The Black Madonna (The Mystique Trilogy) (50 page)

‘No treachery,’ Taejax replied. ‘These females are as real as you and I. Ill has been hiding their existence from us since our last uprising.’

This news was not well received, which was very much in our favour. But then Ruffinnic turned the tables on us again.

‘So when were you planning on telling the rest of us about this?’ he
said to Taejax. ‘Or were you going to keep this little secret all to yourselves?’

The general grabbed Jezabel’s arm, and I held Taejax back from jumping to her defence at once.

Jezabel looked deep into the warrior’s eyes. The angry expression on his face slowly melted into a soft smile of understanding. He went from demon to teddy bear in a matter of minutes, and allowed Jez to gently remove his hand from her arm.

‘This is the beginning of the end of our struggle here on Earth,’ she said, and her voice echoed around the silent cavern. ‘We will no longer live in the shadows, or be forced to commit atrocities in the name of survival. The meaningful life that has eluded each of you since your cold and lonely birth into this world is now within your reach!’

The mob cheered.

‘The Nefilim’s rule on Earth can come to an end before midnight—’ Jezabel’s words were drowned out by applause and catcalls. She paused to smile and then spoke more loudly, ‘And all you have to do to facilitate this process is…
absolutely nothing.
’ She let her hands drop to her sides to emphasise her point, and then laughed heartily as her adoring crowd chanted their support.

‘And you were worried,’ I said, looking at Dexter, who was grinning broadly.

‘I never thought I’d see the day when humans and Dracon were on the same page,’ he said as the crowd parted to make way for us to pass, Jezabel on General Ruffinnic’s arm.

‘The situation simply needed a woman’s touch,’ I replied. ‘Now, finally, the Dracon can know what it is to have the goddess in their lives.’

Taejax overheard my comment. ‘Thanks to you, I was lucky enough to know the goddess much sooner.’

The comment was so sweet and sincere that I had to give my old friend a hug. Arm in arm, we fell in behind the party making its way towards the portal to Giza.

M
IA
D
EVERE
—MERIDAN

Arcturus and I landed safely in the outer chamber of the Giza complex, not far behind Ill. The chamber was filled with Anu warriors and all the Amenti staff members not out on other missions. Everyone gasped to see that Ill had managed to take out Killian and now held the Staff of Amenti in his hand.

‘Meridan, how could you?’ Denera’s eyes filled with tears. Beside her stood Ereshkigal with daggers in her eyes.

‘I don’t understand it either,’ Arcturus said to me quietly as he set Mathu’s weary form to rest on the chamber floor.

‘Now, you all know I have to be nice in order to be here,’ Ill said in a girlish, patronising voice. ‘So don’t force me to clear a path into Amenti.’

Everyone quietly stepped aside as he requested.

As I watched the dark lord enter the holy of holies, I wanted to die. But I would not doubt what my gut instinct had told me. I got to my feet and pursued Ill as fast as I could.

He didn’t stop or look back as he entered the corridor containing the forty-nine symbols of Christ consciousness, which led to the passage to the Amenti complex. As Ill neared the end of the corridor, Killian’s spirit swept past me and remerged with his old form. I heard my sisters gasp as they followed behind me, and knew I was not the only one to see the apparition.

At the end of the corridor, instead of turning right towards the Amenti complex, Ill turned left and headed into the labyrinth.

‘Wait a second!’ he protested, not understanding why he was being sidetracked. ‘Where am I going?’

He began to squirm in an attempt to resist the force that had taken control of his body, and when he turned and tossed the Staff of Amenti to me, I could have died of happiness.

‘What’s going on?’ Denera demanded.

I smiled at her. ‘It’s Killian.’

‘What do you mean?’ Ereshkigal grabbed hold of me.

‘He begged us to let this happen,’ I tried to explain through tears of relief and excitement. ‘Killian said he could do this.’

‘Do what?’ Denera appealed.

‘I don’t really know,’ I confessed, as much in the dark as everyone else.

‘Where could he be taking him?’ Ereshkigal asked, unsure if she should be grieving or thrilled to know that Killian was still with us, in spirit at least.

We all gasped again as we saw Ill approach the Hall of Records.

‘You can fuck me gently with a chainsaw, but I’m not going in there,’ he yelled, and grabbed the doorframe in an attempt to resist entering. But he was no match for Killian and his body was forced inside.

