Tablet of Destinies (34 page)

The Governor and his Vice were going through the palace food store records when Neriada and Cadwell manifested with a withered figure of a man.

As Brian observed his Leonine personage, he couldn't recall ever appearing so puny. The man had
wasted away in the mines. ‘Tyrus-Leon?' Brian fetched a chair for the fellow to sit on.

‘Sorry we took so long.' Cadwell held the Leonine warrior in a standing position until the chair arrived. ‘It took a little while to clean him up.'

‘I'm alright,' Tyrus grumbled and slapped away their helping hands once he was seated. He was having a little trouble focusing in the brightly lit room, but he strained his eyes, determined to see the Lord who had taken the name of Lahmu. ‘Which of you has assumed control of Nugia?'

‘I am in charge here, Tyrus.' Brian knelt before his past-life incarnation, completely captivated by himself.

‘Hold still.' Tyrus grabbed Brian's face and concentrated all his efforts on viewing him.

The Leonine revolutionary did not cower in the presence of his immortal company. His years in slavery had obviously curbed his fear of death, and Brian had to admire his courage.

As Tyrus' focus suddenly sharpened and he saw himself in the Lord's face, the Leonine nearly fell backwards off his chair.

‘Take it easy.' Brian gripped the seat before it tipped off balance. ‘I know I must be a shock —'

‘What have you done with Samara?' Tyrus found his strength as he lunged forward and latched both hands around Brian's neck.

‘Samara and Adair are both fine,' Brian uttered hoarsely, as Neriada and Cadwell pulled the Leonine off him and sat him down. ‘Why should my appearance cause you concern for your wife?'

Tyrus seemed to be pacified by the innocent question, but fixed Brian with a killer glare. ‘If you've touched her, God or no, I
will
kill you.'

‘Oh yeah,' smirked Rhun, as he looked at his uncle. ‘He's you alright.'

‘Leave us.' Brian bade his company farewell, wanting to get to the bottom of the Leonine's distrust of him. He'd rather expected to get along better with himself.

‘You've chosen her, haven't you?' Tyrus accused Brian, as soon as they were alone in the room. When Brian only frowned, the Leonine said: ‘She is the one in which you shall plant your seed.'

Brian was caught off guard by the comment. ‘How do you know about that?'

‘Goddamn it!' Tyrus raised himself. ‘I knew it!'

‘No!' Brian realised the misunderstanding. ‘Nothing beyond conversation has transpired between Samara-Leon and myself,' he swore solemnly, and the irate husband calmed a little and reseated himself. ‘I meant, how did you know about the prophecy? That is what you were quoting just now.'

‘Aye,' Tyrus nodded, still wary of his tail-less lookalike. ‘Down in the pit of hell I had … visitations, from heavenly Lords.'

He seemed uncomfortable naming his source, which was most amusing to Brian, for he knew how awkward he would've felt admitting the same. Still, Brian's expression remained quite serious. ‘Go on.'

‘When I was told the prophecy, I asked who would mother this Chosen child?' Tyrus appeared angered as he recalled the celestial entity's response. ‘Lahmu will
mirror in image a member of my tribe, the being told me. And the wife of the Leonine that the God reflects will mother the next race of my breed.' He was gritting his teeth to endure the meaning of his confession. ‘Why did you have to look like me?' he snarled angrily.

‘Do you think I am happy about this? I'd never even heard of Lahmu a couple of weeks ago, and now I am him! My wife will skin me alive for such an indiscretion as the legend demands and that is why I have no intention of complying.'

‘But you must!' Tyrus protested, unexpectedly. ‘Or our race will never be able to defend itself against the Nefilim.'

‘By the time the Chosen are finished with the Pantheon, you will no longer have that worry.' Brian was quite determined about that.

‘Then … who shall defend us from you?' Tyrus knew it was a loaded question, but it had to be asked.

Strangely enough, Brian did not take offence, but rather, realised how unfair the situation was — a small twist of fate and Brian might have found himself appealing to Tyrus to set Homo sapiens free from their mortal coil.

