The Dove Read online

  “Then my Master is persecuted and hunted because he knows the Truth?” Selwig asked him.

  “Exactly.” Simon nodded.

  “Then I understand. Thank you.” Selwig nodded slightly and looked down at his bag. “This false god is persecuting me for doing the right thing. It is good to know I am not suffering in vain.”

  “We never suffer in vain, Selwig. Our suffering only strengthens us.”

  “What can I do for you, Master?” Selwig pushed the last of his bottles into the bag. “There is very little need for my healing services. I am anxious to earn my keep.”

  “You owe me nothing but friendship.” Simon told him and plucked a straw from the floor. “I am interested in the method you used to heal Jozsef Daniel’s hand. The golden skin that you made for him.”

  “Ahhh. That was a difficult task considering the urgency and the lack of proper equipment.” The healer frowned and looked up at the rafters. “I did my best.”

  “I’m sure you did. I was wondering if you used magick when you made the repairs to the hand.”

  “Of course. Great magick is necessary for such things. His hand was ruined. There was no skin left in his palm and the bones were exposed and damaged as well. Whatever caused the injury was also of magickal proportions and dark, indeed. It was very difficult to perform the magick under the watchful eye of the Queen. I would not have her stealing my secrets.”

  “Of course not.” Simon agreed wholeheartedly. “I would not want to steal your secrets either. I do not want you to tell me how you did it because that is your secret just as my own talents are my mystery and I cannot share it with others. But if you were to see him again, could you take back what you did?”

  Selwig’s frown deepened. “I have never thought of such a thing. Why would I do that? I am a healer, not a destroyer.”

  “I know that, but Jozsef Daniel is no longer who he was when you helped him. He is a creature of darkness now, but perhaps that is unfair. Jozsef Daniel no longer resides in his body. He has been taken over or displaced by a creature of darkness. This thing that wears his face and uses his voice, and does all the things we might expect of Jozsef Daniel, is not Jozsef Daniel and we must remember that. If there is anything that you can do to add to our cause in defeating him, your help would be priceless. We believe that the creature was able to enter his body through the golden skin.”

  “I have heard this said and so it may be true. I have given it much thought and it was also part of the reason I was banished. My King said that the Dagda told him that I used too much magick and not enough healing, but we were in desperate straits. I didn’t know what would happen. I am ignorant in many ways of the workings of the outside world.”

  “You did what you thought was right. None of us are perfect as I have said. I have made many mistakes. The main thing is to realize our mistakes and correct them, if we can. I want to ask you to think on this idea. We may call on you to help us when the time comes. We must make amends when we have failed if it is possible. You may redeem yourself yet.”

  “I would be honored to help you and any of my Master’s Brothers.” Selwig told him. “I will meditate on this subject. But I would have to get very close to him to perform such a feat. It would take great courage and I am faint of heart.” Selwig lowered his eyes in embarrassment.

  “You may find there is more courage there than you know, my friend.” Simon reached across the space and tapped the healer’s chest over his heart. “Sometimes, all it takes is heart. Courage has nothing to do with it.”

  Selwig’s eyes were wide, but not with fear. He seemed to be thinking of something that made him shiver with excitement.

  “Master!” He grabbed the Healer’s hand. “I would do anything to help Master Ramsay! If what you say is true, then I will offer up my life, if need be to restore things to what was. Perhaps it is some part of the Grand Design that Vanni always speaks about that has brought me here to this exile. Surely the Creator would not banish me for no purpose from my people other than to make me appreciate life more. I believe there is something I can do, but I would have to be close to the Evil to make it so. Is there anyone who can take me there? To New Babylon? Are there any here who will dare to go?”

