‘Meet me again?’ Shemyaza echoed faintly. ‘When have we met before?’
She did not pause. ‘You were conceived in me, cut from my own body. I am your mother.’
There was again silence for a moment, and Tiy knew she had managed to shock him. Then he laughed. ‘You can’t be.’
‘But I am,’ she said patiently. ‘The body you wear is fifty years old. I bore it that long ago, when I was still lovely.’
‘You are human…’
‘Yes. But your father was not.’
Shemyaza took one of Tiy’s withered hands in his own. ‘I was brought up by a Grigori clan — the Othmans. They told me my parents were dead. I heard nothing of a mother in the east.’
Tiy squeezed his fingers. ‘They kept it from you. Now, I will tell you, because it is time for you to know. Whether this conflicts with their plans or not, I will still tell you.’
‘Their plans? Whose? The Babylonians?’
Tiy shook her head, although he could not see it. ‘Hush. Soon, you will know all, but listen… I bore you in the land of Persia.’
Tiy explained that she had been born into a Gypsy clan, who were remnants of a Magian cult. They had worshipped one of Shemyaza’s many forms — the Hanged One, Azazel — and believed they were descendants of the people who had given succour to the Scapegoat when his father had cast him out into the desert. Azazel had given sons and daughters to the women of Tiy’s ancestors, so that their human blood had mingled with the essence of angels. The old histories had been handed down through the generations by word of mouth; it was a secret tradition. Tiy’s clan had roamed across Persia, feared by some, scorned by others, but always held in a grudging respect.
When Tiy was twenty years old, a strange man had approached the camp of her people one evening at sunset. He was not a Gypsy, but neither was he like the people who lived in the cities and towns, or upon the farms. He was tall and, for those who were able to see the inner world, his countenance shone like the sun. Tiy, he singled out for attention, and that very night she took him to her bed. This Angel of Annunciation told her that she would bear a special son, who was of the gods.
‘He was Grigori,’ Tiy said. ‘I sensed it, for even then, before my sight faded, I could see more with my inner eyes than others could.’
‘Your people knew of the Grigori, then,’ Shemyaza said.
She nodded. ‘Yes. We knew the children of angels walked the world, although it was your father told me their name. When the time came for your birth, you were too big for me and the women of my family had to cut my belly to bring you forth. Your skin and eyes shone like the sun; there was a glamour about you. I named you Ra, after the Egyptian god of the sun.’
Tiy sensed a stillness within Shemyaza’s mind as he struggled to uncover some memory of his early years. ‘I cannot remember,’ he said.
Tiy ran her fingers over his hands. ‘It was so long ago,’ she said. ‘You stayed with me only for three years.’
Tiy never forgot the words of her lost lover, that she had borne a son of the gods. Ra was living proof of this promise. In her heart, she had known she’d not be able to keep the boy with her. The days while her shining son played beside her were gifts from Azazel. She cherished them, knowing that eventually all she would have would be memories of those gilded hours. ‘You were a lovely child,’ Tiy said, ‘kind and strong and sensitive. It was so hard for me, because even then I knew your future held agony, fear and darkness. I tried to fill you with my love, that it might be a candle in the darkness to come.’
One day, Tiy’s fears were justified and three tall men came out of the desert to the camp of the Gypsies. They told Tiy they had come for her son, to take him back to his father’s people.
‘I could not fight them,’ Tiy said. ‘Your destiny had already been written. I knew I had been chosen to bear you, for I carried the royal blood of the Shining Ones. Their only gift to me, after they had taken you back, was that they gave my spirit entry into corners of their world, from where I could watch you grow into a man.’
Shemyaza uttered a sound of anger and anguish. ‘But this means…’ He could not say the words.
‘Yes, my son. Do not doubt that the Grigori have always known who you were. Your reincarnation was planned from the first moment. What you have perceived as rogue fortune in your life has been crafted by the most secret cabals of your people. Many dark rituals have been conducted to drive you along your path.’
