‘So I’m not staying in Constantinople?’
Spiridon laughed. ‘Goodness no, this is just the beginning of your life, Theodora. The time is almost right. Watch!’
Eudora returned her gaze to the image, and the focus shifted slightly, almost as though time itself had been wound forward a little, bringing Eudora and Spiridon in step with a particular sequence of events.
Dion Taine was standing over the body of a man whom Eudora recognised from the painting as being Constantine. Dion held a scimitar in his hands, and it dripped Constantine’s blood onto the white floor.
‘My God, he’s dead!’ gasped Eudora, feeling sick, wanting to turn away yet somehow unable to do so.
‘No. Remember, in our dimension, the body is a mere shell. Even here, when we die, only the body is dead. His spirit lives on, and it is Constantine’s spirit that Diocletian seeks to ensnare within this prison.’
‘Only he doesn’t succeed, does he?’
‘No, Theodora. You and I know that, but Diocletian is not privy to such information. Cassandra, the Protectorate of Time, prevents it because history decrees it does not happen.’
‘Again, I don’t understand your words. Just what do you mean, Protectorate of Time?’
‘All shall be explained to you, in time. For now though, look!’ Spiridon nodded to the moving image. From out of nowhere a figure appeared. ‘Behold – Cassandra!’
Eudora took one look at the girl who had appeared and emitted a strangled gasp of shock. ‘But… that’s Cassie… Cassie Bosporus. She’s a friend from my own time!’
‘She has many names spanning centuries,’ Spiridon said gently. ‘To Eudora Donat she is Cassie; here she is the Great Visionary of Old Byzantium. To our people she is Cassandra… Protectorate of Time!’
* * *
‘Diocletian, I cannot allow this. You know that!’
Diocletian turned sharply. Though his ears were finely attuned to noise, he had not heard the woman approach. It was hardly surprising, he mused, considering who she was. She had probably appeared out of thin air. ‘What do you want, Cassandra?’ he demanded irritably. He did not need any distractions from the task he had set himself. ‘You released me from the chains of time and returned to me my powers – allow me to use them!’
Cassandra shook her head. ‘I cannot allow you to dispose of this man’s spirit in such a manner. I returned your powers so that you might ensnare Spiridon, not this mortal.’
Diocletian trembled with ill-suppressed rage. He pointed at Konstantin’s corpse. ‘This man is no more mortal than the rest of us. Do you not recognise Constantine, our enemy? Is he not the second Protectorate, sent to return me to my prison? If I do not trap his spirit, there is little point in trapping Spiridon. I shall not be truly free.’
Cassandra sighed. ‘To be free, the spirits must be awakened at the moment of their death. You know that!’ She indicated Konstantin. ‘This body may hold the spirit of Constantine, but the amulet has yet to manifest itself. He is still mortal.’
‘Perhaps,’ said Diocletian with a self satisfied smile, ‘the amulet has manifested itself, and with it the spirit has been reawakened. I know where the amulet is. The fool has passed it to another for safekeeping! He should not have parted with it! With the death of this host body, the spirit will be displaced, and easily transferred to his prison cell.’
Cassandra glanced upwards at the ceiling, as if seeing something in her mind’s eye. ‘Selim and his guards are returning. Spiridon is with them. They are coming for you!’
‘Let them come! I am ready!’
‘If they find you, they will kill you. Your powers do not yet extend to preternatural protections of your host body.’
Fear of capture and death before his task was complete overwhelmed Diocletian. ‘Remove the body. Send the spirit to his prison.’
In the blinking of an eye, Konstantin’s body was gone. ‘It has been done. I trust you have been honest about that young man’s inner spirit having been reawakened!’
‘Are you not the Great Visionary? Do you not know it to be the truth?’
But Cassandra was gone, leaving Diocletian quite alone. In seconds, he gathered his thoughts and composure. Selim was returning – along with his final nemesis. ‘I must go to greet them!’