‘I agree, it must be done,' Brian admitted, shyly, ‘but there need be no intimate issue between Samara and myself, we have the technology —'

‘No way!' Tyrus stood to insist. ‘I won't have you experimenting with creation inside my wife. I have seen some of the mutants that have emerged from the genetic labs of the Nefilim, so you can
forget it
. It must be done the old-fashioned way.' Tyrus could hardly believe what
he was demanding. ‘Goddamn it!' He turned from Brian to curb his frustration. Tyrus knew it was pointless to insist Lahmu pick another Leonine woman to impregnate, because any other female would not be the one chosen by creation and the wrong upbringing could spell disaster for his race.

‘Don't you think we should discuss what we know with Samara, before we make any presumptions on her behalf?' Brian felt it would be only fair to her.

Tyrus turned back to Brian, a hopeless look of resignation upon his face. ‘It is not for us to question the will of the Logoi.'

 

On Tarazean, the Bil-me was guided into the interstellar landing dock of Nannar and Ningal's capital city. The pirates became very uneasy when air traffic control then directed their craft to a huge teleporter plate, which promptly spirited the pirate ship to the Town Square.

Due to the harsh sandstorms on the pretty purple planet, every section of the city was shielded from the external elements. The roof of Town Square was a force-field spanning several triangular conductors that towered high over city central in a pyramid formation. This allowed a view of the swirling winds of purple sand, obscuring the midnight sky, caught by the light illuminating the event taking place in the heart of the city below. The thousands of Chosen refugees from Kila had assembled to show the crew of the Bil-me their appreciation for the thwarting of Nergal's most sinister blackmail threat against their Governor. The rest of the masses gathered represented all the human races; they
were present to commend the pirates for saving many of their youth. Nannar and Ningal waited to greet the Falcon crew at the opposing end of a long golden carpet, the other end of which began at the platform outside the exit hatch of their craft. The golden carpet travelled through the crowd to the royal stage in the middle of the square.

‘I wasn't expecting this kind of reception.' Hawk observed the assembly on the soft-screen that monitored external events. ‘I thought we'd be quietly dropping the kids off and then slipping away into the night.'

‘Nova needs heroes to keep the listeners motivated for Lahmu's forthcoming rebellion.' Raven voiced his suspicions. ‘I'll bet he set this up.'

‘Well, there's no way I am going out there,' Crow protested, recognising the other Nefilim female who was standing by Nannar and Ningal. ‘That's Inanna, and she eats guys like us for breakfast!'

‘In your dreams, maybe,' Chook teased, eager to get amongst the celebrations outside — he'd never seen so many beautiful women assembled in one place.

‘Don't worry, Crow,' Tory pouted. ‘I'll protect you.' She hit the hatch switch and it vanished, giving the men little chance to escape their heroes' welcome.

As their young multi-racial entourage raced out of the craft ahead of the pirates, a deafening cheer arose from the crowd and even Seagull, who rarely left his kitchen, was enticed out onto the platform to accept the accolades.

The crew descended the stairs of the golden walkway to ground level, where the crowds lined the pathway to
the Gods. Tory walked alongside Hawk, feeling secure in her Falcon disguise, when a young man of the Chosen reached beyond the crowd barricade to grab her hand.

‘Grandmother?' The lad queried her with a hopeful desperation in his voice. ‘It's
me
, Asher.'

‘Do I remind you of someone?' She stopped and looked at him, not recognising him at all.

‘Oh yes, Nin,' the fair-haired, blue-eyed youth advised. ‘My grandmother, the great Tory Alexander, has been missing for some time and her kindred fear that she has met with foul play.' He looked at the dark-quilled pirate captain, who came to a stop beside the white Falcon woman he addressed. ‘Grandfather?' Asher was even more astounded, and lowered his voice to a whisper. ‘Is this some sort of undercover op?'

Tory's jaw nearly hit the ground when she realised the implications of what the lad was saying. ‘So Hawk resembles the Chosen One known as the Dragon, is that what you're saying?'

Asher was perplexed by her question, but nodded. ‘Spitting image.'

‘The Nefilim are waiting,' Raven reminded the captain.

‘En Floyd!' exclaimed the lad, his eyes nearly popping out of his head as he spied yet another of his kinsmen disguised as a Falcon.

‘Sorry?' Raven looked to Tory, but the name meant nothing to her.

‘What's the hold-up?' Chook backed up to find out, not game to proceed to the royal stage without the captain.

