Something about the eyes, she thought. Almost as if it were looking directly at her, communicating with her.
'Y'know, maybe this isn't such a good idea,' she called out. But Shavi and Marshall were immersed in examining two unusual pillars. The doubts suddenly began ringing through her. The carvings all seemed to suggest something bad, some warning not to disturb what had been sealed there. To release it could bring about the Apocalypse, that was the message, wasn't it? she thought. Why couldn't Shavi and Marshall see it? It seemed so obvious to her. But maybe she was just being stupid. They were both smarter than her, more perceptive. She glanced back up at the face of the Green Man and shivered once more.
'Explain to me about the two pillars,' Shavi was saying as she approached. The one on the left stood tall and straight, with intricate carvings rising in tiers from the base. But the one on the right was even more elaborate and sophisticated in its design. Instead of rising in straight lines, the detailed carvings twisted around the column in what must have been a display of the prowess of a master mason.
Yet Marshall indicated differently. 'The one on the left is called the Mason's Pillar, the one on the right the Apprentice Pillar. There's a story that goes along with them: in the absence of the Master Mason, his apprentice set about working on the pillar, creating this perfect marvel of workmanship. On the Master Mason's return, instead of being delighted at the success of his pupil, he was so overcome with envy he flew into a rage and killed the apprentice with one blow of his mallet. And of course he paid the penalty for his actions.'
'The sacrifice of something good. An act of betrayal sealed in blood,' Shavi said. He ran his fingers through his long hair as he tried to read more meaning in the story.
But Laura's attention was drawn by the dragons and vines wrapped around the base of the Apprentice Pillar, binding it with the symbols of the Green and the Earth Spirit. Now her doubts were starting to make her feel queasy.
'This is where we need to look.' Shavi indicated the Apprentice Pillar.
'Are you sure?' Marshall said. 'People have pondered over the meaning of this place for centuries. You've drawn your conclusions rather quickly, if you don't mind my saying.'
'Perhaps. I am simply making an intuitive leap. But here is my reasoning: this pillar cries out that it is unique in its very design-twisted, while all the other pillars remain straight and true. It even has its own legend, which sets it apart as something formed under special circumstances. And myths and legends, as a friend of mine repeats incessantly, are the secret history of the land.'
'Then what do you suggest? Digging beneath it?' Marshall looked uneasy at this act both of sacrilege and the destruction of an ancient monument.
Shavi nodded. Laura and Marshall both winced for different reasons.
'This floor is stone. The pillar… Lord! You might bring the whole roof down! As if we haven't had enough structural problems with this place over the last few years.'
'Nevertheless. Our need is great. We must find a way.'
'And I have no power here,' Marshall continued. 'I am, I suppose, at best tolerated. Someone will try to stop you. The police will be here in minutes.'
Laura glanced at her watch. 'The place doesn't open till ten. We've got hours yet.'
Shavi looked beyond the Apprentice Pillar to a flight of stairs leading down into the gloom. 'Where does that lead?'
'The sacristy. It's believed to be even older than the chapel,' Marshall said.
'So the chapel was built around it,' Shavi mused.
'It's not so important. I mean, it's completely bare of ornament, unlike this place. It's just a rough rectangle of stone some thirty-six feet long. Records say there are three Princes of Orkney and nine Barons of Rosslyn buried down there.'
Shavi went to the top of the stairs and peered down. 'Buried where, exactly?'
'Why, no one knows exactly.' Marshall gestured as if it was such an unimportant fact it was barely worth discussing.
Shavi rested his cheek against the cold stone of the door frame and weighed the place and dimensions of the room below before glancing back at the Apprentice Pillar. 'So,' he began with a faint smile, 'the burial chamber could be a walled-off extension from the back of the sacristy.'
'Possibly.'
'Which would put it somewhere beneath the Apprentice Pillar.'
Marshall thought about this for a moment, then nodded fulsomely. 'You could be right. And of course that would make it a little more accessible from the sacristy.'
'Well, I wish we could hang around to hear you explain the big pile of rubble and the hole in the wall,' Laura said snidely.
'There are tools available. Near the graveyard there's a store for those who've been working on the repair of the building,' Marshall said. He slipped out and returned soon after with two pick-axes and a shovel.
Cautiously Marshall led the way down the treacherously worn steps into the dank, bare sacristy. Shavi followed while Laura took up the rear with a feeling of growing apprehension. 'Are you sure about this?' she hissed to Shavi once Marshall was far enough ahead to be out of earshot.
°I am not sure about anything. All I know is we have no alternative. We do not have the power to oppose the Fomorii directly, certainly none that could deflect the Blue Hag.'
'Yeah. You're right, I suppose. I just have a feeling this is going to be a frying pan/fire scenario.'
Shavi searched her face. She was surprised to see he was taking her views seriously. 'Would you like to turn back?' he asked genuinely.
That surprised her even more. 'Let's see how we go. We can always pull out if things get too hairy.'
They identified the spot on the sacristy wall that corresponded with where Shavi guessed the burial chamber lay. The wall was old stone, sturdy enough, but the cement between the blocks was ancient and would crumble easily. They stood in silence for a long moment, attempting to come to terms with what they were about to do. Then Shavi raised the pick-axe above his head and swung it at the wall.
The moment it struck an echo ran through the building that sounded like an unearthly moan filled with anguish. It was surely a bizarre effect of the chapel's acoustics, they told themselves, but it had sounded so vocal it made them all grow cold. Shavi and Marshall glanced at each other, saying nothing. Laura backed a few paces away, wrapping her arms around her.
Shavi swung the pick again. This time the moan seemed to be outside, all around the chapel, caught in the wind. It grew palpably darker in the already gloomy sacristy.
'There's a storm coming,' Marshall noted, but it didn't ease them. Almost at his words, the wind picked up and began to buffet the outside of the building.
The stone wasn't as resilient as it had first appeared. Large chunks had fallen to the ground and the cement had all crumbled away; they would soon be able to remove an entire block and from then on the job would be relatively easy.
Shavi raised the pick for the third time.
A tremendous boom resounded through the main body of the chapel above them. They realised at the same time it was the sound of the chapel door being thrown open. Shavi threw down the pick and hurried up the steps with the others close behind.
Framed in the doorway was a man of indeterminate age, although Shavi guessed he must have been in his sixties. His greasy, grey-black hair was long and hung in an unkempt mess around his shoulders, framing a skull-like face that was sun-browned and weatherbeaten from an outdoor life. He was thin but wiry and exuded a deep strength that belied his age. Shavi would not have liked to have been on the receiving end of a blow from the six- foot, gnarled staff that the man clutched menacingly. At first sight Shavi guessed he was some kind of itinerant; his well-worn baggy trousers had long lost their original colour to become a dirty brown; he wore tired sandals and a dingy cheesecloth shirt open to the waist. But then Shavi noticed the warning issued by his dark, piercing eyes; the power within showed he was a man with a mission.
'I've come to stop you two doing something you probably won't live to regret,' he said with a rural accent Shavi couldn't place.
Laura tugged at Shavi's arm. 'Here's a word of advice: stay out of the way of that staff.'
'You know him?'
