Qualia Page 23

  As we walked toward the wooden door, the dusty, natural stone floor turned to tiles beneath our feet. The first few were cracked and broken. Farther in, they became beautifully complete. Some of them depicted stylised trees, some showed knights on horses and some had just letters or a single circle. This tiled path, with its plain black borders, created a very clear walkway that moved between carved pillars of stone and slid under the dark wooden arch.

  Clinging to the pillars, the door, the roof and carved into the natural stone of the tunnel, dark gargoyles stared down at us in malignant silence. In any space they could fit, fantastic animals crept and hid. Tiny winged lions, lizards with human faces and a dog with a dragon’s tail and wings stared at us with cruel fascination. Small goblin-like creatures – each carved in a pose designed to shock – hung from the stonework or sat, feet dangling, watching us from the lintel. One had its finger up its nose. One had its cock in its hand, an expression of utmost satisfaction on its face, while yet another was concentrating on pulling the wings from what looked like a terrified fairy. These gruesome sentinels lined the doorway and stared out with matching smug condescension.

  Melusine studied the doors with their stone guardians. ‘I’m going hunting.’

  ‘What?’ Belial stopped, his hand reaching for a metal dragon.

  ‘There is no way they’re going to let me in there.’ Melusine glared up at a group of potbellied fox things that lined the lintel of the doorway. They seemed to stare back at her.

  ‘But …’ Belial looked around and then nodded. ‘Yeah, I suppose you’re right. We’ll meet you on the other side.’

  Wings burst from Melusine’s shoulders and she jumped into the air. ‘Just try to stay out of trouble,’ she said to Belial who nodded.

  Sixty feet in the air Melusine completed her change and, flapping hard, flew vertically up the walls until she was no more than a black smear against the sky. I watched as she flew over the church and disappeared into the distance.

  As irritating, rude and condescending as she was, the group seemed diminished without her and, as we all stared in silence at the display of bodily functions arranged before us, Belial dragged his eyes from the sky and gave a small cough. ‘Well, this wasn’t here before,’ he muttered. ‘I think we can say things have changed a little.’ He grasped the tail of a sleeping metal dragon and pulled.

  CHAPTER 8

  DEEP WITHIN THE BUILDING we heard a bell begin to chime. Feeling a little hand in mine I looked down expecting to see Carly but it was Una. Thumb in mouth she looked worried. ‘Don’t worry, they’re just stone.’ I tapped a particularly ugly cat thing. She nodded, muttering around her thumb, ‘Now they are.’

  The door swung open and a young woman studied us with a slightly confused expression. ‘Hello?’ She gave us a wide smile. ‘Where did you come from?’

  She looked to be in her mid-20s. Long, mouse blonde hair hung in well-washed shining waves down to her waist. It was almost impossible to see any of her other curves as her shapeless but soft-looking dark green robe hid almost everything. She wore no make-up except for nail polish on her bare toes and, with her big green eyes, her face looked open and friendly. There was an almost universal sigh of relief as we all studied her. Obviously she wasn’t what any of us had been expecting.

  Belial stepped forward. ‘We need entrance for reasons of solace and sanctuary.’ He spoke the words in a formal tone and the woman rubbed her nose as she glanced around at the gargoyles then bowed.

  ‘Follow me.’ She walked away, her bare feet making no sound on the tiled floor.

  Angling away to the left she opened a well-used door and ushered us all inside. ‘If you’ll just wait here, I’ll bring you some refreshments.’ She paused for a moment regarding us all. ‘I think the Abbess will want to talk to you.’

  ‘Abbess?’ Farr looked askance at Belial. ‘This is a church?’

  ‘Not really, no.’ Belial shut his mouth with a snap and Farr, with a worried glance at the demon lord, wisely let the subject drop.

  ‘Well, so much for the hideous torments of Hell.’ Keril moved across the room to study a huge tapestry that almost covered one wall. It depicted a woman in armour, bathed in light, surrounded by a vast army of both angels and men. She had no visible weapons, yet there were bodies beneath her feet.

