Page 6 (1/2)

I

&039;As to why I asked you all to joineach of you five hundred pounds for your time and trouble, the answer is sihost&039;

The speaker was young, his voice cultured, his features fine and aristocratic He was Lord David Marriot, and the place of which he spoke was a Marriot property: a large, ungainly, aunt and gloo oaks The wood itself stood central in nine acres of otherwise barren moors borderland

Lord Marriot&039;s audience nuenarian Lawrence Danford, a retired man of the cloth; by contrast the so-called &039;mediums&039; Jonathan Turnbull and Jason Lavery, each a &039;specialist&039; in his own right; and myself, an old friend of the family whose name does not really matter since I had no special part to play I was simply there as an observer - an adviser, if you like - in a

Waiting on the arrival of the others, I had been with David Marriot at the old house all afternoon I had long known so of the history of the placeand a little of its legend There I now sat, comfortable and warm as our host addressed the other three, with an excellent sherry in s crackled away in the massive fireplace And yet suddenly, as he spoke, I felt chill and uneasy

&039;You two gentlemen,&039; David smiled at the mediums, &039;will enancy, if indeed such an element exists; and you, sir,&039; he spoke to the elderly cleric, &039;will attempt to exorcise the unhappy -creature? - once we knoho or what it is&039; Attracted by , he paused and turned toyou, my friend?&039;

&039;I&039;m sorry to have to stop you alized, &039;but I&039;ve given it soht and -well, this plan of yours worries uests looked atto notice h of course we had been introduced; for after all they were the experts while I was merely an observer Nevertheless, and while I was never endoith any special psychic talent that I know of (and while certainly, if ever I had been, I never would have dabbled), I did know a little of s

And who knows? - perhaps I do have some sort of sixth sense, for as I have said, I was suddenly and quite inexplicably chilled with a sensation of foreboding that I knew had nothing at all to do with the temperature of the library The others, for all their

&039;My plan worries you?&039; Lord Marriot finally repeated &039;You didn&039;t mention this before&039;

&039;I didn&039;t know before just how you ree that the house requires so with the place, but I&039;m not at all sure that you should concern yourself with finding out exactly what it is you&039;re exorcizing&039;

&039;Hrey head &039;Surely the essence of the, haru - whatever it is Er, not,&039; he hastily added, &039;that I would want to do these two gentleree with, harus&039; He turned to Turnbull and Lavery

&039;Not at all sir,&039; Lavery assured hi thinly &039;We&039;ve been paid in advance, as you yourself have been paid, regardless of results We will therefore - perform - as Lord Marriot sees fit We are not, however, spiritualists But in any case, should our services no longer be required&039; He shrugged

&039;No, no question of that,&039; the owner of the house spoke up at once &039;The advice of reatly valued by my family for many years, in all manner of problems, but he would be the first to admit that he&039;s no expert in matters such as these I, however, am even less of an authority, and h ti! That is why I commissioned him to find out all he could about the history of the house, in order to be able to offer you gentleround

And I assure you that it&039;s not just idle curiosity that prompts me to seek out the source of the trouble here I wish to dispose of the property, and prospective buyers just will not stay in it long enough to appreciate itsto rest here, soo, then I want to knohat it is

Dah trouble!

So let&039;s please have no more talk about likes and dislikes or what should or should not be done

It will be the way I&039;ve planned it&039; He turned again to ood as to simply outline the results of your research?&039;

&039;Very well,&039; I shrugged in acquiescence &039;As long as I&039;veDavid the way I did, further argument would be quite fruitless: hisinpull on h, the house as it now stands is comparatively modern, no more than two hundred and fifty years old, but it was built upon the shell of a far older structure, one whose origin is extreends, however, and there have always been chroniclers of tales of strange old houses The original house is given briefback almost to Roman times, but the actual site had known habitation - possibly a Druidic order or some such - much earlier Later it became part of some sort of fortification, perhaps a small castle, and the remnants of earthworks in the shape of mounds, banks and ditches can be found even today in the surrounding countryside

&039;Of course the present house, while large enough by inal: it&039;s aof the old structure An extensive cellar - a veritablerenovation soo, when first the Marriots acquired the property, and then several clues were disclosed as to its earlier use

This ould seem to have been a place of worship of sorts, for there was a crude altar-stone, a pair of ugly, font-like basins, a nuoyles or &039;gods&039;, and other extremely ancient tools and bric-a-brac Most of this incunabula was given into the care of the then curator of the antiquities section of the British Museuures were defaced and destroyed The records do not say why

&039;But let&039;s go back to the reign of James I

Then the place was the seat of a fah the linethe early years of the seventeenth century - or perhaps fallen foul of the authorities or the monarch himself - for its name simply cannot be discovered It would seem that for some reason, most probably serious dishonour, the family name has been erased from all contemporary records and docu to the ground in 1618, there had been a certain intercourse and intrigue of a similarly undiscovered nature between the nameless inhabitants, the de la Poers of Exham Priory near Anchester, and an obscure esoteric sect ofin and around the semi-ruined Falstone Castle in Northumberland Of the latter sect, they iped out utterly by Northern raiders - a clan believed to have been outraged by the &039;heathen activities&039; of the monks - and the ruins of the castle were pulled to pieces, stone by stone Indeed, it was so well destroyed that today only a handful of historians could even show you where it stood!

