Walls Came Tumbling Down

ÿþDuring the course of the past twenty-four hours, Century's research and research notes had overtaken the kitchen, dining room, triffid room and part of the back living room wall. Books stacked up before incident boards. String threaded through doors to cross-criss through topics. All of it was higher than Luleka could reach. Now Century was in his bedroom, where the majority of his bookcases were, along with a filing cabinet full of Welsh history fiches. He heard Salvo's stamping run up the stairs, an instant before the text arrived. Its beeping alert was echoed on Salvo's 'phone, which he was clutching as he burst in.

"What?" Century stared. Salvo never rose easily to anger, but he seemed livid now. He was checking his text. "What's happened?"

Salvo spat out, "Fucking Matt! He's all but threatened Chrissie with the Mafia, if she doesn't release him." He stomped across the room to the window. "The short-sighted, grasping arsehole! Can't he see what she's trying to do for him?"

"Calm down, man." Century's heart was pounding. He had thought it was going to be much worse, from the expression on Salvo's face, as he'd charged in. Century checked his own text. It was from Deontic via Watari. She was asking if anyone could ask Fenian to urgently contact her. Century looked back to Salvo. The big man was staring out of the window, silently raging. "What's Chrissie going to do?"

"What do you think?" Salvo snapped. "I told her to come home. She said she's staying put."

Century nodded, willing his pulse to steady. "Is she ok?"

"No." Salvo grit his teeth. He was thinking. He looked like he was about to punch someone.

"Any witnesses?"

Salvo nodded. "Lauren."

"Right." Century sat very still. It seemed to be working. He surreptitiously placed his hand over his heart and felt how fast it was beating. His breathing was a little ragged, but he thought he would be alright. "I think I might be able to help there then." He awarded Salvo's turning with a nervous smile. "Got her number, I have. Like the direct one. She gave it to me before she left Aber."

Salvo exhaled slowly. "Can you see if she'd back Chrissie up, if it came to it?" He was still on edge, but he was pushing it down. "I don't fucking believe any of this. She's trying to help him!"

Century nodded and eased himself onto his feet, so he could go and find the number. "I told you that Matt's turned into a bit of a head-case." He searched through his coat pocket and wallet, until he found the hurriedly scribbled digits. He could hear Luleka crying downstairs, while Salvo seethed by the window. "Get Luleka, shall I? Give you a minute."

Salvo shook his head, his attention springing back. "What have you got that might clear Matt out-right? As in legitimately walking within the next hour, without him undermining everything that Chrissie is trying to pull off?"

"Loads more on those shadow fairies, plus independent witness statements that place it there. Hal..."

"Tell me in a minute." Salvo rushed by and careered downstairs. Century listened at the door and heard Luleka's tears slow to a stop. He drifted out to the top of the stairs and could hear Salvo's reassuring murmurs in the living room. Century returned to his room and picked up his 'phone. He called Fenian's direct number, but it rang out without being picked up. It had done that all day yesterday too and Century wondered how worried he should be by that. Not being able to reach Fenian on that line was a common occurrence, but it usually meant that the Irishman was down a pot-hole somewhere. He always called back within a few hours of getting out. Century tried Kiana's number and that went immediately to voice-mail. He didn't leave another message. He'd left one the night before.

Salvo trudged back upstairs carrying Luleka with one arm. The infant had been pacified with a cuddle and a Jammy Dodger. Salvo still looked stressed, but most outward signs of it had been pushed inside for his son's sake. Luleka spotted Century and a delighted beam radiated across his face. "Tyn Tyn!" He held out the soggy, gnawed biscuit for inspection.

"That worried about Fenian, I am." Century informed Salvo. "Not like him not to call back and Kiana disappeared too." He was trying and failing to guess what Deontic wanted with him. He debated calling her to find out. "That text came to you too, yes? Sent it Watari wide, you think?"

