‘Listen!’ she demanded, her voice suddenly that of many, which startled Zeven to complete attention, ‘and take what is said very seriously.’
‘I’m listening.’ Zeven nodded, wondering quietly if Taren was even still in the house.
‘Once you have accepted the worst, ask yourself if you still wish to serve the Zagriata? If the answer is yes, you will find a way to quietly achieve that. You must do this because you would do it anyway, not because you might be redeemed, for then you will be truly living the way of the Zagriata.’ Taren’s voice dulled back into one voice and she felt suddenly rather giddy.
‘Taren?’ Zeven stepped out of the shadows to catch her before she fell.
‘You belong in the light.’ She smiled and then, exhausted, closed her eyes and fell into a fitful slumber.
‘What did you do?’ Mythric was alarmed to find the Timekeeper unconscious on his son’s bed.
‘I didn’t do anything?’ Zeven defended himself. ‘She just passed out!’
‘Well, she has places to be!’ Mythric objected to this inconvenience occurring in his quiet little piece of the universe.
‘I’ve tried to wake her, and she’s out cold.’ Zeven stood next to Mythric to gaze down upon Taren’s shapely, slumbering form. ‘I vote we leave her be and just watch her until she wakes.’
The other thing about the atmosphere on Oceane was that it was one giant steamy planet, ripe for procreation; like springtime anywhere, but tenfold.
Mythric whacked Zeven with a backhander to the chest. ‘She’s your cousin,’ he lectured, and then looking back to Taren he shrugged. ‘Still, maybe just a few hours wouldn’t hurt?’
Zeven whacked his father in return. ‘She’s your niece!’
Mythric grinned to expose his tease. ‘I’ll just take her home then, shall I?’
Zeven frowned, appearing perturbed about the idea. ‘That should be my job.’ His disability made him feel useless. ‘Make sure nobody sees you.’
‘Unlike you …’ Mythric bent down and scooped Taren up into his arms, ‘… I know how to be careful.’
Zeven was gazing mournfully at Taren. ‘We gotta get off this planet.’
‘I hear you,’ Mythric agreed, as he looked at his lovely luggage. ‘Damn.’ He glanced back to Zeven before departing. ‘But at least she brought you out of a coma.’
Zeven nodded. ‘I have food for thought.’
‘Well try to digest that quickly, will you?’ Mythric urged. ‘So we can get back to some semblance of a life.’
Zeven kissed Taren’s forehead. ‘Thanks, boss, I’ll be seeing you.’ He appeared very sombre as he gave Mythric the thumbs up to go.
‘You’ll have to tell me about your history with the Timekeeper sometime.’ It was obvious that his son and Taren were very fond of each other and knew each other very well.
‘Ditto,’ Zeven said. ‘Five years leading an average life ought to be plenty of time.’
‘How wonderfully boring.’ Mythric liked that plan. ‘I’ll look forward to that.’
‘Me too.’ Zeven sounded honestly ready to be out of the limelight and out of trouble for a while.
‘I’ll be back.’ Mythric went to teleport Taren home and realised he had no idea where her accommodation on Frujia was, or what it looked like. ‘Shoot! I can’t return her to somewhere I have never been or seen.’
Zeven had another solution that was far more fun. ‘In that case, we’d better wake her up.’ He cast his eyes toward their flooded front yard, and Mythric nodded in accord.
Zeven had Taren’s arms, Mythric had her legs, and they swung her as they counted off: ‘One, two, three …’
They released her and Taren’s body went flying out over the water and in mid-flight she was heard to cry out, ‘You bast —’ before she plunged into the water.
The water was not very deep and they expected her to surface at once and start yelling abuse at them, but she did not.
‘I thought you said there were no rocks down there?’ Zeven and Mythric raced down the stairs and began wading through the water.
‘Even if she’d hit rock, she would have floated straight back up.’ They waded around searching for her.
When Taren hit the water she knew she was in trouble, as she was wearing all white, and as soon as she stood back upright she was going to give the boys a free show.
She imagined herself in her bathroom back on Frujia and rather oddly, found herself back inside Mythric and Zeven’s abode on Oceane.
