“I’m Mother Shipton,” she said, in a sharp, clipped voice. “Not my given name, of course. I chose it. Names have power, old names especially so. Thought I recognised you, Shaman; we met at Barty’s party, a few years back. While you . . . must be the infamous Molly Metcalf. Yes . . . How sweet. Glad to see such an important witch as yourself finally committing to the Left-hand Path. That Wiccan nonsense was never going to catch on. Far too wishy-washy. You know where you are with Satan. I take it you’re both here for the special event? Of course you are. We all are. He is going to tell us the truth at last. All about the Great Sacrifice. I can’t wait. He’ll be speaking from that special pulpit over there.” She gestured at an old-fashioned wooden pulpit wedged awkwardly into one corner of the grotto. Mother Shipton smiled happily. “It’s been quite thoroughly debased, of course. In fact, we made quite a party of it. The girls all drank gallons of holy water and then pissed all over it . . . and the boys finished it off with a wicked bukkake session.” She giggled briefly. A flat, unpleasant sound. “If that pulpit were any more debased, it would bleed brimstone. A suitable setting for our special guest to enlighten us as to the final stages of the great plan.”
“Who is this special guest?” I said.
She looked at me. “You don’t know?”
“I’ve heard several names mentioned,” I said carefully. “But I’ve been disappointed before, so I’ll believe it’s him when I see him, and not till then.”
“Oh, it’s him, all right,” said Molly. “Look . . .”
The whole party fell silent as everyone turned to watch Roger Morningstar ascend into the debased pulpit. I hadn’t seen him arrive, and from the look on the faces of everyone else, they hadn’t either. Roger was wearing a blindingly white three-piece suit liberally splashed with fresh bloodstains, like some great Rorschach card from Hell. He wasn’t bothering to suppress his demonic side anymore. Two great curling horns sprouted from his forehead, his easy smile showed pointed teeth, his eyes glowed a sullen crimson, and I had no doubt that behind the debased pulpit he now had cloven hooves instead of feet. Roger had embraced his infernal inheritance. And as he took up his position in the debased pulpit and smiled down on his congregation, his presence seemed to fill the whole grotto like a hot and ash-filled wind blowing out of Hell. You only had to look at him to know he was evil, in every sense of the word.
There were startled gasps, and mutterings. And a whole lot of backing away. Suddenly, no one wanted to be noticed. One woman dropped to her knees and vomited. A man started bleeding from his eyes. But most people there looked at him adoringly, as though he were the answer to every vicious prayer they’d ever had.
Roger Morningstar seemed very pleased with himself, looking down at the happy, upturned faces. They were his before he ever said a word. Because Roger was a hellspawn, born of man and succubus: the real thing, the real deal. They all envied him his power and position and wanted it for themselves. He was a prince of the world to come, and they all wanted to be exactly like him.
When he leaned forward and rested his hands on the pulpit, the old wood scorched and blackened and steamed at his touch.
He didn’t bother with opening remarks, or introductions, or pleasantries to the crowd. He didn’t bother with flattering words or inspirational speeches. He had come to this place, to these people, to tell them something important. To tell them of Hell’s plans for mankind. I could feel my heart pounding in my chest, my hands clenching into fists. This was about the Great Sacrifice; had to be. I was finally about to find out what the hell this was all about.
“Soon it will be time for the Great Sacrifice,” said Roger, his steady ordinary voice still managing to command everyone’s attention. Soon enough, we will have persuaded all the governments of the world to persuade all the people of the world to do our work for us. They will be persuaded to sacrifice their children, at their own hands, in the cause of a greater good. It’s always easier to persuade people to do terrible things in a good cause. At the same time all over the world, parents will murder their children, from teenagers to toddlers to babes in arms. In all the towns, in all the cities, in all the countries . . . they will kill their children to gain a better life for themselves. One generation shall utterly wipe out another, for the promise of better times to come.