"Right now, I neither know nor care." Salvo sighed. "Sorry, I just have my own priorities. I'm going to call Mello. I want this sorted out before it gets out of control. Give me what you've got on the shadow people."

Century gestured towards the door. "The section on the side of the end kitchen cupboard, that is." He added an apologetic wince, because Salvo had already moaned about the mess. "All there."

Salvo nodded, with his lips tightly pursed. A pulse bounced against his temple. He uttered a curt, "Diolch."

"You're welcome."

Salvo glanced at him. "Don't worry about any of this. Chrissie, Fenian, those bastards down there. I'm on it all and it's not worth you getting worked up over." He walked out like a man condemned, carrying a subdued Luleka with him.

Century reached for another lollipop and quietly unwrapped it. His heart punched a steady thump thump against his chest. He couldn't tell if that was normal or too fast. Panic fluttered at his peripheries. He was trying, and so far succeeding, at keeping it at bay. Salvo didn't need that on top of everything else. The sliver of paper crunched between Century's fingers. He absently glanced down at it, expecting it to be the lollipop wrapper. It was Lauren's number. He considered calling her, just as the 'phone rang in his hand. He jumped, startled, and checked the caller ID. It was Deontic, routed through Watari. Century swallowed, feeling like something terrible was yawning out before him. He answered the call. "Dee."

"Century?" Deontic sounded distant, like she was calling from the moon. "I really need to contact Fenian."

"No answer, is there? Me and Salvo both tried."

"Is he back in Ireland?" She asked, giving nothing away with her tone.

Century didn't know how to answer that. It was an easy deduction to make; particularly since Fenian had just openly announced his destination in front of them all, as he'd said his goodbyes in Aberystwyth. "Far as I know, yes."

Deontic paused before speaking again. "Have you any last resort way of contacting him? An emergency number? A mutual friend or internet forum?"

Now Century's heart was quickening. "No, why?" It wasn't entirely true, but those were avenues to be explored rather than certainties. "Worrying me, you are, now."

"I just really need to speak to him." Deontic brusquely replied. "Can you help me here?" There were gulls in the background. If Century listened hard, he thought he could hear the sea. "Are you still there?"

"Yes." Century felt breathless. "Still in Aber, is it? Only I know something important that might mean you or someone acting there." He waited. She said nothing. "I tell you that, you tell me the urgency with Fenian?"

Deontic sighed. "Yes, I'm in Aberystwyth. I'm here on my own, with two chalets, on top of my own, packed up; not to mention the communal hall and the studies. I've got an articulated lorry blocking the whole roadway in front of the green. I had some help from the driver loading it, but that was still only two of us. Matt's now going to learn that I drove his car, albeit only up the ramp and into the back of the lorry, then packed stuff around it. That will be on top of the fact that you've stolen half of his computers."

"Right." Century didn't know what else to say to that. "Taking it all back to the Institution?"

"Mello is being flown there as we speak."

Century spoke quickly, not trusting his breath to hold, "Only I don't think the old manor is secured, see? Even in bits on the ground. Working on the case, I am, and..."

Deontic interrupted, annoyed and sarcastic, "Well done! You finally managed to wrestle the case off all pretenders to it. You must be so proud." She fell silent, while Century panted. He kept telling himself that this wasn't the onset of a panic attack, it was just him building himself into one. Deontic spoke up again. "Why isn't the manor house secured?"

"I think we need to return the stream to its original path." Century lay down on his bed. It helped. "Maps, I have here, I can scan and send it." He waited. Deontic said nothing. "Dee?"

"Yes. Ok." The distance was no longer simply in the bad connection. She was icily cold. "And send me the evidence pertaining to this too. It's not that I don't trust your word. I just want to see it. Is that it?"

Century sucked on his lollipop. "For now, I think so. What's this with Fenian then?"

Deontic hesitated, "I'm not sure of the security of the line, so I'll just say that we think someone is looking for him. It's in his interests to contact me or Watari."