She could sense confusion emanating from Shemyaza’s body like a physical force. The news was so astounding to him, he could barely react, but there was also a secret, cynical part of him that wasn’t surprised at all. ‘Tell me more,’ he said.
She squeezed his hands. ‘My son, the race of the Grigori is like a living thing in its own right, a complex creature. Secrets within secrets within secrets. There are those who guide you towards your destiny, but equally there are those who would stop you achieving it. Some Grigori do not want change to come.’
‘How do you know all this?’ Shem held her hands so tightly, she felt her bones bend in her flesh.
‘Because, with my inner sight, I have remained alert to the beacon of your presence in the world. The Grigori were merciful and granted me knowledge of your growth, but I also used that connection carefully and learned much about the Grigori themselves. When the time came that the ancient fragments of your soul were freed by the boy, Daniel, I felt it.’
‘Daniel,’ Shemyaza said, and groaned. ‘He is lost to me again.’
‘Have no fear,’ Tiy answered. ‘He and your other companions escaped Nimnezzar’s clutches. They fared better than you, but then they had more spirit to fight.’
Shemyaza sighed and released his tight grip on her hands. ‘I am relieved to hear that.’ He paused. ‘It is strange that my mother — if that is truly who you are — should be one of Nimnezzar’s followers.’
Tiy laughed. ‘His follower? No! I have acted as his advisor, but in many ways he has been my pawn.’
‘You knew that I would come here?’
‘Of course. I knew that long ago, before Nimnezzar ever dreamed he would be king, which is why my protégé, Amytis, is now Nimnezzar’s wife. I needed a pathway into the city, and I built one. But that is not important now. Shemyaza, the time of your destiny approaches. You know what you must do.’
He laughed bleakly. ‘Do I? I have learned I am half human, and that makes sense to me. It explains why I could do nothing but fall beneath the fists and feet that beat and kicked me. Nimnezzar is right about me. I am hardly a king.’
Tiy made an impatient sound. ‘Stop feeling sorry for yourself! You need to understand more about the past. You know so little. I have spent fifty years scouring the astral worlds for grains of truth and now I have a desert’s worth of grains! The Elders of your race came out of Egypt, where they seeded the first great dynasties of kings. Their civilisation foundered — something happened to them which has been lost to memory — and their race fragmented. The great chambers where they stored their knowledge were closed down and hidden. Anu was a descendant of one of the Elders. He was an ambitious and industrious man. His forefathers had entrusted the keys to the Chambers of Light to their sons, and through the power of the key Anu created Kharsag in Eden. But that too went wrong. You know of that sorry history.’
‘Yes,’ Shemyaza said coldly. ‘I feel it is my task to open the Chambers once more, to redress the wrongs of the past.’
‘They were not wrongs,’ Tiy said, ‘The Elders did what was necessary at the time, but perhaps the world is ready now to know what was lost. It is indeed your task to open the Chambers. Let me tell you what I have learned about them, for you will need this knowledge.’
Tiy explained that the Magians had advised Nimnezzar how to build Etemenanki, intending to use it as a focus for their considerable powers, but if anything, the Tower responded more to Tiy. The spirit of what it represented attuned to her, and gave her dreams of the past. She was a priestess of the Gr
eat Earth Mother, and the earth remembers everything that happens upon her body. Combining these two influences, Tiy had been able to learn about the Chambers and their history. She discovered that they had been built by the power of the Source of Creation, which had been channelled through a great alexandrite crystal, housed in a gigantic chamber in the centre of the complex. Twelve smaller chambers had been constructed around it in a circle and within these the Elders had placed miniature replicas of the great crystal. In these lesser chambers, twelve Elders would use the smaller crystals to enter deep trance and leave their bodies. A pattern of deeply-cut circles and lines on the chamber floors created a pathway for the astral bodies, enabling them to enter into the great central crystal. This gargantuan stone acted as a portal to the gateway of the stars of Orion. There, folding space and time itself, the astral bodies of the Elders were able to journey back to the Source of Creation at the centre of the universe, and there commune with it.
