Time of the Beast (11 page)

As I clambered to my feet, Aelfric stood before me, his look at once growing hard and stern as he told me:

‘You must be watchful. The marsh is always hungry for those who are not wary. This time you are lucky, but next time…’ and at once his face broke into its customary grin as he slapped my arm ‘…you might lose your boots!’

‘Indeed we must be vigilant!’ Cadroc spoke to me now, his voice like gravel in his throat and his eyes sharp with warning. ‘Death surrounds us on every side. It is truly said that the right path that leads to life is narrow and hard, yet many and wide are the wrong paths that lead to suffering and darkness.’

‘I will be careful, I promise,’ I said, feeling a stab of fear as I nodded to show him that I understood his meaning: of things deeper and more terrible still than the black quagmires of the Fens. But now it occurred to me how absurdly ill-matched my two companions were: one forever smiling and good-humoured, the other so relentlessly grim, as if between them they stood to represent the opposite extremes of human nature. In other circumstances their partnership might have seemed almost comical. Yet upon that journey, as I studied Aelfric in unguarded moments when his thoughts were silent and his face grew still, I began to sense that perhaps his good-nature was an affectation which served him as a mask, or as a defence against the world, and I wondered if a different man existed beneath it.

Now that my misadventure had roused Cadroc from his silent musings, I took the opportunity to speak with him.

‘I thank you again,’ I said respectfully, ‘for allowing me to join you. May I ask what it was that changed your mind?’

‘I have been debating that matter to myself,’ he replied. ‘Your words outside your hermitage have remained in my thoughts. I find myself wondering if there is any truth in what you say, and whether indeed some divine purpose might accompany you. But I may come to decide otherwise’ – his brow grew furrowed for a moment – ‘in which case I will arrange to send you back. For the time being your show of great determination has impressed me.’

‘I remember your own words,’ I said, ‘which implied some secret knowledge of the enemy’s true nature. Will you tell me this story?’

He considered for a moment, then nodded.

‘Indeed I will tell you both. It is well you should know it. In my homeland, when I was a very young man, in the days before King Penda invaded but after the Britons under King Cadwallon had liberated Elmet from the overlordship of the Northern Angles, the rule there had reverted to the native British lords, of whom my father was one. At this time the peasants who lived on the edge of the forest came to us to say that the dark spirits who dwelt in the forest’s depths had begun to emerge to plague their homes. These were not mortal creatures, they claimed, not men but monsters led by the Devil, for his form might be seen in the shadows among them, bigger and greater than all the rest. Before this, they explained, they had dutifully said their prayers and hung the symbol of the Cross inside their huts. Until now this had always kept the dark ones at bay. But no longer. Now they came at night with inhuman howls and cries, attacking and killing and driving men to flee from their homes. And when the men returned in the daylight, they found their dwellings ravaged, their possessions destroyed and their stocks of food stolen. Soon they would starve, they cried, and even the Holy Cross no longer had the power to protect them. My father listened to their ravings doubtfully and concluded that a pack of bandits must be hiding out in the forest. He sent men to search there, but no trace could be found of a large outlaw presence, only the usual motley collection of a few thieves and cut-throats, who were duly rounded up and executed. But still the attacks in the night continued.

‘This situation went on until our land lived in a state of constant terror, but the cause of it remained unknown, and my father was at a loss to know what to do. Then one day the captain of the guards came to him to report that he had captured a wild man from the forest, who remarkably had come to surrender himself and was now imprisoned in the dungeon of our fortress. Yet our captain said this creature had carried with him a fine sword and seemed to be something other than a mere savage. I went with my father to investigate, and we came upon a fearsome-looking figure of great height and size. At first in my shock I thought we had captured the Devil himself. But he stood before us, presenting himself in a way that suggested dignity and breeding. And as I inspected him I saw his body and limbs were perfectly in human proportion and that beneath his raggedness his face seemed both intelligent and attractive. Now he spoke in what we recognised to be the Anglish tongue – it was before I became conversant in your speech – but in my father’s service was a man who had some understanding of the language, who was summoned to act as our interpreter.

