Chapter 216: The Muses in Tapato

Wednesday, July 14, 1971

“Welcome home, Prince,” said a voice in my head that I didn’t recognize. It was an ancient voice, cracking as if it had not spoken in a long time. Yet somehow, it seemed familiar. “It has been a long journey. For both of us.”

Maybe it was because I wore both the rings and held the sword between my knees as we taxied to the terminal, or maybe it was proximity, or maybe just blind luck, but suddenly I knew!

“The codex!” I thought with a mixture of excitement and alarm as I sat there, going over all the implications of that voice in my mind. I had been so engrossed in my own thoughts, that I was only vaguely conscious of the Tri-Star coming to a stop at the gate.

But when I looked up, the cabin of the plane was empty, so I hurried to catch up to the others. The jetway to the airport terminal seemed unusually long, so I was practically running down the long ramp, when I made a turn and slammed on the brakes so hard I thought my sword was going to fly up.

The ramp from the jet did not terminate in the terminal. Instead it was a cabin. In the mountains. One that I had visited before.

“See, I told you he did not like the cabin,” Clio told the two sisters standing beside her.

“Well, I think he liked the cabin,” replied Celeste. “I know Polly sure did!”

“Shhhh, he’s about to speak,” Tally told her sisters.

“Hello, ladies,” I told them. “It’s a pleasure to see you again.”

“He is always so polite!” Tally cried.

“Yeah. But he looks surprised,” Clio added.

“I just didn’t expect to have the honor of your company today,” I told them.

“But you called us,” Tally said.

“Called you?” I asked, confused.

“You rubbed the ruby imbedded in the sword,” Tally explained.

“And we told you we would come if you did that,” Clio said.

“Actually, we are glad that you called us,” added Tally. “We have another favor to ask of you.”

“I’m sorry ladies,” I told them. “I must have rubbed it subconsciously while I was trying to figure out something about that codex I have been trying to locate.”

“See!” Celeste said to her sisters, “I told you that was why he was here!”

“You know of the codex then?” I asked.

“Certainly we do!” Celeste replied. “You seek the Assyrian Codex.”

I waited, nodding my head to indicate she should continue. But she looked not at me, but at her two sisters, as if unsure how to proceed.

“Uh, Michael?” Clio began. “You know that thing you did for our sister, Polly?”

I simply nodded, not sure where she was going. But I’ll never forget Polly’s scream. The one she let loose with at the height of her orgasm when we were last together.

“Well, Celeste and Tally want to know if you would make them scream like that?” Clio asked.

“And this would be in exchange for information on the, er, Assyrian Codex?” I asked, trying to narrow the terms of the trade.

“Oh, no!” cried Clio. “We will tell you what we know of the codex anyway. It’s just that we, Celeste and Tally, I mean, wanted to know if you would do for them what you did for Polly. That’s all. I am sorry if we asked it wrong. We are usually the bestowers of gifts, and have not had much experience in asking for them.”

“So ... it is only Celeste and Tally that want to feel the heavens move?” I asked Clio directly, as I smiled at Celeste and Tally.

Clio’s face actually turned red as Celeste came to her rescue.

“We did not want to appear too greedy, my lord,” Celeste replied.

I smiled at the sisters, and then offering Celeste and Clio my arms, we followed Tally to the bedroom in the back of the cabin.

“How do you do it?” Clio asked as we lay there together. “How do you ‘open your heart’ as you call it?”

“Clio, I truly do not know. It seems that when Narvenia and her sister brought me back in time, they tweaked something in my brain to help with the pain of the transition. This, somehow, caused my empathic abilities to be significantly increased, which allows me to feel what you feel, and share with you what I am feeling.”