by T. G. Ayer
Max’s boat was no longer visible from where Allegra sat, but at this point, all she cared about was keeping the soldiers busy until Max was safe. Beside her, Athena was busy firing at a line of snipers in the trees, taking them out one at a time even while she rained bullets into the trees beyond them.
Allegra prepared to fire on the machine-gun, but the weapon exploded instead, sending a shower of bullets in all directions.
“Well done, Allegra,” said Athena with a loud whoop. “Not safe yet, though. They will come back. I’d bet your new bronze corset on that.”
Allegra snorted then chuckled. “That is no bet. There is movement in the trees.”
The explosion had sent the troops on the beach into disarray as they ducked for cover and fled into the trees, but they were not about to leave without a fight.
“IR on,” Allegra said softly. She much preferred using her own vision to aim and fire, but with the soldiers obscured by the dense foliage, it was nearly impossible to see where the next barrage of bullets was likely to erupt.
Allegra had barely slipped the rifle’s sighting mechanism to IR vision when she detected movement. “Coordinated attack within the tree-line,” she said.
“I see it. I have the six on the left,” replied Athena.
The Yakshi was now moving fast, and a shout from the aft section confirmed their men were safe and boarding. Max’s feet had barely touched the deck before he was yelling out instructions. “Captain, can we have full power now? We cannot delay in case the major returns with heavier weapons.”
Oddly enough, the captain complied without resistance, and the small ship surged forward just as Athena and Allegra dominated the second attack. They fired on the soldiers even before the small troop had begun firing.
The Yakshi surged ahead, gliding along narrow channels between the hundreds of little islands around them. Alrait remained at the wheel, surly and silent as the ship left the shallow water and headed into the deeper ocean.
Allegra and Athena hurried inside the wheelhouse where they listened to Max alerting the Indus coastguards of their arrival and requisitioned air support.
Allegra had just stepped back to settle herself onto the captain’s low chart desk when the window where she’d just been standing exploded, sending shards of glass in every direction.
“Down,” yelled Max, as a wall panel exploded behind him.
Alrait began to holler out orders while Max yelled for a weapon. While Athena supplied him with firepower, Allegra slid toward the window, the low thrum of an aircraft grating against her nerves.
“Incoming aircraft, Max. And something tells me that’s not the air-support you requested.”
Max growled as a second hail of fire ripped through the wheelhouse. He surged forward and fired on the helicopter as it rounded the ship and hovered a hundred meters off the port bow.
“These people are beginning to get on my nerves,” Allegra growled. In one smooth move, she drew her rifle, took aim, and fired. Then she turned to face Max. “Can we get out of here now, please?”
She was halfway across the threshold and into the interior passage to the cabins when the helicopter exploded, the fireball lighting the shocked faces of the three occupants of the wheelhouse. The captain let out a shocked squeal—the reaction something Allegra wasn’t sure was entirely complimentary.
Max and Athena simply stared at the remains of the helicopter as it fell into the ocean. Alrait continued to guide the Yakshi past the still burning fuel tanks, giving the detritus of the explosion a wide berth.
Max raised his eyebrows at the destruction, impressed as he gave a low whistle.
Athena let out a disgusted growl, turning to face Allegra, eyes sparking. “Could you possibly just leave some of the fun stuff to us?” she asked, her expression a perfect blend of annoyance and admiration.
Allegra shrugged. “Sorry. Must have been a fluke.”
“Fluke? My furry hindquarters,” Athena muttered, folding her arms while Max merely watched the two women in amusement. All appeared well in the end, and it was now time to go home.
Probably also time for a mortal and a demigod to yell at an oracle.
Chapter 10
After what seemed like an interminable length of time, Max let out a deep sigh.
Captain Alrait had made it to the shores of Chennai, and delivered his grateful human cargo into the welcoming arms of Queen Sonali’s refugee care officials.
