The Dragon Queens (The Mystique Trilogy) (12 page)

Miss Koriche was so impressed by his frank confidence that she was torn between telling the truth and maintaining her cover. Perhaps she could do both?

‘It was foreseen that you would be coming into my life,’ she admitted, to Levi’s great delight.

‘Foreseen by you?’

‘Perhaps,’ she teased, and Levi’s grin turned wary.

‘Are you just humouring me?’ he asked.

Miss Koriche shook her head and began to unbutton her dress from the neck. Levi was pleasantly shocked to see the familiar birthmark between her breasts. ‘Do you believe me now?’ she said.

Levi melted into a smile, for her birthmark was identical to his own, located on his back between his shoulder blades—as was mine. ‘Your argument is most convincing,’ he assured her.

Miss Koriche refastened her dress, then pulled an item from her pocket. It was wrapped in a scarf—the same scarf that Levi had wanted me to psychically assess the day I had left for Baghdad. ‘In fact, I have a gift for you,’ she said, approaching my son and gently placing her offering in his hands.

‘It is rather weighty,’ Levi commented, and was surprised when he opened the scarf to find a long, fine gold chain upon which hung an elongated gold pendant embossed with ancient hieroglyphs. ‘
He awaits under the lotus
.’ Levi read the inscription aloud, puzzled as to why Miss Koriche should give this object to him.

‘It is a message from the Ladies of the Elohim,’ she said. ‘I was informed that it will make sense to
you in time and serve your purpose here in the East.’

‘I was under the impression that my purpose here was to meet you,’ Levi said.

‘I am but a messenger,’ Miss Koriche replied, but I knew she had a greater involvement in Levi’s quest than she was prepared to admit at their first meeting.

‘That is not what I foresaw,’ Levi ventured, flashing her a cheeky grin.

Miss Koriche gave him a shy smile in response. ‘Allow me.’ She lifted the pendant from the scarf and placed it around Levi’s neck.

As he took hold of the long medallion to admire it, he immediately closed his eyes and became entranced by his inward perceptions. After some time, his eyes parted and he announced, ‘I know what this means.’

‘I was sure that you would,’ Miss Koriche told him, her heart filling with admiration.

‘I need to get some workmen in here,’ Levi informed her, full of zeal for his project.

‘Yes.’ Miss Koriche was clearly caught up in his excitement, for she actually laughed. ‘You are just how I was led to believe you would be.’

‘Led to believe by whom?’ Levi queried.

‘A higher power,’ was all she would say. ‘Those who tell do not know; those who know…do not tell.’

Levi was amused by her response.

‘I can help you find a crew.’ Miss Koriche changed the subject. ‘When do you want them to start?’

‘Tonight,’ he informed her.

Miss Koriche was taken aback by his eagerness to assist her with her own secret quest, however
unwittingly. Levi Granville-Devere was truly the godsend she had been promised.

‘I shall see what I can arrange,’ she said.

My perception was swept forward in time and I glimpsed only small snippets of the private hours Miss Koriche had been spending with my son. Their shared interest in the dig brought them very close, very quickly, although Miss Koriche was careful never to disclose her particular interest in the excavation. I felt that Levi had the impression that Miss Koriche was there merely to aid his quest, which he had not openly discussed with her. Either Levi assumed she knew what his aim was, or he was purposely keeping to himself what the necklace had disclosed.

Then Miss Koriche’s recollection skipped to the night before Lord Devere and I had left for Baghdad, the night she had vanished from my son’s bed. From the little I perceived of the evening, I could tell she was genuinely falling in love with Levi and had given herself to him freely, and yet she fled his bed weeping in the middle of the night, leaving my son to sleep on, unaware of her departure. She felt she had done something horribly wrong in giving herself to Levi so soon, and yet to seduce him had been her intent all along.

‘I cannot go on.’ I let go of Miss Koriche’s hand. ‘This is too personal, and too strange. I do not like being a voyeur of our son’s love life.’

‘Did you find out what happened to Levi?’ Lord Devere demanded.

‘No. I did not get that far.’

‘Then what was the point of breaching your
moral code at all?’ My husband grew frustrated with our lack of progress.

‘There is another way,’ I realised, as I recounted what I had learned already. ‘We can give Miss Koriche a blood transfusion, and when she recovers she can tell us what we want to know…All we need is a syringe.’

‘Are you mad? Did you not read Dr Blundell’s findings on the subject—in only fifty per cent of his cases was blood transfusion successful, and they do not know why. We could kill her!’

‘She is dying anyway, my lord.’ I could sense the yearning of her weary spirit to withdraw from its weak earthly vessel. ‘Is finding our son more important than this girl’s life?’