Once he had left the room, Cassandra instantly reappeared. Satisfied he was not coming back, she turned to the portrait. Holding out her hands welcomingly, she stepped forward. Her arms plunged into the painting up to her elbows. ‘Come, it is time to leave your prison.’ She felt delicate feminine hands grip hers, and slowly she extracted her hands and carefully, exposing herself to the clean air of a different continent in a different time, Eudora stepped out from the painting.
Cassandra felt pity towards the clearly confused and frightened woman, but was pleased to note that her eyes were also alive with fascinated curiosity.
‘It’s just as it appeared from within the painting,’ Eudora whispered, more to herself than Cassandra. She touched the painting – it was solid. Panic gripped her when her hands did not slip back in as she had thought they would.
Sensing Eudora’s increasing panic-stricken unease, Cassandra smiled. ‘Have no fear. You are not trapped here forever. Your task is to obtain the three Power Jewels from this time, as I am certain Spiridon has told you. Once you have them you will be able to return into the painting. Diocletian is not aware that it is the Power Jewels that will allow Spiridon to enter the painting – the incantations I have given him will merely trap Spiridon.’
‘I don’t understand why you would want to help Diocletian in this task!’ Eudora said frostily. ‘Spiridon says you are the Protectorate of Time. I would assume that makes you a good person, and yet I watched you trap that poor boy’s spirit.’
Cassandra smiled serenely. ‘Constantine’s spirit is not trapped; that was a necessary deception. He has been set free. I shall explain everything to you in due course.’
So, this is what destiny means, Eudora mused silently, relaxing slightly as she remembered what Spiridon had told her. The die is cast and I must enact a particular sequence of events to secure the safety of the future. She glanced around with mixed emotions. Moments before Cassandra had helped her from the painting, Spiridon had told her that she played a vital role in the downfall of Diocletian, which, since his spirit was still alive in her own time, obviously meant she completed her task here and made it back to 1989 to help defeat him.
But to return there she had to first collect the three pieces of jewellery… Power Jewels, Cassandra had called them.
Now she was free from the painting it was exciting and intriguing to find herself in another period. All the same, though, she was still afraid. ‘Are these really Dion Taine’s chambers within the Seraglio of Constantinople in 1568?’
Cassandra nodded. ‘Yes they are, and he might return at any moment, so departure from this place would be most prudent.’
Eudora made straight for the door opposite the fretwork window through which morning sunshine streamed.
‘Not that way,’ warned Cassandra, ‘we might encounter Diocletian. It is important that we keep your presence a secret from him for as long as possible.’
Eudora was relieved. A meeting with Diocletian was at the bottom of her short list of things to do while in Constantinople. From what she had seen so far, he was contemptibly evil and thoroughly deserved incarceration in whatever constituted a prison in Atlantis. ‘How do we get out then, Cassie?’
‘The same way I came in. I am known as Cassie in your time, but here you must refer to me as Cassandra.’
‘As I, apparently, am known as Theodora?’
Cassandra nodded. ‘Indeed you are. You are Theodora, Queen of Atlantis.’ She touched Eudora’s eyes, placing her in a trance, clasped her hands and the pair instantly vanished from the room.
Chapter Seventeen
Down in the catacombs something stirred. A pinprick of light appeared in the darkness, growing larger and brighter.<
br />
On a comfortable mattress in the shadow-filled room adjacent to the Inner Sanctum, Galina and Isis reclined languorously, having finished their task of retiring Ammar. His wizened body, ravaged with great age, lay spent on the floor beside them, a smile of exquisite ecstasy on his lined old face.
As they became aware of the increasing light shining through the arch, they realised their Mistress had returned, and so they made their way to the Inner Sanctum. The light in the centre of the vast room diminished to reveal two women. Galina and Isis bowed low in supplication, mentally asking how they might serve their Mistress.
Cassandra did not respond.
