The Dove (16 page)

“I would venture to say the one we had in our custody is not the genuine article. Perhaps some power greater than I took him from me in the Abyss, your Grace and replaced him with a fraud.  The elves are famous for such things.”

“Elves…”  Jozsef shook his head.  “I thought it only hair.  A primitive decoration.  Now my memory… or rather the memories of the one called Jozsef Daniel tell me otherwise.  You are right, Abaddon.  Great magick was used to create the white braid.  It was not a part of the Knight, but something altogether independent of him.  Apparently, it was simply using him as a resting place.”  Jozsef crossed his arms over his chest and tapped his thumb against his bottom teeth thoughtfully.  “Alchemy, no doubt.”

“Apparently so.”

“Send out a patrol, just in case and double the perimeter security.”  Jozsef finished off his water.  “I wouldn’t want any surprises during the night.”

“Yes, Your Grace.”

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

The ATV sputtered, bucked and then rolled to a stop as the engine died for the last time.

“Now what?”  Bari sighed and opened the door.

“Out of gas, sir.”  Colonel McGuffy got out as well and waved to the drivers behind them.

“What do we do now?”  Nicole opened her own door.

“Stay inside, Miss Ramsay.”  McGuffy told her as the other two vehicles pulled alongside them and stopped.  “There may be more of those creatures hereabouts.”

“I thought you said that someone would meet us?”  Bari squinted into the westering sun.  “Where are they?”

“They will be here.”  McGuffy went around to the rear of the vehicle and opened the hatch.  The other soldiers came to help him unload the baggage.  “Put everything on the roof racks.”  He instructed them.  “Throw out anything unnecessary.”

“Sir, we are almost out of gas as well.”  The sergeant told him mournfully.  “We won’t get much farther tonight.  Perhaps we should set up camp here.”

The Colonel looked about the wide open place in which they had stopped. 

“There is no cover here. We should try to get to those hills.”  He nodded at a dark line of low hills on the horizon.

“We’ll never make it.”  One of the drivers shook his head.

“All right then.  Siphon the gas from your truck and put it in this one.”  He jerked his head to the nearest ATV.  “Leave everything, but the food and water packs.  Three can ride on top.  One in the back and we’ll squeeze the other two inside.”

The sergeant nodded and they began to unload the ATV, discarding everything except the plastic water bottles and ration packs.

Mark Andrew had ignored the Colonel’s instructions and climbed out of the truck.  He stood looking down at the bags lying on the ground.  He rarely did anything that anyone told him to do except for Sophia.

“Master.”  The Colonel took his arm.  “You should stay inside.”

“Fight.”  Mark nodded at the sword the Colonel wore on his belt.  Most of the Fox officers now wore swords and daggers full time.  Bullets were very scarce.  If close combat could cure the ill, then bladed weapons were the primary choice, the ammunition was to be saved at all costs.

“Fight?”  The Colonel frowned.  “With whom?”

Mark Andrew pointed at himself and smiled.

“Ahhh.  You want me to teach you to fight?”  McGuffy’s eyes lit up.  He well remembered several skirmishes in which he had witnessed this man use the awesome sword he had worn at his side when he had accompanied Mark Ramsay through England.  The aging Colonel would never be able to teach him to fight so well and the golden sword… he frowned and wondered where it might be.

Mark Andrew nodded.

“Barton!”  McGuffy called to the sergeant.  “Give the Master your sword.”

“Wait just a minute!”  Bari objected and then backed away quickly when Mark frowned at him.  “You can’t be serious!”

“Why not?”  The Colonel frowned at him.  “We may need him before we get to where we are going.”

The sergeant took off his sword and handed it to the Knight.  Mark Andrew held the sword in his hands and frowned at the silver blade.

“I know it’s not as pretty as the one you had, Sir,” McGuffy drew his own sword and backed away from the ATV.  “But it’s the best we can do.  Now look…”

Bari walked back to the vehicle in disgust.

“What are they doing?”  Sophia craned her neck to see out the window.

“Working great folly.”  Bari muttered and leaned against the open door.  “They are teaching Grandfather to use a sword.”

“Really?”  Nicole perked up and stepped out of the truck.  “This I have to see!”

Sophia hurriedly followed the other woman out of the ATV as the sound of clanking blades filled the air.  Bari climbed in the front seat and began to fish around under the seat.  He came up with a small black bag and slung it over his shoulder, grumbling to himself all the while that they were all going to die.  The vibration of the crystal within the bag was somehow comforting against his back.  The power of the skull had attracted both Nicole and Mark Andrew on several occasions and he had been hard-pressed to keep them from rummaging through the supplies in search of the thing that bothered them inexplicably.  Nicole complained of a humming in her ears and a tickling sensation in her backside.  Mark Andrew had developed several headaches and complained to Sophia that
something
nasty
was in the truck.  Fortunately, he did not possess the verbal acuity necessary to explain more fully the nature of the ‘something nasty’.  Bari clambered over the seats and stashed the backpack at the very rear of the truck under the water bottles as they were loaded.

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

“And now as to the watchers who have sent thee to intercede for them, who had been aforetime in heaven: You have been in heaven, but all the mysteries had not yet been revealed to you, and you knew worthless ones, and these in the hardness of your hearts you have made known to the woman, and through these mysteries women and men work much evil on earth.  Say to them therefore: ‘You have no peace.’”  Lavon closed the book and looked in the Grand Master’s radiant blue eyes.  Edgard blinked at him three times and then turned his gaze on Konrad von Hetz.  The two Knights had cornered him as soon as he had retired to his room in Buckingham Palace.

“You want answers?”  Edgard got up from the settee and crossed the elegantly appointed sitting room to the well-stocked bar.  King Ramsay had done quite well by his visitors, providing every convenience still available in London and then some after he had gotten over the initial shock of the Grand Master’s new appearance.