Lord Devere was silent as he mulled that question over.

‘I am fairly confident that my blood will revive her,’ I added.

‘What makes you so sure?’ My lord was running short on patience.

I pulled down the blanket and the plunging neckline of Miss Koriche’s silken dress and exposed the birthmark that Lord Devere and myself both bore.

‘She is of the blood,’ he gasped. Then his eyes narrowed with suspicion. ‘Why do I suddenly get the feeling that this quest of ours actually has very little to do with gathering information for the brothers? What if it is really—’

‘—all about Levi?’ I was having the same thought. ‘Getting him right where the brotherhood want him!’ I was immediately infuriated. ‘I hope I am wrong, for Malory’s sake. If we are proved right, I will kill him!’

My surge of fury sent out a shockwave from my being that near knocked my husband off his feet.

‘Easy, my love,’ Lord Devere urged upon righting himself. ‘Nothing is certain yet.’

Only twice in my life had the full velocity of my psychokinetic power been unleashed; both times I had been in mortal danger, and both times there had been fatalities. This energy had only ever been activated by fear and anger and thus was beyond my control, which was why I feared calling upon it by choice.

Mr Taylor appeared, looking a little shaken as he stumbled through the door. ‘Did you feel that tremor just now? It nearly knocked me over!’

It took all of my will not to lash out at our host. With a mere thought I could pin him to the wall and squeeze what he knew out of him. Still, that would expose my full potential to my possible enemy—better that he did not know what I was truly capable of.

‘Is there a medical supplies cabinet around here somewhere, which might hold a syringe and a scalpel?’ My lord distracted Mr Taylor with the query, turning him around and heading back towards the door.

‘Of course.’ Mr Taylor looked perplexed by the request.

‘Would you be so kind as to show me?’

My husband closed the door behind them, leaving me alone to calm myself and reassess the situation.

Was Miss Koriche friend or foe? And if she proved to be the latter, did that make my reading her thoughts any less reprehensible? What if I was
wrong about the blood transfusion? What if my husband was right and Miss Koriche took what had happened to Levi to the grave with her? If one of these secret brotherhoods had him and did not want him found, it would prove near impossible to track him down—even for me. Miss Koriche was my very best chance.

Worry for my son overcame my morals. I seated myself beside the dying woman and again took up her hand.

What happened after you left my son that night?

Miss Koriche had taken a camel and fled the site for the nearest village, where she had hidden herself away for a week to prevent herself from exposing what she knew to Levi. Love was the last thing she’d been expecting to come from their meeting; why had none of the elders foreseen this? Or had they? She knew this was a test, but her heart was too confused to decide what the right course of action was. What would become of her Western mate? She had never thought to care. But now that she had got to know Levi, she had no desire to betray him; to carry his child would be every bit as honourable as carrying the child of a god! Miss Koriche knew that her superiors would not agree, however.

I must go back,
she had decided in the end.
And complete the task that I was created for.

Levi clearly had mixed feelings about seeing Miss Koriche again when she showed up on site a few days before our return. ‘Why did you leave without a word?’ he said. ‘I have been beside myself with worry.’ He refrained from embracing her until he had received an answer.

She held a hand to his cheek affectionately. ‘It was not my intent to worry you,’ she said. ‘A situation arose suddenly, of divine import, which required my immediate attention. I had no time to inform anyone. Please believe that I would have told you if I had been permitted to.’ She spoke the truth, which hid her deceit all the better.

Levi was appeased by her caress and took hold of her waist with both hands to pull her closer. ‘You are a very mysterious woman, Miss Koriche.’

‘And you are a very mysterious man.’ She kissed him, without a thought for who might see, but when they parted at last she realised there was not a soul within eyeshot. ‘Where are the workmen?’

‘I gave them all a week’s paid holiday—the house staff too,’ he informed her, leading her towards the excavation pit.

‘Why would you do that?’ She was concerned that this would delay the discovery of the Dragon Court.

‘We broke through to a staircase of stone, Ajalae.’ Levi’s voice was filled with excitement.

‘What?’ She was delighted and mortified all at once.

‘Come, let me show you.’

He urged her to take his hand and she did so, trying desperately not to reconsider her decision to hold true to her quest and tell Levi nothing of the pending danger to his being.

Down in the tablet chamber, the golden doors leading to the temple were yet to be opened. Embossed into the doors was a question, written in the same ancient script with telepathic translation capability:

In the Old Land an enchanted Word was created

To define a demon of the shadows from a man who walks in light.

Utter the word only man can pronounce

Or return to your realm of eternal night.

