“Our opportunity has arrived and we must act soon.” Sailor’s “ghost eye” swirled. He looked around the room from face to face.
“I’m confused,” I said, pointing at the letter. “What does the ‘List’ have to do with it?”
“Zeru-Meq and I recently became aware of this ‘List’ in Singapore, quite by accident through a family he has known and trusted for centuries. The family had once conducted several clandestine affairs with Captain Antoine Boutrain. I knew nothing of this ‘List’ and I am certain the Fleur-du-Mal is unaware of its existence. Someone on the third list, the list of five names who associated with Xanti Otso, has a descendant we must find and find soon.”
“Why?”
“He or she will likely know the exact location of the castle where Susheela the Ninth is imprisoned. Zuriaa is there. The Fleur-du-Mal is not. He seems to be working again, and at fever pitch, as well as searching for the Sixth Stone.”
“Now I am confused, old one,” Mowsel said, leaning his head to one side.
“I concur,” Geaxi added. “Make yourself clear, Sailor.”
Sailor rubbed the blue sapphire on his forefinger. “Yes, yes, of course, you are right. I shall begin where it began, which was India six months after leaving Norway. However, I suggest we do this in another room. This room is charming, Zianno, but not for seven of us on a summer night in this city.”
“It should be cool in the ‘Honeycircle,’” Nova suggested.
“Indeed,” Geaxi said, starting for the door with Mowsel a step or two behind.
On the way out, I whispered to Sailor, “I recognized one of the names on the list of five names. I met him briefly in 1904…and he knew I was Meq, I’m sure of it.”
Sailor stopped walking, completely surprised. He still held Antoine Boutrain’s letter in his hand. “Who is it?”
“Sangea Hiramura.”
“Japanese?”
“Yes and no. He was Ainu.”
“Is he still alive?”
“I doubt it. He was at least seventy-five then.”
“Tell me about him,” Sailor said. His “ghost eye” almost glowed.
“I will…after you tell the rest of your tale. I want to know what’s going on.”
Sailor nodded once. “Agreed,” he said.
“There’s something else. Opari and I discovered an unusual object in Cuba, as did Geaxi on Malta, almost simultaneously. They are old, Sailor, very old, and I know they have something to do with us, maybe the Remembering, or at least one Remembering. They were found
Sailor gave me a quick glance. He seemed intrigued, but turned and started out of the tiny room. “Later,” he said.
We walked to the “Honeycircle” in silence. Overhead, only a few stars were visible through a dark haze of clouds. Traffic could be heard faintly in the distance, but Carolina’s neighborhood was still one of the most quiet neighborhoods in the city.
Everyone sat in a loose ring around Baju’s sundial. Sailor sat on the sundial’s stone base, while the rest of us were sitting on the grass, or in Ray’s case, lying on the grass. Lamps inside the carriage house shone through louvered shutters and cast long bars of light across Sailor’s face. “As I was saying,” he began. “Six months after leaving Norway, Zeru-Meq and I arrived in Madras. We had not yet seen, heard, nor felt a trace of the Fleur-du-Mal. In Madras, we were hoping to find the family of his Indian accomplice, Raza. In that effort we were unsuccessful. However, while we were there, on a whim, Zeru-Meq attended a Hindi gathering at which the pacifist leader, Gandhi, gave a passionate speech. When he returned he told me he felt the presence of his nephew at the event.
“Why the Fleur-du-Mal was present is still a mystery, but finally Zeru-Meq had a trail to track. Zeru-Meq has several unique abilities he has learned through meditation; however, I also learned Zeru-Meq has an innate ability to follow the Fleurdu-Mal without seeing him. We are not certain how or why this occurs, perhaps the reason is because he is the uncle of Xanti Otso. Whatever the answer, he is only able to sustain this ability at a certain distance, which is always difficult to predict. The Fleur-du-Mal moves rapidly, as we all know, and particularly so when he is working. Nevertheless, we followed his ‘trail’ to Goa.” Sailor paused for a moment, stroking the star sapphire on his forefinger. Then, suddenly, he asked Mowsel if he remembered their first voyage to Goa in the late 1500s. “Was the year 1581 or 1591?”
Mowsel angled his head toward Sailor’s voice and frowned. “It is you who are the Stone of Memory, Umla- Meq…you tease me, no? It was during the winter and spring of 1591. A magnificent voyage; we discovered a great deal.”
“Yes, yes, of course,” Sailor said quickly, all the time twirling the star sapphire as he spoke. He continued to talk and he talked for half an hour. When he finished, Sailor had revealed more about the Fleur-du-Mal, his activities, his motives, methods, moods, and madness than we’d ever known before, even how he began to establish bases of operation in India, Ceylon, Singapore, China, and Japan going as far back as the 1550s. It was as if Sailor had been corresponding with him—intimately, psychologically. We also learned Zeru-Meq was not and had not been in Singapore. Sailor wanted the Fleur-du-Mal to think the opposite, thus the “necessary ruse.” The Fleur-du-Mal had discovered he was being followed. The false letter Sailor wrote had enough veracity in it to be believable and was purposely allowed to fall into the Fleur-du-Mal’s hands. Meanwhile, Zeru-Meq continued his surveillance and Sailor was able to make his way to St. Louis. He also told us the Fleur-du-Mal had been working covertly for a Giza government, assassinating several political and social figures, though Sailor didn’t know which government or what country. The assassinations had occurred throughout Southeast Asia and along the coast of China and were becoming more frequent. The Fleur-du-Mal no longer took the time to carve roses into the backs of his victims, Sailor said. The kill itself, however, was the same—a quick and clean slash of the throat from ear to ear.
I wanted to ask the obvious question, but Geaxi beat me to it. “How do you know what you know, Sailor? You seem to have acquired a great deal of knowledge about the Fleur-du-Mal. No, you seem to know more than a great deal. How did you learn these things?”
Sailor hesitated. “She tells me.”
“She?”
“Susheela the Ninth,” Sailor said, and turned to me. “Through dreams, Zianno. She tells me through dreams, though they are infrequent and irregular.” Sailor looked at Opari. “She speaks in Deza’s voice, Opari. She uses Deza’s voice, but she is not Deza.” He looked back to Geaxi and glanced once at Mowsel. “She is…
“What the hell is that?” Ray asked.
“Timedancing,” Opari answered. She winked at me and smiled. “Ask Z about it, Ray.”
“What is it, Z?”
“Uh…well…it’s hard to describe, Ray. It’s kind of a strange balance you keep inside, like a weightless walking dream or a dance through time. You’re here, but you’re not here. It’s like a waltz with what’s real and what’s not.”
Ray stared at me, squinting, then he said, “Hell, I do that all the time.”
“What do you mean, ‘like no other’?” Geaxi asked Sailor.
“She goes deeper, much deeper, farther, and for as long as she desires. It is effortless for her. She is a master at it and this infuriates the Fleur-du-Mal. He has imprisoned her for it and vowed to keep her imprisoned until she tells him what she has done with the Sixth Stone.”
“Why?”
“Zeru-Meq says it is simply envy and jealousy. He calls his nephew ‘a sad and dangerous pilgrim who chases magic instead of truth.’ The Fleur-du-Mal is obsessed with powers he does not possess, particularly the ‘ability’ of timedancing. He has never been able to do it and knows he never will. He must endure his madness and his pain alone and in real time.”
“Why is that? Why can’t he do it?” Nova asked. She sat cross-legged with Ray’s head in her lap. Ray sat up when she spoke.
Sailor looked down at Nova, then at Ray. The long braid behind his ear fell forward into a shaft of light. The
