CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

She was back at the very beginning. She’d lost all she had gained. All her efforts had been in vain.

Would she have to return to New York? No, she’d never be able to face Elizabeth, Allyson and, particularly, Margaret. Her pride would never permit that. Daughter of evil, she remembered the medium say. She remembered all of the trouble she’d taken to break into the orphanage just to have it all go up in smoke.

The old gypsy, the séance, the long trek to Rossmore, the exhausting train ride to Peabody, then to Weaver, then to Belham. And for what? Where had it led? What had she gotten for all her trouble? A scant number of happy days and now all was to be swiftly taken away from her.

Dunston had to be right, though. There was evil in the house she’d run away from. There had to be. Her first impression of the place should have warned her. The secret room with its bizarre trappings, the dreary atmosphere that permeated the place.

Her dreams hadn’t been dreams at all. Everything she’d seen and experienced had been real. The townspeople had come to the secret room to pay homage to the Devil. She had taken a child and delivered it into Adrian’s hands. She had cast a spell on poor little Danny. Most frightening of all was the fact that she knew she had deliberately tried to knife Dunston to death.

She had not acted on her own volition, that she did know. Someone or something had driven her to it. But who? Was it indeed her father? Or was someone else forcing these nightmares on her, using her for their evil purposes? Perhaps Adrian was behind the terrible trances she was placed in. It was he, after all, who had led the group of people to the house—the people who had chanted and reveled behind the protection of Anubis. He was the one who seemed to appear and disappear at will. As attracted as she was to the man, she had to admit that Adrian was a complete mystery. It was he who had waited for her to fetch the little girl. And it was he who had placed the child on the altar.

Her spirits lifted a bit. Her father wasn’t responsible for any of it. It was Adrian’s doing.

She heard Dunston coming from his brother’s room and she jumped up, eager to tell him what she knew.

“It isn’t my father at all,” she said excitedly as Dunston came into the room. “Adrian is the one behind it. He’s the one who makes me act out my dreams.”

Dunston looked very serious and shook his head slowly. “You mustn’t torture yourself by trying to find excuses for Cagliostro, Julia. If I’m not mistaken, Adrian and Cagliostro are one and the same man.”

She stared at him. “What are you saying? How can that be?”

“I don’t know. But what I did learn about Satanists is that they are capable of just about anything. Some of them—especially seasoned ones like Cagliostro—can change themselves at will. They never age if they don’t want to. They can inhabit whatever body they like.” He gave her a stern look. “You read of some of Count Cagliostro’s exploits. You know what the man was capable of doing. Over the years those powers have grown stronger and stronger. You’re snatching at straws, I’m afraid. It would be better for you to accept the truth and live with it. It will prove easier in the end.”

“The end. Where is the end?”

“The ultimate end is in the grave. But there is an interim period wherein one must be as happy as one can be. Being born is easy enough; dying is easier. It is the period in between that is difficult. Try not to make it more difficult by being unhappy.”

“I was happy. You took it away from me.”

“But that was a false happiness. It would have ended more disastrously for you if you were not alerted to what evils lurked around you. Look at me, Julia. Tell me, would you have preferred that we never met, that I had never warned you about Cagliostro and the Satanists of Belham?”

She moved away from his touch. “I don’t know, Dunston. You have taken the brief happiness I had away. I don’t know if you were right in doing so.”

“What must I do to convince you? Remember your dreams, Julia. Remembering those terrible things should keep you from going back to the evil which surrounded you in that house. You would have been guilty of murder if I hadn’t awakened last night.” He glanced toward Danny’s room. “And God only knows what other evil you’re capable of when under the spell of Cagliostro.”

“But how do you know my father is responsible? Perhaps he too is under the evil influence of someone.”

“Cagliostro will show himself in time and you will have your proof. Until then, stay with me and let me keep you safe. I realize that there will be strong efforts made to reclaim you. Cagliostro is well aware of what went wrong last night. He’ll try everything in his power to get you back, but I’m prepared for him. I may not be as knowledgeable about Satanism as he, but I do know how to exorcise evil spirits and to protect myself and others with holy relics and pentacles.”

“Pentacles?”

“Star-shaped figures, the boundaries of which evil cannot pass over. I will draw one here in the middle of the floor before I leave for Weaver. All you need do is stand in it and no one can harm you.”

Julia watched as Dunston proceeded to move all of the furniture from the center of the room. He took up the rugs, exposing the wooden floor. He brought a heavy piece of chalk and began drawing a large circle. The circle—approximately seven- or eight-feet across—was round and perfect and occupied most of the room. After completing the first circle, he drew another inside its circumference. Julia marveled at the evenness of the lines. Inside the two circles Dunston made a five-pointed star, the top point of which pointed toward the front door of the cottage. He drew connecting lines to each point, creating a polygram with five sides in the exact middle of the five-pointed star.

Julia said nothing during the whole operation. She watched with interest and fascination. Yet when the basic form of the pentacle was completed, she found herself shying away from it.

“Don’t be afraid of it,” he said. “The pentacle is the only device I know of that wards off evil. Once you stand inside its boundaries, nothing evil can get near you. But if you leave these circles, you will be at Cagliostro’s mercy.”

Dunston resumed his precise drawing. He drew strange little figures between the outer circles. He placed a different sign at each point of the star. Then, using the point directed toward the door as a base, he began building the picture of a ram’s or goat’s head. The point toward the door was the chin, the points going off to the right and left were its ears and the two points atop each held one of the ram’s horns.

“You’re an artist,” she said.

“Just something I picked up in my spare time.”

He finished the pentacle by fetching candles and placing them at three strategic positions around the outside of the circle. He drew a match from his pocket and lit the candles one by one.

