The Janus Stone

Ruth is floating in a dark sea. Toby is somewhere near but she can’t see or touch him. It’s funny, but suddenly she feels she knows him inside out, his hopes and fears, his loves and hates, as if he were an old friend, not a three-month-old foetus. She even knows what his voice sounds like. It sounds like he’s saying goodbye.

She is on the beach and a tide of bones is washing up against the shore. She hears Erik’s voice. He is talking to Toby, ‘It’s the cycle of life. You’re born, you live and then you die. Flesh to wood to stone.’ ‘But he’s not even born yet,’ she wants to scream but somehow her head is underwater and she can’t speak or hear or breathe.

The tide brings her back again but now she’s in the trench and it’s too dark to see. She knows there’s someone there with her. Someone evil. She sees a woman with two black dogs, a crossroads, the yellow eyes of an owl.

Now it is Max’s voice she hears in her head. ‘She was the goddess of many things. The Greeks called her the “Queen of the Night” because she could see into the underworld… She’s the goddess of the crossroads, the three ways… Another name is Hekate Kourotrophos, Hecate the child-nurse.’

‘Hecate!’ she says, forcing the breath out of her lungs, ‘save me!’

Then another wave washes over her and everything is black.

Nelson is on his way to interview Edward Spens when he gets the call. He listens intently and then performs a screeching U-turn in the middle of the dual carriageway. Then he switches on the siren.

She is in the sea again and the tide is pulling her backwards and forwards, dragging her body against the stones, engulfing her in darkness. Now and again she sees lights, very far away, darting to and fro in the black water. She hears voices too, sometimes louder, sometimes softer. She hears her mother, Phil, Shona, Irish Ted and the nurse at the hospital. Are you on your own?

Once she hears Nelson’s voice, very loudly. ‘Wake up, Ruth!’ he is saying. But he has to wake up, he has to leave, get back home before his wife finds out. They can never be together again. Thanks. What for? Being there.

Two children are digging a well on the beach. They are singing, ‘Ding Dong Dell, Pussy’s in the well.’ Flint appears, very large, licking his whiskers. Then Sparky wearing a necklace of blood. A headless bird singing in a cage. The light glinting on coins thrown into a wishing well. A penny for your thoughts. Ding Dong Dell, Pussy’s in the well.

Erik is rowing her to shore. He is talking about a Viking funeral. ‘The ship, its sails full in the evening light. The dead man, his sword at his side and his shield on his breast.’ The tide rocks the boat up and down. ‘Do not be afraid,’ Erik tells her, ‘it is not your time.’ Time and tide wait for no man. The sea carries her back through her life – Eltham, school, University College, Southampton, Norfolk, the Saltmarsh, the child’s body buried in the henge circle. Cathbad, torch upraised. Goddess Brigid, accept our offering.

Another wave takes her right out of the water and leaves her stranded in daylight, gasping and shaking. She opens her eyes and sees Max, Nelson and Cathbad looking down at her.

She closes her eyes again.

Nelson drives like a maniac towards the hospital. ‘Ruth’s hurt,’ Cathbad had said. ‘I think she might be losing the baby.’

The baby. He does not stop to wonder how Cathbad knows or what Cathbad knows. He does not even wonder why Cathbad is the one who is ringing him, why he is with Ruth at all. All he can think about is that Ruth’s pregnancy, which was hitherto only a suspicion, has become reality. And that the baby she is losing may be his. He presses his foot harder on the accelerator.

At the hospital he finds not only Cathbad, complete with cloak, but the know-all from Sussex University, Max Whatshisname. They are standing in the waiting area, by the rows of nailed-down chairs and ancient copies of Hello!, looking helpless.

‘What’s going on?’ barks Nelson, going straight into policeman mode.

‘They’re examining her now,’ says Cathbad, putting a calming hand on Nelson’s arm. He shakes it off irritably.

‘Let me speak to the doctor.’

‘In a second. The doctor’s busy with Ruth now.’

Thwarted, Nelson turns on Max who is looking awkward and embarrassed.

‘What happened?’

‘I found her at the site.’ If Nelson sounds like a policeman, Max sounds like a suspect. ‘I went to check on the dig after the rain and she was there, in a trench, unconscious.’

‘Was anyone else there?’

‘Not at first but while I was… looking at her… Cathbad appeared.’

‘Just appeared?’ growls Nelson, looking at Cathbad. ‘Got magic powers now, have you?’

Cathbad looks modest. ‘I just happened to be at the site. I wanted to have a look round. As you know, I’m interested in archaeology.’

‘And you just happened to be there when Ruth collapsed?’

‘I must have arrived a few minutes after Max. I saw his car at the foot of the hill.’