Dreaming in Darkness (2013) by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2013-07-20T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

For the man known as Shadrach, the descent was a slow one. The soldier who followed kept looking over his shoulder, as though desiring to ascend the stairway rather than face what lay below.

The steps were slippery, coated with some strange moss that made the going treacherous. The scent of stale sea air was strong, and Shadrach assumed the stairway below had access to tunnels that led to the sea, tunnels that flooded on occasion.

What man would have his quarters here?

The door stood ajar. The light grew brighter, and Shadrach squinted, tried to get his eyes used to the light after being accustomed to the unnatural darkness above. He glanced at his companion and raised a quizzical eyebrow.

“In,” the soldier said in a quavering voice. Shadrach grinned, would have touched the brim of his hat in salute if his hands were free, and pushed the door open with his shoulder.

The source of the light was a circle of candles: thirteen fat, tube-like church candles that would hold a flame for hours, maybe days, if the wicks were trimmed and the flames left undisturbed. They were positioned on sconces on the stone flags of the floor, casting flickering pools of luminance upon the moss, accompanied by the lesser light from a multitude of sconces carved out of hollows in the walls: these littered the bookshelves that had been cleared of any tomes before the vellum mouldered and the pages disintegrated. The smell caused Shadrach to frown. It was not the scent of tallow and wax, but something meaty, like rendered pork fat.

Shadrach blinked in the fierce glow, then saw what lay in the circle of candles.

On a plinth of ancient rock – similar to what formed the octagonal tower – was an idol. An all-too familiar beast of nightmare, carved from a rock that was far older than the stone forming their surroundings. A rock as black as the darkness coating the interior walls of the monastery’s nave.

To an untrained eye it would appear to be nothing more than a nightmarish fusion of a goat and the Beast from Revelation: the Templar Knights had been accused of worshipping a similar idol, that the Papacy named Baphomet. It sat, cross-legged, the six breasts and the opening in its nether-regions proclaiming it to be female. But what creature would dare venture there? The lips of the vagina glistened with moisture, seemed to quiver with anticipation – or delight – at its new visitor. The diamond-shaped teeth hiding within the vaginal lips glinted.

He looked away, into the face, but what he saw there was worse. The head of the goat-like beast was surmounted by a crown of thorns; a parody that went beyond mere blasphemy, for each twig and thorn was carved into the likeness of a serpent. Their rears did not terminate in the crown, but stretched downwards, thinner, curled around the shaggy fur of the beast’s hind-quarters until they ended

…began…

in the idol’s vagina. Each snake faced forwards, so that Shadrach found himself glared at by a multitude of tiny, ruby-red eyes.

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