Eldren: The Book of the Dark (20 page)

The house in comparison was just a lump of gray stone that looked dead and cold. He looked up and down the row of houses, but they were all the same, lifeless blocks.

“No time for gawking,” his driver said. “We’ve got to get inside. Quickly.”

Brian followed the other man’s gaze to the east and saw that the sky was starting to brighten. And with it there was a drone in his head, a high buzzing that was growing in intensity as the stars started to wink out. The first pink fingernail of the sun’s crescent poked above the horizon and sound and light exploded in Brian’s mind.

“Inside,” the other man said, and pushed Brian away from the car towards the door.

Brian fumbled for his keys; almost dropping them as the explosion in his head went up a notch. His skin felt hot and tingly, as if he had suddenly acquired a sunburn. Fine smoke drifted up from his fingers as he struggled to turn his key in the lock.

He was bundled inside the house, the door slamming hard behind him, but the light from outside still blinded him even through the frosted glass, and the sound in his head was rising to a thudding crescendo.

“The room without windows…where is it?” the other man said, “Quick. We don’t have much time.”

“The toilet. First on your left,” Brian said, and followed the tall man into the room.

He shut the door behind them.

“Lock it,” Donald Allan said, letting out a sigh. He looked around the small room then laughed out loud. “I’ve slept in some strange places in my time, but I can safely say that this will be a first. Just don’t tell anybody about this...it’ll destroy my image.”

“Sleep?” Brian asked. “Listen...I’m confused. What is going on?” His voice still sounded distant and strange. It echoed in his head as if his skull was empty.

He also realized that they had not switched on the light, but he could see every fixture in the room. There was a mirror behind him, but he wasn’t ready to face that yet...he was afraid that if he looked into the glass he might not see anything there. The drone in his head had faded now, distant and muted but still there.

“Forget most of what you thought you knew,” Donald Allan said. “You don’t need a coffin, and you’re not going to be afraid of crosses...not unless you were overly religious. What you do need is sleep...you’re not going to be able to help it. It will happen every morning with the rising sun.”

Before Brian could ask any more the tall man sat down on the floor.

“You take the bath,” he said.

“On one condition,” Brian said, falling into the spirit of the moment. “You tell me what is going on, and what happens next.”

Donald Allan signed.

“What happens next is up to you. As to what is going on...I’ll need to tell you some more history. But first...will you please get into the bath. I don’t want you falling on me when the sleep takes you.”

Brian stepped into the bath and sat down.

As the other man began to speak Brian felt himself slipping into darkness, so that he was no longer sure if he was listening or dreaming.

~-o0O0o-~

“Legend has it that Shoa is one of the Eldren, a creature molded directly from the blood of Yoriah the first Brother in the days before mankind.

“Another legend says that he was once a man and he was corrupted by an ancient evil in the wildwood before the ice came.

“Whichever of them has the truth, and I don’t know the answer, there is no denying that he is old and that he wields great power.

“I was under his spell for many years, and in that time I did his bidding. If you don’t mind I won’t dwell on the abominations I was forced to take part in.

“He has been awake three times since Amro banished him...three times in more than four thousand years.

“The first was during the Crusades.

“The Knights of St John were seekers after power, and they woke him from his sleep there in the desert near Sinai. I don’t know how they found him, but I suspect that even as he slept he worked his spells and charms. You have seen that he is capable...the owner of that house would never have put in the mosaic otherwise.

“When Shoa appeared before them the Knights were like children, excited that their primitive conjurations had yielded such results, but they couldn’t control him...no son of Adam has that power.

“He grew in strength quickly that time, gathering disciples to him like moths to a flame. But he was rash.

“He saw that the works of men had grown great, works of stone and timber that had been inconceivable at his last wakening, and he coveted them, for the Eldren had never learned the arts of building and creating.

“Men of power and rank were drawn to him, noblemen of the great houses of Europe kneeling in homage. He began to amass an army, a dark legion that would wash over the earth like a wave.

“But his ambition outgrew his strength, and he came to the attention of the Brothers of the Temple.

“And the Redeemer herself came out of the fastness in the north with many of her followers. They fought, tooth and nail, and the blood ran like a river in the desert.

“And finally there was only Rokar and Shoa remaining there on the sand.

“Rokar called down the old power with words and signs, and she reduced Shoa back to the blood from whence he had come.

“But she was not strong enough to completely destroy the old one, she used all that was in her in bringing him down, and her withered, torn body was found in the desert sands. And there in her hands she held all that was left of Shoa.

“The Redeemer was taken back to the fastness in the north, where her body is lain in a room at the top of the temple. It is said that she will come again when she is needed.

“The remains of Shoa were buried deep under the sands of the desert away from the sight of man.

“But there were those among the Knights of St John who remembered, and in remembering they kept part of the old one alive.

“That was the first time.

“The second time began with my sojourn in the desert...that much you already know.

“After my change he kept me with him for long years. He was cunning this time, building his strength quietly, and in secret, for he could see that the sons of Adam were stronger, and they had weapons that might be able to damage even him.

“His rage was redoubled and he hated the sons of Adam greatly. But even more he hated our kind, the ones who have turned our backs on the old ways of the Eldren.

“He hunted, far and wide across the world. And where he went, I went with him. And many were those of Rokar’s followers who fell forever before us.”

