The Cosmic Logos (17 page)

‘He has already raised the crone,' Avery corrected, much to the dismay of the Governor, En Noah, Rhun and Candace, who were also present. ‘That's what I came to inform you.'

‘And the sadist has my daughter!' Brian lashed out, although he diverted the outburst away from Avery.

‘I have been made aware of the best course to pursue for Fallon's recovery.' Avery gave Brian some good news. ‘I shall have her back in our fold before any harm befalls her … I swear it.'

Brian's attention shot back to the lad and the frustration in his eyes hadn't ebbed any. ‘Don't make me promises you can't keep,' Brian warned, ‘not on this issue.'

‘Lirathea will confirm that Viper plans to attack the Orme Charichalum stores on Numan very soon, and Fallon will be with him,' Avery vouched in his own defence.

‘And what if my child is bewitched by then, or worse!' Brian struggled to keep the tears from escaping his eyes.

‘Let me take the chariot and get her now,' Candace pleaded.

‘Fallon is with Viper of her own free will.' Avery reminded her parents of the cold hard facts. ‘I fear that I am the only one who stands a chance of changing her mind.'

‘He's right.' Rhun stood to support his little brother's view. ‘In a sense, Fallon has already been bewitched and unless that spell is broken, you don't stand a chance of keeping her away from Viper.'

‘Or of keeping Viper away from her,' Brian fretted, for the Nefilim-Falcon demi-god knew what Fallon looked like and so could find her with a thought.

‘I can hide her in the Otherworld,' Avery offered. ‘A soul of Viper's calibre could never raise the vibratory rate of his atomic form high enough to seek her there.'

Some of the worry fell from the faces of the distraught parents.

‘As I know what Viper looks like,' Noah offered what help he could, ‘I can disguise myself as one of his kindred, teleport myself to him and see that no harm
befalls Fallon before she reaches Numan. But, I shall have to take proper steps to ensure I am safe from the witch first. In the sixth century Selwyn made amulets to protect his people from the crone's influence. I shall do some regression and discover what was involved.'

‘I shall go with Avery to Numan, and oversee the operation,' Rhun volunteered.

‘But Sparrowhawk is already there.' Avery felt he could handle this operation alone. He couldn't stand to think of the sibling rivalry that would occur working with just one of his brothers, let alone the kind of brotherly friction that would arise from working with two of them.

‘Well,' Rhun cocked an eye, pretending not to know what Avery's problem was, ‘as Zabeel is headed to Numan while we speak, it looks as though we'll have all four sons of the Dragon on this mission.' He rubbed his hands together vigorously, greatly looking forward to seeing what kind of results their combined force would produce. ‘And fear not Governor, Governess,' Rhun's demeanour became serious to address them, ‘we will bring your daughter back, unharmed.'

 

Numan was a dark, cold dump of a planet. The landscape was black, the sky beyond the shield was the black expanses of space, and since Numan was the outermost planet of the Anu system, daytime here was as black as night. All the mining operations were underground. The Orme Charichalum production facilities were above ground in large shielded bases with artificially controlled environments.

Bast and Sparrowhawk were occupying the main office of the top-security vault complex. This was where the dark Orme was held for safekeeping until it was shipped off to the centre of the star system to power the dense black shield that harnessed the radiation of the dead sun.

Bast was bored out of her mind and Sparrowhawk wasn't helping the state of affairs any; he'd been pining over Lirathea becoming a monk ever since they'd left Kila. As Bast had informed him plainly that she was going to murder him if he brought the subject up again, Sparrowhawk had gone all quiet and broody.

‘I don't know what you're worried about,' Bast scoffed, as she gazed out over the colourless base beyond the double shielded windows of the office. ‘My sister has just run off with our enemy!'

‘Even she's got a better chance at happiness and contentment than I have,' Sparrowhawk grumbled as he checked his weapons to make sure they were all in good working order.

‘Oh …' Bast growled with agitation. ‘Do move on, Sparrow. If you could just get over yourself, you might be of some use to somebody.'

The door to the office opened, and in walked Rhun, Avery and Zabeel.

