The Black Madonna (The Mystique Trilogy) (51 page)

‘To do so is to defeat your own creation,’ En Ki advised, his voice filled with compassion as always, ‘and therefore—’

‘—it
will be
the last thing you do,’ finished a female voice.

We all looked around to see Sud, better known as Ninlil, walk into the middle of the chamber to confront the huge image of Ill being projected, via Killian, onto its wall.

At first Ill looked stunned, then his smug, careless demeanour returned. ‘Nice try, Kali, you deceitful moll!’ he said, then stumbled on his words as Kali stepped into the chamber and gave him a wave. Mathu, who was with her, waved also.

‘Ninlil?’ Ill sounded a little panicked.

She nodded and smiled warmly at him. ‘It is I. I have come to take you home.’

For a split second I could have sworn I saw joy in Ill’s face, but aeons of scepticism were not so easily overcome.

‘You abandoned me!’ he told her, letting his hatred fly. ‘You’re a contemptuous whore and I loathe you!’

‘Only because I bring out the good in you,’ she replied. ‘You know that I know the truth about you, and if you cut me off then you’ll never have to deal with that part of you that wishes only to be trusted, to be recognised and rewarded as your half-brother was.’ She motioned to En Ki. ‘You need not fear your father’s wrath—’

‘I fear nothing!’ Ill roared.

Ninlil shook her head. ‘If that were true, you would be on the side of the righteous, who truly fear nothing. The truth is, Ill, you fear
everything,
to the extent that you have become fear itself. There is a big difference between inciting fear in others and being fearless.’

‘
You left me
!’ Ill squeezed out the angry words through gritted teeth.

‘Yes, I left,’ Ninlil defended herself, ‘so that I might find a way to free you. I sought out Lamhfada, and he sent me through the Hall of Amorea, home, to Sirius B!’

‘Bullshit,’ Ill said. ‘The Hall of Amorea is a myth.’

‘No, it isn’t. And you know it must be true if I can be standing here before you. Queen Kali of the Anunnaki, who rules the race that the Anu will evolve into in the next harmonic universe, arranged with the staff of Amenti to build the Hall of Amorea so that we all—Nefilim, Dracon and Anu—might return to our soul group and no longer suffer for our selfish, impetuous mistakes of the past.’

Ill’s sons entered the room, barely recognisable in their glistening Anu forms.

‘No,’ whimpered Ill, ‘not my sons!’

‘Mother!’ Erragal led the charge to hold her, and within seconds the goddess was lost amid the throng of her four huge Anu sons.

‘My boys!’ She squeezed each one and kissed them in turn. ‘How I have
missed
you. I’ve been so worried…I thought I was going to lose you all forever!’

‘It seems like forever,’ Erragal said, hugging her again.

Ill cried out in pain and vanished from the screen, and inside the light-tube Killian began convulsing.

‘Help him!’ Ereshkigal called out.

‘I can’t do anything from out here,’ Denera told her. ‘There’s no external override.’

On the screen above us, Ill’s dark life and deeds began flashing across the screen. So horrific were the memory transferences that we all turned away to protect ourselves from their potentially harmful frequencies.

Inside the light-tube Killian had changed to Ill’s demon form and was spewing black muck everywhere; thankfully the light-tube was containing the mess and holding him in an upright position. It took some time for the beautiful Anu spirit to emerge. When it did, Ill’s defunct demon body did not vanish from existence as was usual after the conversion process; he simply floated apart from it. And as he looked at his family breathlessly awaiting him, he smiled for joy.

‘I am ready to go home now,’ he said.

The light-tube deactivated, spilling black bile all over the floor, and Ill’s demon body fell to the ground. His Anu self floated forward to embrace his family.

It was heart-warming to watch. Spying my daughter, I moved to embrace her from behind; I had been so very worried about her.

‘I couldn’t have done it without you all,’ Tamar said, rubbing my arms. ‘I can’t believe that every last Anu soul has now been found and spared from damnation.’

‘I couldn’t be more proud,’ I said, and kissed her cheek. She was far too tall now for me to kiss her forehead or her crown as I used to.

Amidst all the merriment and excitement I heard someone crying and sought the source. It was Ereshkigal. She’d sunk to a seat by the wall to stare at the dead demon. I knelt before her to explain why I had broken the promise she did not remember I had made her.

