The Black Madonna (The Mystique Trilogy)

by Traci Harding

  This raised a question that Killian had wanted answered for a long time. ‘Where on Earth does one go to disappear from the Nefilim and their lizard drones?’

  ‘Why, the Otherworld, of course,’ Castor replied with a grin.

  After an initial moment of shock, Killian looked my way. ‘Is he serious?’

  ‘Probably,’ I said. ‘After all, he is the legendary King Arthur who had quite a few Otherworldly contacts.’

  Killian turned back to Castor. ‘Do you know Lugh Lamhfada?’

  ‘Why should Lamhfada interest you?’ I asked before Castor could reply.

  ‘Because he is so greatly feared by the Nefilim.’ Killian seemed to regard him as something of a superhero. ‘Do you think he would speak with me?’

  Castor eyed the young intruder. ‘With your unique talents and connections, I’m very sure Lamhfada will want to make your acquaintance.’

  CHAPTER 22

  THE RECRUIT

  ASHLEE GRANVILLE-DEVERE—SOLARIAN

  As we were exiting the conference room, Castor experienced a strange giddy episode, which delayed our departure.

  ‘Meridan made it back to the fifth century,’ he mumbled.

  ‘Did he say Meridan?’ Arcturus edged his way closer to the patient.

  ‘I remember now,’ Castor said, chuckling at the memory he was having for the first time, amazed by the process of simultaneous time. ‘I left her and her companion in the care of Lugh Lamhfada, before I entered the Halls of Amenti.’

  ‘Her companion?’ Arcturus queried and Castor nodded.

  ‘He was really quite amazing,’ he said. ‘Lamhfada took a great interest in him. If the lad could really do what he claimed, then his genetic profile would be very telling.’

  ‘What did he claim?’ Talori queried, having an interest in genetics.

  ‘Never mind that,’ Arcturus cut in. ‘Who was he? Where are they now?’

  Castor thought on this and then burst into laughter. ‘Meridan is right out front.’

  We all gasped, and Arcturus rushed ahead of us through the Klieo to confirm the claim. I’d never seen a man so relieved as Arcturus as he embraced his beloved.

  ‘I was so worried,’ he told her.

  ‘There was no need,’ Meridan replied gently, and sought comfort in the long embrace.

  The touching reunion came to an abrupt halt, however, when Arcturus spotted Killian Labontè standing a few steps back in the clearing. ‘What’s he doing here?’ he demanded, and then the penny dropped. ‘This is the man you’ve been time-hopping with? You told your Dragon sisters that he was an enemy! He’s the one responsible for our daughter’s imprisonment!’

  ‘No.’ Meridan corrected him calmly, but with a warning note in her voice. ‘Ill is responsible for Tamar’s imprisonment. Killian has only done what was needed to get himself out of the Montauk Project.’

  Arcturus was observing his wife as though she were the enemy now. ‘And save himself he has, whilst Tamar rots in Irkalla!’

  ‘Killian is here to help get her out,’ Meridan explained, but Arcturus wasn’t to be appeased. He addressed Killian directly.

  ‘We don’t need any more of your help.’

  ‘You know your way around Irkalla then, do you?’ Killian responded.

  Arcturus looked to Dexter for backup.

  ‘I said I could get us there,’ Dexter said. ‘I imagined we’d just wing it, as we usually do, but a guide would prove useful, not to mention time-saving.’

  This wasn’t what Arcturus wanted to hear. ‘You’re prepared to trust this two-faced turncoat?’

  ‘Meridan obviously trusts him,’ I said. ‘We should hear her out before deciding, don’t you think?’

  ‘Lamhfada saw something in him too,’ Castor advised.

  ‘That’s good enough for me.’ Polaris waved Killian forward.

  ‘I’d be moving your ship fairly promptly,’ Killian advised, as the Klieo appeared in the clearing behind us.

  ‘We’re out of juice,’ Polaris said, beckoning Meridan to go with him to the helm.

  Meridan cast an apologetic look at Arcturus, then hotfooted it after the captain.

  Arcturus turned back to Killian. ‘I don’t trust you.’

  ‘Well, that’s allowed,’ Killian smiled. ‘Good to know though.’

