The Dove (9 page)

“Daddy!  Stop it!  They’ll think you’re crazy.”  Nicole tugged on him as he smashed his face against the tinted window.  “Sit down.  Can they see in here?”  She asked no one in particular as she pulled on him and with Sophia’s help they got him back in the seat between them.

“My God!”  Nicole straightened the blue shawl over her head.  “We’ll never make it.”

“We’ll be fine!” McGuffy smiled at her in the mirror.  “God will protect us.”

“He’d better!”  Nicole sighed.  “Where is that damned nephew of mine?”  She looked about at the people in the yard and beyond the gates in the street.

They pulled into the street and stopped alongside the wall.  Presently, one of the Fox soldiers came running along the walk toward them.  He stopped beside the vehicle and looked up and down the street before climbing in the passenger seat beside the Colonel.

“That was close!”  Bari took off his sunglasses and looked back at Nicole.  “How’s he doing?”

“Outside!”  Mark Andrew told him excitedly and pointed out the front window with all his fingers crooking back and forth excitedly.

“Be still, Mark.”  Sophia patted his arm.  “Wait until we get away from these people and then you can look all you want.”

“OK.”  Mark sat back and closed his eyes tightly.  “How’s this?”

“That’s just fine.”  Sophia told him and Nicole let out a long sigh.

“Pretty.”  Mark said without opening his eyes.

“Daddy!”  Nicole looked at her father in frustration.  “You have to start using more words when you speak!  You sound like a baby.”

“Baby.”  Mark repeated the word and began to wiggle about, trying to get his hand in the pocket of the baggy pants.

“What are you doing?”  Sophia moved over a bit to give him room.

“Pretty for you, Sophia.”  He pulled something from his pocket and held it in his hand.

Mark still had his eyes closed as he held out his hand to her.

“Let me see.”  Sophia took his hand and turned it over.  He opened his fingers and in his palm was a beautiful silver barrette.

“What is that?”  Nicole leaned around him and frowned at the ornament.  It was heavy silver with interlocking Celtic designs engraved in its surface.  In the center was a five-petal rose and in the center of the rose was a Celtic cross.  She recognized the work as that of her father.  He had made many such things for Meredith in his lab in Lothian.

“It’s beautiful, Mark.”  Sophia took the barrette and he opened his eyes.  “You’ve carried this in your pocket for a long time.”

He nodded his head and squirmed around again until he came up with the framed photo of Meredith.

Nicole drew a sharp breath at the sight of her mother’s face.

“Pretty lady.”  He handed the picture to Nicole.  He obviously thought the photo to be Nicole or perhaps her sister.

“Why?”  Sophia asked him and shrugged at Nicole’s questioning glance.

“I made it. Special.”  He continued to smile at her.  “For a girl.  A pretty girl.  Like you.”

“Ohhh.”  Sophia frowned.  This was the very first time she was able to know beyond doubt that he did retain some memory of his life before they had come here.

“For your… hair.”  His smile faded.  “Put it there.”  He touched her hair with one hand.

“Are you sure this is his?”  Nicole frowned.  “If you stole that from Ruth, it could be dangerous.”  Nicole muttered.  “She could probably use it as a homing device or something.”

“He didn’t steal it.”  Sophia told her.  “He had these in his pocket when we were attacked.  I guess they didn’t think it was important enough to keep.  They left it on the floor.  I had forgotten about them.”  She turned to Mark again.  “Mark?”  Sophia looked up at the roof of the vehicle.  “You didn’t make this for me.  You made this for someone else.  Who did you make it for?”

“Elizabeth.”  He answered and then frowned.  “Elizabeth is gone.”

“That’s right, Daddy.”  Nicole adjusted her robes.  “Elizabeth is dead.”

“No!”  Mark shook his head adamantly.  “Elizabeth is gone, not dead.”

Bari turned around in the seat and looked at his grandfather closely.

“What do you think?”  He asked Sophia.

“There is always hope, Your Grace.”  She smiled at the Emperor and pushed her hair back, clasping the heavy barrette in her dark locks.

