No! It hurt so much all over again. She didn't want to see it, but Nare had to know.
Raea watched her own attempt at reviving him. The tingle of the power through her hands over his…
Something flashed through her mind, erasing the scene of blood on her hands.
What was that? Nare's voice echoed inside her head.
I don't know. I haven't done enough healing.
I have. That's not right. That was something else. Think back.
Raea did as instructed and returned to that moment of healing. Someone called her name from afar.
That was him!
What?
Elis. He connected to you…but why?
Why indeed. The prospect gave her a glimmer of hope. What had he tried to say? Can you help me?
Focus on that moment.
Raea took a breath and did as Nare instructed. In the flash, she was transported to another place…
.
Sand everywhere. Glaring. Waving. At the horizon, it turned to water in a mirage of heat.
Somewhere beyond the dunes, a precise point broke the smooth lines. Not far from there, the square, stiff lines of a city thrust from the desert.
Something pulled her west, into the desert. Raea closed her eyes and focused on the feeling of something waiting, something calling to her. A power familiar but distant burned through her.
When she opened her eyes, the desert raced past until she stood at the edge of a long canyon of sandstone and brush. Goats bleated nearby, accompanied by the tinkle of bells from the collars around their necks and a boy's voice in a strange language. A shallow stream flowed across the rocky bed at the bottom of the canyon, accented by green plants along its edge.
Caves and stone ruins dotted the far side. Before one of the stone buildings sat an old man, his gray beard like a cone and a turban on his head. He held up a gnarled and bony hand, a familiar black symbol tattooed on the palm, and motioned with a gesture to follow him. In a moment, she stood by him and he bowed his head and made a gesture she could only interpret as respect; then he stood and motioned for her to join him inside the dwelling.
From the darkness, a single light shone out, a faint greenish blue that warmed her in its familiarity…
.
Raea gasped and broke the connection with Nare. "Where'd that come from?" It wasn't like any Starfire vision she'd ever had. The man was a protector.
"Not your memory?"
"No." She'd never been to any desert. It started by what looked like…"Giza." Her heart froze on a realization. It couldn't be. "He wanted me to open a portal to Giza. He said it was the closest landmark."
"That last part looked like…a shard." Nare frowned.
"It…was." The fifth shard. The Eye.
Blue eyes studied her. "That's impossible."
Raea took a deep breath. Nare had discovered their secret. Not even Debbie knew.
Not even Debbie knew. They shouldn't be discussing that there. "I'll tell you more…later."
"Same as Josh later?"
"Something like that."
"Is this something I'm not supposed to know about?"
Debbie. Raea had forgotten she listened and grimaced—they had spoken in English. "Kind of?"
Her aunt set plates in front of them. "I understand." Her hand stroked Raea's hair. "Just be careful…please?" Her kiss on Raea's forehead made it impossible to say no. Although Debbie wasn't truly related, she had been Raea's mother for thirteen years, and a loving one in spite of her husband’s objections.
"I will."
Without another word, Debbie returned to the stove, where the sizzle of eggs came from the frying pan. Raea's stomach gurgled. "After we eat."
The vision replayed in her mind while she waited silently for breakfast. She could only imagine Nare dwelled on it also. It had to be the Eye. Elis had said the Pyramids were the closest landmark. In his final moments, he had used her healing connection to transfer that image to her mind. He wanted her to find it. She would do it for him.
And she had a Keeper for it already. How convenient that Nare had come. She would have the chance to prove her worth after all this time belittling Elis. They would see once and for all what the Starfire thought.
* * *
"Now, tell me what this is all about." Nare closed the door behind her and bent down to pull off her shoes.
Having already kicked hers off and moved to the stairway from the foyer, Raea said in a hushed voice, "Up stairs, quietly. Evelyn's still sleeping."
Nare grimaced and followed her to the room at the top of the stairs, the room Nare had slept in when she visited three weeks ago. It was the safest place to discuss the Starfire but above Evelyn's bedroom. The old widow wouldn't normally awaken for another half hour or more, and Raea didn't want to intrude. Hopefully Josh would realize that when he arrived. It was only a half past seven in the morning.
The bedroom was just as it had been after Nare left three weeks ago. The double bed was made up with a handmade quilt over it, the boxes of stuff that had crowded it stashed along the far side of the room. A single window with white drapes let in the light of the day.
Nare closed the door after her with a quiet snick. "Can you tell me now?"
Raea leaned on the metal bed frame, squeezing her hands around it for security. Telling Nare was harder than she expected, but it had to be done. The shard was no longer safe on Earth. "There are more than four shards of the Starfire."
"Impossible."
