The Black Madonna (The Mystique Trilogy) (47 page)

‘I realise that, but this is important. Ask Taejax to meet me in the cavern of Mamer as soon as possible.’ Now I had only to convince the Amenti team to allow me to take Dracon into Signet Station One.

‘It will be done,’ Lugh said, although he still looked perplexed.

‘My Lady Sud,’ I said to Ninlil, using her true name, not the one Ill had given her.

The lady fell to her knees before me. ‘I am so ashamed, Your Majesty. My family have disgraced all the Anu.’

‘You did not choose your role in this, Lady Sud, it was thrust upon you,’ I told her. It was true: Ill had raped her and impregnated her and, due to his royal lineage, they were encouraged to wed. Another three rapes later, she had given Ill four sons to corrupt, and corrupt them he had. ‘You are blameless, and a blessing to this universe because there is no warrior in you. Still, you may yet be of service to the plan, so don’t go anywhere.’

‘Whatever you wish of me, Your Majesty,’ she said, and rose to her feet.

I turned my attention back to Lugh. ‘I will be back for the rod and ring presently.’

‘Very good, Your Highness.’

As I turned to depart I realised there was someone missing. ‘I was advised that Mathu might be with you?’

‘I have not seen him recently, Your Highness,’ he said with a frown. ‘I will send a scout to hunt him out, but I feel sure there is no cause for alarm.’

‘Many thanks. I shall feel better knowing he is aware of our return.’

‘I shall ensure he knows.’ Lugh bowed.

I didn’t feel so sure of Mathu’s safety; I had a horrid feeling in my gut that something was amiss with him. As I was bound to report back to Denera before pursuing my quest, I would ask her to consult the Hall of Records as to Mathu’s current whereabouts.

‘Not found,’ was the Hall of Records’ response.

‘Is that because all information about Mathu was hacked out of the system in the past?’ I asked Denera, who still stood inside the green light-tube of the control platform.

‘No,’ she said, surprised. ‘Since his reappearance, the Hall of Records has been tracking him fine. Just a moment and I’ll request to see his whereabouts the last time he was recorded as present on Earth.’

Mathu’s image appeared on the walls of the liquid-light chamber: he was entering the Amenti complex’s antechamber from the porthole that led into Lugh’s realms, with the Rod and Ring of Power in his possession.

I gasped in delight to see him again; it had been so long that his image had blurred in my memory. But as I watched him cross the chamber towards the porthole to Irkalla, I began to panic. ‘No! What are you doing? Please, no…I am no longer there!’ But I was powerless to prevent him entering the porthole to the Underworld. Tears trickled silently down my face. ‘When was this?’ I asked Denera.

‘This morning,’ she advised soberly, for she knew the news would sting.

‘Right before we arrived,’ I said flatly. ‘I must go after him.’

‘There is no way I’m going to let you venture into Irkalla again,’ Denera said. But I could be insistent too.

‘What choice do you have? Who can you send who is more capable or experienced than me?’

Denera shut off the light-tube and stepped down from her control panel; she looked affronted. ‘May I remind you that with all your skill
and know-how we have had to rescue you twice from the Underworld, and there’s too much going on right now for me to allocate resources to retrieve you again!’

I humbled myself, which had always been difficult for me since my reunion with Kali. ‘My apologies, great lady. I meant no offence and I realise I owe you all so much more than I will ever be able to repay.’

‘You do not owe us anything, child, bar your trust in us to handle this,’ she advised more gently. ‘You have other pressing concerns to take care of.’

I nodded, for she was right: I was far too emotionally involved to be able to think clearly where Mathu was concerned. Denera promised to keep me updated, and advised that she had summoned Dexter and Polaris to aid me with my quest, which I now needed to make the centre of my focus.

This was difficult, for I knew that back in that other time line it was I who had arranged for Lugh to bring me the rod and ring in Irkalla. I suspected that Mathu had anticipated an ambush and had taken the rod and ring into Irkalla early, to prevent Lugh being captured or injured during the handover. Mathu’s heroic, misguided actions were my fault; he was being tortured right now and once again I was the reason.

Denera saw my despondency. ‘Trust in the universal will that has brought you this far,’ she said. ‘We will prevail.’

I wanted to believe her, but after such a long and arduous struggle it was becoming harder and harder to believe that the inter-time war would ever end.

‘How can you be so sure?’ I asked. ‘It seems that every time we take a step forward towards our goal, our adversaries shift time and the goal posts move further away.’