Makdil stood to the right of the throne, unwillingly alert for all eventualities. Though conditioned to obey the Great Visionary’s every order, he still possessed enough of his own personality to prevent him from respecting her. He regarded the woman who had appeared with her curiously. She looked familiar in some way.
Cassandra ignored them all. She led Eudora to the throne and seated her upon it.
Unused to their Mistress ignoring them, the two handmaidens glanced up, gasping in horror. In all the years that they had been faithful servants to Cassandra, they had seen none but the Great Visionary herself sit upon the throne, yet here was this stranger, doing just that.
‘Be gone, all of you!’ Cassandra called, waving them away impatiently. Galina, Isis and Makdil left the Inner Sanctum without a murmur, and when they were finally alone, Cassandra passed her hand before Eudora’s eyes, awakening her from the trance.
‘That was another most peculiar experience to add to my growing collection,’ Eudora said. ‘I could see and hear everything, yet I couldn’t speak or move by myself. Tell me, is everyone from my time a reincarnation of someone from this time?’ She pointed in the direction taken by Cassandra’s servants. ‘Those three people – I recognised them!’
‘Did you?’ whispered Cassandra. ‘I thought you might, which is why I silenced you for your arrival. It would not do for them to know of their possible future. Tell me, who did you see?’
Tears pricked the corners of Eudora’s eyes as she spoke. ‘The two women look like my cousin and sister, Gaia and Izzy. The man resembles Michael Bosporus, the father of Cassie, your future incarnation!’
Cassandra smiled comfortingly. ‘Do not be sad at their demise, for death is but a doorway through which we must all pass. As you have become aware, many pass on into a new life. In each lifetime, some people reappear constantly, not always in the same place, and not always related to one another in the same way. Sometimes their memories remain dormant, whilst other times, those memories are reawakened.’
Eudora wiped her eyes. ‘You mean what we might call a past life experience?’
‘Indeed. Sometimes the same people can be reborn into a new life and are related in the same way each time. They interact in the same way, and history repeats itself.’
‘Is that’s what’s happening here?’
Cassandra shook her head. ‘What is happening here is far more complex than mere reincarnation. Did Spiridon tell you about Atlantis?’
‘Only that it exists in another dimension, that you all exist there as pure energy.’
‘We are energy within shells that give us human appearance. You, too, are one of us.’
‘I am the Queen?’
‘Yes. That is what you once were, and what you will one day become once more, but only after Diocletian has been defeated.’
‘But why do I have no memory of these things?’
‘The memories are there, buried deep within the dark recesses of your mind. It requires the right stimulus to reawaken them, and you have yet to attain that stimulus. Until then it falls to me to make certain you understand your vital importance in the scheme of things. I must show you the past so that you might understand why Diocletian’s recapture is of paramount importance.’
Cassandra waved her hands above the brazier that stood before the throne, and flames leapt up high in the air, diminished and coalesced into images suspended there. ‘Look into the flames,’ she commanded. ‘Look into the flames and witness the past – and the future!’
* * *
She stands at the very top of the tall tower, overlooking the tranquil island. Peaceful waters surround the sandy shores on three sides, while crashing waves beat ferociously against the jagged rocks and cliffs that dominate the far side of the island.
‘Atlantis.’
She speaks the name, knowing it to be the name of this island. Lush vegetation covers much of the land. The hill on top of which this tower stands is at rest within the very centre of the island, surrounded by the beautiful white fortified boundary walls of the city of Atla.
Beyond the harsh desert plains to the north of the city lies Lantis, the prison made of jagged black rock. Inhospitable and unwelcoming, as any prison should be, the desert and the cliffs make an ideal boundary. The prisoners receive no visitors. Entry through its impenetrable rock gates is possible only with the key, and only the Custodian holds the key. Nobody knows who the Custodian is, not even the Custodian. Nobody knows what form the key takes.
Nobody except Cassandra, the most powerful Protectorate of Time, and she shares the knowledge with no one.
Until the unthinkable happens.