Allegra had been thanked and offered accommodations to freshen up and prepare for their flight back, but she’d declined, much to the very clear relief of both Max and Athena.
They’d been in the air now for an hour, in which time they’d showered, changed, and eaten their first decent meal in almost two days.
Now, Max’s strained expression was a tad deflated—if more than a little exhausted—and considering he’d been furious and on the edge of his seat waiting to yell at Allegra for her recklessness, she wasn’t surprised.
Despite knowing he was ready to give her a piece of his mind, she felt a pulsing of love toward the man. Any person who could care this much about the safety of a loved one was truly worth their weight in gold. The only problem was, Allegra quite liked being the mistress of her own destiny—however limited that may be when one considered the responsibility of her prophetic powers.
“I used the air pocket for probably ten minutes,” Allegra was explaining, having taken up her tale from where she’d left off in the Yakshi’s boardroom. “After that, I held my breath, then the ship slipped further, did a somersault and then landed. The shifting allowed me to open the cabin door, but I didn’t make it to total freedom.”
“What happened?” asked Max, his eyes darkening.
“I made it outside, but something hit me. Hard. I thought it may have been the chimney, but I couldn’t be sure. Knocked the air out of my lungs. I thought I was going to die. My lungs just couldn’t take it. And then I….”
“You what?”
Allegra let out a self-deprecating laugh. “It’s going to sound far-fetched, ridiculous even.”
Athena snorted. “Allegra, you get visions and predict the future,” the woman said, an eyebrow raised.
Allegra let out a sigh. “The chimney knocked me aside, I ran out of air, and I passed out. When I opened my eyes, I was inside a hospital room. There were screens on the walls that looked like those new computers that were only just released in the NGS. But these were much more advanced. Glistening black and silver, small screens that showed bio signs, heartbeat, blood pressure.”
“Hospital room?” asked Max.
Allegra nodded. “The patient was a woman, and when she looked up, she began to speak to me. But she wasn’t addressing me. She was speaking to Aurelia, as though she’d called on her or summoned her. Perhaps she had done just that, but I just couldn’t get my head around the thought.
“Even when Aurelia called her Jocasta, I still didn’t connect the dots.” Allegra met Max’s shocked gaze as he rubbed his hand over his face. “She told Aurelia to take her baby away.”
“This Jocasta? She gave her baby away to the Pythia Aurelia? In a time where the technology was more advanced than now?” Athena seemed to be struggling with getting her head around the idea of Allegra’s vision.
Allegra nodded. “Jocasta…had cancer but she mentioned being unable to seek treatment until her baby was taken to safety. She had two reasons—because once they ran the tests, they would identify her as being not of their time, and two because in this future they have discovered a genetic marker that indicates a person possesses powers, like seers or telepaths.”
“So, Aurelia took this child with her? To a different time?” asked Athena, her brow knitted together.
Allegra nodded. “Yes. Aurelia agreed to take the baby. And Jocasta promised to send her a message when she was well. They made a pact to send the baby back to Jocasta when it was safe.”
“I’m assuming Aurelia never did send back the child,” Athena said, lean
ing back, tapping a finger on the worktable between them.
Allegra smiled. “No, Aurelia didn’t, of that, I am one hundred percent certain.”
“How can you be so certain? As it turns out, Aurelia was holding out on us. So many things she never told anyone.”
Allegra leaned forward and rubbed her face. “I’m certain because I know where that baby is, and she’s definitely not with Jocasta.”
Athena sat back, her finger stilling its erratic movements. Then she snapped her gaze up and stared at Allegra. “You are that baby?”
Allegra nodded. “And I have the birth certificate to prove it.”
Max cleared his throat, shared a brief glance with Athena, and then shifted his gaze to Allegra. “How do we know what your vision truly meant? What if it was just something you saw because of a heightened sense of fear, and not because it truly was a journey to a different time as it appeared to be to you?” Max’s expression was tense, his brow furrowed with worry. His fingers gripped the edge of the table, knuckles white as he held his frustration with Allegra at bay.
