

“Do whatever you can.  The danger is over.”  John Paul whistled for the winged stallion.  “We will send back help for you.”

John Paul mounted the winged horse, pulling Marduk, somewhat revived up behind him.

Another great army was approaching from the north. 

“Who are these people on the horizon, brother?”  Marduk leaned close to him and asked in a raspy whisper.

“They are the nations of the west.  Too late have they come to our aid and with them comes wrath.  Our work here is finished.  The kings of the West will do what they will.”

The horse leapt into the air and was soon winging its way to the south in search of Lord Nebo’s army.

((((((((((((()))))))))))))

Mark Andrew opened his eyes and found the world very still and quiet.  He was no longer falling.  He pressed his hands against his sides in search of some remnant of Sophia, but her form was no longer distinct.  They were one, whole now and united in substance and form.

“Sophia.”  He whispered her name and it seemed he heard her voice answer him within his own mind.

“Grandfather!”  A more distinct voice called to him from very nearby.

The place in which he had come to rest had the feel of a vacuum.  There was light, but it had no source.  There was the feel of solid earth beneath him, but he could not see it.  He was sitting cross-legged and his sword lay across his lap, gleaming dully.

“Nicholas?  Gregory?”  He called and used his hands to turn himself about and found that he could move with great ease.  Behind him was a wall of gleaming crystal that stretched into infinity above and below him.  Inside the glass he saw three people.  Jozsef Daniel, his grandson, Anna, his great-great-granddaughter and Omar, the Prophet, still in the semblance of the Templar Colonel.  He was unsure which of the two men had spoken to him.

“Grandfather.”  Omar shouted and pressed his hands against the crystal.

Mark pressed the smooth barrier over his grandson’s hands, but could not feel it.

“Help us!”  Jozsef also put his hands on the barrier.  Mark could see the golden sheen on the inside of his palm.

“Sabaoth?”  He said the Ancient Evil’s name.

“He is gone.  Banished.”  Anna’s voice came clearly through the wall.  “Release us, Grandfather.”

Mark Andrew stood up in the strange emptiness, looked up and then down.  He could travel neither up the crystal wall, nor down.  He could see his own reflection and recognized the form that he had worn in ages past.  His hair was gleaming white and his eyes were clearest blue.  His normally black clothing was also changed into a pearlescent white and he seemed to glow in the depths of the crystal.  The light was coming from him!

He raised the sword in his hands and began to speak without thought.

“
List ye, O man, to the deep hidden wisdom, lost to the world since the time of the Dwellers, lost and forgotten by men of this age.  Know ye this Earth is but a portal, guarded by powers unknown to man.  Yet, the Dark Lords hide the entrance that leads to the Heaven-born land.  Know ye, the way to the sphere of Arulu is guarded by barriers opened only to the Light-born man.
”  The words from the
Emerald Tablets of Thoth
.

He lowered the sword and sat down again, laying the sword across his lap.