Shemyaza interrupted her narrative. ‘When I possessed the privilege of astral flight, I was always drawn to pass through Orion, but entry was always forbidden to me. Then, as part of my punishment, Anu decreed that my soul should be bound within those terrible stars, for what I thought would be eternity.’
Tiy spoke softly. ‘Yes, my son. I have felt your pain.’
‘I strove to commune with the Source as the Elders once did. I wanted knowledge, I wanted the universe and I wanted the earth and her fires of ecstasy.’ He laughed ruefully. ‘I wanted it all.’
‘The Chambers of Light were the all,’ Tiy said. ‘They facilitated a union between spirit, earth and source. Through the crystal, the Elders could attain the answers to any question. They even learned of the great plan of the universe itself. The destiny of this planet was mapped out, recorded and initiated through those chambers.’
Tiy then went on to talk about the Elders themselves. There had always only been twelve in existence at any one time. Before they had settled in Egypt, they had lived upon a great continent that came to be covered by ice and was therefore inhospitable to life. Tiy thought this was probably Antarctica. ‘But before that, my son, I know only that the seers of ancient times believed the Elders had come from between the stars.’
‘Between the stars?’ Shem murmured. ‘What does that mean?’
‘The earliest legends speak of how before the Elders came to earth, they were not creatures of flesh at all, but entities of a powerful, life-giving energy, similar in some respects to the power of your own aura or life-force, but increased a thousand times.’
Tiy spoke of how her own tribe had referred to these most ancient forms as the Renowned Old Ones. She had since discovered that they had moved through the universe by resonating sonic vibrations that folded space and time. They had not possessed consciousness or emotion as humanity or Grigori knew it, which gave rise to another name by which they’d been known: the Unmoved Ones. They were perpetually functional like thinking machines, devoid of personality and instinct. Their actions and judgements had been undertaken with complete amorality, that same trait which, to a small degree, was still present in the Grigori. The Renowned Old Ones were not part of the great karmic cycle of incarnation and soul-evolution, but represented a kind of universal caretaking force. When they arrived upon earth, the energy of their life-giving presence affected the cycle of evolution that was already under way, and set into motion a more advanced form of life. The Elders came into being when the Renowned Old Ones initiated the creation of a higher life form, to comply with the universal plan. This accomplished, the Renowned Old Ones departed earth, leaving it in the care of their fleshly descendants.
‘The Elders built the Chambers of Light in order to commune with their ancestors, the Renowned Old Ones, and the source of all creation from whence they had come.’
‘Why did they close the chambers?’ Shem asked.
‘That is known only to those who undertook the task,’ Tiy said. ‘They had their reasons, no doubt. All that is known is that the chambers were closed, the Elders disappeared, and the families of the twelve spread out into the world, each taking one of the smaller crystals with them. Anu was the son of one of the twelve. In Kharsag, he committed transgressions against the laws of his people. It is ironic that centuries later, he punished you for an indiscretion that, in some ways, leaned more towards the original plan of the Elders.’
‘How did he transgress?’ Shem demanded sharply.
Tiy sensed she had touched a sore nerve. ‘Listen. Some of Elders’ half-human families went far into the world, and settled in Australia, Tibet and South America. But Anu made the shortest journey into what is now Kurdistan. As he travelled, a sign came to him; a rainbow appeared over the mountain peaks. Anu looked upon the seven colours of the rainbow, and interpreted this as meaning there should now be a council of seven rather than twelve. In the mountains, he tried to recreate the Chambers, using the power of the crystal his father had given to him. This is probably the same key you found at the Cave of Treasures. Anu and his engineers harnessed the energy of a mighty blue flame that they found within the mountains, to act as a gateway to the stars of Orion.’
‘Yes,’ Shem said. ‘A temple was built around the flame, protected by a great tower. The gardens grew up around it.’
