The Cosmic Logos (3 page)

‘Oh, I feel sure that will never be said,' Bast retorted in a very fresh tone of voice.

It infuriated Fallon when her sister flirted with Avery, which Bast only did to mock Fallon's feelings. Bast hogged every man's attention just because she could, and Fallon deeply envied her sister's abundance of charisma and her confidence in wielding it. Fallon knew that if she'd ventured to make the comment first, it would have come out sounding corny instead of seductive.

A shadow fell over the three of them and a deep grunt startled the girls into a standing position, which spurred Avery to laughter. The sisters, upon spying the
upper body of a large stone creature protruding from the ground, began to scream.

‘Avery, do something.' Bast gave their amused host a kick.

‘Sorry, ladies.' He composed himself and arose. ‘I know Grom looks ominous, but I assure you he's harmless.' Avery addressed the creature directly. ‘What's up, my stony friend?'

You know how you wanted me to tell you if I ever saw your brother and sister getting cosy?

‘Yes,' Avery queried warily.

They're looking pretty cosy now.

‘Really?'

‘Really what?' Bast interjected, as all she heard from the beast was grunts and moans. ‘What's it saying?'

‘I need to nick off for a bit.' Avery backed away. ‘I'll be back before long, but you can will yourselves home at any time.'

‘I'll wait,' Fallon responded … a little too quickly she decided in retrospect.

‘Is there any more like him lurking about?' Bast inquired, pointing to the huge rock creature as it curled back into the boulder from which it had appeared.

‘Everywhere!' Avery grinned as he began to fade away. ‘But not to worry, I would never leave you two unsupervised in my realm … that would be an accident waiting to happen.' He chuckled at the thought.

As Avery vanished, so did the breathtaking Otherworldly surroundings and Bast threw her hands up, most put out to find herself back on the earth plane.

 

As they strolled through Central Park on the final leg home, Sparrowhawk and Lirathea's pace had practically come to a stop, as they laughed and joked about their unseemly state.

‘I don't want to leave,' Sparrowhawk protested, and suddenly losing his good cheer, he came to a complete standstill. ‘Why don't you come with me to Tarazean?' he asked, knowing it was an impossible suggestion.

Lirathea gave him that ‘good sense' expression of hers. ‘I am currently working through the energies of a site on Kila. You know I can't leave here now, as I truly feel I'm on the verge of a breakthrough in communications with Devachan!' She announced her results with great excitement, although Sparrowhawk only managed to force a smile at her news. ‘Spiritually speaking, this is a very big deal,' she added, hoping to stir up some sort of enthusiasm in him.

‘I know … your research is the most important thing,' he agreed, although his tone was that of a man rejected.

Lirathea folded her arms, annoyed by his self-indulgent attitude. ‘I support you in your endeavours, Sparrow, I thought you might have been happy for me.'

‘I
am
,' he admitted, albeit grudgingly. ‘I just wish —'

‘I know what you wish,' she injected, her tone soft and heartfelt. ‘And we both know it can never be.'

‘Only me, Thea?' he asked, unable to keep the desperation from his voice.

Lirathea took a deep breath. Every time they spoke in this way, she felt herself on shaky ground, and having had a glass of Bahula, she was not thinking as clearly as
usual. ‘I cannot bring myself to pour energy into something that can never be.' She backed away from him a couple of steps.

‘What kind of an answer is that?' Sparrowhawk was offended by her cool indifference. ‘Are you afraid to just tell me plainly how you feel? Or do you think you are protecting me from myself by refraining?'

Tears were welling in her eyes. Lirathea had wondered if this subject, which they'd been evading all their lives, would come to a head this evening. Perhaps she'd even willed it; in fact, she must have desired it for it to be happening at all. ‘If I could fall in love with you, I would.' Her voice quivered as her emotions surged forth and she struggled to repress them. ‘But earthly love is not on my agenda.' Her resolve hardened once more, and Lirathea held out a hand to keep her brother at bay. ‘My life's ambition is a solitary one and must be so to be achievable. I am entirely devoted to the service of the Allied Logoi.'

