The Cosmic Logos (33 page)

‘It is no surprise to me that you would readily exchange your love to save your own skin … nothing really changes, now does it, Dragon? Have it your way.'
Mahaud willed Tory's body to rise and as it sped past Maelgwn he gripped an arm. ‘Not so fast. I want Lirathea within arm's reach when you depart.'

‘I've been tricked by you before.' The witch raised her hand and zapped Maelgwn with lightning shot from her fingertips. He let Tory go and as her body entered the witch's circle the torches burst into flame. ‘No more favours.'

Damn,
thought Maelgwn, unsure if the witch's circle of fire would prevent him from triggering the hypnotic suggestion they'd implanted in Tory's brain.

It will be all right,
whispered Tory, and Maelgwn trusted her word.

The black and red mist of Mahaud's spirit streamed out of his daughter's mouth, nose and ears and into Tory's body.

As soon as her form was vacated, Lirathea took control of her body and finding it rather heavy after her time as a spirit, she stumbled several times in her attempt to reach the circle's circumference. She tried willing herself out of there, but inside the witch's circle she had no power.

‘Where do you think you're going?' Mahaud raised Tory's arm and drew Lirathea back towards her.

A big wind arose from nowhere and blew out the torches, whereupon the witch lost all power over Lirathea.

Will yourself to your brothers this instant,
Tory instructed her daughter, who vanished.

‘What's going on?' Mahaud snarled as she re-ignited her torches, somewhat annoyed to have lost her other captive.

‘You may have possession of my wife's body, but her spirit is free to do as it pleases,' Maelgwn stated in a provocative tone, as he realised Tory was responsible for freeing Lirathea.

‘Not for long,' Mahaud claimed confidently. ‘I know a few unfriendly spirits who shall see to her.'

Again a wind arose to extinguish the torches and Maelgwn stepped into the circle. ‘
Confide
in me,' Maelgwn urged the crone, whereupon she fell immediately into a trance. ‘I want to talk about Electra.'

‘Electra?' Mahaud hissed as the four torches burst into flame once more and startled Maelgwn.

Apologies, that was me,
Tory bethought her husband.
Now we have the circle fortified with
our
energies, it is safe to proceed.

‘Sit.' Maelgwn bade his subject do as he did. Tory's form took a seat on the ground in front of him. ‘Who was Electra? I want the date, by the modern calendar, of when she perished?'

‘Electra was the second daughter of Agamemnon, the last true ruler of Atlantis,' Mahaud replied, and although her numerous devilish voices sounded rather sedated, her eyes of burning red coals were daunting. ‘The demise of the last small portion of the great island continent of Atlantis coincided with Electra's damnation. They both perished on the summer solstice of 9564BC.'

 

Viper had worked himself into a complete state. He was being thwarted on every front.

The time hopping crystal had been stolen from the Star Chamber. Bast had flattened his immortal warriors
and vanished. His agent on Gaia, who had been doing such a fine job of impersonating Rainer Ingram, had been kidnapped, although Viper had sent another agent to the surface to take Horace's place. They may not have killed Hayden Ingram, but his disappearance was working to their advantage just as well, because the sale of the biodome had been prevented. But the disaster that most concerned Viper was that of Mahaud vanishing, along with the body of the oracle, Lirathea, which Viper had aided the witch to seize.

Mahaud had claimed that if she couldn't have Tory Alexander's body, or the body of Lahmu's daughter, then she would settle on destroying the angelic soul of the Dragon's youngest daughter. Viper had wondered why the crone persisted in possessing the bodies of the Chosen Ones, when their light filled body only caused her hardship in having to reverse the process and fill it with darkness. He'd suggested to the crone that the body of one of his Dark Ones would complement her nature more readily, to which Mahaud had replied: ‘There is nothing so wretchedly pleasing as to corrupt the soul of the incorruptible.'

Now Viper was beginning to suspect that Mahaud had an ulterior motive for seizing the body of the Dragon's daughter. And as Mahaud hadn't mentioned her additional reasons to him, Viper naturally assumed that the crone was out to betray him.

