Alchemist (38 page)

And it had been a damned good system, Gunn thought proudly, as he keyed in the command to distribute the new version of the Mac TCP software to every computer workstation in the whole of Bendix Schere's global empire. At least Crowe could not snivel at him about that.

North London. 1951

The Magister Templi opened the front door himself. Daniel stared at him, feeling an immediate sense of disappointment in both the house and the man.

He had been expecting something more imposing, some kind of bleak, turreted mansion, perhaps shrouded by trees and bushes at the end of a long, dark driveway. Instead it was a small semi-detached with mock Tudor beams and pebble-dash rendering, similar to his own, in a quiet suburban backwater ten minutes' bus ride from home.

The Magister Templi was much older than he had expected; and instead of being awe-inspiring he looked, in Daniel's eyes, faintly ridiculous.

He had long iron hair swept back from his brow, a silky beard trimmed like a shaving brush, and a colourless face with faraway eyes. In the centre of his forehead, held in place by a silver band, was a metal five-pointed star, flanked on each side by a pair of real goat horns. From his neck hung a small Baphomet emblem on a silver chain. He was dressed in a white, collarless linen gown and was barefoot, but he carried himself limply with no air of authority. Daniel thought he looked as if he was trying on an outfit that belonged to someone else.

Daniel stared at the Baphomet emblem, trying to conceal his scorn.
When I'm grown up
he thought,
I'll live somewhere grand and be immensely rich. I will never wear silver; silver looks cheap. I'll wear gold. And I will never be merely a Magister Templi. I'll be an Ipsissimus
.

The Magister Templi greeted Daniel without looking down at him, simply staring over his head, and he spoke in a voice that reflected the dream-like quality of his gaze.

‘How old are you, boy?'

‘Sixteen, sir,' Daniel said. He had read that many covens insisted on that as a minimum age.

‘What did you bring with you, boy?'

‘My athame.'

‘May I see it?'

Daniel unbuckled his raincoat, slid his hand beneath his pullover, removed the sheath knife hidden there and passed it over.

The Magister Templi examined the hilt Daniel had blackened with paint, then studied the blade, turning it over and inspecting the symbols the man in the shop had instructed Daniel to carve on it with a chisel.

‘You know these symbols?' he asked, still without meeting Daniel's look.

‘Yes, sir.' Daniel's eyes darted quickly around. He took in the large pentacle on the wall, the faint smell of incense, the two black cats that stood watching him.

The warlock pointed to the first symbol, a rough circle with two points rising in a V-shape from the top. ‘Tell me what this is.'

‘The Horned God, sir. Also the powers of fertility, May Eve, the light half of the year.'

‘And this one?'

Daniel looked at the dagger symbol with a pear-shaped hilt. ‘The Ankh Cross, sir.'

The Magister Templi pointed to the crude ‘SS' marking next.

‘The Salute and the Scourge, sir.'

Then he indicated two back-to-back brackets, forming a ‘)('.

‘The Goddess as the waxing and waning Moon, sir.'

‘And this one?' He pointed to an ‘M' with an arrow rising at the end.

‘Scorpio, sign of Death and the Beyond, the
other side
of the God as Lord of the Underworld. Hallowe'en and the dark half of the year.'

‘And you are able to recite the words of the Lord's Prayer backwards?'

Daniel did as he was bidden and the Magister Templi listened carefully.

‘Good, very good. Do you understand why we say this prayer backwards, boy?'

‘We say the Lord's Prayer in reverse to remove the
subconscious fears that Christianity builds in people. By saying it in reverse it shows we are no longer afraid of the Christian God. And if we are no longer afraid, Christians no longer have power over us.'

The Magister Templi nodded approvingly. ‘You have begun well. Thoth was right.' Still not looking Daniel in the eye, he added, ‘I am Isis.'

‘And I am Morgana,' a woman said, materializing from nowhere, also dressed in a white linen robe. She had long brown hair with a striking face, and was much younger than the Magister Templi. Around her forehead was a similar silver band but without the horns; she wore a solid necklace hung with charm symbols and her fingers were heavily adorned with rings. She was the High Priestess that the man in the shop had told him about, Daniel realized.

