Tablet of Destinies (26 page)

Although Crow knew that his brother would become suspicious if he declined Swan's challenge, he was still hesitant to take it.

‘Weren't you leaving, Captain?' Tory reached around behind her back to unfasten her top and rouse Crow's interest in the fight again.

The thought of her losing to his brother was too unbearable for Hawk. ‘Allow me to accept the challenge —'

‘No way,' Crow barked, as he shoved his brother out the doorway and, placing a hand on the control plate, closed the door. ‘Now your arse is mine, princess.' He turned back to Tory to find her refastening her top. ‘I thought you were taking that off?' he protested.

‘You take it off me. I dare you.' She held out her arm and beckoned with her fingers for him to approach.

Hawk could have opened the hatch door, as his palm print overrode all the locks on this ship. But both Swan and Crow seemed content on their mischief, so who was he to interfere?

Chook knew something suspicious was going on when he noted his captain literally flying back towards the stairs leading to the control deck level. He set down his tools to go investigate.

 

‘I've got it on screen and Seagull is heating up the popcorn.' Raven rubbed his hands together in excitement as the captain entered.

‘Is she still conscious?' Hawk rushed over to take up his seat alongside the pilot.

‘Are you kidding?' Raven laughed. ‘Crow hasn't gotten within arm's reach of her. It would seem our little Swan is gifted with an amazing instinct for self-defence.'

Hawk became mesmerised as he watched the demi-goddess fend off her much larger attacker. The truly amazing thing was that she wasn't even looking at her opponent. Her eyes were focused straight ahead and were even closed at times.

‘How is she doing that?' Chook questioned, startling the two men seated in front of the screen.

‘Why are you here?' Hawk snapped, as both he and Raven gave the lad a slap for having scared them.

‘My mistake.' Chook moved backwards, but as his superiors became immediately re-immersed in the fight, he too stayed to witness the outcome.

‘Fuck this!' Crow staggered back to a seat and conceded defeat.

As he regained his breath, Tory stood perfectly poised and inwardly focused, awaiting another onslaught. At length, Crow smiled and raised himself out of his slouch. ‘Perhaps you'll prove of some use, after all.'

Tory emerged from a dream-like state as she let down her defences. ‘That was amazing,' she said. She held her head, then released a great excited, ‘YAHOO!' that nearly startled Crow out of his wits. To the Falcon's further bemusement she ran up and hugged him. ‘Thank you so much!' Tory kissed his cheek, saying: ‘I'm sorry if I hurt you.' She pulled back to take a look at his left eye. It had copped a fair beating.

‘It's fine,' Crow growled, pulling away. Her warmth confused him. He liked the attention but it was not like him to admit it. He just couldn't recapture the same animosity he'd felt for her before his beating; truth was, he admired her.

‘So, is this how you treat all your men?' he grumbled, so astounded by his defeat that he only now came to realise how humiliating it was. ‘Seduce them and beat them up?'

Tory laughed at this and Crow found himself laughing with her.

‘You think I could come in handy on your next raid?' she prompted.

‘No!' Hawk came charging through the door.

Both Tory and Crow looked to Hawk to protest. ‘What do you mean, no?'

‘
I mean
that Crow does not call the shots in that regard.'

‘I see.' Tory fronted up to Hawk. ‘You want me to beat you up, too, is that it?'

Both brothers laughed, but it was Crow who explained to Tory: ‘He just doesn't like to see me scoring all the hugs and kisses … sibling rivalry is what it is.'

Tory was quite astonished at this development, and it must have reflected on her face.

‘Oh, he's keen on you alright,' Crow continued, enjoying seeing his brother squirm for a change.

Tory sensed the friction in the air. How could she get out of this fix without making either brother uncomfortable? ‘Get serious, Crow.' She slapped his shoulder playfully. ‘I'm sure the women of your breed are
more beautiful than plain old me.' She scratched the short spikes on her head and wandered out through the hatchway while the going was good.

 

By the time Noah and Rebecca touched down on the canyon floor they were shrouded in complete darkness. The only light to be seen was a thin crack above which served to keep the couple aware of which way was up.

