The Dragon Queens (The Mystique Trilogy)

by Traci Harding

  Taylor still appeared sceptical.

  ‘If I am lying, then my deception will be plain enough this evening when the temperature drops,’ I said. ‘If I am correct, then you are really in luck, for no trace of the legendary substance has ever been unearthed.’

  ‘To the restoration room then?’ Taylor suggested, relieving Miss Koriche of her keys before he stood and shoved her in my direction. ‘It appears you get to live for a few more hours. I feel very sure the representatives of his Holiness will wish to speak with you both.’

  Miss Koriche appeared genuinely fearful of that prospect, and I didn’t blame her. The Church had little enough respect for any woman, let alone one who was Eastern and not of the faith.

  By the time I had finished chronicling the above, the sun hung low in the sky and the temperature was dropping rapidly. I expected the tablet’s reappearance any time now.

  Miss Koriche had fretted herself into a state of exhaustion and fallen asleep. I had not the heart to wake her to advise that the party of the Holy See had arrived several hours ago, despite her request to be alerted if there were any new developments.

  Still, she was awake in a flash when Taylor burst through the door at sunset, accompanied by several men of the holy guard.

  ‘It would seem your theory was wrong,’ he said angrily.

  Miss Koriche and I were taken to the crime scene, where the holy entourage awaited us.

  ‘This is where I left the tablet,’ Taylor said, skipping the introductions to get right to the point. ‘It is evening now, so where is it?’

  ‘Have you checked the tablet room?’ I suggested.

  ‘You said it would return to where I left it,’ Taylor countered. ‘So why would I check the tablet room?’

  ‘You know as well as I do that the plate on which the tablet was seated is magnetised.’ I left it to Taylor to draw his own conclusions.

  He begged the patience of his guests while he descended into the dig to investigate the possibility himself. An uncomfortable silence prevailed as we awaited his return. No member of the holy party would even look at us, let alone speak with us. They appeared frightfully unamused about their little foray into the Persian wilderness.

  Taylor re-emerged looking overjoyed. ‘Devere was right,’ he announced, sounding rather amazed. ‘The tablet has returned to its rightful place.’ He let out a laugh. ‘Extraordinary.’

  ‘Indeed,’ replied the only cardinal amid the holy throng, who, by contrast, sounded not surprised in the slightest. ‘Have the arch at the bottom of the staircase bricked up,’ his Holiness instructed the head of his guard. ‘And then have the entire hole filled with dirt.’

  ‘What?’ Taylor exclaimed in panic.

  ‘I do not want a single trace of evidence left to suggest that this piece of dirt was ever disturbed.’ The cardinal then leaned close to whisper in his guard’s ear a moment, before he turned to retire to the site house. ‘We shall depart as soon as you are done,’ he concluded.

  Taylor chased after his vanishing audience. ‘What about our agreement?’

  The cardinal held high a finger, as if he had suddenly realised that he had overlooked something. He turned to me. ‘Mr Taylor informs me that you have a notebook in which you have recorded information you obtained from the tablets. May I have it, please.’

  Miss Koriche glanced at me, her concern plain in her expression; I sensed she was as desperate to find Levi as you and I, Mrs Devere. I forced a half-smile of surrender for the benefit of the cardinal, which was clearly of no consolation to the young woman, and reached into my pocket for the notebook.

  ‘It will prove of little interest to you,’ I told his Holiness. ‘I am sure you have a hundred texts just like it hidden away at home.’

  ‘But none with your unique interpretation, Lord Suffolk.’ The cardinal indicated I should hand over the item to one of his underlings, as he would not waste his divine energy by holding out his own hand.

  ‘I am flattered by your interest,’ I said.

  The notebook was snatched from my hand by one of the guards and quickly passed to the cardinal.

  ‘Oh, no need for such modesty, Devere, the church has been interested in you for some time,’ his Holiness assured. ‘No truth higher than the truth,’ he recalled our family motto. ‘Perhaps, no truth without proof might be more appropriate.’ The cardinal tucked my notebook deep into a pocket of his robe and turned to depart.