Chapter Four of Sixteen

And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black and the moon became as blood. And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth. And the heaven departed as a scroll when
it is rolled together

Simon skidded to a stop in front of his father’s bedroom door and pounded on the wood.  When he received no answer, he beat on it again and shouted for him.

Barry stepped into the hall farther along and called to him.

Simon hurried down the hall with Selwig right behind him.

“Brother!”  Simon was out of breath.  “Where is my father?”

“He’s meditating.”  Barry said quickly and dragged the Healer in his room without giving him time to react to the lame excuse.  “Look!  Lucio is back.  He’s translated the note from New Babylon.”

Simon blinked at him in confusion and then glanced at Lucio.  The Italian was still at the desk, writing on a notepad.  His thoughts were momentarily distracted at the sight of the missing man.

“Brother.  Abaddon was here!  He desecrated the King’s shrine.”  Simon told him in a rush.

“The barn?”  Konrad joined them.  “Was anyone hurt?”

“Two of the guards were injured, but they are all right.  He took Il Dolce Mio’s relic!”

“Where is the King?”  Barry asked him.

“He’s gone home.  I told him to go home and look after his people.  He wanted to go to New Persia.”

“That wouldn’t be wise.”  Konrad shook his head.  “Why would Abaddon want the elf’s relic?”

“My question is:  What the hell was it anyway?”  Barry frowned.  “He never let us see what was so important.  You would have thought it was the head of a Saint.  What did he say about it?  Is it important?  I mean, I know it must have been important or else they wouldn’t have made such a fuss about it, but how much trouble is this theft going to cause us?”

Simon’s face told them the answer to the last question.

“My God, Simon!”  Barry caught his shoulders.  “What was it?”

Lucio stood up and waited for the answer.

“It was the head of a saint.”  Simon nodded to them slowly.  “Sort of.”

“Who?  Whose head?”  Konrad asked him.

“King Ramsay’s.”  Simon told them and then looked very pale.  “It was Mark Andrew’s head.”

“
Santa Maria!
”  Lucio almost turned the desk over.  “What are you saying?”

“When the Queen of the Abyss took his bodies from the keep, she took his head.  Apparently Lord Nergal put it in a cask and kept it.  Il Dolce Mio said that he and Semiramis went to the Abyss and took it.”

“But why?!”  Lucio crossed the room to stand in front of Simon.  “Why would they do it?  What is the purpose?  What does it mean? 
Santa Maria!
”  He looked up at the ceiling in disbelief.

Konrad turned a dark look on Lucio.

“Why, indeed, Brother?”  He raised his one shaggy eyebrow.  “Why would anyone want the head of a loved one?  It is a bit odd, isn’t it?”

Lucio swallowed hard and locked eyes with Barry of Sussex.  They were all thinking the same thing.  This was exactly what he had done with Santa Lucia’s head.  He had stolen it from the sanctuary in Paris!  If St. Lucia’s head contained a crystal skull after her death and Bran’s head had concealed one and the Skull of Sidon had been one and… he caught the bedstead to steady himself.  But here was a twofold pain for Konrad.  Lucia had been the love of his life, his wife and the mother of his children.

“There is no doubt that King Ramsay’s head would produce another of the crystal abominations!”  Barry said what was on their minds.

“They are not abominations.”  Konrad objected.  “They are very powerful and mystical.  If used properly, they can be great allies.  Look at the skulls in Germany!  If we had not put them together properly, Chaos would have returned already.”

“You can’t say that for sure, Brother.”  Barry shook his head.  “I didn’t like them!  I don’t understand them and I want nothing to do with them.  If Abaddon has taken this… this… thing with him, then certainly it holds great significance to the ‘Prophet’ and the Emperor will be using it against us.  My God!  Ramsay’s brain?  In Bari’s hands?”

“I don’t think it would be Brother Ramsay’s brain.”  Konrad frowned.  “It is not like that.  Brother Ramsay still has his brain, wherever he is and…”

“Oh!”  Lucio straightened.  “The note!  It speaks of Mark Andrew!”

The three Knights crowded about him as he sat down at the desk again and picked up his translation.

