Gene of Isis (52 page)

My shock caused me to swivel around quickly in my chair, and I found myself staring into Molier’s eyes. ‘So, it is true then…you have taken the ORME substance?’ A safe assumption considering that he had just walked across the complex in broad daylight.

‘Indeed I have, and it has proven most beneficial,’ he granted politely.

‘So why the need to lie to me?’ I asked.

‘An invalid is always less threatening than an able-bodied man, I find. People always tend to underestimate, and even pity, you.’ He smiled winningly. ‘How long did you grant me the benefit of the doubt, over your beloved Albray?’

A pang of fear reverberated through my body in that instant. Any doubt I might have had about this man was snatched from me, leaving me mentally naked before the truth. ‘My beloved who?’ I stalled, afraid to attack the threat head-on. Perhaps I could bluff my way back into my safety zone of sceptical disbelief.

Molier only smiled. ‘Come with me, please.’ He beckoned me with one finger.

‘I just need to—’

Molier pulled a gun, ending any hope of thinking through the situation. I was in serious danger, just as Albray had always claimed.

I rose to accompany Molier to the gateway and, in a moment of divine clarity, I took up my bottle of drinking water and took it with me.

‘What are your employees going to think when they see you escorting me at gunpoint?’

Molier chuckled. ‘And I credited you with being intelligent.’

I wanted to hit myself. ‘They have all taken the Fire-Stone substance.’ I concluded that this was why all their auras had appeared the same. ‘And Conally too, I suppose?’

‘You begin to see much,’ he said.

‘What about Marty?’ Our chopper pilot was just your average bloke and I couldn’t imagine him being involved.

‘Marty has just eaten lunch and he’s taking a little nap right now.’

‘You drugged him.’ It seemed Molier had thought of everything. Still, there was at least one member of this expedition that I knew wasn’t a superhuman vampire. I looked about for Akbar, only to note how quiet and deserted the camp was—no sounds of camels moaning, or the clattering of pans and dishes in the mess tent. Had Molier drugged them, too, or were the hired help assembled at the gateway to assist with the opening?

When we arrived at the entrance to the mount and there was only Conally, Andre and Tusca Resi present, I became alarmed. ‘Where are the Bedouins?’

‘We dispensed with their services this morning,’ Tusca informed me. ‘Our work at this site will be done by nightfall.’

‘They left camp this morning?’ After all we’d discussed I couldn’t imagine that Akbar would have just up and left without saying a word.

‘In a manner of speaking,’ Molier granted, ‘yes.’

When the other people present smirked at the response, I was chilled to the core. It seemed all my guardians had been disposed of, and I alone had been left to defend the ancient mysteries and defeat, not one, but four superhuman creatures.

I am not immortal, only a little more resilient than most mortals,
Ashlee had observed about herself. And I recalled how my great-great-grandmother’s psychic talents had been enhanced by the consumption of the Star substance.

I eyed the spraying device in which the sample of ORME had been stored for easy application to the gateway. I scanned over all I had learned in the last few days, trusting that the right advice to aid my current predicament would be forthcoming.

Your ancestors are very powerful spirits,
Ashlee’s old gypsy spirit guide had told her the first time they’d met.
You shouldn’t be afraid to summon them to your aid. They will come, you will see.

Could I do it? And Ashlee was one of those mighty foremothers now. She’d know what to do—not only that, but she had the psychic aptitude to execute such a plan.

I call upon Ashlee Devere whose wisdom has served me true.

Enter my being in this time of need, That I should accomplish all that you would have me do.

So, I was not as eloquent at summoning the powers-that-be as Ashlee had been. I felt no great presence overcome me and immediately the cynic in me began to wonder whether I was deluding myself about my ancestry.

Meanwhile, Andre had taken the nozzle of the ORME spraygun in hand. ‘Here goes everything,’ he advised, and aiming it at the gateway he squeezed the trigger.

Light-filled particles squirted forth and due to the heat emanating off the round gateway, the luminous specks stuck to the supermetal. It began to erode the previously unscratchable substance.
‘Fantastic!’
Andre cheered the unbelievable occurrence.

When he was just about done with the coating, a gust of wind erupted from nowhere and dusted me with a thick dose of the exotic matter, which I inhaled deeply.

