The Dragon Queens (The Mystique Trilogy) (50 page)

‘Me?’ I squeaked, most unconfidently.

‘You carried the key to human salvation once before,’ he said, ‘and you are carrying her again.’

I wanted to ask whether the Black Madonna was a key incarnation of mine that I would revisit in one of the Halls of Amenti, but as I doubted the captain could answer, I’d just have to wait and see.

‘So angelic consciousness and saintly consciousness are very different?’ I asked.

Sinclair nodded. ‘For angels will venture where saints dare not and cannot tread. Now…’ He motioned me to the porthole.

I hesitated, feeling apprehensive. ‘I’ve never done anything like this in a conscious state,’ I said.

‘Time to live a little then,’ he encouraged playfully, ‘for behind each fear lies a secret wish.’

He was right, for my true desire was to not fear such opportunities, but embrace them, as Ashlee had done.

‘Here goes,’ I said, and wrapped both my arms around my belly in an attempt to suppress the rising butterflies of excitement in my gut. Then I moved into the central waterfall of liquid-light.

The passage was instantaneous, just as Ashlee had described. I was momentarily filled with light and felt a wall of suction pulling me forth into the huge altar room that was the antechamber of Amenti. Large stone stairs ascended in long, curved levels to a platform and altar block. The light emanating from the portholes behind us illuminated the entire chamber.

‘There you are!’ Clearly Albray had begun to wonder what was taking us so long. I apologised, realising I had, inadvertently, aided Captain Sinclair to annoy Albray yet again.

‘The captain was just explaining the difference between saintly and angelic consciousness,’ I said.

‘What would he know about either?’ scoffed Albray.

‘Now you’re just being arrogant.’ I grew tired of his petty dislike of Sinclair. ‘Once you have walked the Halls of Amenti, you’ll be in a better position to judge him.’

‘I do not have to walk Amenti to know he is trying to cause trouble between us.’

I could hardly deny this as Sinclair had admitted as much himself. ‘Then don’t let him bait you,’ I advised quickly, as the captain emerged through the porthole behind me.

‘Well, kiddies, this is the end of the line for me,’ he said.

‘I don’t understand,’ I said, wary of being left to our own devices.

An Anu warrior emerged from one of the outer portholes to join us. He was even taller and fairer in looks than Taejax, and his entire being gave off a slight illumination that was not human. Still, his appearance was very well defined and his physical presence was only slightly less dense than our own.

‘Lugh Lamhfada.’ The captain greeted the new arrival with a slight bow, as if he were royalty. ‘Your timing is impeccable, as always.’

‘Operating beyond time as I do, I have no excuse to be tardy,’ the Anu granted.

The captain introduced us to Lugh, telling us that he was a brilliant carpenter, mason, harpist, poet, storyteller, physician, goldsmith, leader and warrior among the Anu—and that he would be our guide to our respective resting places beneath the blue flame inside the Hall of Life.

‘I shall see you both in one hundred years,’ Sinclair said, then waved and departed back through the central porthole.

Albray wasn’t sad to see him go. ‘That sounds a long time,’ he said, ‘but I doubt it will be long enough.’

I hated to be negative, but I had to agree. ‘Why
should one hundred years make any difference, when two hundred has made none?’

Our new guide ascended the stairs to the altar stone and, standing before it, produced an ankh tool. He held it out before himself and focused his will through it; a beam of blue flame energy shot from the ancient tool into the altar stone and the stone wall behind the altar began to ripple like water. The stone vanished in a blaze of light, exposing the tunnel beyond.

‘Shall we?’ Lugh invited us to follow him into the Amenti complex.

This was where Albray and I committed ourselves to the Amenti scheme that we could no longer recall having partially masterminded. The next time we returned to this chamber we would be fully fledged members of Amenti’s staff, and considering the situation brewing in our original time–space reality there was nothing I wanted more.

I shall skip the details of my own experience of Amenti for that is another book entirely. Suffice to say, my journey was unique to me. As Sinclair had met Ashlee and guided her through her negotiation of Amenti’s halls, so too did Albray’s enlightened being meet me in Amenti’s outer chambers and see me through my own trials and revelations. When I asked how it was possible for him to be here with me when he was currently journeying Amenti himself, he said that time was meaningless here and that I had done him the same service.

The lifetimes I perceived in Amenti’s halls were also unique to me, as was the knowledge I gained
and the skills I remembered. Much of my experience in Amenti will be brought to light as this story unfolds, and so I proceed with the telling.

Albray awoke in the Chamber of Life and was greeted by Lugh Lamhfada.

‘I suppose you expected Princess Charming to awaken you?’ the Anu warrior teased. ‘But never fear, I did not kiss you.’