‘Mission control, we have a problem,’ she muttered to herself. ‘But, better than the free peep show option.’ Taren envisaged a large white fluffy towel in her hand, and was startled to get an old face washer. ‘What the …?’ Were her Powers being taken away too?
She thought back in her mind to the last thing she remembered, which was finding Zeven resting — what happened after that was a blank. Frustrated, she grabbed a throw rug from the back of a seat, wrapped it around herself and headed outdoors to find the local inhabitants.
Both men were soaked to the skin, wading around in a panic, searching for her. Taren’s chuckles brought their frantic search to a halt.
‘I knew you were just pissing in our pocket.’ Zeven waded toward the stairs to climb out of the water and exact a revenge on his cousin.
‘Serves you right,’ Taren accused. ‘What has happened to my Powers? What did you do to me?’
Zeven’s zeal waned as he climbed out of the water. ‘We only talked,’ he advised. ‘You don’t remember?’
Taren strained her brain to recall any dialogue that had passed between them, but shook her head in the end, for she remembered none of it.
‘I had a feeling when you started speaking in chorus that you might have left the house,’ Zeven said, both brows raised.
‘Ah.’ Taren suddenly realised her Powers were not being taken away; if she’d been channelling their soul-mind, her Powers were only temporarily drained. ‘It seems I might need a lift home.’
Mythric, who now understood her dilemma, gave her the thumbs up. ‘I tried to oblige earlier, but you didn’t leave your new address.’
Taren grinned at this, but looked back to Zeven, who was her first concern right now. ‘What did I tell you in this conversation that I don’t remember?’
‘Basically, I was told to get a life, a quiet life, and do something constructive with the next five years.’
Taren forced a smile, knowing ordinary was the hardest thing for Zeven to be. ‘I’m so sorry about what’s happened —’
‘Hey.’ Zeven waved off the sympathy. ‘I’m alive, right? And as long as I am, I can still make a difference, hopefully for the better.’
‘That’s a good resolution.’ Taren smiled broadly and gave him a huge hug. ‘I’m so proud of you.’
‘You’re the brains, sweetheart.’ Zeven let her go. ‘I’m just following orders.’
‘Shall we be off?’ Mythric shook himself and was immediately dry again. Zeven could have done the same thing once, but without his power he had to drip-dry the old-fashioned way.
With a nod, Taren held out a hand and taking hold of Mythric’s, she waved Zeven goodbye and thought of her unit on Frujia.
The last thing Taren expected to encounter when she manifested in her living room with Mythric was Lucian Gervaise asleep on her lounge.
She repressed her gasp of horrified surprise and pushed Mythric toward her bedroom as he caught sight of the cause of her concern.
Once inside her bedroom she closed the door.
‘Is he the one then, Timekeeper?’ Mythric grinned broadly to see her so flustered.
‘You need to go,’ Taren hissed in a whisper.
‘I would have been gone by now, but you pushed me into the bedroom,’ he teased, eyeballing her face with a curious frown. ‘You have Satomi’s eyes.’
‘Don’t go there right now,’ Taren appealed, well aware that the aphrodisiac air of Oceane was still coursing through the man.
‘I’m going.
’ He backed up, hands raised in surrender. ‘I just can’t believe I never noticed before.’ As Mythric’s physical presence faded from view he waved and vanished altogether.
Taren gave a huge sigh of relief and looked back to the closed door.
It slid aside quietly, and Taren checked Lucian was still where she’d left him — he’d altered his position but appeared otherwise undisturbed. Why is he in my living room? Taren’s heart was pounding in her chest, hoping he’d not discovered anything about her covert life; he didn’t know her well enough to be trusted with the whole truth just yet. The more pertinent question would be, how long had he been there?
It was best to have shower, she decided, during which she’d ponder how she would explain her mysterious disappearance this evening.
When she emerged from the wet room, it was still the wee hours of the morning on Frujia. As Lucian was still sleeping, Taren decided to hit the sack herself — she could worry about explanations after she rested.
