The Devil in Green (78 page)

'This sacred land has been corrupted,' the voice continued, 'and with
each passing day it is corrupted more. When we had life, we raised God's
standard on this acre. We built this shining beacon of devotion, and now
your actions threaten to tear it down! Our sleep has been broken to warn
you
. . .
turn back before all is destroyed!'

The echoes died away until the only sound in the ossuary was the
guttering of the torch. In the gloom around the edges, Mallory could just
make out the other things waiting motionlessly.

He
looked from Daniels to Gardener, then stepped forwards. 'Are you
warning us about the enemy outside the walls?' he asked.

The force of the reply made him take a step back. 'The enemy within!
God's Kingdom is built on purity, not lies and murder!'

He exchanged another glance with Daniels and Gardener. They urged
him on. 'What do you want us to do?'

'We will not see all we believed in destroyed. We will not have our
eternal rest interrupted. Your actions have dragged us back to this foul
place from the Glory of God! We cannot return to the sublime beauty until
this perversion has been averted. You must stop this
corruption ... or we
shall exact our vengeance on those who do the Devil's work . . .
eye for eye,
tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot
.' The tone brought coldness to all
of them. 'Take this warning back with you. Let the perpetrators know . . .
we are watching. Time is running short.'

Mallory asked who the
perpetrators
were, but this time there was no
response. Instead, the hybrid Miller-face grew fluid, then ran like oil.
Slowly, the thing that had possessed him rose out of his body. It detached
itself foot-from-foot, then drifted past Mallory as if he wasn't there; a
faint coldness tingled his skin on the side against which it brushed. The
other things followed it in a mute, eerie procession through the far
door.

When the last had departed, Mallory and the others started as if waking
from a daze. They turned quickly to Miller who was heaving himself into a
sitting position, sobbing gently.

'It felt as if I had a rat in my stomach!' he said as Mallory helped him to
his feet, keeping one hand on his shoulder for support.

'What's going on here?' Mallory said angrily. 'It's like this one spot is
being turned inside out .
. .
Things that shouldn't be alive turning up . .
.
buildings coming out of nowhere
.
. .'

'The Devil's directing all his powers against us,' Gardener muttered.
'He doesn't want us to—'

'Shut up about the Devil!' Mallory snapped. 'Those bastards were
talking about something inside the cathedral.
The enemy within.''

'The one who killed Cornelius and Julian, of course,' Daniels said.

Before they could debate the matter further, they were disturbed by a
blood-chilling howl, part animal, part man, echoing from the tunnel
ahead.

'Lord,' Daniels said. 'Hipgrave!'

Mallory snatched up die lamp as they ran into the tunnel with Daniels
propelling a disoriented, still gently sobbing Miller. The echoes of
screeches and cries were sickening to hear.

The tunnel opened into a vault which the echoes suggested was
enormous. The roof was supported at regular intervals by crumbling
stone pillars. The floor was hard-packed mud punctuated by large pools of
water that had dripped from above. The atmosphere was cold and sodden,
but the more eerie thing were the flickering torches intermittently fixed to
the pillars.

'Who lit them?' Daniels whispered.

A shiver had run through Mallory when he entered the vault. He
glanced back to see a thin blue line crackling along the threshold, the
barrier between their world and what lay beyond. He was suddenly caught
between conflicting impulses. They were only truly safe on the other side
of that line. Yet Hipgrave lay somewhere ahead, perhaps wounded,
possibly dying.

'Look!' Miller exclaimed.

Almost lost in the shadows across the vault, there was movement. At
first it looked like a man, then a beast on all fours, then an amorphous
cloud that gradually developed wings and tentacles and sharp edges before
disappearing into the gloom.

'Back,' Mallory said.

'No.' Miller caught at his shirt. 'We can't leave Hipgrave.'

'He's a vindictive little shit. He deserves what he gets.' Mallory didn't
meet Miller's eyes.

'We can't judge him. That's what the Bible says - we're not supposed to
judge. We're all sinful in one way or another.'

'Speak for yourself.'

Miller let go, backed away. 'No, not you, Mallory,' he said sarcastically.
'But the rest of us.' He looked to where the shape had disappeared. 'Well,
I'm going anyway. I have to.'

'Don't,' Mallory ordered. 'You stupid bloody idiot. You won't stand a
chance.'

Miller set off across the vault while Daniels and Gardener watched
Mallory judgementally. Mallory half-turned towards the tunnel, then
cursed under his breath. 'Oh, all right then. But if he's in pieces, you
carry them back.'

They caught up with Miller, then progressed slowly back to back,
watching for an attack from any direction. Miller suddenly called out,
'Over there!'

They could just make out Hipgrave slumped at the foot of a pillar,
unmoving. He was still alive but in a daze, his eyes roaming the darkness;
and he didn't even notice they were there. He clutched his ribs, but
Mallory could see no sign of a wound.

'Hurry up, let's get him back to the tunnel,' he said.

Hipgrave stirred at the sound of his words and responded in a hoarse,
detached voice, 'There are things down here
.
. .'he began. 'Not trying to
get
in ...
to keep us . . . from getting out.'

From somewhere, a cold breeze blew. They all looked around but could
see nothing apart from the shadows dancing at the behest of the torches. A

second later, Gardener pitched forwards, clutching at his forehead. Blood
splattered across Hipgrave's face.

'Bloody hellfire!' Gardener cursed. He removed his hand to see it was
smeared red; a thin line had been traced from temple to temple.

'What was it?' Miller whimpered.

Something moved through the vault, just beneath the arched roof.
Mallory saw it only as a fluttering shadow travelling so fast it could easily
have been a trick of the torchlight. There must have been another one, for
Daniels snapped his head around, puzzled.

'Now can we get out of here?' Mallory said sharply. Just as he turned
towards the tunnel, he felt a subtle change in the air currents that signalled
the rapid approach of something unseen. He jerked his head to one side.
Something tore at his hair and was gone in an instant. As it passed, he
heard something, or thought he did, that sounded like a distorted human
voice whispering his name.