‘Yee-ha!' Bast embraced the development, literally. ‘Are you guys a sight for sore ears.' Nobody had to ask what she meant. ‘What are you all doing here?'

‘We think Viper is headed this way,' Rhun advised as he gave his cousin a squeeze. ‘So we're your reinforcements.'

‘Sweet!' Bast backed away to look all four brothers over, and what a handsome bunch they were. She considered it a great pity that the Dragon had not fathered a Leonine son. Her eyes came to rest on Avery. ‘My sister is a fool.'

‘No, Bast,' Avery insisted, ‘I was the fool.'

Bast was accustomed to Avery supporting her when she was bad-mouthing her sister and she was a little taken off guard by his comeback.

‘She's in a lot more danger than we thought, Bast, and I helped put her there.'

Bast had never seen Avery so serious, and the notion of losing her sister struck the fear of God into her heart. ‘What's happened?'

 

Whilst Avery brought Bast and Sparrowhawk up to date with affairs, Rhun and Zabeel headed for the vault.

Rhun had the security guards lock Zabeel and himself inside the security safe, which was filled with row upon row of large crystal cylinders that had a reinforced Charichalum casing. With a wave of his hand, Rhun fried all the surveillance cameras inside the vault. ‘We'll run a security recording,' he explained to Zabeel, who still looked confused.

‘But how are we to keep a watch on the Orme inside the vault?' the Delphinus ruler posed. ‘You're not going to suggest we keep a vigil, are you?'

‘We don't need to watch the Orme stores, if they're not here,' Rhun enlightened, flashing a cheeky grin, which his far more serious younger brother returned. ‘How are your teleportation abilities these days?'

‘I'll go anywhere you go,' Zabeel assured.

‘Then do as I do and follow me.' Rhun placed his hands on a Charichalum storage hanger that housed six of the dark Orme cylinders and then vanished with them.

‘Holy moley.' Zabeel gazed over the thousands of such hangers in the vault. ‘This is some ambitious plan you've had, bro.'

‘Come on, keep up.' Rhun reappeared and took hold of another two racks.

Teleporting his load after his brother, Zabeel found himself in an identical vault to the one he'd just left. ‘Where the hell are we?' He grabbed hold of Rhun before he disappeared again.

‘Sorry, that's classified,' Rhun advised.

This second vault had been built upon Rhun's suggestion to Lahmu. At the time the dark Orme went into production for Anu's shield, they had known the potential dangers that the substance could pose to humankind and the Chosen Ones if it fell into the hands of someone with evil intent. This vault was just one of several security measures that had been devised as contingency plans should Charichalum Orme production be threatened or abused.

By the time they'd finished, Zabeel didn't know if he was coming or going. There had been a stage around the middle of their task when he wasn't sure which vault was which. It was a good thing Rhun was more focused, as they could've accidentally ended up with all the cylinders back in their original vault.

Rhun slapped a hand down on Zabeel's shoulder in
congratulations for a job well done. ‘Now for the cylinders in the production facility.'

 

In the security office of the vault, Bast, Sparrowhawk and Avery had their eyes glued to the soft-light screens that monitored all the entrances to the building.

Rhun had just reported his deliberate destruction of the security surveillance in the vault itself, without offering up a reason. He'd instructed them to run old security recordings of the vault on the screens that usually monitored the area. The Vice-Governor had also advised that he was heading over to the production plant to batten down the hatches there.

‘What the hell is he playing at?' Avery hated it that he couldn't demand that his older brother explain himself. ‘Is this how a team operates?'

‘Actually, it is,' Bast advised, whilst loading up the recordings Rhun had ordered. ‘A team has a captain and the rest of the players take their directives from him. Unfortunately, Pan man, in this instance you're just one of the players.'

‘Funny! I understood team work was several souls working in succinct harmony.'

‘You want to apply that definition to the Dragon brothers.' Bast scoffed and laughed at the same time. ‘Good luck.'

‘Hey, hotshot.' Sparrow motioned his brother closer. ‘You're approaching the security foyer with Fallon and a couple of the complex guards.'

‘I'll alert Rhun,' Bast offered, knowing that given the choice Avery would not.

‘If we must.' Avery assumed the appearance of his father, which shocked Sparrowhawk.

