Eternity Gate

  DEDICATION

  To all the Angels in my life — you know who you are.

  EPIGRAPH

  We all dwell beyond the limits of our living consciousness, where all that is baffling to us now is understood. We strive through many lives to return to this place, until we arrive at the realisation that we never actually left.

  CONTENTS

  Cover

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Epigraph

  Acknowledgements

  List of characters

  Reincarnation Guide

  Prologue — Time Event Reconnaissance

  Part 1: Vendetta Vacua

  Chapter 1 — Dark Matter

  Chapter 2 — Kill ’Em All

  Chapter 3 — Torn Apart

  Chapter 4 — Embryos of Parallel Time

  Chapter 5 — The Black Sheep

  Part 2: Before Time Began

  Chapter 6 — The Dark Universe

  Chapter 7 — Ascent into Madness

  Chapter 8 — Extrication

  Chapter 9 — The Dream of Tiamat

  Part 3: Symmetry of Chaos

  Chapter 10 — Then, When and Now

  Chapter 11 — Origins

  Chapter 12 — Containment

  Chapter 13 — The Underworld

  Part 4: Backtrack Time

  Chapter 14 — The Third Universe

  Chapter 15 — Return to Kila — Part 1

  Chapter 16 — Ancient Zhou

  Chapter 17 — The Crystal Cavern

  Chapter 18 — Return to Kila — Part 2

  Epilogue — Ground Zero

  Bibliography

  About the Author

  Other Books by Traci Harding

  Copyright

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  My first thanks on this book has to go to my characters — I had no idea where this tale was taking me, and I followed their lead blindly (more so than usual), wondering what the hell they were leading me into! I felt my imagination being pushed to the limit and my trust in their guidance was really challenged during the first half of this book. Some of the predicaments and conversations my time-hopping characters found themselves in had me splitting my sides with laughter, and wracking my brain to figure out. Even I was amazed by how everything that transpired in the beginning, turned out to be perfectly relevant in the end. So, my hat goes off to the Timekeepers, the Chosen, the Grigori and all their incarnations, for their mind-expanding inspiration!

  Thanks to my new commissioning editor at HarperCollins, Rochelle Fernandez, who is doing a fantastic job captaining the good ship Voyager. Thanks also to my editors, Sue Moran, Abigail Nathan, Rachel Dennis, Stephanie Smith and everyone who worked with me to get this book out on schedule — it was a tight one, well done ladies! Thanks also to Darren Holt for a fantastic cover design yet again!

  As always my gratitude to Selwa Anthony, my fabulous agent, who is always behind me one hundred per cent. I am so thankful the cosmos brought us together all those years ago — near twenty by my count!

  Big love to Sarah and John, for leaving Mum to work in peace. Same goes for my friends and family who rarely see me, but are always there when I need them — you all ROCK! Big thanks also to Lee Pou Lon, for his continuing aid with my Chinese translations.

  But credit where credit is due — my readers and website moderators are really the ones who keep me doing what I love year in, year out. Thanks to you my books continue to appear in recommended reading lists everywhere. It is an honour to have written books that are so well remembered, and I aim to write many more in the years to come, that I hope you will find just as inspiring. My heartfelt thanks to you all!

  Now onto The Eternity Gate — ENJOY!

  LIST OF CHARACTERS

  Bayan Har Shan

  Dropa Elder — Dorje Pema

  Governor of Kila — Rhun Gwynedd

  The Lord of the Otherworld — Avery Gwynedd

  Spirit Tiger/daughter of Shi and Huxin — Ling Hu

  Reptilian Leader — Dragonface/Shyamal/Vugar

  The Timekeepers

  Wu Master/Head of the timekeepers — Jiang Hudan/Taren Lennox

  Duke of Zhou/Captain of AMIE — Ji Dan/Lucian Gervaise

  Great Mother of Li Shan/AMIE technologist — Yi Wu/Telmo Dacree

  Grand Protector of Zhou/Were-tiger/AMIE security — Ji Shi/Yasper Ronan

  Wu Were-tiger/Wife of Shi/AMIE security — Jiang Huxin/Jazmay Cardea

  Wu Healer/AMIE horticulturist — Fen Gong/Ringbalin Malachi

  King Cheng of Zhou/AMIE pilot — Ji Song/Zeven (Starman) Gudrun

  Last Prince of Shang/AMIE’s Nemesis — Wu Geng/Khalid Mansur

  Kila

  Governor’s chief advisor and historian — Noah Purcell (En Noah)

