Walls Came Tumbling Down

ÿþSalvo had to stoop to enter the front door. At six foot five inches, he was also wearing a baby carrier on his back, which added another half a foot in its frame, and a large, shiny windmill. Luleka bounced inside it. "Tyn Tyn!"

"You're finally up." Salvo boomed. "We've been to the village, done a bit of shopping, fed the ducks and walked all the way back." He dropped a bag of groceries onto the worktop. Century absently rose from his chair, with his mind still in the 18th century, and meandered over to them. Salvo could remove the carrier by himself, but it was easier with two. Century held the whole contraption, while Salvo unbuckled. Then Salvo took his son out of it and walked away. "Thanks for putting that away for me." He beamed. "Guess what we have for lunch. Teacakes!"

Luleka excitedly agreed, "Ee-ay."

Century dumped the carrier in the hallway, on top of the remainder of his own luggage. It was all slowly going upstairs, but there were still several bags. "I've called Deontic and asked her to check for lead pipes or, at least, find the original water supply."

"And how is the lovely Dee coping with being your servant?" Salvo grinned, as he strode away towards the back connecting door. "Just changing him. Any coffee on?" He could see that there wasn't. Century took the hint and rectified the omission. Salvo called back. "Case adjourned. In Iraq. New hearing in January, which gives me infinitely more time to prepare."

Century followed them through. Luleka was trying to roll off his mat, now that he had his jeans and nappy removed and his bottom clean. Salvo pinned him down with a hand to his chest. Century loitered. "Want to help me with my case?"

Salvo raised his eyebrows. "The solution for which has a prize of having the biggest balls in Watari?"

"I can do it on my own, but it will be faster with two." He shrugged. "Chrissie could come home faster."

"I do believe that you're coming down to land, Dr Jones." Salvo bobbed his tongue out at Luleka, who was protesting the inability to get off his changing mat. "Nappy on, then you can go in your play-pen and have all the freedom you want."

"Luka pa, papi!" Luleka responded shrilly, which translated roughly as a wish to go and play.

Salvo glanced up at Century. "So you've been looking into the history of the place and you've become entrenched. You'd like me to deal with the weird stuff?"

Century smiled. "I did the history first. We know who lived there when the extension was built. We know the history of the whole area. I'm currently looking at the concept of guardian spirits." He saw Salvo's expectant smile, as he set about fixing a clean nappy to his son. "I have a wholly unsubstantiated theory about what Deverill Prothero was trying to do down there."

"I thought he was trying to open a portal to the Otherworld, where he could get his three wishes to the gods." Salvo swung Luleka high into the air, soliciting a tinkle of giggles. "And that this explained all of the ghosts, because they were congregating at the quartz stone, waiting for the fairies to take them to Avalon."

"Annwn, not Avalon."

"But the fairies couldn't come, because they were trapped on the other side of the diverted underground stream." He placed Luleka into the play-pen and gave him Boo-Boo Bear to hold. "Which was failing as a water-road to Annwn, because the nature of its diversion meant that it was east running; and all roads to Annwn go west." Salvo smirked at Century. "Or is this theory so last night now?"

Century shook his head. "No. It's still current." He smiled. "Current."

"My sides can hardly hold together for laughter at your pun." Salvo replied, flatly, before winking. He led the way back into the kitchen. "Coffee."

"No, the ghosts are still there. Ghosts as opposed to ancient ghosts turned fairies. These are your actual ghosts now." Century frowned, still a little uneasy that he was even countenancing this stuff, let alone differentiating between levels of phantoms. "I see that a bit like a bus-stop, that everyone has to use, that's been waiting for a bus since the 1750s."

Salvo chuckled. "I'd have walked by now." He stepped over books and notebooks, pausing by the possession section on the wall. "Have you been near this part again since?"

Century looked a bit startled. "All connected, see?" He gestured towards the computers. "Fucking war, it is. The fairies, they send in the big guns. Gwrach-y-Rhibyn, now she can go into the water. She can get into the heart of the problem. Has a remit, she has. The tribe is in danger! The descendants are threatened! Protect! Death everywhere! But she can only rise in very specific circumstances. She warns of the death of a Welsh person..."

"Racist cow." Salvo took the mugs out and shovelled in five sugars apiece.