  ‘The Church has never needed proof, so why should I?’ I should have bitten my tongue, but I knew my dear wife would have chosen to speak out.

  ‘Because when a man is gone, his words live on.’ The cardinal turned back briefly to have the last say. ‘Only I get to decide who sees those words.’

  He smiled, which seemed an unnatural strain for him, then turned and left our vicinity, accompanied by every other man of the cloth in his party. The holy soldiers seized Miss Koriche, myself and Taylor.

  ‘What are you grabbing me for?’ Mr Taylor objected.

  His query was ignored. The guard who had received the cardinal’s whispered orders instructed his men to take us to the ruins we had uncovered—the same ruins they meant to brick up for all eternity.

  ‘We are under the protection of the Shah, Nasr ed-Din.’ I took a final stab at saving our skins as the men jostled us along.

  ‘We have already been to see the Shah,’ the guard said, and laughed. ‘It would seem your gypsy friend has caused his Majesty some offence. I believe you will find that you no longer hold the favour of his Highness.’

  My first concern was for you, my love. If this was true, I hated to imagine how your audience with the Shah had concluded.

  Taylor and I were cast roughly into the pit, forced to bypass the descent ladder. By some miracle I had only the wind knocked out of me. Taylor was not so lucky; he landed on his arm, breaking it, and seemed to have fractured several ribs as well. Thankfully, Miss Koriche was allowed to descend the ladder. She came to my aid the instant she reached the ground, leaving Taylor to his own devices.

  ‘I have already called you an idiot, have I not?’ I said to Taylor, and received a very dark look in response. ‘I just wanted to be sure we had established the fact.’

  But there was little time for recrimination. ‘Let us get inside the temple before we are cast into the stairwell,’ I suggested to Miss Koriche, and we made haste to make use of the pulley and hoist.

  Our landing on the steps was rather more abrupt than usual, but at least we were both still in one piece.

  ‘Go and shut yourself in the tablet room,’ I instructed the young woman, fearful that the soldiers may get bored during their labouring and use Miss Koriche for amusement. ‘The word that opened the doors to the temple on the other side will also close them, if you must. When it is safe I shall come for you.’

  ‘But how shall we escape once they have bricked up the entrance and filled the pit with dirt!’ she panicked, her arms wrapped around her still-slender belly. ‘And what is the point when we no longer have the codes we need to find your son?’

  I produced the pages I had ripped from the back of the journal whilst she had been sleeping and handed them to her for safekeeping. ‘One calamity at a time, Ajalae,’ I said, and winked. ‘I have been trapped inside an ancient dwelling before, so this is nothing new for me, I assure you.’

  As she made haste for the tablet room, Taylor came crashing down the stairs to land at my feet, moaning and groaning.

  ‘Are you still alive, old boy?’ I asked.

  He attempted a response but only a moan was forthcoming.

  ‘Damn shame,’ I said, then walked away to take a seat against a pillar and concoct a strategy for getting us out of this ruin alive.

  It was only a matter of hours before the guards had the last brick in place and the ruin fell into complete darkness.

  ‘The Unworthy will never leave this dwelling.’ Taylor recited the warning engraved on the archway that now imprisoned us, just to let me know he was still a
live. ‘I knew I was tempting fate by entering this place.’

  I was actually amused; Taylor might be a scoundrel but he certainly had charisma. I just could not bring myself to dislike him. I did not flatter him with a response, however.

  I slid up the pillar at my back and, in the pitch dark, shuffled a short distance to where I judged the mid-point of the stone platform to be. I turned to face the opposite direction to the bricked-up archway and steadily made my way towards the doors to the tablet room. I expected Miss Koriche would be waiting inside, as the guards had not been distracted from their task.

  When my foot hit the wooden strip in the floor, the doors to the tablet room parted and I was bathed in golden light. For the first time I was viewing the learning chamber in its full splendour, for the tablets emitted their own light, a phenomenon that was only apparent in complete darkness.

  Miss Koriche walked forth from the chamber with tears of joy and wonder streaming down her face.

