Time's Legacy by Barbara Erskine
Abi continued. ‘He followed me. He lost control of his psyche because of me.’
‘Rubbish. He knew what he was doing, and he lost control of his psyche, as you put it, long ago, from what I hear.’
‘You reckon?’ Abi looked astonished. ‘No, you’re wrong. He just hadn’t a clue what he was doing. Not a clue!’
‘Where is Justin now?’ Athena had taken a large bite of Danish and licked the icing off her lips.
‘He drove me back to Woodley, then he went home to Wales.’ Abi couldn’t quite hide the bleakness in her voice.
‘To do what exactly?’
‘I don’t know. He just said he had to get back.’
Athena studied her companion’s face for a moment and suppressed a knowing smile. So Justin had made another conquest. ‘Did he take your crystal?’
Abi shook her head. ‘I’ve got it at the house in my suitcase. I’m not sure I want to see it any more. The story is told.’ She frowned anxiously. ‘You think Justin’s going to go after Kier again, don’t you.’
Athena shrugged. ‘I wouldn’t put it past him.’ She looked up at Abi. ‘You must realise he’s not the type to give up. He will do his best for Kier and for those others in the past.’ There was a short silence, as she sipped her coffee, then she glanced up at Abi again. ‘Have you ever heard,’ she began cautiously, ‘of people going into what is called a persistent vegetative state?’
Abi nodded.
‘And do they think that is what has happened to Kier?’
Abi shrugged. ‘They haven’t used that term.’
‘Well, say it is something like that. You called it a coma. Have you ever wondered where people’s souls have gone while they lie there?’
‘No. You are not trying to tell me that they have gone off into another world?’
‘Why not? It seems perfectly possible to me. There is nothing physically wrong with Kier, is there. You told me he was breathing unaided and his heart seems to be working and the brain scan showed nothing abnormal.’
Abi was silent for a moment, lost in thought. ‘You agree with Justin that he’s gone after Flavius and to look for Yeshua. To see for himself,’ she said at last.
Athena took another bite of her pastry. ‘In his shoes, I’d go.’
‘In his shoes?’
‘He’s messed up. He’s got this amazing power and he is terrified of it. He has lost you – not that he ever had you, of course,’ she added hastily after a glance at Abi’s face. ‘He has lost his job, maybe his faith, his home if he’s kicked out of the parish and he has the chance to go adventuring, to slay dragons for the lady Lydia, and perhaps to meet Jesus face to face.’
‘You’re saying,’ Abi glanced up and gave a watery smile, ‘that he’s got, what did you call it, “Avalonitis”?’
‘Precisely!’ Athena leaned across and pushed Abi’s plate towards her. ‘Eat! Otherwise I shall be tempted to finish it for you and that would be very greedy!’
Mora had not appeared. He had searched for her on several occasions and at last conceded that this was women’s magic. But Flavius and Kier, they were men. He should be able to find them. Had Kier caught up with Flavius? And if he had what had happened? Abandoning his latest attempt at travelling in search of them he gazed at the fire, conscious suddenly of the sound of rain against the window and of how remote his house was. Normally he revelled in being alone but today he was terribly aware of the miles of empty mountains and the high moors around him, the black, racing clouds, the brooks, the nentydd, turning to torrents as they hurtled down the steep hillsides, the sheer immensity of the coming darkness. Slowly he pushed himself out of the chair and went over to the log basket. A couple of nice dry blocks sent sparks rocketing up the chimney. He went back to his computer and glanced at the screen. Another e-mail from Greg; the two men had been trying to find common ground in their quest to help Kier. Justin’s confidences had not as yet extended as far as sharing too many details of his journeying with him, but Abi was another matter. He looked at the phone. His thoughts kept going back to her. He hadn’t mentioned Mora’s pregnancy to her, nor Lydia’s speculation as to the father of the baby. Would she understand? He knew why she was reluctant to look into her Serpent Stone again – she had seen too much terror and bloodshed – but in her shoes he would want to know everything.
