Child of Time Read online

  3

  The Cathedral seemed to grow darker, despite the eternal twilight outside. A chill seeped through the building and the shadows deepened. An air of expectation hung over the place.

  Honoré quietly moved out of hiding and onto the balcony to survey the body of the Cathedral. All was quiet. The preparatory work had been completed and a table covered in black cloth now stood on the raised dais down by the old altar. The scene of demonic ritual was completed by a pair of black candles either side of a large book rest sitting in the centre. A red cloth hung above the dais emblazoned in black with the familiar sigil of the Cabal – a crude representation of a horned beast – and a large pentagram was marked on the swept floor.

  Honoré was joined at the balustrade by Emily and Maria, who stood silently looking at the set-up below them.

  ‘It’s soon then,’ whispered Maria.

  ‘Yes,’ rumbled Honoré.

  Emily touched Honoré’s arm, gesturing with her head to the other side of the Cathedral, to the area of the balcony by the room with the robes and other paraphernalia. Over in the gloom, several indistinct figures were moving, going in and out of the room.

  Maria glanced back towards the altar. ‘I think it’s starting,’ she hissed.

  Down below, silent rows of black-clad figures were filing into the body of the church. The quiet procession was eerie, and every so often a footfall could be heard crunching on something loose on the floor below.

  More and more people filed into the church, forming rows before the altar. A low chanting started up, smooth and susurrant. It raised the hairs on the back of Honoré’s neck, and Emily shivered and hugged herself. The sound was alien. The same alien tongue that Honoré had heard the Grand Master speaking a thousand years earlier in Venice.

  A smaller procession started on the other side of the balcony. Figures moved through the velvet darkness towards the stairway down into the apse of the Cathedral. They were carrying candles, and in the flickering light, Honoré could see the same two figures as had presided over the ceremony in Venice – the tall man and the petite woman – leading the procession in their elaborate goat-skull masks. Following them were a man bearing the large, leather-bound book and a woman carrying the chalice; then came further acolytes. All were dressed in the faded robes they had seen in the ante-room – the Grand Master in lilac, the High Executioner in pink.

  The procession passed slowly around the balcony and down the spiral staircase to the ground floor. The chanting stopped abruptly, and the four robed figures moved in silence through the massed ranks of the faithful to the altar. There, the book was placed on the dais with the chalice next to it. The acolytes took up positions around the altar while the Grand Master and the Chancellor – now the High Executioner – stood facing their disciples.

  The Grand Master raised his hands high, and spoke in a clear voice that carried through the air.

  ‘My friends. Fellow believers. We have travelled far to reach this point. But now. Tonight. The summoning shall be complete, and we shall be masters of all.’

  With that, he picked up the ancient book. Honoré recognised it as the same large, hide-bound tome as before, and felt a wave of déjà vu come over him.

  With a sweeping glance out at his audience, the Grand Master began to read from the book. Strange garbled syllables spilled from his lips as before, and once again Honoré could not understand a word.

  Emily, however, obviously could. Honoré felt her tense beside him, and could see in her eyes that she understood the intent of the incantations, if not the words themselves.

  ‘Honoré!’ she hissed. ‘This is a summoning. They’re calling something up!’

  ‘I know,’ said Honoré. ‘Remember we told you about Venice? This is the same set-up. The same lousy thing happening all over again.’ But how did she know? There was something not right here, something jarring him, something he should be picking up on. Perhaps Emily was right. Maybe she was the Child of Time. Like she had said back in Venice, it did all sort of fit. However, he wasn’t yet prepared to believe that this was the case, that his Emily, the friend who had come into his life and helped him make sense of his own abilities, was ultimately the creation of the Sodality...

  As the Grand Master spoke, the High Executioner moved behind him and picked up the chalice from the dais. She paraded with it up and down a couple of times, raising it to the heavens in time with the cadences of the Grand Master’s voice. Exactly as before.