‘That is just as well,’ Albray laughed; he may have been stiff and groggy after his long slumber, but his sense of humour was still intact. ‘For it was not you I imagined spending happily-ever-after with…No offence.’

‘None taken,’ Lugh said and passed him his clothes. ‘You might want to put these on before the Dragon Queens awake.’

‘What?’ Albray groaned and managed to pull his naked body upright to look out from the newly opened pod that had been his home for one hundred years.

In the tranquil blue glow cast by the large light tube that extended from floor to ceiling in the centre of the chamber, Albray could clearly see the twelve pods evenly spaced around the blue flame emitter in a flower-like formation. He could tell that all the pods on his side of the chamber were open and deactivated, as there was no ultraviolet light emanating from the seal around the rim of the pods. The six pods on the opposite side of the flower were all still closed, however, and their seals glowed intensely.

‘You are the last of the Princes to awake,’ Lugh advised, as Albray pulled on the jeans, shirt and boots that he had worn into Amenti.

‘Will all the Dragon Queens awake at once?’ Albray asked, and jumped out of his pod. Instantly the ultraviolet strip around the lid and the base of the rim switched off.

‘That has always been the plan,’ replied Lugh. He seemed most inspired by the pending event.

‘Oh dear.’ But Albray barely had time to consider how uncomfortable that situation could be for him when Lugh went down on one knee in reverence, his eyes fixed on something behind Albray.

Albray turned to see that the spirit of a very beautiful female being had entered the chamber. She appeared half-human and half-Anu, and was composed only of astral matter. ‘Who is she?’ he asked Lugh quietly as he bowed down beside the Fey warrior, who regarded the beautiful spirit as a mortal might revere a goddess. Indeed, she was more beautiful and goddess-like than any human woman Albray had ever seen. She was extremely tall, darkskinned, violet-eyed, and had a body that was slender and perfectly proportioned to her height.

‘She is the Great Mother architect of the evolution of my people,’ said Lugh. ‘She is Kali. She is—’

‘My daughter-to-be!’ Albray was overwhelmed at the prospect of protecting such a beauty. ‘Heaven help me,’ he muttered as he watched the spirit move towards the tube of blue flame energy in the centre of the Chamber of Life, oblivious to their presence. ‘What is she doing?’

‘Awakening her guard.’ Lugh’s tone suggested that he felt he was stating the obvious.

The spirit stepped into the blue flame and immediately a flame of violet ignited within it, which consumed her completely.

‘Tamar!’ Albray was alarmed by her disappearance.

‘Do not fear,’ Lugh advised, as they watched the light of the blue flame pillar die out altogether, leaving only the ultraviolet seals of the remaining pods to light the room. ‘Your daughter is alive and well in the belly of your woman.’

The sound of all six seals opening at once startled Albray, and he looked on in anticipation as the pods opened to expose the Dragon Queens slumbering within. Each wore only a glistening white strip of fabric around their chest and thighs, and their skin glistened with ORME oil to protect against and absorb the light of the blue flame.

‘The six most perfect females in history and it has been my privilege to know most of them,’ Albray said reverentially. ‘I feel I am the most blessed and cursed man on Earth!’

Lugh gave a hearty laugh. ‘You are a flamebearer, therefore you are!’

Albray approached the pod closest to him, where I lay.

My consciousness was drawn back to Earth by the kiss of my lover, which, when I realised what was happening, I found very romantic. ‘Hello, my prince,’ I smiled, delighted to see him as always.

‘Hello, my goddesses.’ He smiled down at me. ‘I have just seen a vision of our daughter and she is the most beautiful being this world will ever behold.’

‘You wouldn’t be biased now, would you?’

‘Well, she has the most beautiful mother on Earth, so it is to be expected.’ He kissed me again.

A buxom brunette sat up in the pod alongside
mine. ‘Where is
my
prince?’ she demanded teasingly.

Albray backed off a little when he realised all the Dragon Queens were stirring.

A redhead slid out of the pod next to the brunette. ‘Oh my ancestors!’ she cried. ‘Can it be you, Albray?’ She choked on emotion at the sound of his name. ‘Are you…?’ She neared to touch him and burst into tears when she felt a solid body. ‘You are alive!’ She flung her arms around my husband’s neck and he responded with great affection.

‘Yes, Ashlee, I am, thanks to all your efforts,’ he told her, then suddenly remembered my existence and set her near-naked form at a distance in order to introduce me. ‘This is the woman responsible for my release from the curse,’ he said. ‘Mia Montrose, meet Ashlee Granville-Devere.’