Levi conveyed the meaning of the inscription to Miss Koriche, who was overwhelmed. ‘Even I cannot read this,’ she said. She looked to Levi, amazed by him yet again, just as she had been over and over since they had met. She had been warned that Mr Granville-Devere was suspected of harnessing great psychic potential, but he never flaunted the fact and had certainly never spoken of it beyond that he had dreamt of her. ‘Do you know the word the inscription refers to?’ she asked.

‘Not yet,’ Levi admitted, although he did not sound deterred by the fact.

Miss Koriche breathed an inward sigh of relief.

‘But I am certain the answer lies in one of these tablets.’ Levi motioned to the fifteen golden tablets of text that formed the walls of the round chamber. ‘I have been studying and committing them to memory. It will not be long before I find the answer to the riddle.’

Miss Koriche sucked back all the awe that the incredible discovery inspired in her. Perhaps if she could delay Levi’s quest for knowledge, some circumstance might arise that would spare him from his fate.

‘Did you miss me?’ she asked seductively, but Levi was focused on the tablet before him.

‘Here, in the Key of Mysteries, it refers to Atlantis and the coming of the Children of
Shadows that were called from the great deep—’ Levi was surprised by a kiss.

‘All work and no play is very bad for a man’s soul.’ Miss Koriche took Levi by the hands and led him out of the tablet chamber.

My son did not need much coaxing to set aside his task for a while. ‘I have been down here for days, so I guess I am just about due for a rest,’ he said.

Miss Koriche smiled. ‘I would not be planning on too much rest if I were you.’

‘Before the sinking of the Old Land, beings of a lower cosmic cycle were summoned through an interdimensional gateway by men who lusted for material power. Only by the will of man and the extracting of spirit from blood could they take form. They moved only through angles and never through curves. With their glamour, the shadow ones could assume the appearance of any man. The Seven Cosmic Lords, mighty in magic, had crafted a secret word, which man alone could pronounce and the word was…’ Levi read aloud from a tablet. ‘Kininigen!’

Miss Koriche entered the tablet chamber in time to hear Levi speak the ancient word. She had managed to detain Levi from his study for a day and a half, but her vigil had eventually been overwhelmed by the need for sleep, allowing Levi to slip away from their bed unnoticed. To her great horror the golden doors that had barred the entrance to the temple opened in response to Levi’s utterance.

‘Yes!’ Levi cheered his own success as he headed towards the doorway.

‘No, Levi, you must not enter the temple.’ Miss Koriche went after him and grabbed his arm.

‘What are you so afraid of, Ajalae?’ he asked tenderly.

‘I am afraid of losing you,’ she confessed, although it meant that her life would not be worth living.

‘That is silly,’ Levi said, his voice full of comfort, ‘when you have lied to me with every word and gesture that has ever passed between us.’

Miss Koriche’s heart jumped into her throat. ‘You know?’ She shrank away from him, ashamed and bewildered.

Levi appeared saddened by her response. ‘I do now.’

Miss Koriche was doubly shocked to find that Levi had just called her bluff.

‘I feel a memory of vast proportions awaking inside me,’ he went on. ‘It is calling on me to relinquish this physical form for some time, and I could not bring myself to answer that summons if it meant breaking the heart of someone I care about so deeply.’

Miss Koriche gasped with emotion. She so wanted to reassure Levi of her love, but he held high a finger to silence her until he was done with his own confession.

‘I hear the voice behind the word projections of the tablets. It spoke to me directly this morning, of my true purpose and destiny in this life. It also spoke of how I might confirm all that I have been told. When the scribe told me that my love believed she was leading me into a well-baited trap, I contested his foul claim profusely. Then the scribe explained
that you are not in love with me, but are here to serve
his
desires once I have relinquished control of this earthly vessel to him.’

His words cut deep into Miss Koriche’s heart, for she could see Levi was hurting from a fatal blow that she had dealt him. ‘Please do not do this to spite me,’ she begged, tears openly streaming down her face now. ‘I do love you, Levi, or I would not be here to prevent you from doing this.’

‘You still believe this is a trap,’ he said, taking her reply as confirmation of her guilt. To hide his tears and hurt, Levi retrieved his torch from a wall mount and passed under the temple entrance.

‘I have agonised over telling you the truth!’ Miss Koriche cried, but her rapidly deteriorating emotional state did nothing to sway Levi from his course. ‘I came back to betray all that I have known and learned, in order to save your life.’

‘Whether that is the case or not, my true purpose is now confirmed,’ Levi said. ‘You should go now and prepare for the destiny you chose, for a lifetime of preparation should not be wasted. I see you for the test you are, Ajalae. Clearly, the physical world has nothing to offer someone like me at this time.’