She stared hard at Daniel with hypnotic brown eyes and continued to stare as he became increasingly uncomfortable under her scrutiny. ‘What is your name?' she asked in a voice that was neither warm nor hostile.

He told her, blushing.

‘Daniel is not a name for an initiate. Did Thoth not tell you to choose a name?'

He shook his head. Suddenly he was nervous that they were going to reject him and send him home. He was already worried that his lie to his mother about where he was that evening would be discovered. If she rang the vicar and learned he had not turned up to Bible study, she would have one of her mad turns.

His mother had been more violent during the past three weeks, ever since he had met the man called Thoth in the shop where he'd seen the book. He realized it was probably because he had been concentrating on preparing for today, rather than working his spells to keep her restrained. But it didn't matter. As far as he was concerned, today was the most important day of his life. Today he would become a First Degree Initiate.

The distant expression remained in the Magister Templi's eyes, but this time Daniel felt an enormous power coming from them, as if the warlock was somehow drawing out and reading the thoughts inside his head.

‘Are you familiar with the name Theutus, boy?'

‘Theutus was one of the Vessels of Wrath, sir.'

‘Yes, Daniel. The Vessels of Wrath are the inventors of evil things and all wicked arts. Theutus taught cards and dice, he liked to make money and he was good at it.' The Magister Templi smiled. ‘I think
Theutus
would be a fitting name for you.'

Daniel tried to engage his eyes to thank him, but the Magister Templi was again staring over his head. Instead he nodded gratefully. The warlock returned his athame, and he sheathed it beneath his pullover.

‘It is time,' the High Priestess Morgana said.

‘It is time,' the Magister Templi said.

They led Daniel across the small hall, and through a door into a garage which was almost entirely filled by an elderly van painted dark blue. The High Priestess opened its back doors and ushered Daniel into the windowless interior, climbing in after him. Daniel noticed she had a sash in her hand.

‘We have to blindfold you now, Theutus,' she said.

Daniel felt a faint prickle of anxiety.

‘We're taking you to our temple. You are not permitted to know its location until you become a Third Degree Initiate. It is the Law.'

Daniel nodded and obediently raised his head. He felt the cloth pull against his eyes as she knotted the sash firmly but gently. He heard the clang of the doors closing, then felt the van shake as the engine fired; almost immediately he smelled the stink of exhaust fumes. There was a grinding of gears and a sharp jolt; reversing out of the garage, he realized.

He lost all track of time after a while. The ride was uncomfortable; the van travelled at varying speeds, bumping, lurching, and frequently braking sharply; he did not think the Magister Templi was a very good driver.

Then, after a long run down a straight stretch, the van slowed sharply and he felt it turning to the right. It felt as if they were no longer on a road, but a farm track of some sort. As the vehicle bounced about unpredictably, Daniel had to fight hard to stop himself from throwing up.

Finally the van stopped, and to his relief he heard a clang
that sounded like the rear doors being opened, and suddenly he was breathing fresh air. It was thick with the smell of the countryside and he gulped it greedily, his nausea beginning to fade.

The High Priestess's hand took hold of his wrist and then he was guided out and on to the ground. It felt as though the sun had gone down, and there was a light chill to the late summer air.

‘We're here now, Theutus,' the High Priestess said. ‘Be careful of the step, lift your foot.'

He did as he was told, walked forward, then heard a door shut heavily behind him. There was a strong carbolic smell. When the High Priestess removed the blindfold, he was in a washroom, with black tiled walls and floor.

‘We work sky clad here, Theutus. Please remove all your clothes then step into the shower, we must all be purified before we commence our rituals.'

Red-faced, Daniel complied and the High Priestess took his things into a locker room. When she came out, she was naked as well.

She pointed to the shower and followed him in, turning on the tap. She nudged Daniel gently forward, her own naked body touching his back, until the warm water was spraying hard on his chest and stomach. Taking a bar of soap, she began to wash him, massaging his skin with her fingers, working under his arms, across his belly, then soaping around his penis and testicles and probing the entrance of his anus.