  Simon smiled at him. “I can’t say at this point, but I will bring it up to my father. There are many who would quickly volunteer to go, but it would be up to the Grand Master to make the decision. He will want to consider things carefully before he allows any of us to place ourselves in such danger. I would go myself, but I know he will not allow it. He depends too heavily on me and wants to keep me near. Lucio would go as would Christopher Stewart, or any one of my sons. Even the Ritter would go, I am sure, but we will need someone of great power and, yet, we will need someone that the Master is willing to release to the possibility of destruction. I’m afraid that he is very selfish concerning his son and grandsons and granddaughters.”

  “Vanni would go. He has said as much.” Selwig told him excitedly. “Vanni loves Sophia very much, as do I. And Master Luke Andrew would go. It is his father and he, too, is very fond of Sophia.”

  Simon frowned as he considered this. Vanni was not strictly a member of the Order, but he seemed a bit naïve. Luke Andrew was an apprentice, but he carried the Key of Death just as his father. If Luke Andrew went, they would be without the mysteries of the Chevalier du Morte, since both father and son would be in New Babylon and in danger of destruction at the hands of the Ancient Evil. He felt sure that his father would not allow Luke Andrew to leave because of that. Vanni would need help. They could not possibly send him without help. And the Tuathan healer was much too recognizable. He looked like a child or a young girl at first glance. Simon took hold of the golden red hair in his hand and looked at it closely. With a little bit of makeup and a different mode of dress, the healer could have passed for a beautiful young girl. The only other persons capable of carrying out such a dangerous mission would be Lucio Dambretti or perhaps Lavon de Bleu. Lucio was too well known at the palace in New Babylon and Vanni looked almost exactly like his father. The Grand Master would not want to lose Lavon’s powers and it was Lavon who kept them going with his alchemical wizardry. Lucio, Lavon, Philip, Izzy, Zeb… these were all out of the question. There was very little to choose from. Konrad, Christopher? Barry was the Seneschal and Rachel was expecting another child very soon. He cringed to think of sending his daughter’s husband to New Babylon.

  “Let me think on it, Selwig.” Simon sat back on his heels. “We will see what we will see.”

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  Bari was completely beside himself. He had hidden the skull in his room, but he could feel its presence, calling to him. It seemed that now, since he had burned away the insulating swath of leathery skin and imbued it with the living essence of the fire the thing had grown in power. The strange sensations he had felt prior to the burning, had become more than just a feeling. It was now an almost palpable force within his rooms and he was afraid. Afraid that Jozsef Daniel would sense its existence. Afraid that Ruth… Naomi… the creature in his mother’s body, would know of it. Afraid of what it wanted him to do, what it was trying to tell him and he knew… he knew it was trying to tell him something. He smashed his fists against his eyes and then ran to the bathroom where he splashed cold water in his face, trying to clear his thoughts. He needed to tell Nicole about it, but he didn’t know if she would understand, didn’t know if she knew about the horrible sin he had committed, didn’t know if she could be fully trusted. She was as desperate as he to get away from Jozsef and Ruth. If he could have his way, he would have sent them back to the pits of hell, but he had lost everything! Now it would be he, and not they, that had to flee, if flight was indeed possible at all.

  He dried his face and stared at his reflection in the glass. His eyes were bloodshot and his face looked pale and just a bit green around the edges and, for the first time in his life, he experienced the debilitating sensation of nausea. He couldn’t remember
the last time he had eaten anything, but whatever was in his stomach came up in a rush and he coughed it into the lavatory, horrified by this simple action. He stared into the bowl in disbelief, at first thinking that he was dying, before he remembered having seen this nasty little thing happen to others when they had been sick. Sick! He was sick! And he could not be sick. It was all in his mind! He rinsed out the lavatory and washed his face again, brushed his teeth and combed his hair. He had to get hold of himself or else Jozsef Daniel would know something was wrong with him. The ‘Prophet’ was already mad as hell about the Ramsay thing. He had forced his way into that little affair and used his powers… his waning powers… as Emperor, to help ease the suffering of the two people incarcerated on the third floor. Jozsef did not dare go against the wishes of the Emperor in his own palace. Not yet, anyway. But the time was rapidly approaching when Jozsef would seize that power from him and he would be consigned to oblivion, just as Omar Kadif had been destroyed. Bari did not intend to sit around and wait his turn. He went back to the sitting room and checked the skull once more before heading for Nicole’s room. She would have to be told about the skull and then they would go up and visit his great-grandfather. If there was anything at all left of Mark Ramsay, he had to know. They had to make a move soon.