"Who?" Century gasped. "Sibling?"

"External."

He tried and failed to get any more information out of her. With a promise to send maps and a rationale, Century ended the call and lay there getting back his breath. A few seconds later, he rolled off and hurried to the top of the stairs, yelling down, "Sal! You on the 'phone to Mello?"

Salvo appeared in the hallway. He didn't have Luleka with him. "Mello's heavily sedated and in the air somewhere between Wales and Winchester." He looked pensive. "Chrissie wouldn't thank me for 'phoning there and asking to speak to Matt, would she?"

"No." Century confirmed. "But there's more. I think Mello's sent the Mafia after Fenian." Salvo looked at him dubiously, so Century told him precisely what Deontic had said.

Salvo shrugged. "Bit of a leap to say it's Mello or any of his former associates. No guarantee that Dee is even telling the truth. It's just something that might convince Fenian to call." He shook his head. "I can't be dealing with any of this shit. I'm going to call an urgent Board meeting, so that Chinese whispers don't turn into civil war."

"Bit late for that, is it?"

"No." Salvo said, firmly. "It's not." He shuffled away. "I'm going to read your walls, so I have something to bargain with Mello, if it comes to that." He sighed as he entered the kitchen.

Century waited, grimly evaluating the situation. Then he crept downstairs. Salvo was in the far right hand corner, reading about possession. Century's lollipop was static in his mouth. "Please don't present my case. They'll think that you solved it." Century saw Salvo's fist clench and his shoulders, already tense, hunched that little bit more. "Sal."

Salvo replied with exaggerated calm, "I will give credit where it is due." He let his breath hiss out slowly between his teeth.

"Not being funny, like."

Salvo nodded, but didn't turn. "What are the symptoms of possession, Century?"

Century hesitated, unsure whether he would be punched, if he joined the African over there. "Listed in the top corner, see. Top left." He noted that Salvo didn't look. He'd already read it. "I'm not getting at you. Just that I worked too hard, with Mello, Matt and Fenian all after it. Sure Deontic was too, but she..."

"You qualify." Salvo responded. "I hardly recognise you at the moment."

Century stared, dumbstruck. "Nasty, that is."

Salvo turned around and fixed him with a long, cold look. "You are not the same Welsh boy who I dropped off at the station two months ago. Iestyn Jones would have looked at the elements of this case and gone, 'not history', 'not history', 'not history', 'oh! History!', done that bit out of personal interest, then skipped the rest without checking that anyone else had picked it up. That Iestyn Jones would spend half an hour whinging to us about how little time he had to finish another chapter of his PhD. Then, when Chrissie takes a cup of tea up two hours later, would find that he'd been hard at work in the interim, working out how to get to Romania to see Muse at a music festival. And when she pointed out the incongruity of this behaviour, my Iestyn Jones would have said, 'Oh! Pay no mind to me. Got it out of my system. Sort itself out.'" Salvo raised a hand, with a finger extended, to silence Century. "You absconded from the Institution and slept rough, each time that you felt that anyone was trying to force you into taking cases. Now it's the most important thing in the world to you. When a serial killer was picking off the fourth generation, one by one, and we were sat at this table making contingency plans to save our lives, you nipped to the toilet. When you didn't come back, I came to check, in case you were upset. You were watching 'Coronation Street'. It was a good storyline."

"I grew up."

Salvo shook his head. "No. You learned overnight how to be scared and you've applied that with gusto. You've gone from needing a rocket up your arse level of laid back to downright highly-strung. How do I know that you're not possessed?"

Century allowed the lollipop to travel to the side of his mouth. "Because the possession would be one of three things. The ghosts can't maintain it for so long. The Devil probably doesn't exist; on account of being an anthropomorphism of the Hebrew concept of temptation, which travelled through Greece and picked up a Christianised Pan, then hit the evangelised Northmen and incorporated their goddess of death. I'm not being fucking invaded by the Saesneg again." He looked to see if Salvo was smiling. He wasn't. "And it won't be the fairies this time. Not with me." Century pointed towards the back door. "Put a saucer of milk out there, last night, I did."