  He looked up as the door opened and the young woman stepped back inside carrying a large silver tray. She was accompanied by an older man dressed in loose-fitting blue trousers and tunic. His unkempt dark hair flopped over one eye; this seemed more from a lack of brushing rather than a statement of style. He carried another tray, holding it carefully with his enormous hands. Placing it on the table he nodded in happy satisfaction and treated everyone to a huge laughing smile which was vague, childlike and completely innocent of any deeper reasoning. Shunning introductions, he bolted as soon as he could.

  The young lady rolled her eyes. ‘I’m Sarah.’ She placed her tray down. ‘I apologise for William’s rapid disappearance – we don’t ever get visitors by that door and he’s shy.’ Checking the food on the table she dusted off her hands. ‘The Abbess will be down as soon as she can, however she may be a little while as she’s in ceremony.’ She gestured to the trays. ‘Please relax and have something to eat and drink. If you go through those doors you’ll find baths – please feel free to use them.’ Her relaxed look slipped a little. ‘Not that I mean to imply that you need to or anything …’ She stuttered and her thin veneer of adulthood fell away. ‘If you want me just ring that.’ After pointing out a tasselled bell pull she also bolted, her cheeks aflame. The door slammed shut behind her.

  Farr walked over and gently opened it again; it wasn’t locked. He nodded then looked around. ‘Well, you can’t blame her.’ He sniffed. ‘You are all a bit ripe.’

  ‘A bath.’ Carly stretched and smiled. ‘Well, I don’t know about you lot but I’m certainly heading for that.’ Checking the pots and plates she poured herself a cup of tea, then piled a plate high with bread, fish, fruit and what appeared to be some sort of dark cake.

  ‘Hang on a moment.’ Belial held up a hand. Carly froze with what looked like a huge grape halfway to her mouth. ‘Parity – would you, please …’

  Parity walked over to the table and closed her eyes. Silence fell as we all waited for her verdict.

  ‘It’s fine.’ Picking up another plate, she piled it high then carried it over to her brother who was still a little pale from his exertions. ‘Eat!’ She pushed the plate at him. Then, irritated when he shook his head, she physically held the plate in his hand. ‘You’ll feel better if you eat something.’ Eventually Farr nodded and began to eat, his colour improving with each bite. Parity looked on like a proud mother occasionally brushing bits of gravel out of his hair.

  ‘What’s the matter with you?’ Carly asked.

  ‘This isn’t right.’ I stared around the room.

  She frowned around a brown roll filled with pink meat and some sort of unidentifiable greenery. Obviously unable to speak with a mouth that full, she raised her eyebrows and shrugged. ‘Waff ifffnt wight?’ she mumbled.

  ‘These are people,’ I said.

  Carly swallowed. ‘What are you talking about?’ The rest of the conversations had fallen silent; the only sound was the occasional clang as Una played with the huge fire irons.

  ‘These people are alive, they’re breathing and talking and walking about.’ I demonstrated by doing the same. ‘They’re supposed to be dead – this is Hell, isn’t it?’ I leant on the wall and stared round at them all. ‘This is where the dead go.’

  ‘Oh.’ Carly flicked a glance at her father who just shrugged. ‘Look.’ She paused for a moment then, with a sigh, flopped down into a chair and placed her plate of food on a small table beside her. ‘Dad, would you like to go through this?’

  Belial shook his head. ‘No.’ He turned away.

  ‘Well, thanks.’ Carly sat for a moment in silence. ‘The first thing that God created was Lucifer.’ She
shrugged. ‘We’re not sure why – as a servant, a companion? We really don’t know, but whatever the reason it didn’t work out. Lucifer asked too many questions and had far too much power. He disagreed with many of God’s plans and eventually God created another: Metatron. This time he made some changes and, unlike Lucifer, who was never given a task, Metatron was charged with documenting and organising. One of his first tasks seemed to be documenting the arguments between God and Lucifer.

  ‘Eventually the other four archangels were also brought into being: Michael, Gabriel, Raphael and Uriel.’ She glanced up at her father.

  Belial stared stonily into the fireplace.