  ‘Is it not magnificent!’ She near choked on her awe as she glanced around at the glowing chamber. ‘They spoke to me. I could not hear them before, but for some reason now I—’ She cut herself short, her hands coming to rest upon her womb as she suddenly realised what had changed since her last visit to the chamber. Miss Koriche’s psychic ability had finally been stimulated and she appeared truly humbled by the gift.

  ‘Love opens all doors,’ I told her.

  ‘I believe I understand why your son has chosen to pursue the path he has,’ she said calmly.

  ‘Levi did not know he had a child when he made that decision,’ I pointed out, my instinct telling me that her selfless resolve came from fear; for how was she to compete with the chance of achieving cosmic consciousness? ‘I guarantee you that, had Levi known, he would certainly have chosen differently.’ At least I sincerely hoped so; I liked to think we had instilled such morals in our son that he would not willingly leave the mother of his child to fend for herself.

  ‘So, what is the plan?’ I could tell Miss Koriche was very much hoping that I had one.

  ‘Yes, what is the plan?’ Taylor hobbled towards us.

  Miss Koriche looked at me, perturbed. ‘I thought nothing could destroy my current euphoria…I was mistaken.’ She crouched and produced a dagger from the tip of her shoe and held it towards Taylor. ‘If I were to finish him off, no one would ever know, or care.’

  I sensed she was only toying with Taylor and it was delightful to see him squirm. He drew back from her, disabled, weaponless and vulnerable.

  ‘Fair go!’ he cried.

  The sound of crumbling rock brought the confrontation to a halt.

  The disturbance seemed to be coming from the canal-like area ahead of us. I stepped off the trigger, the tablet room doors closed and darkness fell in the entrance chamber once more—but only momentarily.

  ‘Lord Suffolk?’ came a cry.

  ‘I am he,’ I called back, not recognising the voice but hearing enough of its tone to realise it was probably one of the local workmen.

  ‘We have come to get you out.’

  I moved towards the voice. Aware that I was approaching the edge of the platform, I began to feel for the canal ledge with my foot. ‘A dangerous resolve on your behalf,’ I replied, finding the rim and lowering myself down into the canal. ‘To what do I owe this great favour?’

  ‘We feel obliged to your son to see you to safety, Lord Suffolk,’ the man explained as he widened the gap in the rock wall with his hands. ‘None of us has ever had a paid holiday before.’

  I should have known—Levi made staunch friends and allies everywhere he went, a result of his ability to read and grant the secret needs of others.

  ‘Are you injured, my lord?’

  ‘I am not,’ I relayed. ‘However, Mr Taylor is not in the best of health.’

  There followed much hushed debate in the local dialect, before the voice in the darkness was again heard. ‘We would prefer that Mr Taylor remain here.’

  I saw the light of a torch flickering beyond a small breach near the top of the rock wall that blocked the canal. I began clearing rocks from our side.

  ‘I am sure we all would, my good fellow,’ I said. ‘But I know I have no desire to answer to God for the demise of such a pitiable soul.’

  I peered through the opening to see four local men bearing torches; they were able to stand tall in the tunnel beyond. The fellow who spoke English was twice the age of the other three, who, he explained, were his sons.

  ‘And might I know the name of my saviour?’ I asked.

  ‘Mohammed,’ he replied.

  I was not sure if the fellow had misinterpreted my question, but as just about every second man in the Near East was named Mohammed, I figured probably not. ‘I am very pleased to meet you, Mohammed. Very pleased.’ I reached through the gap to shake his hand.

  As Miss Koriche approached, I noted that she had returned her blade to its hiding place. ‘I have been schooled in the premise of crafting reality through thought, but only now do I fathom the full scope of the concept,’ she said. ‘It seems your willpower is phenomenal, Lord Suffolk.’

  ‘How do you know that our rescue was not of your design?’ I posed.

  Miss Koriche rolled her eyes, feeling I was flattering her, and yet she smiled broadly, for we would live to see the light of day again.

  ‘It could have been my design,’ Taylor quipped as he attempted to lower himself down into the canal and fell to land on his back once more.

  We chose to ignore him.

