The Hypogeum Ch. 06-07

CHAPTER SIX

"The beginning of knowledge is the discovery of something we do not understand." - Frank Herbert

The wooden table she remembered from her dream was piled high with food and Alma could feel her mouth water as her eyes roamed over it. Boiled ham, wooden bowls piled high with mashed potatoes, cabbage and carrots. She could see a joint of beef, carefully cut into thick slices, medium rare, just the way she liked it. There was a huge glass bowl full of trifle sat by a large square treacle pudding, with a pitcher of custard next to it. The table was set for five.

The giant, who she remembered from her bedroom and what she assumed was the other workman who she could only hazily recall, already took two of the seats.

Ranulf was just making himself comfortable at the third place when Alma felt a hand gently take hold of her arm. Taika said, "Come child, you need to eat and I think my table be better than the simple fair young Ranulf provided."

The old woman ushered her toward the table and sat her down at the chair that sat at the end, Alma was somewhat taken aback, as a guest she expected to take the last seat along one of the long sides and not what was normally considered the head of the table. Still, she made no protest as she sat down, accepted a plate from Aloysius, inwardly marvelling at how the plate she needed both hands to hold looked like a saucer in his mighty grip.

"How are you feeling now, Lady?" he enquired in quiet tones.

Alma looked him in the face, "I am feeling a bit better thank you... I never thanked you for what you did. When he..."

The giant shook his head and smiled, "No need for thanks. I only did what any man would."

"Any man might, but you did, and I thank you."

"Lady, you are most welcome."

The other two men watched the exchange in silence and Taika seemed not to even notice as she made her way to the last remaining seat, before sitting down with a groan. Once seated she said, "Dig in. Eat. I cooked your dinner for eating not admiring," and used her fork to stab a slice of beef and slip it on to her plate.

The others followed suit and soon all had plates piled high with delicious food that they attacked with gusto. Alma was amazed at just how much food Aloysius could put away, eating two pieces of meat for where she and the others had one. He even finished off all of the bowls of vegetables after the others had finished so that there was barely a scrap left.

Alma sighed contentedly and patted her full stomach, "Thank you Taika," she said, "that was delicious."

The old woman nodded her thanks and replied, "T'is nothing child. In fact, t'is good to be cooking for many and not just for one."

Taika pushed her chair back and pulled a small clay pipe and tobacco pouch from her skirt pocket, which she quickly filled with smoke weed and lit, although Alma did not see where the flame came from. The old woman leaned back expansively in her chair and said, "I cooked, so the someone else can clear up."

All three of the men groaned, but didn't complain and merely stood up and started to clear the table. Alma made to help as well, but Taika stopped her and said, "No child, let the men folk do the cleaning, they do little enough of that as it is. We have need to talk while they work," she leaned in closer to Alma and whispered, "Keeps them busy and saves in the interruptions."

Alma giggled and then burped, she covered her mouth with her hand, blushed and exclaimed, "Oh! Excuse me."

Taika merely laughed, "T'is a compliment to a cook. Pay it no mind Alma."

As the men cleaned the dishes at the sink on the other side of the room, Taika said, "Now child. I'm sure you have some questions for me."

She waited expectantly as Alma gathered her thoughts, "Where are we?" "This be the Forest."

"I know that, but where is it?"

A thoughtful silence followed before Taika replied, "This be the Forest. It is in the thoughts and dreams of all the trees in the world. It's everywhere and yet nowhere, in all places and none."

Irritated, Alma snapped, "That's not an answer!"

Taika ignored the tone in Alma's voice and replied, "Nevertheless, t'is the truth of it. Where we are is not a thing I can tell you, I can only show you... Or at least, the Forest can, if you open your mind to it."

"How do I do that?"

Taika sucked the end of her pipe and then blew out a cloud of blue smoke, "That be a matter for later."

Alma asked again, but as Taika refused to be drawn she asked another question, "Why were you watching me?"

The old woman smiled, "Ah, that one I can answer. We've been waiting for you for a long time. When you showed up, we were assigned to protect you and keep you from harm."