"No." Century frowned. "Local, she is. Of course she's coming for the Welsh. It's in Wales. The local people, who built the local cairn, that created the local fairy/ancestral spirits, were fundamentally local. Comes for the Welsh, she does, because the people are Welsh. Build it in Congo DR and..."

"I followed the logic after the first 'local'." Salvo smirked.

Century nodded. "So only see her, we do, when a Welsh person is dying in the area. Mr Roberts, he died. She was free to attack us in the house. You know why she attacked?" He smirked. "Fwc, I'm genius." Beside him, Salvo laughed and gave him a look to go on. "Foreigners there were, in the house. Not omnipresent, is she? She's just got that bit of snapshot, when she comes to warn of Mr Roberts dying and possibly before, when the band were there." Century looked pained, out of his depth with the supernatural. Salvo glanced at him, waiting for more. The teenager plunged on. "But she's here, sensing, seeing, whatever, all these dead tribespeople. Dead Welsh, is it? Trapped down by there. She's seeing angry fairies not able to get past the yew tree, because of the old witch bottle. When that's out, they're free to stand at the edge of the stream and cause their chaos. But Gwrach-y-Rhibyn, she's just got the message, death everywhere, strangers in the lands. So off she goes, attacking the Swedes, the Slavs, the Spaniards and the Malaysians. Why haven't we heard of this in history before? Never a fucking foreigner there, see? Not when she can turn up."

Salvo nodded. "Seeing flaws all over the place." He peered at the percolator, but it wasn't even nearly full. "I see how this explains two of the dead Swedes. I don't see how everyone else survived, nor why there were dead Welsh too, nor how she got the Swede that went home."

"Didn't touch the Welsh now, did she? Scared the fucking crap out of them. Ioan, he was fleeing from her up on the roof. He's fated anyway, that's why she's there in the first place, but she just did scare him. Down he falls. Dead." Century smirked in satisfaction. "Me now, I'm off running through the woods. She's just rising from the river down below. Deontic saw her rise." He foresaw and headed off Salvo's next question. "Why didn't she attack Deontic? Because she's not up there. Down in the river, see? Gwrach-y-Rhibyn hasn't been up by the house. She doesn't know yet that we're attacked. Fairies haven't told her. She hasn't seen. Besides, she's not headed for the house yet, is she? Up by the Roberts farmhouse, because it's Mr Roberts. He's going to be dying. Warning up by there. She doesn't come to the manor until the next night. Then I've got them condemned, because I came back. There's live Welsh inside and foreigners on our patch."

Salvo shook his head. "She already knew, because she saw the foreigners when the band were attacked. Different foreigners, I know, but same situation."

"No!" Century sighed. "Already knows they're dead, see? She was there to see that one happen! We're round two and she doesn't know about us yet."

Salvo grimaced. "It's a working theory. Still doesn't explain..."

"It does!" Century sighed. "The band, they've had her there because Ioan Prothero, he's going to die. So Adda and the Swedish bloke, they flee in the car. They should be out of it, because they're out of the area. But Adda is going to die too, just not there. Gwrach-y-Rhibyn, she sees this. Speculation, it is, that he saw her in the Severn and committed suicide, but he was still Welsh and he was still on the border with Wales. Naturally, he could have just been fucked in the head, because three of his friends had just been horrifically killed and another had just left him on his own." Century shrugged. "Don't have to be Gwrach-y-Rhibyn to be suicidal."

Salvo read off a piece of notepaper pinned to the wall. "Rasmus Lindgren. Swedish, in Sweden."

"Chased him, did she? Who says that she has to stay in Wales? Loads of reports of the banshee over in America and Australia. Irish immigrants, they took her with them. Gwrach-y-Rhibyn, she can cross running water. None of the other fairies can. Still off protecting."

Salvo gave an exaggerated sigh. "That's a bit weak. Even more weak is that on round two, you all heard her. That wasn't foxes. Loads of foreigners there again, where's the attack?"

Century grinned. "Not in the manor house, is it? She came for the ambulance crew and they're dead down in the cwm. That's where Gwrach-y-Rhibyn went. No foreigners down by there. Higher up than the diverted stream. No reason, is there, to attack? Now, if Fenian had actually left the tunnels to help them, it might have been different, but I doubt it. Doesn't know that there's a problem, does she? Everyone Welsh in the valley." He watched Salvo's contemplative expression. "Close, but no cigar?"

