The Satanist (33 page)

‘I like the name, but you are the Master here. If there is one you prefer for me I will willingly take it.’

He beamed at her. ‘I like it too; so Circe let it be. Now, tell me: what do you know of our Satanic festivals?’

‘Mr. Ratnadatta told me that your weekly meetings on Saturdays are called Esbats, and that four times a year you hold a Sabat – a great feast at which you sacrifice a ram.’

‘That is so; and it is through the blood of the ram that we receive our first degree of power. The central act in an initiation ceremony is the baptism of the neophyte with it. Only so can one become a member of the Brotherhood.’

‘I see,’ she said, pretending keen interest. ‘And as there are only four Sabats a year, that is why a neophyte sometimes has to wait quite a long time before receiving initiation. Mr. Ratnadatta warned me that I should have to be patient.’

‘Yes, usually we arrange matters so that three weeks or a month elapse between each stage. You were fortunate that an occasion happened to arise for us to give you your test after only a fortnight.’

Mary was now feeling enough at ease with him again to play her part convincingly. With just a suggestion of peevishness, she murmured, ‘And now I suppose it will be the other way. I’ll have to wait weeks and weeks before I can enjoy the power that intiation will give me.’

‘No, my child.’ His smile was seraphic. ‘As resident Master of this Lodge, I have authority to ignore normal procedure when I wish, and I intend to treat your case as an exception. That is the way in which I propose to make amends for giving you such a fright.’

‘Do you mean that there is a Sabat quite soon, and that you’ll let me come to it? If so, that’s very kind.’

He looked at her in surprise. ‘Do you not know what today is?’

Puzzled, she thought a moment, then replied, ‘Yes, it’s the 30th April.’

‘And Walpurgis Night,’ he added quickly, ‘the greatest Satanic feast in the whole year.’

Starting up, she stared at him. ‘You don’t mean…’

‘I mean that, normally, your initiation would not take place until the end of July. But I am granting you a dispensation which will spare you that long wait and enable you to be received as an intiate tonight.’

‘Tonight!’ she gasped, her face a picture of dismay.

‘Yes. You will be one of five who are to be initiated; two other women and two men. But what has come over you?’ he frowned. ‘Instead of being delighted, you appear distressed.’

She knew herself to be walking a razor’s edge. Desperately she strove to compose her features. Then she faltered: ‘It’s only … only that I’ve had no chance to prepare myself for it. And I’m tired. Tired out by what I’ve been through this evening already.’

‘You feel so now, perhaps. But it will pass. You have the best part of an hour in which to rest. By then, and after another glass of our Delphic wine, you will feel quite restored and be eager to take your place among us.’

‘No! No!’ she cried, panic getting the better of her. ‘I couldn’t face it tonight. Even if I have to wait three months, I’d rather. Let me go home! Let me go home!’

‘Now you are being foolish,’ he admonished her. ‘Of course you are tired and a little overwrought. But tomorrow you would bitterly regret having allowed a temporary weakness to deprive you of this chance to achieve your desires without further delay.’

‘I’ve not the strength to go through with this tonight. I really haven’t. I swear I haven’t. I’ll bungle everything and disgrace you.’

‘I am confident that you will not. You took your oaths and made your profession of faith when you were accepted as a neophyte. No further demands of that kind will be made upon you. The ceremony consists only of a little blood being drawn from your arm so that you may sign a pact in it with our Lord Satan, then your baptism with the blood
of the sacrificed ram and the tying of the black garter below your knee.’

‘But …’ she stammered, ‘… but Ratnadatta told me … he said I’d have to serve the Temple.’

‘Oh, that!’ Abaddon shrugged. ‘Yes, you will do so later. But you are not a virgin, so you will both give and receive pleasure by the act. After we have feasted and the dancing begins, you will be filled with desire and eager to make love.’

‘Not tonight! Not tonight!’ she pleaded. ‘I don’t feel like feasting and dancing. I’m too tired, I tell you, I want to go home! Please let me go home!’

