women who heal in Jesus’ name.’
She looked round pleadingly. They were all waiting, engrossed in the story, totally involved in their different ways with what she was telling them. She looked back into the crystal.
‘The house is full of shadows. She could be wrong. It could just be a bundle of rags,’ she went on, her voice shaking. ‘There is nothing to see with; no flaming torches, no candles or lamps, no firelight and it is a dark corner. She creeps closer, her heart hammering in her chest, bile rising in her throat.’ She paused and took a deep shuddering breath.
‘Petra?’ The voice was Mora’s now. Echoing strangely round the room, disembodied. Ghostly. ‘Petra darling, is that you?’
Mora took another step towards the bundle. ‘Petra? Speak to me.’
‘Petra is speaking to no-one ever again!’ The harsh male voice behind her made her cry out in fear as she spun round. ‘Why, if it isn’t the druid healer.’ Flavius sounded surprised. ‘Yeshua’s little helper! The one, so I hear, who whisked him out from under my nose.’
‘You can’t have killed Petra.’ Mora’s voice was husky, barely audible. ‘No! Why?’
‘Why? Because she was a witness of his healing powers, that’s why. She was cured. But not very well, as it turned out. Before she died her hands were turning back to claws!’ He gave a short harsh laugh. ‘She was so suggestible, that child, so malleable!’
She gave a cry of horror. ‘How can you be so evil?’
‘Easily. It is in my nature.’ He stared at her, his face devoid of expression.
Mora’s mouth had gone dry. She felt her stomach clench with fear. He was going to kill her as well. Her gaze slipped down a fraction and she saw there was indeed a sword in his hand, half hidden in the fold of his tunic. The blade glinted in a stray ray of light from the doorway. She could see the dried smears on it which must be blood.
‘Why are you so afraid of Yeshua?’ she asked softly, somehow finding the courage to speak now she knew she had nothing to lose. He was going to kill her anyway. ‘Why is your Emperor so afraid of him that you have to slaughter all his friends and hide all signs of his passing?’
He gave an infinitesimal shrug. ‘I do not question my orders. I obey them.’
‘And this is what makes your Empire so strong? Mindless obedience?’ She was playing for time, she didn’t know why. Who would come? No-one knew she was here. ‘But of course it is.’ A thought struck her and she felt her blood freeze. Had Lydia and Gaius returned to find him waiting for them? She met his gaze and held it. ‘And Lydia and Gaius?’ she whispered. ‘Have you killed them too? And Sorcha and the rest?’
He smirked. ‘Most of them ran away, but not Gaius. Fool that he is. He walked in here, calling for his daughter. Happy!’ He gave a snort of derision. ‘He really thought I would not kill him because I was his brother! All these years and he had failed to realise that I was put on Earth to kill him. There was no room for two of us in my mother’s womb, and not enough air for us both to breathe when we were born. Only now, at last, am I free of him!’
She shuddered at the sheer venom in his voice. ‘And Lydia?’ she asked bleakly. Her fear for herself seemed to have retreated onto some distant unregistered plane.
‘Lydia spurned me.’ His face darkened and for a moment she thought he was going to spit on the ground.
‘So, you have killed them all.’ She paused, unable to speak. When at last she could find the words they were barely audible. ‘But at least they are free and together. They will not be afraid of you ever again.’ She was biting back her tears.
Behind him she caught sight of a shadow in the doorway. He must have heard something for she saw him raise the sword. He stepped sideways out of the light, then he spun on his feet and when he lunged with his sword, it was towards her.
‘No!’ Abi looked up. The others, still seated round the table, were watching her in horror. ‘I can’t bear to watch.’ Tears were running down her face.
Standing up, Justin came to her and put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. She sniffed, groping in her pocket for a tissue. Waves of exhaustion were sweeping over her. ‘Just five more minutes, Abi. Go back. See what happened.’
‘No!’ Kier stood up. ‘You can’t go on with this.’
‘Sit down, Kieran.’ David Paxman barely raised his voice but Kier subsided at once. ‘I think we need to know this. Whatever is happening here, it feels very real to me. We must let it run its course. Please, Abi, only a few more minutes.’
She reached out for the stone. Her hands were shaking and her eyes tired as she peered at it. What had happened to Mora? Taking a deep breath she focused again on the cloudy, crazed surface of the crystal.
Whose was the shadow in the doorway?
22
‘Cal?’ Athena put her head in through the open back door and looked round. ‘Are you there?’
Cal was sitting in the chair by the unlit fire, staring down at the floor.
‘What’s happened?’ Athena took in the scene as she came in, threw her bag down on the table and ran across to Cal, dropping on her knees beside her and taking her cold hands in her own.
Cal looked up blindly. ‘I am so frightened.’
‘Why?’
‘He came. The Roman. He stood in the doorway and looked round as though he was hunting for someone. Then he came in. He had a sword. He said he had killed them all, Athena. He killed his family out there in the garden. The children, the dogs,’ her voice broke, ‘his own twin brother. All of them.’
‘But he didn’t hurt you or Mat.’ Athena gripped her wrists tightly.
Cal shook her head.
‘So, where is Mat?’
She shrugged. ‘He was here. He went out after him.’
‘Sweet goddess!’ Athena stood up and put her arm round Cal’s shoulder. ‘Tell me what happened. Exactly.’
‘He came in and he raised the sword.’ Tears started trickling down her cheeks ‘I was screaming for Mat.’
‘Where was he?’
‘He was here. Right beside me. He picked up the bread knife from the table there. He raised it up and stabbed at Flavius.’ She paused and took a deep breath. ‘He brought the knife down and…’
‘And?’
‘And,’ she paused and took a deep shuddering breath, ‘and there was nothing there. Flavius wasn’t there any more. He vanished.’ She swallowed hard. ‘We couldn’t move. We couldn’t breathe. For a moment it was as though everything – time itself – had been suspended, then slowly everything went back the way it was. It was just Mat and me in here. No-one else. Nothing. The dogs came out from under the chair and they started to bark.’ She gave a watery smile. ‘Hackles up. They went ballistic. Mat said he thought that meant we were safe. The kitchen door hadn’t really opened. It was still bolted.’
For a moment they sat in silence then at last Athena spoke, her voice little more than a whisper. ‘If he killed all of the family out there, Cal, who is he hunting? Why did he come in here?’
Cal refocused on Athena’s face. She shook her head. ‘I don’t know.
‘Are you sure he killed Lydia? Didn’t he love her?’
Cal shrugged.
‘What about Mora, the druid priestess? Wasn’t she the one who Abi has been contacting through her stone?’
Cal nodded. ‘Oh God, Athena, you think he was looking for Abi?’
‘Where is she?’
Cal swallowed hard. ‘She’s gone with Justin. To Ty Mawr.’
‘That’s sensible. She’ll be safe with him.’