"Ok. Still needs work though. I'm more inclined to think that Rasmus had been half scared to death. He went running and his heart just went." He touched Century's shoulder to soften the blow. "Like with you."

Century nodded and moved quickly on. "Witch bottle. I've got to the bottom of that too. Ignore the urine and all of that crap. It's incidental, probably in there to make it look more ritualistic, then tradition kept it. The important thing is that the nails are iron. Fairies can't touch iron. They're on their fairy path and get as far as the yew tree, which is right on the border of the house. They go, 'Urgh! Iron!', then go home. If they can get past the iron, i.e. the witch bottle has been removed, then they're in the courtyard and finding out that the old stream is running and some fuckwit has built a house over the standing stone. That's when all Hell breaks out."

"Plausible in context."

"So, when Fenian pulled that bottle out on Mello, good job it was that he left him in the Land Rover. If he'd taken him into the manor house, there would have been a miraculous recovery and Fenian would have been dead." Century nodded. "Because it was the fairies fucking with Mello's head. Couldn't get into the old manor house, could they?"

Salvo checked the coffee. It was nearly brewed. "But the Gwrach-y-Rhibyn could."

"Not unless there's a local person going to die in there." Century clarified. "The ambulance crashed outside the grounds."

"Yeah, I got that."

Century took up a lollipop from his stash on the table. "The song caught the Gwrach-y-Rhibyn on it. She comes three nights, see? Three nights for the warning and, on the third night, they die. Or day, obviously. So three nights before Ioan is fated to die, the band, they're recording their song. Gwrach-y-Rhibyn turns up wailing. Likes water, she does. Could be that she's down under the house in this handy stream that she's just found."

"Yet she doesn't attack."

"Not time yet, see? Only at the fated hour can people die."

Salvo frowned and poured the coffee. "Where precisely are you getting all of this shit?"

Century pouted. "Bits from loads of Celtic folklore books and the internet, plus some conjecture." He looked uncertain. "It's not working for you?"

"It's mostly fitting the known facts. Brilliantly so, in fact, but I'm having to deal with a lot of unfamiliar entities and things that sound a little too fantastic. I keep wondering why any trip to Wales isn't beset with flying hags, attacking every passing tourist." Salvo shrugged. "Feels a little too unreal."

"Like I said, it's not my field." Century replied. "Some books say that she only comes for the nobility, but fuck that." He sucked on his lollipop. "It is a manor house; and why would she attack tourists? She's only attacking because of the fucked up circumstances of that manor house, see?"

Salvo nodded. "You were telling me about the music." He held out Century's coffee and the teenager took it. Century was getting paranoid about his theory now. He sucked on his lollipop and fell silent. "I'm sorry that I pissed on your bonfire. I was following it. Please do go on." He nodded towards the door and, once he was sure that Century was following, led the way back into the living room. Luleka called out delightedly at the sight of them, holding out toys for them to see. Salvo stroked his son's hair, then sat down on the settee. Century took the armchair. "How well am I grasping it? The low-level sounds that are picked up on the song is basically Gwrach-y-Rhibyn discovering the mess and shouting out the news to the waiting fairies?" He surveyed Century, who was concentrating on his breathing. "Or Gwrach-y-Rhibyn shouting at the fairies for not doing their job? Or just Gwrach-y-Rhibyn yelling, 'You're going to die! You're going to die!'"

Century exhaled and shrugged. "I don't know what she says, but it attracts the fairies. These are entities with the power to know a person's fate. I don't know. Perhaps something about a listener's spirit incenses them. Some kind of anti-Mark of Cain, which says to any passing fairy, 'attack!'"

"But not the same fairies. This is all over the world. You'd have to pass running water eventually."

Century nodded. He took out his lollipop and tested the heat of his coffee. It was still too hot to drink. "Really tired, I am, all of a sudden."

Salvo frowned. "You've only just got up." He blew out his cheeks. "You were fine, until I doubted your theory. I knocked you off your perch. Just ignore me. What do I know about the whole rich tapestry of another culture?" Silence drifted between them. It wasn't uneasy, but neither was it entirely happy. Salvo filled it by reaching into the play-pen and shifting a couple of shiny blocks along the runner, on a play centre attached to the side. Luleka was attracted and began moving all of the co-ordination training tabs. "You've been working on guardian spirits, you said?"