"It's true. I confirmed it with Saffir after learning of it myself from the Starfire. They showed me the mission to Earth. Mine was present when the Eye was left here. It started when a man with an Inari symbol on his hand came to town—a human man…like in the vision Elis gave me. When you walked Josh home the night I came back from Inar'Ahben, he told us he was a protector of the Eye and that others like him were disappearing."
"A fifth shard on Earth," Nare muttered and stumbled to the bed to sit. "I can't believe it."
"Believe it. There are more than five, and Saffir knows it too. The risk of all of it being on Inar'Ahben was too great."
Nare straightened and blinked to focus on Raea. "Then the Shirat Empire will never bring Heffin's Gate to full power, even if they obtain the four known shards."
Yeah. Raea had considered that, but one shard alone could create a portal by the will of a Keeper, or by the focus of the machine. Who knew how much power it really had. "I…don't think they need all of them to threaten the world."
"You don't?" Nare's shoulders sank. That she didn't argue but accepted Raea's statement was bad; Nare understood the repercussions. The Shirukan had used one shard to open a portal to Earth. What stopped them from using the machine to threaten the cities? "We can't let them know…of any of this."
"Too right."
The silence of the house came between them, each lost in their own thoughts. Raea cringed at the consequences of that information in the hands of the Shirat Empire.
"What do we do?" Nare asked.
"We find the Eye." Elis had been right. Only a Keeper could protect it now. Whoever sought it must have known of its power; and, sooner or later, one of the protectors would give it up. She couldn't let that happen, or Earth was in trouble. They were far from prepared to manage the power of the Starfire.
"Then what?"
Raea met Nare's questioning gaze. "You test it."
"What? Me?" Nare jumped to her feet. "No. I won't. I have no desire to fail."
Interesting, especially coming from Nare. "You don't think you're worthy?"
"I didn't say that. I just don’t want the risk."
Or didn't want to know she wasn't worthy. "But we have to do something. It can't stay here. Someone is looking for it. If it's the Shirukan…"
Ah. Nare shuddered. Yes, she understood the consequences.
"We can't let them get it," Nare said in a low voice. After a few seconds, she let out a heavy sigh. "What if it rejects me?"
"Let them
know the stakes. I think they'll understand, until we find a new Keeper. The entities are intelligent. Even if it's only temporary, I think they'll accept you." In theory it sounded convincing, but doubts lingered in Raea's mind, doubts she dared not speak. They had to finish the task she and Elis had set out to complete. "You can take it back to Inar'Ahben or to the others here on Earth. One of them would be worthy. I'm sure of it."
Nare bit her lip and paced the small area before the door. A battle waged within. Raea saw it on her expression—the desire to claim a shard and the reverence of being a Crystal Keeper against the fear of being rejected or the fear of the Shirukan claiming the shard. Raea could only wonder which argument would win and let it play out in Nare's mind. She had stated her reasons.
Except for one more forming in the silence.
"And," she said quietly, "together we could fight the Risaal and retrieve Elis's body." She swallowed the emotions threatening to choke her. The least they could do was to honor Elis properly.
After a few indecisive seconds, Nare turned to her with a frown. "You said the Risaal killed him and that the Risaal attacked the homeworld twelve thousand years ago because of a gift to the Inari they wanted to reclaim, and that Lady Atia and her son Lantis escaped the Risaal. What did the Risaal want with you and Elis?"
Raea stared at the door. Josh had promised to join them to hear the story also. It might take him a while, though, and she wanted to convince Nare to help her immediately, before Nare could back down. If she was going back for Elis, she needed help. She could repeat the story for Josh when he came.
"Atlantis." After a deep breath, Raea told her the story of the first Starfire and the gift to the Risaal. She continued with how Lady Atia had planned to seal the crystal in the mountain on the island on Earth when her plan failed. She continued with how Lantis took over and described the device sealing the crystal from detection and how it had disrupted their power and caused the whole island to disappear.
Nare closed her eyes and grimaced. "I can't believe it. A whole intact Starfire crystal. Two!" She wrapped her arms around herself and shuddered. "And it made a whole colony disappear. There were rumors, hints of a lost colony, but it was only a legend. It's real, all of it. Just…gone."
"Atlantis's disappearance was an accident. They wanted to go home, but the power was redirected because of the shielding. They haven't tried again since. They need us to free them."
"And the Risaal are determined to find it…the crystal."
Raea nodded. The Risaal were willing to kill. "They have it but don't know it."
"We can't let anyone have it. It must return to its own dimension, before the Risaal or Shirukan get their hands on it." Nare let out a heavy sigh and shook her head. "You win. I'll do it. We have to free the crystal, or we all lose."
