Evil Unearthed: Chapter 31

Chapter Thirty-one

Stephen was concerned as he followed Vangie from the house. Before leaving, they had gone again to Barrett's room and had retrieved the serpent-staff. They had done this at his own insistence, because he saw that whatever struggle was going on inside the Conjure Woman was taking its toll on her body. So now, here they were, Vangie leaning on the staff and carrying a flashlight and him walking behind her, now dressed in the robes which Barrett had once worn.

"I will need your help, Stephen," she had said, "as Robert's successor. I know you do not know much about our ways, but your instinct for evil is finely-honed. I shall need that and your strength in the hours to come."

He had nodded and had grasped her hand, but what he really wanted to do was to take the burden from her shoulders if he could. He knew that she still was not being completely honest with him, but he had begun to feel that this might be for the best. He knew himself well enough to know that imagined fears were often larger in his mind than fears faced in the heat of reality, and while he felt certain that she knew what was awaiting them in the temple, he realized that she was deliberately shielding him so that he would not have time to grind himself down by using his far-too-vivid imagination before they got there and faced whatever it was they were going to face.

"We'll enter here," said Vangie, as they stopped at one of the yawning mouths in the side of a cliff, "and be careful! The way is difficult and dangerous!"

Stephen watched as she bent her head to enter and switched on the flashlight, and he fell to thinking of other ways which led to sacred places such as this which he had studied.

"Are there traps here?"

"Only those that nature could devise," came Vangie's voice hollowly from within the cave. "There used to be priest-made traps on this path, but they have long since been destroyed by time. Still, step carefully!"

Stephen followed her into the darkness, and he was surprised to hear the booming of the sea closer than he had in the open air.

"It sounds as though we're inside a seashell," he said.

"In a manner of speaking, we are," said Vangie. "The sea is all around us here."

The cave was low-roofed, so that Stephen had to stoop to walk through it. The floor was littered with loose stones and, in the beam of Vangie's flashlight, he could see why these coral caves had been named as they had. The walls were covered with flowing and intricate forms which seemed to glow with a rose-hued splendour, and he thought how this beauty had come from the death of so many sea-creatures long ago. This filled him with a certain small hope, and so they continued their journey through the cave which throbbed and boomed with the sea's ancient and relentless voice.

"The temple is beyond this wall," said Vangie after what seemed like an eternity. Stephen's back was aching with the effort of avoiding contact between his head and the roof of the cave, and now, whatever hope he had felt before died when he saw the solid mass of stone in front of them.

"What are we supposed to do now?"

"Speak softly," said Vangie in a warning tone. "These walls seem solid, but there are piles of stone which could come down on us if we are too loud. Don't worry! There is a door here," and handing him the light, she began to run her hands over the smooth stone in front of her. Stephen saw in the light's glow that the stone was not merely smoothed with age, but with a craftsman's tools, and as Vangie explored it with her fingers, he noticed carvings written in a flowing and intricate script.

"What language is that?" he whispered wonderingly. "The writing almost looks Phoenician!"

"Indeed," said Vangie in a far-away voice. "It very well could be related. Now, come here and put your shoulder where I tell you!"

Stephen did as she indicated and began to push. At first, he thought the stone was immovable, but after a few seconds of hard effort, he felt a slight movement inwards, and then the door began to swing in, propelled by its own impetus. The sound was massive as the stone slab moved, but soon, it was drowned in an onrush of roiling wind which caught him and threw him clear of the door. He only narrowly missed hitting the Conjure Woman as he fell sprawling on his back, but she, he noticed, was still standing upright and unhurt.

"Can you get up?" Her voice was loud now, but he could barely hear it over the roaring of the wind. For answer, he got to his feet and stood beside her, and she, whether to bolster her own strength or to lend it to him, took his hand.

"It won't hurt you now," she said in her usual soft voice, and indeed, the wind was falling somewhat as she spoke. "Come on!"