‘The story we heard was therefore necessarily brief and simple. The stranger claimed he had discovered, deep in the forest, the existence of a secret lair of devils. He would lead us there, he said, if we swore oaths that we would return his sword to him, that he should go in the vanguard of our attack and that the life of the chief devil was to be his alone.

‘My father and I went away to discuss his proposal. We knew we must take this chance to rid our land of its curse, but if the accounts we had been given were true – if what we faced were really devils – then we doubted our power as men to overcome them. We would need spiritual help. So we went to our local community of monks to seek advice.

‘The monks took us into the presence of the oldest man in their order, a man named Brother Albinus. When he heard our words, he threw up his hands to the heavens and appeared transported with joy.

‘ “Throughout my life,” he said, “I have been tormented many times by an evil dream, a portent of damnation which is God’s punishment for a great sin committed in my youth. But when I was a boy, I once heard it said that deep in the forest lies a secret cave known to be an entrance into the underworld. It is a place once sacred to the ancient priesthood called the Druids, who long ago fled there seeking sanctuary from the proscription against them by the old Romans. Here they conjured dark magic filled with hatred and vengeance against their foreign persecutors until they opened up a mouth into Hell itself. But their sorcery was so powerful and dreadful it entirely consumed them, driving them to degradation and madness, and making them into demonic spirits, half men and half beasts forever bound to this world by their eternal thirst for revenge. In my dream I am taken by night into this place, and I wander through the cavernous darkness to the gates of Hell, hearing beyond me the groans and cries of many damned souls until I fear I will die of fright and join them. Always I awaken in a state of horror and hurry to my devotions, forever dreading that the next night will be my last. But now you have made it clear to me that God offers me my chance of redemption. It is a sign which tells me to go out and lift this curse from our land; and this will be to lift the threat of damnation from my own head. Ask your stranger if the lair of these devils lies inside a cave. If it is so, then we will go with you, for we know a rite of exorcism which will seal these foul spirits forever inside the earth.”

‘The stranger confirmed to us that the devils’ den was indeed situated within a hidden cave. So it was that one morning, before dawn, I set out with my father and our men, and many staunch peasants who went with us along with Brother Albinus, his monks, and the giant stranger who would act as our guide. We returned his sword to him, and we carried our own swords, which had been blessed by the monks with holy charms, while the peasants came armed with spears, knives and clubs, and carried torches to light our way through the darkness.

‘We journeyed for more than half the day, the stranger following signs he had left carved upon trees along the way. He grew more agitated, and made signals with his hands to urge us on with greater speed – I presumed to reach and surprise the devils in the daytime when their powers were weakest.

‘The sun had sunk far beyond its high point when we came to a place above a valley between two high hills with giant rugged stones which jutted out from under the grass and bushes on their steep slopes, and I looked down upon a great round bubble of rock which lay deep in the valley itself. I remember it now as clearly as if I saw it this day. Also I remember the sinking feeling deep in my stomach as my excitement turned to apprehension when I saw the stranger point towards it and say something in a tone I knew to mean that we had come to our destination.

‘First my father and the stranger went stealthily by themselves to examine the ground about the base of the bulbous rock, and soon they found concealed there in the scrub the narrow crevice that would lead us to the gates of Hell. They signalled to us, and we re-lit our torches then crept to join them, gathering together about the rock in our full numbers. Now my father came to me and told me to gather my courage, saying we must go at the front to set an example to the others. I steeled my nerves as I followed him and the stranger down into the icy darkness, and behind us filed the monks along with the best and bravest of our warriors. We moved along a cold, dank passageway, the light from our torches barely penetrating the intense blackness, until we emerged into what seemed like a wide cavern, and I could tell from the direction of our movements that it must be located inside the highest hill itself. At our feet lay the entrance to another passage which seemed to lead downwards, deep into the ground, and since we had encountered nothing so far, I supposed the devils must lay concealed in this. But I felt a thrill of pure horror as I saw that scattered about us were many gnawed and discarded bones, from which I turned my eyes in fear I should recognise them as human remains.