  KEPA employee/En Noah’s wife — Rebecca

  KEPA trainee and honorary timekeeper — Jahan

  Reptilian agent/Guardian of ‘the Dragon’s Eye’ — Aysel

  Mistress of the Otherworld/Avery’s wife — Fallon Alexander

  Head of Defense/Rhun’s son — Asher

  Governor’s secretary and wife — Sybil

  AMIE (Astro-Marine Institute Explorer)

  Captain’s assistant/Zeven’s wife — Aurora

  Zeven’s daughter — Thurraya (Ray)

  Co-pilot/navigator — Leal

  Ship’s doctor/Leal’s wife — Kassa

  Project manager — Swithin

  Ancient Zhou

  The children of Ji Shi and Jiang Huxin — Zhen and Kao

  The Eternity Gate and Beyond

  Ascended Master — DK

  The Logos of the Sovereign Integral — Abzu

  The Primordial Creatrix of Order and Chaos — Tiamat

  The Son of Tiamat — Kingu

  Guardian of the Underworld — Kur

  The Nefilim

  Head of the Pantheon — Anu

  Head of Genetics — Ninharsag

  Queen of the Otherworld — Ereshkigal

  Son of Anu/Ereshkigal’s twin — Enki

  Warlord — Nergal

  Granddaughter of Anu — Nanshe

  Sister of Nanshe — Nidaba

  Great-granddaughter of Anu — Inanna

  The Dark Universe

  The Human — the Logos of the Sovereign Integral

  The Grigori

  Commander — Azazèl

  Araqiel

  Sammael

  Armaros

  Penemue

  Bezaliel

  Sariel

  Gadriel

  Sacha

  The Fallen Elohim

  Emperor — Samyaza

  Bael

  Vassago

  Amon

  Paimon

  Baleth

  Balam

  Purson

  Asmoday

  Vinè

  Zagon

  Belial

  TIMEKEEPERS REINCARNATION GUIDE

  PROLOGUE

  TIME EVENT RECONNAISSANCE

  Location: Bayan Har Shan, China

  Year: 1002 BC

  The most difficult aspect of time event reconnaissance is to embrace your position as the observer and resist the urge to intervene. This is particularly difficult when the event in question involves individuals whom the observer holds dear, or an injustice that one has the power to prevent.

  Still, the souls of my fellow timekeepers have many incarnations yet to be born into this world. Any change in these early historic events could affect the development, or even the birth, of any one of us — myself included. In this knowledge, I regard recon mission events as memories that I can do nothing to change. It is a bitter mantra for a time traveller, but our target will only remain shielded by causality for as long as he remains on this planet.
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  The target is one mind controlling many bodies, spread far and wide across the Earth. Locally, he is known as Dragonface, but on the other side of the galaxy, three thousand years from now, the shapeshifting, reptilian hybrid will be known as Yahweh Shyamal — the destroyer of the Chosen people of Kila, the planet of which I was once governor. Beyond a lust to dominate and feed on the humans, we know Dragonface has another aspiration — to find the planet of his ancestors.

  For hundreds of thousands of Earth years, the creature has searched this planet for a vessel that could complete such a voyage, and reports of a spacecraft falling from the sky led Dragonface to a remote mountain region between ancient China and Tibet.

  The beings who crashed to Earth were mentally, emotionally, spiritually and psychically superior to the reptilians; the Dropa fended off the creature and his minions with the cosmic light of their very being.