‘Not today.’ Denera reminded me that I had made extraordinary progress in the past twenty-four hours. ‘Today, for the first time ever, the staff of Amenti has a full complement of players, and in this game unity is everything.’

M
IA
D
EVERE
—MERIDAN

As consciousness slowly took hold, I felt as though I was emerging from a long, intense nightmare. My first thought was for my daughter: I longed to hold her, speak with her and know how she fared. Instead, an image of Ereshkigal’s farewell filled my mind:
Take care of Killian
.

Why am I dreaming?
I wondered.
I must wake!

‘Killian!’ I said, and my eyes shot open and I sat upright. I was on one of the lounges on the bridge of the
Klieo.

‘Right here,’ a male voice said, and I looked over to a lounge against the far wall of the flight deck, where Killian sat next to my husband.

‘You blacked out, and I figured Killian was the first person you’d want to see upon waking,’ Arcturus said with a shrug, ‘so I took the liberty of fetching him for you.’

‘Praise the goddess.’ I drew a deep breath to quell the momentary fear that I’d slept too long and missed Killian’s departure for Irkalla.

‘I adore you sometimes,’ I told my husband, as he approached and crouched before me. I knew Killian wasn’t his favourite person.

‘Only sometimes?’ he challenged.

‘All the time,’ I admitted, and gave him a kiss.

‘Ditto,’ he smiled.

‘Where’s Tamar?
How
is Tamar?’ I asked, and when his smile didn’t waver my heart was lightened of worry.

‘She has matured,’ he began, ‘and is more single-bloody-minded than ever.’

‘But her emotional state?’ That was my real concern.

‘She’s been hardened by her experiences,’ Arcturus admitted, ‘but she is strong and not embittered. If anything, she has found her compassion.’

I breathed a little easier; after such a long season in hell, I had expected my daughter’s state of mind to be worse.

‘She’s off on a mission already,’ Arcturus continued. ‘She says she has a plan to nullify any Dracon resistance we may encounter.’

Polaris suddenly manifested before us. ‘Have I been here before?’ he asked.

‘What?’ Arcturus said, confused, and Polaris gave a laugh.

‘I can do it in reverse!’ he said, looking mighty pleased with himself. ‘Thank you, that was incredibly helpful…I am a
happy
man.’

He walked out, leaving us baffled.

‘So he can teleport too?’ I said.

Arcturus looked rather put out. ‘That’s
my
thing.’

‘Oh well, at least he can’t crush reinforced metal with his bare hands.’ I ruffled my husband’s hair to console him.

‘Hi there.’ Polaris strolled in again. ‘Good to see you awake,’ he commented.

What?
I thought. ‘Thanks.’

‘Don’t mind me,’ he said, looking rather excited and nervous.

‘Is something the matter, Captain?’ I enquired.

‘I think I may have finally discovered my psychic forté.’

‘Better late than never, I guess,’ Arcturus jeered. Polaris was the last of us to discover his gift.

‘I’m just going to try it out, if that’s okay with you guys.’ He held up a finger and vanished.

‘Does this conversation seem a little arse-about to you?’ Killian said, coming over to join us. ‘I don’t think Polaris needs the
Klieo
to time-travel any more.’

‘What!’ Arcturus looked shocked, but impressed.

‘So does this mean Polaris is coming back, or was the first time he appeared the end of this conversation?’ Killian said.

I had to laugh—my life was truly absurd.

Polaris appeared again and startled us all.

‘Did I go anywhere?’ he said. ‘Or did you teleport?’ He pointed to Killian, which made me laugh again.

Killian shook his head. ‘You moved a few minutes forward in time.’

Polaris clapped his hands together and did a happy dance, then froze. ‘Hey, I wonder if I can go backwards too.’

‘You can,’ Arcturus said, sounding bored.

‘I’ll give it a go.’ Polaris closed his eyes to focus and vanished.

He reappeared almost instantly and pointed to Killian again. ‘You’re still over here? Ooops, wrong way.’

‘Will you please just leave?’ Arcturus snapped, losing patience with the exercise.

‘Out of here!’ Polaris held up both hands in defence and vanished.

‘That could become really annoying,’ Arcturus grumbled, taking a seat on the lounge beside me.

‘No more annoying than having you pop in when I’m finally getting cosy with Ereshkigal,’ Killian retorted.

‘Very cosy,’ Arcturus advised me.