~-o0O0o-~

The man paused, and his breathing was so quiet that Brian thought he must be sleeping, but soon the voice resumed...quieter now, more subdued.

~-o0O0o-~

“It was in my twenty-seventh year with him that we first called up the Serpent.

“I don’t know what the Serpent is, so don’t ask me, but I know it is old, and it has power, power that it lends to those who bow down before it.

“It was evil. I felt it. It wanted more than my obedience. It wanted me completely, soul and all.

“Shoa wanted me to pay it homage. But, even after those long years of servitude, even after the innocent blood that I had spilled, still I found that I had a small spark of defiance in me.

“He punished me for that, and I believe that he might have given me to the sun if the stranger hadn’t come.

“I have never seen anyone with the strength, the conviction that the stranger possessed as he held Shoa in his gaze. Even the old one seemed in awe of him.

“He brushed Shoa aside as if he were no more than a child and he sent the Serpent back to whatever deep place it had come from.

“Like I did to you, he gave me a choice. I chose freedom, and I helped him put Shoa down into a grave in the earth, binding him with the sword and the old words.

“Over the years since I have watched over this place, ensuring that the old one stayed sleeping. I have learned spells and sorcery to help me in my task, and I have learned, and even written, the legends of our kind. Back near the beginning I even put a copy of the book in the grave with him, along with the spells we used to put him there in the first place.

“I would have retrieved them tonight, but your need was the greater, so tomorrow we have to go back to the house and put him down again.

“I’ve spent centuries preparing for this day, but if you ask me if I’m ready, I’d have to say that I don’t know.

“Maybe tomorrow we’ll find out.”

The voice faded to a quiet drone and Brian slept, dreaming of temples and serpents.

~-o0O0o-~

Margaret and Tony stared at each other as the clock ticked loudly in the otherwise quiet room, neither wanting to be the first to break the silence.

“Maybe we should go and see what’s going on?” Tony said quietly, as if a whisper was all he could manage.

Margaret shook her head. “I’ve wandered about in the dark enough for one night. Besides,” she said, staring at the last mouthful of whisky in her glass, “I expect Bill and the policeman have sorted it out by now.”

They hadn’t heard any sound for several minutes, either from the church or from the graveyard outside. Margaret was worried, and her body was psyched up for flight but she tried not to let any tremor escape in her voice as she spoke.

“I’ll go and see what’s happened to them,” she said with more bravery than she felt, pushing herself off the chair at the same time. It took more effort than she hoped, and she only just managed to stand upright. It seemed that all her blood had suddenly rushed to her head and the room threatened to spin…first left, then right. She had to force her legs to lock out, otherwise her knees would have buckled, and if she fell back in the chair again she wouldn’t get out of it for a long time.

She felt a small hand press itself into her good one and she looked down to see Tony looking up at her.

“I’m coming with you,” he said. She saw the determination in his young face. The knuckles of his other hand were white where they gripped the poker.

“Okay,” she said. She was too tired to argue and in truth she felt grateful for the company...even if it was only a boy.

She could walk...easier than she would have thought possible, and by the time she got out of the room and out in the hall she felt almost human.

She opened the front door gingerly, half expecting to be attacked as soon as she stepped outside. She was surprised to see that the sky was a wash of pink and that far off to her left the sun was already half way over the horizon.

“Bill?” She shouted. “What’s going on?”

Her voice carried far in the still morning and a small flight of crows dispatched themselves from the trees in the churchyard, but there was no other answer.

The church door was half-open and she approached it slowly. Tony gripped her hand tightly as she swung the door full open and stared into the darkness of the church.

“Don’t go in,” he said. “Please don’t. Something bad has happened.”

She gave him an answering squeeze.

“We’ve got to,” she said. “I’ve run away from too much already...it’s time I faced up to it.”

She stood there for long seconds, letting her eyes get accustomed to the gloom before stepping over the threshold.

“Bill?” she called again.

She grimaced as her voice echoed back at her.

The church was quiet, but there was something about the silence that made her think that a great deal of activity had just taken place, noise and movement and, yes, violence, that had been cut short as soon as she’d called.

She remembered feeling the same thing once before, at the scene of a car crash, just seconds after an accident, that quiet stillness, like a pause between events, a time when you were waiting to see what happened next.

She stepped further into the church and her foot hit something that slid noisily away from her. She looked down.

Psalm books and hymnals were strewn over the floor, and as her eyes became fully adjusted she could see other, larger shapes in the shadows.

The church pews had been overturned and pushed out of their regular rows into a hotchpotch disarray and the font had been knocked over, the water slowly spreading among the scattered paper. The pulpit leaned at an angle, looking like it was ready to fall over at any minute, and several of the huge organ pipes and been bent and twisted out of line.

“Hello?” she said, but she didn’t want to raise her voice to more than a loud whisper.

“There’s nobody here,” Tony whispered. “Come on. Let’s get out. I don’t like it here.”

“I know what you mean,” she said. “It doesn’t feel like a church anymore.”

They walked out of the church backwards, keeping their eyes on the shadows, but there was no movement, no sound. Margaret’s spine crawled, and she was convinced that there was something waiting in the shadows by the door...something with bloodied fangs that would pounce just when they relaxed.