The Flames of Time (Flames of Time Series Book 1) (29 page)

‘Good, then might I suggest myself and another member of my party travel with you to Athens, to safeguard our property. They can be appraised by your expert in our presence, and then when everyone is satisfied that these items are in no way part of your country’s historic estate, we can travel back in the same fashion. If your expert is available, we could be there and back in under three days.’

Somehow, even though his was completely unprepared, Androus had managed to take control of the situation, and the inspector was only able to agree to his terms.

The arrangements were quickly made, with Peter volunteering to go along as well. Apparently he’d studied the law for a couple of years, before moving on to engineering. He conceded he was no expert, but was confident he’d be able to help out if need be.

It was going to be a long drive to Athens, and probably a lot less comfortable than Stephanos’ boat. But nobody wanted to try and open up the negotiations again, so we agreed to leave things as they were, and they set off less than an hour later in the police car. Androus and Peter guarding the box containing everything we’d found.

It could’ve been worse, but we’d still been out-manoeuvred by Selene and her friends, and now we faced an even longer wait before we’d find out whether our latest find was going to be of any value.

The entire thing seemed to put Marlow into a particularly dark mood, and as soon as Androus and Peter had left in the inspector’s car, he quickly excused himself and left without another word.

I could tell Jean and Harry were concerned about the situation, but there was nothing to be said, especially in front of Luke, who now seemed intent upon lingering, no matter what.

This being the case I decided to continue with my planned diversion for the day anyway, and get out for a walk around the old acropolis. So, after skulking around for a while longer, I arranged for a car to drop me off and left them all to it.

It would have been nice if Harry had come along to the Acropolis and once more acted as guide and educator, as I had no doubt he’d have been able to enrich my visit with his knowledge and understanding of the place. But it was not to be, and instead I had to settle for the nice views, elegant ruins and my own imagination.

It was a wonderful place, well worthy of a visit, and I thoroughly enjoyed exploring the ruins and escarpment top, before making my way back across the bottom of the great white cliff-face. I realised the exertion and fresh air had completely taken my mind off everything back at the hotel. In fact it was only as I made my way back to rendezvous with the car that I once more started to think about what we were going to do.

I’d arranged for the car to come and pick me up fairly late in the afternoon, so I wouldn’t have to kill too much time before dinner. So after getting back to the hotel, retrieving my key from the desk and checking for messages, I’d just got to the top of the stairs along from my room, when I saw Luke hurrying down the corridor with an expression full of anxiety and consternation.

He was almost upon me before he even realised I was there, so preoccupied with whatever was troubling him. Flinching as he saw me, and stopping directly beside me on the staircase, he almost seemed frenzied as he spoke.

‘I cannot, will not, go through that again,’ he said, almost reaching for me as he spoke, eyes roving wildly around and barely settling upon me. ‘To even contemplate such monstrosity is… is… Stop him George, plead with him, he cannot know what he is doing.’

I tried to get him to explain, but he just moved past me, unwilling to stop, almost not recognising who I was again.

As I watched him go down the stairs, concern now rising in my own mind as to what could have provoked such a reaction, and then moving past my own room I made for Jean’s. If anyone could tell me what was going on it would be him.

He was waiting patiently inside, sat in a comfortable armchair looking out of the window at the sea and surrounding hills of the bay, just as the light was beginning to fade.

He smiled a welcome as I entered, immediately guessing what I was about to say.

‘You have just seen Luke on your way up?’ He questioned politely, and then continued as I gave my affirmation.

‘He is… not happy about a decision that Robert has made,’ he began. ‘You remember, my friend, when we were back in Jerusalem just after Christmas, the snow and ice had covered the place and we were waiting for the weather to break before we could head off to Crete? You caught me in a rather poor mood yhen, just as I was preparing to go out to run an errand to the Al-Dabbagha suq, yes? Well what I could not tell you at the time, is that the errand was one I had agreed to run for Robert. Although perhaps it would be more accurate to say, an errand which I had asked him to allow me to perform for him. To procure a selection of… substances, with the aid of which he could recreate, or at least better remember the dream visions he had in Africa.’