‘Don't move,' Rebecca advised, clinging close to her husband as she pulled her infra-red glasses from her equipment belt. ‘Let's see where we are.'

Noah found his infra-red glasses as his wife took a look around. ‘What do you see?'

‘Pretty much what you'd expect to see.' She tried not to sound bored and disappointed. ‘A fairly narrow chasm, lots of rubble, and more rubble. This might be a good time to consult that rock the Dragon gave you.'

‘Shit!' Noah hit himself. ‘We probably should have done that before we descended into the canyon.'

Rebecca nodded to agree, but as the thought hadn't occurred to her before now she could hardly hold his error against him.

‘What the hell, I'm new at this questing business.' Noah pulled the precious treasure from his jacket pocket. Even from within the drawn pouch of black leather in which it was sitting, the light coming from it was near blinding.

‘Was it glowing that brightly earlier?' Rebecca didn't think so.

‘No way.' Noah removed his eyewear before loosening the drawstring and opening the pouch.

The keystone was not just exuding light, but ultra-violet light, which filled the space around them and brought to life the towering rock walls above them, shot through with mineral deposits of amazing colour. In that instant their desolate surroundings were as awe inspiring as a beautiful coral reef, minus the plants and animals.

‘Oh my,' uttered Rebecca as she removed her eyewear. ‘Is it crystal?'

Noah hadn't encountered this type of iridescent fluorescence before. ‘Of sorts,' he replied at last. ‘It would seem to be a good sign that we are getting closer to your city.'

Rebecca collected a sample of the radiant rock and bagged it for the Geology Department back on Kila. ‘This does look vaguely familiar to me …' She gazed at another huge sample. It was now a long time since she had had her vision of this place, but the strange waves of colour that rushed through the mineral were reminiscent of the amazing construction she had foreseen.

‘If this thing is a locator then how does one get it to locate without a computer or some other device?' Noah looked the rock over, and on the flat, back plane of the stone he found an image had appeared. ‘Hello.' He held the stone out in front of him and then behind, and discovered, thanks to the markings in the glowing rock, that it was the path ahead that matched the image the stone projected. ‘I believe it wants us to go this way.'

Rebecca had collected their luggage, and now joined her husband to take a look at the stone herself. ‘Fine by me.' She rose into the air and glided in the direction indicated.

‘This sure beats the hell out of walking.' Noah rose up also and willed himself after his wife. ‘Why didn't we try this ages ago?'

Rebecca turned and shrugged. ‘Sometimes one needs to be removed from one's environment before trying new things … we need change and challenges in order to exert ourselves, and thus, we learn and grow.'

As they made their way over the rubble-strewn canyon floor, Noah began to wonder how everyone else was doing on their quests. Had Brian and his wrecking crew landed safely on Nugia? Had the Dragon found his wife? Was Tory still alive? How was their good Governess holding out on Kila? His wondering only brought him sorrow, for he felt this was a hoot compared to what everybody else must be going through.

Seeing the sadness on her husband's face Rebecca distracted him. ‘We're doing well,' she encouraged. ‘Look.' She pointed up ahead to where the canyon took a sharp curve. ‘Has the image in the stone changed?'

Noah raised the stone to view its flat surface, which displayed the entrance to a dark cavern. ‘Yep,' Noah confirmed, and Rebecca gave a cheer.

‘We're getting closer, I can feel it.' She took off ahead of him, eager to see if what the stone showed was around the bend.

When Noah heard his wife's excited squeal he knew that they were on the right track.

Random traces of iridescent mineral deposits continued into the dark cavern and so their guiding stone lit the way very efficiently. Once they were inside the entrance, the image on the stone changed again to show a
large, flat disc, fashioned from the same material as the crystal rock Noah held, set in the middle of a golden floor.

‘Oh my,' Noah said, delighted at what lay in store. Up ahead the cavern widened out into a perfectly rounded chamber.

‘This is a bit too neat to be a natural formation,' commented Rebecca when she moved into it.

It was obvious that the chamber must have once had a perfectly domed roof, but a good half of it had fallen away and now covered the floor in dust and rubble.