She understood his emotional state, but his words still frustrated her. Allegra’s lips formed a thin line, but she forced herself to remain calm, to breath in and out and to see his side of her story.
Also, she knew what Max was doing; he was trying to remain sensible in the face of her fantastic tale, throwing possibly more logical answers into the mix as options to consider. Allegra nodded slowly. “I suppose it could have been oxygen deprivation hallucinations, or a hysteria-related vision, brought on by fear, a mingling of what I want to know about who I am, and what I’d like my past to be.”
Which was a lie simply because Allegra had never obsessed about her true origins. Even when she’d read the words on her birth certificate—found in the trunk in Aurelia’s old bedroom—Allegra had never taken the existence of that piece of paper as though it were a window onto a life she should have lived, a life she’d lost because of various series of events.
Now, as Allegra studied her team, considering Max’s words, Athena began to shake her head. “I’m not so sure it’s all that wise to ignore what this vision says,” the demigod said, her eyes dark with concern. She looked over at Max. “I understand what you’re doing by questioning the validity of Allegra’s vision, but we have other aspects that need to be questioned. And we owe it to Allegra to consider them as well.”
“And what are these other aspects,” asked Max as he leaned back against the seat and looked from Athena to Allegra. He didn’t appear to be upset that the demigod was challenging him on his perceptions. In fact, he looked mildly curious.
Allegra herself was most interested in Athena’s opinion, especially when she accepted that the demigod had only ever been supportive and protective, and had only ever considered Allegra’s safety as paramount.
Athena took a deep breath and leaned forward, elbows resting on the table. “Even if we start out believing this to be a vision, there is the matter of Allegra’s ability to hold her breath for thirty odd minutes. We know she’s capable of just over three minutes, but anything more and I’d be worried. We’ve estimated a ten-minute length of time spent trapped inside the cabin before the ship rolled and Allegra managed to escape the vessel. There are still thirty minutes in which Allegra remained underwater—with no possible method of obtaining oxygen to ensure she remained alive.”
“Unless Xales brought her a diver’s oxygen tank, thus hoodwinking us all?” offered Allegra with a smirk.
Her attempt at lightening the almost palpable tension inside the small boardroom resulted in Max’s lip curling as a smile formed, a smile he suppressed quickly, defaulting to his standard serious mode.
Athena, on the other hand, remained scowling as she said, “One suggestion for such a situation is Allegra being physically transported to this vision, perhaps in an actual time-travel experience.” Athena’s words were spoken softly as she hesitated with each thought. It sounded preposterous when put into words, but the idea made more than a little sense to Allegra.
Max scoffed. “That’s ridiculous.” He shook his head, his amusement now tinged with disbelief.
Athena merely glanced at him with one eyebrow raised. “As ridiculous as a birth certificate to prove that Allegra is from the future?” asked Athena, her eyes flashing. Then she glanced briefly at Allegra, and spoke out of the side of her mouth, “We’re still going to have a discussion regarding why you didn’t tell me anything about this ‘from the future’ part of your past.”
Allegra grinned.
“Anyway,” Athena waved a hand in the air, “since our favorite oracle isn’t capable of going into voluntary organic stasis, I propose we consider the time travel option for the moment, as an actuality. So how do we explain that you were there, but viewing the scene from Aurelia’s point of view?”
Allegra sat back and blinked. “Because, maybe I was seeing it from her eyes, but was also sort of piggybacking on her spirit as it traveled to Jocasta? I’m not entirely sure this is something we can explain enough to make perfect sense right now.”
Athena nodded. “There are many things that remain inexplicable.”
Max grunted. “Fine. Let’s consider this vision as a time jump. So what do we know for sure?” Max paused as he considered his words. “First, we know Jocasta was terminally ill. And we know Jocasta is Cathenna’s daughter, sent there from the ancient past to protect her life.”