Miss Koriche gasped, hurt by the comment.

Levi stopped to look back at her. ‘Do not be offended, for my destiny was not of your choosing and none of what has happened is your fault. You have done me a great service…really.’ He appeared unfazed and at peace. ‘For you were meant to lead me to this epiphany. If anyone should feel guilt it is I, for not realising the truth about us sooner and preventing any issue between us. We were never meant to be together, you and I.’

‘Don’t say that, please—’

Miss Koriche made a move towards Levi only to find herself airborne and rocketing backwards. She screamed as she passed through the entrance chamber, up the stone stairs, out through the roof of the two-roomed dwelling, across the excavation area and into the site house, where she was cast down upon her own bed.

Once the initial shock had passed, the young woman was left shaking and in tears. If this was what Levi the man was capable of, it frightened her to think of his potential as a god. The only way she was going to get anywhere near Levi again was to prepare herself as he had instructed. She sniffed back her tears, and from a secret compartment in her trunk quickly pulled out the attire of a vestal virgin. It seemed rather hypocritical for her to don such a costume, but in all actuality the man and the god would be one and the same now, only the consciousness would differ.

By the time Miss Koriche returned to the temple shrine, Levi was lying motionless on the altar block. The huge round chamber was lit by his single torch, mounted beside the raised stone of offering beneath the lotus flower.

She wasted no time in scaling the altar and pulling herself up beside her lover. ‘Levi?’ She ventured to brush a hand against his cheek. ‘Can you hear me?’ Her tears began welling anew when there was no response. Then, rather abruptly, Levi’s eyelids parted and he stared at her. ‘Hello,’ she said at last, to break the long silence.

‘Hello,’ he replied, sitting up to look around him. ‘Why are you here?’

She frowned, suspicious. His countenance was strange and unfamiliar, and an unearthly glow had permeated the whites of his eyes. Their gaze was mesmerising. ‘Levi?’ she ventured.

‘No,’ he replied. ‘He may not be back for some time.’

Miss Koriche gasped in horror, both at the loss of Levi and the fact that she was addressing the great Ibis. ‘
My lord.
’ She bowed down to the ground beside him. ‘Please forgive my familiarity.’

He smiled, amused by her veneration and fear. ‘I understand that you knew my vessel very well, so your concern is understandable.’ He raised himself to standing without using a muscle, merely levitating into an upright position.

Miss Koriche did not dare question the entity about Levi’s whereabouts. If the soul that she loved was now banished from this world, there seemed little point in clinging to the hope that she might be able to lead a normal married life with him one day. This was the fantasy that had prompted her to be truthful with Levi, but now there seemed only one course of action left to take—her predestined one.

‘My lord,’ Miss Koriche found it hard not to stammer as she spoke, ‘I am here to satisfy any earthly desire you may have upon waking from your long sleep. As a Daughter of Isis, I pray that I am worthy to receive your seed.’

He laughed heartily at the offer. ‘I have no desire for earthly pleasure, and the needs of this body have been well and truly fulfilled in the past few days.’ He looked around, appearing to have other concerns. ‘Where are my priests, I wonder?’

He floated down from the raised platform and strode towards the tablet room, where a group of hooded men had appeared and awaited his word.

Miss Koriche was shattered; a lifetime of preparation, study and service wasted because she had given away the prize too soon. Had she resisted Levi’s charms and led him on as she had been instructed to, perhaps the lord would have been keener to satisfy his vessel’s physical needs. There was little point in returning to her sisters now; her shame was twofold and she could not bring herself to confess her gross miscarriage of duty.

Perhaps in death I shall find my love and live my dream…

She drew the blade that was concealed in the sole of her shoe.

My perception of events faded, and I was about to open my eyes when I detected an additional lifeforce that was attached to Miss Koriche. Looking beyond her physical being to the fading light centres of her subtle body, I spied one tiny bright spark of cosmic light, buried deep within her womb. It was the humble beginnings of a whole new lightbody.

My heart nearly stopped beating as I realised that Miss Koriche was carrying my first grandchild.

I raced to the door to find out what was keeping my husband. ‘Hurry!’ I yelled down the corridor in a most unladylike fashion, and rolled up my sleeve to prepare my arm for bleeding. If this girl thought she was going to die while carrying one of my descendants, she had another think coming! Not the will of the gods, secret societies, brotherhoods, sisterhoods or any damn
curse was going to deprive this child of its right to live.

By the time the transfusion was complete and Miss Koriche lay breathing easily with colour in her cheeks, I was covered in blood, both hers and my own.