I felt the need to go into lecture mode. ‘Killian, that’s the one taboo you can’t break—’

‘I know, I know,’ he cut in, sounding frustrated, ‘we belong to different soul groups. But if we never have any offspring then what’s the problem? We are still evolving!’

‘Sweetie…’ I rubbed my forehead, wondering how I could break this to him. ‘This is the eve of the end of our days here on Earth, so offspring from an illicit affair really isn’t your problem. Once the porthole in Amenti is opened, humanity are all going home to Tara via Amenti. The Anu are going home to Sirius B to the rest of their soul group, via the Hall of Amorea. The chances of you and Ereshkigal finding each other in the Ranna time flow are pretty slim.’

‘But there are Anunnaki on Tara—that’s how this whole mess got started!’ Killian said stubbornly.

‘Not in Tara’s past, which is where you’re bound.’

My wording made Killian curious. ‘You’re not going there? To Tara’s past, I mean?’

‘No, we Ceres belong to Tara’s Otherworldly realms,’ I explained. ‘You could say we are timeless in nature.’

Killian smiled. ‘So I could still find you all, if I tried hard enough?’

‘Heaven forbid!’ Arcturus rolled his eyes, but I could tell he was starting to warm to Killian.

Killian returned to his lounge and collapsed onto it. ‘What a shit about Ereshkigal. But there must be something that can be done! I mean, surely the Lord of the Earth…’

I shook my head. ‘It is beyond the Sanat Kumara’s jurisdiction in the cosmic scheme of things. Killian, can’t you trust in the plan of the Sovereign Integral, who is infinitely wiser—’

‘No!’ Killian was on his feet again. ‘God got it wrong! Damn it all!’ He looked as if he wanted to kick something. ‘Why can’t I be one of the Anu?’ He slumped back onto the sofa to sulk.

‘Was the last saviour this moody?’ Arcturus said in an aside to me.

‘Way worse.’ My thoughts turned to how we were going to keep Killian safe. ‘We need to take him into the Amenti complex.’

‘No,’ Arcturus said, for obvious security reasons.

‘But he’s a sitting duck anywhere else,’ I countered.

‘Lovely!’ Killian didn’t appreciate my comment. ‘I’m not completely without influence, you know.’

‘Denera suggests that we hide him in Murias until after the SAC alignment has passed,’ Arcturus said in a lowered voice, but Killian still overheard.

‘That’s one of Lugh’s capitals! A lot of help I’m going to be during the forthcoming crisis locked away inside an Otherworldly palace!’

‘You’ve done your part, Killian,’ I implored him. ‘You’ve raised consciousness on Earth way beyond anyone’s expectations. But if Ill gets his Orme spike into you, he’s going to take all your power, including your ability to braid and unbraid your DNA. That will grant him access to the Halls of Amenti and the Signet Grid…and then we can kiss goodbye to evolution in all five harmonic universes.’

Killian’s jaw dropped. ‘You talk about this like it’s already happened.’

‘It
has
already happened and we’re here to change it,’ I told him. ‘I promised Ereshkigal that I wouldn’t let you die again.’

Killian perked up suddenly. ‘You did? She mourned me?’

I nodded, and Arcturus nudged me in warning. ‘Don’t encourage him,’ he said. ‘And you wonder why the lad is confused!’

My husband was right, but, deep down, I too thought that the Sovereign Integral might have got it wrong in this case.

‘So you’ll go to Murias?’ I asked Killian.

‘Will Ereshkigal be there?’ His grin broadened.

‘Probably,’ Arcturus said. ‘At least, she accompanied Tamar to go and see Lamhfada.’

Killian felt bound by his Earthly obligations. ‘Do you know what I had to go through to get the Peace Project into the Vatican City? We open tonight!’

‘Tomorrow we’ll end the Kali rift and all the destruction will be undone,’ Arcturus said. But when Killian still looked uncertain, he put his foot down. ‘I’ll let you loose on surface Earth over my dead body, so…’ He shrugged and raised his eyebrows to await a response.

‘Murias,’ Killian said, not keen on a fistfight with my husband and his recently discovered super-strength. ‘Sounds like a plan.’

We delivered Killian to Lugh Lumhfada’s palace, then followed the Anu leader back towards the porthole, as he’d been called to an emergency meeting with Amenti’s staff in the Hall of Records.

‘What’s happening?’ Killian asked. He wasn’t parting company with us until he knew what the emergency was.