The Sacrifice Stone (33 page)
Read The Sacrifice Stone Online
Authors: Elizabeth Harris
She didn’t know if she felt sad or relieved.
She walked on, to the point where she’d first seen the Roman. The dark passage ahead remained empty.
‘It was here, wasn’t it?’ Adam said softly.
‘Yes. How did you know?’
‘I — Something told me, that day we all came here together, when Joe and I were arguing about the Christians. I felt as if I wanted to come and help you, yet I couldn’t. In retrospect, I suppose you had to experience him for yourself.’
‘I did that, all right.’
They slowed to a stop, and stood side by side.
‘He’s not here,’ she said.
‘He doesn’t need to be.’
‘Have we done what he wanted, do you think?’ She looked up at him, hardly able to make out his features in the dim light.
‘We must have done.’
‘I’m not sure what we did do. We proved to our own satisfaction that the legend was wrong, we went along to that fiasco at Our Lady of the Marshlands, and nothing happened. How is that doing what the Roman wanted of us? We didn’t do anything!’
‘That’s what I thought too, at first.’ He hesitated. ‘But now, I’m not so sure. I think — oh, I don’t know how to put it into words! I feel that somehow, because we knew what really happened, perhaps also because we’d discovered that Mithras relief up in the hills and seen it move, he — the Roman — was able to use us as a catalyst. To move through us, through our faith in him, so that his power — the power of his god, perhaps — was able to spread out over the congregation.’
‘It was when the candles were lit,’ she whispered. ‘They’d been starting to panic, those hundreds of people, then suddenly there was calm.’
She sensed Adam move towards her, and felt his arms go around her. He said quietly, ‘Mithras was a god of light.’
After a while they strolled out from the colonnade and in among the stone seats overlooking the arena, finding a place to sit down a little apart from any of the other groups.
‘Shall we go back to my flat?’ Adam said presently.
She turned to smile at him. It was what she wanted, more than anything. ‘Soon,’ she said. He leaned towards her to kiss her, slowly, gently. She knew what was ahead for them, and she welcomed it with all her heart.
She looked down into the arena, empty now, its golden sand pale grey in the moonlight. She said suddenly, ‘Are you in a hurry to do your gipsy film?’
‘Why do you ask?’ She heard amusement in his voice, as if he knew very well the reason for her question.
‘I was just thinking what wonderful material we’ve discovered. What a story we — you — could tell. And how thoroughly you could put the record straight if you decided to go ahead.’
He laughed softly. ‘I guess the gipsies could wait a year or two.’
She nodded in satisfaction. ‘Right. Let’s go home.’
As they stood up, she noticed someone standing in the shadows where once wild animals and doomed human beings had been pushed out into the sunshine. He was dressed in some white garment, and she could see him quite clearly.
Just before she turned away, she thought she saw him raise his right arm, the hand clenched into the fist of the Roman salute.
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Aesis
Iesi
Arelate
Arles
Britannia
Britain
Coriosopitum
Corbridge
Danuvius
Danube
Eboracum
York
Gallia
Narbonensis
Provence and Languedoc
Gaul
France
Glanum
ancient site with no modern equivalent; close to St Rémy-de-Provence
Germania
Germany
Italia
Italy
Mare
Suebicum
Baltic Sea
Nilus
(
Fluvius
) River Nile
Rhenus
(
Fluvius
) River Rhine
Rhodanus
(
Fluvius
) River Rhône
Trimontium
Newstead
