J
o settled into the passenger’s seat. “What you’re telling me is that we’ve been away for like nearly six months and the car is still here?” She patted the dashboard “Good little car. I still don’t believe it, though.”
“It’s the Chariot,” said Ankerita simply. “It has powers.”
“To be parked here for all that time, without being noticed?”
“I expect nobody could see it, or something.” Ankerita lightly dismissed the subject, and opened the Book of Ghosts on her knee. She flicked through the pages. “This is it.” She pointed to a section halfway though. “Genet said I would be able to read the spell we wanted. We have to invoke a process called ‘The Summoning’.”
Jo looked at where Ankerita was indicating. The writing was in an ancient script, runes from long ago, but as she stared, the words formed into something she could read. “The spell seems to be in the form of a song.”
“The link is between music and magic.”
Jo read the spell through. At the end of the page was a warning. “To petition the Summoning is a fateful risk; if it goes awry, the singer will have her life drained.”
“It says ‘her’. How does it know?”
“The book interprets for you.”
“Or it’s because it belonged to Genet.”
Ankerita smiled. “No, if I’d been a man, you’d have seen the word ‘he’, and if someone important had been planning the spell, it would have been their name; a warning that we should be on our guard.”
“You’re going to risk your life for me?”
“That’s what I do,” said Ankerita simply. “No risk really. I’ll be fine if I do everything right.”
“I’d do the same for you, you know.”
“I know, but it wouldn’t make a difference to me if you didn’t.”
“I really would though. Do you think the spell will work?”
“We’re going to do it, anyway.”
“Where to start?” Jo regarded the castle. “In there?”
“It has to be nearest to where I was buried, the abbey. And it has to be tonight, because the planets are coming into perfect alignment, as they were on that day.” Ankerita pointed to the evening sky. “Look, you can see Mars now. That’s two already.”
“But the abbey is miles away,” said Jo. “The sun’s nearly down. We’ll never make it.”
“I’ll drive us,” said Ankerita, firmly. “The Chariot will get us there.”
The main gate to the castle grounds was open, and small groups of people glared at the old red car, as it forced them off the track. Ankerita concentrated on avoiding potholes, but Jo shouted apologies through the window.
“It’ll have to be main roads,” said the driver, as she brought the car on to the lanes outside the castle. “You look after the directions. Head for the motorway.”
“But won’t that bitch track you down if we use it?”
“Probably, but there’s only one chance. Ready?”
“Yup. Take a right down here and then like straight on until we hit the main road.”
“Which way?” Ankerita brought the Escort up to a roundabout over a busy dual carriageway.
“First exit,” said Jo, “and then we are on big roads for most of the rest of the journey. By the way, you’ll need to put the lights on. That switch there.”
“Hang on.”
Ankerita pushed her foot down on the accelerator and the car leapt forward. The speed built up.
“Be careful,” said Jo. “There is a 70 limit on these roads.”
“Haven’t got that much time.” Ankerita went faster.
“But the cameras...”
“I don’t exist, remember,” said her friend, “and nor does this car. How are they going to track us?”
“They will see my face,” wailed Jo. “I’ll get the fines and the bans and everything else.”
“There’s a scarf on the back seat, and sunglasses in the compartment in front of you. Disguise yourself.”
“Oh, yeah, right.”
In a private hospital bed, Fantasia pulled herself weakly upright. Her tablet computer was bleeping frantically. She typed in a code, and locked into the feed from one of the traffic cameras. She saw a blur as a car went past it so fast that the speed did not register. Despite that, the familiar aura that accompanied it galvanised her into action. She made a call.
“Mr Felucca, bring the limo. I’m discharging myself.”
“Yes, Ma’am. Where are we going?”
“I don’t know, but I’ve got her again.”
“The anchoress”
“Who else?”
“But I thought she’d disappeared. It’s been months.”
“Yes, it has.”
“But are you fit enough to travel, Ma’am?”
“Get Halliday out of his bed. I’m very weak and might not be able to continue because of this accursed wound, but I’m damn well going to make sure I finish her off first. I can’t do the ritual, so make sure you have your hardware. Perhaps her blood will be enough to cure me.”
“Seriously Ma’am?”
“I mean it. This could be my last trip out. I want to make it count.”
“As you wish. I hope you are wrong about the injury.”
“I wish I was, Mr Felucca, I really wish I was.”
