The Magus of Hay(123)

‘And Rector actually thought he was responsible, in essence, for all of that?’

‘And who’s to say he wasn’t? Who can ever say that?’

‘That’s a very dangerous time, isn’t it?’ Merrily said. ‘That explosion of fame and wealth. When all kinds of people come in with their own agendas. When cherished ideals can tumble in the scramble for bigger and bigger profits. People can go temporarily mental. Look at the banking industry.’

‘That’s when the creative, energetic role becomes a guardian role. More serious.’

Headlights turning in.

‘So I’m taking it that what you call the poppet was the effigy of the King of Hay.’

‘Life-size. Seated on a throne in the circle. So that he was always part of what was happening. Sometimes the focus was purely on the King, if he hadn’t been well or had financial problems.’

‘Didn’t manage to stop him having to sell the castle.’

Claudia didn’t reply.

‘So how did he end up in the Wye?’

‘Merrily, I don’t know. When I saw the effigy on the TV, I was aghast. Which is why we’re here. Why I’m telling you all this.’

‘Where would they have to go to get the effigy, the poppet?’

‘That’s the burglary aspect. The King lives in the temple. In a magical vacuum.’

‘Where’s that?’

‘You’ll see.’

The car braked, a red glow, headlights rapidly extinguished.

‘Why would someone take him out and throw him in the river?’

‘Or, more likely, in the Dulas Brook, swollen by the rain. The poppet flushed down the brook and washed into the Wye. I don’t know.’

Merrily saw Bliss getting out into the deep dusk, quietly closing the car door. He had some thin packages under each arm, the moon glinting on cellophane. Bliss was walking steadily, better in the dark.

‘Evening, girls. Do we have consensus on this? I don’t want to hang around.’

‘Let’s assume we do,’ Merrily said.

Suddenly very insecure, in this place where imaginary worlds were built and broken.

Bliss gave each of them one of the plastic packages, keeping one back.

‘Durex suits,’ he said. ‘Can’t be too careful.’

‘What?’

‘Don’t ask. I hope this is nothing. I hope Claudia’s brought us here on a pure whim. What’s a doll in a river, after all?’



Claudia said nothing, but her breathing was audibly rapid as she led them beyond the house towards the outbuildings and the engine room.





55

Out of blood


‘NAME’S SEYMOUR LOFTUS,’ Robin said to Jones. ‘How’d’ya like that?’

Pretty dark now. Beer-bottle lights on shelves of books, face-out, displaying photos of brooms, pentagrams, the Tree of Life and Stonehenge at dawn. Jones had told him about two missing girls, who would be middle-aged women now.

‘You’re saying you think they’re dead?’

‘I’m making no assumptions.’

‘Like… detritus?’

‘People living outside society disappear all the time. They may be dead, they may be living under different identities.’

‘Right.’

Robin was starting to connect with the mindset, and it was both ridiculous and frightening, and it made him mad that there were people like this haunting the beloved British countryside.

Betty was making more tea. Kapoor was on the road to Brecon to pick up a reconditioned Betacam VCR. Robin picked up the mobile, prepared to go to work, like the stupid cops who’d gone to work on him on the edge of the scenic parking lot.

‘Where did you get my name?’

‘Seymour… that is you?’

‘Who did you say you were?’

Loftus had one of those downbeat Midlands accents.



‘My name’s Robin Thorogood. I’m a PF member and also a bookseller. Thorogood Pagan Books, of Hay-on-Wye?’

‘Not heard of them.’

‘Well, you wouldn’t have. We only just started up. We were in the Radnor Valley, we had a bust-up with an evangelical priest.’

‘I remember that. It was in the papers. That was you, was it?’

‘And now we took over a bookstore that once belonged to one of your members.’

‘My members?’

‘Order of the Sun in Shadow?’

‘Nothing to do with me.’

‘Seymour… get real.’

What you learned about these guys, through all the years of moots and gatherings, was that no matter how they sounded in a ritual, how sinister they looked in a temple, some of the time they were just people, with insecurities, money worries, marriage problems and fears of the past catching up with them.