‘Now the monks came forward, and began to chant. It was a terrible yet glorious sound, an unworldly cacophony of prayers and curses which rang in the air, echoing and reverberating through the great walls of stone until it filled the depths of the earth beneath us. Then there came suddenly a great thundering from under our feet as the ground itself began to shake, and the air was clogged with a foul-smelling haze which rose to blind our eyes and burn our throats as we stood blinking into the shadows. And at once all in front of us was alive, light and dark and dust swirling together into frantic motion as a hellish swarm of utterly demonic faces rose up at us. Hideous they were as they rushed upon us, their distorted inhuman features twisted and screaming, and we thrust out our swords in terror to hold back these legions of Hell. But then in their midst, through the clouds of dust, there materialised a face that was a brutish parody of the human form, a gigantic vision that rose and towered above us. Its body, half-concealed in the haze, appeared naked and horribly misshapen as its eyes burned with savage rage, and it bared its fangs to roar at us. We who were mere men shrank back, so terrifying was this manifestation, and we feared it was a horror no mortal could fight. But the monks held fast, frail old Albinus to the fore, thrusting up their wooden crosses into the demon’s face, forcing it back as it bellowed out once more, and the holy men closed upon it as they shrieked out their frantic imprecations.

‘Now there was a tremendous rumbling from all around, and the earth itself seemed to shudder. Then the cave was collapsing about us, giant lumps of stone tumbling from above, falling down to crush and bury those detestable spirits. But even in the midst of this, I saw the stranger leap forward, fighting his way through the crowd of fleeing monks, heedless of the danger, with his sword poised ready to strike as he came before that monstrous giant demon. Yet I saw him pause, in the midst of all this pandemonium, and stare deep into its eyes before he drove his blade forward, thrusting it hard into the devil’s black heart. And as he struck the fiend was simply gone, vanished back into the darkness and crashing chaos from which it had arisen.

‘All of us turned now and fled, hurtling blindly back towards the outside world. As we emerged out into the blessed daylight, the great thundering from beneath us grew louder than ever as clouds of noxious black smoke came billowing out from the cave entrance. Some of our men were lost, but I saw the stranger emerge, his face and body streaked with grime.

‘I collapsed onto the ground, and others fell beside me, coughing and fighting for breath, also gasping in fear at what we had seen. When I regained some part of my senses I rose and slowly recovered myself, and later I looked for the stranger, but he was gone. No one had seen him leave. And I never saw him again.

‘After this, the wicked attacks on our population ceased. We sealed the cave entrance with giant rocks, to be sure that nothing from inside might ever find its way back into the world of men. And Brother Albinus was never again troubled by his night terrors, knowing at last he had been absolved of his sin. You will now understand, Brother Athwold, why I have agreed to your presence here. How your words to me of omens, dreams and damnation seemed like an echo from the distant past. I would not deny a man his right to seek salvation. The story I have told was also the beginning of my own true devotion to Christ, for I had seen with my own eyes the spells of His monks defeat devils and bring down in ruins the very temple of Satan. In the book I carry are transcribed the words of those monks’ age-old rituals, and armed with them I have come to rid this Fenland of its same curse.’

As Cadroc concluded his account, told with such conviction that I dared not doubt it, my head was spinning. As I journeyed deeper into these pagan lands all I had ever believed was starting to unravel in my mind as I reflected that perhaps the world held greater mysteries than I – and the Church – had been prepared to admit. It seemed that deep and ancient feelings were stirring in my soul, uncertainties I could not define, but which grew stronger with each step I took, becoming one with the unremitting gloom which surrounded us.

We had come to a place of higher ground, thick with trees; and it was as we made our way through this stretch of woodland that we entered suddenly into a clearing. And I saw something which sent a burst of shock spreading through me. There in front, hanging by its neck from the low branch of a sturdy ash tree, was the body of a man – clearly an executed outlaw. A great hulking horror he must have been in life, raggedly dressed and caked in mud and filth. And now the body had begun to rot.