  Emily was watching everything with rapt attention, and Honoré pursed his lips, wondering how she was going to hold up to all this

  Again, after about five minutes of incantations, bold gestures and chalice-raising, a cool breeze blew through the church, sending the candles flickering.

  The Grand Master turned and placed the book back on the altar, then faced the assembled Sodality members and raised his arms. ‘As my will, so mote it be,’ he intoned in a strong voice.

  Emily shuddered as the assembled acolytes replied, ‘As my will, so mote it be.’

  The Grand Master closed his eyes and spoke a garbled string of words, ‘Dnaw onssa etihw sawece elfstib! Malelt tilad ahyram!’

  The air shifted in the room, and spirals of dust ran across the floor.

  ‘Eko, Eko, Dæmos!’ said the Grand Master finally.

  ‘Eko, Eko, Dæmos,’ echoed the assembled people.

  ‘Eko, Eko, Mastho.’

  ‘Eko, Eko, Mastho.’

  The echoes died away and there was silence for a moment. Then, with a slow but increasing rush of wind, a small tornado started up in the centre of the Cathedral. Honoré noticed that the acolytes who were closest to it were pushing backwards. No doubt they had heard what had happened the last time. Perhaps some of them had even been present at the ceremony in Venice; Honoré doubted that any of them were actually time channellers or time sensitives themselves – after all, the Dæmon had demanded that they be wiped out, and he didn’t for one minute believe what the Grand Master had said about finding a way to negate the abilities of those that remained loyal to the Sodality – but they could have been taken through time by their fellows before the purge began, or else travelled to the nexus point through the use of psionic science, as Maria had explained the last time they were here in the Cathedral – which seemed a very long time ago now... He concentrated on the figures of the Grand Master and the High Executioner and nodded to himself. The Grand Master’s timesnake extended far into the past, so he had obviously travelled in time, but he appeared to be neither a time channeller nor a time sensitive. And the High Executioner? Her timesnake also extended far back into history, and far into the future as well, although it seemed to split and become confused in that direction. To his surprise, he sensed that she was a time channeller; so, at least one of them had survived within the Sodality’s ranks.

  As he watched the growing tornado of matter, Honoré found himself thinking about how the Sodality must have carried out their purge, using their loyal time channellers and time sensitives – while they still survived – to make subtle ‘adjustments’ to history: wipe out a father here, a mother there, prevent that couple from ever meeting... kill that baby. If you were ruthless enough, he supposed, then carrying out genocide in this way became just a matter of numbers.

  But that wasn’t all they had done. Honoré remembered the experiments – creatures like Abraxas; part-man, part-machine hybrids, created to kill and destroy wherever they went – and also the fugitives like Barnaby... on the run from the Sodality simply because they could travel in time and space. Then there had been that vast, unknowable time beast, harnessed by the Sodality to try to bring the more elusive renegades to heel[2]... All under the command and control of the High Executioner. Someone who was herself one of these people she had been trying to exterminate.

  He shook his head. Somehow it had to be stopped.

  There was a roar of power,
a muted crump of heavy hooves landing solidly on hard tiles, and suddenly the vast bulk of the Dæmon was stood below them.

  It shook its massive, bullish head and looked around itself, laughing as it saw the assembled ranks of the Sodality before it, each man and woman gasping in awe at this presence among them. The people of this time weren’t much better prepared than their predecessors – a couple of them collapsed in terror, and others let out muffled shrieks and gasps.

  Honoré and Maria took an involuntary step backwards as the Dæmon appeared, but Emily, who had not seen the creature before, stood her ground, gazing with wide-eyed intensity at the demonic being that stood below her. ‘Honoré,’ she whispered. ‘It’s a... a...’

  ‘We know,’ said Maria. ‘It’s the same thing we saw in Venice.’

  The Dæmon spoke, its voice deep and booming, powerful and assertive. ‘Who dares to summon me a third time?’ The great head swept the room, and the red eyes came to rest on the Grand Master and the High Executioner standing at the front. ‘You. I know you...’

  ‘Lord Dæmon...’ began the Grand Master, but the High Executioner stepped forward, pushing him to one side.