  ‘Nowhere near as powerful as Lucifer, they were charged with different tasks. Raphael heals – he was created as a calming influence on the others and was someone they could talk to when God wasn’t around to guide them.’ She glanced again at her father. ‘He certainly seems to be the most sane.’

  Belial snorted and shook his head.

  Carly continued. ‘Gabriel was known as God’s strength.’

  ‘Hang on.’ I held up a hand to stop her. ‘Isn’t that Michael’s job?’

  She shook her head. ‘I said strength, not might. Gabriel gave inner strength to those facing adversity. He was the angel that supported Jesus in the garden, he visited Mary. He was the one that was the messenger. He certainly had the most congenial dealings with the humans when they turned up.

  ‘Michael …’ Carly snorted. ‘Well, we’re all fairly au fait with what Michael was. He was God’s wrath, his discipline.’ She sighed. ‘Really, you should feel sorry for him: it’s always Michael who has to wipe out civilisations, clear up messes and generally be the bad guy. He used to complain and agonise about it a lot, but over the years he seems to have really got to grips with his role.’

  Picking up her plate she took another bite of her roll and chewed in silence for a moment. ‘Then of course there was Uriel.’

  ‘Uriel?’ I wracked my brains. I’d heard the name but certainly not from the angels.

  ‘Hmmm.’ Carly studied her bread. ‘Uriel was a bit of an enigma. It was said that he stood guard at the gates of lost Eden. He was the angel of peace and ministration. His biggest crime was to speak on the humans’ behalf when God had decided that all life needed to be wiped from the face of the Earth in one big flood. It really wasn’t a coincidence that Pope Zachary had him wiped from the list of acceptable angels.’ Carly poured herself another cup of tea and stared over the rim. ‘I think I may have gotten a little off track here. Anyway, we finally get to the humans.’ She sighed. ‘God created the world, but we don’t think he created man.’

  ‘What?’ This went against everything I’d been taught.

  Carly shrugged. ‘Man already existed.’

  ‘Where?’ I asked.

  ‘Hell,’ Carly said matter of fact. ‘Here.’ She looked around at the room. ‘Hell was once – and we’re talking so long ago that the mind boggles – a “normal” place. Trees, soil, evolution – all that sort of thing. But it all went wrong, we don’t know why but the ice crept in. Anyway, the beings that lived here were dying by the million and to save themselves they had begun to search for another home. They moved to another place, another land. However, the land they chose was already home to a large lizard population. The lizards were incredibly happy to see them – they’d been running out of food.

  ‘Anyway, God had created Heaven and all his angels but something wasn’t right – or at least that’s the theory – so he created the Earth and populated it with the final beings from this plane. All they had to do was aspire to perfection and man could become the ultimate being. Nirvana.

  ‘Well, it went wrong. Humans are feisty, argumentative and selfish. Left with free will they did exactly as they pleased. You know your own history – it all went downhill from there. But by then God had other problems. Lucifer was becoming increasingly unhappy with the way things were going and had started gathering a following. The humans were engaged in all sorts of wars and seemed determined to wipe each other out. God’s infinite patience finally became demonstrably finite and he gave the humans an ultimatum: “Be better or go back where you came from. Here are the rules that I need you to follow.” He sent the angels down to sort them out and that’s when the Nephilim were born.’ Carly stared into her teacup. ‘Evidently the angels liked the humans a lot and, despite the blanket ban on getting together, children with all sorts of odd powers started cropping up due to the mix of human and angel blood.’ She paused to drain the last of her tea.

  ‘Well, basically a lot of the humans stuck two metaphorical fingers up at religion and worshipped power and things instead. The angels were fighting and arguing among themselves, Lucifer was stirring up a civil war and eventually God said, “Enough!”’ Carly sighed. ‘When he finally got the angel uprising under control he kicked all the dissenters out of Heaven. Those who had fought with Lucifer he sent to Hell. Those who had refused to fight became the Fae. He told the fallen angels that henceforth they would be known as demons, but if they could convince the humans to change their ways through punishment and torture they stood a chance of getting back into his good graces and so the concept of Hell’s torments was born.’ Carly glanced at her father who refused to look away from the flames. ‘Those humans that showed an aptitude for what you call “magic” got forcibly relocated back to this plane and that’s because only those with angelic blood can do the things that are considered magical. The angels collected those that survived the flood and shifted them here. Slowly they winkled all of them out. Occasionally the old mixed blood will crop up again but it’s a poor watered-down blood now which is why, slowly but surely, any sign of magic disappeared on Earth. “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live” was the decree from on high and now you know why.