Noah came to stand on a level area, suspecting the disc he sought was now buried. As he brushed dirt away from the floor beneath his feet he found gold. ‘Ah-huh,' he grunted, annoyed at the inconvenience of having to clear the rubble. ‘Here, hold this will you?' Noah handed their guiding crystal to his wife.

‘What are you going to do?' She smiled, intrigued, as he held up a finger to beg her patience.

Noah turned to face the trouble spot, getting a feel for the task at hand. When he had a clear image in his mind, he closed his eyes and held his hands out in front of him. Noah took a deep breath, parted his arms wide and imagined the dirt and rubble dispersing.

Rebecca gasped when the mounds of rubble began to shift aside, exposing a round disc embossed with ancient hieroglyphs and pictographs. This treasure almost seemed alive as the glowing iridescent substance from which it was made played on the eyes.

Noah was tickled pink with himself and, turning to catch what his wife thought of this achievement, he found her gazing at him in shock.

‘I saw Myrddin do it in one of Tory's chronicles, so I thought I'd give it a bash,' he explained. The next thing he knew he was being kissed.

‘I just adore you at times, Noah Purcell,' Rebecca explained, then walked over to investigate the find.

It wasn't often that Noah felt genuinely proud of himself. ‘I have to admit, I've even surprised myself this trip.' Noah floated upwards to get an aerial perspective.

‘It says here that no Nefilim can advance beyond this chamber,' Rebecca relayed the ancient text as she deciphered it from the disc.

‘Of course they can't,' Noah scoffed. ‘It's a dead end.'

‘Shh! Listen,' Rebecca urged and read on. ‘Only a human, Enki's appointed one, can turn the key that unlocks the door to the secrets stored herein. The —' She was distracted from her reading as she noticed the light ebbing from the crystal she held. ‘What's happened to the power?'

Noah hastily looked his techo-rock over. As soon as he regained possession of it, the glow began to regain its intensity.

‘You're in resonance with it,' Rebecca realised. ‘It draws its power from you … you must be Enki's appointed.'

‘Now, let's not get too excited,' Noah insisted. ‘Durak discovered and opened one of Enki's Creation Stations … it seems more likely that the Dragon is Enki's appointed.'

‘You don't know that Durak ever gained access,' Rebecca pointed out. ‘And why has the stone led you here, if you are not the one? Why does it glow for you and not for me?'

‘Let's find out.' Noah rose up into the air once more and glided into the centre of the large disk he'd exposed.

‘Have you found something?' Rebecca came to kneel beside him.

They discovered a smooth round section, with a hunk taken out of the centre. To the uninformed person it would appear as if the work had met with a nasty accident that had chipped a great chunk out of the centrepiece.

‘I do believe I might be onto something here.' Noah held the rock with its flat surface upward and placed it into the missing section. The crystal filled the empty space perfectly, leaving only a narrow finger-width crevice down either side it. ‘Only the appointed one can turn the key, did you say?'

Noah looked at his wife, who gave a nod of anticipation.
Let it be me,
he besought the universe, and with a flick of his wrist the whole centrepiece rotated forty-five degrees and light began shooting out of every etching on the huge disc
.

It's a passage to the Otherworld.
As Noah realised this, he embraced Rebecca, and was swept with her into the next realm of existence.

 

Hawk had been such a polite host these past few days that Tory hadn't suspected he might be harbouring a personal interest in her. This wouldn't have been a concern, had she herself not been repressing an inexplicable feeling of closeness to Hawk since first they'd met. This affinity went beyond the mere gratitude she felt for his charity and kindness.

‘Well,' she announced, upon shutting herself into Hawk's cabin where she could be alone a moment. ‘At least I seem to have lost my need to be close to him, for the moment.'

She dreaded their next meeting. With no memory of previous intimate relationships, she may as well have been a teenage virgin. All she felt was this overwhelming desire welling within her lower chakras, which rose to her heart centre and there accumulated. This stored energy exploded every time Hawk came to mind, and each explosion felt as if it burnt a hole in her chest, and sent a rising heat up to her crown.