“Keep these burning at all times,” he said. “There is a supply of them here in this cupboard. Don’t let them go out under any circumstances.”

“I’ll remember,” Julia said, still feeling shy of the strange drawing in the center of the room.

Then Dunston took a resinous substance and sprinkled it just outside the circumference of the outer circle. He blessed each drop with the sign of the cross saying, “Asafoetida.”

Then he fetched five silver cups and poured what he told Julia was holy water into them and place one in each of the valleys of the star. He put a horseshoe at each point of the star and before each horseshoe he placed mandrake root. He went into the kitchen and returned with garlands of garlic and several crucifixes.

“Put these around your neck if any danger threatens,” he told her.

“Garlic?”

“It’s a very powerful charm against evil. Don’t scoff at it. Wear it when you find yourself in danger. Promise me.”

She nodded but wrinkled her nose at the garlands of garlic.

“Now,” Dunston said, putting the finishing touches to the pentacle and glancing around. “I’ll bring Danny here and put him inside the pentacle’s protection. I must go to Weaver to fetch the housekeeper.”

“Housekeeper?”

“It would not be very proper for you and I to go on sharing this cottage without benefit of a chaperone. I’ve arranged for a woman I learned about to come and stay. Her name is Sarah Carrier. She’s from Weaver and there aren’t very many people in Weaver who look kindly upon Belhamites.”

Julia remembered the dreary little town and the strange character who drove her to Belham.

“The people in Weaver know what goes on here. They try their best to do everything they can to abolish the rites, but they’ve never been very successful.”

Julia thought of her mother and what her Aunt Rose had told her about the people from Weaver. If what Dunston said was true, then Bridget Bishop might well have been taken as a Satanist and set upon by the people from Weaver. They might have carried her away and put her to death. She shuddered at the horrible thought. It was too terrible to think about, but it did explain a lot—if what Dunston said was true.

Again she thought of her father and what he had told her about her mother. He’d said that Bridget Bishop had been ill and was running away from him. Was it possible that her mother was running away to protect her baby from the evil that Cagliostro intended for her? Had her mother been trying to spirit her away to safety only to fall into the hands of people from Weaver who disposed of her, knowing she was a Satanist? Had they dealt with the baby by placing it in an orphanage?

It did make sense when she thought of it all in that light. If her father was as evil as Dunston claimed, then he would, of course, lie to her about her mother’s death. But why had Aunt Rose told her the truth—if that was the truth?

“You’re thinking too hard. Just keep yourself inside the cottage, especially if anyone comes near. Don’t, under any circumstances, let anyone inside the house. If they force their way in, seek the protection of the pentacle. They’ll try to lure you out where they can claim you, but don’t let them.” He patted her cheek. “I know how unhappy you must be, but believe me, Julia, it is for the best. Everything will turn out all right. You’ll see.”

She said nothing. She was still thinking of her mother’s fate at the hands of the people from Weaver. If what she thought was true, then were the people from Weaver any better than the people of Belham? She tried to shrug off the thought. What she was thinking was hideous, yet she couldn’t help herself.

“I won’t be long,” Dunston told her. “Be suspicious of everyone and everything. Remember, no one in Belham is free of Cagliostro’s influence. Therefore, trust no one. Now, promise me that you won’t do anything foolish like run home to Cagliostro. Promise me.”

“I promise,” she said, but reluctantly.

“Good.” He went into his brother’s room and returned a moment later with Danny. “Now, watch over Danny. Don’t let him wander around. I wish to heaven there was some way you could undo the spell you put on him.”

“I wasn’t responsible,” she said meekly.

“I know you weren’t, Julia. I don’t blame you, now that I know what really happened. It wasn’t your fault; I just wish there was some way in which I could get Danny to come around to his old self.”

“Perhaps I could ask Adrian—”

“No,” Dunston said sharply. “You are not to go near Adrian or Cagliostro or your house. You are to stay here. Is that clear?”

She nodded, intimidated by his outburst.

He turned to leave but paused at the door. “Remember. Stay inside and don’t let anyone in except me.”

When he had gone, she stood looking at the closed door, then glanced down at the strange diagram drawn on the floor. She didn’t understand it and she felt afraid of it. Slowly her eyes moved to Danny, who sat watching her. He was mute and staring straight into her eyes. She went over to him and put her hand on his hair. It felt soft and silky to the touch. She smoothed it back, tilting his chin up.

“Oh, Danny. I wish I could undo whatever I did. Please don’t be angry with me. I didn’t know what I was doing at the time. If only I could remember what kind of patterns I traced on your head, I might be able to untrace them. I must have said some kind of words over you, but I don’t recall what they were.” She could remember nothing at all except coming in out of the rain and staring deep into Danny’s eyes.

She’d stared at him. That was it. She’d put him into a hypnotic state. Perhaps she could accomplish it again and wake him out of it. She quickly knelt in front of him, feeling her anxiety and her excitement growing. She looked deep into the boy’s eyes, returning his stare.

“That’s it, Danny. Look deep into my eyes. That’s the way.” She tilted his head up and fixed her eyes firmly on his. “You must wake up, Danny,” she said. “You are asleep now, but you must wake up. The night is over and it is time to wake up. When I count to three I will snap my fingers and you will awaken.”

“One. Two. Three.” She snapped her fingers in front of his face. Danny continued to stare at her. Again she counted and snapped her fingers. Nothing happened. Again, a little louder, she counted to three. Again she snapped her fingers. She clapped her hands alongside his ear. Still, Danny remained in his trance.

Feeling beaten, Julia got slowly to her feet. She rumpled the boy’s hair and turned dejectedly away. “I tried, Danny. I really tried. I’m sorry,” she said as the tears began streaming down her cheeks.

Suddenly she stiffened. Someone outside was calling her name.