  The opening in the rocks was now big enough to accommodate our escape. Miss Koriche was pulled through first, and set down on her feet by Mohammed and his eldest son.

  ‘How did you find us?’ she asked.

  ‘There are many tunnels beneath the Mound of Pitch that have been used to rob graves over the centuries,’ Mohammed explained as he and his sons pulled me through. ‘Very few people know about them, and those that do consider them too dangerous to use. Hence we would prefer that their existence remain a secret.’

  The man looked to Taylor, who was holding his one good arm out through the gap. Mohammed seemed very reluctant to take hold.

  ‘Do you mean to say that you have known about the Dragon temple and its treasures for some time and have never attempted to remove them?’ Miss Koriche was impressed.

  ‘Remove them!’ Mohammed laughed heartily at the folly of the idea, as did his sons. ‘Of course not. This place is cursed to all but a handful of souls.’

  ‘And I now realise that I am not one of them.’ Taylor’s hand waved about, beckoning aid. ‘I promise I won’t disclose your secret to anyone.’

  ‘Hah! I feel sure that once you are away from here and recovered, you will never give a second thought to that huge golden lotus in the roof of the temple and how you might extract it,’ Miss Koriche chided. ‘And I might grow wings and fly away!’

  ‘I always said you were an angel,’ Taylor flirted, in a desperate attempt to save his skin.

  ‘Leave him,’ Miss Koriche said.

  Mohammed’s sons agreed with Miss Koriche, and the man in charge looked to me for the final word.

  ‘We can blindfold him,’ I resolved. ‘And I give you my personal assurance that Mr Taylor shall leave Persia with me and never return.’

  Mohammed finally took hold of Taylor’s arm and, with the aid of one of his sons, hoisted our associate through the hole and dumped him on the ground. The action drew much moaning from Taylor as his injuries were agitated.

  ‘You had better keep up,’ Mohammed grumbled, as he and his sons led us up the tunnel.

  ‘Sometimes you are too good a man, I fear,’ Miss Koriche commented to me as she set off after our guides.

  I crouched beside Taylor and, taking hold of him under the arms, hoisted him to his feet. ‘Only God knows why I would bother having you spared,’ I said. ‘I regret it already.’

  Once he was upright, Taylor appeared rather more humbled by his little ordeal than I had expec
ted. ‘I would have seen you killed,’ he stated and I knew he spoke the truth.

  ‘You may still,’ I assured, in case he was disappointed about that. ‘Are both your legs working?’

  Taylor nodded, then caught my arm to delay my departure. ‘I will not forget this, Devere. You are a true friend.’

  ‘I would not take that for granted if I were you,’ I advised. ‘Just because I had your life spared does not mean I am prepared to forgive your treachery.’

  ‘Your forgiveness seems a minor detail when you would give me my life.’

  ‘Do try to be more constructive, that is all I ask.’ I gave him a chug on the shoulder, for I had never seen the man appear so chastened. ‘We are not out of Persia yet.’

  I got us moving, before the light of the torches escaped us.

  Further down, the tunnel split into three canals that branched off in different directions.

  ‘Which way do we go?’ Miss Koriche asked, as our guides had come to a standstill.

  A rope dropped from above; we looked up to discover a hole in the ceiling and another two local lads waving down at us.

  ‘How many sons do you have?’ I asked Mohammed, assuming these boys were his too.

  ‘Thirteen.’ He grinned proudly. ‘To different wives.’

  ‘Thirteen!’ I echoed and shook his hand again. ‘It is a miracle that you are still alive.’

  ‘My sons keep me alive,’ Mohammed assured me.

  ‘You are lucky,’ I retorted, ‘my eldest just nearly got me killed.’

  ‘Your son is a very good man,’ Mohammed impressed upon me. ‘He has great light within him.’

  I was not too sure what Mohammed meant by this and did not have time to pursue it, as Miss Koriche had already been hoisted up safely and I was next.

  ‘Where do we go from here?’ Taylor looked concerned, but Mohammed thought him prying.

  ‘As if I would tell you.’

  ‘Are there more tunnels, smaller than this?’ Taylor appeared to have the shakes.