The corners of Salvo's mouth twitched. "I put one out the front."

"Well then. We're covered." Century realised how rigid with anxiety he was. He sought to relax. "Heart-attack really shook me up; and being back there." He meant Wammy's House. "Didn't want to bring it here. Not with the baby." He glanced at the high chair, where Luleka was being extraordinarily quiet. The infant obviously sensed the tension. His second Jammy Dodger was a slobbery mess. He held a green building block aloft, while the red and yellow sat untouched on his plastic tray. "It obviously followed them, see? The band that fled. Got them all over Wales and into Sweden." He crossed the room and kissed Luleka's head. He was awarded with a squeal of joy. "Gwrach-y-Rhibyn that was. Vengeful. You know why the fey can't cross running water?"

"No." Salvo was watching him intently.

"Because it's the end of the line." Century stooped to retrieve the blue building block from the floor. He dropped it onto Luleka's tray. "Your fate is your death. The fairies, that's their remit, to send you to your fate. In all the Celtic spiritual variants, where you go then isn't in the sky, it's across the water. Annwn, TirNaOg, all of them accessed by crossing water. The fairies chase you to the gate, but they can't come through. Not their place, is it?"

Salvo blew out his cheeks. "Those places are where the dead go?"

Century nodded. "Gwrach-y-Rhibyn now, she's different, that bitch. The Irish have the Washer at the Ford. Same thing. They'll snatch you right out of this world and throw you into the next. The border, it belongs to them. That's why they're in the water." He cast a worried look at Salvo. "How I think old Prothero was thinking, see? Not gone mad, me, I swear."

"You think that Prothero, the original one, I'm assuming, was trying to summon the Gwrach-y-Rhibyn?" Salvo frowned. "Evidence?"

"No." Century shook his head. "Don't know if he got as involved as all that. I mean, yes, he was involved; up to his bloody ears, he was involved. But I think he was just trying to open the gateway to Annwn or something." He faltered, unsure of his territory here. This wasn't history. He sighed. "Better this was looked over by Mello, with probably Kiana for context. He would have got loads more than me. That what you thinking there, man?"

Salvo nodded. "And I'd have liked to have seen what Deontic made of this possession part. You all lost a lot of opportunities up there, it seems to me, talking as an outsider."

Century nodded, contrite. "Difficult it was, down by there. Everyone on edge. Never seen fighting like it, even from us lot."

"Ok, that's done." Salvo gestured for him to carry on. "You think you have a working theory to explain this hidden cavern?"

Century moved over to the section of wall by the shower-room door. "Here it is." He waited until Salvo joined him. "Thinking old Prothero had knowledge of the fairy paths. Whatever he thought it was. No knowing, is there, how deep that knowing was. But someone must have had witch bottles in place from the beginning, or else the legends would be full of stories from up by there, see? Not found much at all, I haven't, and I bought every damn book I could find on Cardie folklore, ghost stories and related spooky stuff. Speaks for itself, does it?"

"Conspicuous by its absence, when we know first-hand that it's a hotspot." Salvo nodded. "I can buy that."

"Not an expert on this, I looked to see where they're coming from. Loads of places up in the mountains. Neolithic standing stones. Dolgamfa's just up here. Lovely, old cairn circle, it is." He glanced at Salvo and decided that the African might not grasp the basics of ancient Celtic monuments. "Markers for the dead, see? Possibly ancestor worship, which is where I think we're getting the fairies from in the first place. Bury the tribe's dead up under a pile of old stones, visit them and ask them to act as messengers between the living and the gods. Within a few generations, the ancestors are viewed as gods themselves. Times moved on and the cairns, they're like mysterious, sacred places on the landscape, and people forgetting what they were originally there for. Just that something inside needs pacifying for the good of the tribe. I'm not pulling this shit out my arse. Established theory, this is. From historians looking at the..."