He stood still, unsure what to do and feeling intensely aroused. Fighting with all his willpower, he tried to stop himself from getting an erection; but his penis was beginning to swell.

Mercifully, her hands moved on, down his legs. Then she sponged the soap off him, led him out of the shower and draped a large towel over his shoulders as the Magister Templi, also naked now, took his place.

‘I have to blindfold you again now, Theutus,' Morgana said crisply, as if nothing unusual had happened.

Daniel tensed as she secured the sash once more over his
eyes. Then she removed the towel, took his hand and led him forward.

He heard the click of a latch and there was a draught of air accompanied by a strong smell of incense and hot wax. The floor was cold beneath his feet. As he walked ahead, he sensed the presence of a large number of people, all of them silent.

The High Priestess's hand jerked him to a halt. He heard her voice call out, in a loud intonation: ‘We bring Theutus here to our temple today and we now prepare him to enter our sacred circle.'

There was a low sound, as if a dozen or more voices were chanting in unison. The chanting slowly grew louder, getting closer. And Daniel sensed fire, also, fire moving closer. He could hear the sound of flames consuming air, cracking, thumping, hissing. An intense heat moved towards his chest; he wanted to step away from it but dared not.

Then he felt an intense heat closing in on his back; then another below his genitals; another against his face. The heat was all around him, he wanted to cry out, had to stifle his voice. There was a crackle and the strong smell of singed hair; he felt some of the hair on his head burn, then some of his pubic hair.

Suddenly the heat went. The chanting ceased abruptly. He heard the clank of a chain, then droplets of icy water were spattering on his face and body. The chain clanked again and more water spattered his body, making him jump.

He braced himself for more, but instead of water a whip lashed across his naked back, making him cry out. There was another stinging lash, on his buttocks this time. Then on his stomach. Then another across his genitals, striking his testicles, doubling him up in pain. The back of his legs; his ankles; neck; right cheek: the lashes rained, one after another. But Daniel stood his ground, fought the tears, determined.

The marks
, he thought, with more terror than pain.
My mother must not see the marks
.

At last the lashes stopped. Daniel stood still, his whole body stinging and raw.

‘Can we trust you, Theutus?' It was the voice of the
Magister Templi. ‘Can we remove your blindfold and let you see our temple and our faces?'

‘Yes,' he whispered.

‘Say after me: Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be The Whole Of The Law.'

Daniel repeated the words. Then the Magister Templi continued. ‘Lo, Jesus of Nazareth, how thou art taken in my snare. All my life long thou hast plagued me and affronted me. In my name – with all other free souls in Christendom – I have been tortured in my boyhood; all delights have been forbidden unto me. Now at last I have Thee, Satan.'

He paused for Daniel to follow suit and then went on. ‘I commit my mind, body and eternal soul to Thee, Lord Satan, eternally. And if I shall ever divulge to any living soul of this bond, outside of this Temple, my tongue and my eyes shall be ripped from my living body as my punishment.'

There was a long silence after Daniel had said these final words. Then, abruptly, the knot of the blindfold behind his head was untied and the cloth pulled away.

He blinked as his eyes focused; he was too stunned by what he saw to feel embarrassed or shy about his nakedness. His mouth fell open. He was inside a large barn, the ceiling of which was painted crimson, and the walls completely draped in black cloth. Two black candles, a good four feet tall, rose either side of an altar in the centre of a pentacle painted in gold leaf on the floor. There were many more candles all around, and a row of blazing medieval-looking torches in sconces on the walls.

A dozen people inside the pentacle were staring at him, motionless. Except he could not see their eyes. They were wearing eerie, animal-head masks and were otherwise naked, apart from the silver emblems which hung on chains from their necks.

A pig's head confronted Daniel above the naked body of a man. A cat's face had a woman's body. A snarling wolf and a leering goat also had human forms. Each held their athame pointed upwards and flames glinted off the blades. A young, naked woman lay on her back on a black cloth in the centre of the pentacle, her outstretched arms and legs bound elaborately with cord.