‘Luck appears to be with us,’ Lord Devere commented, as he checked the vital signs of our patient.

My husband could see as clearly as I that this woman was now kindred, although he kept his observation to himself until Mr Taylor departed to get on with his pressing business—which, I imagined, was selling off our find to the highest bidder.

‘Grandparents.’ Lord Devere both smiled and winced at the thought. ‘But what of Levi? Did you find out anything?’

I thought he had rather a hide to assume that I had betrayed my morals at the first given opportunity. But the fact was, I had. ‘I do not know where our son is at present, but I can tell you that his body and his spirit are in two entirely different places…one easier to find than the other.’

Lord Devere was understandably concerned by my claim. ‘Tell me everything,’ he said, taking a seat beside me.

I conveyed what I had learned, then attempted to answer my lord’s queries until my throat was hoarse and my eyes were threatening to roll into the back of my head.

‘When he referred to his priests, who do you think he meant?’ Lord Devere pondered.

‘I am not entirely sure; the Melchi perhaps?’ I yawned.

‘Ah yes, the order of Melchizedek.’ We had briefly met some of these warrior priests during our last stint in the Near East. ‘Were they not the brotherhood to whom Albray held true?’

I nodded. I was not going to be the one to say it.

Lord Devere put me out of my misery. ‘Damn it! We need Albray.’

‘I believe he would know where some of the priesthood may be found,’ I offered, thankful that we were both thinking along the same lines.

‘Curses!’ Lord Devere looked as if he wanted to hit something.

‘I will simply have to return to Baghdad and look for the stone again,’ I said calmly.

‘That will delay the search for Levi for weeks!’ Lord Devere stood and began to pace.

‘I suspect that where Levi has gone, time is not really an issue. And besides, that will give you a chance to scour the tablet room for information before Taylor has it sold, boxed and shipped off.’

‘You do not seriously think that he is planning to strip the site? That would attract far more attention than Malory would like, not to mention what the Shah will have to say about it.’

‘Only God knows what Taylor has in mind. What I do know is that Levi studied those tablets to find the answers he needed, so if we are lucky they will tell us something of what has happened to our boy.’

‘And who shall travel to Baghdad with you?’ my husband asked.

‘I have travelled by myself before.’ Only as I said this did I realise what the grave difference would be this trip.

‘You had Albray’s talents with a sword to rely on then,’ my lord pointed out.

‘Then I shall just have to rely on my own talent with a pistol this time around,’ I resolved, raising my hand to smother another yawn. ‘After all, my lord did suggest that I should start utilising my own talents instead of relying on outside forces to protect me.’

My husband smiled at me and bundled me up into his arms. ‘Time to find you a bed, Mrs Devere.’

The next morning I was up and packed early. I wanted to be on my way before my lord managed to talk himself out of letting me go.

‘So there is to be no more discussion,’ he said, as he rolled over in bed to find me strapping up my trunk.

‘You are the one who does not wish to waste any time.’ I walked over and placed a new journal in his hand. ‘This is for you, to record your observations. I want to know everything of interest and import contained within those tablets…And keep an eye on Mr Tay—’

There was an urgent knocking on the door.

‘Enter,’ we both called.

Taylor stuck his head around the door. ‘Come quickly, she’s opened her vein again.’

I made it to Miss Koriche’s room ahead of both the men and spied her huddled in a corner, fresh blood on her already bloodstained dress, dagger in hand, ready to strike at any who came near her.

‘Out.’ I pushed Mr Taylor into my husband and ushered them both out of the room. ‘I shall handle this.’ I closed the door.

‘Stay away from me,’ Miss Koriche advised. ‘I want to die.’

‘I am sorry but I cannot allow that to happen.’ I strode towards her, and no sooner had I willed the knife in her hand into my grasp than I clutched the item.

Miss Koriche gasped, and for a moment there was horror in her eyes.

I had actually surprised myself; I had not realised my psychokinetic ability could be wielded without inflicting mortal damage. ‘Do not fear,’ I said, ‘I have not been possessed by an ancient god, I am just a daughter of the blood, like you.’ I tossed the knife across the room and crouched down to rebandage her wrist.

‘Why should you care if I live or die?’ she implored, too weary to resist my help. ‘Do you know what I have done to your son?’

‘I know everything,’ I said, without confessing how, ‘and I feel very sure that anything that may have happened to Levi was of his own choosing, so never you mind about assuming responsibility for his actions. You have other concerns now.’

‘I will be sacrificed for my failure.’ Miss Koriche clearly considered that my efforts to keep her alive were pointless.

‘Over my dead body,’ I told her resolutely.