‘Oh, come on, Avery, you can drop the act, we’re alone,’ she stressed the point, ‘just like we were last night. I haven’t planted any secret surveillance to entrap you or —’
Avery pulled her up. ‘We were never alone last night. I left you with Bast and that’s the last I saw of you.’
‘Oh no,’ Fallon shook her head slowly and calmly, unable to support his claim. ‘You saw more of me than that.’
Her voice and manner had a seductive edge that Avery found both becoming and alarming.
‘You really don’t remember, do you?’ Fallon sounded almost sympathetic suddenly and Avery thought he had best take the path of least resistance.
His shook his head, not needing to fake his bemusement as he took the seat opposite her. ‘Would you be so kind as to refresh my memory?’
Fallon blushed slightly, which set a seed of fear burning in Avery’s chest, and as she told of how he’d returned last night to seduce her, he didn’t know what to think. Avery knew it hadn’t been him, as he’d been otherwise detained with a beautiful forest nymph at the time.
‘And you’re sure you didn’t imagine this?’ Avery probed, his concern mounting.
Fallon had to refrain from hitting him again and in desperation she removed the thought-wave neutraliser from her wrist and held out her hands to him. ‘Take hold if you don’t believe me.’
Desperate to know the truth Avery removed his thought-wave neutraliser, so as to perceive her memory. What Avery didn’t consider was that, in opening her mind to his, he also left his mind open to her.
As he viewed Fallon’s memory of their encounter, it stirred Avery deeply and he began to wish that he had returned to her last night — but he hadn’t, so who was this impostor?
‘You’re right, it was beautiful,’ he said as he let her hand go, afraid to look at her face and see the hurt there. A slap across the cheek made him braver and he looked at Fallon as she stood to yell down at him.
‘You slept with a wood nymph last night after you left me?’ Fallon burst into tears. ‘How come you remember that encounter so clearly? Am I so forgettable?’
‘No.’ Avery found himself on the defensive, as his feelings were all in a muddle.
Fallon’s misconception would cause her less worry than the truth — that some impostor had molested her in his stead. This realisation made Avery jealous, knowing the passionate encounter he hadn’t had. He’d never before suspected that he could feel this way about Fallon. It was all too confronting; time to retreat.
‘I’m sorry about everything, Fallon.’ Avery wondered why, when she’d hit him twice for something he hadn’t done, that he was the one apologising?
‘Sorry doesn’t really cut it, Avery.’ She placed both hands on her hips, whilst she visibly got her anger under control. ‘I can’t tell you how happy I am that I stopped you last night … that is the last time I ever share anything intimate with you.’
Avery remembered dreaming of escaping Fallon’s adoration once they graduated and now that his wish was unfolding, it didn’t look very attractive any more. En Noah had warned him to beware what he willed to manifest. Avery realised his heart was aching at the thought of losing her love. ‘Fallon, please —’
‘Please leave.’ She cut him off and, bursting into tears once more, she headed for another room. ‘Just go.’
Avery raised both hands to his head, shell-shocked from the encounter. ‘My perfect existence has turned to complete shit in a matter of hours … what the hell is going on?’
3
GLAMOUR
‘Frankly, I’m worried,’ Avery stated, having reviewed what he’d discovered with his father, who was reclining on a lounge, wearing a smug smile on his face.
‘Yes, I can see that.’
‘Well, who do you think it could have been with Fallon last night?’ Avery stopped floating about and lowered himself onto a seat to be still.
Maelgwn raised both brows and took his best guess. ‘It could have been you.’
‘Me!’ Avery was excited by the supposition only a second. ‘How could I have been in two places at once?’
‘If the nymph you were with was playing you for sport with her glamour, you would only remember what she wanted you to,’ Maelgwn reasoned. ‘Ask En Noah, he knows all about being glamoured by a siren.’
‘En Noah has been seduced by a nature elemental?’ Avery found the premise hard to accept.
Maelgwn nodded surely. ‘Oh yes. His past life incarnation, Selwyn, near stole the heart of Gwyn ap Nudd’s queen … before Amabel was the Night Hunter’s wife, that is.’
