The Satanist (14 page)

A gaunt middle-aged man said, ‘Master, I am a publisher. Everything that I have published since joining the Brotherhood has in some form been slanted against either capitalism or Christianity or accepted conventions. But such books do not sell well with the people who can best afford to buy; and I have nearly exhausted my capital. What shall I do?’

After looking straight into his eyes for a moment, the Great Ram replied: ‘I can see that you have had an interesting life, so I bestow upon you the gift of writing. Write a book based on your own experiences. Abaddon will arrange
that it shall be made into a film. Its rights will bring you several thousand pounds.’

One of the two Japanese put a hand to his sleek dark hair, gave a pull and, as it was a wig, it came off, revealing a completely bald skull. ‘Master!’ he said in a sibilant voice. ‘Through an illness two years ago I lost all my hair. Rude people mock at me, and it is a great handicap when making love to women. I beg you make it grow again.’

The Great Ram laid a hand on the man’s head. When he withdrew it the bald pate was no longer shining but faintly coloured with a first sprouting of fine dark fluff. ‘Do not brush it for a month,’ he said. ‘By then it will have grown an inch, and it will continue to do so.’

So it went on, cures and favours being distributed to all, except for a few who were turned away on account of their requests being either ill regarded or considered too trivial. Mary sat spellbound, her gaze riveted on the scene. She now felt certain that both the wine and the fruit juice she had drunk must have contained some drug, as every few minutes she found some difficulty in focusing her eyes, but the thought did not worry her, for the drug had also made her feel happy and exhilarated. The sight of the uglier of the semi-nude people down below no longer filled her with revulsion; they now inspired in her only a wish to know more of them as interesting human beings, and to miss nothing of these extraordinary proceedings.

She had not long to wait before she witnessed a more astounding manifestation of the Great Ram’s powers than any she had yet seen. When the last request had been dealt with, he spoke to the pregnant woman whom he had told to stand aside, and ordered her to lay herself at full length on the altar. Now, standing in front of his throne, and about a yard away from her, he let his chin fall on his chest so that the lower part of his face became hidden by the mask, from either side of which protruded the fearsome curling horns. For some minutes, while the congregation watched with bated breath, he remained quite still, a tall black-clad figure, either deep in contemplation or concentrating intensely. Almost
imperceptibly at first, a faint mist began to obscure his legs from the knees down. It thickened, becoming like smoke, and increased in height until it formed a dark oval cloud hiding his limbs from the feet to half-way up his thighs.

Suddenly it solidified. Mary gave a gasp of astonishment and horror. She blinked her eyes, sat back, rubbed them, then looked again. She could still hardly believe it, yet she knew she was not dreaming. The dark cloud had become a grinning black imp; the imp of Teddy’s nightmares.

The creature was not like a child, but was a perfectly formed manikin, about thirty inches high. It had a pot belly, long pointed ears, but no hair, and its red eyes glowed like live coals in its pitchblack face.

Neither it nor its creator moved for what seemed an immensely long time, but was in fact about two minutes. Then the small supernatural monster began to disintegrate, but only so far as to become again a dense black cloud. In that form it began to oscillate and lengthen until it turned into a swiftly whirling spiral of thick oily looking smoke. The spiral straightened to a five-foot long upright streak. Its upper point curved over, shot downwards like a diving aircraft and entered the body of the woman lying on the altar.

Her eyes were shut, there had been no sound, and evidently she remained unaware that anything was happening to her-until the whole of the evil spirit had disappeared inside her. Then she began to writhe and murmur, but her paroxysm was of short duration. In less than a minute her dark invader streaked out of her, spiralled, reformed into a cloud, solidified and again became a black imp standing in front of its master.

With a gasp she sat up, looked round in astonishment then, catching sight of the imp, gave a cry of terror.

‘Silence woman!’ It was the voice of the Great Ram, still clear but now seeming to come from a long way away. ‘I have destroyed the new life in your body. Go home at once and do what there is to do. In an hour’s time you will have been freed from your trouble.’