  He turned to the rest of the team. ‘So many legends in the one place…I feel like a kid who’s just stepped into a Marvel comic! It is truly an honour to meet you all.’

  Castor was the first to step up and shake Killian’s hand. ‘You survived Lugh’s tuition then.’

  ‘His guidance, and yours, saved my life and my sanity,’ Killian replied warmly and openly. ‘Thank you.’

  ‘I expect you’ll return the favour some day,’ Castor said, looking upon the lad as he would one of his bravest knights.

  I wasn’t too sure what to make of this young man myself, but his auric hue was just amazing. It sparkled gold, as the Nefilim’s did, but the light centres of his body whirled with a brilliance I’d only observed in Lugh Lamhfada and others of the Fey. If this aura wasn’t another cheap Nefilim deception, then clearly this lad was an extraordinary human being, more spiritually adept than us all.

  CHAPTER 23

  ENOCH—NEW MEXICO

  In the pyramid of Enoch—Keeper

  of the Keys—observe

  the dwelling places of the righteous, from which goodness flows like water.

  Their mercy is like dew upon the Earth

  as they petition and intercede in

  the fate of mankind.

  They are keys

  that fit together

  like a puzzle,

  forming the totality

  of human experience.

  MIA DEVERE—MERIDAN

  I stood in the splendour of the high court chamber addressing several lofty beings of Lamhfada’s ilk. My heart welled with excitement to know that one of the splendid beings before me was my angelic father, the Lord Ki.

  ‘Are you the being we know as the Sanat Kumara?’ I asked.

  The spiritual being, who was only loosely inhabiting an Anu body, chuckled. It seems that one of your Dragon sisters is using you as a channel, Solarian.

  I suddenly sensed Solarian’s astral self all around me and realised I had somehow tapped into her astral projection.

  ‘I do apologise,’ Solarian said, addressing the council. ‘This was only meant to be a transmission to Meridan, not a possession.’

  Quite all right, came the response. As your sister is unconscious she cannot be held accountable for her actions, and it is a very pertinent question she has asked. The answer, my dear Meridan, is yes. I postponed my spiritual evolution in order to aid the Queen of the Anunnaki to repair the damage done on Earth by our people.

  ‘Lord,’ Solarian appealed, ‘please continue with what you were telling me before this interruption…’ She sounded a little agitated by my unintended invasion of her astral self.

  I had so many questions about Killian, and this being had all the answers, but I realised I had intruded enough. I allowed the ethereal scene to fade into the blankness that marked the prelude to conscious awakening.

  As my eyes opened it took me a second to realise that I was lying on a lounge on the control deck of the Klieo. The last thing I recalled was Polaris commanding the ship to Signet Station Six while I channelled Blue Flame energy into the turbine funnel. I must have passed out again. I sat up, wondering where everybody was.

  Out beyond the front shield windows rose a huge rock wall. An ancient grotto was carved into its face, now crumbled into disrepair. I looked around—there was rock surrounding us. It seemed the Klieo was parked inside a huge desert crater.

  ‘New Mexico,’ I said to myself, recalling where Signet Station Six—Solarian’s station—was located. Solarian must have opened the Enoch pyramid and stargate, and made contact with the Azurline Council on Sirius B, while I slept. Sirius B was the primary planet of the Anu these days, which explained w
hy those on the council had appeared to be of Lugh Lamhfada’s kind, and also why En Ki was with them.

  I wandered out into the corridor and headed towards Solarian’s voice, which was coming from the ship’s conference room.

  ‘Our father spoke of the Elect One who has been under his wing,’ she was telling the rest of the staff as I entered. ‘He said that he would send his elect before us, and that the righteous would prevail and be without number before him forever.’

  ‘Him?’ Polaris queried. ‘I’d have thought that Kali was En Ki’s Elect One, as she’s the primary key that opens Amenti.’

  ‘But Kali was sent to raise Nefilim consciousness, not humanity’s,’ Talori pointed out. ‘The Elect One En Ki spoke of is the second coming of Christ.’

  ‘He’s talking about Killian Labontè,’ I said from the doorway.

  My husband looked stunned by my words.

  ‘Here she is,’ Solarian said and grinned at me, ‘my sassy sister who psychically hacked into my meeting with the Council of Azurline.’