Stephen saw the temple walls covered with ancient paintings, but all this was obscured by what was standing in the centre of the room. He could just recognize the face and form of Kathleen O'Dell, but it was as though she stood within a cloud of lightning. Then, he turned to his side and saw Vangie, seeming to kindle and to catch fire with that unearthly light he had seen in her cabin. First, it was as though she stood within a moonbeam. Then, before long, it was like the noonday sun stood beside him, and if it wasn't for her hand in his, still feeling solid and real, he would have knelt in supplication before her as a goddess. Yet, even though she stood revealed in all her glory, Stephen felt the chill of the evil they had come to fight, and what froze his very heart was that this chill was coming from Kathleen herself.

"I have come," said the Conjure woman. "Do what you must do!"

"No, Vangie," and hardly knowing what he did, Stephen tore his hand from hers and stood between her warmth and Kathleen's killing frost.

"Well," said a voice which was decidedly not Kathleen's. It was deep and resonant, seeming to come from the very depths of the earth itself. "Aren't we chivalrous! My fight is not with you, little priest! Stand aside," and with a flick of her finger, Kathleen tossed him casually to the side where he struck the wall and lay unable to move. He could still see, however, and what he saw next caused him to weep uncontrollably.

Vangie, still radiant, was being lifted and suspended from the ceiling by an invisible force. She seemed unable to save herself, and before he knew it, the force let her go and she fell hard upon the painted tiles below. She lay motionless for a moment, and Stephen feared she was dead. However, with an effort that seemed to cost her much, she rose again to her feet, and again the light shone from her.

"I am in the hands of the Great Serpent," she said. "I do not fear you, thing of darkness!" Then, incredibly, she walked into the cloud enveloping Kathleen and took the hand which had been poised to do her some other injury.

"Kathleen Brigit O'Dell! Hear me! You are not yet completely lost! The mark of death has only the hold you give it over you. If you go further with what you mean to do, it will enslave you even if you do not give it your will! Come, Kat, as we are friends! Come back!"

"Friends," said Kathleen's voice. "Friends? Have you not recognized me, Conjure Woman? Do you not know who I was in a former life? Do you remember the vision I had yesterday morning?"

"Oh no! It can't be!" Stephen saw all the light fade from around Vangie as though someone had turned off a switch, and it was at this moment that Kathleen suddenly threw her to one side as though she weighed no more than a feather.

"What was my name, Conjure Woman?" Stephen saw raw hatred in Kathleen's face, and he wondered what had caused Vangie to look so pale and frightened.

"Sophie," Vangie said now. "You were Sophie, and I--I didn't see it till now!"

"Then, I suppose you recall what you did to Sophie in this very temple?"

"You are deceived," said Vangie, her voice hardening as she again got to her feet. "You've seen what the evil wanted you to see. I can show you the truth, if you'll let me."

"The truth," Kathleen said again in that massive voice which was not hers, "little Evangeline, is that your time of reckoning has come! You are the last who can hurt me, and you have escaped me for too long!"

"Do you think that you can make her kill me?" Stephen heard the assurance in Vangie's voice, but he thought he saw a flicker of doubt cross her face. He met her eyes and tried to encourage her, but his voice would not obey him and his limbs seemed as though they were bound with invisible cords.

"She has a loving spirit," Vangie continued, and the light began to dawn again and to shine from her hands and face.

"But how if that loving spirit were betrayed? It was, you know, and she knows it too."

"If she truly is Sophie's reincarnated soul, then I think I know more about her than you do! However, if you think you can make her kill me, then go ahead and try!"

Then, Stephen saw a wonderful thing. Kathleen, obviously in the grip of whatever was using her for its own evil purposes, raised her hand in what surely was about to be a killing gesture, but as she saw Vangie's face, still steady and calm after all the indignities she had suffered, something shrank within her. He could see the cloud of power dissipating from around her, and in utter silence, she sank to her knees in exhaustion and misery.