Alma was thunderstruck, "Keep me from harm? I lost my husband and child, I was nearly..." she was unable to say the word. A tear stung her eye as she continued, "I've been brought here without my consent! There's a word for that you know. It's called kidnapping!"

Taika raised a placatory hand and said, "Was not our thought to kidnap anyone, we had you brought here as it were the only place you be safe from the Hypogeum."

The word brought Alma up short, "The what?"

"The Hypogeum. As the Forest is the force of good then contrary-wise the Hypogeum represents evil."

"What is it?"

"A secret society controlled by an evil entity called Baphomet. He's a demon and he's the one behind your woes."

Alma laughed humourlessly, "A demon? A real live demon killed my family? Rubbish! Jonathon was killed in a car crash and I lost my son in an accident."

Taika removed the pipe from her mouth and waved it around as she responded, "If you believe their deaths to be fate and happenstance only, why does guilt live in your belly?"

An arrow of pain shot through Alma's stomach and she cried out.

Taika made no move to help, but merely continued, "Your family were fated to die and that's a truth, you couldn't avoid that loss as it was written in the stars a long time ago. It be a tragedy for you, but things could not be any other way, if you were to be that which you should be. I cried tears for your loss since before you were born, sad was I to learn the path your life must take, and sad I am still. But I also know that what must be, must be."

The pain lessened and Alma found herself able to breath again, she winced slightly and rubbed her abdomen and then barked, "What must be, must be? You're still talking in riddles!"

Taika still took no offence at Alma's tone, she merely sighed and said, "I think it best if I let the Forest explain. The trees can paint you mind pictures better than I can paint with words."

She rose and offered her hand to Alma, "Come with me child, I will let the trees enlighten you in their own way."

Somewhat uncertainly, Alma allowed the old woman to lead her back out of the house to stand in the clearing.

The sun was high, but light clouds had started to come in and the threat of rain was clear to see. Alma asked, "What now?"

"Listen."

"Listen to what?"

"The Forest."

Alma briefly considered the possibility that she was still asleep after her accident and that this was all a dream. Since coming back home her life had been a short series of inexplicable events, the attempted rape, the coldblooded murder, her arrival in this strange forest, the dreams... She was interrupted in her thoughts by the sound of a distant birdsong. Alma shivered as a breeze sprung from nowhere and laid a blanket of cool air over her. She also fancied that she could hear the babbling of the river a short way back along the track that she had followed here. The trees swayed in the wind and the leaves rustled as the air moved between them. And then she heard it. The whispering of the trees, the voices from her dark dreams that had come to her aid and chased the dark thoughts from her head, "Lady, hear our words. Let us show you what has been. The Oak and the Ash and the Elm desire to teach you needful things... Say yes, the Oak and the Ash and the Rowan beg thee, say yes and let us into your heart."

The voices pulled on Alma's heartstrings and she felt the familiar sting of tears in her eyes as she answered, "Yes. Show me."

The wind picked up and the voices grew stronger and more insistent, "Follow us, Lady... Fly with the birds... Through time and space... Let us show you the way of things past."

Alma could feel herself getting lighter and lighter as the voices whispered their hypnotic chant. She rose upwards and was soon above the tops of the trees, she looked down and saw her body still stood in the clearing below, "What's happening?"

The voices chorused, "We are taking you back from the is to the was. We are showing you memories lost and lies exposed."

Alma let the voices carry her ever upwards, through the clouds and away from the forest. Faster and faster she flew, the landscape started to blur as the speed increased and still she flew faster and faster still. So rapidly did Alma move that all she could see was a flashing rainbow of colour in all directions. And then she stopped. She was floating high above a jungle expanse, nothing to see in all directions but rain forest. "Where are we?" she asked.

"This is an area that will be called Huile."

"What's that?"

"It will be a volcano in the country yet to be, called Columbia."

Alma frowned, "What do you mean the country yet to be?"

"We are in your past history. We are showing you things that once were."

"So why are we here?"

"Wait... Patience... Watch."

Puzzled, all Alma could do was wait. She did not wait long. A rumbling sound started from beneath the ground, it grew steadily louder and louder until Alma thought that her eardrums would burst. She placed her hands over her ears and shut her eyes tight in a futile attempt to keep the roaring noise from her head. The ground beneath her split open and smoke and ash spewed out of it. The thick cloud rose steadily closer to where Alma was suspended in the air and the pungent smell of sulphur assaulted her nose.

