by T M Caruana
She sighed and looked out over the pier that really was beautiful on the horizon with so many yellow roses that the pier itself could hardly be seen.
As she had fought so hard against her pride to tell me everything, I didn’t have the heart to interrupt her to say that I had already learned about the power stones, the fire-rose and Pallas’s love.
“She died in Leo’s arms before he had the chance to tell her of his love,” Myra said sadly. “Witnesses saw the incident, which made it difficult for Triton to spare Athena whilst sentencing Leo to his death. The people would revolt so they explained the whole situation as an accident, which in a way, it actually was. Athena was in despair. A quarrel between sisters had ended in tragedy. She had never intended to kill her sister. She had just been upset over her choice and it was just so sad that Pallas had tripped over her trident. To be rid of Leo, Triton was quick to send him to rescue you when Hunter came to ask for a soldier who would be strong, wise and patient enough to get you back from the kidnappers. We all assumed that Noah had died to save you.”
Her words hit me hard in the stomach as they always did whenever someone mentioned his name. Poor Noah. He really had done everything in his power to save me. His love was true; I knew that, as I had witnessed it myself. I could never imagine how he must have felt when I finally came back, but with my love directed toward another man. It must have cut him like a knife straight in his heart. Now I also knew that we had shared a son together. It changed everything. It had slowly sunk in that my duty was greater than my own feelings. I would have responsibility over seven worlds for several billion years and would survive both Noah and Tarus. My duty was to protect the people from extinction. That was my duty, and only that.
“By the way, how did you know that Noah still lives?” I asked accusingly, as I watched her nervously drum her fingers on the windowsill.
“Oh, yes, one more thing that you need to know…”
A water vortex, with a rapidly spinning stream, crossed the room and abruptly interrupted her words and my thoughts. Both Myra and I held our arms over our face to protect our eyes from the dust and sand, as it got closer.
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When I reopened my eyes, I was confronted by the same type of thick grates as when I had been locked up in Noah’s fort. I was aware once again of the unpleasant feeling of being trapped. Beside me on the floor, knocked on her back by the fierce wind was Myra.
Leaning over her was a slender woman with long auburn curls who I hadn’t seen before. She was trying to revive Myra with her hands across her chest performing several hard, invasive movements. I turned to my stomach to crawl forward to Myra. Her eyes were open before I had time to reach her and I lay with my cheek against the cold stone floor out of relief. My body rested whilst I counted to ten and then I stood up with the help of a familiar hand. Michael’s soft grip was reassuring and I was surprised, but very happy to see him.
On a stone bench along the short side of the grille sat Katrona, with a baby in her arms. She soon came running when she saw me on my feet, handed over the baby to the woman and threw herself at me. We had known each other for a long time now I could feel she was overwhelmed to see me open my eyes. My feelings for her were mutual. Her hug was like a sister’s who had been worried about me and, in return, my hard grip on her indicated the same.
We were all here except Leo, plus an unknown woman with a baby. Should I introduce myself to her or would it be one of those situations where she obviously recognised me, but I had forgotten her? I looked at her and she must have read my expression. There was something that was different from the other times. She actually looked as if she hadn’t seen me before either.
“Hello, my name is Harriett,” she introduced herself and reached out her hand from under the grip of her child.
The gesture of the handshake indicated that she was from Teli. On reflection, I was sure I had heard that name before. My thoughts were searching through the registry of memories again.
“My name is Susy,” I introduced myself, not wanting to appear rude.
If only I could remember. I had heard that name before. I was sure I knew who she was. Come on, concentrate, I urged myself. I tried to remember the names of everyone I knew who was alive and then continued with the deceased.
“Harriett, Harriett! That was the name of Samuel’s deceased wife.”
This was what Samuel had briefly explained on the flight to Turkey. My comment made her look surprised. She caught her breath and her eyes lit up like stars with a smile that drew the corners of her mouth as high as they allowed.
“Do you know my husband? Where is he? Does he think I’m dead?”
The questions poured out of an exited mouth. It was as if she hadn’t heard his name for years, as if she had lost faith in ever seeing him again.
“He is one of the six who came to Teli to save me. It was there that he met you and now he’s back on Pixi. He thinks you and your son died in a car accident. I don’t know much more. He won’t talk about it.”
My response dimmed her smile and her eyes lost their sparkle and instead radiated confusion.
“Teli? Pixi?” she repeated in a muddle.
I had forgotten that she was from Teli and didn’t have any knowledge of who her husband really was. Or did I think that Samuel had told her? It seemed that the first was correct. She had no idea where she was and she must have been locked behind these bars since the ‘accident’.
“You must have been abducted and brought to this world, but why and by whom? I can explain more later, now we must get out of here before something more terrible happens. Leo probably doesn’t know where we are. Give me one of the power stones.”
Katrona’s golden eyes looked up at me, and she shook her head.
“It’s Eutychia. She has the yellow power stone.”
