by T M Caruana
“I will prepare the potion. Get ready, we leave before dawn,” Leo ordered. “And you aren’t allowed to come; this time you stay here with me, not like earlier today,” Leo said decisively and pointed his finger at Hakon.
“Aren’t you coming with us?” Tarus asked and I could feel a panic in him for the first time in my life. “You have to come with us. Who else will perform the spell?” he demanded, peering around at the others.
“It doesn’t matter who says the spell and you can say it just as well as I do,” Leo replied.
I could feel the blood literally boiling in Tarus. He would never do that; he would never be able to do it. How would he get the words out that would lead to the death of his love? He could put up with all the pain in the world, and he had already gone through the shattered bones and survived his heart almost stopping, but to say the words that would end my life; the woman he had loved for so long. It was an impossibility.
“It’s fine Tarus, I have experience on Teli and I will help you.” Gabriel’s voice was as comforting and fatherly as always. “We will need at least seven volunteers, so as to be able to return to Pixi afterwards. No one will be able to travel with two stones on one person. Michael, Kora, Tailja, Luke and Hunter will follow. In addition to Samuel, Harriett and little Harald since they want to continue their lives together on Teli. The important thing is that we are at least seven,” Gabriel continued to plan.
However, Tarus barely listened. Everything had gone too fast and it was too much to process at once.
“Leave us alone. Susy and I need to talk.”
Leo was obviously worried that Tarus would try to convince me that he and I should run away together, but he obeyed Tarus’s request. When the others had left the room Tarus heaved himself up to lie on the bed next to me with his head over my chest to try to form a memory of how my heart was beating.
“If there is any way for me to come to you, even if I have to search through Nirvana and Hell, I’ll look until I find you.”
Something he felt made me uncomfortable and I felt paralysed. He leaned up on his elbow and brought out the black notebook from his back pocket. He flipped to a page that I hadn’t noticed before. He began to read another poem by William Shakespeare.
Two love I have, of comfort and despair,
Which like two spirits do suggest me still:
The better angel is a man right fair,
The worser spirit a woman coloured ill,
To win me soon to hell, my female evil,
Tempteth my better angel from my side,
And would corrupt my saint to be a devil,
Wooing his purity with her foul pride.
And whether that my angel ask turned friend,
Suspect I may, yet not direct tell;
But being bothering me from bothering to each friend,
I guess one angel in another’s hell.
Yet this shall I’ll never know, but live in doubt,
To my bad angel fire my good one out.
After having read the poem as if he were reading his own death sentence, he looked anxiously towards me.
“Noah interpreted the prophecy that if we were to give in to our love, we would have a daughter who would condemn us all to hell. That’s why we were never allowed to be together,” he clarified and stopped to wait for my answer.
I disappeared into my thoughts trying to remember the two sentences Nicholas had quoted to me on Bomi: ‘The worser spirit a woman coloured ill to win me soon to hell, my female evil.’ Everything seemed to fall into place. But it would make no difference, for the prophecy had failed to predict my death. Or had it? It did mention that I would be murdered because of who I was. But if the prophecies were a hundred per cent accurate, maybe there would be time for a rescue, ‘But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved’ the prophecy read, which gave me hope that maybe everything would work out. Maybe I wouldn’t die?
Hakon’s cautionary voice echoed in my mind; don’t have ‘hope’ it only makes you disappointed. Accept fate as it is and will be. If I did have a death sentence, I would want to experience these last hours with Tarus as my lover. That was my choice. It would have been my choice, even if I had been aware of the consequences at an earlier stage. I would rather have spent a few hours with Tarus’s love than a life without him. Perhaps this was a blessing more than a death sentence and I remembered my motto: ‘Everything turns out as it should in the end’. Tarus had waited a long time for a response from me, but I had been sitting quietly with my thoughts and hadn’t even met his gaze.