It had been hard to part from her, but he could see she had more than enough to deal with without him irritating her further. Did he irritate her? He had thought so. Now he wasn’t sure. One moment he thought she liked him and the next…He wasn’t even sure where she was. She had murmured at one point that she might go straight back to Cambridge to see if her father was all right, though Ben had frowned and shaken his head and said, ‘Not yet’. So she was presumably still at Woodley. Waiting. He stared thoughtfully into the flames. Perhaps it was time for an attempt to consolidate brotherly reconciliation. And before that, perhaps, one more journey into the past in the hope of finding Flavius.
Abi had unwrapped the stone and was looking at it a little quizzically. Outside it was dark; the rain had not stopped for three days. Already the levels were flooding. Downstairs in the kitchen Mat and Cal were sitting by the fire with their cocoa and the dogs but she had pleaded exhaustion and come upstairs to bed. Her thoughts kept turning to Justin. He had been disappointed in her determination not to go on with her quest, she could see that, but just for the moment she hadn’t been able to face it any more. She was prepared to leave it to him. Until now. Until, realising that if she wanted to see him again she would have to come out of her seclusion and face the unravelling of the story. Taking a deep breath, she picked up the stone and stared into its face.
‘So, Mora. Where did you get this thing?’ she said out loud. ‘Who gave it to you? Who showed you how to use it?’
‘Sorcha?’ Mora looked up at the figure in the doorway with an incredulous smile of joy. ‘I thought you were dead!’
Sorcha came into the house and, at Mora’s gesture of welcome, sat down near the fire. She shook her head sadly. ‘I should be. I should have stayed. I loved them as though they were my own, but when he killed Gaius, stabbed him in cold blood in front of lady Lydia, I fled.’ Tears gathered in her eyes.
‘You couldn’t have saved him, Sorcha.’
Sorcha shook her head. ‘He chose a time when there was no-one there. The men were in the fields or hunting or down to the eel traps. He murdered his own brother with a knife in his chest.’ Her voice was husky with pain. ‘The lady Lydia is still crazed with grief.’ Lydia and Petra were living now in a house in the small settlement of Glaston at the far end of Ynys yr Afalon. It was too soon, Fergos Mor had said, for Petra to decide if she still wanted to train as a druid. He wanted mother and child to have time to recover, to reclaim their lives. ‘Lydia’s punishment, Flavius told her, was to live, while Gaius died. To remember forever what had happened.’
‘Punishment!’ Mora echoed. ‘For what did he think she needed punishing?’
‘She chose his brother.’ Sorcha shrugged. ‘I have come to ask you to tell the gods what he did. To tell them of the injustice. To tell them of the evil and to ask them to punish him in his turn.’ Her face flushed with anger. ‘I want his name to echo down the centuries with the story of his betrayal.’
Mora gave a wry smile. ‘God,’ she hesitated, ‘the gods, will know already, Sorcha. They know everything. But my father has told me to tell no-one. He feels we should keep all this to ourselves. For the sake of Yeshua.’
Sorcha shook her head stubbornly. ‘No! That is what Flavius wants. He tried to kill Petra so that no-one would know what an amazing healer Yeshua was. If we keep Yeshua’s name secret we are doing exactly what Flavius wants.’
‘But I can’t defy my father,’ Mora said anxiously.
Sorcha stared at her. ‘Write it down then.’
Mora shook her head. ‘You know that is not our way. Everything must be committed to memory.’
‘And so, one day, if something hap
Mora nodded. ‘My father has one,’ she said quietly. ‘They are as you say objects of great power.’
‘If you come with me to my aunt’s we will find you one and you can tell it your story. You would not be disobeying your father, but you would be preserving the memory of everything that happened here.’ Sorcha smiled. She held out her hand. ‘Please. So that one day someone will know the truth.’