It was a name that made my blood run cold. This was really not good. I hadn’t kept many of my promises since I had left CERN. Tarus would be furious if he found out that I had been captured by Eutychia because I hadn’t kept close to Leo. Actually, it wasn’t my fault. Leo had left us and not vice versa. And it would, in a way, be even worse if I were to die here. That thought made me stop to feel the effects of my destiny. I had never thought about dying as an actual nearby event. I had always imagined that I would be old and grey before I died. Although that had been when I lived another life on Teli. This situation was worse for another reason than my own death. It was worse because Leo would feel even more guilt, bearing the responsibility of yet another person’s death. Moreover, if he were to admit his mistake to Tarus, he would probably not be able to escape from Tarus’s attempt to kill him, unless Noah managed to do so before him. If they were successful or not depended on whether Leo would care enough to defend himself.
A triumphant familiar voice interrupted my thoughts, coming from the dim hallway that joined the room. Eutychia was reading the poem I knew so well.
Time’s glory is to calm contending kings,
To unmask falsehood and bring truth to light,
“Truth to light, the light of truth, was the first ingredient I took from Kora. Her face was inexplicably painful when I, with the shape of her betrothed Akrim, told her that he was going to leave her. It was more enjoyable to see her despair than just inform her about what I had really done to him.”
In her triumphant face it was clear how pleased Eutychia was about her evil plan without a shred of remorse. Her fingers gently stroked the mane on her giant furry pet. The lion circled her and made an attack on the grid that caused us all to skip a few steps backward. She read the next lines of the poem.
To stamp the seal of time in aged things,
To wake the morn and sentinel the night,
“Sentinel the night, the fire-rose, which I also have as you left it abandoned on the desk on Bomi,” she said and tick the paper she held, which showed that she had acquired yet another ingredient on the list.
To wrong the wronger to he render right;
To ruinate proud buildings with thy hours,
And smear with dust Their glittering,
“The ‘Dust Their glittering’ is gold dust from the hair of a person from Pixi. I obtained that from the spell that I used on Noah,” Eutychia purred and made another tick.
Would the mysteries and the questions never end? Did Noah’s hair contain gold? Was that why his hair had been black the first time I had seen him on Pixi? My thoughts went no deeper as Eutychia’s voice became higher, the closer she came. She was standing in front of a stone font, filled with water up to the edge that was only a few feet away from the grid. She still hadn’t looked towards us, but was focused on the piece of paper.
To fill with worm-holes stately monuments,
To feed oblivion with decay of things,
To blot old books and alter Their contents,
To pluck the quills from ancient ravens’ wings,
“Ancient raven’s wings, a raven’s wing, that I haven’t acquired yet, but it won’t be long. Eutychia breaks no rules and keeps her promises,” she laughed as she talked about herself in the third person and then looked at Harriett with a nod.
No check was made on the paper this time.
To dry the old oak’s sap and cherish springs,
“Old oak’s sap, sap from the old oak tree outside Atlantis was too easy.”
Another tick. I could see her clearly now together with the blue and yellow power stones, lying in a knotted bag of seaweed around her neck.
To spoil antiquities of hammer’d steel,
“Hammer’d steel. Hmm…this is where the tricky bit begins. Michael or the woman with the curly hair. Who should it be? No. It’s too hard to choose, you can choose for yourselves.”
Only now did she look up at us all, with her eyes darting between Michael and Katrona. I had no idea what she was talking about and it seemed the others didn’t either.
“What shall we choose?” Michael asked after taking a firm protective grip around Katrona.
His concern was shown clearly with his whole body language. Although they hadn’t know each other for long, it was obvious that they had forged strong feelings for each other over the recent days. They were always close, always keeping together, liked the same things and looked at each other with equally loving eyes.
Eutychia turned to Myra.
“You must know what I’m talking about. Or was Leo a lousy teacher, like his father?”
Her words were sarcastic and she spoke to offend. ‘Like his father’, how could she say that? He wasn’t anything like his father from what Myra had told me and how could she know how good a teacher his father was?
“You are cruel Eutychia, leave Leo out of this,” cried Myra trying to shake the bars, but without moving them a millimetre.
I had never seen her angry, though I hadn’t known her long, or had I? Memories and feelings of Myra flowed to the surface. I remembered her, her gentle ways. Though I remember her being more talkative and happy. We used to tease the mackerel that swam their way south in the spring just outside the border of Atlantis. I had a fin, a rainbow coloured fin and she had a blue one. I liked her because she made life easy. I remember! I remember! My overwhelming happy feelings of the few selected memories abruptly disappeared when I looked into Myra’s terrified face.
“She must have a heart of steel for the spell.”
Her explanation didn’t need to be more descriptive since everyone understood what she meant. Michael looked at Katrona and held her even tighter.
“Never! Over my dead body!” Michael growled angrily at Eutychia.
