The Joining: Ainsworth Chronicles Book One
Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Sixteen

J

ake scanned the area with his infrareds in the dark. “There are several guards and they’re armed. The walls of the castle itself are too high to climb, so I think we’re stuffed.”

“Follow me. In my research of Victoria and its past there were several articles on Hatley Castle, how Mr. Dunsmuir was an avowed spiritualist and hence why he built the castle in this spot. It is here that two Ley Lines merge and that is in connection to the earth energy centers as well. A place of what one person said was null energy.” You might not remember her, but I do; Agnes. I might have to ask Danglepuss if he knew of anyone that knew her or if he was in contact with anyone claiming to have travelled in time.

They walked in the woods around to the west side. “Now he also based a castle design with in mind what all castles must have if they are about to be overcome.”

“An escape route?”

“Yes, a tunnel.”

“And you’re sure of this how?”

“I saw the original blueprints. On the west side there is a tunnel under the grounds that go out about three hundred meters, sorry about a thousand feet or so, you Americans have got to get with the modern world and learn metric. Now the Ley lines come in from the west and if I’m right he’d have built the tunnel to run in between them.”

They were well out of view of the castle and the men patrolling when Jake put the glasses back on and looked around. “Nothing, these will only work if the tunnel entrance is either warmer or cooler than the area around it. This is a large area, in the dark, by the time we replace it, the ceremony you claim to be happening tonight, will be over.”

Carol glanced around at the trees in the area. She grabbed a nearby willow tree branch and broke it off. “This will do.”

“What the hell are you doing?”

“I’m making a dowsing rod or as you Yanks call it, a witching willow.”

“This is ludicrous, are you mad? We are going to burst into a heavily armed castle via some mumbo jumbo piece of wood. I mean don’t they have to be blessed by Tibetan monks or something?”

“My shaman friend Charlie Stillwater showed me how to make one and use it one day for fun. The ends have to curve up and you hold in in the palms of your hands, palm up. Also practised a little the other day after reading it up on the internet.”

“Skirt, you are seriously messed up, but I’ll go along with this for now until I come up with a better plan.” Jake followed behind her as her walked along. “And look I’ll apologize for the incident on the boat. I wouldn’t want this to go down in my records.”

“Apology accepted and I won’t report it either. But try a stunt like that again and I will report it. That’s if you have any testicles when I’m done with you.”

“Thanks, I really shouldn’t have done that.”

“Okay, enough. Just keep an eye out for anyone patrolling and let me do my thing. One of the Ley Lines runs across Victoria on a horizontal plane. The other runs down from the north to the west through part of downtown and connects here to the other.”

“Lady, you’re nuts. No one has even proved if these exist.”

“Then explain why all of the oldest religious sites in Europe are built on straight lines. Several of which converge at Stonehenge and several at the pyramids of Giza.”

“Really? I’m beginning to think you’re one smart cookie; weird but smart.”

After walking around long moments, nothing seemed to make the rod move. “Damn.”

She looked up and a weird little elfish creature with blue flaming hair waved her to come towards it. She knew Jake couldn’t see it. The little fairy from the hiking trail. What’s it doing here?

She walked towards it, the rod began to twitch. “Here’s one, the male and female earth energies are detectable by a dowsing rod, we’re in luck.” She followed the rod as it continued to twitch back a few feet, walking back and forth. “This one seems to run fairly straight. Which means the other is to the north.”

Jake stood humbled, “I’ll be damned. I was about to give up.”

Yeah, me too, thanks blue fairy. “I have reason to believe that an entrance to some sort of spirit realm lies buried on this property. This is the real reason the mob are here; not for the wedding, but to bless the new venture by making a pact with Satan. Hereby ensuring their success.”

Just then the rod twitched down again. Carol smiled. “Okay we follow this down to where it meets the other.”

She stepped gingerly along walking back and forth as the dowsing rod kept moving. It indeed was moving down towards the other one when Cole noticed something in the dark.

“See that, that raised area there.”

They moved towards what looked like a round rocky covering. It resembled a concrete manhole cover, just sticking out of the ground by a few inches, but it was made from local rocks cemented together.

“We found it. I’ll be damned.”

“We? Excuse me, make sure you get this right in your report. I found it; with this.” Carol wanted to wallop him over the head with it.

He gripped the heavy lid and it a hard tug. “Damn! Weighs probably a hundred pounds or more.”

“Sure you can lift it?”

“Lady I can bench-press over two twenty.” He grunted and slid the cover over until it lay beside the entrance.

“Okay, ladies first.” He tilted a flashlight down the entrance. “Seems to go down about twelve feet and veer towards the castle.”

Carol pulled her phone free as he peered down the hole and hit send before Jake could see. She sent an alert beacon back to headquarters, just in case being below ground interfered with her phone. She didn’t trust Jake, too much didn’t add up. She stuffed it away and grabbed her light and down they both went through the dark tunnel, which was surprisingly dry and not damp like the Hall of Wonder.

A dim light ahead told them that they were approaching the other end. Quickly they came to an iron gate. Both had already shut off their lights. Carol glanced down the corridor. Chanting could be heard echoing down the hallway. She recognized some of the words being used, another language, which she guessed was the Enokian Agnes had mentioned earlier. “The ceremony has started.”

Carol lifted the clasp and they went inside. The chanting seemed to come from the right. Where there was what appeared to be an open area. Jake glanced around, tried one of a couple of doors and tapped her on the shoulder. He motioned her inside after he looked in. “No one here.”

They entered the dark room. Carol could make out chains hanging from the walls and a table with leather straps on it. It looked like a torture chamber of some sort. On the far wall next to the open area on the other side she spotted slits and flickering lights. Carol eased over, careful not to stumble into anything. Chanting was echoing through the stone walls from the room next door. Through the slits she saw over two dozen people all dressed in hooded black robes, so that no one was recognizable. All were standing around a large pentagram in red on the floor. Beside it two cages, containing two boys. “Got them. We can have them charged with abduction.” She grabbed her phone and was about to send a text.

“What are you doing?”

“Calling in reinforcements, this ends here and now.”

Jake grabbed a rag from his inside chest pocket and quickly clamped his hand over her nose and mouth and pinned her arms with his free arm. “Sorry lady, this does end here and now, only not how you imagined. I can’t have you blowing my cover or putting a halt to this ceremony we set up so long to make work.”

“We?” She struggled but he was bigger and stronger. Her phone cluttered to the ground as she tried to get her hands free. Carol only had moments before she’d have to inhale.

A door in behind them creaked open. The sound of approaching footsteps as the lights flickered dimly on.

“Oh, how nice. I see you’ve brought me a new play toy.” A familiar harsh female voice spoke as the crack of a whip broke the air.

Carol inhaled at the realization she wasn’t in a torture chamber, but in a bondage chamber and passed out again as Rebecca smiled at her.

“We meet again.”