“You don’t have to come with us Tarus, the others can perform the task without you,” I said and I couldn’t bear to look into his sad emerald eyes.
“I have no choice. Where else should I be? I have nothing else, no home, no family…nothing. All I need is you, you are my life.”
He closed his eyes and stretched his neck to give me a passionate kiss that tasted of toffee in my mouth. His heat was palpable and he was anxious in case it burned me slightly, but I didn’t want to end the passion that had accumulated from a lifetime of supressed emotions. He let the wild lust occupy every inch of my body. The ethics of what would be the right choices were thrown out of consciousness. It might be our last chance to let our passion wash over each other’s bodies. I felt each fingertip caress my cheeks and down over my waist. Then he supported himself against the bed so as not to place all his weight over me. I closed my eyes as I enjoyed Tarus’s touch. A feeling I had never experienced with Noah, as his way of being intimate was different, more mental than physical. Nothing could be a more utopian feeling than what I was experiencing now and I was sure that, whatever consequences it would give, it could be overcome because love conquers all.
21
EVERYTHING TURNS OUT AS IT SHOULD IN THE END
The portal had taken us to Cairo next to the Cheops Pyramid on Teli. Leo’s pouch, containing the potion that would save the worlds, was hanging on my belt. The feeling of gratitude that he had chosen to stay at home with Hakon, to save what was left of the world, was as strong as the fear of the odds of completing this mission without him.
Leo had already mixed the tiger blood and the ‘little water drops’; which were Michael’s tears, in the glass bottle, together with the remaining seven ingredients. The light of Kora’s orange chakra had transformed the liquid’s colour to a golden one. It probably helped that one of the ingredients was the gold hair of a person from Pixi. The thick consistency had been formed by the sap from the oak on Vati and made the golden substance shoot around the crushed grains of a heart made of steel. Leo hadn’t wanted to explain whose heart it was. The four leafed clover from Teli, ash from Bomi’s fire-rose and Samuel’s raven feather were also dissolved in the liquid. Shakespeare’s poem had also spoken of a tame lion. But when I mentioned it to Leo, he told me quietly that, when the time came, I would know exactly what to do. It was in this way that he tried to tell me what Hakon had seen of the future without exactly telling me how things would unfold.
“Don’t worry, we will take good care of Hakon and thank you for everything you’ve done in the Universe,” Leo had said as I had left for Teli.
Leo’s farewell was more formal than that of a lot of other people of the world who had come to give their last good wishes and hugs. Leo didn’t say ‘good luck’, or ‘if you had made the right choice this would never have happened’. He respected me and would never offer an opinion on other people’s choices. He had simply and politely as always, thanked me for what I had actually accomplished in the Universe. He really was a hero who had taken on the responsibility of protecting the worlds for me, after giving me the potion that hopefully would save our existence. If I had been the same person as I was on Teli, just six months ago, I would have been terrified by the thought of having to carry something so important.
I was dragging my feet in the warm sand. The white pages of the notebook dazzled my eyes in the sun as I typed the coordinates of the Cheops Pyramid
to connect the lines that formed a pentagram over most of Europe. I also wrote down the coordinates of the Tsar Alexis wooden palace in Moscow. All the portals had their own element: metal at Hercules’ pillars in Gibraltar, water at Stonehenge, wood at Alexis wooden palace, fire at the Ararat Mountain’s volcano and now, before us, earth under the Cheops Pyramid. This was symbolised the same way as Medi was symbolised by steel, Vati by water, Angi by wood, Bomi by fire and Sabi by earth, even when it was covered with ice. Now my whole life was explained on one single page in a black notebook. This was a map of the worlds, which I myself called ‘Thaller’ and on which I wrote down the word as a heading on the page. I had written down all the worlds’ characteristics and their associated coordinates; the poem that showed the ingredients to transport symmetry energy, Vic’s poem, which by chance, gave the clue to how the mathematical formula worked and thus travel through portals, and the prophecy, which predicted and concluded my whole life and perhaps the existence of life. It was as if the Universe would be reborn, might be reborn – or was this doomsday? Leo hadn’t been sure that it would work.
