The Covenant Of The Flame

'Baptism?'

Fulano nodded.

Tess thought quickly, Anything to get out of here. Having my forehead splashed with water? A few prayers being said? That's nothing compared to what I've been through. She forced herself to appear to hesitate, to ponder, and finally said, 'All right.'

'Don't think you can fool us,' Gerrard said. This baptism isn't the type you're familiar with. It's not the same as Christianity's. I warn you. It's primordial, much more profound than you can imagine.'

What could it possibly be? Tess thought. How different from the baptism of Christianity? Total immersion in an ice-cold underground spring? Her fear of dying from hyperthermia or of being suffocated was certainly profound. But baptism by total immersion was practised by several Christian fundamentalist groups, she knew, and Gerrard had insisted that this baptism was totally different from Christianity's and by definition from fundamentalist versions of it.

At once, however, Tess remembered that total immersion wasn't limited to fundamentalist Christians. Various sects in India also practised total immersion, and Priscilla Harding had explained that isolated groups devoted to Mithraism were known to have survived and to practise their rites in present-day India.

Total immersion? Tess grimly decided, As bad as that would be, the cold, the tug of the water, the feeling of helplessness, it still can't compare to what I've already been through.

'I appreciate your warning,' she said, 'but I've thought about it, and I agree. I'll do my best. I'll be baptized. I'll join you if that's what it takes for Craig and me to be left alone, to live without fear.'

'Without fear, yes, but you'll still have to help us,' Gerrard said.

'But only in non-violent ways.'

'Of course,' Gerrard said. 'As a journalist committed to protecting the planet.'

'Nothing could stop me from doing that.'

'Lieutenant, do you agree as well?' Gerrard asked.

'I'm with Tess,' Craig said. 'We share the same decisions.'

Then please step through that archway.' Fulano pointed toward the rear of the chapel, toward an exit on the right beside the statue of Mithras on the altar.

Tess tried to demonstrate total resolve as she walked, muscles quivering, toward the right of the altar. Abruptly she faltered, hearing what at first was an inexplicable sound in the darkness beyond the archway.

With a clomping echo, something stomped.

Tess jerked toward Fulano, her face contorted with fright and confusion. 'What was that?'

Immediately the stomp was followed by a violent snort. 'What is it?' Craig's husky voice became guttural. 'It sounds like-'

'-an animal.' Tess breathed.

'You were warned,' Fulano said. 'This baptism is more unusual than you expect.'

'Primordial.'

'Yes. Depending on your reaction, you'll live or die,' Fulano said. 'We'll know at once if you're converted because it'll be obvious whether you've accepted the baptism's power.'

The mysterious unseen animal stomped what sounded like a massive hoof a second time and scraped it over the cavern's floor, the powerful echo reverberating from the archway into the chapel.

Then the animal snorted again, a gruff, moist, angry outburst.

Tess became paralyzed with terror.

But Hugh Kelly and the guards broke her paralysis, crowding relentlessly against her and Craig, pressing the two of them onward, forcing them through the archway.

Gerrard and Fulano had quickly entered before them, striking matches, lighting more torches, and as the flames rose, shimmering, they revealed what the cavern behind the chapel held.

Tess barely managed not to scream.

THIRTEEN

Trapped in a narrow pen carved from gray stone but with an iron gate at one end, stood the huge white bull that Tess had seen isolated in a field this afternoon as the helicopter descended toward Fulano's estate.

Tess suddenly knew where Hugh Kelly had been and what he'd been doing since the helicopter had landed and why he'd gotten here ahead of them, mysteriously joining them on the slope outside the cave. He'd been ordered to arrange this. As the torches flared, wavering from a breeze apparently created y the group's approach, the majestic white bull swung its angry head in Tess's direction, its blood-red gaze revealing its fury at having been imprisoned here for so long in the dark. Its nostrils widened, spewing moisture as it snorted once more in outrage.

The animal strained its neck and thrust with one horn, as if despite the distance it believed with proud desperation that it could reach and impale its captors.

'Dear God,' Tess moaned.

'Yes,' Gerrard said. 'Dear God. That's the meaning of the statue. This white bull represents the moon, and because the moon brings light to the darkness, it symbolizes the triumph of good over evil. Obviously the moon is a counterpart to the sun, and so, too, this bull is a counterpart to – a substitute for – Mithras, the God of the sun.'

Tess couldn't stop moaning.

'Your fear is understandable,' Gerrard said. 'But I hope that you also moan in reverence. After all, sacred rites have no effect if they don't induce profound emotion. Obviously this is a test. The two of you are about to be changed. I guarantee it. By all means, one way or another, life opposed to death, agreement opposed to defiance, you're about to be changed.'

Tess trembled.

'Step closer,' Fulano said. 'Over here. Facing the bull.'

Tess and Craig didn't move.

'Your hesitation doesn't encourage me,' Fulano said. 'You have to prove yourselves.'

Hugh Kelly and the guards crowded Tess and Craig closer to the pen, compelling them to obey Fulano's orders. Ten feet from the face of the bull, Tess stared at its wrathful eyes.

But this time, when the animal snorted in outrage, hot mucus from its widened nostrils struck her face.

In horror, Tess rubbed at her cheeks, frantic to remove the burn of the acidlike specks. But something else horrified her even more.

Her bladder muscles threatened to fail. Peering down, she saw that a narrow stairwell had been carved within the cavern's floor and that murky steps descended toward a dark enclosure beneath the bull.

Gerrard rubbed his right eye, which was weeping again, the irritation having returned. He pulled a small plastic container from his pocket, bent his head, and propped open his eyelids, dropping contact lenses onto one palm. After placing the lenses into the plastic container, he raised his head.

His formerly blue eyes now were gray, glinting from the reflection of the torches.

Tess shuddered.

'Another secret. An inheritance from our ancestors,' Gerrard said.

'Recessive genes. I know.'

'Then you've learned a great deal. More than I expected. But now you'll learn even more. Much more. It's time. Step into the pit,' Gerrard instructed.

Fulano had also removed contact lenses, revealing that his brown eyes actually were as gray as Gerrard's. They gleamed as brightly.

Tess shuddered with greater force.

'Take off your clothes,' Fulano said.

'What?' Craig scowled. 'Now just a minute.'

'I assure you, the request isn't prurient,' Gerrard said. 'We have no interest in sex. It's an impure impulse that contaminates the spirit. We indulge in it reluctantly, only for the sake of producing children. To us, your nakedness would be no more arousing than seeing the natural nakedness of animals. But we do respect modesty. There's no need for you to undress before us. Take off your clothes away from our sight. In the darkness of the pit. Then throw your clothes up the steps. Otherwise they'll be sullied when you put them back on.'

'Sullied? Why?' Craig glowered. 'What are you talking about?'