‘I don’t remember much of Amabel,’ Avery commented. The fairy queen of the Otherworld had achieved a four-fold elemental state of being when Avery was still a boy and so had passed on to the next stage of elemental evolution before he’d really had much of a chance to get to know her. ‘I remember she was very beautiful,’ Avery stated and then smiled. ‘Who would have thought En Noah could have charmed the greatest charmer of them all?’
Maelgwn was amused by his son’s astonishment, but felt obliged to point out, ‘But Amabel was not Noah’s soul-mate and thus their affair brought him nothing but grief and distraction for twenty years.’
‘But I have been trained all my life to detect glamour, both Otherworldly and material,’ Avery defended, knowing that his father was headed toward a lecture on the error of seducing Otherworldly maidens. ‘I am the master of glamour, for heaven’s sake … I would’ve known if Didi was playing me for sport last night and she never has before.’
‘Before, Avery?’ His father prompted an explanation.
Avery shrank from the question. ‘It’s not like I force myself on them, father,’ he defended. ‘They pursue me!’
‘That’s not the point, and well you know it.’ Maelgwn became very adamant suddenly. ‘The only time you should ever get intimate with a female is if you love her. Not like her a lot … think she is sweet, hot, charming, persuasive! For only love will ever steer you right, all other motives lead to disaster.’
‘You sound like you’re speaking from experience, father,’ Avery noted and braved a query of his own. ‘How many women did you know intimately before mother?’
‘That was over a hundred and fifty years ago for me, Avery. You can hardly compare the morals of modern-day Kila to the Dark Ages of Gaia.’ Maelgwn brushed off the question.
‘I’ll assume you knew many,’ Avery smiled, having got his answer.
‘Look, your cavorting last night has landed you in strife,’ Maelgwn sat up to emphasise his point, ‘when you could have been in love.’
‘No, I don’t think so.’ Avery resisted the idea strongly.
‘Okay, then.’ Maelgwn changed tack. ‘Let us consider the possibility that it was an impostor with Fallon last night, because any of the Chosen who know you are capable of assuming your form.’
‘Then I would have the culprit drawn and quartered.’ Avery stood, unable to think of anyone who would do such a thing. ‘If Fallon hadn’t been so chaste the bastard would have —’ Avery got so angry he couldn’t speak.
‘It could have been a woman,’ Maelgwn suggested.
Avery couldn’t come at the idea. ‘Bast might be cruel and game enough to spite her sister like this, but …’ He thought back over Fallon’s sensual little memory and shook his head. ‘I’m betting the impostor was a male.’
‘Sorry to interrupt, fellows.’ Tory came to a standstill in the middle of the large archway that led into the lounge. ‘The Governess has summoned all of us to an emergency meeting.’
Maelgwn stood, concerned by the curious request. ‘But we have been retired from political life for twenty years?’
Tory shrugged, none the wiser herself. ‘Best go and find out what the problem is, I guess.’
Candace had also summoned En Noah, her historian, Rhun, the Vice-Governor of Kila, and Floyd, their head technologist to the boardroom at Government House.
‘Thank you all for coming s
o quickly,’ Candace began, as everyone was seated around the boardroom table. ‘I wish I could say good afternoon, but I’ve had a communication from the Delphinus chieftain, Zabeel, that suggests otherwise.’ She remained standing to say: ‘The Aten has been stolen from Lura.’
Everyone in the room gasped at the announcement. The space and time hopping Aten had been the brainchild of the Nefilim Lord Marduk, and he’d utilised the space station’s unique capabilities to bring about the realisation of his dream, the immortal race of Homo sapien legends, now known as the Chosen Ones.
‘And that’s not the worst news,’ Candace forewarned everyone before dropping the bombshell. ‘Zabeel’s wife, Cordella, was on board the Aten at the time and has been kidnapped along with the vessel.’
As the father of Zabeel, the immortal half-caste Delphinus-Homo sapien ruler, Maelgwn was concerned for his daughter-in-law’s welfare. ‘Has anyone claimed responsibility? Has there been a ransom note?’