T
AMAR
D
EVERE
—KALI

I was shocked when I entered the outer chamber at Giza to find my prince lying on the floor, whilst a crowd of our people cluttered up the route to Amenti.

‘Mathu!’ I dropped down beside him, my heart breaking as I saw that he looked half dead.

‘I’ll find out what’s going on,’ Polaris said, and headed into the crowd, Dexter hot on his heels.

‘I’m going to get these ladies to Murias,’ Taejax said quietly. He was the only Dracon at this stage evolved enough to withstand passage through Giza’s portholes.

‘All my best thoughts are with you in your quest this day, Mistress,’ Jezabel said, and blew me a kiss.

My other Draconesses did the same as they followed her and Taejax through the porthole to the Otherworld.

‘I will see you all on Sirius B, in the not too distant past,’ I vowed to them, grateful for their faith in me and their encouragement.

Mathu stirred as I cushioned his head in my lap and kissed his forehead gently. ‘Kali?’

‘Yes, my love,’ I replied, my cheek against his forehead. I was so thankful to be able to hold him in my arms and feel him close.

‘You must stop Ill,’ he said, and pointed towards the crowd of Anu warriors. ‘He has the Staff of Amenti.’

The news passed through me like a shockwave. As I looked towards the entrance to the Giza complex, Polaris came running out to give me a report.

‘Ill and Ki are fighting it out in the Hall of Records. It seems Killian finally figured out how to get both sides of his brain to operate at once—he’s channelling both the Sanat Kumara and Ill at the same time. Ki is trying to convince Ill that his dream of ruling over a shadow universe will never be. They keep running all the possible scenarios through the Hall of Records, but no matter how many times it predicts Ill’s destruction, Ill won’t consider the path of light.’

‘The Staff of Amenti, however, is back in our possession,’ said Solarian, who’d followed her partner.

My father and Levi put in an appearance soon after, looking as if they were on a mission.

‘What are you lot up to?’ I asked.

‘We want to do something nasty to Ill’s ship,’ my father said. ‘But I need to know what the control deck looks like, in order to teleport us there.’

He crouched beside me and I smiled, happy to assist. He placed a hand over my third-eye area and closed his eyes to receive the image of the control deck as Kali remembered it.

‘Thank you, sweetheart,’ he said, and kissed my forehead. ‘We’ll be back.’

As my father joined hands with his teammates, he warned Polaris, ‘Now be sure to let me do the driving or we’ll end up somewhere in World War II.’

Solarian and Levi looked amused, but Polaris wasn’t so happy. They vanished before I could catch his retort.

‘I fear Ill will never choose the path of light by choice,’ Mathu said, sitting up and gazing into my eyes. ‘He’s never loved anything.’ He leaned close to kiss me, but I jumped up. ‘Sud!’ I cried. ‘We have to go.’

Mathu suppressed his disappointment and dragged his long-suffering body to its feet to accompany me on one last tiny quest.

A
SHLEE
G
RANVILLE-DEVERE
—SOLARIAN

On the control deck of Ill’s mother ship we were confronted by half a dozen Nefilim warriors, Erragal and Namtar among them. Although I had never seen the latter in his Nefilim form, I’d heard talk of his golden cape. All three of us began firing liquid-light darts and, with no Dracon to protect them, the Nefilim were sitting ducks.

‘Where’s Polaris?’ I called out to the others. It seemed we had lost my partner en route.

‘I told him to let me drive,’ Arcturus said drily as he took out the last of the Nefilim.

Erragal was not among the bodies now purging themselves around us, and Namtar had pulled his famous disappearing trick the instant he saw our liquid-light guns.

‘Erragal must have escaped into the ship,’ Arcturus cursed, needing another man to back him up. ‘Where’s Polaris?’

‘You don’t know where he is?’ I said, horrified. ‘I thought you and he must have planned his absence.’

‘I’m going after Erragal,’ Levi said, without waiting for our agreement.

Arcturus and I were torn. If Namtar was with Erragal, it would be two against one. If Arcturus left me here, I might have to face Namtar alone.

‘Go after him,’ I urged Arcturus.

‘I won’t leave you,’ he vowed, as he had many times before. He had
spent so many years in my service, protecting me from danger, that he seemed to forget I was now very capable of taking care of myself.