  Chapter Three of Sixteen

  And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw the souls of them that were slain for the word of God

  Simon lay on his bed with his eyes closed. They had still heard nothing from the Italian. There was nothing to do, but wait. Edgard had come to confer with him about what had told him about his encounter with Nicole in the meadow.

  Luke had not wanted to tell him everything, but he had dragged it out of him and Simon was very distressed to hear it. He was especially distressed when Luke told him that the white braid he had been wearing since Mark Andrew had killed his own doppelganger in the Underworld was missing. That it had been missing for several days now.

  Simon did not like to think his father was a supernatural being… an angel… a demon, perhaps, in some eyes. He did not like to think that a piece of braided hair could move of its own accord. He could not help but feel that he was somehow less than a man. It went against everything he had been taught in his youth by the Cistercian Brothers at the monastery where he grew up. But he had learned the Truth upon joining the Order. The Truth about the Catholic Church and it had taken him years to get over the great deceit. The Great Rome. Not the Rome of the Caesars as most people thought, but the Great Rome of the Catholic Church. And then later, when he had learned of his own origins and the other side of the coin, he’d thought it too much to bear, but he had borne it. And now Luke Andrew was learning things. Disturbing things.

  He could smell the cup of tea that Lydia had brought him. It was growing cold on the night stand. She had left him to his meditations and gone to find something else to occupy her time. She always seemed to know when he needed to be alone.

  He went over again, in his mind, the discussion he’d had with Selwig in the barn. Someone needed to do something. Mark Andrew was in New Babylon. That meant that Jozsef Daniel was strong enough to hold him. That could also mean that Mark Andrew was in serious need of assistance. He could not grasp his father’s warnings not to be overly concerned about Mark Andrew. It was impossible to imagine that Mark would leave his own body… unprotected and Sophia? Simon had seen Sophia looking at the Scotsman on many occasions and though it had been something far more than curiosity or even lust that he had seen there, he knew that Mark Andrew had returned the same strange acknowledgments in her direction as if they shared some secret. He simply knew that Mark Andrew and Sophia Cardinelli were in serious trouble in spite of his father’s analysis. Even if Sophia and Mark had abandoned their physical bodies and disappeared into the Abyss to save the Order from the Ancient Evil, there was still something that had to be done for them or what was left of them. Edgard’s summation had left too many questions for Simon to simply accept it on face value. Questions such as were the bodies animate? Did they live and think and move? Or did they lie in comatose states as Lemarik and Jasmine and Luke Andrew had done on a similar occasion? Simon had pointed out to his father that Luke’s vision through the eyes of his sister had shown Sophia and Mark in a very animate setting, talking and feeling, very much aware of their surroundings. If the living essences of Mark and Sophia had left these bodies, who then was it that Nicole was dealing with in New Babylon if not some vestige of Mark Ramsay and Sophia Cardinelli?