  ‘We summoned you as agreed.’ Her voice was clear and loud. It was the voice of someone not used to being ignored.

  ‘She sounds familiar,’ whispered Emily to Honoré. ‘Is it Mestizer...?’

  Honoré was watching the scene below intently. ‘I know what you mean, but I don’t think it’s her.’

  The Dæmon spoke again. ‘You... you with your plans and schemes.’ It laughed, and the rumble filled the cavernous hall. ‘Yes... as we agreed.’ The creature towered over the Grand Master and the High Executioner, but was paying them little attention; instead, it was casting its gaze about the Cathedral. ‘So...,’ it continued, distractedly. ‘Have you fulfilled your part of the bargain?’

  Honoré frowned. ‘I think our goaty friend has something else on his mind,’ he muttered.

  The High Executioner exchanged looks with the Grand Master. But their faces were hidden behind their masks.

  ‘We have.’ The High Executioner’s voice was clear. ‘We have rid the Earth of time sensitives and time channellers, as you instructed. They are all gone.’

  ‘All!’ The Dæmon’s bellow crashed around the chamber. The creature laughed again, a cruel, sly laugh. ‘What would you call yourself then, little one?’

  ‘I... I had to remain,’ explained the High Executioner. ‘For how else could I ensure that we fully carried out your bidding? And I cannot travel alone, without a time sensitive to accompany me.’

  Honoré realised that the balance of power had shifted slightly between the Grand Master and the High Executioner in however long it had been for them since the summoning in Venice – perhaps a year or so in their own personal timescales. Whereas previously the Grand Master had been the guiding power behind the Sodality, now it seemed that the High Executioner held the reins.

  The Dæmon seemed to consider this for a moment, but then it spoke again. ‘You lie.’

  A wave of muttering swept through the crowd, and the Grand Master took a step backwards. The High Executioner however was not cowed. ‘I do not lie,’ she said. ‘Your will has been carried out, as we agreed.’

  ‘Oh, you are bold,’ taunted the Dæmon. ‘And yet, I can see that you are attempting to deceive me. How could you think I would not? You may have learned how to shield your thoughts from your fellows, using what little you understand of psionic science, but my race are the masters of that science! Here... here is proof of your failures!’

  The creature muttered a string of alien syllables under its breath and a glowing transparent sphere materialised on the ground beside it. The crowd gasped as they saw what was inside, and after a moment, Emily too raised her hands to her mouth. It was Violet, Jimmie and Freia, sitting together on the floor of the bubble in a huddle, holding onto each other, and drained of all fight and energy.

  Emily tried to step further forward to see whether they were hurt, but Honoré held her back in the shadows.

  ‘You see,’ boomed the creature. ‘These children were the results of your experimentation... and yet they live. I caught them crossing the time streams... travelling as you claimed that no-one could now do.’

  ‘Are they okay?’ gasped Emily, straining to see.

  ‘I think so,’ said Maria, ‘I can see their timesnakes and they are alive... For the moment.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ asked Honoré.

  ‘Look closely,’ said Maria, holding Honoré’s arm as they gazed out over the assembled throng. ‘Look at the timesnakes of everyone there...’

  Honoré looked, and was silent for a moment.

  ‘What?’ asked Emily. ‘What do you see?’

  Honoré looked blankly at her. ‘Nothing.’

  ‘What do you mean nothing? Come on Honoré, tell me.’

  ‘I mean nothing. Nothing at all. No-one in this place has a future any more.’

  4

  The Dæmon looked around at the assembled Sodality members, and also at the Grand Master and the High Executioner standing on the dais at the front. A smile spread across its face. ‘So... you admit to your failure?’

  The High Executioner glanced at the pathetic figures of the children, trapped in the force-bubble beside the Dæmon. She wished she had killed them all when she had had the chance. But back then she had been weak. Too weak to take the control she desired. It was only after the summoning in Venice, when her role had been upgraded from that of mere Chancellor to High Executioner, that she had felt she had the remit and the support to do what needed to be done. From that day forward she had been strong.