The Protectorate is a triad, split throughout time on Atlantis to make sure their secrets concerning time travel and immortality do not fall into mortal hands. Whilst Cassandra is the Protectorate in the future, watching over events of the past, Spiridon is the Protectorate in the present, Theodora his bound concubine. She rules over the island, taking advice from Spiridon, who remains joined mentally with Cassandra.
Diocletian was the Protectorate of the past, until he misused his powers and tried to usurp the Triad and gain control of Atlantis himself. He stole the three Power Jewels that control the force field keeping the dangerous prisoners within the rock prison of Lantis. It is only a matter of time before the prisoners realise this and escape.
The Power Jewels give Diocletian the ability to travel to any point on the planet, and with the ability to travel through time and be reborn each time his host body dies, this makes him a very dangerous enemy.
Cassandra has been able to use her immense powers to shield many of Diocletian’s memories from him. The memories he has no access to relate to his ability to travel through time, and the true nature of the three Power Jewels he has stolen, but these memories will not remain hidden forever. The barriers will break down eventually, so it is vital that he be brought back to Atlantis and secured within the prison before that happens.
None may interfere directly. They can only influence events in the hope of securing the Power Jewels willingly. Then – and only then – can Diocletian be brought back.
To this end, Queen Theodora is given a single choice. It is not one she takes lightly, but it is the only option.
The remaining members of the Protectorate will leave Atlantis to pursue Diocletian until their task is complete, using both their ability to transfer their consciousness into new host bodies and also their ability to travel through time.
However, in order that they might follow Diocletian into the outside world, they must use the remaining three Power Jewels that keep Atlantis itself safe from the ravages of the eternal storms, which themselves afford security from the prying eyes of the outside world.
It is the only solution, but with the removal of the Power Jewels, Atlantis sinks beneath the sea, destroyed by the savage onslaught of the storms within the space of one day. All the inhabitants drown, but each will be reborn with the restoration of Atlantis.
Using her powers, Cassandra sends Theodora’s spirit to another time, where she will take refuge in the body of an innocent girl. There she safely waits for the time of restitution, but the trauma of her journey forces Theodora’s consciousness to remain dormant, and only with her return to Atlantis will she be awakened.
From the future, Cassandra witnesses events and she knows Theodo
ra must remain there. She sends Spiridon and his trusted brother, Constantine, much farther back into the past, where they encounter Diocletian time after time, each time failing in their task. Diocletian must give up the Power Jewels freely. They are linked to the spirit rather than the physical host and therefore cannot be forcibly removed.
As Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, Diocletian almost succeeds in killing Spiridon. He has mastered the dark arts, intending to trap his pursuers in another dimension from which there can be no escape.
Diocletian still has no memory of the jewellery’s importance, and by this time, due to their careful scheming, Spiridon and Constantine have secured two of the Power Jewels.
However, the body Diocletian inhabits dies, and the spirit flees… taking with him the ring.
They must remain patient. Diocletian will not be reborn again for centuries – a fact that Cassandra communicates to them. They arrive in readiness for his rebirth, secreting themselves within the minds of Dušan and Konstantin.
Dušan has been traumatised as a child by events in his own life, so Cassandra uses her powers to shield him from Spiridon’s spirit until the time is right for their next encounter.
She has made her presence known to Diocletian as he sleeps within the mind of Dion Taine. She convinces him that she has grown tired of all the pursuits and will give him the power to defeat Spiridon and Constantine.
But she has deceived him.
And he has fallen right into her trap.
It now requires the return of Queen Theodora to complete the mission.
* * *
As the flames flickered up and devoured the images, Cassandra turned to face Eudora. ‘Though you do not have all your memories, you must realise now how vital it is that Diocletian be returned to Atlantis?’
Solemnly, Eudora nodded. ‘Locked away within his mind he has the knowledge that would give him world domination.’
‘He has the power to enslave mankind into perpetual damnation, and there is no telling when he will recover that information.’
Portrait of Shade Page 22