‘No,’ Candace informed him matter-of-factly. ‘No one has claimed responsibility. There has been no ransom note, nor were there any witnesses to the theft.’
‘How can there have been no witnesses?’ Maelgwn contained his frustration beautifully. ‘The Aten is the size of a small moon. Surely someone saw the pirates who commandeered it, or something of their craft at least! I doubt that the culprits are of the Chosen breed, so they must have used a vessel to execute the hijacking.’
Candace shook her head. ‘According to Zabeel, the Aten simply vanished, with no warning and no witnesses.’
‘Do you have a plan of action?’ Tory asked, heading off another interrogation from her husband. Realising he was being overzealous, Maelgwn contained himself.
‘As we all know, the Aten has an excellent cloaking system. However, as a safety precaution, Zabeel recently had a tracking system designed to track the elestial crystal emissions that radiate from the Aten’s unique drive system. Naturally, this system can only track the Aten across space. If the thieves have taken flight into time, the system cannot track them. We are hoping the hijackers are not aware of the full potential of the vessel they have stolen, and that their timing for the theft was just an unhappy coincidence.’
Rhun felt sympathy for his Delphinus half-brother. ‘Well, surely we can assume that if the tracking system can’t pin down the Aten, then the hijackers have fled into time?’
Everyone around the table nodded to agree with the Vice-Governor’s summation, except Floyd; Candace looked to him to explain the hitch.
‘That’s the theory. The problem is that the tracking system has yet to be completed.’ Floyd outlined the problem.
‘That’s what I meant when I said we’re hoping this theft was just a fluke, as the timing was uncanny,’ Candace added.
‘So how long until the tracking system is up and running?’ Maelgwn voiced the pertinent question.
‘Naturally Zabeel has given it top priority, and I shall leave for Lura to see if I can’t speed things along as soon as this meeting is adjourned … we hope to have the system operational asap,’ Floyd assured his old friend.
‘In the interim, we were counting on,’ Candace’s eyes turned to Noah, ‘the Tablet of Destinies … might it be of some aid in locating the Aten’s whereabouts?’
Noah looked a little doubtful. ‘I shall certainly consult the Tablet on this matter,’ he offered. ‘I can put forward the Aten as my current concern, and see what we come up with, but as Tory will tell you, understanding the Tablet’s predictions is not always immediate.’
‘This is probably a stupid question …’ but Avery had to ask it anyway. ‘Have any of the fourteen guardians of the Logos tried willing themselves after Cordella?’
It was too risky for any bar the fourteen of the Logoi, and the Night Hunter’s apprentice, to attempt pursuit, for only they had been granted the ability to teleport themselves safely between star systems.
‘I tried to locate her psychokinetically but was unable to,’ Candace informed them regretfully. ‘We suspect a NERGUZ module is being used to conceal her.’
‘I thought we’d disposed of all those wretched things,’ Tory scowled.
‘So many modules had been black-marketed by the end of the Pantheon’s rule that it has proved impossible to get them all out of circulation.’ Candace defended her government’s efforts. ‘I was surprised by just how many of the devices we did manage to recoup … it seems that just about everybody had visions of bringing the Pantheon down.’
‘And now someone wishes to bring us down,’ Maelgwn stated warily.
‘We don’t know that,’ Candace argued. ‘They may not have known Cordella was on board, or the capabilities of the vessel they were stealing.’
‘And they just happened to have a NERGUZ handy?’ Maelgwn posed. ‘I don’t buy that.’
‘Our terrorists may have skipped through time already.’ Rhun voiced another possibility. ‘Not even the fourteen of the Logoi have the ability to fold time without Otherworldly aid or technology.’
‘I do,’ Avery boasted, although he hadn’t done much time travel yet — there was so much of the Otherworld to explore and Avery found the physical realm mundane no matter what point in time. ‘From the Otherworld I can gain access to history past and future. And I shall endeavour to seek out our dear sister-in-law at the first opportunity.’ Avery looked first to the Governess and then to his father to reassure them.