‘I understand that,' he confirmed, frustrated with his lot. ‘But surely one kiss would not ruin your standing with the powers that be?'

‘No … no it wouldn't,' she admitted, exhausted by the situation. ‘But it would be the beginning of the end of sanity, for the both of us,' she concluded soberly, before turning and walking on.

‘My sanity left me years ago,' Sparrowhawk muttered under his breath.

The sincerity of the statement took some of the wind out of Lirathea's sails and she stopped dead in her tracks. After a long pause she finally spoke. ‘Mine too.'
She turned slowly around to face him, ashamed to be admitting her secret when she'd sworn to herself that she would remain strong and pretend not to feel the electricity that danced between herself and her half-brother.

Up until this moment, Sparrowhawk had never in his wildest dreams suspected his sister of lusting after anyone, and his heart soared with pride and joy to think that he held the affection of such a blessed creature. ‘We are in
so
much trouble,' he uttered, straining to keep the smile from his face as they closed the distance between them.

Lirathea held his face in both her hands. ‘I am going to miss you terribly.' Her announcement was accompanied by a flood of tears, but she kissed him anyway, swept away by emotion.

They endeavoured to express a whole lifetime of forbidden affection in that one kiss, both knowing the memory would have to last a lifetime.

‘Is this one of my delusions then, dear sister?'

The sound of Avery's voice brought the heartstopping encounter to a grinding halt.

‘You're a sick bird, Sparrow.' Avery approached to pry them apart. ‘She's your sister!'

‘Half-sister,' Sparrow corrected, evading Avery's attempt to strike him by backing away. ‘In ancient times on Gaia it was the done thing.'

‘But we have supposedly progressed since then.' Avery chased his brother further away from his twin.

‘We were just saying goodbye, Avery,' Lirathea stated quietly, in the hope of getting him to lower his voice.

Avery got her message and walked back to her to quietly advise: ‘I saw you kissing him, and the general vibe was not goodbye.'

‘But that's what it was … okay?' she appealed with a sniffle. ‘So, if you've quite finished proving your superiority and making us feel guilty, we'll just leave it at that, shall we?'

The hurt in her voice persuaded him to back off. ‘I won't tell anyone,' he vowed.

‘Much appreciated.' She forced a smile and moved to catch up to Sparrowhawk.

‘This time,' Avery added in caution.

Lirathea paused in her advance a second, but did not look back at Avery. She wanted to suggest that he get a life and stop interfering in everybody else's, but she knew that would simply be taking out her frustration on her brother for
her
mistake. As infuriating as it was to admit, Avery was right — that kiss should never have happened and it must never happen again.

 

Much to Fallon's delight, Bast got fed up with having no male to impress and so was threatening to head home.

‘If I know Avery, and I do, he's not coming back,' she advised her love-struck sibling. ‘Don't embarrass yourself by waiting too long.'

‘I'm still enjoying the show.' Fallon looked at the sky, attempting to hide her contempt for her sister's thoughts. ‘But you run along home. I know you have an early flight to catch.'

‘Yes,' sneered Bast, folding her arms, ‘and you wouldn't want me to miss it.'

‘Well, destiny waits for no woman.' Fallon looked back to her half-sister and forced a smile.

‘Oh, fear not, mine will wait for me.'

Fallon was glad when Bast disappeared; she lay down, stretched out and enjoyed the peace and quiet.

‘I thought she'd never leave.'

Startled, Fallon turned her head to find Avery lying on his side next to her. ‘I was under the impression you and Bast were chums?' she commented, proud of how calmly the words slipped from her mouth in the presence of her sweetest dream come true.

‘Three's a crowd, don't you find?'

As he leaned closer, Fallon's heart began thumping in her chest, inducing a mild panic; this was too good to be true. She leaned aside to avoid the kiss and quickly raised herself to kneeling. ‘You've never thought so before.'

‘Of course I have.' He sat up to confront her. ‘I just never said so.'

‘Why not?' Fallon persisted, loving every minute of the attention.

‘I wanted to get graduation out of the way before distracting you with more compelling issues.' His voice dropped to a whisper, his lips poised close to hers.