Mahaud and Viper had created a room of summons, where they could call upon the knowledge and power of the Lords of the Materialistic. On the floor, they inset a Charichalum hex mark engraved with ancient symbols
of the Dark Lodge. In the centre of this circle was a screen, where the secret symbol of any fallen lord could be projected. The spirit was forced to answer the call and support the cause of whomever summoned it forth.

Viper was of the mind to perform such a summons and find out what the witch was up to, but he discovered the evil utensils required for his conjuring were missing, just like Mahaud.

‘Now I've got you,' he mumbled, pleased by this discovery. He'd expected the crone to pull a stunt like this later rather than sooner, but never mind, Viper had placed a homing device beneath the huge cauldron, just in case. ‘Dick me, would you, witch? We'll see about that.'

Viper took one of his reconnaissance vessels to track down the cauldron that was pinpointed on the surface of Gaia.

‘I should have known.' Viper observed the King's Men stone circle in close up on one of his vessel's soft-light screens. As the Dragon was having a civil conversation with Tory Alexander, who had clearly been claimed by Mahaud, it was quite obvious to Viper that the witch had got herself in a spot of bother.

‘Do you want us to blast the site, Lord Viper?' asked his tactician, who had targeted the site with their ship's missile launcher.

‘Presently.' Viper placed his hand on the PKA control plate and issued his command to turn up the volume of the conversation he was viewing on the screen.

‘My lord, our thrusters will be churning up the cloud around us,' his pilot advised. ‘Our presence probably won't go unheeded for long.'

‘I have them in my sights,' Viper pointed out. ‘At the first sign of suspicion, we shall blast the Dragon, his spouse and that treacherous witch into the next life. Until then, shut up the lot of you … listen and learn.'

 

In the room of hexagons in Taliesin's Otherworldly labyrinth, Rhun's team stood observing the situation unfolding at the King's Men stones.

Lirathea's narrow escape from the witch had had them all alarmed for a moment, but the Dragon's sons were greatly relieved when their sister joined them at their Otherworldly hideout.

‘How are they doing?' Lirathea hugged Avery, Sparrowhawk and Zabeel briefly, then made for the screen.

‘Fine,' Avery assured her. ‘Now,' he added to imply they had been worried for a second there.

‘Shhh!' Rhun urged them all. ‘I need to hear this.'

 

‘I'd like Mahaud to move aside a moment and allow me to speak with Electra directly.' Maelgwn continued his discourse with the lost soul inhabiting his wife's body. ‘Can you speak with me, Electra?'

‘I have nothing to say to you,' replied the subject in Tory's own voice, although she spoke in the language of the ancient Atlanteans.

This utterance caused butterflies to begin fluttering in the pit of Maelgwn's stomach; it was as if her voice, coupled with this dialect, triggered some deeper recognition in him. For, although he was no longer
immortal, Maelgwn still recalled the ancient dialect very well. ‘So you recognise me?'

‘Yes, I recognise you.'

As she glared deep into his eyes, Maelgwn noted that the deep red eyes of the crone had faded and been replaced by Tory's own violet ones.

‘Your face has been scorched upon my memory,' she said with deep malice. ‘I shall never forget you, Prometheus.'

‘Prometheus?' Maelgwn uttered the name and was blinded by a vision of a red skinned people laying siege to the city of the golden gates.

He, Prometheus, of the fair skinned race of tall Atlanteans that ruled Atlantis, was leading the attack.
If you find the sorcerer kill him!
Prometheus yelled as he charged over the innermost bridge that led to the palace and the high temple of Chailidocean.

‘I recall a battle … against a sorcerer.' Maelgwn relayed.

‘That would be Aegisthus, who, with a little help from me and a lot of help from my mother, was my father's murderer.' Electra hung her head as she recalled the shameful circumstance.

‘Why did you aid the murder of your father,' Maelgwn probed gently, ‘when it so obviously grieves you?'

‘I did not know that my father was to be cursed with the summons of my design,' she shot back at Maelgwn in her own defence. ‘I was plagued by nightmares for years, because I was foolish enough to trust my own mother.'

‘What were your nightmares about?' He skirted around the subject.