‘So, that was it,’ Abi addressed the crystal in her hand. ‘You came from Wookey Hole or Cheddar Caves. Somewhere up there they found a seam of natural crystal in the limestone, and people knew exactly what its properties were.’ She gave a shaky laugh. ‘You’re not even a magic Atlantean stone from deep within the Tor! It wasn’t magic at all. They had invented the precursor to the crystal set; the CD; the mobile and two thousand years ago they were calling it an ancient art!’ She glanced at the table where her mobile lay amongst the clutter of books. At last she had an excuse to ring him.
He came the next day. They agreed to meet in Glastonbury and Abi chose the coffee shop with the green sofa. ‘Of course, as we discussed, there is huge controversy about what exactly a druid’s egg was.’ Justin was sitting at the table, turning the Serpent Stone over in his hands. He smiled to himself. He was still surprised how much he had missed her and how natural it felt to have her there with him again. They were comfortable together. ‘I think this is one. I did wonder if it could have referred to some kind of natural crystal. There are so many theories about it – the main being that it was some kind of whelk egg case! But I can’t help thinking this sort of thing is more likely.’
‘It would be something of immense power; something to keep very secret, so no-one was supposed to know what they were,’ Abi put in. ‘Fergus obviously had one, as well. Perhaps the druids used them to store their secrets and if someone finds one, one day, all their hidden teachings will come to light.’ She glanced at him. ‘I spoke to Bishop David this morning. There is no change in Kier. He is stable and doesn’t need a life support machine or anything.’
Justin nodded his head slowly. ‘I have made enquiries.’ He glanced at her. ‘Over there, where he has gone.’ He was silent for a moment. ‘I have reason to believe he would not want to be called back, even if we could. He will return in his own time, be that a week or a month or twenty years.’
She stared at him in horror. ‘And there’s nothing you can do?’
‘It is his choice, Abi.’ He took a deep breath. ‘Would you deprive him of the chance to meet Jesus?’
She chewed her lip for a moment. ‘I just feel so guilty, as though somehow his unhappiness and panic and unpredictability were my fault.’
‘They weren’t.’ He reached forward and laid his hand over hers. She was going to snatch hers away, then she changed her mind and left it there. For a moment they were silent, then he moved his hand and casually reached for his cup. ‘I want to go back to Woodley,’ he said at last. ‘See if I can’t make things up with Mat and there is something we need to do there.’
She glanced at him enquiringly.
‘The orchard. I’ve talked to Greg about it. Romanus needs to be set free. Greg agrees you should do it with me.’
‘Me?’ She scanned his face thoughtfully and he nodded. ‘Prayer. Incense. Druid and Christian together. Let the poor boy go.’
‘With Cynan?’
‘You think Cynan is still there too?’
She shrugged. ‘He felt responsible. Besides Woodley was his special place. Or at least, St Mary’s island was.’
He nodded. ‘You and I would make a good team, Abi.’
For a moment she froze. She didn’t know where to look. He saw her embarrassment and smiled. ‘In a spiritual sense, of course. Ghostbusters to the gentry.’
‘And to the church?’
‘If you say so.’
The orchard was wet and windy, yellow leaves whirling in the air. Mat and Cal had watched them walk across the lawn from the kitchen window then they had turned back to the fire. The meeting with Mat had been fine if a little restrained. The two men had shaken hands and Cal, with a little more colour in her cheeks than was normal had smiled and hugged them both.
Justin took his drum out of his shoulder bag and then a candle holder and a small incense burner. ‘I expect wind and rain in my job. More often than not I need several matches.’ He grinned at her. ‘Say and do whatever you feel is right, Abi. There are no rules for this kind of occasion.’
She reached into her pocket and drew out the Serpent Stone. ‘I went up and fetched it before we came out here. I thought it might help to contact them.’ She was aware of the rustle and hiss of leaves around them. She watched as, sheltering the flame with the flap of his jacket, he lit the little charcoal block under the incense and sprinkled on a few grains of resin from a small jar. The blue trail of smoke was whipped away from them. She could smell nothing. As her hand went to the little cross around her neck she closed her eyes.
