The Devil Rides Out

Then, after a passage of eons in human time they saw Cardinals Folly again infinitely far beneath them, their bodies lying in the pentacle—and that darkened room. In an utter eerie silence the dust of centuries was falling … falling. Softly, impalpably, like infinitely tiny particles of swansdown it seemed to cover them, the room, and all that was in it, with a fine grey powder.

De Richleau raised his head. It seemed to him that he had been on a long journey and then slept for many days. He passed his hand across his eyes and saw the familiar bookshelves in the semi-darkened library. The bulbs above the cornice flickered and the lights came full on.

He saw that Simon’s eyes were free now from that terrible maniacal glare, but that he still lay bound in the centre of the pentacle.

As he bent forward and hastily began to untie Simon’s hands Marie Lou came round out of her faint. Richard was fondling her and murmuring: ‘We’re safe, darling—safe.’

‘She—she’s not dead—is she?’ It was Rex’s voice, and turning they saw him. Tall—haggard—distraught—a dark silhouette against the early morning light which filtered in through the french windows—bearing Tanith’s body in his arms.

Marie Lou sprang up with a little wailing cry. With Richard behind her she raced across the room and through the door in the wall which concealed the staircase to the nursery.

The Duke hurried over to Rex. Simon kicked his feet free and stood up, exclaiming: ‘I’ve had a most extraordinary dream.

‘About all of us going to Paris?’ asked De Richleau, as the three of them lowered Tanith’s body to the floor, ‘and then on to a ruined monastery in northern Greece?’

‘That’s it—but how—how did you know?’

‘Because I had the same myself—if it was a dream!’

An hysterical laugh came from the stairway and next moment Marie Lou was beside them, great tears streaming down her face, but Fleur clutched safely in her arms.

The child, freshly woken from her sleep, gazed at them with wide, blue eyes, and then she said: ‘Fleur want to go to Simon.’

The Duke was examining Tanith. Simon rose from beside him. His eyes held all the love that surged in the great heart which beat between his narrow shoulders. He covered his short-sighted eyes with his hands for a second then backed away. ‘No, Fleur, darling—I’ve been—I’m still ill you know.’

‘Nonsense—that’s all over,’ Richard cried quickly, ‘go on— for God’s sake take her—Marie Lou’s going to faint.’

‘Oh, Richard! Richard!’ As Simon grabbed the child, Marie Lou swayed towards her husband, and leaning on him drew her fingers softly down his face. ‘I will be all right in a moment—but it was a dream—wasn’t it?’

‘She’s alive!’ exclaimed the Duke suddenly, his hand pressed below Tanith’s heart. ‘Quick, Rex—some brandy.’

‘Of course, dearest,’ Richard was comforting Marie Lou. ‘We’ve never been out of this room—look, except Rex, we are still in pyjamas.’

‘Why, yes—I thought––Oh, but look at this poor girl.’ She slipped from his arms and knelt beside Tanith.

Rex came crashing back with a decanter and a glass. De Richleau snatched the brandy from him. Marie Lou pillowed Tanith’s head upon her knees and Richard held her chin. Between them they succeeded in getting a little of the spirit down her throat; a spasm crossed her face then her eyes opened.

‘Thank God!’ breathed Rex. Thank God.’

She smiled and whispered his name, as the natural colour flooded back into her face.

‘Never—never have I had such a terrible nightmare!’ exclaimed Marie Lou. ‘We were in a crypt—and that awful man was there. He… .’

‘So you dreamed it too!’ Simon interrupted. ‘About you finding me at that warehouse in Asnieres and the Paris police?’

‘That’s it,’ said Richard. ‘It’s amazing that we should all have dreamed the same thing but there’s no other explanation for it. None of us can possibly have left this house since we settled down in the pentacle––Yes, last night!’

‘Then I’ve certainly been dreaming too,’ Rex lifted his eyes for a moment from Tanith’s face. ‘It must have started with me when I fell asleep at the inn—or earlier, for I’d have sworn De Richleau and I were but all the night before careering around half England to stop some devilry.’

‘We were,’ said the Duke slowly. ‘Tanith’s presence here proves that, but she was never dead except in our dream, and that started when you arrived here with her in your arms. The Satanist at Simon’s house, our visit there afterwards, and the Sabbat were all facts. It was only last night, while our bodies slept, that our subconscious selves were drawn out of them to continue the struggle with Mocata on another plane.’

‘Mocata!’ Simon echoed. ‘But—but if we’ve been dreaming he is still alive.’

‘No, he is dead.’ The quiet, sure statement came from Tanith as she sat up, and taking Rex’s hand scrambled to her feet.

‘How is it you’re so certain?’ he asked huskily.

‘I can see him. He is not far from here—lying head downwards on some steps.’

‘That’s how we saw him in the dream,’ said Richard, but she shook her head.

‘No, I had no dream. I remember nothing after Mocata entered my room at the inn and forced me to sleep—but you will find him—somewhere quite near the house—out there.’

‘The age-old law,’ De Richleau murmured. ‘A life for a life and a soul for a soul. Yes, since you have been restored to us I am quite certain that he will have paid the penalty.’

Simon nodded. ‘Then we’re really free of this nightmare at last?’

‘Yes. Dream or no dream, the Lord of Light who appeared to us drove back the Power of Darkness, and promised that we should all live unmolested by it to the end of our allotted span. Come, Richard,’ the Duke took his host’s arm, ‘let us find our coats and take a look round the garden—then we shall have done with this horrible business.’

As they moved away Tanith smiled up at Rex. ‘Did you really mean what you said last night?’

‘Did I mean it!’ he cried, seizing both her hands. ‘Just you let me show you how!’

‘Simon,’ said Marie Lou pointedly, ‘that child will catch her death of cold in nothing but her nightie—do take her back to the nursery while I get the servants to hurry forward breakfast.’ And the old familiar happy smile parted his wide mouth as Fleur took a flying leap into his arms.

Tanith’s face grew a little wistful as Rex drew her to him. ‘My darling,’ she hesitated, ‘you know that it will be only for a little time, about eight months — no more.’

‘Nonsense!’ he laughed. ‘You were certainly dead to all of us last night, so your prophecy’s been fulfilled and the evil lifted — we’re both going to live together for a hundred years.’

She hid her face against his shoulder, not quite believing yet, but a new hope dawning in her heart, from his certainty that she had passed through the Valley of the Shadow and come out again upon the other side. Her happiness, and his, demanded that she accept his view and act henceforth as though the danger to her life was past.

‘Then if you want them, my days are yours,’ she murmured, ‘whatever their number may be.’

There was no trace of fog and a fair, true dawn was breaking when, outside the library windows, De Richleau and Richard found Mocata’s body. It lay on the stone steps which led up to the terrace, sprawling head downwards, in the early light of the May morning.

‘The coroner will find no difficulty in bringing in a verdict,’ the Duke observed after one glance at the face. ‘They’ll say it is heart, of course. It is best not to touch the body, presently we will telephone the police. None of us need say that we have ever seen him before if you tell Malin to keep quiet about his visit yesterday afternoon. You may be certain that his friends will not come forward to mention his acquaintance with Simon or the girl.’