‘I’m so sorry,’ I said. ‘Killian told me it was his destiny, and I believe it was.’

‘I know,’ Ereshkigal said. ‘I knew from the moment he touched me that day in Central Park that he was no ordinary human being.’

Then her eyes opened wide in horror as the demon body started to
twitch. She pointed, unable to voice her fear that perhaps the demon part of Ill lived on.

Half the people in the room pulled out weapons and took aim at the creature, myself included; but upon activating my third-eye vision I was relieved to see Killian’s spirit powering the corpse.

‘Help!’ he cried, struggling to raise himself from the bile-soaked platform.

Ereshkigal recognised his voice and was with him in a heartbeat. ‘Killian! What’s happened to you?’

He sat upright, still in the demon form, and scratched his head. ‘I’m not too sure.’

He looked up at En Ki’s image on the screen, which was smiling down on the happy scene. ‘Would my lord care to fill us in?’ Killian invited.

‘How inspiring it is to me that someone so
ill-
treated as a lad,’ En Ki punned, ‘could become so selfless that he would give his life for the good of humanity.’

Everyone in the room sighed, but Killian waved the praise aside. ‘I had many good teachers,’ he said, indicating everyone present. ‘But, my lord, you have not answered my question.’

‘Well,’ said En Ki, ‘such a selfless act deserves rewarding, and as you are accomplished enough to shape-shift, I figured this body would serve you as well as any? It’s certainly better than no body at all, in which case your soul mind will just have to reincarnate on Tara. Of course, if you choose to keep this body, it will technically make you one of the Anu.’

‘No shit!’ Killian gasped.

‘No, I am not kidding,’ the lord said with a smile.

Killian was a little confused. ‘But won’t that mess with soul groups and evolution and the rest?’

‘In the great scheme of things, as long as every soul gets back to source and none are left behind, that’s all that counts. We are all one after all,’ En Ki was happy to say. ‘Unconditional love is the most powerful force; it truly can rearrange universes.’

Those of us who were aware that this was Killian’s greatest wish come true let loose squeals of delight, and cheered the couple who were now gazing adorably into each other’s eyes.

‘Would you please get in touch with your shape-shifting ability?’ Ereshkigal requested, not too enamoured by Killian’s demon appearance. ‘I would really love to kiss you right now.’

‘I’m so excited I don’t know if I can focus!’

Still, with such incentive, Killian morphed into his own form; only now his features were slightly more Anu-like. His eyes and hair were still dark, however, and his face and most of his body were still covered in bile.

Ereshkigal wiped around his mouth with her sleeve then smiled. ‘Better,’ she said, and they finally kissed to the cheers of all present.

‘Who is ready to go home?’ Denera called out, and everyone confirmed their eagerness.

‘The Kali rift is over! Blessed be all in the Ranna.’

It was difficult parting from our Anu allies; we had all endured so much together. But as the end of the SAC alignment was only hours away, we knew our goodbyes would have to be short and sweet.

Arcturus and I were in the process of bidding Killian and Ereshkigal farewell when Polaris interrupted.

‘I’ve just had a thought,’ he said. ‘I seem to recall that I promised to take you back in time, Meridan, so you could deliver the manuscript of this tale to your publishers.’

I laughed. ‘I’ve been a little too busy of late to do any writing.’

But Killian cut in. ‘It’s already been done,’ he said.

When I looked baffled, he explained further. ‘I stole the copy of
The Black Madonna
that Erragal took from your Signet station when I was still undercover with Montauk, and I delivered it to your publisher last week. I thought you’d be pleased,’ he said uncertainly, as my baffled expression hadn’t altered. ‘After all that work you did on it back in the fifth century, I—’

‘So that’s how you knew about the ambush Kali had set for Lugh,’ Arcturus said in an accusing tone. ‘And you told Mathu about it in advance, which was why you felt responsible for his actions.’

‘You planned to ambush me, Your Highness?’ Lugh turned to Tamar with a stunned expression.

She raised both brows in an apologetic gesture. ‘Not if I could help it—and I did.’

‘Jolly good show,’ he said, relieved.

‘So you did read the book,’ I said to Killian, and smiled at having my suspicions confirmed.

‘You knew about this?’ Arcturus asked.