Salvo clasped his shoulder. "I trust you on history. Not quite sure why we started in the cavern under the house and ended up on top of the Cambrian Mountains, but I've known you long enough to expect to get back there eventually."

Century frowned, unsure how to fully contextualise any of this without the full details. He dismissed Salvo's chiding and went on. "If we're believing in fairies, then that's our prime source. Dolgamfa, or any of the other neolithic burial chambers up there, and the fairies the deified ghosts of the neolithic dead. Still doing their job, see? Warning the tribe of their fate. And where are they drawn to? The river, down at the bottom of the valley, 'cause it's running into the sea. Running west, towards Annwn. So down the mountain they come, stop at the quartz standing stone." Century hurried past this, because he had no idea why that might be significant. "Quartz being the fairy rock. Then down to the Ystwyth River, stopping because they can't go on. Still tied to the old, ancestral grounds, see? Got a job to do."

"Maybe it's a landscape marker." Salvo suggested. "Like we still put up on the top of mountains for us hiking types. Telling us the latitude and longitude, altitude and the name. So we can find ourselves on the map again." He and Chrissie enjoyed going on rambles through the Lake District, though not so much since Luleka had arrived.

"Oh Dewi!" Century groaned. "So fucking stupid, I am! Nomadic! Before agriculture, it is! Go to the trouble to build bloody cairns and chambers for your dead, so they can go ask the gods to bring more fish or keep you safe in the hunt, and you want to go finding it again, don't you?" He snorted, seeing it clearly. "Don't live 'round by there, do they? They live everywhere, moving seasonally with the food, all up the coast. Evidence for this all over; midden piles being very specific in their remains..."

Salvo nodded, "Ok. They move around. I understand the concept of nomadic. But we are now moving quite far away from this cavern. We were only up the same mountain before, now we've gone up the coast."

Century rolled his eyes, not understanding why Salvo didn't find this fascinating. "So they come back. Not just one tribe, is it? Splinter tribes all descended from the one which built the cairn. It's a big world to just meet randomly in, so they have a place all marked out. Follow the coastline to the Ystwyth Valley, walk along the river until you see the big, old quartz stone standing up there on the ridge. Landscape marker and meeting place. Join the tribes together, swap news and tips on where the hunting is good. Party, shag, I don't know. Follow the line up into the mountain top and there you have your ancestral cairn." He raised his hand, triumphantly. "That is what the standing stone was! The place where the tribes all gathered! Where fates got decided." He felt lighter. Like the pressure on him had just lifted.

The change hadn't gone unnoticed by Salvo, who inclined his head in acknowledgement, "Well done, Dr Jones." He waited a beat. "And the cavern?"

"Easy now, is it?" Century was on a roll and he knew it. In the maps and his mind's eyes, he could see the ancient landscape alive with its history. "When I say fairies now, read the ghosts of divine ancestors come to protect the tribe and support those close to death. For fate read death. For fairies read guardian spirits right there with them during their darkest hour. The fates escorting the fated towards their fatality." He saw that Salvo's smile was wavering. "Ok! Ok! The fairies come down to the quartz rock, so they can have a reccy. They walk amongst the people and see what's what. The spirits of the recently dead are taken in hand and escorted off to Annwn. The fairies sod off back to their cairn to await their worship and offerings. That's when it's working well." He had a memory flash of Kiana seeing their own ancestors up there. His tad standing with him on the road. Century didn't want to linger on that. "But what Prothero does, he brings the bloody river up to the standing stone. He puts the route to Annwn between the fairies and the meeting place of their living charges. Worse still, he puts the river under the old stone. How they reading that then? Hey? Crisis! Fucking massacre, is it? Whole tribe prematurely on the fated path. So angry they are! The fairies all stuck on the other side unable to see. Sensing death everywhere. You're his ancestor," Century indicated Luleka, "what you doing right around now?"