She started to panic as the cloud came ever closer, but the soothing voices whispered, "Fear not, Lady. The smoke will not harm you. This is but a memory and you are not really here."

"This is another dream."

"No, these are our memories."

Unconvinced, Alma started kicking and thrashing, trying to escape the poisonous smoke as it surrounded her. She held her breath against the choking sulphur for as long as she could before the desperate urge to breath overcame her sense of personal survival. Alma breathed out and then filled her lungs, ready to cough as she inhaled the roasting hot poisons... And found that she was breathing fresh sweet air. Not without reproach, the voices said, "We told you Lady. You cannot be harmed by what you experience here."

"Okay, okay. I'm sorry. So, I'm looking at a volcano?"

"Yes. The birth of a volcano, a very special volcano. Not because of what it is, but where it is... And when."

"And that is...?" prompted Alma.

"Directly over a ley node."

"What's a ley node?"

The trees answered, "Later. For now come with us."

"As if I have a choice."

Alma flew once again, travelling rapidly over the landscape, she was glad to get away from the awful sights and sounds of the birth of volcano, but was uncertain that what the trees were to show her next would be any improvement.

She stopped over a barren expanse of desert land and could see a few sparse bushes and shrubs dotted around the landscape, in what was a vast difference to the lush landscape of greenery she had arrived from.

"Where are we now?"

"That which shall become Mesopotamia."

"What am I looking at? Another volcano?"

The voices ignored her flippant tone, "No. An earthquake."

Before Alma could respond, again she heard a rumbling from below the surface. And again it grew steadily louder. She watched as the sand dunes moved and crumbled. The ground shifted and clouds of sand sprang up. After just a few seconds, the sound stopped and only the new hollows and dips in the surface of the sand told of the massively destructive power that had just passed through this place. Alma didn't understand the importance of what she had just witnessed, and said so. The voices answered, "This is another of the ley nodes. Sadly, fate timed this earthquake and the Huile volcano at the same time in your history."

"So? And you still haven't told me what a ley node is."

"Patience... Let us take you to the last area of interest to us."

Once again, Alma experienced the journey through time and space. Hovering over rolling expanse of grassland, she looked all around her. Directly below she could see a familiar stone construction that was instantly recognisable, especially to someone who lived in Wiltshire. It was Stonehenge, but not as she had ever seen it. For one thing there was no road next to it and for another, it was complete and looked as it was originally intended to be. The stone circle was surrounded by another circle of standing stones and she could see some large mounds in the immediate area. As she took in the panorama, she could also see several more mounds dotted around the countryside in all directions. There was a wide walkway that led from the stones and headed off to the northeast.

Alma asked, "Why are you showing me this?"

The voices said, "This has ever been a place of great power since before even the trees can remember. The Earth lives, we do not mean the plants that grow upon her or the animals that teem and wander across her face. The Earth herself lives, and just as we have sap flowing through our branches and you have warm red blood in your veins, so too does the Earth have a force that flows and ebbs and brings life to all parts of her. Some of your older religions know of these things, lovers of trees, followers of druidism, white witches, all know of these things and believe, even if most humans take not their words as seriously as they once did. Ley lines they are called. And the power of the Earth flows in them."

Alma listened and then said, "Ley lines? I never believed in them."

"Alma Baines... Lady, they do not care if they are believed in, they just are."

"Okay. So what has this to do with me?"

"There are places where the ley lines join together. Just as the Huile volcano and the deserts of Mesopotamia are over ley nodes, so is this. Truth be told, this is the largest single meeting place of ley lines on the face of the planet. Three major conjunctions take place here and you are directly above one of them now."

Alma goggled. Stonehenge was one of the places of power? She knew, as did anyone who had been on the tour, that Stonehenge was a place of mystery since before records began. Although no one knew why it had been built. Some thought it was a calendar, others that it was a place of worship of the ancient gods. Alma knew, without knowing why, that she was about to learn the truth, "So what happens now?"

"Wait... Patience... Watch."