“Roadworks!” Jo gave a cry of dismay. “Another pointless diversion. We have to leave at the next exit.”
“Bollocks to that,” said Ankerita, “From what I’ve heard, they close these roads and do bugger all for ages. I’m going through. There won’t be anyone working.”
“Nooooo!”
The Escort zig-zagged through crash barriers, and continued its headlong plummet along the deserted motorway.
“Look out!”
Ankerita heaved at the wheel, and the car thundered through a gap between two diggers. Road workers scattered, hurled curses, and dragged out their phones.
“Please slow down,” begged Jo. “If only for this bit.”
Ankerita grinned. “I suppose we’re making reasonable time. I can afford to take it a bit easier.” She slowed the car and skirted more heavy plant. The car dropped down a ramp on to an unfinished road surface. “Sorry it’s a bit bumpy.”
Jo moaned.
“Told you there’d be nobody here,” said Ankerita as they re-joined the normal road at the next junction. “Must have saved hours.”
“Nobody apart from those poor workers. It’s a miracle you didn’t hit anything. You’re making my hair go white.” Jo was hanging on to the sides of her seat. “Are you going to slow down?”
“What, and let anyone catch up with us? No way. If it scares you, close your eyes.” Ankerita pushed her foot down further. Impossibly, considering the speed they were already doing, the car sped up and continued to accelerate into the darkness.
“Oh Lord,” said Jo. “What if the traffic police come after us?”
“They can’t see the car.” Ankerita grinned as she snaked through a gaggle of lorries, “It’s...”
“The Chariot,” said Jo. “I know. I’m not sure how I’m going to explain this in court, but if I’m destined to die, it doesn’t matter, does it?”
“Beshrew thee, o faithless one.” said Ankerita.
“And you can keep your bloody shrews,” screamed Jo. “Watch that truck!”
“They’re heading west.” Fantasia was still working on her tablet in her own car. “I can’t imagine what speed they are doing.”
“Do you want me to overtake them, Ma’am?” said Felucca.
“At that speed, certainly not. They must have to stop soon. We can catch them when they do. I don’t want to draw attention to ourselves.” She cradled her wounded arm, and turned to Halliday, sitting beside her. “Have you got any more painkillers, Doc?”
“Are you sure?” said the man. “You’ve had too many already.”
“I’m sure. This arm is killing me... literally.”
“Made it.” Ankerita brought the car to a skidding halt in the abbey carpark, and climbed stiffly out. “Time?”
“A hour after midnight. I didn’t believe we could do it.”
“I knew.” Ankerita laughed. “After all this is...”
“Yes, yes,” said Jo through the open window. “I know. Now what?”
“How’s the pain?”
“Uncomfortable.” A spasm wracked Jo’s body. “The necklace has helped, but that can’t block everything.”
“Then we cannot wait any longer.”
“But are you ready for this?”
“I could have done with some practice, and would be a lot happier if Genet was here, but I’m not losing you.”
“I’m fine.” Jo had another convulsion. “Let’s get it over.”
“Let me see...” Ankerita withdrew the Book of Ghosts from her shoulder-bag and laid it, open, on the bonnet of the car. As the moonlight caught the ancient lettering, it seemed to glow. Her fingers traced the writing, and she muttered the words written there. Inside the custodian’s hut, the security cameras locked and the data stream to the internet froze.
“You can get out. I’ve stopped the spy cameras.” She opened the passenger door and helped her friend, who was rasping heavily.
“I don’t know if I can do this.”
“Of course you can. You have to. We haven’t come all this way simply to give up.”
“I suppose not. But what it said in the book about you risking your life for me. And who’s to say it’s going to work?”
“Have faith. Has the book ever let us down?”
“I wouldn’t know. How are we going to get in? I simply don’t have the strength to climb another wall.”
“I’ll unlock the gate.”
Ankerita dragged her friend over to the entrance.
“This is not protected by any old padlock.” Jo squinted wearily at it. “They have codes and security.”
“I don’t need codes. I have the book, but first I need to take the spirit of the car to use in the ritual.”
“Spirit?”
“It must have something inside it to perform as it does.”
“Hasn’t it, like, been turbo-charged or something? I know you think it’s magic, but believe me, I know cars, and this one has simply had something done to the engine.”
Ankerita was not to be diverted. “Now where would I hide something to make this car go?”