The next day Taren was more alert, and feeling ready to face Lucian, she entered the lounge room to find the professor absent. How very anticlimactic. Taren shrugged off the fact that the awkward moment had been delayed and headed for the tea’s-made for her morning fix.
Despite the intense heat of the Frujian morning sun, Taren could not bring herself to catch a transport for such a short-distance walk. Instead, over her cool island attire, she donned a wide-brimmed hat and light shawl about her shoulders. Work station in hand, she headed out into the working day.
Before she’d even reached the end of her walkway to the main path, Lucian was calling to her from his walkway next door, requesting that she ‘wait up’, and she paused on the main beach path that led to the AMIE build site.
As Lucian was smiling as he approached, Taren returned the gesture.
‘I just wanted to apologise —’
‘Don’t,’ Taren cut in. ‘I can be a very blunt bitch at times —’
‘No,’ Lucian rejected her summation of the situation. ‘I was out of line —’
‘You were just being sociable, and I was way too harsh. I’m all for forgetting last night ever happened … or do you want to explain why you slept on my lounge?’ She grinned and Lucian was thrown for a second.
‘I came back to apologise and you were gone, so naturally I was concerned something might be amiss with you,’ Lucian defended. ‘Given that you had planned to be working at home all night and were waiting take an urgent call from the President of Sermetica.’
‘The call was cancelled,’ Taren said with a shrug. ‘Working for Anselm, you have to expect his agenda to alter without warning.’ She began to walk, as the sun was getting intense. ‘So, I took a walk on the beach to clear my head and when I got back, you were sleeping on my lounge. Then, when I woke this morning, you were gone.’ She tossed the account of the night’s events back over to him.
‘I woke and found you sleeping in bed safely, so I left,’ he concluded, simply.
This was a relief to Taren, as that seemed to wrap the story up rather nicely. ‘I appreciate your concern for me, even though I was so rude.’
‘You’re welcome.’ Lucian’s grin had a hint of daring about it. ‘Maybe sometime, in the next decade, you could make it up to me by taking me to dinner?’
Taren was amused, but was unsure of whether to nod or shake her head. Thankfully, a local transporter came to a grinding halt beside them.
As the back door of the chauffeur-driven luxury vehicle swung open, a waft of cool air swept past them and Swithin waved them inside. ‘Let’s go, guys, we’ll be late for the meeting.’
‘What meeting?’ Taren queried and Lucian hit himself in the head.
‘I meant to tell you last night —’ he began.
‘We’re meeting with our marine biologist today.’ Swithin seemed very excited about that.
Taren’s heart was off and thumping in panic again. In her original time line, Lucian had married this woman, who was secretly working for the MSS, as was his brother, with whom she was having an affair. Still, MSS mind control techniques had assured that Amie Gervaise was only truly allied and devoted to one man — Khalid Mansur.
In this time line however, Swithin had not become involved with the MSS and perhaps Amie hadn’t either. These two souls were part of the Azazèl-mindos-coomra-dorchi soul group also, and had been led far off their true path once upon another time line. In a perfect world — like Taren hoped they were now building — Swithin and Amie were meant to fall in love and discover their own dormant Powers. Taren had the word of the Grigori on this matter and she trusted them implicitly, even though she rarely comprehended their expansive view of the cosmos. Past fears must not be allowed to intrude into her decision making now. Taren knew she had to be open to, and even expect, new and better developments this time around.
6
DR AMIE NARDONE —
THE IMPRESSIONIST
Lunch made a complete mockery of Taren’s belief in a better future this time around.
Despite her good intentions, Taren took an instant dislike to Amie, who went by her maiden name of Amie Nardone. She was very opinionated, and had many of her own ideas for the project. Swithin was delighted by her input; Lucian was being open-minded, and Taren was being very quiet and as accommodating as possible in, what was for her, a very awkward situation.
As the waiter cleared the main meal dishes, Amie held up a finger to draw everyone’s attention. ‘Also. If you need any other investors, I’ve recently been introduced to the Viceroy of Sermetica, Khalid Mansur. I mentioned the project to him …’
Taren’s heart jumped into her throat and she thought she would choke; but she found her voice pretty damn quickly.
