Where There's Smoke полностью

The recitation seemed endless. In order to reach Lu­cifer, one apparently had to call upon a battery of lesser demons. “Almouzin,” she said now, “and Mebrot,” stand­ing in the center of her invisible triangle, “Varvis, Rabost,” the candles flickering at her feet, which I noticed were bare, “Salamandrae, Tabost,” both hands clutching the hazel wand, “Janua, Etituamus, Zariatnctmik.”

Her voice stopped abruptly. Scarcely pausing to catch her breath, she went through the ritual a second time, just as she had promised, and this time I began counting. Be­fore she stopped again, I’d counted twenty-seven names in all.

She dropped to her knees. There was the sudden sound of chair legs scraping against the stone floor as the black-hooded assemblage, following her lead, knelt in worship to whomever she had conjured. I saw no one. Neither Lu­cifer nor any of his demons were visible to my eyes, but Susanna’s body stiffened, and she touched her forehead to the floor and placed her trembling hands palms-down on the stones. A single word hissed sibilantly from be­neath the black hood.

“Master.”

“Master,” they whispered.

What followed was the equivalent of eavesdropping on someone making a long-distance telephone call—a very long distance, in this case. I could hear Susanna’s voice, of course, but I could not hear Lucifer responding. I had dropped to my knees the moment the assemblage had. Henry was kneeling beside me. His arm brushed mine; he was shaking.

“We are honored,” Susanna said.

(Silence)

“We summon you tonight to witness and to bless the union of a pair devoted to you and to each other.”

(Silence)

“We beg that you observe, and pray we do not suffer your wrath from grevious omission or inadvertent error. May I rise?”

(Silence)

She got to her feet.

“May we rise?” the assemblage asked.

(Silence)

They rose, the semicircle of black hoods floating up­ward like malevolent balloons. A pair of similarly hooded figures parted the curtains and walked hand-in-hand past the altar. They stepped down to the open floor space and knelt before the burning black candles. Susanna held out both hands and rested them on the bowed heads of the couple.

“Master,” she said, “we beseech you to receive this woman, known to you in ancient times as Cleopatra, daughter of the Nile, Queen of all Egypt, proud possessor of the Ptolemaic name.”

“We beseech you to receive,” the assemblage chanted.

“We beseech you, too, to receive her in her present form, as Natalie Fletcher, who is here this midnight not to wed anew but to wed again, we beseech you to receive.”

“We beseech you to receive,” they chanted.

“We beseech you to receive as well her intended groom, who casts aside the hated name bestowed in keep­ing with the Christian belief, through baptism vile, in cer­emony honoring Jesus of Nazareth, the Crucified One, our conqueror, we beseech you to condemn to blackest night the name of Arthur Joseph Wylie ...”

“We beseech you to receive, we beseech you to con­demn ...”

“And accept as supplicant the reborn Harry Fletcher, brother to Natalie, and by profound belief, the brother, too, of Cleopatra. We beseech you to receive Ptolemy the Twelfth, who by virtue of the solemn ceremony for­swears allegiance to all other masters, renounces and for­sakes the Jesus who renounced you, and swears that he will faithfully perform everything written in the Liber Spiritum, and never do you harm, either to your body or your soul, and execute all things immediately and with­out refusing. We beseech you to receive.”

“We beseech you to receive.”

Susanna looked down at the kneeling couple. “Do ei­ther of you know of any reason why you both should not be joined in wedlock, or if there be any in this company who can show any just cause why these parties should not be joined, let him now speak or hereafter hold his peace.”

The vaulted room was silent.

Susanna knelt, picked up the bloodstone from where it was resting between the burning black candles, rose again, and touched the stone to the hooded forehead of the figure on her left.

“Do you, Harry Fletcher, take this woman as your wife to live together in the state of matrimony? Will you love, honor and keep her as a faithful man is bound to do, in health, sickness, prosperity and adversity, and forsaking all others keep you alone unto her as long as you both shall live?”

“I do.”

Susanna moved the bloodstone to the hooded forehead of the figure on her right.

“Do you, Natalie Fletcher, take this man as your hus­band to live together in the state of matrimony? Will you love, honor and cherish him as a faithful woman is bound to do, in health, sickness, prosperity and adversity, and forsaking all others keep you alone unto him as long as you both shall live?”

“I do.”

“For as you both have consented in wedlock, and have acknowledged it before this company, I do by virtue of the power vested in me now pronounce you man and wife in the presence of our Lord and Master. And may He bless your union.”