Getting up from the altar, the woman made a movement as though she intended to throw herself at his feet in gratitude, but evidently she was too frightened of the imp, which stood between her and him, to do so. Instead she made an awkward curtsey, called out, ‘Oh, thank you! Thank you! Blessed be Satan’s name! Then, her hair dishevelled and her muslin cloak flying out behind her, she ran from the temple.

The voice of the Great Ram came again. ‘Prepare to receive through me the Benediction of Our Lord Satan, that you may be fitted to honour the Creator by the rite symbolical of His work.’

At this order the congregation swiftly formed up in two lines facing the altar. For a few moments complete silence and stillness reigned again. Then the imp moved forward from the dais on which the Great Ram was standing, jumped soundlessly down on to the floor of the temple and, like a General inspecting troops, moved slowly along the front rank, but pausing for a moment in front of every individual. As it did so each was shaken by a sudden shudder, and some uttered a low cry.

As the two lines of men and women had their backs to Mary, and the imp was so much shorter than they were, she could catch glimpses of it only as it passed from one to another; so in a whisper she said to Ratnadatta:

‘What is it doing to them?’

The Indian whispered back. ‘He ees touching the genitals off each. Through him, in this way, their sexual powers are restored or increased. It enable them to enjoy with more frequency than others, yet without tiredness.’

When the imp had completed its round it returned to its place in front of the Great Ram; its outline began to quiver, slowly it disintegrated into a ball of smoke, then the smoke faded into mist and the mist dispersed, leaving the air clear. Since producing this terrible familiar the Great Ram had remained with bowed head and as still as a statue. Now he raised his head, gave himself a slight shake and in a few swift strides walked round the throne to take up his first
position with his back to the tall blood-red curtains. The congregation bowed their heads. With his left hand he made the sign of the cross upside down. There came a faint movement of the curtains and he disappeared as mysteriously as he had arrived.

An audible sigh of relief went up from the congregation. Abaddon then rose from the seat to one side of the altar, which he had occupied all this time, and addressed them:

‘Brothers and Sisters of the Ram. Tonight there will be no further ceremonies. Seven nights hence we meet again. All should attend unless engaged that evening on the work of Our Lord Satan. I need hardly remind you that three Saturdays hence is Walpurgis Nacht, and a feast of obligation. As is customary, that night we shall symbolically sacrifice ourselves by offering up the life-blood of a ram to Him who has illimitable power. Now, be at your ease, and rejoice while appeasing those appetites given by the Creator to mankind with the object of making the world a happy place to live in. Do what thou wilt shall be the Whole of the Law.’

As he ceased speaking, the congregation broke its ranks, resumed its early carefree chatter, and some of them began to move the divans so that they should form a big circle. Others carried low tables from the sides of the hall, setting one down in front of each divan, while others again fetched dishes of food and bottles of wine to set upon them.

Before the arrangements for this next phase of the Satanists’ activities were completed, Ratnadatta again pulled the curtains, then said to Mary: ‘Now they make jolly feasting and afterwards they enjoy to dance. But that there ees no point in your remaining to see. Also I wish soon as possible to join them. So now we go.’

Mary thought it highly probable that the party would end in an orgy; so she would have liked to stay on in order to find out if those who wished were allowed to leave before it took place, and if the rest paired off in couples or they all became involved in a general drunken mêlée. But as Ratnadatta
had announced his intention of joining the party as soon as he was rid of her, she had no option but to let him take her away.

Down in the front hall they retrieved their coats, then went out into the dark courtyard. The half-dozen parked cars were still there and Ratnadatta remarked to her, ‘Only those who live at a distance outside London are permit to park cars here. Otherwise too many make for undesirable comment in neighbourhood. But I haf ordered taxi weech meet us not far off.’

Again they walked through the mean, now deserted, streets, until they emerged opposite one of the new, featureless blocks of flats that since the war have been erected in all the poorer parts of London. On the corner a taxi was standing with its flag down. As they approached it the driver leaned from his cab and said:

‘Would you be Mr. Smithers?’

‘Yes,’ nodded Ratnadatta. ‘I regret if we haf kept you waiting for long.’