‘Actually, it’s Mia Devere these days,’ I reminded my husband, which flustered him as he had been very quick to remind Captain Sinclair of the same fact.

‘Yes, of course,’ he said, looking embarrassed.

Ashlee’s face reflected both her delight and her apprehension at meeting me. ‘It is an honour, Mia, for you have done what I could not,’ she said.

‘The pleasure was really all mine,’ I replied, and slid out of my pod to confront the woman I had envied and admired for so long. ‘We bested Molier for you while we were at it.’

Ashlee, although I was sure she sensed my animosity, could not help but be pleased by the news.

‘Then I am the one who needs to thank you, Mia,’ said another voice from one of the furthest pods.

Albray was stunned breathless by the sound of her voice. ‘Lillet?’ he said, and moved off towards the source of his fascination.

‘In one of my lifetimes I was the Lillet du Lac who knew you in your darkest hour,’ she confirmed as he stepped into the light shed by her pod. She melted into a smile, which she had rarely done during the lifetime in which he’d known and loved her. ‘Hello, brave knight.’

‘Hello, princess,’ he replied with a smile, as he had referred to her thus when he meant to tease her.

She was no longer vexed by him, however, for she launched herself out of her pod and into his waiting arms. ‘I am so sorry, Albray,’ she said, hugging him tight as their tears of joy and sorrow began to flow freely. ‘I never wanted to be your curse.’

‘You never were.’ My husband near choked on his sincerity and, despite my jealousy, I was touched to see their reconciliation.

‘Your man certainly gets around,’ commented the sultry brunette beside me, who, by a simple process of elimination, I figured to be the original Dragon Queen herself, the mighty Lilith.

Once Albray and Lillet had regained control of their emotions, Albray looked up to see the two women he’d once known as Lady Susan and Ajalae Koriche. Both were waving hello and motioning him towards me. I stood with my arms crossed, feeling as dejected and insecure as any newly-wed pregnant woman would when seeing her husband expend so much affection on other women.

‘Oh, honey…’ Albray approached to reassure me, but I backed away to indicate that I didn’t need his attention.

‘I am fine with this,’ I said.

Lillet moved past Albray to approach me. ‘You did everything you promised me you would,’ she said, and her goodwill and sincerity were so genuine that I found myself embracing her. Lillet had been a spirit guide to me during my encounter with Molier, advising me through her journals and in my dreams.

‘I said I’d make the world a better place,’ I recalled, ‘but I have not.’

‘You made
my
world a better place,’ Albray ventured, and all the women present sighed, thinking him very sweet.

‘Give yourself some time,’ Lillet encouraged me and we embraced again.

‘Dragon hug,’ Lilith decided, and like the Great Mother she was, she motioned all her girls together into a tearful, swaying mass of bodies. Now all the pods had shut down, the crystal ceiling in the chamber began to give off a subtle, soothing light.

‘Isn’t this wonderful?’ Lugh said to Albray as both men gazed at the huddle of near-naked female warriors.

‘Heaven and hell all at once,’ my husband replied, making Lugh laugh.

Our Anu host set about handing out robes, explaining that there was more suitable attire awaiting the Dragon Queens on board the
Kleio
. But there was no robe for me—I was handed the clothes I had worn into Amenti. Once we were both dressed, Lugh escorted us down a long corridor to the Amenti antechamber containing the three liquid-light portholes, one of which led to the Cave of Mamer and another to Lugh’s realm.

‘You and your partner have a different path to walk for a time,’ Lugh advised.

‘Starting with the opening of the Hall of Records,’ I said, recalling our task.

Lugh nodded and led us all down the stairs in front of the altar towards the portholes, after which the stone wall behind the altar reconstituted to conceal the passage beyond.

‘The rest of you ladies will be collected by Captain Sinclair presently,’ he said.

The women all appeared keen on the idea, especially Ashlee, but I was a little disappointed to have to part from my sisters before I had been given the chance to really know them. My feelings must have been reflected on my face.

‘When will we see our sister again?’ Ashlee asked Lugh.

‘Not until Kali has come of age,’ Lugh replied, and all my sisters sighed in disappointment with me.

‘But that will be over thirteen years from now!’ Lilith protested.

‘Only for Mia,’ Lugh pointed out. ‘The rest of you are operating outside of time, and Captain Sinclair will be taking you all off to the future, after he returns Mia and Albray to their present.’

‘But Mia will miss bonding with us,’ Ashlee said sadly.

Perhaps she was keen that I should get to know her so I no longer saw her as a threat to my relationship with Albray. In truth, I
did
know her, and deep down I knew also that there was only one man for her—the captain of the
Kleio
.