Gene of Isis

opened.

No, Ashlee assured me, sporting a confident grin. It is your captors who are in trouble. May I? She referred to my body, requesting permission to enter it.

I was hardly going to protest. Be my guest.

This woman was far more self-confident than I was—far more comfortable with her psychic gifts. She looked at Tusca Resi first and immediately tuned into her subject’s inner thought, searching for that which Tusca did not want known. To me this process sounded like dialling up and down a radio bandwidth—yet not only sound but also images flashed through my mind. Ashlee honed in on a vision of Akbar and his two young companions being held at gunpoint at the edge of the mountain’s sheer cliff—they had all been badly beaten.

Tusca alone did this? But of course, taking the Star-Fire substance would have enhanced her strength tenfold.

She had made the mistake of firing upon the boys first, and Akbar had seized the opportunity to jump from the cliff. Tusca had looked down into the rocky canyon below but failed to see where the body had fallen.

She fears that she did not properly complete the task Molier gave her. Ashlee knew and so did I.

I was shoved forward to the round gateway to descend the path of red gold, just as Lillet, Lord and Lady Hamilton and Ashlee had done before me.

‘I can’t believe you would betray me like this, Andre,’ I said. He was just behind me, to my right.

‘It seems we all have our little secrets, Mia,’ he replied coolly, ‘but some of us are better at hiding them.’

‘What is the sack for?’ I queried, having noted the item that he had tossed over one shoulder.

He may have replied, but the shock of seeing the pile of bones at the bottom of the pathway numbed all my senses for a moment. Albray! My heart centre jumped into my throat to choke me, and tears began to well.

Do not mourn for him, Ashlee advised. Today we will set him free. She sounded very confident about that.

‘My dear? Who?’ Molier reminded me that I had denied any knowledge of the knight, which served to hurry me past the pile of bones.

By the time we reached the central platform beneath the dome of gold, Conally had flipped the switch that flooded the canals, and I glanced back to note that Andre was bagging Albray’s bones. ‘What is Andre doing?’

‘Just a little insurance in case you decide to be difficult.’ Molier shoved me in the direction of the white-pillared annexe.

‘I have every intention of opening the second gateway for you,’ I advised him. Akbar had made it very clear that it was the only way to be rid of Molier. ‘You have no need to disturb the dead.’

‘Ah…dead but not buried,’ Molier commented. ‘Albe-Ra has proven more problematic dead than he was alive! But I happen to be acquainted with a few djinn who would be quite happy to help me in damning this hindrance to density for all eternity. He shall never again come back to haunt me.’

Djinn was the Arab name for lower-world intelligences and I was not the only one who was alarmed by the threat; even Ashlee hadn’t expected this foul move. ‘I would have thought that Albray was the last soul you’d be wanting to spend all eternity with,’ I chided, knowing Molier’s soul was probably destined for the same fate.

‘I would have to die first,’ Molier retorted as we entered the annexe and the glowing white presence of the Star vial. ‘Once I have possession of both vials, and the Ark and Ring of Testimony therein, death will be of little concern to me.’

‘The ladies of the Elohim will never allow you to claim whatever lies within their Ark.’ I retrieved the vial and held it out to Molier cooperatively.

‘You hang on to it,’ he insisted, seemingly unfazed by my comment. He gestured with his gun for me to exit the annexe.

After I had taken possession of the Fire vial I was escorted to the large oval door that stood opposite the entrance door. Not one of those who had gone before me since the time of Lilith del Aquae had stood upon this precipice.

On either side of the oval door, which appeared to be solid gold, were two hollows, each designed to house one of the vials. Each of these hollows was clearly marked: one with the sign for Fire and the other with the sign for Star, so that no mistake could be made.

‘Wait.’ Molier demanded I refrain from placing the keys in their locks just yet. Andre delivered the sack containing Albray’s bones to Molier, who placed a scroll into the sack before taking possession of it with his free hand.

At the same time, Conally lit the fluid in the canals igniting the liquid.

‘Now leave us,’ Molier advised. ‘There can be only one witness to this event.’

Andre nodded and then looked to me. ‘Bonsoir, Mia…it was truly a pleasure knowing you.’

‘Are you planning on dying today?’ I queried, as I certainly wasn’t. I was furious with him, and praised the goddess that I had never been sucked into sleeping with the snake. ‘I’d tell you to go to hell, Andre, but I see you are already well on your way.’

He merely grinned and shook his head, as if I was the one who was deluded. Andre then levitated off the pathway into the air and seemed amused by his ability. He flew off toward the entrance to join his comrades.

‘Feel free to go ahead.’ Molier granted me leave to unlock the gateway to the inner chamber. ‘And I warn you, the curse to damn your beloved knight is inside this sack with him. I need only burn them together for his fate to be sealed.’ He held the sack out over one of the canals.

‘I keep trying to tell you, Molier. I believe as much as you do that you deserve to have whatever lies beyond