Tiy nodded. ‘Thus Kharsag came into being: the High Place, the paradise in the clouds, remembered by the peoples of the world as heaven. Anu set himself up there as a god. The Anannage were supposed to interbreed with humanity, to an extent where the Elders’ influence became disseminated throughout the peoples of the world. You have to remember that, from the very beginning, the Anannage were hybrids, like you. But Anu, and others like him, became elitist and jealously guarded their knowledge. The Elders had withdrawn from the world, but the souls of their sons had not evolved enough to make wise judgements without the guidance of their fathers. They created isolated enclaves where they experimented with the power of the crystals and the sacred blue flames that burned within the earth. Anu thought he could atone for whatever mistakes had occurred within the Chambers of Light. He sought to reconnect with the divine source. But he was a rebel, Shemyaza, and it is my belief he identified those same traits within you, and could not tolerate them. He was fired by false piety and a lust to be all-powerful. He always wanted to know more than he was meant to know. What he saw in you made him afraid, for you were a dark mirror. That is why he made you the scapegoat for his mistakes, his fall, and the sins of his followers.’
Shem was utterly silent as he digested this knowledge. Tiy gripped his arm. ‘You must see, my son, that this cycle has been replayed throughout history. Only you can end it.’
Shemyaza had put his head into his hands. ‘He made me suffer! I can’t believe the injustice of it!’
Tiy reached out to stroke his hair. ‘It is true. You must believe it, but don’t let it become a burden. It is knowledge, and therefore freedom. You cannot reverse history here, nor in Eden. You must journey to Giza in Egypt and there, through the power of your father, Anu’s blood, reopen the gateway to the source and put wrong to right.’
Shemyaza was silent for a moment, then took a deep breath. Tiy gave him time to compose himself, and did not interrupt his thoughts.
When Shemyaza finally spoke, his voice was brusque, without feeling. ‘The Chambers of Light are in Egypt. Perhaps I should have guessed that. But where exactly in Giza is their entrance?’
‘I wish I could tell you,’ Tiy replied, ‘but their exact location is a secret that history has kept too well. I believe that you have the means to find them though. You have the crystal key.’
‘Nimnezzar now has the key.’
Tiy made a dismissive sound. ‘Oh, you will get it back, have no fear, but first you must stop this senseless game. You are not a martyr, Shemyaza. You must cast off this hair mantle you insist on wearing. Babylon is your seat of power. You must claim it. Nimnezzar is a mote before you, a beetle in your fingers. He is puffed up with pride and arrogance because he be
lieves he has captured two angels…’
‘Two?’
‘Yes. Penemue is here, waiting for you. Very soon, you will be reunited with your companions and together you will open up the Chambers that have lain so long in darkness. Later, I will tell you what I have learned of the rival Grigori factions and how they threaten you, but for now, you have enough to think about.’
Shemyaza laughed sadly. ‘I feel your pride in me, and your faith, little mother. You forget that I am presently incarcerated in a hole. How do I begin?’
‘That is simple. I will leave this place and tell Nimnezzar you have agreed to show him the secrets of the crystal. He trusts my word and will believe me when I say that you truly are the one we have been waiting for. Your only difficult task will be to convince him you accept him as the heir of Anu and are prepared to assist him. He is a suspicious man, which is partly why he is king. Once you are free of this place, you must follow your heart. Let the key speak to you.’
Shemyaza touched her lined face and spoke softly. ‘Mother. The word feels strange upon my tongue. Can it be true?’
‘It is. Listen to the words of your mother, Shemyaza. I have planned long for this moment.’
After Tiy had given the news that Shemyaza was ready to speak to the king, Nimnezzar ordered that Shemyaza be brought to one of his gardens. Here, beneath the shade of an awning, Nimnezzar nibbled fruits, fanned by peacock feathers wafted by mute, castrated slaves. His body was robed in ceremonial dress, his oiled hair falling upon his shoulders. He felt truly the lord of his kingdom. Tiy stood behind him, her limbs loose. Somewhere, Amytis prowled behind a window, Melandra in her wake.
Shemyaza was brought into the garden by two guards. He was still dressed in his bloodied, dusty travelling clothes. Nimnezzar was satisfied by the sight of his wounds, glad to note his beauty had been marred. Yet the sun was captured by Shemyaza’s bright, blood-streaked hair. It dazzled.