Chapter 4: The Standing Tree
I'll admit I was scared, bloody terrified in fact. I am a nice middle class boy, I have drunk too much and caused some trouble a few times in my life, but not a lot. I am thirty years old now and beginning to act like it, these days I go home quietly at closing time, I more or less stick to the speed limit, I keep the volume to within reasonable levels, I try hard not to swear in front of children. And I do not run away from policemen, no matter how sinister. It is an anathema to me, it just felt wrong. The whole time we ran I wanted to stop and say that this was silly, we should cooperate, it must all be a big mistake and I was sure it would all be worked out soon enough. Two very good reasons stopped me.
The first was that I was clearly not even remotely aware of all the facts. I didn't know you could be arrested for being a witch, I didn't know what the black goat was, I didn't, without exaggerating at all, know what the hell was going on.
The second was that I was fairly certain, based on my limited experience watching well researched crime dramas on the television, and my even more limited experience in real life, that your actual genuine policemen did not go around pulling guns on unarmed civilians. At least not in this country.
If I am honest there was a third reason, that I did not want to appear to be a coward in front of Selkie, but the first two reasons were plenty good enough on their own.
We ran, coatless I might add, through the rain and on a muddy path through what, but for the curved line of standing stones, was a sheep paddock. The stones were not the massive carved building blocks of Stonehenge, but disorderly, unworked, random rocks of various sizes planted upright in the ground. They circled a wide curve encompassing the village and frequently intersected by roads. I looked back, and through the rain saw the men emerge from the pub, both with pistols drawn now, I felt a brief pang of worry for the fate of the landlord, please god don't let him have done anything stupid, but this was quickly replaced by fear for myself. I heard a gun go off and a chunk of stone exploded from one of the rocks in front of us, if he had meant to hit us and missed, or if it was merely a warning shot, I do not know, but everyone immediately ducked down behind one of the larger stones, I eagerly did the same.
'Tell me you were out putting a charm on the tree,' hissed Selkie urgently.
'Some hair and a bit of cloth,' replied her mother, 'it should do us if we can get there.'
Stokes peeped out around the rock. 'Why aren't they following?' he said.
Selkie looked out the other side and whispered 'I don't know, waiting for backup maybe.'
She turned to me and I tried to explain my confusion with a look. She smiled a pitying sort of a smile mixed with a certain remorse, she had, after all, only really asked me for a lift. 'We need to get to the standing tree,' she said.
'How far is it?'
'Another one of these enclosures.'
'If I go out with my hands up,' I said, 'maybe that will buy you enough time.'
Selkie's mother looked like she was ready to agree but Selkie interjectd before she could say anything. 'No chance,' she said, 'besides I doubt they'd fall for that again.'
I quickly glanced around the edge of the stone, the two men were standing in the pub garden, watching intently. 'I don't think they meant to hit us,' I said, 'or they would have fired more than one shot.' Stokes nodded but the two women looked less certain. 'Besides,' I said, 'the rain would make it difficult.'
Selkie turned to her mother, who bit her lip in the exact same way her daughter sometimes did. 'It could work,' said Wilhelmina, 'we'd need a match, or a lighter, something.'
Stokes fumbled in his pocket and produced a Zippo lighter.
'Good,' said Wilhelmina, 'when I say, drop it between us.' She turned to Selkie and both women squatted on their haunches and held hands forming a small circle. 'Now,' said Wilhelmina, and Stokes flicked the lighter alight with one movement and carefully placed it in the centre of the circle between the two women, miraculously the flame stayed burning in the rain.
Nothing happened. I glanced back at the two men who had not moved. I looked back, the lighter was still burning. Selkie and her mother were staring silently into each others eyes. I looked at Stokes, 'watch the flame,' he said with a grin.
I watched the flame. It flickered but still burnt, and then the rain started to increase, I only heard it at first, pounding heavily onto the rock behind me, and then I felt it, the drops were larger and thudded uncomfortably against my skull, I looked back around the rock and noticed the two men were harder to see through the increased rainfall. The rain grew stronger, and stronger, till it was as strong as anything I have seen outside of the tropics. The flame on the lighter struggled against the onslaught, it flickered, dimmed, hissed, and finally it died.
Selkie grabbed it off the ground and handed it back to Stokes, 'come on,' she said, 'it won't last for long.'