Suddenly his voice became sharp. ‘You silly child! Pull yourself together! Show the same spirit you displayed earlier this evening. I’ll let you rob yourself of the reward I intended for you. I shall leave you now to give orders for your reception with the other four who are to become initiates. As you are the protegé of Sásín– or Ratnadatta, to use his ordinary name – he will come for you when we assemble in the Temple and bring you down to us.’

Before she could plead with him further, he turned on his heel, walked quickly from the room and peevishly slammed the door behind him.

So far Mary had restrained her tears, but now she gave way to them. Her terror of Abaddon had played havoc with her nerves and sapped away her reserves of courage. During these last few minutes, as soon as she had got over her fear that he might again attempt to strangle her, she had once more had high hopes that she would be allowed to dress and leave this devil-ridden mansion. To her utter consternation, they had been shattered. With what seemed the most cruel injustice, the very fact that he had attacked her was now the reason for her being ordered to remain there and face yet another ordeal.

That it would prove one for her was beyond doubt. His glib assurance that the ceremony required no effort might be true; but what of afterwards? He, of course, naturally
assumed that, as a voluntary disciple of the Devil, she would willingly perform her ‘service to the Temple’, and afterwards thoroughly enjoy participating in the wild revels of his Satanic congregation. With tears oozing from the corners of her eyes, she shuddered at the thought and cursed herself anew for her temerity in having let Ratnadatta bring her again to the Temple.

For some five minutes she gave way to despair, then her sobbing eased and she began again to contemplate an attempt to escape. Abaddon had said that she had nearly an hour before her in which she could rest, so presumably she would be left alone during that time. She should, anyway, be able to get dressed without interference. But what then?

A long corridor, two flights of stairs and the hall lay between her and the front door. Could she possibly hope to reach it without being intercepted? And down in the hall there were the two Negro footmen. It seemed unlikely that they would have been ordered to keep a look-out for her and stop her if she tried to leave the house; and, as they were semi-Zombies, they might not have the wit to do so on their own initiative.

As against that, the hour of the meeting was approaching and, since tonight was one of the great Satanic festivals, it was certain to be a bumper gathering. Between now and ten o’clock at least thirty people, and perhaps even double that number would be arriving. They would be coming in nearly every minute, so she was certain to run into some of them, and there seemed a big risk that, thinking it strange that anyone should be going out at that hour, they would question her. If so, would she be able to satisfy them without their referring the matter to Abaddon?

From that thought another arose. The numbers arriving would be greater after than before half past nine, so the sooner she made the attempt, the better chance she would have of avoiding them and getting away. Again she considered the risks involved, recalling Honorius’s terrifying threats of what Abaddon might do to her if she had refused to obey his order to expose herself to Mr. X. But, surely,
this was quite a different matter? No work for Satan depended on her compliance. She would only be declining a favour he intended to do her. She had already told him in no uncertain terms that she did not feel up to facing initiation that night. If she was caught and stopped she could plead that her nerve had given way and impelled her to flight. As he must consider himself to blame that she should be reduced to such a state, he could hardly decree some awful punishment for her. He might compel her to stay; but he might even relent and let her go.

For another few moments she lay there, a prey to alternate hopes and fears. But time was ticking by and she became increasingly aware that it was a case of now or never. Suddenly resolving to challenge fate, she threw back the bedclothes, got out of bed and walked over to the wardrobe.

As she approached it she caught sight of herself in the long mirror. When she had returned from her walk over Wimbledon Common and encountered Ratnadatta in the hall, she had been wearing the elaborate make-up which she had always used since turning herself into Margot Mauriac. Her recent tears had played havoc with it, and the mascara eye-shadow now ran in streaks down her cheeks. Realising that if she met anyone in the corridor or on the stairs it was important that she should appear calm and normal, she turned away from the wardrobe and went into the bathroom. There she quickly bathed her eyes and removed the ravages to her face. It was as well that she had done so before starting to dress, otherwise she would have been caught red-handed getting into her clothes; for, as she stepped back into the bedroom, its other door opened, and Honorius came in.

