The Cosmic Logos (9 page)

Her frown told Maelgwn that a more in-depth
explanation was necessary. ‘All manifestation is of a seven-fold nature. The One Divine Creator manifests first as the three Major Rays, which the Christians once called the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. But in esoteric understanding, the three Major Rays are known as Will-Power, Love-Wisdom, and Activity-Adaptability. These three Major Rays along with the four Minor Rays of Art, Science, Religion and Transformation, make up the divine seven-fold nature of the Creator, also known as the Seven Rays before the throne of God. These seven aspects of the divine then relate to the seven planes of existence, the seven chakras of the subtle body and so forth.'

‘And you spoke with which of these Masters?' Tory queried, still frowning.

‘The Third Ray, Master Rakoczi, or the Master R. He is also the Mahachohan — the Lord of Civilisation at present. Which is why our soul is on his Ray,' Maelgwn rationalised. ‘For he is in charge of bringing about the new civilisation for which all men wait. We have already served him well on Kila, Lura, Tarazean, Nugia, Karleashian and Numan. There is only one more planet to come of age —'

‘Gaia.' Tory realised now why her future efforts must be concentrated on the planet of her birth.

‘Now I'm making sense, aren't I?' Maelgwn grinned broadly and Tory did too.

 

Government House was a hive of activity as everyone prepared for the swearing-in ceremony and the first meeting of Lahmu's new council.

Fallon managed to locate her father in his office, jotting down some last-minute notes for his opening address. ‘Father, I urgently need to speak with you.' The look her father gave her told Fallon that this was not a good time. ‘What I have to say may have some bearing on the senate meeting,' she added. Brian relented and waved her forth.

‘Quickly, sweetheart, I don't have much time.' He motioned her to a seat, but Fallon remained standing.

‘Viper made contact with me again.' Her claim had her father on his feet immediately.

‘What!' Brian headed around his desk to question his daughter more closely. He was under the impression that their foes were joyriding through time at present. If Viper had returned to the present day, then why hadn't Noah manifested to report yet?

‘Now don't have a baby,' Fallon counselled him. ‘He came in peace and departed the same way … at no time was I in any danger.'

‘That's a matter of opinion,' Brian frowned, still concerned. ‘What did he want?'

‘To explain his grievances. He knows about Orme, father, and that all his people have the birthright of immortality. Viper seeks enough Orme to save his people from mortality.'

‘I feared as much.' Brian gave a heavy sigh.

‘So?' Fallon prompted her father from his contemplation. ‘Is there a problem?'

‘Yes, there is a
serious
problem,' Brian enlightened her. ‘These are not advanced souls. They would require
much training and loving experience before Orme could benefit them permanently.'

‘What do you mean, permanently?' Fallon didn't follow. ‘Once you're immortal, you're immortal.'

‘It doesn't work that way for souls of malicious intent,' Brian replied briefly, feeling pushed for time.

‘But you don't know Viper, or his people, at all. On what do you base your judgement?' Fallon felt the heat of her anger and conviction welling in the pit of her stomach and reflecting in her cheeks.

‘I base it on Cordella's first-hand summation,' Brian retorted rather harshly, annoyed that his daughter was defending the enemy.

Fallon was deeply perplexed by his response. ‘But Viper still has Cordella in custody, doesn't he?'

Brian realised that to trust Noah's cover to his daughter would be very risky at present. ‘Fallon, that's the end of it. You were supposed to report to me instantly if Viper made contact and you deliberately disobeyed me.'

‘But, father, surely you don't want a war —'

‘Goddamnit, child,' Brian roared. ‘If Viper was any sort of an honest leader, he would have contacted me directly with his grievance and not broken the law. The next time this crook makes contact, you are not to discuss
anything
with him, is that clear! To do so is treason, Fallon,' he added in a more congenial tone of voice. ‘Please understand … I don't want to preside over my own daughter's trial.'

Fallon backed away from him, her eyes wide with horror. ‘Very well, father, have it your way.' She turned
and charged from the room, nearly bowling her mother over at the door.

‘Heavens, Brian, what did you say to her?' Candace watched her daughter race away in tears.

