The man sighed heavily and considered his options. The thought of leaving this refuge was painful, breaking a chain whose links had remained strong through more years than he could count. He had delayed until the last possible moment, hoping beyond all reason that the torch bearers might forget this place. The flames winding ever upward told him clearly that they had not forgotten. The world belonged to them now, and they were implacable in their determination to purge it of all contradiction.
There was no help for it. He stood decisively and tied up his small sack of belongings.
The boy regarded him gravely. He was no more than eight. “Are you going now?” he asked.
The man nodded.
The boy leaped to his feet. He plucked at the man’s sleeve. “Take me with you. Please!”
“You know I can’t,” came the sad reply. “And you know why.”
The boy looked at the ground, unwilling to meet the man’s eyes.
“Someone has to stay behind and say what happened.” The man crouched down and tilted the boy’s chin up. “Do you remember the words I told you?”
The boy nodded silently, a tear sliding down his cheek.
“The ghosts of all those who came before me are depending on you. You must not fail them nor me.” He wiped the tear from the boy’s cheek and tousled his hair.
The man straightened up and slung the bundle over his shoulder. He took a final wistful look at his sanctuary and at the boy he was leaving behind. Before the last rays of the sun failed completely, he slipped out of the cave and into the gathering night.
Chapter 2 – Hard Labor Day
Cassie pulled her car up beside the other vehicles already parked in the driveway of Faye's suburban farmhouse. She felt rested and ready for anything. The luxury of several weeks away from the Arkana and the relic hunt had given her a fresh perspective. After all, a girl could only endure so many threats on her life before needing to take a break for a pedicure. As she let herself in the front door, she could hear laughter and conversation coming from the back of the house.
“Hello?” she called tentatively. “Anybody home?”
“Everybody's already here,” an assertive female voice bounced down the hall.
Without needing to identify the source, Cassie responded, “Hi, Maddie.”
The pythia entered the kitchen where her teammates were lounging while their fearless leader Faye handed around serving dishes.
The tiny grey-haired woman smiled warmly at her latest guest. “Hello, my dear. We're just about to set up a feast in the garden. Would you mind carrying?” She held a bowl of potato salad out to Cassie. Turning in the other direction, she gave a platter of fried chicken to the lanky young man hovering at her shoulder. “Griffin dear, take this please.”
“Right you are,” he replied with alacrity.
“Late, as usual, toots!” Came a voice from a corner of the room.
Without batting an eye, Cassie replied, “I've got an image to uphold, dude. It's called being fashionably late.”
Erik grinned. “Sounds about the same as being annoyingly tardy to me.”
Maddie unceremoniously shoved a tray with a pitcher and glasses into his arms.
“Here, make yourself useful,” she ordered.
“Yes, ma’am.” Erik's voice held only the slightest hint of sarcasm.
The group filed out into Faye's immense backyard with its ancient trees and assorted flower and vegetable plots. It was a postcard-perfect autumn afternoon: the sun shining in a cloudless blue sky, a slight breeze stirring gold-tinged leaves. The little band clustered around a long table set up under a canopy.
“You really went all out,” Cassie commented, stealing a radish from a bowl Maddie had just set down.
“Well, I thought something special was in order to welcome our intrepid crew back to work,” Faye replied.
“Welcome them back from what?” the operations director snorted. “Partying too hard? I've been busting my hump for the past six weeks while they've been cavorting.”
“You did say we'd earned a couple of days off, chief,” Erik reminded her.
Maddie flounced into a chair and lit a cigarette, apparently winded by the effort of fetching and carrying. “A few days?” she repeated pointedly. “Six weeks is your definition of a few days?”
“So maybe it was more than a few,” Erik relented, “but I needed some serious downtime. I mean I risked my life on that last recovery.”
Maddie blew a smoke ring, unimpressed. “Uh huh.”
“So where did you go?” Cassie asked, eyeing her newly-tanned teammate curiously.
“Beaches.” He leaned back in his chair and laced his fingers behind his head, savoring the memory. “Lots and lots of beaches.”
The pythia rolled her eyes, imagining how much female company he'd collected on those beaches. Transferring her attention to her other teammate, she asked, “What about you, Griffin? Please tell me you got out of the vault for at least a couple of days.”
The Brit smiled self-consciously. “A few, yes. I went to visit my parents in London.”
Erik turned his head to size up his colleague. “Sure doesn't look like you got any sun while you were there.”
Cassie noted that while both she and Erik had managed to achieve a healthy glow, Griffin was as pale as ever.
“It rained,” he said simply. He seemed eager to shift the conversation away from himself. “What about you, Cassie?”
“Pedicure.” She wiggled her sandal-clad toes.
Erik sat up in his chair and stared at her. “Really, that's it?”
“No, that's not all of it.” Cassie cleared her throat uncomfortably. “I finally got a chance to sort through the rest of Sybil's stuff. Given how long we've been away hunting down artifacts, it was the first real chance I had since...”
She trailed off. No one wanted to finish the sentence “...since Sybil was killed.”
“Sorry, toots,” Erik said in a low voice. “I didn't mean to—”
“It's OK.” She cut him short. “I'm getting used to the idea.” Brightening a bit, she added, “The apartment is starting to feel like my home now. That's new. I never had a place that