‘The destruction of my civilisation,' she replied, raising her eyes to look Maelgwn in the eye once more. ‘I foresaw fire, flood, war, death … and you.'

‘Tell me what happened,' he entreated her.

The subject looked Maelgwn over as if trying to assess whether he was serious. ‘This world has never known such a time of upheaval, wretchedness and strife. Why do you want to go back there?'

‘I need to remember,' he advised gently. ‘We both do.'

‘Even when the rest of humanity has politely chosen to forget?' Electra scoffed. ‘Why should we?'

‘Because we can then help the rest of humanity to remember, before history repeats itself,' Maelgwn encouraged.

Electra considered his request, and even though she was obliged to do his will, she was still hesitant to recall the period in question. ‘History will not repeat itself, not to the same extent of horror. The human soul-mind, on the whole, has evolved somewhat in the last ten thousand years. Atlantis marked the halfway point in the evolution of the human soul-mind on this planet; at that time, matter held full sway in the physical realm. Human consciousness had fully descended into the physical … in other words it had gone as low as it could go in the cosmic scheme of things and this was reflected in the self-indulgent, egotistical and materialistic nature of many of the people who lived just prior to the last great deluge.'

Maelgwn nodded his understanding, urging her to continue.

‘Although my father's murder triggered the native rebellion, the siege on Chailidocean that you recall was the beginning of the end for Atlantis.' Electra bit her lip as she pondered where to begin her tale. ‘The prophetic dream I'd glimpsed in bits and pieces since the day my father was murdered, was finally channelled in its entirety a handful of days before the siege.'

 

‘A ball of fire grows daily in the sky, reflecting the anger of the native tribes. When the fire in the sky grows larger than the sun and lights your city with its brilliance half the night, the dark races will merge into a united force that will storm this city, and your desire to hold it will bury it in myth.'

Following visions of the events the spirit predicted, Electra found herself standing in a light beam that faded into darkness in every direction. Her six sisters clung to her for fear, asking her what to do. ‘They must leave,' the spirit whispered to Electra, using her voice, and as her sisters rushed away from her, Electra turned to confront the sorcerer who had murdered her father. He stood in the shadows beyond her light, and was illuminated by the magic energies that danced between his fingers. ‘You and I shall wait,' Electra advised. ‘We can go to hell together.'

‘No.' A beautiful, dark-haired man who stood to her right, reached out to her. ‘You have done nothing wrong.'

‘Who wants to be saved?'

She turned left to see her brother, Orestes, circling a beautiful maiden, with whom he was obviously
enchanted. Electra glanced back to the sorcerer, who smiled, seemingly gratified by her brother's preoccupation with the unknown maiden. Then her gaze fell upon the handsome stranger holding out his helping hand to her.

‘Come,' he urged her with his outstretched hand.

‘When the fireball passes over Chailidocean, Gaia will shake furiously and be cast into darkness.'

The voice of the spirit blinded Electra with images of destruction once more.

‘Filled to overflowing with divine inspiration, mankind has chosen to follow the influence of the Dark Lodge by using sacred knowledge for selfish purposes. Thus no scholar of sorcery will survive to record the tales of the great civilisations that shall be no more. Lands will rupture and fire shall consume those kingdoms not engulfed by the ocean's backlash. Every cradle of civilisation will Gaia cast off into the waters fed by her tears. The great Mother will enter a time of mourning, for herself and for the terrible scars that will be buried deep within the subconscious of her peoples forevermore. Humanity will be returned to the wilds of nature, to be humbled by Gaia. The Black League will prevail. Only a handful shall remember the divine secrets through the wretched eras to come. These guardians will remain in hiding until such time as the Logos sees fit to entrust mankind with cosmic knowledge and grant the species a second chance at planetary evolution. This is the promise of Uriel, the Prince of Retribution and the humble servant of the Logos.'

The harsh male characteristics departed Electra's
voice and her head dropped forward until her spirit gained control of her form and she raised herself upright.

‘Take her away,' Electra heard the sorcerer command. Aegisthus always had her head covered with a hood before he had her brought forth from her imprisonment in the High Temple to foretell events for him. He may have been a mighty sorcerer, but he feared the spirits Electra had access to.