“Try looking in the engine compartment?”
“How do I do that?”
“Take me back. I’ll get the hood up for you.”
Jo bent into the car, leaned over and pulled the release lever. She straightened slowly, and opened the bonnet for her friend, grunting with effort.
Ankerita clapped her hands in pleasure. “This might have something to do with it. Come and see.”
Jo peered into the engine. Wedged inside was a piece of rock. It was giving out a brilliant red light.
“That’s what I’m looking for.”
“My god. There should be a battery there. What on earth is it? Is it hot?”
“I’ll use the cover from the crystal-ball.” Ankerita pulled the tea-towel out of her bag, and gently teased the stone out of its place. The light went out. She touched it with a finger. “Cold,” she said. “Oh dear; the poor car.”
The shiny red Escort had undergone a profound change. No longer with bright paintwork and chrome, and reflecting the light of the moon, it was a wreck. Patches of rust perforated what remained of the paint, and the wheel arches were virtually non-existent.
“That’s breathed its last,” said Jo. “How are we going to get home?”
“I thought you decided we wouldn’t need to.” Ankerita smiled. “Now do you believe there’s hope?”
“I’m starting to... unless I’m, like, hallucinating what just happened.”
“I’ll get the stuff.” Ankerita put the key into the boot lock. It dropped into the blackness beyond, in a cloud of rust.
“What stuff?” Jo was standing unsteadily, leaning on the remains of the car door. It creaked and there was an ominous cracking sound as the hinges sagged.
“There’s a holdall of gear in the back. I realise what it’s all for, now. I am supposed to use it for the ritual.”
“Oh, the bag where I found the chalk. Are you telling me that the car knew what we would need?”
“It is the Chariot of...”
“Was,” said Jo tiredly, “but I know: Monty Monorail.”
“Something like that. Come on.”
She heaved the bag out of the boot, threw it over her shoulder and staggered up to the gate. Jo shuffled painfully along after her. There was a proper lock and a code switch. Ankerita opened the book again and muttered a few words. The barrier swung silently backwards, lock and bolt of the electric mechanism still intact.
“Come.” She took hold of Jo’s arm and helped her through the entrance. The gate shut behind them, and the locks re-joined the assembly.
Jo shook it. “Solid,” she said. “How did you do that, and more importantly how do we get out?”
“We can worry about that when the time comes.”
“If it comes.”
“Now, now. Think positive. I need you to believe in the spell as much as I do, or it may not work, and you know what that will mean for me...”
“You’re right.” Jo grimaced with pain. “I will believe. After all, we just, like, walked through a locked gate.”
“Now do you have faith in the power of the Book?”
“I do, I do. Where do we go? Do you know?”
“This is the abbey where I was graved. We should pay a visit and make our apologies to my old friend, in case he is still bearing a grudge.”
“Tox,” said Jo. “I’d, like, forgotten about him. Will he still be here?”
“I don’t know, but I’m hoping he won’t be trouble. I’ve come full circle at last. This is the first time I’ve been brave enough to return to the place, since I escaped last year.”
Jo leaned on her friend’s shoulder as they crossed the ruins of the cloister.
“This is what used to be the nave.” Ankerita pointed at a concrete slab. “Under here was where I spent all my years of imprisonment.”
“Looks cold. I can’t feel anything supernatural, can you?”
“Nothing.” Ankerita frowned. “I do believe he’s gone, which means I can never return.”
“That’s good, isn’t it? We shouldn’t be interrupted.”
“I hope so, and I hope he’s not free somewhere else.”
“Don’t worry, Kid. Where to?”
“Over there, to the chapterhouse. It’s the only place with a roof. We need to be enclosed to focus the energies.”
“I know where she’s going,” said Fantasia weakly, as the Mercedes took a slip road from the motorway. The man in the seat beside her had to lean in to hear.
“Sorry, Fanty,” he said. “Can you repeat that?”
“She’s going to the abbey. I should have realised; I would have realised if I’d been thinking straight. Tell the driver to program that in. I need to sleep.”
“Here it is.” Ankerita indicated a doorway on the left. “It’s quite cosy really. Come in. I’ll be glad to drop this bag. It weighs a ton.”
“Are those gravestones?” Jo indicated stone slabs, lying flat near the doorway.
“I expect so.” Ankerita unzipped the holdall.
“It’s bright in here,” said Jo.
