The Tower A Novel (Sanctus)

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Gabriel was one of the last to be evacuated from the Public Church. Arkadian had stood by his bed the whole time, a guardian angel

in a spacesuit, giving a running commentary on what was happening: equipment being packed up and shipped out, patients being

transferred from beds to stretchers so they would fit on the ascension platform and be easier to carry through the narrow tunnels

once they were inside the mountain. He kept laying his gloved hand on Gabriel’s chest, like a father reassuring his son, finding

the one spot where there were no electrodes or tubes coming in or out of him.

And then it was Gabriel’s turn to go.

Arkadian stepped back as four suited orderlies got to work on him. They gave him a shot to settle him and undid the straps that

bound him to the bed, clearly in a rush to get this thing over with. Gabriel felt himself slipping into a half slumber.

‘You hang in there, OK.’ Arkadian’s face appeared over him, his voice muffled by his contamination suit. ‘I’ll buy you lunch

when you come out.’

Gabriel tried to respond, say something flippant and brave like they did in the movies but his mouth was no longer working and his

eyes flickered shut.

He felt and heard the clatter of wheels over the flagstoned floor as they moved him then the air cooling as he neared the door. He

forced his eyes open and saw the vaulted ceiling and ecclesiastical paintings slide away above him to be replaced by night skies

and stars. He picked out Draco, the constellation that had led him and Liv to the lost place in the desert, the place where he had

last seen her. He wondered if she was still there, waiting for him, looking up at the same stars. As he stared up he spotted

something else, a new star, brighter than all the rest, travelling across the sky. He watched it sliding across the night then a

beam shot out from it, blinding him, and making his stretcher-bearers turn their heads away. It held on them for a few seconds,

long enough for the news cameraman in the helicopter to get a good shot, then it moved away, the sound of the rotors chopping the

air and sending cold air down onto Gabriel’s burning skin.

They passed through another stone arch onto the embankment and the Citadel came into view, a monumental darkness that blocked out

the stars as they drew closer. The hollow bang of wooden boards replaced the scuff of feet on stone as they reached the bridge

leading to the ascension platform. The mountain was so close now it blocked out half the sky. Tears leaked from Gabriel's eyes as

they placed him on the platform. Arkadian appeared above him, his mouth forming words that he couldn’t hear, then he disappeared,

ushered away by the orderlies.

The sound of wooden battens banging into place echoed through the night as the guardrails on the edge of the platform were put

back in place then a bell rang high in the mountain. The ropes securing each corner of the platform creaked then the platform

lurched and lifted off the ground.

Gabriel looked straight up at the night, half-filled with stars and half black. He could see the tribute cave high above, dark and

wide like a huge black mouth, growing larger as it sucked them closer. He thought of what he was leaving behind, all the sorrow

and regret: his father found and gone, his mother gone too, and the woman he cared most for in the world, the one he felt bound to

protect at all costs, abandoned and alone like he was. And all because of this mountain, this hateful mountain.

The ascension platform rose higher, lit from time to time by the searchlight from the hovering news helicopter, then it passed

into darkness as it entered the tribute cave and banged to a halt.

The last time Gabriel had been here was in the dead of night, alone, unannounced and armed. Now he was strapped tight to a

stretcher, his senses dulled by the sedative, his body wracked with a disease that had robbed him of both strength and freedom.

And there were people everywhere.

Two monks loomed over him, their surgical masks looking sinister against their cowled and bearded faces.

‘Bring the patients this way,’ a voice commanded from somewhere inside the cave. ‘We have a place prepared.’

The two monks hoisted him up and carried him off the platform, the air closing in on him and the sound deadening as they moved out

of the cave and deeper into the mountain.

They began to descend, bumping down narrow corridors. Gabriel could feel his temperature climbing in the trapped, stuffy air and

sweat trickled down inside the tight bindings, further torturing his already screaming skin. Something started to disconnect

inside him. He had held on for so long, using the focus of getting here to drive him; now that he had finally made it he had

nothing left. A small part of his lucid mind registered the relief of it. He took a breath and whispered something, too quiet for

anyone else to hear: ‘Goodbye, Liv.’ Then a howl erupted from him as he finally let go and was carried screaming into the heart

of the mountain.