‘My client funded this project on the condition that he would maintain sole financial interest, a clause which is in the AMIE contract that I signed with these gentlemen,’ Taren said. ‘If you intend to join this project you will be signing a confidentiality agreement, so I trust that you will not discuss the project with anyone outside AMIE henceforth.’
‘I’m so sorry,’ Amie appeared rattled. ‘I have passed on no more than what was revealed at the launch of the project.’
‘Is that only because that is all you know?’ Taren challenged, and both men at the table were rather shocked.
Amie batted her eyelids, surprised and affronted. ‘What are you implying?’
Taren stared Amie down with a questioning look upon her face and Amie looked away first; she was intimidated and hiding something. Taren placed her napkin on the table and rose. ‘I’ve heard all I need to, enjoy the rest of your lunch.’ She headed for the exit doors.
Lucian caught up to her in the foyer. ‘Taren, what just happened in there?’
‘I did not get where I am without knowing a thing or two about the royals of Sermetica, and I can tell you surely, Khalid Mansur is the last person you want within a thousand light years of this project.’ She justified her outburst. ‘He is not to be trusted, nor are any of his associates.’ Her eyes darted back to Amie, being comforted back at their table by Swithin.
Lucian was satisfied by her answer, but not comfortable with the situation. ‘Look, I’m sure Dr Nardone meant well —’
Taren threw her arms up frustrated, knowing Amie could play the charm card, and would. ‘Just tell her to leave the financing to me, and if she ever utters a word of this project to anyone, she’ll be back to government-funded research.’
Lucian shook his head, clearly disappointed that there was discord in the ranks already. ‘You really can be a bitch.’ He sounded genuinely surprised about that.
In this instance, Taren was not sorry to disappoint him. ‘Dr Nardone is the one you’ll need to keep on a leash, Lucian …’ Taren stepped up to the exit door, which opened and in wafted an unbearable burst of hot midday air. ‘… Mark my words.’ She left, having had a gutful of tribulation for one morning.
The cab wasn’t halfway back to her unit when Taren regretted having
handled the situation so badly. It was just such a bloody rude shock! she justified, but it did not make her feel any better about letting her concern show openly. What if Amie was already working for Khalid? Taren’s obvious wariness of him would be enough for him to target her and want to know more. ‘Shit!’ She’d got scared and she’d freaked. Not good. She missed having Zeven and Jazmay by her side; she missed the entire crew of AMIE for that matter! It was so much harder trying to decide the fate of an entire time line alone. How she wished she were closer to Lucian and could confide in him — she missed his counsel very much. It will come, she told herself, and took a deep breath for courage. Still, Lucian had been right; as wonderful as the life she had created for herself was, it was lonely in paradise.
Taren worked from her unit for the rest of the day, as her business partners were bound to be showing Amie around the offices and build site for the Astro-Marine Institute and she really didn’t need another drama today.
What to do about Amie had been occupying her thoughts for a good amount of the afternoon. When there came a knock on her door late in the day, Taren assumed it was Lucian, coming to appeal on his new marine biologist’s behalf.
Taren checked the outside monitor and was surprised to find that Amie had come to appeal on her own behalf, with a large gift in hand. Here’s that charm card I’ve been expecting. Well, I can be charming too.
Taren manifested a piece of Juju stone in her hand and placed it on a bowl of stones on the coffee table, where it stood out against the others. If Amie was truly one of Taren’s soul group, she would be drawn to it, and if she held it, the Juju would bring out her higher qualities and she would not be able to lie.
Taren returned to the door and dispensed with it. ‘Dr Nardone, this is a surprise,’ she said congenially.
‘I think we got off to a bad start,’ Amie explained. ‘So, I brought you a present.’
Taren stood aside and invited her old nemesis into the sparsely decorated unit.
‘Fantastic view,’ Amie commented on the only outstanding feature, as she placed her present carefully on the bench top of the large open kitchen and then whipped off the wrapping paper to reveal a small tank. ‘It’s a sea dragon,’ she said. ‘The locals catch them and keep them as pets until they grow too big.’