Over her arm she had a star-spangled mantle of transparent veiling; in one hand she carried a pair of silver sandals and a mask and, in the other, a wine-glass half full of yellow liquid. Thankful for her narrow escape, Mary slipped back into bed, while the Priestess draped the mantle across the back of a chair, set down the mask and sandals
and came over to her. Holding out the glass to her, she said:

‘Abaddon is very distressed about your being so upset. You played your part with Mr. X so well that we quite thought you had recovered from the shock you received before he arrived. But, of course, the effect of shock often does not show till later. Anyway, Abaddon is most anxious that you should thoroughly enjoy our great feast tonight, so he has sent you up this cordial.’

‘What is it?’ Mary asked, eyeing the glass with suspicion.

‘It is one of our secret preparations, and has wonderful properties. Half-an-hour or so after you have taken it, you will feel marvellously refreshed, right on top of the world, and ready for anything.’

Between a quarter past seven and eight o’clock, Mary had had two glasses of the Delphic wine while with Ratnadatta out on the terrace, and another soon after she got into bed. They had warmed her up and done much to counter her anxieties, giving her at intervals an almost carefree feeling. But Abaddon’s attack on her had dissipated their effect, destroying in her entirely the excited expectation which had resigned her mind to accepting the possibility that Mr. X might be tempted to try conclusions with her. Now, she felt sure that the golden liquid contained another and much stronger aphrodisiac, and that was the last thing she wanted at the moment. Shaking her head, she said:

‘No thank you. I’d rather not. I’ve just bathed my face and I feel better already. I shall be quite all right by ten o’clock.’

‘Perhaps; but this will make you feel better still. Come, drink it up.’

‘No, really,’ she protested, ‘I don’t need it.’

‘You must.’ Honorius’s classical features became stern. ‘Abaddon says that while looking at you he discerned a sudden aversion in you to performing service to the Temple tonight. It is understandable that shock should temporarily have robbed you of normal sexual desire, but it is imperative that you should play your part with willingness and
vigour. To fail to do so on the night of your initiation would be a flagrant insult to Our Lord Satan.

‘I … I shall be all right when the time comes. I promise you I will.’

‘You may think that now; but this shock you have had has taken a lot out of you. It is essential that you should fortify yourself, or you will be exhausted long before morning.’

‘If I do feel tired, surely I can sit and watch instead of dancing all night.’

A cold smile twitched Honorius’s lips. ‘My dear, surely you realise how beautiful you are. One of the other women who are to be initiated is middle-aged, and the other, although quite a pretty girl, is not in the same class as yourself. Half the men in the place will be wanting to have their turn with you.’

The blood drained from Mary’s face. For a moment constriction in her throat prevented her uttering. Then she burst out:

‘No! You can’t mean that! Ratnadatta told me that I must take one stranger. But … but not… not any men who want me, one after another.’

The Priestess shrugged. ‘Sometimes promising converts to the Satanic faith display repugnance at the thought of such a prospect. Ratnadatta is a good psychologist and no doubt he decided that would prove the case with you; so, rather than risk your being lost to us, he decided that, your having expressed your willingness to pay tribute to Our Lord Satan by Temple Service, that was quite sufficient to go on with.’

‘Then he deceived me shamefully!’ Mary exclaimed in bitter anguish. ‘He got me here under false pretences.’

‘I daresay he did, but you will not be the first, nor the last, young woman on whom this mild deception has been practised.’

‘Mild deception!’

‘Yes; mild. If you are willing to let one strange man possess you, why not two or more?’

Tears of rage started to Mary’s eyes, and she retorted furiously: ‘There is a difference! A vast difference. Ratnadatta said that the man selected would be one that I should find agreeable. Instead, it is proposed to use me as though I were a whore in a brothel.’

‘You are a fine healthy girl, so will take no harm from it. Abaddon will see to it that you are not overtaxed.’

‘What… what d’you mean by that?’

‘He will make those who want you draw lots with numbers, then call a halt when he decides that you are tired.’

‘Have men queue up for me!’ Mary gasped. ‘I won’t! I won’t!’

‘Nonsense, child. I have had neophytes through my hands before who felt as you do now. Faced with the prospect of taking several lovers instead of one, they make the same protests as you are doing. But, when the time comes, their scruples vanish. After the feast they become eager to be loved and the sight of others throwing off all restraint sets them at their ease.’