Romanus was tall for his age and thin, a good-looking boy with brown eyes and a gentle intelligent face. She could see the streaks of blood down his cheek, the worse, more terrible stains on his tunic. Cynan had the druidic tonsure, he was taller, more solid, a sadness in his eyes as though he had always known what his own terrible fate would be. ‘Flavius.’ She heard the name as a hiss of rain, a rhythm in the gentle drumbeat. ‘Flavius must not be allowed to continue his persecution. He must be stopped.’
She stared round. The apple trees were gone. Instead she was standing in an olive grove. She could smell warm earth and fragrant sunshine. Flavius was standing alone with his back to her. Beyond him she could see the red terracotta tiles of a roof and somehow she knew it was his father’s house. He had returned home. As he swung to face her she saw the haunted eyes, the face grey with exhaustion and she knew what he was going to do even before he drew the short sword. He held it up. Had his father guessed what he had done? Was the guilt of the blood of his own brother and his brother’s son too much to bear? He was hesitating. He was thinking of his duty to his Emperor. His knuckles whitened round the sword hilt as he lowered it, the blade flashing in the warm Etruscan sun. His doubt was going. She saw his jaw grow firm, his eyes hard.
‘Do it,’ Abi whispered. ‘The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth from the ground!’
She saw his eyes widen as he looked round. The olive leaves rustled in the wind and small dust eddies rose and spun around his sandaled feet.
‘Who’s there?’ he called. The sword was raised again now, pointing towards her although she didn’t think he could see her. Then she realised he could. He was remembering the days of his youth when he had consulted a sibyl near the Temple of the Vestals in Rome and bought charms to win Lydia and then curses when they didn’t work. When he had gone to ask for his money back she had spitefully told him that she had seen in her scrying bowl his doom in a woman’s eyes, the eyes which were now gazing at him from a different time and place.
‘Lydia?’ he called. His voice was harsh with terror.
Abi felt herself take a step forward and she saw his face freeze. ‘Mora?’
‘Do it!’ She wasn’t sure if she had spoken or if the voice was someone else’s, but the words seemed to come from her. The voice of thy brother’s blood is crying out for revenge.’
He gave a sob. ‘No!’
‘Do it!’
Behind him she saw a man’s figure through the trees. Flavius turned and saw it too. ‘Father!’ It was a broken whisper and in it Abi knew his father had discovered what he had done to his brother. ‘I’m sorry.’
His movement was almost too quick to follow. He reversed the sword, gripped the hilt in both hands, and drove it with every last ounce of strength he possessed into his own stomach. For a moment he stood, his face wiped of expression, his eyes huge and glassy, then he fell forward onto the blade.
The wind had grown stronger. She could feel the rain, cold, on her face. The drumming had stopped and slowly she realised that Justin had taken her in his arms. ‘I killed him,’ she whispered. ‘I killed him.’
He shook his head. ‘He killed himself.’
‘You saw?’ She stared at him. She had begun to shiver violently.
‘I saw. It may have been your destiny to push him to do the decent thing, but if you hadn’t, then it would have been his own father.’ Justin released her for a moment, pulled off his jacket and wrapped it round her shoulders then he put his arm round her again. ‘Look.’ He pointed off into the trees.
In the distance she saw Romanus and Cynan standing side by side. The older man put his arm round the younger in a gesture mirroring their own. He raised his other hand in acknowledgement. Then they were gone.
‘They are at rest,’ Justin said quietly.
‘I can’t believe I did it,’ she whispered. ‘I urged a man to kill himself.’
‘You did what had to be done.’ Justin steered her back towards the garden. ‘You must not feel guilty. This was your destiny. Ask Ben. Or Greg. Or your bishop. You were the instrument of fate. There was unfinished business to be done and only you could sort it out. You have acted as a very special catalyst in all of this, Abi. You are a healer and a priest. You, of all the women who have owned that stone have been able to resolve the anguish of this story and you were brought here to this house to do it. It can’t have been coincidence that you were brought here.’