The Devil in Green (83 page)

'The Blue Fire.'

'That's right. You know about it.'

'Go on.'

Mallory finished his tea. 'I'm guessing there are books here that could
tell me all about this.' When James didn't respond, he continued, 'The
pagan camp just over the walls . .
.
it's here because Salisbury is on a
powerful ley, apparently. The Blue Fire here is very strong. And the
Christian church decides to re-establish itself here, in Salisbury. Not in
Winchester, or Glastonbury. Here. Coincidence?'

'Glastonbury is on a powerful ley. So they say,' James pointed out.

'Now
you're
being disingenuous. But your answer shows we're on the
same page. Anyway, the old Glastonbury site is in ruins. What was needed
was a complete structure that could focus the energy. Not a stone circle,
but a massive stone building with a spire like a lightning conductor. As far
as I know, there's nothing in the Bible that mentions this Blue Fire, yet
somebody in the Church knows about it.'

James shook his head firmly, his lips clenched tight.

'I'm a good judge of character,' Mallory continued. 'I'm not saying this
to flatter you, because I do have respect for you, but I can tell you're a
good man, with the best interests at heart. And I would guess injustice
probably gets you down. I would think you wouldn't want to perpetuate
injustice, or misdirection, or conspiracy, for whatever reason. Not in a
religion that makes so much of truth and honesty and shining the light of
righteousness on the world.'

'Why have you come to see me about this, Mallory? Why do you feel
that strongly about it? Most people are just concerned with staying
alive.'

'Because I think this
is
about staying alive. I don't know why, or
how
. .
. it's just a hunch. But there's something going on at this cathedral
that's the root of all our problems, and I think it's linked to this.' Mallory
tried to be as honest as possible, hoping it would sway James, but it wasn't
something that came easily to him. 'I don't know how much you know
about what's going on, but I think you have suspicions. I think you're at
least uneasy. And I certainly know you want things to turn out well
—
'

And if you find the information you want, you think you might be able
to do something that might help us?'

'I don't know,' Mallory replied truthfully.

'What could you do, Mallory?'

'At least I want to try. There aren't many out there saying the same.'

James' smile was a forensic dissection of Mallory's character. 'That
doesn't sound like the Mallory I've heard so much about.'

James sat silently for a moment, then rose sharply and began to prowl
back and forth in thought; he looked as if he was tearing himself apart.
Finally, he returned to his seat and began speaking animatedly as if a dam
had broken. 'This stays between us. I don't know you well enough to know
if you
do
have best interests at heart, but you're right in your assessment of
how I feel about the truth being hidden, or glossed over, or bent. But it
must stay between us, is that understood?'

Mallory nodded agreement to his terms.

'You talk about conspiracy,' he began. 'Someone once said that the
history of civilisation is the history of conspiracy. What you learn . . .
established
knowledge ...
is not always the truth. Secrets lie behind
everything we pass down, sometimes big secrets. Everyone thinks they
know something of history. The truth is, they know nothing. It is a facet of
human nature that the most important actions and events are hidden away
so that all we see are their repercussions or the lies designed to cover them.
You know this - you can see it in the people and organisations around
you all the time, and it was no different in the oldest times, in the same way
that we are no different from our ancestors, although we like to think of
ourselves as wiser, cleverer, more moral. We know nothing.' He took a
deep breath, controlled himself, then spoke in more measured terms. 'I
was part of a conspiracy myself, though a benign one. The Christian
Church has been filled with them from the start . .
.
from the very earliest
days. It is the nature of the structure. I was a member of a group called the
Watchmen. It was our responsibility to guard certain knowledge - pre-
Christian knowledge the Church had assimilated - that could be used
when the Fall happened and humanity was under threat.'

'You know what really happened at the Fall?' Mallory asked.

'Some of it, yes. There are worlds beyond our own, Mallory, where
strange and powerful beings live. Throughout our history, they have
passed back and forth, influencing events here, becoming the source of all
our myths and legends. On a previous visit they became the template for
the gods of the Celtic nations. And at the Fall they came back again. Their
power is unimaginable to
us ...
the world couldn't cope. On that day, all
the rules changed.'

'And they're still out there.'

'The first time they came they almost destroyed the world with their
rivalries and games and wars. Humanity wasn't going to allow it to happen
again. Sometime in the ancient past, we discovered that they were
vulnerable to the Blue Fire . .
.
that the Blue Fire was a power above
everything.
That information was encoded in the landscape by many
ancient peoples, not just the ones who came to be called the Celts in
popular understanding. Secrets in stone, in alignments, a language that did
not use words and which only came alive to us when we found the right
perception through which to see it. And it was that information that the
Watchmen guarded and passed down from generation to generation for
whenever it would be needed. We knew about the gods, and the Otherworld they came from, and the secret history, and all the prophecies that
went along with it, and we told no one. We had to wait until we were
needed, when five heroes would come together to defend humanity.'

'You met the five?'

'Some of them. Good people, though they didn't recognise it themselves.'

'I would say, from a Christian perspective, that this all sounds a little like
blasphemy, or at the very least non-canon,' Mallory said.

James sighed. 'Yes, contradictions abound. But not as many as you
might think. You are correct in saying that the Blue Fire is not discussed
overtly in the writings and traditions of Christianity, but that is not to say
that it was not known of and accepted as a central tenet from the earliest
times. It was, and it was kept away from general view by those conspiracies
buried in the fundament of Christianity.'

'Don't let the common man have too much
knowledge ...
the priesthood might lose its mystique,' Mallory said tardy.

'That approach was necessary when Christianity was attempting to gain
a foothold—'

'And now?'

'Now we are trying to gain a foothold again.' He poured himself another
cup of tea, his pleasant humour replaced by a seriousness that didn't sit
well with him. 'One of the most powerful forces within the Church during
its first centuries was a secret group of Christian geomancers. They were
well aware of the Blue Fire from ancient traditions and linked it with the
spirit of Christianity, and they were responsible for the precise position of
churches around the world to take the best advantage of sites where this
earth energy was at its most potent. Their greatest influence was during the Middle Ages, during the great period of cathedral building.'