‘That’s all right,’ the taxi man replied gruffly. ‘The garage wot sent me guaranteed my fare, and said you was a generous gent as would give me a good tip. ‘Op in. Where d’you want ter go?’

The Indian handed Mary into the cab then, in a low voice, gave the driver his instructions. Within a few moments of the taxi moving off Ratnadatta again produced the folded handkerchief and Mary once more submitted to having her eyes bandaged.

‘Now,’ said Ratnadatta, as soon as he had knotted the handkerchief behind her head, ‘what feelings haf you about what you haf witness tonight?’

‘I was positively staggered,’ she replied. ‘For a lot of the time I felt frightened, of course. I’d have been terrified if I had not had you with me. And I’d never have believed such things could happen if I hadn’t seen them with my own eyes. But I was fascinated; absolutely fascinated.’

‘You haf not then too great fears to wish to proceed?’

‘No. If other women can screw up the courage to face
things like… like that black imp, I don’t see why I shouldn’t too.’

‘Good, very good,’ he purred. ‘But there ees one other matter on which I must talk with you. Earlier I haf spoken much this evening upon subject off fertility rites performed by primitive peoples. I now giff you reason why they still practise such rites. It ees because they haf had great truth handed down from generation to generation that sex ees the most potent off all magics. By act off it alone can men and women enter into communion with Him who represents Creator. This explains why custom was in ancient times for every maiden to go to temple and offer her virginity to first stranger. That way, you understand, she make her first communion. Not to plees self with lover off choice. That to come afterwards. But first with whoever Our Lord Satan may choose for her as His representative. In my country are many fine temples open to public where this tradition ees still observed.’

‘It is what is known as sacred prostitution, isn’t it?’ Mary asked in a low voice.

‘Yes plees; you are right. But proper expression ees Service to Temple; and all who wish to become Sisters off the Ram must observe this ritual before they become initiate. You understand?’

‘But I am not a virgin,’ she objected quickly.

‘No matter. The offering off yourself will be accepted as symbolic off act weech you would haf performed had you received right teaching when younger.’

Much that Ratnadatta had said over dinner had left no doubt in Mary’s mind that initiation into the Brotherhood of the Ram would be a very different business from the purely spiritual promotion with which the leading Theosophists encouraged their most earnest adherents, and all she had seen in the past hour had confirmed her belief that an assurance that she was willing to submit herself to some form of sexual baptism would be demanded of her before she could get much further. From the beginning she had recognised that if Teddy had been murdered by Satanists,
and she was to succeed in penetrating their circle, that would almost certainly be the price she would have to pay; but it had then been only a possibility for future consideration. Now she was called on to decide whether she really would go to such lengths.

She was not in love with, or pledged to, anyone; and to give herself to a man she had only just met would be no new experience. To some extent she was still affected by the mild aphrodisiac that Ratnadatta had given her in her drinks, and the image of the very tall man, with his splendid torso, rippling muscles and fair wavy hair, came into her mind, making her feel that, as a purely physical act, service to the temple might well prove enjoyable. At worst she would find it no more repugnant than one or two particularly unpleasant nights which she could recall having had to spend with half-drunken men during her black year in Dublin, and it would be over much sooner.

Nevertheless, there were limits beyond which she was not prepared to go. She had never even spoken to a coloured man until she had met Ratnadatta, and had all a normal white woman’s prejudice against physical contact with them. What if one of the Negroes or orientals who had been at the meeting was selected as the stranger to whom she had to offer up her symbolic virginity, or – worse – Ratnadatta himself. At the thought of his hot little hands upon her and his foul breath in her face, her stomach nearly turned over.

A shade impatiently, he asked: ‘Well, haf you made up your mind? Since you are not a virgin and haf had several lovers why do you hesitate? You haf nothing to be frightened off. Come plees; tell me your decision.’

Suddenly she saw a possible way to safeguard herself from the sort of ordeal she felt that she could not possibly face, and answered shrewdly, ‘While we were at dinner you told me that the sole creed of the Brotherhood was “Do what thou wilt shall be the Whole of the Law”. That does not square with the possibility that I might find the first man who wanted me repugnant, and so intensely dislike the
idea of having to give myself to him.’