She sighed, as if she could do anything else.

A few minutes passed and she saw a large group of people appear from behind a fold in the landscape, they were travelling in procession along the walkway, heading directly towards Stonehenge. As they came closer, Alma could see that they were dressed in rough spun cloth and one or two had an animal fur draped across their shoulders. Several of the women had painted faces, and at the front of the parade was an old man wearing a feathered headdress. Alma could hear them chanting in an unknown language.

"What's happening?" she asked.

"These are the builders of that which you call Stonehenge. They have come from another of their creations to this point to celebrate and pray to their gods."

"What other creation?"

"Patience... Wait... Watch."

Alma sighed heavily, "That's becoming boring, you know."

If the voices understood her embittered tone of voice, they ignored it and simply repeated, "Patience... Wait... Watch."

With no choice, other than to witness the scene unfolding before her, Alma's eyes fell back to the crowd of people who were now thronging in the stone circle. She watched the old man wearing feathers take up position at the altar stone. He raised his hands above his head to appeal for silence. Once the crowd had quietened down, he started a new chant. It started low and at normal volumes and steadily rose in strength, pitch and fervour. As his shout reached its crescendo, Alma could see the setting sun start to dip behind the horizon. When it finally disappeared, the old man fell silent for a moment, crossed his arms over his chest and then raised his hand back in the air. He shouted, "AIEEEEE!"

Then the jostling crowds joined him. The shouts and whoops were joyous, wild and deafening.

"This," the voices informed Alma, "is a celebration of the summer solstice. They are praying to the sun god to ensure that he comes back tomorrow for the start of their new year."

Alma was puzzled and responded, "I still don't see the significance of what I'm watching."

"You will Lady. Look to the east."

Alma looked eastwards and could see a strange pattern in the air, like the hazy rippling seen over a hot flame.

"Lady, now look west."

She did as instructed and could see the same undulating effect, "What are they?" she asked.

"They are the shockwaves from the volcano and the earthquake. By unhappy chance, they are reaching this place at exactly the same time."

"Oh please! What are the chances of that?"

"Astronomical we admit. But it happened nonetheless."

Alma watched the hazy shockwaves as they travelled closer. And was directly above Stonehenge when they met. Somewhat disappointed back a virtual lack of any visible disturbance, she noticed that the shockwaves seemed to merely bounce harmlessly off each other and travel in two new directions. "Okay, what did I just see then?"

"The shockwave events met here and sent a surge of power into the ley node. Here is where it entered the course of the ley lines that connect the Henge to another place of power."

"Where?"

"We shall take you there now."

Alma was surprised to travel only about five miles in a southerly direction. She was now over a roughly circular, flat-topped mound surrounded by an oval ditch. In the middle of the central area was what looked like a Neolithic village. She could see the hazy shockwave approach the village and then as it reached the very centre, it disappeared.

"Where did it go?" she asked.

"Into the ley node. And so it has exposed the Earth to her greatest threat."

Alma shivered at the deadly earnest tones that the voices now adopted, "What do you mean?"

"The shockwave has released its energy into the ley node deep beneath the surface. It has opened a doorway into another place. A place of darkness and evil. It has opened a door that should have remained ever closed."

Alma understood what the trees were driving at, "You mean it opened the door to Hell."

"In a manner of speaking. What you call Hell, we know as the Hypogeum. A place where nightmares are real and evil takes on a physical form instead of living as a spirit in the hearts of men."

"So what you're saying is, that the volcano and the earthquake let Baphomet into this world."

"Not quite. The power of the shockwave could not fully open the doorway. He can only assume his physical form under certain circumstances, which we will not discuss," the last was said with a finality that Alma recognised and respected.

Then a thought occurred to her, "What happened to the other shockwave?"

Alma received no answer to her question, instead she started floating north until she arrived at a circular wooden construction, which she knew to be the lesser-known edifice called Woodhenge. It was a collection of rough hewn wooden posts built for an unknown purpose by the same people who had constructed its more famous brother a few miles away. Once again she was witness to the hazy phenomenon travelling across the Neolithic landscape. If she expected to watch a rerun of the previous occurrence, she was to be mistaken.