‘I don’t carry the ringstone any more, so let that damn curse go, can’t you?’ I said, and pushed him towards the door where he finally relented. ‘And don’t worry about me,’ I added. ‘I believe Polaris isn’t here because he knew something bad was going to happen—’

And then I felt the spike against my neck and every hair on my body stood on end.

The look on Arcturus’s face was one of utter bewilderment and horror.

A shock like a bomb blast shot through my entire being and all my lives flashed before my eyes as the Orme spike pierced my skin and shot into my brain…

‘Let that damn curse go, can’t you?’ I said, and pushed Arcturus towards the door where he finally relented. ‘And don’t worry about me,’ I added. ‘I believe Polaris isn’t here because he knew something bad was going to happen—’

I felt an eerie sense of déjà vu, and knew it meant something, but by the time I remembered, I felt the spike against my neck
. Too late.

The look of horror on Arcturus’s face turned to relief at the soft sound of a light-bullet being fired. I felt the spike scrape a large bloody scratch down my back.
Polaris.
My eyes filled with tears of love.

My foe dropped to the floor and my husband moved into his place behind me, where he kissed my bloodied wound. ‘I’ve always got your back, my love,’ he told me with heartfelt relief, and I turned and kissed him passionately.

A whistle distracted us from our momentary indulgence.

‘Erragal,’ Arcturus prompted, and we stepped over the convulsing Nefilim bodies to venture into the ship after Levi.

When we found him, he had Erragal backed up in a small storage room and was aiming a light-gun at him. Rather than force the disgruntled warrior to convert, however, Levi was giving him the option to come willingly. We sat quietly out of the Nefilim’s view, not wanting to disturb their discourse.

‘Why won’t you give up this dead-end path of darkness and step into your true destiny in the light?’ Levi asked.

‘You angels are all fucking pussies!’ the warrior spat back.

Levi was amused. ‘How do you figure that, when we’re the ones winning this war?’

Erragal growled, resistant to the truth. ‘Wait a second…I remember you,’ he said, suddenly intrigued. ‘You’re the timewalker that blew up Montauk!’

‘Aye, that was me,’ Levi said, rather proud of the fact.

‘How did you do it?’ It sounded as if the demon respected the feat.

‘I can summon and emit EM pulses,’ Levi said, trying not to sound like he was boasting.

‘Fuck me!’ Erragal forced a laugh and then looked regretful. ‘I had true power once.’

‘You still have true power,’ Levi enlightened him, ‘it’s just been dammed.’

Erragal slid down the wall and we heard his large form land with a thud on the floor. He invited Levi to shoot him. ‘Come on then, let’s get it over with.’

‘Do you repent of your sins on Earth?’ Levi asked before he would fire.

‘I don’t know.’ Erragal sounded agitated, as all Nefilim were when confronted with emotional issues. ‘I’ve had a gutful of living this way—is that the same thing?’

‘I guess it’s a start.’ Levi was looking for any sign of remorse and thought he’d try the oldest trick in psychiatry. ‘What about your mother, don’t you miss her?’

‘No! Treacherous snake!’ Erragal spat back.

Levi wasn’t convinced. ‘That’s Ill talking. Try digging a little deeper.’

‘I can’t,’ Erragal protested.

‘Why not?’

‘Because…because…’ Erragal strained to get his words out, then choked on his remorse and broke down into tears. ‘Because it
hurts
!’ he wailed loudly.

‘That’ll do it.’ And Levi pulled the trigger to speed the Nefilim through the painful purge.

‘Well done,’ I said to Levi as Erragal went into spasm.

He acknowledged my praise with a nod. ‘I believe our work here is done,’ he said.

Arcturus raised both brows in anticipation. ‘Only one more to go.’

M
IA
D
EVERE
—MERIDAN

In the Hall of Records, Killian stood perfectly still inside the light-tube of the control panel. The celestial bodies of En Ki and the Lord of the Underworld were visible on the liquid-light walls on opposing sides of the rounded chamber as they continued their debate, whilst their futuristic scenarios played out in full technicolour on the ceiling. It was like watching the gods play chess with history.

Ill didn’t seem any closer to conceding the truth about his dark plans for the universe; if anything he was becoming more determined and more irate.

‘You can take your god consciousness and shove it up your arse, brother!’ he yelled. ‘I will defeat your precious cosmic light if it is the last thing I do!’