“This was written by one of the Fox soldiers for a Colonel or General M’uffee.  It is probably his name as rendered in hieroglyphs.  Most likely not quite accurate and impossible to translate literally.  But he is a high-ranking official in Bari’s army.  He writes at the behest of the Emperor and the Healer’s son’s wife’s sister.  That could only be Sophia.  She is Izzy’s wife’s sister.  It is also written at the behest of the hunter’s daughter.  That would be Nicole.  So the Emperor, Nicole and Sophia had this Army official write a letter to Luke Matthew in a dead language.  That, in and of itself, presents us with some odd questions.”

They nodded in unison.

“It says
the hunter
is like unto a child or an infant, but a healthy infant.”  Lucio continued.  “The prophet wants to use the infant to reach God.  I don’t understand this.  Apparently Jozsef Daniel is trying to pick Mark Andrew’s brain, but there is nothing there to pick.  I know this must be true because Mark Andrew is in the Abyss with Sophia or Andrea, depending on your perspective. It must be Andrea who is in the Abyss even though Armand and Mark Andrew called her Sophia.  We have to assume that Sophia was or is a real woman whom Andrea used to return to this world in search of Mark Andrew.  Apparently the transformation of Mark into Andrea and then back again, released her from him in some sort of way wherein he cannot fully join with her.  Now he is separated from her just as Nanna is separated from Meredith and Nergal from Ereshkigal and Marduk from Semiramis and so on and so forth.”

“That would explain a great deal.”  Barry nodded.

“My father.”  Simon pressed one hand against his eyes.  “My father is also separated from his female counterpart.  He told me it was the cause of his pursuit of my mother.  That he had lost his perspective because he no longer held himself in Unity.  He said Lucifer remains whole, both male and female.  He told me that when things are set aright, all of humanity would become like the angels and we would be whole and complete and sin would end.  It is his opinion the differences between men and women are the direct cause of all the evil that has befallen the world.  It is his belief that when sin is taken out of the world, it will be simply a matter of extracting the temptation to sin that will end sin.  No temptation, no sin.  Simple.  If the grass is green on both sides of the fence, there is no need to roam.”

“But if angels are androgynous and have no need of women or men to feel complete, then why would the angels… the Watchers… have mated with human women?”  Konrad turned on the healer.  “I think you father’s logic is flawed.  If the angels came down to earth in pure form, why would they want to form sexual relationships with women?  And why not men?”

“Who is to say that they did not form both kinds?  There are legends about ‘female’ angels who seduced men.  Look at the mythology of Semiramis.  She lived on earth as a great warrior queen for a long time and she had many consorts.  They were humans.  And you are forgetting our more recent past, Brother.  Who is your mother?  Who is Vanni’s mother?  Who is Oriel’s mother” Simon looked at Lucio.  “Who is Meredith?  Who is… Andrea?”

They fell silent for several seconds.

“What else does it say?”  Barry broke the uncomfortable silence.

Lucio picked up the paper again.  His hands were shaking now.

“It says that the three mentioned above have formed an alliance of forces and they will endeavor to flee with the infant.  They will take the ‘beloved child of god’ to Khem, that’s Egypt!  And they will reside together in the tomb of Kefron until those who watch send help or come for them.  Apparently, Bari is fleeing from Jozsef.  He is taking Nicole and Sophia with him as well as, Mark Andrew.  It doesn’t give a date or time of this planned exodus.”

“Kefron’s monument?”  Barry frowned.  “That was one of the pharaohs, correct?”

“Yes, his monument is one of the smaller pyramids on the plains of Giza.  It is in better shape than the Great Pyramid of Cheops.”

“Luke Andrew came to us last night, Brothers.”  Barry backed up and sat down on the bed.  “He was telling of a vision he experienced in the meadow.  He was hysterical and would not clarify what he had seen.  He said his father was in New Babylon, but that it was only his body and that he had made some sort of breakthrough concerning the Watchers.  He said that someone had told him this, but I don’t know who.  The Grand Master sent me out of the room and spoke to him alone.”