We ran, visibility was barely a few yards and we could only see from one rock to the next, we followed the curve of the stones, at the end of the first field we crossed a road and into another. This time the path led outside the ring of the stones over a raised rampart of earth that ran, along with a deep inner ditch, around the outside of the circle.
We dashed along the top of the earthwork, the rain already beginning to ease off. In front of me I saw Selkie slip in the mud and, unable to stop herself, careen down into the ditch. I dived forwards and caught her and Stokes, running just behind me, skidded around and held out his hand, I pulled Selkie up and she grabbed his wrist, he pulled her up on to the path and without a word they both continued running and I staggered to my feet and followed. Behind me there was a roaring which I assumed was thunder but then the ground in front of me lit up and I looked back to see one bright white light shining down at me. It took me a second to realise it was a helicopter following us.
I shouted forward to the others and Selkie looked back and yelled 'ignore it.' She shouted something else but I did not catch what. I continued running. I imagined I heard gunshots behind me but such was the noise and confusion at that point, it could have been anything.
We skidded down the bank at the end of the dyke and across another road and up another bank onto the continuation of the rampart. At the top of this was a large wide oak tree and as soon as they were underneath the shelter of its branches Selkie, her mother, and Stokes, staggered to a halt. All three of them leaned against the trunk of the tree and panted furiously, I joined them.
'Thank you,' said Selkie between breaths.
I nodded and said 'there's a bloody helicopter.'
'I know.'
'What do we do now?'
'We're safe here for the moment,' she said, and slid down and sat on the ground. I leaned doubled over with my hands on my knees and slowly regained my breath, I cursed myself for never keeping up with the running I always planned to do.
Under the tree everything was peaceful again, the rain did not penetrate the branches which curled down around us enclosing the space where we now rested. If the helicopter was out there I could no longer hear it, I could no longer hear the rain. I looked up at the branches and saw many things tied to them, fragments of ribbon, feathers, little bundles of twigs and leaves, charms, I thought.
'Why is it called the standing tree?' I asked.
Selkie shrugged, 'because it's standing.'
'All trees stand.'
'Not where this one stands,' said her mother, a tinge of irritation in her voice.
'Have you noticed the roots,' said Selkie. I looked down to see that the roots of the tree were laying only half under the ground, in fact the entire ground upon which we stood, the entire top of the knoll upon which the tree stood, was nothing more than a solid tangle of roots, raised veins with puddles of fallen leaves between. I looked up at Selkie, that seemed to be it, interesting roots.
'The roots are great,' said Stokes, 'they always were, but the man has a point. What do we do now?'
Selkie and her mother looked at each other. 'Give it a few minutes,' said Wilhelmina, 'they'll start looking elsewhere.'
'But they saw us run under here?' I said.
'But they can't see us now, soon they'll think they made a mistake.'
'Hopefully,' added Selkie.
'After that we can cut in through the village,' continued Wilhelmina, ignoring her daughter, 'and get to the car park.'
'I hate to tell you this,' I said, 'but I left my car keys in my coat pocket.'
'Then we will just have to go back via the pub.'
'Mother,' said Selkie, 'these aren't just ordinary policemen, they'll be watching the village, they'll be watching the pub, and they'll certainly be watching the car park.'
Wilhelmina looked as if she were about to argue for a moment, but then nodded, agreeing with her daughter.
'How long will the charm last?' asked Selkie.
'Only a few hours,' said her mother.
Stokes coughed, 'Your car keys may be with your coat,' he said to me, 'but do you happen to have a mobile phone on you?'
I reached into my jeans pocket, sure enough my mobile was there, I pulled it out and held it up.
'Then we'll just sit tight for an bit,' said Stokes, 'and call in the cavalry.'
Stokes took my phone from me and made a call.
'Hello boy, it's Stokes.'
'I know, I am borrowing someone else's phone.'
'In a bit of a tight spot actually, I was hoping you might be able to help us out in your inimitable style.'
'Vinny and Selkie and some friend of Selkie's.'
'Yes, I know.'
'What it is, is that we are in Avebury doing a little research, when we seem to have struck some bother of the law enforcement type.'
'Apparently not, no. This is, I should mention, not your average carabinieri.'
'So far just two suits packing pistols and, get this, a bloody helicopter. Though doubtless they will have friends on the way.'
'Since you mention it, yes, the helicopter was black, so we might well be talking governmental types here.'