  In the beginning, as there were many Dropa their combined life force kept the reptilians at bay. Their cosmic light proved no barrier to local Ham Tibetan tribes, however, who were frightened by the small, ugly appearance of the alien beings and aimed to hunt them down and kill them. After a few minor misunderstandings, during which the Dropa proved their superior psychic skills without harm to their aggressors, the locals opted to leave the visitors in peace. Over time, the Ham realised they could learn and prosper from an association with these beings, but with that close association disease came into the Dropa camp. Their tiny bodies were built to take the great stresses of space travel but, having lived their entire lives in a controlled environment, the Dropa’s immune systems were not so robust as to withstand the harsh conditions beyond their crashed vessel. Their ship had not been damaged beyond repair, but the restoration required materials that could not be sourced on Earth. Their only hope for survival was to genetically perfect more resilient bodies for their soul-minds to inhabit, and they did this by infusing their genetic code with the local humans and animals that were native to the area. White tigers were particularly favoured for their resilience, and thus ten thousand years later were-tigers are legend in this area, and two have been recruited to our crew.

  Of those who survived to see the successful completion of their in-vitro bodies, the Dropa had several alternate forms to choose from, each with its perks and hindrances. The tiny human bodies they had perfected offered strong intellectual faculties, but unlike their previous forms they needed daily nourishment, and these forms proved useless for hunting or breeding. The were-tiger forms were taken by the braver among them to protect, hunt and breed for the rest of their tribe, for these forms were far stronger, yet not so well endowed in the intellect department.

  As, one by one, the original bodies of the Dropa gave out, half of them committed themselves to their stasis pods within the ship — their deaths suspended — so that their cosmic life forces would continue to protect their remaining crew members. For twelve thousand years this barrier of compassion has protected the stranded vessel from being pirated by Dragonface and his minions … until today.

  PART 1

  VENDETTA VACUA

  1

  DARK MATTER

  When Rhun returned from his recon mission he looked like he’d just left a battlefield. There were large bloody gashes all over him, and these were going to raise questions among those timekeepers present, which he was not in the mood to answer.

  ‘You were supposed to be observing only!’ Telmo, the mission supervisor and their head technologist, threw his hands in the air. ‘What the hell happened?’

  All the wounds on Rhun’s body smarted as he climbed from the time chariot. ‘The place was crawling with reptiles! They surprised me. But I left the chariot in the crystal cave … no one saw it, let alone got near it, so you have nothing to complain about.’

  ‘But you’re immortal.’ Song frowned as he observed Rhun’s bloodied state.

  Unlike the rest of the crew — who needed to be genetically repaired by Dropa technology, or by the hands-on healing of their crew mate, Fen Gong — Rhun was immortal and self-healing, usually. The rest of the timekeepers were not born in this universe. Back in their universe of origin people lived ten times longer than the human beings in this universe. But in order to complete a mission in ancient Zhou China, the timekeepers had shifted their consciousness into the mortal bodies of past incarnations living at that time. Many among their ranks were still wearing those personas, which were far more fragile and prone to age than the bodies they were first born into. The timekeepers hoped to return to their birth bodies in the not-too-distant future.

  ‘Obviously these wounds are not purely physical injuries,’ Rhun deduced. ‘Like the festering wound Dragonface gave to me during my past life as your father, Ji Fa, the cuts have been infused with the subtle poison of the dark arts.’

  ‘Sub-etheric magic.’ Telmo approached Rhun and grabbed one of his arms, casting a discerning eye over one of the larger gashes. ‘You’re right,’ he observed, ‘I can see the dark matter underpinning the wound and encouraging it to fester.’

  ‘We should fetch Fen —’ Song began.

  Rhun reclaimed his arm from Telmo. ‘It’s nothing a short stint in the Dropa’s regenerator won’t fix,’ he insisted, and quite frankly the isolation of the regenerator seemed a very attractive notion to Rhun right now. What he had just witnessed unfold, one week into their future, had left him deeply disturbed and he needed to rein in his personal feelings on the matter before he reported to the rest of the crew.

  ‘Obviously our new design works.’ Song moved to check the remodelled chariot and gave Telmo the thumbs up. Song had employed his psychic mastery over physical matter to construct the chariot from Telmo’s design. ‘I’ve been considering incorporating some additional security measures.’