"Can you move, Stephen?" Vangie spoke softly, as though she were trying not to wake a sleeping child, and Stephen suddenly found that he could. His head ached terribly--this was the second blow he had received in just a few hours, after all--but his mind was clear. He got to his feet and went to where Kathleen was crouched.

"Help me to lay her down," said Vangie. "It will take a while for her to recover herself, but she will. Of that I'm sure."

"Shouldn't we get out of here?"

"Not yet. There is still much to be done. Do you see that mark on the altar?" Stephen did. It looked like a strange sort of tree with a curling tail and it looked as though it was written in fresh blood.

"That is the mark of death," said Vangie. "It was the curse under which Jacques Eloi Des Mondes and Raxl fled from France and came to our island. Jacques we could not reach, but we thought we had managed to help Raxl with our magic. Still, as I told you, she was vulnerable to its influence even here, and whenever she left the island to serve the Desmond family on other shores, it followed her and our magic could not contend with it."

Stephen recalled her saying this on the night of their arrival on Maljardin, and he thought how Kathleen had been the one to ask all the questions at that meeting.

"So this is the real power we're fighting? Was it working on Kathleen all this time?"

"I think it was," said Vangie. "There was a reason why it kept trying to block my mental communication with her when I was still on the main island, only I didn't see the full reason until now. Kathleen is a woman of great sensitivity, and it is people like her whom the devil will choose for his agents."

"Was it the devil in the library then? Did she cast out devils by the prince of the devils?"

"I can't be sure of that," said Vangie. "Still, given what has followed, that might be the case. Your gospel also says that by their fruits they shall be known, after all."

"True enough, but you said that the--power--" He found it difficult to say 'devil' just then, "could only use her if she gave it her will. Why would she have done it?"

"She didn't know she was doing it until it was too late," said Vangie. "We'll only know what happened for sure when we can question her, but before that, this temple must be cleansed of the devil's presence."

"But surely we can't do more today! You're weak! We haven't eaten!"

"We must do it today, Stephen! Whatever weakness I feel will be compensated for. Trust me, please!"

"Alright," he said, not wanting to admit that it was his own bodily weakness of which he was afraid. "What do we do?"

"First," said Vangie, "I want you to look around this place. Do you recognize it?"

For a moment, Stephen thought she must be mad, but then, as the candle-flames flickered over the paintings on the walls, he suddenly remembered a dream which had come to him on the night of Bill Temple's death.

"You and I," he said slowly. "You and I were here in a dream I had, and you were telling me that I was a true priest. Do you mean to tell me that you were really there, I mean you shared the dream with me?"

"Is that so difficult to believe, Father Dawson?" and she turned upon him one of her most radiant smiles.

"I'm sorry," she said after a pause. "It was just that you reminded me so much of your uncle when you asked me that. Yes, we shared the same dream, and now, that dream must become reality. Look in that corner!"

In the corner she indicated, the furthest corner from the altar, Stephen found a drum like the one he had played in Vangie's cabin.

"How could this have survived? This place looks like a tornado hit it!"

"I suppose the force which destroyed the temple did not think the drum of any significance."

"More fool it," said Stephen, remembering the ritual he had drummed for in the cabin. "But how can I drum this time if you have no priest?"

"For this ritual," said Vangie, "the priest's function is to drum," and she found among the litter of broken stone that covered the floor a brazier set on three legs, and she put this on the altar. There was still some charcoal in it, and taking one of the lit candles, she touched the flame to the coals and retrieved some incense from a pouch she carried with her, and as the strange and sacred smoke began to fill the room, the spell of the dream stole upon him where he stood, drum in hand, and he knew exactly what to do.

Vangie sat down and faced the altar, and Stephen began to drum. The drumming was different from that which Barrett had taught him, and he knew that he had drummed it before in the dream. Soon, he saw again the light surrounding the Conjure Woman, and suddenly, she rose to her feet, spreading her hands in a gesture of invocation.