It shouldn’t be too difficult to persuade them. The old have always distrusted and been jealous of the young. And the media has been demonising youth for decades. Blaming them for everything, mocking their beliefs, presenting them as a menace . . . Parents have become frightened of their own children. All the leaders of the world will persuade their adult populations that the current generation of children is rotten, corrupt, beyond saving . . . and a threat to civilisation itself. How much better, how much safer the world will be when they are all gone! They must die so that everyone else can live safely. They can always have more children, better children, in the future. . . . Once the adult population has been properly bombarded with propaganda and whipped into a suitable hysteria, the governments will put weapons into the hands of the adults, step back . . . and let nature take its course.
Blood shall run in rivers, and all that can be heard will be the screaming of children as the whole world takes part in the greatest mass sacrifice Humanity has ever known. It has to be done willingly; it has to be their choice or it won’t be a sin. Managed properly, the whole adult population of the world will damn themselves to Hell.
“We can’t intervene directly, but we can influence things, nudge them along. We have people working on a mind-influencing machine of great power, currently being updated by the weapons makers we so recently abducted from the Supernatural Arms Faire. Amazing how fast some people can work, once properly . . . motivated. Soon enough this machine will be completed, and then its influence will spread across the world. Not strong enough to change a mind in itself; that’s no use to us. But the machine will help people recognise the good sense of what’s being explained to them. We’ve been using the townspeople we abducted from Little Stoke as test subjects, with most encouraging results. Soon enough we’ll have the whole world dancing to a tune only we can hear; and oh, what a merry dance we’ll lead them. . . .”
He paused, and the whole crowd burst into ecstatic applause, cheering and clapping and stamping their feet. Molly joined in, to avoid standing out, but I couldn’t. I thought I’d been sick to my stomach before, but this . . . I had never heard anything so simply evil, so utterly appalling, so . . . inhuman, in my life. Parents killing their own children? A whole generation betrayed and slaughtered by the very ones supposed to love and protect them? I looked at Roger, and I’d never wanted to kill anyone so much in my life. I clamped down on my emotions and made myself think coolly, so I could work out what best to do next. First I had to get this information back to Drood Hall. The family had to know what was being planned: nothing less than the destruction and damnation of the whole human race. And then Roger started speaking again.
“I know, I know,” he said, holding up his hands, and the whole grotto went deathly still and silent again, hanging on his every word. “How does any of this benefit us? What do we get out of it? The purpose of this Great Sacrifice is to make a whole generation guilty of an unforgiveable sin. A despicable act that can never be taken back or atoned for. A whole generation lost to Heaven forever. It won’t be enough on its own to release our lord Satan from Hell; he can’t break the doors from his side. But with the power the Great Sacrifice will give us, we will smash all the Gates of Hell from this side and let Hell out. Satan shall come forth and rise up, and with him all the fallen and all the damned that have ever been. There will be Hell on Earth; governments shall be cast down, leaders butchered in their seats of power when we no longer need them; and all the populations of the Earth shall be subdued and made slaves, punished for their sins for all time. And all of you who have assisted in this great conspiracy shall be made kings of the Earth, to do with Humanity as you please. They shall suffer at your hands, for your pleasure, forever and ever and ever.”
The applause to that was truly deafening. It took a long time to die down, and when it finally did, someone else spoke out before Roger could. I knew it immediately. Isabella. She must have thought she could speak freely from the anonymity of the crowd.
“We’ve heard all this before, Morningstar.
Roger Morningstar looked down from his debased pulpit and knew Isabella immediately. His glowing crimson eyes snapped back and forth and found Molly and me. He stabbed an accusing finger in our direction.
“A Drood!” he said loudly. “A Drood has come among us! And those treacherous Metcalf witches Isabella and Molly! Seize them! Drag them down!”
The assembled Satanists turned on us like a pack of wild dogs, driven out of their minds with rage at having been infiltrated so easily and having their great moment spoiled. They had been offered a taste of everything they’d ever dreamed of, and they were ready to kill anyone who might thwart that. They threw themselves at Isabella and Molly, howling and spitting, reaching for them with clawed fingers. But the two witches had already moved back- to-back, calling their magics around them. Wild energies sparked and sizzled round Molly’s upraised hands, and swirling magics stained the air around Isabella. Powerful magical shields slammed down around both of them,