  Song was one of the timekeepers still wearing his Zhou incarnation; he was psychokinetic and the first timekeeper to be recruited by their founding member, Dr Taren Lennox. Back in their universe of origin, before the timekeepers’ stint in ancient Zhou China, Song was a formidable pilot known as Zeven Gudrun, or Starman. Due to a leap back in time, Zeven had taken advantage of the extra years to study electro-mechanical engineering. He’d been time-jumping with Taren Lennox since the genesis of this entire inter-universe catastrophe.

  Telmo, on the other hand, had assumed the appearance of his male incarnation in that other universe, and had free mental access to the knowledge of more incarnations of himself than he cared to remember, and all the supernatural abilities that went with them! Rhun had personally known the greatest of Telmo’s past selves on Earth, Taliesin Pen Beirdd, the last Celtic shaman of ancient Britain. The soul-mind inside Telmo was very old and wise, and he’d always appeared thus when Rhun had known him in the past. But at present Telmo appeared younger and prettier than he usually did, and Rhun was having trouble seeing him as the mentor he’d always been.

  ‘Never mind about the chariot.’ Telmo’s attention returned to Rhun. ‘Is history about to repeat itself, as you suspected?’

  In a hurry to be with his own thoughts, Rhun backed up towards the door, holding his arms wide to show his wounds. ‘You’re telepathic, do you really have to ask?’ He turned to leave.

  ‘I’m forbidden to read your thoughts without your permission,’ Telmo advised. ‘It was in everyone’s AMIE contract.’

  AMIE was the Astro-Marine Institute Explorer — the space project that many of their current crew had been employed by in their previous universal scheme; the same project to which many of the timekeepers hoped to return, in the future.

  ‘Then I guess you’ll have to wait until I’ve been through regeneration, and brief the others.’ Rhun raised a hand high to wave goodbye, but did not look back or slow the pace of his exit.

  Being infused with cosmic light inside the regenerator pod was a blissful escape from reality. The capsule was called the ‘egg’ by their crew, due to its shape — but within its confines silence, time and possibility seemed limitless.

 
; When the genetic regeneration session ended, Rhun returned to a conscious waking state, minus his physical injuries. His mental and emotional state would remain stable only so long as he didn’t call to mind where he was and what he was doing here. Yet those two questions were the first any human being asked when they returned to a fully wakeful state, and so Rhun was forced to deal with his mindset of here and now.

  With the memory of the mission, the euphoria induced by the session fled — he stared up at the ceiling from the semi-reclined seat with a forbidding sense of hopelessness building in his gut.

  The upper part of the pod had translucent panels that allowed the subtle light in the room beyond to penetrate, so when the pod door opened, he was not blinded or discomforted in any way.

  Dorje Pema, the last of the Dropa, was waiting to attend him — she was the only living being left on this planet who could operate the technology of her people. Her name meant ‘indestructible lotus’ for she was a timeless, formidable and enlightened legend in these parts. This was not her real name, but one she had earned over time. The tiny extraterrestrial-human half-caste, stood no taller than an average ten-year-old. Her face was as youthful as a child, yet her mesmerising eyes of indigo seemed to peer into Rhun’s soul, and he felt the presence of the ages-old being that her in-vitro body had been carrying for thousands and thousands of years. Her deep blue robes covered her from head to toe and drew Rhun’s focus to her penetrating gaze.

  ‘Many thanks, Pema.’ Rhun forced a smile to show his appreciation. ‘That feels infinitely better.’ He didn’t rush to raise himself, knowing he would only get giddy if he did, but closed his eyes to hide his welling tears. The burst of pure life force had heightened his emotions, and they’d been fairly unstable to begin with.

  ‘You are sad,’ she observed pragmatically. ‘It was as you remember?’

  ‘Worse,’ he admitted, his voice hoarse with hurt, and he swallowed hard as he looked at her to catch her reaction.

  But the tiny Dropa woman didn’t bat an eyelid. ‘Not to worry,’ she replied, sounding only mildly disappointed. ‘We know what must be done. We are resolved.’