Evil Star
leather-bound book, lying on a table. It was obviously very old. A hand reached forward and began to turn the pages, showing them to be thick and uneven, covered Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star with writing and intricate draw-ings that had been made with an ink pen or perhaps even a quill. Matt had seen something very like it at school. The history teacher had brought in pictures of a fifteenth-century book of poetry rescued from some castle. The letters had been drawn so carefully that each one was a miniature artwork.
Many of the pages in the book were the same.
"Some people are already describing it as the find of a lifetime," the commentator explained. "It was written by St. Joseph of Cordoba, a Spanish monk who traveled with Pizarro to Peru in 1532 and witnessed the destruction of the Inca empire. St. Joseph later came to be known as the Mad Monk of Cordoba. His diary, bound in leather and gold, may explain why."
The camera moved in closer on the pages. Matt could make out some of the words — but they were all in Spanish and meant nothing to him.
"The diary contains many remarkable predictions," the voice continued. "Although it was written almost five hun-dred years ago, it describes in detail the coming of motor cars, computers, and even space satellites. On one of the later pages, it manages to predict some sort of Internet, working inside the church."
Now the television program cut to a picture of a Spanish town and what looked like a huge fortress with a soaring bell tower, surrounded by narrow streets and markets.
"The diary was found in the Spanish city of Cordoba. It is believed that it had been buried in the courtyard of the tenth-century mosque known as the Mezquita and must have been unearthed during excavations. It passed into private hands and may have been sold many times before it was discovered in a market by an English Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star antiques dealer, William Morton."
Morton was in his fifties, plump, with silver hair and cheeks that had been burned by the sun. He was the sort of man who looked as if he enjoyed life.
"I knew at once what it was," he said. His accent was very English, very upper class. "Joseph of Cordoba was an interesting chap. He traveled with Pizarro and the conquis-tadors when they invaded Peru. While he was out there, he stumbled onto some sort of alternative history. Devils and demons . . . that sort of thing. And he wrote down every-thing he knew in here." He held up the diary.
"There are plenty of people out there who said that the diary didn't exist," he went on. "For that matter, there are people who think that Joseph himself didn't exist! Well, it looks as if I've proved them wrong."
"You're planning to sell the diary," the commenta-tor said.
“Yes, that's right. And I have to tell you that I've already had one or two quite interesting offers. A certain busi-nessman in South America — I'm not mentioning any names! — has already made an opening bid in excess of half a million pounds. And there are some people in London who seem very keen to meet me. It looks as if I may have an auction on my hands. .. ." He licked his lips with relish.
The camera cut back to the diary. More pages were being turned.
"If anyone can untangle the strange riddles, the often illegible handwriting, and the many scribbles, the diary could reveal a completely new mythology," the voice con-cluded. "St. Joseph had his own, very peculiar view of the world, and although some think he was mad, others call him a visionary and a genius. One thing is sure. William Morton has struck it lucky, and for him the book is Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star quite literally pure gold."
The pages were still turning. Fabian froze the image. Matt gasped.
At the very end of the film, the camera had rested on one page with handwriting — hundreds of tiny words com-pressed into narrow lines — at the top and the bottom. But in the middle there was a white space and a strange symbol. Matt recognized it at once.
He had seen it at Raven's Gate. It had been cut into the stone on which he had almost been killed. It was the sign of the Old Ones.
“You see?" Fabian said. He left the image frozen on the screen.
"We believe the diary will tell us the location of the sec-ond gate,"
Susan Ashwood said. "It may also tell us when, and how, it is supposed to open. But as you've heard, we aren't the only ones interested in it."
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