‘I want a guard with her at all times,' Brian instructed. ‘That bastard grandson of Dumuzi's has been to see her again, and Goddess knows what information he has charmed out of her already!'

‘Calm down.' Candace telepathically commanded the door closed. ‘Tell me what happened?'

‘He sent my daughter to plead that I grant his people immortality, to make me look like the bad guy in Fallon's eyes!' Brian threw his arms up in the air, exasperated. ‘And I've played right into his hands, goddamnit!'

‘So apologise to Fallon and stop acting like a baby.' Candace held both hands up in truce as she approached him and slid her arms around him for a hug. ‘I feel sure she will willingly tell you everything she knows and cooperate with Viper's arrest, if only you make it clear to her that you are taking her seriously.'

Brian calmed as he gazed into his wife's deep brown eyes, absorbing her wise advice.

‘Treat her like a naive little girl and Fallon will prove you wrong.'

‘You're right,' Brian admitted. ‘Fallon thought she was helping and I should've … handled it better. I shall apologise. Like a grown-up,' he added, which made Candace smile. ‘First thing after the meeting.'

Candace seconded his resolution with a kiss and then served him a large smile of support. ‘I'll send a guard to keep an eye on Fallon in the meantime. Okay?'

Brian nodded and drew a deep breath to focus on this afternoon's proceedings. ‘Now, let us figure a way to nail this guy. I want him away from our daughter.'

 

It was dawn in ancient Gwynedd, and as Noah stepped out of the spacecraft to find himself standing on history's soil he couldn't help but be overcome by wonder. Gaia's air had not a hint of pollution and, from where he stood amidst the Snowdon Ranges, not a hint of civilisation either.

‘Come on, auntie.' Viper shoved Noah in the direction of the cave. ‘Everything worth seeing is in there.'

As Noah followed the two Leonine crew members bearing green fluorescent torches into the cave, he secretly wished that he could ditch his responsibilities and do a little sightseeing in Gwynedd. Degannwy and Aberffraw, the strongholds of the Dragon's ancient empire, were close by here, although Maelgwn was only a boy of fifteen in this age — his father Caswallon was presently ruling.
Not for long.
The Sage dwelt on the claims he'd overheard Cadfer make the night before. Still, Noah knew that the young Prince Maelgwn was destined to cut short Cadfer's power and restore his father to the throne of Gwynedd — Maelgwn would thus earn his nickname ‘the Dragon of the Isle'. The Sage wished he could feel so sure about the outcome of the current debacle in which he found himself embroiled.

Noah had never confronted the entity known as Mahaud. She was Tory and Maelgwn's arch-rival and
had focused most of her activities around foiling their achievements. He wondered if the crone would see through his disguise? If the situation got out of hand, Noah knew he could will himself back to the chariot and withdraw to his rightful place in time. Safe in this knowledge, he felt confident about finally making the evil crone's acquaintance.

The foulest stench permeated their destination and got worse the deeper into the cave they ventured. The two Leonine warriors began vomiting, which added to the stench.

‘Sorry, boss,' the taller guard appealed, dropping his torch and quickly retreating from the cave. The second guard handed Viper his torch and withdrew also.

‘Christ almighty, it's only a smell!' Viper hollered after them.

‘A very bad smell!' Gazelle empathised.

‘You're not wimping out on me, too?' Viper made it clear by his tone that he'd be most disappointed if that were the case.

‘Of course not,' she snapped, and retrieving the torch the guard had dropped, she strode ahead, pinching her nose. ‘I can take it, and I'm
not
an immortal.'

‘You will be,' Viper assured, ‘if this meeting goes well.'

‘I don't see how, when even you don't seem to be able to maintain an everlasting state of being,' Gazelle muttered under her breath.

It is your evil intent that binds you to mortality
, Noah would have advised Viper had he been allowed to speak. Instead, he merely smiled, knowing that the Logos's means
of rewarding the faithful was failsafe; a loving intent was the only antidote for Viper's problematic condition.

‘I forbid you to hear,' Viper commanded Noah at once, but as the NERGUZ on Noah's wrist was not functioning, the pirate's order had no effect.