"I was thinking about who or what possessed Matt. There's a strong reason to believe that something did, as both Mello and Matt said it and they weren't able to confer. Unless it was pre-meditated, which I doubt. Plus Hal and Kiana both saw the shadowy man. I would have, if I'd turned around, but legged it, I did."

"Wise." Salvo agreed.

"So who, or what, was this?" Century tongued the lollipop in his mouth. "Not fairy, because it's in the house and they can't get into all of it. Underground stream twists around that room, otherwise they're digging miles out of their way, see? And it has to come out across the path of the other tunnel further down the hill. Way I picture it, the fairies can get into most of the old part of the house, but probably not further than, say, the living room and the first couple of upstairs rooms. By the time you're up by the priest hole, you've got no fairies. All ghosts it is there, see?"

Salvo did see. "But no ghost stories. Tedious lack of ghost stories, in fact."

Century nodded. "But don't you have to be psychic to see ghosts? Probably been ghosts screaming for generations and no-one there can hear them."

"Works right up to the point where you have it blow up, at least three times, in a ghost fest." He watched as Century took his lollipop out and blew on his coffee, before taking a sip. "Another factor. The witch bottle was out the first and second times. Following your logic so far, can we make a deduction? The invisible fairies are lined up along the edge of the hidden stream, which is presumably in the courtyard, edge of the house or in the kitchen area." He had seen enough of the house in the hours of video footage taken from Matt's archives. "So your bus-stop worth of ghosts can sense them and are calling for help. They're stirred up, so you're seeing more of them."

"Are we though?" Century asked. "No evidence, is there, that the band saw ghosts? We just saw the band. Latest ghosts, there. Kiana reckons that only one of them was sentient. Maja Gustafsson, she was, the band's singer. Kiana, she said that she thought Maja was trying to lead us to the priest hole and therefore to the psychic mess underneath. Could be that Maja Gustafsson was psychic or a witchy type or something, when she was alive. She knew the theory on getting seen and moving stuff. The rest was like a recording of events that night, being replayed. It made sense to Kiana and she seemed to know all about it." He sighed, still unsure about his own beliefs. "Kiana said that it took a lot of energy for a ghost to manifest. That's why it goes cold, when they're around. They're converting heat energy into 'Oooh I'm a ghost' energy, see?"

Salvo smiled. "No, but if Kiana does, then that's ok." He winked. "But fine, let's run with it. Maja Gustafsson has the knowledge and uses it to try and get a message through to the living. Fix the basement or die, basically. Presumably she locked Matt into the priest hole, in the hope that he'd open up the altar and find the standing stone. Bit random, but she has to use what she can." His smile widened slightly, then slipped. "So what the fuck was she doing to Mello's head in the coal cellar? He thought he was in the Croatian Homeland War."

"She didn't." Century shook his head. "Coal cellar is to the east of the house. Stream is going right underneath. By the entrance door, Mello's away with the fairies. By the hatch at the back, he's right in the ghost queue."

"He has some bad luck, does Mello." Salvo commented. "And Deontic left the house to the east too, so presumably she's got a trail of fairies down to the river. You took them into the woods?"

"I would have crossed the underground stream. They fucked with me, but then I shook them off. Then, stupid fwc that I am, I turned right around and walked right into them. Heading into the fairy path, I was, when I had my heart-attack." Century had grown increasingly grim-faced.

Salvo watched him. "You're safe now though. I went out this morning and filled both of our saucers with milk. No ghosts here and fairies front and aft all happy with their offering." He winked again, when Century looked up. "So we'll assume that the witch bottle has been under that tree for centuries, then it gets taken out. Ghosts stirred up by shouting fairies. Bottle goes back in, quietness reigns, except for Ms Gustafsson, who's not hanging around a smelly, creepy cavern for anyone's afterlife. Then comes the night that everyone is talking about. I saw your note that it was Samhain, so things get stirred up anyway, but that doesn't explain the quietness of every other Samhain for the past three centuries."

Century flashed a smile. "It does, when you remember that we had the Irish down there, breaking stuff. The standing stone had been concealed, I think, because of the water running around it. When he smashed the gully, suddenly every ghost and fairy for miles around could see, sense, whatever, the standing stone. Here was their ticket out of there, so they came, but the stream is still there. Then you have Mello going in to presumably smash the brickwork up with a sledgehammer. Probably he stirs things up too, see?" He was warming to his theme again. "Now the question is - is it Deverill Prothero's ghost or something else that comes to protect the house?"