“Gabriel?” I whispered tenderly.
I wanted to ask him a favour and placed my hand lovingly over his arm to get him to halt.
“Yes, Your Highness?” he replied as formal as always when we had a crowd.
I gave my question another thought before asking it and decided that it was definitely a question for Gabriel. Kora was more focused on her duty than sentimental issues. I looked back at Tarus, who was still shuffling sand with his feet far behind us, left to sulk on his own. After his first words this morning that reminded me of his love, he had already asked me a thousand times to abort the plan, to be spared his new duty, and, at the last stage, that I take him with me. I had rejected all his proposals with just a shake of my head and a gentle smile. The last thing, suicide, wouldn’t even lead us to the same place after death. He would end up in Limbo.
I turned back and looked at Gabriel. “There is a man, dark blonde hair, golden orange eyes, tall and slender, named Vic,” I described, but had to stop to think and try to see my question objectively.
After realising the truth about Isaac Newton and his brother, I had also realised I still had no knowledge of Vic. He might be as vicious as them or be the kind man I remembered.
“Yes?” Gabriel’s questioning response forced me into a quick decision that one is innocent until proven guilty.
“He means a lot to me and I want him to have this notebook. I was hoping you could find him and give it to him after I…when I…when I guess I won’t get the chance to see him again. Maybe one day he may figure out the truth about who I am.”
Gabriel took a firm grip on the book. “Life works in mysterious ways my child. If you don’t get the chance to give it to him yourself, I promise to make sure that he receives it.”
His answer was comforting to my troubled soul and there was something in what he said that made me hopeful. Would I get to see Vic again, was that what he meant? Had he spoken with Hakon about the future? And it felt like he too was sure that he would find the man, even though he didn’t even have a picture of him and couldn’t possibly identify him by my poor description.
The Cheops Pyramid or Khufu’s Horizon, as I was more used to calling it, had always been a good place for meditation, but it wasn’t such a good place to land when we were on our way to Switzerland. Stonehenge would have been more suitable both for us and for Samuel, Harriett and Harald who would try to stay on Teli to build a new life together and had already left the group. Kora was pleased with their decision, as she was still ashamed of not having turned over Lance to the Oracle, which most likely would have saved the worlds and probably my life. Now, Lance would again be without his rider. It had been hard to say goodbye and he would have followed me if it hadn’t been for the Gatekeeper, who had stopped him in the cave. He couldn’t come with us. A few times before, the occasional unicorn had by accident managed to travel to Teli, but the world wasn’t ready for the ‘supernatural’ yet, not when the seven deadly sins were so evident amongst the people. The people had already almost exterminated each other over the natural resources that were in the world so I couldn’t even imagine how serious the consequences would be for the balance of the Universe, if they found out that there was more out there. They had already discovered and shown an obsession for black holes and supernovae.
Lance’s teeth had bitten the collar of my white dress in an attempt to keep me, as if he knew I might never come back. His neighing in disapproval was the last sound I heard from Pixi after my deep breath was filled with the moist air from the small bay inside the waterfall.
Hunter, being one of the few who had heard the Chameleon’s voice and therefore had to come with us, was further behind than Tarus in a zombie-like walk of agony. Not that I thought that Michael’s pain was something minor. I just concluded that time would help him cope with it, hopefully that would also be the same for Hunter. They would only have to endure a few hours until they returned to Pixi and Leo could use the new ashes from the fire-rose to heal their hearts, if they allowed him. Some souls became lost in grief and memories hence weren’t always receptive to being healed, but if they could, it would allow the to fall in love with another woman. Well, all except for the people of Pixi, who only became relieved from the heartbreak. They had only one soulmate and were never able to find love again.