  ‘She took control of your astral body?’ Talori gasped, impressed.

  ‘Only long enough to ask a question,’ Solarian clarified, ‘but, yes, she did.’ She seemed rather proud of me.

  Talori was fascinated. ‘I’ve never heard of that being done before. I must take some of your blood when we get back to the future. For analysis,’ she explained. ‘I think your DNA might be braiding.’

  ‘After what I’ve been through in the past twenty years, I wouldn’t be at all surprised by what my DNA is doing,’ I told her cheerfully.

  ‘You’ve been gone for twenty years?’ Arcturus was most concerned to hear this.

  I nodded apologetically, feeling that twenty years of distance rapidly unfolding between us. ‘A full cycle of time—eighteen years in the past, two in the present. It was the only way to avoid inadvertently building the Nefilim a superhighway back to the early Roman Empire.’

  ‘Smart thinking,’ Polaris said, following my reasoning.

  I shunned the credit. ‘Thank Killian. He was the one who worked it out.’

  ‘What makes you think that Killian is En Ki’s Elect One, Meridan?’ Solarian got us back on subject.

  ‘Killian Labontè is not Christ!’ Arcturus couldn’t believe we were even entertaining the notion. ‘If anything, the exact opposite is true and he’s the Antichrist!’

  ‘He is both and neither, but has the potential to be either.’ I offered what I felt to be the truth. ‘Yeshua, better known as Jesus, wasn’t born with Christ consciousness either. He became one with the planetary Christos in his later years, because, when tested by Satan, he chose the path of Christ even though it meant pain, ridicule and hardship for him.’

  ‘Having been married to the man, you should certainly know,’ Castor commented, then immediately regretted it. He was usually far more tactful.

  ‘You believe Killian is Yeshua incarnate?’ my husband said incredulously.

  ‘I recognise his energy,’ I confessed.

  ‘So you were married to Killian in a past life?’ Arcturus was thunderstruck by the information. ‘And have spent the last twenty years in his company? Twenty years.’

  I knew why he’d stressed the point; he and I had been together for less than fifteen.

  ‘I didn’t recognise him until we were back in the past,’ I explained, but Arcturus had left the room, unable to process how he felt about the news whilst surrounded by others.

  ‘I’m so sorry, Meridan,’ Castor said. As he spoke, the room fell into darkness.

  ‘What now?’ Polaris grumbled, but before he’d reached the door, the ship’s systems came back online. ‘I’d best go see what that was all about,’ he said. ‘Meridan?’

  As his power source, I accompanied him.

  Apologies for any inconvenience, Captain, the Klieo said as we entered the control room. I detected the shockwave of an electromagnetic pulse approaching and temporarily shut down all systems to avoid corruption.

  ‘Was the source nuclear?’ Polaris asked.

  Negative, Captain, the lack of radioactive particles suggests a nonnuclear source.

  Polaris looked intrigued. ‘And the blast origin?’

  Long Island, New York.

  He gave a knowing smile. ‘Levi,’ he said.

  My memory was suddenly catapulted back twenty years to the moment I’d left my fellow staff member in the secret underground facility beneath the Montauk Air Force Base. ‘Levi is able to command electromagnetism?’ I asked, stunned. ‘No wonder he wasn’t worried about being left alone.’

  A holograph of the Klieo appeared above the control panel and her sails lit up. Blue Flame Energy Function is detecting an incoming current, the ship told us.

  There was a great crack of metal above us and Polaris and I turned immediately to the Blue Flame energy funnel. A beam of blue-green light burst downward into the base mound and continued to flow in a steady stream.

  The captain was delighted and began to laugh. ‘So much for not changing history,’ he said. ‘It looks as if Levi has cast a spanner in the works of the new HAARP grid, which will keep the Nefilim off our backs whilst we activate the rest of the stations. And the best news is that you’re off the hook as our only energy source.’

  ‘So I can go with Killian to free Tamar?’ I asked. I shuddered to think of my husband accompanying Killian into Irkalla, as they would both end up dead. In my heart I knew I was right about Killian, but if it turned out I was wrong, I wanted to be the one to deal with the repercussions.