“The five planets are all visible,” Ankerita indicated the large glassless window at the end of the room. “At the right time, they have to shed all their light on to the floor, and this is where we do the spell.”
“Using the things in that bag? Oh...” Jo was taken by a bout of coughing.
“Don’t talk. I’m hoping it’s the right equipment. It doesn’t work if we haven’t got the right equipment.”
Out of the holdall she took a large piece of natural chalk.
“The pentacle,” she said. “I need the five arms for the stones.”
“The stones?”
“Yes. Each of the five treasures of Albion that I recovered had an associated stone with it. That way I don’t have to use the actual things as the points of the pentacle.”
“I can see that like would be a problem.” Jo tried to smile. “Now I know what Genet meant about trying to get the car into that room... Sorry, I’ll let you concentrate.”
“When I get going, don’t say or do anything, unless I tell you, whatever happens. Our lives could depend on it.”
“Even if...”
“Whatever happens,” repeated Ankerita. “Now stay there.” Her eyes narrowed. Jo was shoved against the wall.
“But...”
“Please say nothing.” Ankerita flicked her fingers and Jo’s mouth snapped shut. Her friend shook her head. “Nothing, do you hear me?”
Jo nodded meekly. “Give it heaps, babe.” She slipped slowly down the wall, to fold on the cold floor-tiles.
“...or we’ll both die.” Ankerita scowled, and her face became set, dark and twisted. The dim moonlight started to fade as energy was sucked out of the room.
“Both!” Jo gasped. “You are planning to sacrifice your own life to try to make me whole again?”
“There is nothing you can do now.”
Ankerita set the book down on the floor tiles, open at the page with the spell. Using that as a guide, she took five candlesticks from the holdall, and set them around the room, roughly in a circle. She fitted five red candles from the bag. They immediately burst into flame. Ankerita seemed to take it all in her stride, and started chalking on the floor. First she mapped a large circle, as large as she could make it, almost touching the sides of the room. She set the candlesticks around it at regular intervals. Still referring to the book, she drew a five-pointed star: a continuous series of lines, without breaking contact with the tiles.
She compared it with the picture in the book. “Not bad for a beginner, I guess. And now I must place the stones. Sorry Jo, but I’m afraid that to make the spell work, I have to take my coat off. Garments are a constraint.”
Ankerita stripped off her clothes, and stood with her back to the light. Jo weakly covered her eyes.
“Don’t worry.” Ankerita grinned. “I won’t ask you to do the same. It is me performing the ritual. I can do it better without distractions. I’m sorry but I’m going to have to take your necklace. Do you think you can hang on without it?”
“I’ll try.” Jo unclipped the item from her neck, and handed it over. “Ow.”
“Is it bad?”
“It’s got me again, but not as much as it was. Maybe I’m at the point where I’m becoming numb.”
“Or it could be the residual effect of the jewellery. Hang on while I finish here.”
Ankerita reached into the holdall and produced the rock from the car. “Rose Quartz,” she said, “for the boon of love and friendship.” She held it above her head. “From the planet, Jupiter, protection against evil, I call upon the power of the five angels. For this point, I call the angel, Ariel, for courage and miracles.” She set the stone at the top of the star. It began to give off a dull pink glow.
Ankerita took the rondel out of her belt, and prised the yellow stone from its hilt. “Calcite for forgiveness and energy. I call Azrael for comfort and healing, and the planet, Mars for protection in the battle to come.” The stone was placed on the next arm of the star and gave out a creamy white aura.
“Haniel.” Ankerita held Genet’s necklace. “For Saturn’s protection against loss, I give you moonstone for the Truth, and call upon you to clear obstacles, and free my body’s natural energy.” The stones picked up the light of the moon as the necklace was placed, and reflected blueish white.
Ankerita rummaged in the pocket of the coat and drew out a black stone. “Michael. From the harmony of Venus, I present amethyst for purification. I call upon you to give me protection and peace, and dispel fear and negative energy.” She placed this stone and it developed a deep blue aura.
“And Raphael. I call upon you for the final restoration.” Ankerita took the ring off her finger and held it up. “I give you emerald agate for that healing, and hope for the world, and the planet, Mercury, for the powers, the intellect and wisdom to make the prophesies come true; to regain final peace.”
As the last stone went into place, it began to glow a rich green. The pentacle was complete.