‘I only really cottoned on today,’ I confessed, but it did explain why Killian had always admired me so greatly, way beyond the bond we’d formed over the twenty years we were forced to spend together. I grinned as I recalled how he’d watched me working away on the manuscript and never once hinted at the fact that he was carrying the completed version around in his backpack.

Mathu stepped between Arcturus and the accused. ‘Actually, I tricked Killian into revealing what he knew,’ he said.

‘That’s how you knew the year the Amenti team had been sent to.’ Kali was having a few realisations of her own about Killian.

‘So if you did read the book, you already knew how all this was going to unfold.’ Polaris joined the interrogation.

‘Which means you weren’t being selfless at all,’ Arcturus figured; and Killian ducked before Arcturus could reach around Mathu to take a swing at him.

‘Read that part too!’ Killian called back as he stepped swiftly into the porthole to Lugh’s realm and the Hall of Amorea. ‘See you in the next universe!’

‘Not if we see you first,’ Arcturus yelled back, and waved him away.

‘Ah well, the point is that the book does get published and I’m saved a trip,’ Polaris concluded.

‘And not only did we manage to get that little SOB away from my daughter,’ Arcturus said, finally finding the silver lining to his Killian cloud, ‘but he’s expelled from the human race.’

‘We rock,’ Polaris said, giving Arcturus a high-five.

‘Finally, something they agree on,’ Solarian said, to the amusement of all.

T
AMAR
D
EVERE
—KALI

With everyone evacuated from the Giza complex back to their proper realms within the planetary scheme—humans on the Earth plane,
Anu in the astral—the way it was always meant to be, it was time to finally bring the Sphere of Amenti down to Earth. This event would mark the successful conclusion to the project we’d been working on for hundreds of thousands of years—give or take a few centuries we may have skipped here and there. It also meant our time as the staff of Amenti was almost over. The Dragon Queens were more than a little sentimental about this fact.

‘Why are you crying?’ Dexter asked, as everyone stood in front of the central porthole in the Halls of Amenti chamber. The sphere hovered in the Arc porthole passage, waiting to be safely deposited into the Earth grid. ‘We’re all going to the
same place
, and a much better place at that!’ he added, puzzled.

‘We know,’ Talori said, ‘but we won’t be working together any more.’

‘You can all do lunch,’ Arcturus suggested, ‘but not if you don’t stop blubbering and form a circle around these two lovely people’—he motioned to Mathu and me, who were already standing atop the indigo porthole, bathed by the light of the sphere above—‘who are waiting to take us home.’

Denera broke up the Dragon Queens’ huddle and the six women joined Mathu and me on top of the porthole. ‘Dragon hug,’ Denera said, and the next thing I knew I was being cuddled from all sides.

‘You two have shown us that the Anunnaki are a truly miraculous race of people,’ Denera said, speaking for her sisters too. ‘You have met your many challenges with grace and honour, and we look forward to a continuing harmonious relationship between our peoples once we return home.’

‘As do I,’ I told them all honestly. ‘I truly feel that you are my sisters.’ My emotion began to choke me, and suddenly I was in tears too.

‘What is it with women?’ Dexter was baffled. ‘No matter what race they come from, they can’t speak to each other without tears!’

‘Can’t we just say our goodbyes once we get there?’ Polaris said. ‘I mean, it’s only the end of existence as we know it?’ He stuck out his bottom lip and shrugged.

‘Just tell them there’s a big shopping sale on Tara,’ Zalman commented. ‘That ought to get them moving.’

The men found this frightfully amusing.

‘Very well,’ Denera barked, and waved everyone back to their places. ‘We’re going.’

‘Just awaiting your cue, Maestro,’ Dexter said to me once they were all in place.

I turned to face my prince. There was so much I wanted to say to him, but I would save most of it for another time, when the entire evolution of the five universes wasn’t at stake.

‘You exceeded my expectations on this quest, my love,’ I told him.

‘I will always,’ he replied, and placed his hand below my own on the Staff of Amenti, and kissed me briefly.

The Rainbow Round Table began to chant their cosmic scale of sonic frequency.

‘Want to take me home?’ Mathu queried.

‘I surely do,’ I replied with zeal, and together we raised the Staff of Power and directed its energy towards the Arc porthole passage.

The porthole shattered and silver light-liquid splattered down upon us like a stardust shower and the huge white, blue-green, violet sphere of light descended.