‘You mean some variety of narcotics?’ I asked rather warily.

‘I once had a little knowledge of these things,’ Jean conceded with a reluctant nod, ‘As a result of some time I spent in India as a young man. Enough knowledge for me to be able to speak with several of the fakirs and dervishes plying their trades within the Suq… and to be taken seriously. Anyway before the visit we made together, they had agreed to provide me with the components of a powerful potion used only in a rare mystic rite. It was this powder that I collected when you insisted upon accompanying me, and which I have subsequently been holding for Robert. For some time now I have tried to dissuade or discourage him from its use, to counter his increasing willingness to take the risks involved.’

I was shocked to hear what Jean was telling me, it must have been three months since the day he was talking about, which was a disconcerting amount of time for him to have kept such a secret, let alone to have discussed and argued with Marlow about it. But it was the idea of the drugs that sounded particularly risky to me, especially while there were still other channels of research we could follow. These were after all still powerful narcotics even if they didn’t have the desired effect, what would happen if they simply didn’t work, would it mean trying a string of potentially damaging concoctions one after another. All of which I was open about and told Jean in no uncertain terms.

‘Yes, yes you are quite correct mon ami,’ he responded, ‘but if I had not done this for him I am certain he would have found a way to pursue it himself. And at least this way I have been able to moderate, and yes… delay him from following this path.’

‘You mean he’s wanted to try this before now,’ I asked slightly surprised that I’d had no idea or suspicion.

‘I have attempted to be discreet, partly because of the reaction I thought it might cause in Luke, but also because I hoped it might somehow be avoidable. But Robert is acutely aware of the visions fading within his mind, and it has taken every scrap of my persuasion to get him to delay this long. Now of course I have failed, and he is determined to make his experiment this evening.’

The others it seemed were already preparing, and Jean had just been waiting for me to return to tell me of the plans.

I don’t know why it had popped into my mind, but that very afternoon, while I’d been walking back along the base of the escarpment, I’d found a small overhanging area of the cliff face, with a shallow depression in the ground below. It was an idyllic little spot, that was ideal for a summer nights camping, the overhang sheltering those below from falling rocks, as well as reflecting back the heat from a fire. It must have been the thought of the fire beneath the rough overhang that made me think of Africa, and our encounter with Nelion beneath that much greater rock face covered in shadow-dancing figures.

I felt the hair rise on the back of my neck as I explained about the place I’d found to Jean. It was a simple coincidence that I’d been thinking of that particular experience only a few hours earlier, nothing more. But I could still feel that ‘other’ state of mind creeping up on me, the smoke-like tendrils of the dream I’d had in Africa brushing against my consciousness again, just as they had back then.

The others thought the place I’d found would be ideal, so with nothing more to say we just got on with our preparations. It was probably going to take us an hour to get there, more if we had to try and find our way in the dark, so we had to do things quickly.

After the last storm the weather had been warm again, and was looking like it wasn’t going to change for the foreseeable, but we still needed to sort out bedding and some supplies. Jean had already assembled a small medical kit with purgatives, stimulants and charcoal, and then of course there were a few other precautions to take and make, and we were ready.

There wasn’t really time to do much thinking about whether we were doing the right thing, and there was no point bringing the subject up with Marlow again. If Jean had finally failed to dissuade him then there was little the rest of us could hope to achieve.

Luke as expected, was absent, so had we been in the mood for further conversation about our plans it would have been an ideal time, but somehow no-one seemed to feel much like chatting.

The car dropped us off, where it had picked me up only a couple of hours earlier, and a few minutes later we were retracing my route across the bottom of the cliff face. The light was almost gone, but the last vestiges of sunset providing enough light for us to make it the rest of the way.

