Gene of Isis

the mount this time, my assignment is to remove the vials and take them to a safer hiding place away from the Ark.’

I nearly had a heart attack.

‘Wait a second! You want me to open the gateway?’ I stopped dead in my tracks. ‘I assumed you were here to dissuade me from such a course of action.’

‘I have never tried to discourage you, not since you showed me the mark of Isis,’ he replied, rather stunned that I assumed he would thwart my efforts.

He was right. It was Albray who had been discouraging me. All Akbar had done was express a desire for Molier’s demise.

‘You must open the gateway. The Ark is your best hope of destroying the beast that is the curse of this place.’

‘Molier.’ I was less confident than ever about my capacity to fight such a formidable foe, but I didn’t wish to alarm Akbar by saying so, or ask him how he expected me to destroy such a beast. ‘Does your order recall the first time Molier visited this site?’ I resumed my slow steps toward the mess tent.

Akbar nodded and then warned me: ‘He has prolonged his life at great cost—he has become a nocturnal creature. He has not seen dawn, dusk, or the light of day in a little under eight hundred years.’ He looked me in the eye, probably expecting me to laugh in his face—which I did not.

‘Molier was entombed in the mount by one of the Melchi agents who infiltrated the Order of Sion…’ I raised both eyebrows to fish for confirmation of what I already suspected.

‘His father was a knight of the crusades belonging to the Scottish order of the—’

‘Sangreal knighthood,’ I concluded, which explained Albray’s claim to be a Scot, despite his dark colouring and lack of an accent. ‘But his mother?’

‘She was a priestess of our sister order and a princess of Isis, who was given to the visiting Lord de Vere for a short time in order to produce a prince of the blood.’ Akbar did not hesitate to give me an answer, though he was obviously stunned by how much I knew.

I recalled reading that some of the secret knighthoods in the Holy Land had had secret dealings with the local assassins—even been trained by them—despite disagreements over who should protect valuable ancient relics. Perhaps breeding super-beings had been part of the equation?

‘This prince was known among the Sion order as Albray Devere,’ Akbar continued. ‘To we Melchi, he was Albe-Ra, the Shining One. He died trapping the beast, Molier, in the mountain. He was defending a daughter of the blood with whom he had fallen in love—’

‘Lillet du Lac.’ I smiled as I beat Akbar to the punchline. I was deeply moved to finally discover something of my dream lover’s illustrious history. No wonder Albray had not wished to speak about his past—how could he without sounding like he was blowing his own trumpet…or lying through his teeth.

‘You are well informed for a woman of the west.’ Akbar probably didn’t mean to sound condescending.

‘I study.’ I shrugged, not wishing to stray from my pursuit of answers. ‘During the incident of which you speak, involving Lillet, Molier reportedly claimed he alone possessed knowledge regarding activation of the Ark. He alleged he would not perish as had other men before him. Do you know what knowledge he referred to?’

‘Maybe he knows about the breastplate,’ Akbar mused.

‘Breastplate?’ I pushed for more information.

‘Of the daughters of Isis,’ my Arab friend prompted, but when I indicated my ignorance, he enlightened me. ‘The story of the Lady del Aquae tells that when the two vials were positioned in the door to the Ark chamber, they produced a breastplate of gold, along with an inscription which stated that the golden plate must be worn when approaching the Ark. The wearer of the breastplate was also warned that shoes must be removed, and feet washed, when the wearer entered the presence of the Ark, “that they die not”.’

‘Good to know,’ I commented with a gulp and Akbar nodded in agreement. ‘There always seems to be a loophole for the villain to negotiate when it comes to this saving-the-world business.’

‘The gods know that human beings must be granted freedom of choice,’ Akbar explained. ‘The whole process of evolution is redundant if there is no choice, no cause and effect, no lessons to be learned.’

I forced a smile to concede his point. ‘So what would happen if Molier got his hands on this breastplate?’

‘It is written that the power of the Ark is deadly…the men who accompanied the Lady del Aquae into its presence—ignoring the Priestess’ express warning—were reportedly killed by the fire that leapt from the Ark in bolts as thin as threads.’

‘Nice.’

‘It is also written that if the breastplate is worn by someone of evil intent, or not of the blood,’ Akbar continued, ‘it will give them protection. He, or she, could direct the fury of the gods to be unleashed upon the world. But this is speculation only, as such a circumstance has never come to pass.’

‘But do we really know that Molier is evil?’ I asked. ‘True, he stole the Fire vial from the mount and used the sacred substance to sustain himself indefinitely, but that could have been due to normal human survival instincts. He did kill Albray, but in those times any warrior would not have hesitated to do the same to achieve his goals. Has Molier actually done anything that could be considered truly evil?’ On the quiet I reflected that he had also kidnapped the Lady Susan, but he had not harmed her. Most recently, he had stolen my charm, nearly leading me over a cliff in the process. And yet here I was? Did Molier know Akbar was watching out for me? He must have, as he needed me to open the gate and would surely not want me dead at this stage.

‘My brotherhood understands that “evil” refers to any displaced or disorganised energy that has come adrift from its normal time zone,’ Akbar informed me. ‘There are cosmic laws which function here on earth in any given period of history. Undesirable and unharmonious force fields are built up by the stressed energies of those who operate outside the wavebands of cosmic law. The soul-mind who attempts to sidestep their own time-zone frequency without divine blessing is electing to run counter to the cosmic order, and abandons temporarily the ways of light and love to pursue the path of chaos. When such an imbalance occurs, the gods send forth a counterbalance of extreme good to combat the misplaced energy or entity and send them back to the matrix. In some instances this counterbalance might be a person with particular skills and knowledge.’ Akbar smiled as he said this, and