  Simon could not let it go. He’d heard already what the creature had done to Lucio and Omar and Jozsef Daniel. They all knew, or thought they knew, what had happened to Anna. Lucio, once again, had been pulled from the jaws of destruction by his friend and Brother, Mark Andrew, and now no one was there for the Knight of Death. It was unbearable. He had rarely ever gone against the Rules in a major sense and he had gone against the Grand Master even less rarely with the exception of the disagreements they had encountered when he had first learned that Edgard d’Brouchart was his father. His major conflict had come when he had stood against the Grand Master when d’Brouchart had decided to kill Mark Ramsay outright. Of course, that had been an exceptional time and totally excusable considering that his own father had thought to offer his own son as a burnt offering. Not a good memory. Surely, after all they had been through, he might be excused if he did something that he felt was right and proper and in the best interests of the Order and perhaps, even, the whole world. But he would need help if he decided to take Selwig to New Babylon, himself. Things had changed. He could no longer call upon old friends and acquaintances with access to jet planes and steamboats. It was a long, long way to New Babylon on horseback and if they tried to take one of the few public conveyances left to the world, they could be easily intercepted and turned back. He would have to get past King Ramsay in London and then past King Louis in France and then through the lands being overseen by his uncle, Lord de Goth and then… Simon’s mind drifted as the complexities of the difficult task ahead of him made his head spin. King Louis. His son-in-law. De Goth, his uncle. King Ramsay, Mark’s brother who practically worshipped the man. His mother… Catharine, Lord de Goth’s beloved sister. The Queen of France, his own daughter. These connections should have worked in his favor. Why would they not work in his favor? Perhaps his connections were better than he had first imagined.

  Simon relaxed as a new perspective on the situation resolved itself within his conscious mind and he drifted into an uneasy sleep filled with dreams wherein he witnessed the Annunciation twisted into a bizarre parody of the original. In his agitated state, he saw not the Virgin Mary as the recipient of the news, but Mark Andrew. The angel Gabriel, who looked much like Lucifer, pointed one long finger at the Chevalier du Morte and said “Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among watchers. Fear not, Mark: for thou hast found favor with God. And, behold, thou shalt know thy wife, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Emmanuel. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David. And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end. Then said Mark unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I am not a man? And the angel, Gabriel answered and said unto him, The Holy Ghost has come upon thee, and the power of the Highest has overshadowed thee, and that which was in thee has abandoned thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be begotten of thee shall be called the Son of God and thou shalt no longer be called a virgin.”

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  Edgard d’Brouchart sat at his desk with his forehead flat on the surface. His hands hung limply at his sides. He was not asleep. He was missing in action. Lucio bent slowly and poked at the man’s shoulder with one finger. Nothing happened.

  “Sir?” Dambretti whispered the name and then frowned at his son who stood cautiously by the open door.

  “What is wrong with him?” Vann
i whispered. “Is he dead?”

  “No. I don’t…” Lucio placed two fingers on the artery in the Master’s neck. “Think so.” He finished and rose up. “This is very strange.” He backed away from the Master. He had come here to turn himself in for being AWOL and to report on what he had seen in the underworld. There was no need to send after Mark Andrew in New Babylon. At least not the urgent need that they had feared. Lucio didn’t want anything to happen to Mark’s body. He remembered quite well what had happened to Omar’s body at the hands of General Schweikert, but Mark would ultimately be unharmed by such an act. He just wouldn’t look the same when and if he returned to them in the flesh. Of course there was the problem of Sophia. But if Sophia was simply the earthly manifestation of Andrea Larmenius, Mark Andrew’s ‘better half’, then Sophia was not truly a concern either. If the condition of Luke Andrew, Omar Kadif and Jasmine had been any indication of what happened to the flesh when the spirit went traveling in the underworld, then Mark and Sophia were, at best, lying comatose in New Persia. On the other hand, it appeared that the Grand Master was lying comatose in Scotland. A bad sign, certainly.

  “Let’s find Barry.” Lucio pushed Vanni into the hall and closed the door quietly.

  They started down the hall toward Barry’s room which he shared with his wife, Rachel.

  “Father,” Vanni caught his arm in the dark hallway. “I would hazard a guess that the Master is at the meeting with Sir Ramsay.”

  “Santa Maria!” Lucio slapped his forehead with his palm. “Of course!”

  “Perhaps we should just go to bed and wait until morning.” Vanni suggested. “If he is still… gone, then we can tell Sir Barry whatever you like. It might be unwise to disturb everyone just now.”