The hour was very late and they had only just left a grand dinner and a long meeting with King Ramsay and his Prime Minister’s staff.  Tomorrow they would finalize the transfer of the Royal seat to the office of the Prime Minister for administration while the King was on what Luke Matthew had insisted on calling a ‘
Crusade
’ to the Holy Lands, much to Edgard’s amusement.  Luke was rearing to go and reminded the Master of the great white stallion he rode about the streets of London.  Mark Ramsay’s brother was weary of his kingship and the confines of the city. He longed for the day when he would hand over the throne to Barry of Sussex whom he insisted was more of a Londoner than he. There had been many tears and many ruthless hugs and a great deal of information had exchanged hands in short order.  Luke Matthew was not big on ceremony and the meetings had covered the meat of the problems at hand without all the rigmarole formerly associated with such royal audiences. 

Queen Meredith had been a full member of the proceedings, sitting next to her husband throughout the entire evening, with one ear and eye on the servants and proceedings of the household, while listening intently and making her own comments during the debates concerning modes of travel, numbers of troops, destinations, supplies, etceteras.  Edgard had been very happily surprised to see that she had grown a considerable brain in the short time since she had come to England as Queen.  It was quite evident that Luke Matthew kept no secrets from his wife and made no secret of her involvement in his ruling councils.  She was personally engaged in much of the restoration work going on in the country and had designed a number of excellent programs for housing, medical relief and care for orphaned children.  Luke had confided to Edgard that the immense workload he had allowed to fall on her shoulders, kept her out of his hair concerning the impending war and won her a great deal of love and respect from the people of England who had, at first, been reticent to accept a ‘foreigner’ as their queen.  Some had even gone so far as to bring up the ancient past when a former King had abdicated in order to marry a divorced American woman.  But Merry was not put off by snobbery and, of course her connection to the Scottish gentry had helped a great deal, but she still spoke with the same charming accent and style of her native upbringing in central Texas.  She was quickly dubbed ‘the wee Scottish cowgirl’ much to her own amusement.

She had been unable to hide her disappointment at not seeing the Healer with them, among others, though she had refrained from asking too many questions about the missing members, wishing to separate her personal concerns from the matters of state.  Edgard had spent quite some time with her alone, filling her in on everything he could tell her about Michael and Galen and Lucio and Mark Andrew.  She was truly upset to learn that Selwig had gone off with Simon.  She had planned to retain his services at the palace and keep him from going off to the far places of the earth. 

She was also distressed to learn that Lucio’s son had gone as well and worried because Luke Andrew was not with them for obvious reasons that remained unspoken.  The Grand Master did his best to alleviate her fears before retiring for the night.  She had promised him that she would visit the islands as soon as possible and make sure that the Templars had everything they needed during the absence of the Knights.  She had been surprised to learn that Lydia and Rachel had also been left behind even though they were apprentices, but the two women were needed more on St. Patrick’s and St. Ramsay’s Island where they would see to the administration of the two Orders there.  Their primary concern would be the protection of the women and children in case things went badly though he did not reveal the contingency plan he and Semiramis had worked out concerning what would be done in the off chance that the ‘Crusade’ failed.  The remnants of the two Orders would migrate to Ireland where they would join forces with King Corrigan.  From there they would travel to the underworld and Semiramis would take care of the rest.

“I am confused about this passage in
the Book of Enoch
.”  Lavon frowned and shifted in his wingback chair.

“There are many things in
the Book of Enoch, the Scribe
.”  Edgard poured each of them a glass of Port and brought them back from the bar.  “Most people disregard his writings as dreams and visions.  Even the Church rejected the books when they assembled the Holy Bible.”

Lavon smiled ruefully and Konrad slid down further in his seat, stretching his long legs out in front of him.

Edgard sighed.  “All right.  I know why the Church threw them out as do we all.  What is it that you want to know?  Why do you continue to worry over your fate, my son?  You are not Nephilim.”

“Perhaps Lavon is not, but I believe I fit the basic description.” Konrad commented dryly.  “I could have been much worse.”

“True enough.”  Edgard nodded.

Lavon tapped the old book’s worn cover.  “Enoch said that Uriel took him took him to the far north and taught him the times of the seasons.  Harvesting and planting, presumably.  That sort of thing.  We all know Mark Ramsay’s connections to his beloved Scotland and the ‘far north’, and we know he is somehow connected with the Megalithic structures strewn from the Orkney Islands to France to Serbia and even Egypt.  We know that these structures are all machines for making astronomical observations of great accuracy and particularly we realize that they were built by a race of people who disappeared about the time of Noah’s flood.”

“Given.”  Edgard nodded again when Lavon paused.

“The flood, according to Enoch, was foretold to him by a shining presence inside a stone or crystal structure that vaguely matches the description of the Megalithic structure found at New Grange in Ireland.  A figure that he was unable to look upon whom he called ‘God’.  He said God told him of the coming disaster and that it was being sent to destroy the children of the Watchers.  The Nephalim.”

“Correct.”

“Was it truly God that Enoch saw in the crystal chamber?”  Lavon asked point blank.

“No one has seen God, Lavon.  Not even Uriel.”  Edgard told him quietly.  “No one can see God.  It is impossible. Eyes are two flimsy to behold God, but with the inner vision we may see Him.  It is simple as your Grandfather would say.  He is in everything. Everything is in Him.”

“Then it was not God that Enoch saw.”  Konrad drew the obvious conclusion.

“It was not God, but the one who sits on His right hand.”  The Grand Master conceded and held out his right hand.  He still wore the trappings of war in which he had returned from the underworld gathering.  His bronze and leather wristbands caught the light as he moved and a golden ring flashed on his left hand.