The routine of making camp came back fairly quickly, and with the familiarity came the conversation, and the reminiscences, and in no time we had a small fire going along with a supply of wood for the rest of the night.

We’d sorted more or less everything out for the evening, and were just standing around having a light bite to eat of some cold food we’d brought along, when Harry suddenly started slightly, and turned as though to listen.

‘Did you hear that,’ he said, suddenly pale in the firelight.

‘What is it my friend?’ asked Jean concerned.

But it was Marlow who responded. He was stood on the opposite side of the small fire from me, and as he answered I could see he was looking past us all toward the far horizon. ‘The drums,’ was all he said.

And then I heard them. Soft and distant, fading in and out, just as they had in Africa, as though borne on fickle winds that changed and danced with the starlight, one moment bringing the sound to us, the next casting it in another direction. But I’d heard it, I was sure of that, and it was enough for that ‘other’ state of mind to come upon me again, sending a shiver down my spine despite the warm evening, blurring the boundaries just a little between dream and wakefulness.

The others had all heard it too, and in that state of half-dream, I heard Marlow tell Jean it was time, and then Jean moved without argument to retrieve a small sandalwood box from his pack. Inside there were two linen bags, which he removed before pocketing the box.

The drums were becoming a little clearer now, more urgent in their call, almost as though they would draw us closer to them. Slowly, their tempo increased with that strange undulating African rhythm, compelling my heartbeat to follow.

While I was watching Jean, Marlow produced a bowl he’d bought at the gallery, and held it out for Jean to put the contents of the bags into. I had a strange moment of thinking it odd that Marlow should have bothered to bring that ornate little bowl with him, and then suddenly I realised he must have been thinking of using it for this purpose all along. But then Jean was pouring the hot water onto the powders and dried herbs he’d extracted from the bags in the bowl.

I watched as the steam and vapours rose from the hot liquid and encircled Marlow’s face, a swirling billowing motion that again matched the rhythm of the drums as they soared and climbed toward their climax. Then, as Jean stepped back I saw Marlow, eyes closed, raise the bowl to his mouth and drink deep of its contents.

Until this moment I’d had no intention of actually taking part in this ‘experiment’, but with the evocative sound of Africa once more in my ears, and that strange sense of otherness gripping my mind I was no longer certain. I saw the bowl pass to Harry, who seemed so sure, acting without hesitation, almost impatient to drink and then pass the thing on to me. As I took the bowl in my hands I became aware of Jean watching me. Holding it before me I pulled my gaze away from the swirling, steaming liquid to look him in the eye. I think I was searching for some kind of disapproval or rebuke, perhaps even some guidance as to what I should do, but as always there was no judgement or disappointment in those eyes. And then the distant heartbeat became stronger, and I again became a detached observer of the events in which I was partaking, the frenzy of the drums, gripping and seducing me, and then I saw myself raise the bowl to my lips and I too drank of the bitter liquid within.

As I passed the bowl on to Jean, I could see that he too was feeling the pull of the drums, and was fighting his impulse to drink, but even as I realised it I could feel the sense of otherness growing stronger.

I was still aware I’d had no intention of drinking that liquid again, but at the same time I was sure I should have a plan this time, of what I would do once I began to dream again. If only I could concentrate for a minute, but the drums kept distracting me and I couldn’t quite seem to remember what it was I’d had in mind. It was irritating and I thought to mention it to the others, but even as I looked for them I knew they’d already gone, and then my Father was there again. He was older this time, more like how I’d remembered him from when I was a young child. He simply came walking out of the darkness on the other side of the fire, a warm smile upon his face.

I walked around the fire to join him, half expecting we’d suddenly find ourselves racing across the surface of the cliff again, chasing after some fleet footed game. But instead he simply welcomed me with a handshake, and then indicating the inky darkness beyond our circle of firelight, we walked off into the night.