"I thought the assumption was Prothero's ghost."

"I have a theory that the Glastonbury monks brought what they thought were the bones of Arthur. Legend says it was the Holy Grail, but it would say that. Welsh don't want the bones of Arthur, see? Old King Arthur, he's going to rise up one day and kick the Saxons out. Cymru am byth!" Century punched the air with his lollipop held aloft. The coffee in his mug swilled and a little drenched a patch on his navy blue jumper. "Erk!"

"Scalded?"

Century shook his head. "Soaked in, it has. So! Your Glastonbury monks, they're fleeing with the important stuff. Like, if the monastries get through this, they're going to need pilgrims. Rich, Glastonbury got, on the Holy Grail and Arthur's bones. Insurance for the future is keeping them safe. So they bring them to Strata Florida. Good so far, until the king's soldiers come by there too. Those old monks, they can see this coming, so there's safe Catholic houses now, all over the countryside. Our monks, they flee from Strata Florida to one of them. Nanteos, up on the mountain. Good vantage point, see? To see the soldiers coming. Welsh Nanteos, good Catholics, welcome them in and all excited, they'd be, over the Holy Grail. But Arthur's bones? In Wales? You're having a laugh!"

Salvo frowned. "Are these things real?"

"Yeah!" Century laughed. "Real, tangible objects anyway. Real Holy Grail and real Arthur's bones? Highly unlikely. When the family showed the Holy Grail a few years back, it was dated to the 14th century. Had it on display, they did, for centuries. But no legend on Arthur's bones, see, nothing to say that they ever left Glastonbury. Hidden away, I think they were. Too dangerous to put on show in a Welsh mansion. We'd be brought to riot and floods of tears. The monks, they die off and I think that Arthur's bones are buried with them. No-one any wiser. But Deverill Prothero finds out. Friendly with the Nanteos Powells, he is, and I believe that he found out."

"So we are in the realm of speculation."

"Totally." Century bit his lip. "All this about Arthur, total speculation. Prothero is a descendent of one of Glyndu
r's men; probably fierce with patriotism, he is. Just guessing. 'Cause now he's hearing that the great saviour of Wales, the once and future king, isn't coming back at all. He's dead and here are your bones to prove it. Maybe he asks for the bones, maybe he doesn't; but he does end up digging his tunnel all the way under the hill and into the back of the basement under Nanteos." Century paused for dramatic effect. "And he takes the bones. All of the bones, because which one is Arthur?" Century wrinkled up his nose. "None of them, because it's all bollocks anyway, but he don't know this, do he?" Century smiled. "No, down he goes, in his tunnel, carry the bones of them all. All those old monks and the bones of Arthur. These are the ones bricked up in the shaft by the old standing stone. Who knows what he's doing next? Bit of necromancy, is it? Raise Arthur from the dead; put flesh on those old bones. Got holy relics in all those monk bones from ruined Strata Florida graveyard. Got the altar from up by there too. Necromancy isn't Christian, so throw in a bit of old Welsh religion and in comes the stream, is it? And Mello going on about human sacrifice too. Who knows what he did down there. The bloke was as mad as a fish."

Salvo seemed a little shell-shocked. "Right." He said, slowly, once he was sure that Century had finished talking. "That's why the stream ran east, is it? Leading out of Annwn."

"I think it was just the nearest stream."

"I see." Salvo slapped his own forehead. "Of course, he wasn't trying to send Arthur to Annwn, place of the dead. He wanted him alive again! I'm an idiot, sorry." He paused. "So he was trying to recreate Avalon, under his house, to heal Arthur then?"

Century stared. "Fwc."

Across the room, Salvo's laptop, which had been in sleep mode, shone into life. It made them both jump, then laugh, with Luleka joining in a second or two later. The monitor had turned white, with a large Old English font 'W' in its centre. Salvo got up, carrying his coffee mug from the top, with his fingertips around the rim. It had cooled enough. "Is Hal or Luigi Watari now?"

"Hal, hopefully."

There was always a delay before the ring tone began. Salvo reached his computer as it began to beep. He answered the call. "Yo!"

It was Hal. "Salvo, are you sitting down? I'm afraid that I have some bad news."