repercussions or the lies designed to cover them. You know this — you can see it in the people and organisations around you all the time, and it was no different in the oldest times, in the same way that we are no different from our ancestors, although we like to think of ourselves as wiser, cleverer, more moral. We know nothing.' He took a deep breath, controlled himself, then spoke in more measured terms. 'I was part of a conspiracy myself, though a benign one. The Christian Church has been filled with them from the start… from the very earliest days. It is the nature of the structure. I was a member of a group called the Watchmen. It was our responsibility to guard certain knowledge — pre- Christian knowledge the Church had assimilated — that could be used when the Fall happened and humanity was under threat.'
'You know what really happened at the Fall?' Mallory asked.
'Some of it, yes. There are worlds beyond our own, Mallory, where strange and powerful beings live. Throughout our history, they have passed back and forth, influencing events here, becoming the source of all our myths and legends. On a previous visit they became the template for the gods of the Celtic nations. And at the Fall they came back again. Their power is unimaginable to us… the world couldn't cope. On that day, all the rules changed.'
'And they're still out there.'
'The first time they came they almost destroyed the world with their rivalries and games and wars. Humanity wasn't going to allow it to happen again. Sometime in the ancient past, we discovered that they were vulnerable to the Blue Fire… that the Blue Fire was a power above everything. That information was encoded in the landscape by many ancient peoples, not just the ones who came to be called the Celts in popular understanding. Secrets in stone, in alignments, a language that did not use words and which only came alive to us when we found the right perception through which to see it. And it was that information that the Watchmen guarded and passed down from generation to generation for whenever it would be needed. We knew about the gods, and the Otherworld they came from, and the secret history, and all the prophecies that went along with it, and we told no one. We had to wait until we were needed, when five heroes would come together to defend humanity.'
'You met the five?'
'Some of them. Good people, though they didn't recognise it themselves.'
'I would say, from a Christian perspective, that this all sounds a little like blasphemy, or at the very least non-canon,' Mallory said.
James sighed. 'Yes, contradictions abound. But not as many as you might think. You are correct in saying that the Blue Fire is not discussed overtly in the writings and traditions of Christianity, but that is not to say that it was not known of and accepted as a central tenet from the earliest times. It was, and it was kept away from general view by those conspiracies buried in the fundament of Christianity.'
'Don't let the common man have too much knowledge… the priesthood might lose its mystique,' Mallory said tardy.
'That approach was necessary when Christianity was attempting to gain a foothold-'
'And now?'
'Now we are trying to gain a foothold again.' He poured himself another cup of tea, his pleasant humour replaced by a seriousness that didn't sit well with him. 'One of the most powerful forces within the Church during its first centuries was a secret group of Christian geomancers. They were well aware of the Blue Fire from ancient traditions and linked it with the spirit of Christianity, and they were responsible for the precise position of churches around the world to take the best advantage of sites where this earth energy was at its most potent. Their greatest influence was during the Middle Ages, during the great period of cathedral building.'
'Geomancers? In the Church?'
'You see? Everyone thinks they know history, but they don't. And this has been well documented.' James went to the stacks and removed a volume. 'Les Mysteres de la Cathedrale de Chartres by Louis Charpentier. Chartres Cathedral stands on a large prehistoric mound over a buried chamber, which Charpentier identifies as a confluence of four streams of this serpentine earth energy, named by him as woivres. A very powerful site indeed, and the Christian geomancers built the cathedral there to be a massive collector of that energy, to empower worshippers and to spread it out into the local area, in much the same way that the builders of the stone circles did. And if you find that hard to believe, I should point out that the cathedral site was also the home of the great Druidic university of Gaul, where ancient wise men were initiated into the mysteries of the Blue Fire. The same place, the same potency, within different belief systems. As you said earlier, coincidence?'
Mallory felt a tingling at the base of his spine; a pattern was beginning to emerge.
'These are the secrets I was privy to as a Watchman — the places of power, the spiritual energy in the land that ties people to it, the importance of it in the Great Scheme,' James said. 'There are books in this library that hint at it, some…' He tapped the French volume, '… that speak of it directly. Guided carefully, a good student could piece together much that has been hidden for millennia.'
'That's why the first Christian churches were sited on pagan places of worship. Not because of some kind of spiritual hegemony, but because those places were a source of tremendous energy that could be used to invigorate the religion. And that's why they keep you locked up here with the books — because you know so much about it. And that story about the siting of this cathedral by the fall of an arrow-'
'It is an allegory that tells of the Christian geomancers' art. Old Sarum was a strongly powerful spot, but there was some… trouble… there, and it was felt this location was even more propitious.'
'So we're all here because of this spiritual energy in the land. And that's why the travellers have set up their camp here as well.' Mallory tried to develop the information James had given him to understand what was happening, but one thought dominated. 'The pagans outside the compound are right: they've been demonised, marginalised, and everything they believe in has been stolen. The Church is a sham.'
'No,' James stressed. 'You misunderstand. The philosophy of
Christianity is unmatched, a powerful, powerful force. It was the first religion to offer the concept of charity, of selfless devotion to others. That cannot be denied. It has had many dark periods… many times when those who profess to be Christians have warped the intrinsic beliefs… but that shining light at the heart of it still shines through. It transcends all earthly transgressions.'
Mallory shrugged. 'Whatever you say, James. But I can't help thinking that a religion that allows itself to be open to corruption is on pretty shaky ground.'
'We are a force for good, Mallory, despite ourselves.'
Mallory could see that James believed this deeply, but he was sick of religion — all religion — with its ability to cause strife and suffering in its wake. 'You're not very good at keeping secrets, James,' Mallory said with a smile. 'I come in here, ask a couple of questions and you blurt it all out.'
'Because I don't believe in keeping secrets. Nobody asked me to. It was implied, but nobody came out and said it. I believe the Church would work better if it put everything out in the open and trusted its followers. But you can't take the politics out of any organisation. That is human nature.' He offered more tea, but Mallory declined; he could almost hear Blaine's fury already. 'You're a good man, Mallory,' James said out of the blue.
'Right. I'm just looking out for myself, James.'
'All of us are two separate people, Mallory. We're the materialistic, rational person on the surface, and we're the ghost inside who moves our hands when we're not thinking. The ghost is the true us, our essence, freed from the petty influences of this world. And your ghost is good, Mallory, I know that.'
'I wish I could have called him up to scare a few people on Hallowe'en. Might have got some more treats amongst all the tricks.'
James laughed heartily and waved him away. 'I enjoyed our little chat. It feels good to get things off one's chest, you know?'
Mallory felt strangely reluctant to leave. The conversation had reminded him of his own life, when he'd had the time and the inclination to ruminate over weighty matters of philosophy; but that was before he discovered how pointless it all was. He was halfway to the door when he turned back. 'Thanks,' he said simply.
'Do your best, Mallory,' James replied. 'We all need a saviour.'
As everyone feared, Julian's death had a terrible effect on the brethren. Whereas before there had been some hope of salvation, the new murder had unleashed a slowly rising tide of fatal resignation. The main target was the cathedral leadership, though few had any workable alternative plans. Dissent was heard on the way to prayers, or over the refectory tables. Furious arguments cropped up regularly, shattering the atmosphere of pious devotion, and on occasion there were even fights. There was a general feeling that death and destruction were only just around