Salvo didn't have to answer that. It was taken as read that he would move Hell and high water in an attempt to save his son. "So Prothero wasn't summoning demons. He was harnessing the collective wrath of however many frightened and over-protective ancestral spirits, as his own ghost army, to do his bidding and smite his enemies?" Salvo guessed, trying to push this to a conclusion.

Century sneered, "No, man!" He sighed. "He's fucking the fairies right off. Man's come from Catholicism. Fairies nothing to do with him. He's got them trapped on the other side of the diverted stream and an old witch bottle stuck in the tree to see them off. Gone, they are, to him. No, what he's doing is giving up on Catholicism and trying to tap into the Celtic dawn. Got his own Underworld going on there; possibly equating the old religion with the Catholic Hell. Knows about Annwn to the west, because even the freaking Mabinogion mentions that. Don't have to dig too deep to know that. Knows that water takes you there, so he creates his own little borderland under his freaking house. I bet he got tidbits of half understood folklore and old wives' tales from all over. Look at his set up. Skeletons in the brickwork? Ancestors under a cairn, see? It's not a fucking temple, it's a burial chamber. But the bones he's got, they're monks, dug up from old Strata Florida. Direct line to God, is it? For the lead-poisoned insane? But he wants more. Give the old thing a real kick. Human sacrifice to make it all real. Innocent girl from..."

"Stop." Salvo frowned. "Where's this girl come from?"

"Triffid room, on the wicker settee."

"No, just tell me."

"Ghost got seen a lot down there. Girl with scrofula up by her face." Century shrugged. "Somewhere between me and Kiana, we decided she was an old pilgrim, got picked up by the river and sacrificed on his altar. She's not solid evidence, naturally. She led Fenian out to safety." Century's eyes widened. "She escorted someone to the river! I wonder if she's one of the fairies now. Fenian must have looked really fucking fated around about then." The old anxiety peaked again. It had been gone. "And now Fenian is missing."

Salvo seemed suddenly impatient. "Ok. Really well put together, Iestyn. Fantastic. I can work out the rest. He moves the stream back and forth because he doesn't want it right under his house, when he's not involved in dodgy rituals. He capped it with the priest hole altar, because that was presumably consecrated by a priest, and he is conditioned to pray there. Load up the death thing below, with a stream and some corpses, then hurry upstairs to make his requests at the proper altar. All done, back downstairs to 'disconnect' the room from the waterway. Sit back and await divine intervention. Have I got it?"

Century blinked. "Insofar as I can put it together. Yes."

"Great. So we dismantle the machine, or whatever you want to call it, and the whole thing is done." Salvo exhaled. "How is this getting Matt quickly out of prison? I needed something to take to Mello, as a bargaining chip."

"There's more. I think that he thought he had Arthur's bones, from Glastonbury Abbey. I think that the monks trapped there thought he had that too. Descendent of one of Glyndu
r's men, trying to raise Arthur, during the onset of English landlordism and the spread of English industrialisation. The English are coming and they're..."

Salvo laid a hand on his chest. "Iestyn, I love your passion in this. I love seeing some enthusiasm back. But I need to hurry. Matt is threatening my wife with the Mafia; and I still have a man due to be executed in Iraq. Much as I think you've got something interesting to say here, it's your thing to work out. Give me something that I can take to Mello."

"Tell him that I believe that Matt was possessed by the ghost of Deverill Prothero or a spirit trapped there by him. Tell him to give me until this evening to find enough proof to convince everyone else." Century smiled, ready for this search. "Tell him that I can do that. Why kick up, when he can clear Matt's name and have him walking legitimately free?"

"Don't let me down on this, Iestyn, please." Salvo urged. "Don't let me check later and find you side-tracked into reading concert listings."

"Kam." Century affected injured innocence. "I'm your man."

"Good."