Gazelle's pace slowed and Viper approached to give her a whack across the back of the head. ‘Such information is not for our prisoner's ears.' His sister didn't retaliate. In fact, she didn't even seem to be listening to him. Gazelle's sights were focused on the cave ahead and she seemed very apprehensive. ‘What's the matter?' Viper questioned her.

‘A forbidding energy.' she explained, obviously feeling a little silly in mentioning it.

Noah found it most interesting that Gazelle had picked up on the psychic energies of the place when she hadn't taken any Orme to enlighten her; perhaps this child of Dumuzi had Chosen potential underneath the hardened facade created by her tough upbringing.

‘Well, what the hell kind of energy did you expect to be emanating from a crone … love and sweetness?' Viper took the lead, dragging Noah along with him.

At the end of the cavern, stairs led down into a large, dark earthen chamber. Bats covered the ceiling and all sorts of reptilian predators slithered and crawled on the ground.

Obviously, being space-born children, Viper and Gazelle were not very familiar with wild animals of any sort.

‘The ceiling is alive.' Gazelle, having descended the stairs into the chamber behind her brother and his
prisoner, huddled close to them, realising she was not as brave as she thought she was.

‘What the hell is that?' Viper queried rather loudly, sending the bats into a whirling frenzy.

Noah crouched low, wondering if this was why Cadfer conversed with the crone at night — the bats would be absent. Gazelle's scream was ceaseless until she'd driven all the flying creatures from the cave.

‘Enough!' A booming unearthly voice hissed and four torches ignited in a circle formation before them.

Viper stood, and urged his petrified sister and his captive to stand straight also.

The firelight lit the cavern rather adequately and in front of each torch, outside the circle they formed, Noah spied four implements: a cauldron, a sword, a dark crystal and a twig, which Noah could only presume was a wand. The Sage knew that to step inside the circle would make them subject to the crone's will. Noah had to avoid penetrating her field at all costs. If the witch was operating at full strength, all psychic power drawn from the higher planes of existence would be rendered useless within the circle she'd cast. As the crone had obviously been feeding off Cadfer's selfish desires and ambitions, she was probably feeling fairly healthy at present. No sooner had Noah spied the dormant torches fixed on the walls of the cavern, than they ignited to form an outer circle that encompassed the entire chamber. Noah began to back up towards the stairs, pulling Viper along with him and the pirate wasn't resisting too hard. Noah desperately wanted to bestow his esoteric knowledge on the Falcon leader, and explain
just how much danger they were already in — but that meant blowing his cover, which left the Sage only one option. He wrenched himself from Viper's grasp and willed himself back to the chariot.

‘Going so soon?'

The gravelly strain of the crone's unearthly voice sent shivers down Noah's spine, for he realised his will had been overruled. He wondered if the crone was aiming her question directly at him, or whether she was referring to the seeming withdrawal of their entire party.

‘I'd like to go.' Gazelle had seen enough to know she'd rather die than be associated with whatever belonged to that malign voice and the stench inside the cavern.

The cauldron was the implement closest to them. On the lid of the huge iron pot were two large bulges, which parted wide to reveal eyes with pupils of glowing red. The eyes assessed the three visitors very carefully.

‘I haven't seen anything like you lot since before the Nefilim pissed off to wherever it was they came from. You're not from around these parts, or times, are you?'

Noah was horrified by her claim, as it was spoken in their modern tongue, which meant she was assessing them telepathically.

‘My name is Viper, Mahaud.' Viper braved a step forward. ‘And I come to you from the future, beyond your final demise, to offer you an opportunity to arise from the grave.'

‘Oooh!' The eyes of the cauldron looked him over with relish. ‘A pretty boy, too. Lucky me.'

‘I have memorised your entire history here on Gaia and on the moon,' he persisted, in an effort to get the witch to take him seriously.

‘Moon? How interesting.'

‘Yes, that is where you are finally defeated,' Viper added, as the witch's tone was encouraging. ‘But I believe we can alter that.'

How does Viper know all this?
Noah wondered on the quiet, deeply affected by the horrifying conversation taking place.