‘But who would do this?’ Tory appealed for possibilities. ‘Lahmu has brought freedom, peace and prosperity to the interplanetary alliance, and we haven’t had so much as a whiff of discontent from any quarter of humanity, mortal or not.’
Everyone dwelt long and hard on the question, and no one could suggest there was even a fraction of discontent, and certainly none so large or organised as to be able to hijack an entire space station undetected.
‘But even if you do get the tracking system operational, they won’t be able to track the Aten through etheric space?’ Avery sought clarification from Floyd.
‘That is correct,’ Floyd confirmed.
‘I shall spread the word throughout the Otherworld … if they pass through my dominion, I shall know about it,’ Avery vowed and Rhun gave him a sideways glance.
‘I don’t believe you are the ruler of the Otherworld just yet, or have I missed news of your initiation with the Night Hunter, little brother?’
‘Any day now,’ Avery warranted, and Rhun nodded to himself as if not entirely sure about that.
‘I shall accompany Floyd to Lura.’ Maelgwn stood up, wanting to aid Zabeel through his crisis. ‘I’ll report back to you if there is any news,’ he advised Candace, as Tory approached to bid her husband goodbye.
‘I should go also.’ Avery requested the Governess’s leave, even though he was not yet officially part of Lahmu’s council.
Candace granted his request with a nod. ‘I had best inform my husband of the event.’
Avery couldn’t help but suspect a connection between Fallon’s mysterious admirer and the disappearance of the Aten, as in both instances superhuman ability had been required to execute the deception and none of the Chosen were corrupt enough to have committed the crimes.
He sought his mentor at his favourite Otherworldly haunt on Gaia, and was surprised to find the Lord of the Night absent — this place may as well have been Gwyn ap Nudd’s office and it was always business hours.
Night Hunter? Avery telepathically requested the lord’s presence or alternatively, for Avery to be willed to his mentor, whichever was more convenient for the Otherworldly ruler in this instance. In all of his fifteen-year apprenticeship with Gwyn ap Nudd this technique had never failed him; therefore, Avery was deeply shocked when nothing happened.
He’s not here, young master, informed Templeton the old willow tree by the river.
The upper body of the nature spirit protruded from the tree that once represented its body in the physical world, although in Gaia’s current age nothing remained of the tree
at all. A mass of matted twigs sprang from Templeton’s head and his facial features were long and drawn. Green glowing were his eyes, as his spirit was saturated with earth energy. His arms resembled branches and stick-like hands and fingers extended from these two appendages. If this place was Gwyn’s office, then Templeton was the Night Hunter’s secretary.
Avery found the claim amusing and thought he knew better. ‘Of course he’s here. Why doesn’t he want me to locate him? Is this a test? My initiation, perhaps?’
The master said you had nothing left to prove. He has gone, Sire. The Night Hunter said that you were in charge now.
‘What!’ Now Avery really was alarmed. ‘But I need his assistance … there are still so many things about this realm that I don’t know. Templeton, please tell me you’re joking.’
I am just the messenger, Sire. Templeton pleaded ignorance. If you have any problems, Gwyn suggested you speak with the presiding Ray, Master R.
‘The Ray,’ Avery mumbled, remembering Gwyn had said something about a new Ray coming into power at the time Avery would assume rulership of the Otherworld. ‘And how do I communicate with this master? Does he manifest, or —’
We have been known to.
The voice seemed to fill the Otherworld and emanate from everything within it, including Avery. Out of the running river rose a brilliant, celestial body of flaming ultraviolet fire that had a heart of yellow light. It was not composed of etheric substance, but of some matter from beyond the lower planes of existence. The body of the winged being was only vaguely apparent within its celestial aura, which radiated beyond the field of Avery’s vision. Once his eyes adjusted to the lustre of the presence, he came to focus on the features of the face.
‘Father?’ There was questioning in Avery’s voice, only because there was a softness about his father’s appearance that wasn’t evident in his physical manifestation, and his form appeared not so warrior-like.
Sometime, responded the master, and mother, too. The features of his face transformed into those of Avery’s mother, Tory, but the celestial body, clothed in fiery ultraviolet vapour remained completely sexless.