‘Yeah, right, in your dreams maybe.' Sparrowhawk protested the tactic.

‘Just so there is no confusion when Viper and I end up in the same place,' Avery justified.

‘Viper is on his way.' En Noah appeared in their midst, in time to see Avery's transformation

‘He has arrived, you might say.' Sparrowhawk updated their old mentor, directing his attention to the screen where Fallon's party was entering the foyer of the building.

‘Where are Rhun and Zabeel?' Noah wanted to know.

‘In the Orme production facility,' Avery responded, when a pouch on a long string was thrust into his hand. Noah gave one of these to Bast and Sparrowhawk as well.

‘Put them on,' he instructed. ‘They will shield you from the crone's influence. Keep your wits about you.' Noah looked at them each in turn and then vanished as abruptly as he'd arrived.

 

Rhun and Zabeel were down to the last dozen racks of cylinders, when Avery arrived on the scene.

‘Need a hand?' Avery floated over to one of the racks, and placing his hand on a cylinder, he stared at the strange dark gas that was filled with glistening dark specks. Each cylinder had a long slim window in the outer Charichalum casing that allowed someone to gauge how full it was.

‘You want to be useful … now there's a switch.' Rhun gripped hold of a couple of racks. ‘Follow me.'

But the Vice-Governor was delayed when Zabeel, who was closer to Avery, commented, ‘Damn, little brother. Have you been bathing with the dead? You stink!' Zabeel grabbed his nose and took a couple of steps backwards.

When Rhun got a whiff of the vile odour, he recognised it at once. ‘Mahaud.' A band was pulled over Rhun's head suddenly and he stopped centimetres short of elbowing Noah in the face. ‘A thousand apologies, Noah.' Rhun recognised the amulet that was a means to ward off the crone.

Selwyn had given Rhun the same protective measure back in ancient Gwynedd, which Rhun had naively given to his would-be Queen for her protection. This chivalrous mistake had landed Rhun in a whole load of strife, so now when a wise man placed an amulet around his neck, that's where it stayed.

‘Are you sure it's not Avery?' Zabeel had his sonic pulse blaster set for kill and aimed at the smelly impostor.

‘Very sure,' both Rhun and Noah replied at once, whereupon Zabeel fired his weapon.

The crone did not attempt to flee and although thrown across the room by the impact of the bullet, she laughed as she transformed into the rotting human corpse in which she was currently residing.
You can't kill something that's already dead,
her multi-layered demon voice informed them as she raised the weight of the carcass up into the air. Eyes of glowing red peered at the
Chosen trio from the face of a dead man.
Soon it will take more than just a Druid's charm to protect you from us.

 

When Bast, Sparrowhawk and the Dragon appeared in the foyer to meet their party, Fallon didn't blink an eyelid. The weapons Viper's force carried shot immortal strength chloroform, so although shamed, her kindred would not be harmed.

‘I found her, father.' Viper thought he might have a chance of getting away with the masquerade, as Avery was not present.

‘Well done, son.' Avery played along as he neared the impostor.

One of the female Falcon guards with Viper had captured Sparrowhawk's attention, for she was the spitting image of Lirathea and the discovery had him speechless. Fallon was partly blocking the warrioress from his view, but he could see that the beautiful guard was fiddling with something in her hands. Was it a weapon? Sparrowhawk reached for his own weapon, but enchanted as he was, he did not have the heart to fire at her.

When two shots sounded from behind her, Fallon expected her kindred to start dropping, but instead it was Viper who fell to the ground, and the other male guard. Then Fallon felt something dig into the small of her back.

‘Lose the weapon, sister,' Gazelle advised.

Fallon looked back to her kin, who all had weapons pointed at her now. ‘What are you doing? You're his sister. How can you betray Viper and your people like this?'

‘How?' Gazelle scoffed. ‘Because my brother is
shacking up with a demon from the sub-planes, that's how! And he's planning to use your body as a host for his sweetheart, ahead of dragging the souls of my kindred down into the sub-planes with him.'

‘I don't believe you!' Fallon challenged, her emotions going into a seizure.

‘It's true, Fallon,' the Dragon told her. ‘He has raised Mahaud.'