Solstice - The Goddess Awakens

Lola woke with a start, brought round by the frigid night air. She had just noticed that the car had pulled up outside a laneway when a large pair of steely hands gripped her by the arm, yanking her up off the warm seat.

‘Glad to have you back with us, Lola,’ said the large burly man she had last violently encountered at Chateau Bacchus.

Carl and Alex walked towards the lane, as Lola was dragged behind them by Derek, Carl Stein’s man-mountain bodyguard. A sharp pain shot through her ankle as the heel of her shoe snapped, forcing Lola to collapse in a heap on the ground.

‘Get up now!’ demanded Derek, pulling Lola to her feet, and dragging her along the pathway until they came to a wall with a narrow slit in it.

Tara looked completely different at night, but equally as beautiful, with its wide landscape now immersed in a pristine quilt of snow. Limping through the graveyard, Lola thought about making a run for it. The campsite was just over the side hill. But could she make it? In reply to her musings, another sharp pain shot up her leg. She had twisted it badly and there was no way she would be able to run on it, besides there was no way that she would abandon the Cube and the ring. Arthur had died to protect it and Celeste almost died because of it. She wouldn’t give it up without a fight.

It was hard to distinguish any landmarks in the white landscape, but Lola realised that she was standing at the foot of the mound that housed the Lia Fail. Lola had no idea what was happening.

‘Give her the ring, Alex,’ ordered Carl.

‘Are you sure it’s safe to, Father?’

‘She is the only one that can unite the pieces, and it has to be whole before we can destroy it.’

Alex approached Lola cautiously, as you would a wild and unpredictable animal. But he need not have worried because the hulk of a man standing behind her had her arms pinned tightly behind her back. Slipping the ring over her neck, Alex stood back out of the way.

‘Now, do what you were brought here to do, Lola!’ said Carl, pushing her forward, as he handed her the five crystals.

Lola held them tightly in her shivering arms. She had been so stupid, so careless. All this time she’d had the Cosmic Cube. Fighting with the pain in her ankle, Lola struggled up the mound to where the Lia Fail stood, bathed in pale moonlight. It wasn’t like it had been before, she was drawn to it but this time she felt more in control and she knew exactly what to do.

Stepping onto the circular stones which lay around the vertical piece of granite, Lola closed her eyes, letting the ancient stone’s energy mingle with her own.

‘What lies within, reflects without,’ she whispered to it. Immediately, the ring began to awaken and the stone began to tremor, as though it was shaking off millennia of sleep. The tremors became stronger and stronger, almost knocking Lola off her unsteady feet, as the entire mound shook and roared to life. Grabbing onto the granite stone, Lola let the crystals fall from her arm, knowing that they wouldn’t hit the ground. Each hung in the air. As the tremors intensified, the entire structure began to crack open, expelling a piercing blue light that shot straight out of the stone towards the sky like a beacon. Lola’s ring reciprocated, as a shaft of light poured from it merging with the light stream emitted by the Lia Fail. And so too did the crystals. They began to rotate towards the light absorbing it and morphing into each other, until they formed a single translucent Cube made up of pure light and energy.

Lola stood mesmerised as the Cube absorbed the life force of the stone and the ring. Then as quickly as it had been ignited, the Hill of Tara was once again plunged into darkness. Exhausted, Lola collapsed onto the stone holding the Cube the entire time. It lay dormant in her arms and its appearance had changed. It was still as light as a feather but it looked like a block of granite. Lola was weak and failed to fight off Carl when he prised it from her arms.

‘Thank you very much, Lola. What an impressive display! Let’s get a move on. It’s time for you to go home.’ Too drained to protest, Lola allowed herself to be hoisted up onto her feet and dragged back to the car. ‘You said that you would let Liam go! You’ve got what you wanted,’ was all she could say.

‘Remember our little chess game? Any or all sacrifice, my dear Lola. You have to be willing to make any or all sacrifice to win. Now come on, the best bit is still to come!’

