"Twice now you have mentioned the Helm. What is it?"
"Dense cloud, like a thunder-head. It sits as a bank, crouching over the top of Cross Fell. It does not move away, even when the wind sweeping from the top of the fell is strong enough in Milburn to overturn carts and uproot trees. Anna says that it is the source of the fiends."
Darwin nodded slowly. The two men rode on in silence for a while, both deep in thought.
"Nothing you have said so far suggests the usual mental diseases," Darwin said at last. "But the human mind is more complicated than we can guess. Tell me, has your wife any other fears or fancies? Any other fuel for her beliefs?"
"Only more legends." Thaxton shrugged apologetically. "There are other legends of the fell. According to the writings of Thomas of Appleby, in Roman times a great king, Odirex, or Odiris, lived in the high country of the fells. He acquired a great treasure. Somehow, he used it to banish the Romans from that part of the country, completely, so that they never returned."
"What was his treasure?"
"The legend does not tell. But according to Thomas of Appleby, Odirex hid his treasure on Cross Fell. Local folk say that it is there to this day, guarded by the fiends of the fell. Anna says that she has seen the guardians; that they are not of human form; and that they live on Cross Fell yet, and will sometime come down again."
Darwin had listened to this very closely, and was now sitting upright on the hard seat of the carriage. "A strange tale, indeed, and one that I have not heard before in all my reading of English myth and legend, Odirex, eh? A name to start trains of thought, if we will but remember our Latin. Odii Rex--the King of Hate. What else does Thomas of Appleby have to say about the King of Hate's Treasure?"
"Only that it was irresistible. But surely, Dr. Darwin, you are not taking these tales seriously? They are but the instruments that are turning my wife's mind away from sanity."
"Perhaps." Darwin relaxed and hunched low in his seat. "Perhaps. In any case, I would have to see your wife to make any real decision as to her condition."
)
18th century physician Erasmus Darwin, grandfather to Charles, travels to the small town of Milburn in the north of England to determine the sanity of a woman who claims to see the ghostly Fiends of Cross Fell ... and discovers a hidden chapter of English history.