'I didn't think it would.'
'That would be just the ticket.'
'We are currently laying low under the old standing tree.'
'Of course you do.'
'Well that is superb my friend, I shall see you then.'
'Yes I most certainly will.'
He snapped my phone shut between thumb and forefinger and handed it back to me. 'Relax ladies and gent,' he said, 'help is on the way.'
I looked at him quizzically, but he just smiled like he definitely was not going to tell me if I asked, so I did not ask. He sat down on the ground, and then lay down on his back with his hands behind his head. Selkie watched him, shook her head, and turned away. Wilhelmina stalked around the tree, she stopped opposite where Selkie was sitting, and for a moment it looked as if they were either going to apologise or continue their earlier argument, I could not tell which, but she just walked away and found herself somewhere to sit. I sat down with my back to the tree trunk, next to Selkie.
'I hope Tolly's okay,' she said.
'Tolly's the landlord?'
'Yes.'
'That was brave of him, what he did.'
'Either brave or stupid, I just hope he knew when to give up.'
'So do I.'
'I'm sorry to drag you into all this,' she said.
'It wasn't your fault.'
'It was though, I knew they might still be looking, I knew for sure after Stonehenge. I should have just had you drop me off and then send you home.'
'I wouldn't have gone.'
'I could have persuaded you,' she said. I wasn't sure what she meant.
I said 'you didn't know they'd pull guns and start shooting.' I was not sure what I would say if she disagreed.
'No,' she said, 'I didn't know that.' She turned to face me. 'It's been something of a whirlwind friendship so far hasn't it.'
I shuddered just a touch at the word 'friendship' and then inwardly chastised myself for acting like such a teenage girl. 'You could say that,' I said.
'I just did.'
I rolled my eyes and she laughed this quiet, breathy, gentle little laugh.
'You must have a lot of questions,' she said.
'Many, many questions' I said, 'and not a moment seems to go by without more forming.'
'Ask one.'
'One?'
'Well ask as many as you like but I promise now to answer one, absolutely straightforwardly and truthfully. You may only end up with more questions at the end but I will answer it. I If can.'
'One question?' I said.
'Yes.'
'And you won't sidetrack me, or prevaricate, or equivocate, or answer something else.'
'Promise.'
'Okay then, one question¦'
'Yes.'
'Pfinnenwinken?'
Selkie laughed again, holding her lips shut with her hand to keep it quiet. A huge grin spread across her face and finally she said 'I knew there was a reason I liked you.'
I'll admit it, I liked it a lot hearing her say that.
'Answer the question,' I said.
'It's my name,' she said, 'unlike most surnames I got it from my mother,' she lowered her voice and said 'dad and her are very much separated.' She looked back to see if her mother was taking any interest but evidently she was not. 'He lives in Rotterdam now,' Selkie continued, 'I see him two or three times a year. I don't know what the name means or where it comes from, but both it and my forename were the bane of my life at school so thank you very much for bringing it up again.'
'I quite like it,' I said, 'it's unusual.'
'You must have more questions.'
'Yes,' I said, 'but not the sort that would make you like me.'
'Go on, you have a free pass, one question and I absolutely will not judge you for asking it.'
'Okay,' I said, 'the black goat?'
The smile vanished from her face. 'Well you're right,' she said after a moment, 'that's the one I didn't want to answer.'
I said nothing, but I smiled apologetically.
'The Black Goat is very bad juju,' said Selkie, 'they're a sect, a druid sect.'
'Druids?' I said, 'as in long beards and dancing around stone circles.'
'Sometimes,' she said. 'Druids are normally okay, just another bunch of new age pot heads looking for something spiritual to base their lives around. But the Black Goat is, well radicalised, to use the parlance of our times.'
'Radicalised?'
'There's always been an element of¦ sacrifice to druid rituals. Normally that's just harvest festival stuff. Chickens if you're bad-ass enough. The Black Goat are more into that side of it than most.'
'Is this like devil worship?'
'No. Druids predate religion by millennia. They're sacrificing to the earth mother that sort of thing, Not that that means anything.'
'It doesn't.'
'You sacrifice to yourselves. Every ritual, from the first slaughtered cow to the sacrament that will be given tomorrow morning in churches around the country. It's a sacrifice to those who are present for it, it's them it empowers.' She stopped. 'I said empowers didn't I?'