‘You idiot!’ Molier scolded. ‘I told you to keep it away from her!’

‘It’s not my fault!’ Andre protested. ‘I don’t control the winds.’

For a moment I was blinded by a great burst of internal light. I staggered about, trying to see beyond the illumination. My heart welled to overflowing with love, which could not compare to any earthly feeling I had ever had—not even for Albray. I was touching heaven, for surely only in the celestial realm could one find such pure peace, contentment and fearlessness.

When my vision returned I was entirely focused within my third eye. Now I could see straight through to the dark souls of those in my company, and wrapped around every one of their light-bodies
were hideous unearthly creatures. Albray had expressed to Ashlee his fear that Molier might have been calling upon lower-world intelligences to enhance his psychic skill. This was how he’d managed to block their chakras from my sight; the creatures were performing the function of a psychic shield.

Then I saw her. A woman with wild auburn hair that was bound back in a braid. Her eyes glistened like emerald jewels, enhanced by the deep green velvet garments she wore. The sword and pistol that hung from the belt at her waist made her look very much the warrior. All the time I had been reading her tale, I had never realised how much I wanted to be like her, until now.

Ashlee?

You called?
She smiled at me.

I’m in trouble,
I bethought her as, in a flash of light, the gateway into the mountain opened.

No,
Ashlee assured me, sporting a confident grin.
It is your captors who are in trouble. May I?
She referred to my body, requesting permission to enter it.

I was hardly going to protest.
Be my guest.

This woman was far more self-confident than I was—far more comfortable with her psychic gifts. She looked at Tusca Resi first and immediately tuned into her subject’s inner thought, searching for that which Tusca did not want known. To me this process sounded like dialling up and down a radio bandwidth—yet not only sound but also images flashed through my mind. Ashlee honed in on a vision of Akbar and his two young companions being held at gunpoint at the edge of the mountain’s sheer cliff—they had all been badly beaten.

Tusca alone did this?
But of course, taking the Star-Fire substance would have enhanced her strength tenfold.

She had made the mistake of firing upon the boys first, and Akbar had seized the opportunity to jump from the cliff. Tusca had looked down into the rocky canyon below but failed to see where the body had fallen.

She fears that she did not properly complete the task Molier gave her.
Ashlee knew and so did I.

I was shoved forward to the round gateway to descend the path of red gold, just as Lillet, Lord and Lady Hamilton and Ashlee had done before me.

‘I can’t believe you would betray me like this, Andre,’ I said. He was just behind me, to my right.

‘It seems we all have our little secrets, Mia,’ he replied coolly, ‘but some of us are better at hiding them.’

‘What is the sack for?’ I queried, having noted the item that he had tossed over one shoulder.

He may have replied, but the shock of seeing the pile of bones at the bottom of the pathway numbed all my senses for a moment.
Albray!
My heart centre jumped into my throat to choke me, and tears began to well.

Do not mourn for him,
Ashlee advised.
Today we will set him free.
She sounded very confident about that.

‘My dear? Who?’ Molier reminded me that I had denied any knowledge of the knight, which served to hurry me past the pile of bones.

By the time we reached the central platform beneath the dome of gold, Conally had flipped the switch that flooded the canals, and I glanced back to note that Andre was bagging Albray’s bones. ‘What is Andre doing?’

‘Just a little insurance in case you decide to be difficult.’ Molier shoved me in the direction of the white-pillared annexe.

‘I have every intention of opening the second gateway for you,’ I advised him. Akbar had made it very clear that it was the only way to be rid of Molier. ‘You have no need to disturb the dead.’

‘Ah…dead but not buried,’ Molier commented. ‘Albe-Ra has proven more problematic dead than he was alive! But I happen to be acquainted with a few djinn who would be quite happy to help me in damning this hindrance to density for all eternity. He shall never again come back to haunt me.’

Djinn was the Arab name for lower-world intelligences and I was not the only one who was alarmed by the threat; even Ashlee hadn’t expected this foul move. ‘I would have thought that Albray was the last soul you’d be wanting to spend all eternity with,’ I chided, knowing Molier’s soul was probably destined for the same fate.