&039;As for the de la Poers, well, whole cycles of ill-oend revolve around that family, just as they do about their Anchester seat Suffice it to say that in 1923 the Priory was blown up and the cliffs beneath it dynamited, until the deepest roots of its foundations were obliterated Thus the Priory is no more, and the last of that line of the fae for the hopelessly insane

&039;It can be seen then that the nameless family that lived here had the worst possible connections, at least by the standards of those days, and it is not at all iht about their own decline and disappearance through just such traffic with degenerate or ill-advised cultists and deists as I have mentioned

&039;Now then, add to all of this somewhat tenuously connected information the local rues of this area for some three hundred years - those mainly unspecified fears and old wives&039; tales that have sufficed since time immemorial to keep children and adults alike away from this property, off the land and out of the woods - and you begin to understand so of the aura of the place Perhaps you can feel that aura even now? I certainly can, and I&039;m by no means psychic&039;

&039;Just what is it that the locals fear?&039; Turnbull asked &039;Can&039;t you enlighten us at all?&039;

&039;Oh, strange shapes have been seen on the paths and roads; lureat webs, only to vanish in daylight; and, yes, in connection with the latter, perhaps I had better mention the bas-reliefs in the cellar&039;

&039;Bas-reliefs?&039; queried Lavery

&039;Yes, on the walls It riting of sorts, but in a language no one could understand - glyphs alht the house,&039; David Marriot explained &039;He was an extreeable in all sorts of peculiar subjects When the cellar was opened and he saw the glyphs, he said they had to do with the worship of sonized reater area of the cellar cemented in - said it made the house damp and the foundations unsafe&039;

&039;Worship of soe deity?&039; Old Danford spoke up &039;What sort of deity? Soht with them, d&039;you think?&039;

&039;No, older than that,&039; I answered for Lord Marriot &039;Much older A spider-thing&039;

&039;A spider?&039; This was Lavery again, and he snorted the words out al to sneer at,&039; I answered &039;Three years ago an ageing but still active gentleman rented the house for a period of soist and the author of several books, he wanted the place for its solitude; and if he took to it he was going to buy it In the fifth week he was taken away raving mad!&039;

&039;Eh? Harumph! Mad, you say?&039; Old Danford repeated after me

I nodded &039;Yes, quite insane He lived for barely sixabout a creature naod frohostly avatar, he clairounds&039;

At this Turnbull spoke up &039;Now really!&039; he spluttered &039;I honestly fear that we&039;re rapidly going from the sublime to the ridiculous!&039;

&039;Gentlemen, please!&039; There was exasperation now in Lord Marriot&039;s voice &039;What does it matter? You know as much now as there is to know of the history of the troubles here -h to do what you&039;ve been paid to do Now then, Lawrence -&039; he turned to Danford &039;Have you any objections?&039;

&039;Haru other than a creature of the Lord - then of course I&039;ll do my best to help you Harumph! Certainly&039;

&039;And you, Lavery?&039;

&039;Objections? No, a bargain is a bargain I have your money, and you shall have your noises&039;

Lord Marriot nodded, understanding Lavery&039;s ed ability to speak in the tongue of the ghost, the possessing spirit In the event of a non-huht well be other than speech as we understand the spoken word They ht simply be - noises

&039;And that leaves you, Turnbull&039;

&039;Do not concern yourself, Lord Marriot,&039; Turnbull answered, flicking iined dust from his sleeves T, too, would be loath to break an honourable agreement I have promised to do an automatic sketch of the intruder, an art in which I&039;oes well, I shall do just that Frankly, I see nothing at all to be afraid of Indeed, I would appreciate some sort of explanation fro his best to frighten us off&039; He inclined his head inquiringly in my direction

I held up my hands and shook my head &039;Gentle of mine ofyes, premonition! The very air seems to me imbued with an aura of -&039; I frowned &039;Perhaps disaster would be too strong a word&039;

&039;Disaster?&039; Old Danford, as was his wont, repeated after me &039;How do you mean?&039;

&039;I honestly don&039;t know It&039;s a feeling, that&039;s all, and it hinges upon this desire of Lord Marriot&039;s to know his foe, to identify the nature of the evil here Yes, upon that, and upon the complicity of the rest of you&039;

&039;But -&039; the young Lord began, anger starting to make itself apparent in his voice

&039;At least hear me out,&039; I protested &039;Then -&039; I paused and shrugged &039;Thenyou must do as you see fit&039;

&039;It can do no harm to listen to him,&039; Old Danford pleaded my case &039;I for one find all of this extreument&039; The others nodded slowly, one by one, in soreehed heavily &039;Just what is it that bothers you so nition,&039; I answered at once &039;To recognize our -opponent? - that&039;s where the danger lies