CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
‘Kabbalah literally means receiving and what it does is interpret the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, as well as classical Jewish texts such as halakha and aggadah, and various practices or mitzvot. By doing that it tries to be a doctrine by which people can live full and satisfying lives within God’s omnipotence.
‘The eighteenth century saw an explosion of Kabbalah, but by then deMarco was already well established and practicing his own brand of the faith. One of the aspects of Kabbalah is the belief that Jewish and non-Jewish souls are different. While all human souls emanate from God, non-Jewish or gentile souls originate from the left side of God and therefore all non-Jews have a dark or demonic side to them that is absent in Jews.
‘That probably started as defense against the persecution suffered over the centuries by Jews who were called the servants of Satan, and characterized as nonhumans. But at the time Kabbalah taught that Jews had additional layers of the soul that others did not. Obviously this interprets itself as sounding superior and they were perceived as arrogant.’
Kirby leaned forward, holding her hand up uncertainly as if a pupil in class. ‘Sorry to interrupt, Robert, but there are almost two hundred years between the Inquisition and the events on Kulsay between deMarco and The German.’
‘He’s saying deMarco went deep underground as a Marrano in the sixteenth century, twisted his Judaism into a version of Kabbalah, especially the escape from death bit, and then proved that Jews have a dark and demonic side as well,’ Bayliss said. ‘It’s fascinating stuff, Carter, I’ll give you that. You’ll expect me to poke fun at your theory but I’m going to disappoint you. Rather than what I told you earlier confirming what you already thought it’s the other way round. You’ve just given me a way that deMarco could achieve eternal life.’
‘I’m not your enemy, Bayliss,’ Carter said.
McKinley stood and walked across to the window. ‘So I’ve got this straight,’ he said. ‘DeMarco became bitter at the treatment his people received from the Catholics. He had to be a Jew in secret but that wasn’t enough for him; he found Kabbalah, only he used what he wanted from its teachings to escape death. He left Spain, eventually winding up in Scotland and Kulsay. Even there he was pursued by the forces of the Pope.’
‘So his hatred of Catholics was doubled,’ Kirby said.
Carter nodded. ‘When he disappeared after the battle with The German my guess is he didn’t die. I’d put money on him hiding underground, literally, using ley lines.’
Bayliss stood and crossed over to the bar. ‘Drink, anyone?’
Kirby went across to help him. ‘Okay, so if we believe deMarco is still alive somewhere, what’s he been waiting for?’
McKinley banged the glass of the window and everyone looked at him.
‘I went to see my wife after she died,’ he said. ‘They take you to the morgue and lead you through to a quiet room. It’s very cold, and smells of swimming pools and toilets. A green sheet covers the body, and the lights are very bright and the walls are very white. I could see blood dripping from the walls but it wasn’t really there. I just imagined it coming out of her and coating the walls. They ask you if you’re ready and you say you are, but you’ll never be ready, and then they pull back the top of the sheet and ask you if this is the person. And it was. Only when the man pulled the sheet back over her head I could see that there was someone else on the bed with her, a kind of shadow man. I shouted and tried to pull the sheet off again but of course they just thought I was hysterical and dragged me away. Then I saw him slip down from the trolley and smooth himself into a corner of the room. He was dressed in black and was very thin so no one else could see him, and he was pointing.
‘I looked where he was pointing, and there were other shadows. I’m sure the shadow I saw scurrying beneath a bed was just that, a shadow, but it seemed real. The lighting in the ward was dubious, and no one likes the atmosphere of hospitals. It’s always a bit disturbing even for the most levelheaded of people. But I was upset and everyone else was calm but very insistent. I was ushered away but not before I saw a black shape take up its position directly at the foot of my wife’s bed. Not before I saw the man shadow pull himself as close to the bed as he could. As the room fell into a hospital slumber the shadow at the foot of the bed sloped forward and covered my wife like an eiderdown, but one that soaked into her body until it disappeared and my dead wife swelled slightly from within.’
McKinley suddenly sat on a chair away from the others. With head bowed as if in prayer, he seemed shrunken.
Carter turned to Kirby and Bayliss. ‘John is telling me that he thinks I’m right.’
‘Come on then,’ Bayliss said. ‘Right about what?’
‘DeMarco has been recruiting people for one more battle. Dead people mainly, but if there weren’t enough of those he takes them anyway. Like the management team from Waincraft. Like the crofters. Like Jane.’
Bayliss walked to the bar and poured himself another large whisky. ‘And deMarco is performing this recruitment drive here on Kulsay, is that it?’
Carter pointed to the floor. ‘Not on Kulsay; under it.’
Kirby coughed. ‘What I don’t understand, well there’s loads of it really, but if deMarco is Jewish, a convert or what ever, and his grievance is against the Catholic Church, why is he recruiting non-Jews, and even Catholics?’
Bayliss threw his glass to the floor where it smashed like childhood dreams. ‘Come on, deMarco!’ he shouted at the top of his voice. ‘Come on, Alphonse. Are you up for recruiting a shit like me? I’m a true challenge, a real non-believer. Can you…’
There was a sound like jelly being poured from a jug and McKinley called out, ‘Carter.’
Everyone turned to the window where McKinley was sitting; only he wasn’t seated comfortably. His feet had sunken into the ground almost up to his knees so that he was slumped forwards, half on and half off his chair.
Carter stood but before he could move across to him McKinley motioned him to stay where he was.
‘I tried to stop myself from sinking into the floor,’ McKinley said. ‘But it didn’t work. I had to use my ability to keep what ever it is at bay. You won’t be able to pull me out without using your psychic power.’
Kirby put her hand on Carter’s shoulder. ‘Which means opening yourself up, and making yourself vulnerable to attack.’
‘Come on,’ Bayliss said. ‘We can pull him out if we work together.’ He bustled over to McKinley, standing behind the chair, and grasped the large man’s shoulders. ‘Push back, John.’
‘No,’ Carter said. ‘You’ll break his concentration and we’ll lose him.’
Kirby took Bayliss by the arm and guided him away. ‘Leave Robert to deal with it.’
Carter closed his eyes. McKinley stared at him for a moment and then closed his. Kirby was certain she could feel an energy buzz in the room, like an electric generator humming a monotonous tune. McKinley began to move his head up and down like a mockery of nodding. Then his upper body joined in so that he was rocking forwards and backwards in the chair as if demented. Carter raised his arms in the air, spread them and then thrust them hard against his side.
McKinley rocked forwards so far that it looked as if he was going to fall on his face. Then he propelled back again, hit the chair hard, and his feet and legs reared up until they were over his head. The floor where he had been encased was rippling as if liquid. It looked like a crystal clear surface of water and Bayliss couldn’t take his eyes away from the figures and shapes he could see. The motion of McKinley’s body carried his legs over his shoulders and he fell backwards out of the chair.
His eyes opened at the same time as Carter’s.
‘Did you see them?’ Bayliss said. ‘Did you look into the…’
McKinley walked over to Carter and thrust out his hand. ‘I owe you.’
Carter shook his hand and then sat down. The forces that had been pulling on McKinley were powerful; not just physically, but their mental strength was strong.
A roar of cracking masonry ripped through the room like the cry of a wounded animal. The walls of the Manse began to buckle as if being squeezed, and slowly but certainly a hole began to form in the floor at their feet.