  ‘I gather you’ve activated your station at some time in the course of the past twenty years?’ Polaris asked, and when I nodded he thought quietly for a few moments. ‘Come with me to the lab,’ he said eventually. ‘Castor is running a few tests on our new friend.’

  ‘What kind of tests?’ I was concerned, as Killian had been subjected to enough scientific probing in his short life.

  ‘Just blood tests and so forth, nothing too drastic,’ Polaris assured me. ‘The aura can be simulated, but genetic information cannot. Come on,’ he urged. ‘Let’s go and see what our friend Killian is made of.’

  ‘I didn’t even know there was a lab on board,’ I commented as I followed him out the door and to the upper hatch stairs.

  The captain smiled as he twisted one of the metal upright supports on the stairwell. The staircase rose upwards and then collapsed flat against the ceiling to expose an elevator beneath.

  ‘How thirteenth century of you to have a secret passage to the lab…and yet so futuristic.’ I was amused at how the captain had adapted to his history-hopping lifestyle. ‘You are truly a lord of time.’

  We descended to the lab, which was an entire deck unto itself. Not only did Castor have a lab down there, but Levi had a huge work station as well. A transparent walled walkway connected the two labs and as we walked along it I peered into Levi’s workshop. It was filled with all manner of intriguing technological marvels, both futuristic and ancient.

  ‘What is all this stuff?’ I asked.

  ‘Things I’ve collected, been given or stumbled upon in my travels.’

  ‘What does it all do?’

  ‘In truth, we’re still trying to work that out. Levi likes to tinker when he gets a chance…which, lately, seems to be never.’

  ‘Shouldn’t we be heading to Montauk to retrieve Levi?’ I asked. No one else seemed concerned about this.

  ‘He’s already on his way back to us, I expect,’ the captain replied. ‘Or have you forgotten about his other little talent?’

  ‘Levitation…of course.’

  ‘In the interim, we need to give Killian the all clear to move through the Signet stations in order to get to Irkalla via the Xerthaneus stargate in Antarctica.’ Polaris paused before entering the lab where Castor was observing Killian. ‘If he gets the all clear, Solarian will see you through her stargate. From there you can access Dexter’s Signet station. The rest of us will activate the remaining stations and meet you b
ack at Nova Scotia.’

  ‘And Arcturus?’ My husband posed our biggest dilemma.

  Polaris winced. ‘Obviously, considering the current situation,’ he glanced in at Killian who was chatting with Castor, ‘Arcturus can’t go with you.’ He looked pained. ‘This was his mission and he’s not going to like having it taken away from him…especially by me.’

  ‘But you will tell him?’

  The captain forced a smile and gave a hesitant nod.

  I breathed a huge sigh of relief and gave him a hug. ‘Thank you.’

  ‘Are you trying to get us in more trouble?’ he joked.

  ‘I’m just so very grateful,’ I said, reining in my emotions. ‘Really, you’re such a good friend to us…It’s a shame Arcturus doesn’t realise it.’

  The captain had to laugh. ‘I do believe that my partner has found occasion to say exactly the same thing to Arcturus, so in that regard I believe I owe him a karmic debt.’

  He turned to look at Killian again then back to me. ‘You haven’t…I mean, you wouldn’t…’ He was suddenly awkward, which was very unlike him.

  I guessed his concern and put him out of his misery. ‘I love my husband, Captain. But I also have a lot of faith in Killian. I know in my heart that he’s integral to the plan.’

  ‘The question is, whose plan—the Nefilim’s or ours?’ Polaris was still sceptical, and I couldn’t blame him.

  ‘Killian has managed to suppress his dark side for twenty years and during that time I saw him channel nothing but the good of the Sanat Kumara,’ I said. ‘Who, I recently confirmed, is En Ki himself, our angelic father. So why would our father send us the Antichrist?’

  Polaris cocked his head to think about this, and finally opened the door to the lab. ‘Gentlemen,’ he greeted Castor and Killian, then noted the mess the lab was in—there was glass shattered on the floor, tools scattered everywhere.

  ‘We meet again, time lord,’ Killian replied with a grin.

  ‘It seems you’re something of a time lord yourself these days,’ Polaris said, still assessing the damage to the lab.