The Dragon Queens (The Mystique Trilogy)

  ‘You hear it?’ my lord asked me.

  ‘I do.’ I looked to each of the tablets in turn.

  ‘Hear what?’ Taylor whispered.

  ‘Either these tablets have a telepathic projection capability, or there is some sort of conscious intelligence connected with each.’

  Lord Devere moved forward to address each tablet in turn.

  ‘Do you mean to tell me that the tablets are speaking?’ Mr Taylor clearly wanted to scoff, but was too polite. ‘What are they saying?’

  ‘They are reciting the text engraved on them,’ I explained. I gestured to the tablet nearest me. ‘This one is called the Key of Wisdom, and this one,’ I pointed to the one alongside it, ‘is a discourse on the Space Born.’

  ‘This is the Key of Time,’ Lord Devere advised of the tablet he was currently concentrating upon.

  It seemed that the simple awarding of one’s attention was the key to activating the discourse of each tablet, although, as Mr Taylor was incapable of hearing anything, it was clear that one needed a certain amount of psychic aptitude to make the telepathic connection. I discovered that if I skimmed my attention further down the tablet, the discourse would skip forward and resume its tutorial from wherever had captured my interest. Even more astounding was that the discourse was in English, but if I willed it to be Latin or Italian or any of the other languages I was familiar with, then the tutorial adjusted to suit that desire. This suggested the tablets had some sort of intellect, but whether it was human or artificial I could not say without further investigation.

  ‘What an incredible feat of psychic ingenuity,’ I uttered, in awe of the creator. Did I dare to touch one of the tablets and discover who that creator was?

  ‘Wait!’ Mr Taylor frowned as he listened harder. ‘I do hear something. It sounds like…a woman, moaning.’

  I stopped short of touching the tablet and dragged my attention from the text—sure enough, I heard the moaning too.

  ‘It is coming from over there.’ Taylor pointed to an archway that led further into the ruin. Reluctantly, Lord Devere and I turned away from the tablets; there would be plenty of time to study them later.

  Through the archway was another huge chamber. Lord Devere paused at the arch to note a cavity within the framework that was filled with gold. ‘Another set of doors,’ he guessed, ‘which were opened by an advance party.’

  ‘Levi?’ I voiced what we were both wondering.

  ‘Just look at this!’ Mr Taylor was turning circles as he walked further into the chamber, which was also round. The shape of the shrine seemed to indicate that this temple had never been part of the ziggurat above, but had originally been structured as a secret subterranean dwelling. Huge pillars supported the ceiling, which featured an enormous downward-facing lotus flower crafted entirely from gold. The flower’s petals opened high above a raised central platform in the centre of the temple. Atop the platform stairs stood a circular altar block, crafted from silver. ‘This find is unprecedented!’ Taylor cried.

  I noted that the floor beneath my feet did not sound like stone or timber and crouched to view the shiny, smooth surface. ‘Red-gold,’ I said to my husband.

  We had both seen this rare metal before, in the Sinai, and it meant only one thing: those who had built this temple knew the ancient alchemic art of Star-Fire production.

  Star-Fire, besides its use for accelerating the spiritual enlightenment of those who carried the Gene of Isis, was also used to reinforce precious metals with extraordinary strength and weight, once the metal had returned to a cool and hardened state.

  But when these resilient metals were heated to extreme temperatures, their superconductivity caused them to levitate and sometimes even dissipate altogether.

  ‘Good luck trying to strip this temple bare of its treasures,’ my husband muttered to me.

  Mr Taylor had not noted our observations; he was still turning circles, admiring the gold ceiling feature.

  I noticed something on the silver altar and pushed past Taylor.

  His torchlight illuminated the silver stone and I could see that some dark liquid had tarnished the sides and run all the way down the steps.

  ‘It is blood,’ I said upon touching it and raising my fingers to the light. ‘And it is still moist.’

  I clambered up the steep stairs expecting to find our son, but it was the body of a woman lying on the great silver block of offering and both her wrists were cut. I brushed the hair from her face. ‘Miss Koriche!’

  My fingers searched her neck for a pulse. ‘She is still alive,’ I called to the others. It was a miracle considering the amount of blood she had shed, and I began ripping my head scarf into strips to bandage her wounds.

  ‘My God!’ Taylor was shocked to find his linguist in such a state. Then, noting the seductive, sheer white silk dress Miss Koriche was wearing, he added, ‘It is always the quiet ones that surprise you.’

  ‘No…’ Miss Koriche, semiconscious now, made a weak protest against my first aid. ‘I am not worthy…’

  ‘What has happened here?’ I shook her a little to see if I could bring her to full consciousness. ‘Where is everyone? Where is Levi?’

  ‘Gone…’ she muttered.

  ‘Gone where?’ I urged, raising her body to rest against me.

  ‘They came for him…’

  ‘Who did?’ I stroked her face in the hope of keeping her with us, but her form became a dead weight in my arms.

  ‘Let us get her back to the surface,’ Lord Devere suggested, as calmly as his anxiety would allow. ‘And pray that she lives.’

  He bundled the girl up in his arms and we made haste back towards the staircase.

  ‘Are you coming, Mr Taylor?’ I asked, noticing that our host seemed unable to drag himself away from assessing the potential profit of this find, despite his dying colleague.

  ‘Right behind you,’ he said, his gaze lingering on the huge golden lotus overhead.

  Miss Koriche was in a very bad way: pale, cold and still unconscious.

  ‘All you have to do is touch her and we could know what happened,’ my husband tempted me. Mr Taylor had left us alone with the patient, claiming he had to take care of some urgent correspondence.

  It was a real moral dilemma; I detested invading the private thoughts of others, although in this case I did have good cause.

  ‘If she dies, her knowledge will die with her,’ Lord Devere pushed. It was unlike him to encourage the abuse of my talents.

  ‘Her ghost may choose to converse with me,’ I said, knowing it was a weak argument.

  ‘And it may not.’ He politely demolished my protest. ‘What makes you think that Miss Koriche would trust you any more in death than she did in life? For that matter, even if she wakes, she may not choose to tell us anything.’

  I caved in. ‘All right, I shall do it…for Levi’s sake.’

  ‘You do not have to justify this course of action to me,’ Lord Devere pointed out, smiling. I knew he was grateful for my decision.

  I placed a hand upon Miss Koriche’s and focused my inner eye to connect with her subconscious. I posed the question: Do you know what has happened to Levi?

  A string of images and sounds flashed before me in reverse, then came to a standstill. I was—or rather Miss Koriche was—in the tworoomed dwelling that stood above our discovery, speaking with Levi. It appeared to be the first day of our arrival at the Mound of Pitch, as the serious excavation of the second room had yet to begin…

  Levi had remained with Miss Koriche after our party had left to inspect the rest of the excavation. He said he wanted to discuss the finer points of the ancient Sumerian language with her.

  Miss Koriche was explaining the symbols on her rubbing when Levi interrupted her.

  ‘You can stop pretending now that we are alone,’ he said.

  ‘I am not entirely sure what you mean, Mr Granville-Devere.’ I felt her smile, sparked by curiosity.

  Levi returned her smile with a very charming one
of his own. ‘I mean that I was expecting to meet you here in Persia. Were you expecting me? I thought I detected a hint of recognition when we were introduced—was I wrong about that?’

  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 a
nd 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.