‘I would have to die first,’ Molier retorted as we entered the annexe and the glowing white presence of the Star vial. ‘Once I have possession of both vials, and the Ark and Ring of Testimony therein, death will be of little concern to me.’

‘The ladies of the Elohim will never allow you to claim whatever lies within their Ark.’ I retrieved the vial and held it out to Molier cooperatively.

‘You hang on to it,’ he insisted, seemingly unfazed by my comment. He gestured with his gun for me to exit the annexe.

After I had taken possession of the Fire vial I was escorted to the large oval door that stood opposite the entrance door. Not one of those who had gone
before me since the time of Lilith del Aquae had stood upon this precipice.

On either side of the oval door, which appeared to be solid gold, were two hollows, each designed to house one of the vials. Each of these hollows was clearly marked: one with the sign for Fire and the other with the sign for Star, so that no mistake could be made.

‘Wait.’ Molier demanded I refrain from placing the keys in their locks just yet. Andre delivered the sack containing Albray’s bones to Molier, who placed a scroll into the sack before taking possession of it with his free hand.

At the same time, Conally lit the fluid in the canals igniting the liquid.

‘Now leave us,’ Molier advised. ‘There can be only one witness to this event.’

Andre nodded and then looked to me.
‘Bonsoir,
Mia…it was truly a pleasure knowing you.’

‘Are you planning on dying today?’ I queried, as I certainly wasn’t. I was furious with him, and praised the goddess that I had never been sucked into sleeping with the snake. ‘I’d tell you to go to hell, Andre, but I see you are already well on your way.’

He merely grinned and shook his head, as if I was the one who was deluded. Andre then levitated off the pathway into the air and seemed amused by his ability. He flew off toward the entrance to join his comrades.

‘Feel free to go ahead.’ Molier granted me leave to unlock the gateway to the inner chamber. ‘And I warn you, the curse to damn your beloved knight is inside this sack with him. I need only burn them together for his fate to be sealed.’ He held the sack out over one of the canals.

‘I keep trying to tell you, Molier. I believe as much as you do that you deserve to have whatever lies beyond this door.’ I placed the Star in its keyhole and then moved to the other side of the door. ‘However, if you in any way harm those bones, I shall personally see you to hell.’ I shoved the Fire vial into position. The door vanished to reveal a small connecting chamber that held a golden breastplate, a copper bowl and pitcher, and two more keyholes.

‘Aha!’ Molier cried with glee. ‘All the legends were true. Now take the vials and place them on the ground near the breastplate, then return to where you are,’ he demanded of me, still threatening to feed Albray’s bones into the flames.

I did as he instructed, feeling that I was running out of time to play my hand. Still, I was not prepared to sacrifice Albray in the process. I had to get that sack out of Molier’s possession.

‘Give me the sack,’ I requested, standing aside so that Molier could enter the tiny inner chamber, the aim of his gun fixed firmly upon me.

The beast wrapped around the man’s light-body laughed to mock my request, alerting me to Molier’s intent.

The second he attempted to cast the sack toward the pit Ashlee aided me to will it into my hands. Molier fired his weapon and I felt each bullet as it impacted with my chest. My body, in shock, was numb to the pain as I hit the ground, clutching the remains of my beloved. He was safe now and that was all that really mattered to me.

Mia, you must get up!
Ashlee was urging me, and in my delirium I saw her standing outside me once again. The impact of the bullets must have cast her
from my being.
There is still a chance you can prevent Molier from gaining control of the Ark and its treasures, but he must not enter the inner sanctum alone.

I rolled over onto all fours, and clutching the sack against my wounds with one hand, I used the other to crawl toward the door of the connecting chamber. Both my physical and etheric sight were blurred, yet I managed to make out Molier, now wearing the breastplate of gold. He had dismissed the djinn from his being and my guess was that he could not contain the lower-world intelligence whilst wearing the sacred armour.

Shoes.

Ashlee reminded me to remove them, which I did, as Molier placed the Fire vial into a keyhole. I noted that his feet were now bare. He must have washed them in the copper bowl provided. It was a struggle to remove the water bottle strap from over my head, but once I achieved the feat, I doused both my feet in the cool water.