His explanation was not really convincing, but in Avery's case Fallon wasn't going to query her luck twice. She closed the gap between her lips and his and, once engaged, their kiss was far more passionate than she'd imagined. Before she'd even realised they'd moved the ground was at her back. She felt Avery's hand pass over her right breast trapped beneath the shimmering black
material that hindered their delight. But in a daring move, he slipped the strap from her shoulder to expose her breast and her nipple hardened in the cool night air, and again when encompassed by the warmth of his hand. Only as a moan slipped from her lips did Fallon realise they were no longer being kissed. Avery's attentions were moving downward. As his tongue toyed with her nipple, he was already reaching a hand up under her skirts. Although her head was swimming in a sensual delirium and she wanted nothing more than to oblige him further, this encounter was moving way too fast.

‘Avery!' She gently pushed him off of her and replaced the strap on her shoulder. ‘Perhaps we should both take some time to sober up and then reconsider our position?'

‘You think I'm drunk?' Avery began to chuckle, but suppressed his amusement to explain: ‘One does not need booze to seduce a
beautiful
woman.'

Fallon was stunned. ‘You think I'm beautiful?'

‘No,' he replied. ‘I know that you are more comely and radiant than even the glamour of the enchantress sirens of the Otherworld.'

Fallon suppressed the urge to gasp at his flattery, as she had always feared comparisons to the waifs of the kingdom Avery was to rule.

‘I don't want an illusion, I don't want a planetary ruler, I want a woman of flesh and blood, who loves me for who I am and not what I represent.'

He has to be drunk.
Fallon couldn't think of any other explanation for the sudden swing in his attitude
towards her. ‘If what you say is true…' Fallon rose to standing, ‘…then surely you would be willing to formally court the woman you want so badly.'

‘If I must.' He rose and was overpowered by a hug.

‘Oh Avery … do you really mean it?' She held him at bay to look into his eyes as she received the answer, but the coloured light in the sky ebbed at that moment.

‘It's destiny,' he replied.

 

Avery thought he'd best make an appearance at the spaceport this morning. His mother would be furious if he was not there to bid his little brother all the best for his Governorship before he left for Tarazean. He also wanted to catch up with Bast before she left for Nugia and apologise for not making it back to them last night. He expected both Bast and Fallon were probably furious with him for just abandoning them like that, but after his run-in with Lirathea and Sparrowhawk he'd needed to seek some Otherworldly repose.

When he spotted his mother hugging Sparrowhawk, Avery made his way over to the family gathering. He was surprised not to find Lirathea present and equally surprised to get a smile instead of a frown from Fallon. Bast looked pretty annoyed at him though.

‘I know,' he stressed, as he approached the Leonine female. ‘I'm so sorry I never made it back to you last night, but I had to take care of some rather pressing affairs.' His attention shifted to Sparrowhawk, who glared back at him, then to Fallon who winked at him, and, not knowing what to make of her resolve, Avery looked back to Bast.

‘Goddess, how I pity the woman who marries you.' Bast gave him a squeeze, suddenly realising how much she was going to miss him. ‘I expect you to visit after your appointment, you hear?' She pulled away and slapped his chest hard. ‘Don't disappoint me, Pan man.'

‘I wouldn't dream of it,' he replied, winded. Bast was quite the warrior woman — she was very much her father's daughter.

It was her father, Brian Alexander, who came forward and took his daughter under his arm. ‘Come, Bast. If we don't get on that flight we'll never get off Kila.'

‘Bye everybody.' The young ruler-to-be waved as she was lead away. ‘See you all in the senate.'

Avery turned about, figuring he'd better say something to his brother before his parents got suspicious. ‘Haven't you gone yet?' he jested, moving over to ruffle the quills on Sparrowhawk's head as he knew nothing would annoy Sparrowhawk more. ‘Geez … what have I got to do to get rid of you?'

Sparrowhawk brushed off his brother's annoying intent and forced himself to smile — when all he really wanted to do was smack Avery in the head. ‘I won't miss you either.' He held his hand out and shook Avery's — they even came at a hug for the sake of appearances. ‘I'll see you in the senate.' Sparrow echoed Bast's sentiment, unable to think of any other kind words.