‘En Daniel,' Asher mumbled, going white as a sheet. This was just too much of a coincidence. ‘What is going on?'

‘Shh,' Tory urged the young stranger, before looking at Hawk. ‘I think we should bring him with us.'

‘It's your call,' the captain granted.

‘No.' Asher backed away, suddenly spooked. ‘If you're not my grandmother, I'm not going anywhere with you.' He ducked into the crowd and was lost.

‘Forget him,' Hawk insisted, when Tory moved to pursue the lad, and he tapped her on the head to remind her of her brain and talents. ‘He'll be easy enough for you to find, if you will it.'

Accepting his reasoning, Tory committed the lad's image to memory and followed the fellows to meet the guardians of Tarazean.

Crow and Seagull had nearly made it to the stage and slowed their advance to wait for the rest of the crew to catch them up. Before they had even begun their climb up the stairs to the royal stage, the Goddess Inanna came floating down towards them.

‘Oh damn.' Crow wanted to retreat, but his male ego managed to keep him rooted to the spot.

Zabeel?
She paused a short distance from them to observe Seagull more closely, and Crow breathed a sigh of relief when he discovered that she was not interested in him.

‘Sorry, Highness.' The huge Delphinus humbled himself before her, bowing his head low. ‘I have no knowledge of ever having made your acquaintance before.'

Inanna gasped, immediately moved to tears.
By some miracle have you forgotten your childhood, Zabeel?
She knew her own stepson, even if he was fifty years older now.

‘I have, Majesty,' he replied, surprised.

Her eyes closed to give silent praise to Anu for undoing the frightful lies she'd told this soul about his parents. As Zabeel had been led back into her fold by fate, Inanna felt this was a sure sign that Anu had forgiven her for her heinous crimes and awarded her a second chance to set history straight.

‘If you know something of my past, I pray that you enlighten me, Majesty,' Seagull appealed, hoping he would not be reprimanded for speaking out of turn. ‘I have so long wondered about my origins that I would give my life to know who I am.' His plea choked him up and for the first time that he could recall, the Delphinus shed a tear.

Inanna opened her eyes and smiled at her long lost step-son.
You are far more than you seem, Zabeel,
she informed him warmly as she closed the distance between them.
And it will be my redemption to tell you the whole truth about your origins.

‘Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle,' Crow commented under his breath, as the eight-foot tall Goddess embraced the sobbing cook.

As the reception seemed to have shifted to the bottom of the stage stairs, Ningal and Nannar descended to join their guests.

Is he the one?
Ningal asked her daughter, as she floated to a stop beside her, and Inanna nodded proudly.

May we be excused, we have much to …
Inanna was
stumped as she spotted Hawk.
Dragon?
she asked, with enough heartfelt delight to make Tory feel a twinge of jealousy.

‘No, Majesty,' the captain advised, bowing his head. ‘But I have been told that both myself and my lady, Swan,' he motioned to Tory beside him, ‘bear a striking resemblance to the ex-Governor and Governess of Kila.'

That you do,
Inanna confirmed, and filled with sentiment by the coincidence, she shed a tear.
How wonderful that you found each other, yet again.

Hawk was touched by the Goddess' view, although he suspected he only understood the half of what she meant.

As her love for Hawk was vindicated, Tory was moved. Yet, she couldn't help but spare a thought for her true husband, of whom everyone else was so obviously fond. She realised that the soul of Maelgwn Gwynedd must also be akin to the Deva with whom she'd fallen in love. ‘Does no one know what has become of the Dragon and his woman, Majesties?' As soon as Tory had asked the question, she regretted pursuing the subject of her husband in Hawk's presence, for she felt the query drive a dagger through his heart.

Her interest in the Dragon confirmed in Hawk's mind what he'd known all along — that once returned to her own kind, Tory would not desire to be one of the Falcon kind any longer. The captain in no way resented her for her change of heart; he just didn't want to accept the fact that their brief love affair was over.

I'm afraid that even Nova has failed to turn up any information in that regard
. Inanna appeared saddened as she
gave them an update.
Maelgwn Gwynedd saved my soul from eternal damnation,
the Goddess said as she looked Tory straight in the eye.
Then he left on a quest to find his missing wife and has not been seen or heard from since.