"I speak now as the Conjure Woman who bears the title of the Regent of the Realm beyond Time! I call now upon the power which is given to the one who bears this title to come and restore what is rightfully yours! Take back your temple from those who have defiled it! Cleanse it from all evil, and cause it again to be a haven of power and protection for those who call upon the Great Serpent! Let the temple be whole once more!" and with that, the light spread and brightened, and in a great burst of colour, all was changed before his very eyes. As the light began to fade, he saw Vangie, standing tall and straight as the candle-flames, and there, on the altar, where the bloody mark had been, stood the magnificent form of the Great Serpent cast in green stone and with rubies for eyes.

"My god," he breathed.

"Speak not," came Vangie's voice, though it was changed somehow. It was filled with an authority which he could not cross. "Only drum and wait! This act may consume me, but only if you are not wholly present in it."

Stephen made no answer but continued drumming, and he suddenly saw the power which had taken Vangie. He saw it as though it were something visible, though he knew that it could not be seen by anyone but himself in that moment. It was coiling around her and had her in its grip, but even as he saw this, he knew that his drumming and concentration were focusing it, directing it, and that if he were to falter, it might very well take her completely and consume her, body and soul. Was this what a priest was supposed to do? He reflected that in all the magical faiths he had studied, this was exactly what the male half of the partnership was to do. He had always considered this a trick of the mind however. He had never thought it could actually be true. Now, here he was, actually in contact with a power which he, simply by being male, could direct and focus. It was amazing!

After some while--Stephen never knew how long--Vangie, still glowing like golden embers in the incense smoke, moved now to Kathleen and touched her gently.

"Let us forget what happened here, Kat," she said. "I know your heart and I know the truth of why Sophie died, and I want to tell you about it. So please, come back to us. Do not wander in the void forever!" Stephen began to drum faster. He realized now that Vangie was struggling with the darkness for Kathleen's very soul, and soon, the smile he saw on the Conjure Woman's face told him that she had won.

"Alright," she said now. "You can stop drumming, but you must do something else for me."

Stephen knew what it was without even having to ask. He could still see the Serpent-power--or so he called it in his thoughts--coiling and roiling around her, and, setting down the drum, he went and took up Barrett's serpent-staff which Vangie had leaned against a wall. Pointing it at the power he could still somehow see, he allowed it to flow into the staff from the Conjure Woman. He did this until all the power was gone from her, and then, feeling the staff almost too heavy to hold up, he set it to earth and allowed the power to flow out of it. A part of him wondered how he had known what to do, but a deeper part simply did, acting on some instinct he hadn't suspected was there until now.

"Well done," said Vangie, and Stephen was surprised to find her still surrounded by the unearthly light.

"You're--your still glowing," he said stupidly.

"It is a sign," she said, taking his hand, "that I am not left alone to fight this evil! The Great Serpent dwells here again, and this is again a seat of power to contend with the things of the dark! Now, let's see to Kat. Look! She's waking up." Stephen turned from the radiance of the Conjure Woman to where Kathleen, now looking decidedly mortal, lay. He saw her eyes flick open, but before he could go to her, Vangie turned to what must, he surmised, be the opening of the tunnel that led to the crypt.

"You should go and get something to eat, Stephen," she said now. "Kat and I will be alright here. The door at the end of this tunnel is heavy, but I think you'll be able to open it. Take the flashlight," and she put it into his hand, "and we'll join you soon."

"But what about the capsule?"

"It is gone from the door. You'll find the way clear."

Stephen hardly dared believe this, but, switching on the light, he did as he was ordered, and before long, he came to the door. Not only was it clear of obstructions, but it was standing open, and as he went through, it closed with a bang and he was left alone in the Desmond crypt, shut out now from the mysteries which had surrounded him but a moment before.