“Did they give you a message?” Fred asked hopefully.
“No, it wasn’t like that. They weren’t talking to me. I was just standing with them. I got a sense that this was a sacred ritual for them. They had all taken some kind of vow to see this through. To hide all the artifacts until the time came for somebody to find them.” She looked down at the stone beneath her feet. “I hope you guys packed shovels. We’re gonna have to dig for it.”
“I loaded some equipment in the Jeep,” Fred answered readily. “I’ll get the tools.”
“I’ll help you,” Erik offered.
The two of them loped across the plateau and climbed the rise, animated by the thought that victory was so near.
Griffin stayed with Cassie. “I almost envy you your gift.”
She laughed ruefully. “Bet you wouldn’t have said that two days ago when I was tossing my cookies after that artifact of Stefan’s.”
The scrivener shrugged. “I imagine it was worth the price to be able to witness what you’ve just seen.”
“It was pretty cool,” she admitted. “I’ve lived all over the U.S. but always in cities. You never get to really see the night sky when you live in a city. Out here…” she trailed off, contemplating the mountains in the distance. “Out here, it’s easy to understand why people used to think the stars were holy.”
Griffin positioned himself beside her, so he could gaze across the same vista. “When I was a boy back home in England, I spent my summers in the lake district with my grandparents. They had a cottage in a small village near Windermere. In the evenings, after it grew dark, I would lie on the grass and look up at the Milky Way. I’ve heard people say how cold and distant the stars are. How they make one feel small and insignificant. But it wasn’t like that at all for me. There were moments when I almost felt as if I could breathe them in. Drink them in. I would find myself getting lost in them.”
Cassie stared up at the scrivener. “You?” she asked incredulously.
He shook himself out of his reverie and returned her glance. “Why do you find that so strange?”
The pythia shrugged. “I guess I’ve always thought of you as somebody who likes facts and statistics. But what you just said. It sounded almost…” She struggled to find the right word.
“Mystical?”
“Yeah, I guess that’s it. Mystical.”
“All of us who’ve joined the Arkana have a bit of the mystic about us.” He looked over his shoulder. The other two were approaching. “Even tough-as-nails Erik.”
“Not sure I buy that,” Cassie remarked skeptically.
“Nevertheless, it’s true,” Griffin replied softly. “We’ve none of us lost our sense of wonder. Only someone who’s come face to face with the numinous can say that.”
Erik and Fred were now within earshot.
“Everyone grab a shovel,” Erik instructed.
By now the sun was high enough to illuminate the task at hand.
“So, you think it’s right under the lily rock, Cass?” Erik glanced at her for confirmation.
She stepped aside and nodded. “Positive. We’ll have to be careful not to disturb the ground too much. If those Nephilim guys show up any time soon, we don’t want this looking like a construction site.”
“Understood,” Erik agreed.
They all worked carefully to displace as little dirt as possible in moving the stone. Once they lifted it out of place, they were surprised to discover that it fitted like a lid over an underground storage box. Inside the box was a covered urn made of polished alabaster. And inside the urn was the object they had traveled five thousand miles to find.
“Wow!” Cassie exclaimed in admiration. “Will you get a load of that!”
Her teammates stared in amazement at the object for several moments.
“This has been buried here for three thousand years. Waiting,” Griffin observed. “Waiting for us to bring it back into the light.”
Erik snapped them all out of their collective trance. “Let’s hustle people. We need to cover our tracks and get this intel to Faye and Maddie ASAP!”
Chapter 28 – Duty Call
Faye woke out of a deep sleep to hear a sharp banging coming from downstairs. Disoriented, she looked at her alarm clock. It was five a.m. Zachary came skidding into her room.
“Gamma, who’s that?” he asked, his voice filled with panic. “Is it my parents? Because you promised I could stay the whole week and I’ve only been here two days.” He rushed to the bed and stood over her with accusation in his eyes. “Tell me you didn’t narc on me. I trusted you!”
“Calm down, Zachary. It can’t possibly be your parents. They agreed to your visit. It’s probably one of my associates.”
“Your associates?” the boy asked cautiously.
Faye caught herself. Grogginess had caused her to slip up. “Did I say associates?” She laughed lightly. “How odd. That must have come from the dream I was having. I thought I worked in an office in downtown Chicago.”
The banging started up again.
“Be a dear and find out who that is while I get my dressing gown on.” She shooed him downstairs and slipped on her robe. As she hobbled to the top of the steps, she heard two raised voices.
“Where is she?”
“Where do you think? She’s sleeping. What do you want?”
Faye leaned heavily on the railing and made her way down to the landing where she saw Maddie, frizzy-haired and dressed in a jogging suit, glaring at her descendent. “Listen, kid. I didn’t come here to get the third degree from you.”
Zach wasn’t about to be intimidated. He stepped in closer to the dragon lady and stared up at her. “No, you listen, Maisie…”
“It’s Maddie!” she snapped.
“Whatever,” he brushed the name aside. “Do you know what time it is?” He glanced at her wrist. “I bet you don’t even own a watch. How about a sun dial? They’re easier to read except, oh wait, the sun has to actually be up first!”
“Why Maddie, how lovely to see you.” Faye smiled graciously as she descended