“And we know that there may have been more than one oracle sent to different time periods.”
“Oh?”
“Jocasta said that her sisters were sent away as well and she’d hoped to someday see them, although she wasn’t sure she’d ever be able to.”
“I see.” Max frowned. “So Cathenna sent her daughters to different time periods to protect them from being murdered.”
“Yes, and that would be Langcourt who killed Cathenna. She did have reason to believe they were in danger, that much we know. Which would justify her reason for sending her daughters away.”
Max nodded. “So Cathenna knows there is a danger to the Pythias, sends her daughters away just in time. Then she’s murdered by Langcourt’s progenitor. And then, in the future, Jocasta discovers she is dying and calls for a Pythia to help, only the one oracle who responds is Aurelia.”
Allegra nodded. “Perhaps Aurelia was the only one who knew that when she dies there would be nobody to take her place?”
“And a decision could have been made for Aurelia to take Jocasta’s baby to her own time.”
Athena sat forward. “This all implies that Aurelia would have known in advance that Jocasta was asking for someone to take her baby away.”
Allegra nodded. “The Pythias, through the Oracle bloodline, have been able to communicate through the timelines. It’s likely how Cathenna made her decisions on where to send her children. The oracles knew enough to be well aware that their children were all at risk. How would they have known that if not for the fact that they have access to each other through the timelines?”
“That makes sense. But, from what you have told me, the killers have not stopped killing the Oracles. Langcourt did, only recently, attempt to kill you, too.”
“I suspect he may have been a little confused because he’d thought with Aurelia’s passing there were no more oracles,” Allegra tapped the table as she spoke.
“Maybe he thought you were an anomaly? Or the Pythia line emerging from out of thin air?”
Allegra chuckled. “I imagine that would have been most distressing to Langcourt.”
“Not if he needed you dead for some specific reason?” muttered Max still rubbing his chin with his fingers. “Okay, let’s say we accept everything so far. Now, the question we ask is how you ended up getting to the future without having performed any ritual to gain access?”
“Perhaps a god helped you get there?” offered Athena. Then her eyes brightened. “You were in the water. Perhaps it was Neptune?”
At the mention of the
god’s name, Allegra felt slightly ill. Neptune wasn’t in the business of saving Allegra.
Killing her was more likely.
Chapter 11
Allegra paled, and she felt the pulsing of nausea and straightened.
Memories of that awful day when Allegra and her dearest friend in all the world had almost been killed when their boat had gone down in an unexpected storm, memories of a presence that had seemed determined to kill Allegra. Knowing even then that Neptune, god of the oceans had wanted to kill her.
Swallowing hard, she said, “I don’t believe Neptune holds me in high enough regard that he would wish to protect my life.”
Athena’s jaw tightened, her brow creasing as she leaned forward a fraction. “How could you say that?” the demigod appeared affronted at the suggestion. “Neptune is known for his kindness, his love for humanity. He’d never hurt anyone, least of all an oracle.”
Allegra let out a soft sigh. “I’m sorry. It’s just that Neptune has tried to kill me already. He’d have succeeded if it hadn’t been for Xales. Both Xenia and I would have drowned if the god of the oceans had succeeded.”
Athena’s eyes filled with tears. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know. I just don’t know how that’s even possible. I can’t fathom how Neptune would ever do such a thing,” she said, her words trailing off in a whisper.
Allegra shrugged, trying and failing to remain emotionally detached. “Perhaps he’s not as good as you think he is?” she said, even as she found her mind filled with images of black water surrounding her, pressing in on her senses, her ears throbbing with the sounds of muted screams, her own perhaps as terror ruled her reactions, as she drifted further and further away from the surface of the ocean.
“Or perhaps,” said Athena, her voice tugging Allegra from the horrific experience, “there is more to the story than you know?”
Allegra’s eyebrow quirked as she calmed enough to consider Athena’s suggestion. “How so?” she asked softly, swallowing down her distress.