The three tombs on the west side of the Royal Castle of Pixi would forever remind Hunter of his love for a beloved king and his loving partner, and his own soulmate; the mother of a child whom he never got to meet. He would see his other son Nick grow up, without being able to share the joy of their son’s successes with her. No one other than he and I had known Nina well enough that they could keep the memory of her alive; maybe possibly Kora too. I wondered briefly where Noah was buried, as I hadn’t seen his grave in the same place as the others. Knowing him, he would have wanted to be buried in the Garden of Eden, where he had enjoyed his happiest memory. Had I remembered it earlier, I would have visited it to say my goodbyes. However, it wouldn’t be long before I would be reunited with him in Heaven.
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Everyone walked into Tarus’s hotel in Switzerland, after having journey for two days from Cairo. Tarus immediately asked how I was. “You’ve been quiet throughout the journey, what are you thinking, love?” he said as he closed the door behind us.
I didn’t know how to answer him. He then kissed my hand smoothly and the gesture made my stomach tickle. He had been right. I hadn’t said much at the airport, or in the backseat of the taxi to the hotel room. The smell of fitted carpets in the hotel was like any old hotel, however it was mixed with the scent of the twenty-five years that Tarus had lived there. He had been the Crown Plaza’s best and most anonymous customer and the girls at the front desk were overjoyed to see him again after his long absence. His bill had been drawn from his credit card every month, as usual, and it now provided us with a place for the night.
The time was ten p.m., and I began to sway from fatigue even though I never really needed to sleep, but now I did need some and it had been a very busy day. I tried to count those who would have to sleep and wondered how Tarus, Michael, Hunter and I would fit into the no more than hundred and twenty centimetre wide bed. We were lucky that angels never sleep, or it really would have been crowded.
“The Chameleon is waiting for us outside CERN’s gates, the staff is off and the coast seems clear,” Hunter interrupted everyone’s murmuring voices as he snapped shut his mobile phone.
It didn’t look as if I would achieve any sleep tonight, maybe never again. However, I was happy with my last night, intimate with Tarus. I felt my face heat up as I thought of it. I also felt my lips curl into a grin. I didn’t smile remembering last night, but at the affection Kora projected, attempting to calm the stressed group with her emotional transfer. It took all her powers. The excitement was more than charged and I knew it would strain my powers, but I needed to
help her.
When all was silent, I realised that the time had come. It was time to sacrifice myself to the worlds. I would have the same fate as my son. I now understood why he had sacrificed himself for the people of Teli. It was out of a deeper love for humanity than anyone who had lost faith could possibly imagine. A deeper love than you could have for your child, your lover or cause; it was love for the circle of life.
“What are you waiting for? It isn’t polite to make the Chameleon wait,” I uttered in an attempt for encouragement and to instil courage.
Although we all possessed supernatural powers that enabled some to fly or run fast, the next trip took place in Tarus’s black car. When I saw the sight of my former prison, I gasped and felt a wave of anxiety as I placed my first foot on the gravel of the road that led to the entrance and heaved the rest of my slim body out of the car.
“Psst…here,” attracted a familiar voice.
“The Chameleon, is that you?” asked Hunter questioningly.
But it wasn’t the Chameleon, it was Vic. Gabriel had known that I would see him again, or Hakon…or I don’t know who, but my heart was rejoicing at the sound of his voice. I would at least get to see him one last time.
“I’m over here. Hurry over here. We have no more than an hour until they come back,” he whispered quickly.
What? I was confused. We almost floated through the air to approach the voice, and yes, very true…it was Vic. Vic had been the Chameleon who had been helping the Order all the time when I had been imprisoned.
“Vic!” I exclaimed in what was probably a bit too high a voice for supernatural beings, but necessary so that he could hear me.
My joy at seeing him made Tarus’s sour expression return and made me immediately miss his smile.
“What? Vic is the same person as the Chameleon?” Tarus questioned jealously, knowing what a special bond we had shared.