'Yes you did.'
'God! You can't debunk newage crap without using the bloody language, it's like a disease, you touch it once and you're stuck with it forever.'
'I can't say it really bothered me.'
'Well it bothered me, I read the telegraph,' she said, 'have you ever heard someone who reads the telegraph say empower?'
'I sometimes do their crossword,' I said.
'I figured you as a Guardian man.'
'I would be,' I said, 'but I can't do the crossword.'
'I suppose that's as good a reason as any.'
I looked at my watch, 'it's nearly twenty minutes past again,' I said.
'Technically even if we peep out we risk breaking the charm.'
'How does it work?'
She held up her hand to silence me, and cocked her head to one side. 'Can you hear that,' she said.
I listened, there was a dull roar just penetrating the branches of the tree, 'the helicopter back again?' I suggested. Selkie shook her head.
Stokes sat up, turned to us, and said 'damn that was quick.'
Selkie relaxed but I kept listening, the noise waxed and waned but never disappeared, for about five minutes it seemed to come from all around us, sometimes it would concentrate from one direction, sometimes another, but always there was this low thrum that seemed to rise up from the very earth. I ducked down, to try and see beneath the branches, but could make out nothing through the grey veil of the rain. Then, just after the noise had seemed to rise to a crescendo and drop again, I saw the dark silhouette of a figure outside the tree, it appeared out of the rain and before I could make even a sound of surprise pulled back the branches and entered.
The effect was sudden and dramatic, the moment this figure penetrated the tree he brought the noise with him, the dull roar clarified into what was very clearly the sound of several motorbike engines, I could hear the rain drumming on the earth again, and I could see out even between the branches where I could not see before.
The figure was dressed in a black leathers and carrying a motorbike helmet, he was completely bald and had a large bushy tangled beard. The thing I noticed most of all was how much of him there was, there was a lot, he was about six foot five up and nearly that across.
Stokes jumped up and shook the man by the hand. 'That was bloody fast,' he said.
'Well it sounded like you was in a little trouble,' said the man, 'so we may have bent a few speeding laws on the way.'
Stokes turned around and said 'everyone, this is Corner.'
Wilhelmina stepped up and kissed the man on both cheeks. 'Thank you for coming,' she said.
'Vinny you know,' said Stokes, 'this is her daughter Selkie and Selkie's friend Mitchell.'
'We have met before,' said the man to Selkie, 'but you weren't knee high at the time so I doubt you remember.'
'Pleased to meet you anyway,' said Selkie, and exactly as her mother had done kissed the man on both cheeks. I extended my hand to be shook where it felt like a child's in his.
'Right then,' said Corner, 'we've had a look around and you've got two goons watching the car park, another two in the village, and another two standing out in the rain by the pub.'
'Is Tolly alright?' said Wilhelmina.
Corner laughed. 'He's fine, holed up in there like it was the bloody Alamo. Wasn't half glad to see us I'll tell you.'
'Thank god,' whispered Selkie.
'So what I've done is, I've got a few of the boys trailing each of these bastards like they was a bad smell. Whatever they want to do my boys is under strict instruction not to let them. What we did not see, is any helicopter, but I figure it may well have gone off and refuelled.'
'How long will that take?' asked Stokes.
'Depends,' said Corner, 'if they is military affiliated there's enough army bases round here they could be back in no time, if not, they might have to go as far as Bristol.'
'Corner is ex special forces,' said Stokes.
'Stokes is telling an untruth,' said Corner, 'I is ex regular army nothing more, but I know some guys.' He stopped mid flow and looked at us. 'Is you lot all right,' he said, 'you looks froze to the bone.'
It was not until he said this that I realised I was shivering, I looked across and noticed that Selkie, Wilhelmina and Stokes were all shivering too, we were all soaking wet.
'It's the charm,' said Wilhelmina, 'you broke it when you gave away our location.'
'Never mind that,' said Corner, 'we need to get you somewhere warm quick. My sister's got a place near Swindon we can be in five minutes. You all got your own transport.'
'We need to get coats and car keys from the pub,' I said.
'No problem,' he said, he took off his leather jacket and wrapped it around Wilhelmina and then pulled apart the branches of the tree and shouted down to the road 'One of you go get their stuff from the pub, and you three give us your jackets these poor buggers is colder and wetter than a bunch of fucking Africans gone for a swim off Skegness.'