“Alright, if that’s your choice,” she laughed agreeing with his comment even though he hadn’t meant it literally.
Her hands were lifted and her fingers splayed.
“No, wait!”
Myra raised her hand beseechingly.
“We need to think this through carefully.”
Myra’s voice was slow and she could see that Eutychia didn’t let herself be fooled by her attempt to prolong the process.
“You have three minutes, no longer…three minutes.”
Her assertive voice was compelling. She wouldn’t give more than three minutes. They had no chance against her magic. As I recall, Myra wouldn’t be able to stand against her power. They would have to decide who would die. Michael or Katrona.
“I can’t live without you Katrona,” said Michael.
It was an order and it was the first time their feelings had been forced to the surface. The situation had been cruel to them. People from Medi could be kept alive for a few days under healing and it would be long enough to get a new heart, but we wouldn’t know if we would manage in time. He threw himself against the grille, screaming loudly to inundate Eutychia.
“You can take my heart, hurry up, take it now!”
His screams were out of desperation. In the next second I realised what he was trying to do. He had assumed that the odds that we would choose him were lower than choosing Katrona.
“No! Wait, let’s think.”
My voice was more angry than protective, but I couldn’t help it. My memories came faster than before and I had already understood that I wouldn’t only lose Michael. I would also lose Tarus. The irony was that Michael was the one who had explained how everything worked, that day he had healed Tarus. Their physical genetic wellbeing had a link: if Michael were to die, Tarus would regain all his wounds and probably die within minutes. If Katrona died, Noah would probably die, if no one had the chance to heal him. But there was no one from Medi on Pixi. Who would heal him?
It became more complicated now. I would once again have to choose between Noah and Tarus. It felt as if a spell had been cast on me and it wouldn’t stop until one of them was dead. Moreover I had to choose between Katrona who was my best friend, and Michael who had been the one who had welcomed and taken care of me after I had left CERN. He had been like a big brother. So overall, I would have to choose between my big brother and the man I loved, or the man I had shared a child and history with and my best friend. I had one minute left. I drew my hands over my feverishly hot face trying to seek clarification. How could anyone be this cruel?
“Tarus is the king of his world. However evil the man might be, it is a world, and you love him. You will live much longer than us and you need him. I would gladly sacrifice myself for you my friend.”
Her words were noble and Katrona would never lie to me. She always said what she felt, even if it hurt.
“Noah would never want you to live with him for the rest of his life while you had a broken heart. He may be proud on the outside, but he is a cuddly bear on the inside. Also, I wouldn’t want to live without Michael,” Katrona admitted.
Katrona looked at Michael to confirm this. He smiled sadly back at her and turned to walk to one of the corners of the cage. He knew what was about to happen and he couldn’t watch.
“No, no, no…” Michael muttered to himself, keeping a firm grip on the bars and placing his head to lean between them.
He hadn’t forgotten the lion and kept an eye on him. The lion looked back with stealthy eyes and the tip of his tail still twitching with irritation. Katrona went over to him, reached her hands behind his cheek and turned his head toward her. Michael looked into her eyes and leaned down towards her to meet the approaching kiss.
“Time’s up!” said Eutychia and she waved her hands with her fingers spread.
She formed her hand into a bowl where a black steel lump appeared out of nowhere. Katrona fell to the ground before her lips met Michael’s and her skull made the same crashing sound as Nicholas’s had on Bomi when it hit the stone floor. Michael dropped quickly down to his knees and lifted her head onto them and placed his hands over her chest, doing his best to heal her. Nothing happened. We must be in a cave under water level and his powers were useless. Her eyes were empty and her body was lifeless. Without being prepared, without having confirmed that it was her heart Eutychia could take, it was already too late. She was de
ad without the chance to say goodbye or complete the kiss. Now there was nothing that could help her. There was no permitted magic in the world that could bring her back when she had already passed to the other side to join the Oracle’s train. I looked at the witch who laughed evilly as she placed yet another tick on the paper. Disregarding our misery, whilst Michael rocked back and forth in pain with Katrona in his lap and Myra screamed hateful words between the bars, Eutychia carried on reading the poem.
And turn the giddy round of Fortune’s wheel;
“Fortune’s wheel, it was the clover with four leaves from Teli.”
She moved the pen from her lips and made another tick. “Those are all the ingredients; one from each world. Now only the knowledge of the process remains.”
Her voice was more excited now. She had waited all her life to create the drink and now she was close.
To show the beldam daughters of her daughter,
To make the child a man, the man a child,
“A glimpse into the future when the power is transmitted from the mother matter to the parasite, and then my next pleasure.”
To slay the tiger That doth live by slaughter,
“I guess you gave Tarus the tiger blood to save his life? Ironic, now that I have to kill him.”
Her laugh was full of malice. She had planned everything well. We never had a choice about who should live or die. It was just an evil game so she could witness our suffering. She had already decided to take Katrona’s life. She needed Tarus’s blood.