Steadman swayed on the brink, the full power of the Spear now flowing through him. Something had made him cling to the holy weapon as the corpse had fallen away from it, something that had told him he was now the bearer of the ancient talisman, that he now held the key to revelations sought by those who yearned for power and glory. In the flames he saw a mighty battle taking place, a cosmic war between hierarchies of Light and Darkness, a mighty struggle between Good and Evil powers to control the destiny of mankind. It waged before him, a battle that was eternal, neither in the past nor in the future, but always in the present.
Holly screamed his name, seeing his body sway on the edge of the pit, knowing his skin was already being seared by the fire. She tried to reach him but found it impossible to move. She could only watch as he raised his arms above his head, holding something that had a tapering point, something wicked. A blue glow seemed to effuse from the object, an energy she could see clearly against the background of roaring yellow flames. It moved down his arms, flowing like incandescent water, encompassing his body, spreading to his lower limbs, and she saw his body quiver with some strange elation.
Holly called his name again and tried to crawl towards him in an attempt to drag him back from the fire. His body became rigid, and she wondered if he had heard her. She heard him shout as though in anger. He stretched his body back and with an effort that seemed to take all his strength, he hurled the object into the pit.
The flames swallowed the Spear, and Steadman knew it would melt in the inferno. He prayed its powers would melt with it.
The fire suddenly lost its intensity, became cold, frozen yellow tentacles rising from the deep shaft, the wind scarcely influencing their straight path into the sky; and it was the chill that drove Steadman back from the edge, not the heat.
Holly ran to him and for a moment his eyes were strange, looking down at her as though he did not know her, as though he did not know the world she was in. Then recognition flooded back and he held her to him in a grip that threatened to crush her; but she held on to him, returning the pressure, loving him and feeling his love.
The blazing heat returned, pouring from the pit like an explosion, and they moved back, away from its scorching blast. He leaned against her, now feeling the pain in his blistered face, the wound in his arm. But it was welcome pain, for it was real. It was something he could understand.
They held each other close as the first of the soldiers reached them, watching the flames rise into the sky, and they were suddenly aware of the distant droning of an aircraft in the deep, night air. The Marine Commando wondered why the dishevelled couple’s upturned faces were smiling.
The Spear
James Herbert is not just Britain’s number one bestselling writer of chiller fiction, a position he has held ever since publication of his first novel, but is also one of our greatest popular novelists, whose books are sold in thirty-three foreign languages, including Russian and Chinese. Widely imitated and hugely influential, his twenty-three novels have sold more than forty-eight million copies worldwide.
Also by James Herbert
The Rats
The Fog
The Survivor
Fluke
The Dark
Lair
The Jonah
Shrine
Domain
Moon
The Magic Cottage
Sepulchre
Haunted
Creed
Portent
The Ghosts of Sleath
’48
Others
Once
Nobody True
Graphic Novels
The City
(Illustrated by Ian Miller)
Non-fiction
By Horror Haunted
(Edited by Stephen Jones)
James Herbert’s Dark Places
(Photographs by Paul Barkshire)
First published 1978 by New English Library
This edition published 2000 by Macmillan
This electronic edition published 2011 by Macmillan
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ISBN 978-1-447-20326-1 EPUB
Copyright © James Herbert 1978
The right of James Herbert to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
The author and publisher wish to thank Hugh Trevor-Roper and Weidenfeld (Publishers) Ltd, and Herman Rauschning and Eyre and Spottiswoode (Publishers) Ltd (as successors to Thornton Butterworth Ltd) for their kind permission to quote from Hitler's Table Talk and Hitler Speaks respectively.
For permission to quote from the Revised Standard Version Bible, published by Collins Publishers, we wish to thank the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA.
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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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