  The only fly in the ointment was that annoying and elusive Dr Smith. It was a mystery to her how he had managed to wriggle from her grasp, but also, and more importantly, how he had managed to place nagging doubts in her mind. It was almost as if the man had been able somehow to see deep inside her soul... She shook her head to clear it. Why on Earth were these thoughts coming to her now, when all her attention needed to be focused on the matter in hand?

  ‘I... I admit it,’ she said at last. ‘There are still some at large who can travel in time and space. But these we can clear up in our own time, when we have the power to be able to achieve that. They do not hinder our plans one bit.’

  The Dæmon regarded her. ‘So what would you do to prove yourself to me?’

  She looked levelly at the creature. ‘What would you have me do, lord?’

  It waited a long moment. ‘Kill him.’ It pointed a claw at the Grand Master.

  ‘What?’ The High Executioner glanced at her long-time co-conspirator in the schemes of the Sodality.

  ‘Kill him,’ repeated the Dæmon. ‘Prove that you have the strength and the spirit to lead your people.’

  She considered his order. Seconds ticked by. And then she stepped away and turned to face the Grand Master, one of her hands tucked inside her robes.

  ‘Take off your mask,’ she instructed.

  ‘But...’ the man’s resolve was rapidly cracking.

  ‘Take. Off. Your. Mask.’ Her voice was steel.

  He slowly lifted the goat skull from his head, revealing his scarred face. His eyes were darting to and fro, and his mouth was starting to quiver.

  ‘Thank you,’ the High Executioner said. She stepped forward, and in one smooth movement, thrust the knife that had appeared in her hand deeply into the Grand Master’s stomach. She twisted it viciously, and plunged her hand still deeper.

  The Grand Master’s eyes closed and he sighed, air and blood bubbling from his mouth in a final exhalation. The High Executioner pushed him off the knife and he crumpled to the floor, his mask clattering down beside him. Then she carefully placed the knife on the altar before wiping her hands together, removing most of the gore but leaving them stained and pink.

 
The Dæmon watched all this impassively. ‘You are not a fool,’ it pronounced at last.

  ‘So, you are to bestow your powers on me?’ she asked, barely able to contain the excitement in her voice. This was her moment, the one she’d waited for all her life.

  ‘I had not finished!’ bellowed the Dæmon, eyes blazing red. ‘I was going to say... you are not a fool, and yet you have been the biggest fool of all!’

  ‘What...?’

  The Dæmon laughed again. ‘Oh, you foolish, naïve humans. It is not you who have deceived me, but I who have deceived you!’

  ‘I... I don’t understand.’

  ‘The world has been deceived. The Sodality has been deceived. You have been deceived, High Executioner!’ Its laughter rang out around the inner dome of St Paul’s once more.

  Standing in the shadows of the upper balcony, Honoré, Emily and Maria watched intently as the drama played out below them.

  The Dæmon fell silent and crouched down before the High Executioner, its massive goat-like legs bending at all angles to bring its head level with hers.

  ‘You see, my bold, clever High Executioner, the creation of time sensitives and time channellers was, and always has been, fully in line with my race’s intentions for the Earth experiment.’

  ‘But... if that is so, then why did you order their deaths?’

  The Dæmon Mastho continued to gaze at her, but she held her ground. She would not be cowed in what she had thought to be her moment of triumph, and her servants would not see her falter. ‘The ultimate aim of my race’s experiment has always been the creation of what you humans called the Child of Time. When I was summoned a thousand years ago in Venice, I sensed that, although you yourselves did not realise it, you had actually succeeded in that great endeavour; a Child of Time had been brought into being, but had yet to reach the level of maturity necessary to realise its power. In calling for all time sensitives and time channellers to be killed, my aim was to flush out the Child of Time. You are aware of the evolutionary principle of survival of the fittest, are you not? I knew her special abilities would enable her to survive your purge, alone amongst all time travellers – had you but succeeded in the task I gave you!’