Lola fell into the back of the car, there was no use trying to escape, not now. She had lost, and the Hell Fire Club had won, this was the real endgame being played out, and she was all out of options.

‘Where are you taking me, Carl?’ demanded Lola, trying to sound as though she had some authority over herself.

‘Home, of course, to where it all began,’ he teased. ‘Chess 101, Lola, know your opponent,’ mused Carl. ‘Of course it took me a while to figure it all out. I could sense how strong the magick and light around you was the first night we met. But, I must admit, I did underestimate you, Lola. I can see why my son was so taken with you, but we all have our weaknesses, I suppose.’

There was harshness in Carl Stein’s tone, it was subtle, and Lola could tell that it wasn’t meant for her, but his son. A warning that his recent lapse was a one-off and that such weakness would not be tolerated again.

‘Like I said, I had my suspicions, but I really knew for sure the night you staged your little coup. I knew that I had stared into those wild green eyes before, even though it was many years ago. I waited a long time for that.’

Lola sat in silence, thinking of how much she had let Arthur down.

‘That sentimental old fool left you totally exposed! He must have thought you would be the warrior that she was once, but it didn’t occur to him that you had forgotten everything.’

‘Don’t you dare talk about Arthur like that, you poisonous snake! You will burn in Hell for what you did to him,’ said Lola, the pain in her voice evident, though it only served to amuse her host.

‘Hell?’ laughed Carl. ‘Didn’t your mamma tell you there ain’t no such place? And may I add that I’m afraid I cannot take the credit for Arthur’s murder, that’s down to my son!’ Lola felt as though she had been slapped in the face again. Looking at Alex, her eyes urged him to say something.

‘How could it have been you? You were at the party, I saw you there!’

Alex didn’t have to answer, because she suddenly realised how he did it. She had overheard him on the phone that night.

‘You killed him, and you killed her too,’ whispered Lola. This time she couldn’t control her nausea. ‘Stop the car! Stop the car!’ she screamed between retching. ‘I’m going to be sick!’ The car window slid down, leaning out Lola heaved and vomited, the mulled wine spewing out. Wiping her mouth, she sucked in the fresh air trying to get her head together. He had deceived her time and time again. How could one human being be so deceitful, so devoid of humanity?

Lola had no idea how long they had been travelling, or what time it was. Carl pulled the glass screen between him and driver across.

‘How long until we’re there, Derek?’

‘A few minutes, Mr Stein.’ Lola closed her eyes, trying to think of where they might be heading, and hoped there was a way out for her that didn’t include death.

Sitting back down Lola was dazed, as Carl continued his revelation. ‘Well, of course Alex didn’t have the pleasure of being there when we got the old man, that had to be someone he knew,’ said Carl matter-of-factly, enjoying his revelations. But Lola wouldn’t afford him that, not where Arthur was concerned. She recalled the conversation she’d had with DCI Campbell. She would never allow Carl Stein the pleasure of claiming Arthur’s death, so she took the wind out of his sail. This was the only act of defiance left to her.

‘Yes I know, Carl,’ she interrupted. ‘It was Bryce, your stooge at the paper.’ Lola smiled now. ‘Arthur knowingly allowed Bryce into the house and knowingly drank the wine with the hemlock. Does a man of your intelligence really think that Arthur was killed?’ Lola was enjoying herself now. ‘Tut tut tut, Mr Stein. You have said it before, time and time again. Know your opponent.’ Carl’s Stein’s face grew darker by the moment and Lola half braced herself for another attack. Yet, she continued. ‘Arthur sacrificed himself. You, Carl, only took what he gave you.’ Lola watched intently as he began to put the jigsaw puzzle together. The car began to slow down now, finally coming to a halt.

‘Excellent,’ exclaimed Carl as though Lola had not spoken a word to him, ‘we’re here in the nick of time, just twenty minutes until the Solstice dawn.’