  ‘This is not an afterlife – it never was. It’s not a place you go where you die – it’s a place you go because you won’t conform to God’s will. If you die here, you’re dead; if you’re injured, you die.’ She paused. ‘Even we don’t know what happens after you die. Angels can’t cross the Acheron because they obey God’s law and he forbade it so there is a sort of block – a geas or spell, if you like. Only those who chose the status “demon” are released from that compulsion and it has to be by choice.’

  She lapsed into silence and no one else spoke. This turned everything I’d ever believed on its head and it certainly put the angels in a new light. Unwilling to even look at each other we all busied ourselves with other minor concerns.

  I still didn’t really understand.

  Eventually we were all clean and fed. With the others sitting in quiet conversation by the big fire I took the opportunity to have a good look around the room. It could have been any room in any old house. Big stone flags supported huge bookshelves that were filled to overflowing with leather-bound books, files and richly decorated leather and copper cylindrical scroll cases. Around the room, couches arranged in no particular way were so comfortable that I hardly noticed when my eyelids began to droop. I was so close to sleep that when the door swung open for a second time I jumped, my heart beating wildly.

  ‘I’m so sorry to keep you all waiting.’ Sarah smiled at us. ‘Mother Abbess has asked to see three of you – if you would come with me?’

  Belial stood up and, holding on to Graham’s sleeve, he pulled the surprised man to his feet.

  Carly nudged me. ‘You have to go too,’ she whispered. ‘You can’t let Dad and Graham go on their own. Dad can take care of himself but Graham is just a liability.’ She nodded meaningfully toward the alleged Lord of Hell who was currently fumbling with the buttons on his jacket. He’d misaligned them and couldn’t seem to work out what to do about it. I watched as Parity wandered over to him and, with a gentle smile, deftly sorted everything out. They stared at each other for a moment then Graham smiled.

  It seemed Carly had been watching them as well. ‘That could be a bit of a problem,’ she said.

  Belial made
no comment as I joined them and we walked in silence through the cathedral. The familiar church aura of dust, incense, smoky candles and old books wrapped itself around us. The familiar smell caused a sense of displacement and disquiet. What was a cathedral doing here? I remembered that this wasn’t true Hell until we passed the River Acheron and I wondered if this had originally been a last bastion of prayer – a place to finally confront those sins before the damned headed off toward their personal torments.

  No, from what Carly had been telling me there was no point in repenting … I mean, what’s the point of being sorry that you’d been born different? It seemed a little unfair.

  Through the nave, our footsteps echoed around the cavernous space and bounced off a ceiling that must have been over a hundred feet above us. The sound echoed back as the ghosts of our own passing selves, as though a hundred supplicants passed through. At the end of the nave was a five-sided room, its roof a magnificent stained-glass pentacle. Now that was something you’d never find in a church. Standing in the very centre of the room I turned slowly as I gazed up through the glass. Weren’t we underground? I stood for a long moment staring up at the sky. It was just slightly the wrong shade of blue.

  ‘This way, please.’ Sarah smiled and indicated a small dark corridor. Beyond the pentacle I could see a large, heavily carved wooden structure – an altar. Dressed in a deep red cloth and shrouded in smoke from the permanently burning incense, it was difficult to make out any features on the two large figurines that stood, side by side, at the very centre. The figure on the left was a priapic man, with a full set of antlers and a face that was definitely more than a little deer. He stood on cloven hooves and carried a staff. The statue appeared to be carved from a slab of black basalt and the light from the candles placed around him just highlighted his heavy muscles and the arrogant set of his brow.