THE WITCHING HOUR
The orphan, Richard Blaine, must find it within himself to fight his worst enemy: his own fear.
THE WITCHING HOUR
“Man’s knowledge is a recedingmirage in an ever- expanding desert of ignorance.”
- Lamashtu Morton
“You agreed to what?” explodedMiss Mayfair the next morning in the library.
“It was the only way I could keepyou safe.”
“I am a big girl, Mr. Blaine. Ican keep myself safe, thank you very much!”
“I know. Just three days ago, Isaw you take out those three Triad assassins who slipped in here
before I couldeven completely get out of the chair.”
Her eyes narrowed.
“And just whywere you getting out of the chair in the first place?”
“To help you hide the bodies.It’s what a good assistant librarian does for his supervisor.”
Sister Ameal, who was watching usamused, said,
“Which you should have known I would help her with. It is what agood sensei does for her gakusei.”
She turned to Miss Mayfair.
“ButMr. Blaine is correct. If you went with him, his mind would be divided. Andthat would prove fatal for our young librarian.”
Miss Mayfair gave a half-heartedprotest, but Sister Ameal was right … as she frustratingly always was.
So, that was how that night, Iwas in my Sunday’s best in the library reading Psalm 91:
“4 He shall cover thee withhis feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thyshield and buckler.
5 Thoushalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth byday;
6 Nor forthe pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wastethat noonday.
7 Athousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but itshall not come nigh thee.
8 Onlywith thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.
9 Becausethou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, thyhabitation;
10 Thereshall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.
11 For heshall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.”
It was at that very moment thatHelen Mayfair walked into the library like a longed-for mirage of water in thedesert.
Slipping the Hanged Mancard into the Bible for a bookmark, I rose sharply to my feet.
“Miss ….”
“Richard, tonight call me Helen.”
“A-All right, Helen.”
She brought a slim leatherboundvolume from her skirt’s pocket:
Thomas Babington Macaulay’s Lays of AncientRome.
“There is a verse in this bookthat has always spoken to me. I knew not why. Tonight, I know.”
She brought the volume up, and itopened naturally to a spot as if she had turned to that page often.
Her voicechanged, becoming stirringly Other:
“Then out spake brave Horatius,
The Captain of the Gate:
"To every man upon thisearth
Death cometh soon or late.
And how can man die better
Than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers,
And the temples of hisgods?"
“Helen, I don’t plan on dying.”
A deep voice unlike any I hadever before spoke from the shadowed ceiling.
“None do when the End arrives.”
Helen cried to the ceiling. “Youpromised me time before you took him to Morton.”
“And time was yours. You spent itgirlishly on verse when you could have given him his first, his last kiss.”
I felt lifted, though I stillstood on the floor. His voice whispered in my ear.
“I take you to the Dark One,while taking the memory of our meeting from your mind.
If you survive, we willmeet across the seas. If … if … if ….”
Music, strange and stirring, filledthe darkness around me.
Then, no lifting, no pulling. Iwas suddenly in front of Mr. Morton, studying an antique chessboard with ivorypieces.
It, of course, sat behind theblack chessmen.
It cocked its withered head.“Interesting overture with which Elohim has graced you.
The prelude to a movie not yet made.
Should you survivetonight – which you will not – my adversary means you to be the new T.E.Lawrence.”
I frowned. “As in The SevenPillars of Wisdom? Lawrence of Arabia?”
I made a face.
“The sevenpillars, huh? Well, I do believe in the unseen. It’s when they become seen thatI have a hard time with them.”
“I bore of this empty verbiage.Let us proceed with your death, shall we? Sit down.”