Although she should feel pleased in her victory of convincing Nare to help her, Raea's insides twisted into a mess. Neither of them won in this case. They only did what had to be done, and neither of them liked it.
"The sooner, the better," Raea said. She didn't want to leave Elis's body for them or anyone to pick apart. She had wasted enough time.
"Agreed. Before the Shirukan learn of it."
Yeah. That. "After you become Crystal Keeper of the shard in the Eye." Raea and Nare would both be targets once Nare possessed the shard of the Eye, but they would need all the power they could use when it came to freeing the other crystal. "Just don't tell that part to Josh." If she knew him, he'd try to stop her.
"Not a word. Where is he?"
Good question. "Eating, probably." She'd seen a lot of food go into Josh at lunch, yet he never put on weight. Then again, it hadn't been long since he'd left, and he had four blocks to walk home from her house.
A knock on the front door startled her. "That must be him."
Raea hurried from the room and down the stairs, careful to avoid the loose step. Josh should have come in without knocking. Was he trying to wake up Evelyn?
Raea opened the door. "Why didn't you—" That wasn't Josh.
Of all the people, what did she want, especially at that hour of the morning? Didn't she sleep?
"I thought I'd find you here," Anita said. "May I come in?"
"Shouldn't you be talking with Debbie?" The possibilities for graduation at this crucial time baffled Raea. What was Anita doing there at that hour?
Anita glanced aside at Nare, the strict lines of her mouth twitching with indecision, and she looked back to Raea. "She sent me here."
"Why?" And what was Debbie doing calling Anita that early? Graduation was the last thing on her mind. "Where is she?"
"This doesn't concern her, although I suppose it does as she is your 'aunt'. I'll explain inside…if I may?"
"This isn't a good time."
"I suppose it isn't, but what I have to say concerns your…nightly excursions."
Raea's breath stopped in her lungs. Did she know?
A smug grin curved up those fine lips. "I don't think you want the world to know."
Raea stepped back, her eyes on the woman as she entered, and closed both doors tight behind her. In the black, fitted, frock-length coat, Anita could have been Shirukan.
Was it possible?
Nare stepped around her, placing herself between Raea and Anita with her hands on her hips. She must have noticed it too.
"Anita Cross. You must be Nare." The woman held a bare hand out, a gesture no Shirukan would offer to a Keeper—the Starfire in them could be detected by touch. Not Shirukan, but she could still be a threat.
Nare hesitated to accept it and grasped the offered hand. Anita's lips curved into a sly smile with the lift of one finely plucked eyebrow. "Satisfied?"
"Of what?" Suspicion leaked heavily form Nare's voice as she dropped her hand.
"That I'm human."
Anita Cross
"Why wouldn't you be?" Caution carried in Nare's voice.
Anita wasn't looking at Nare but focused on Raea. That gaze pulled at Raea, along with her curiosity about the woman's words.
"Because you're not…Neither of you are."
Panic swept through Raea. Stay calm. She's only fishing. She doesn't know. Words stuck in her throat and she swallowed them down.
"What makes you say that?" At least Nare could speak.
Anita's eyes stayed on Raea. "Your mother came to this world nineteen years ago this month, escaping the Shirat Empire to save her unborn child…and the crystal."
Oh, my God! She does know. This was the worst possible timing.
"Who are you?" Who did she work for? Why was she there? Raea drowned in a sea of memories from her childhood, her mother's face before her in beauty and sorrow. How did this woman know about her mother? Why did she have to bring this up now? Why not sooner, or later for that matter?
Amusement briefly softened the stiff lines of Anita's face, replaced a second later by something stern. Her eyes darted to Nare, who crossed her arms with a defiant air.
Anita's lips pressed together, her eyes shifting from Nare to Raea. "I'm with a special agency of the U.S. government. I was sent to track activity in this area since the gravimetric atmospheric disturbance two years ago, especially since we knew you were here."
Two years ago…Elis's arrival. Wait; that wasn't all she'd implied. "You knew about me?" She didn't even know what she was until recently. How did the government know?
The government knew. End of story. So much for secrets, but that explained why she and Elis hadn't been disturbed in their flights or training. They were already being watched.
"Yes." Those sharp eyes could have been needles pricking Raea's skin. "Nineteen years ago, your mother was involved in an incident in which the bones of a victim were discovered. Those bones were like nothing seen before. The FBI questioned Padina and Scott, who said nothing, until my predecessors took over the investigation. They came to an agreement in which she was allowed to stay, but she would be monitored, along with her child."
Her child. Those words
sobered Raea. "Me." She wrapped her arms around herself. So much for no one knowing. Her world shrank a little smaller. "Why are you telling me this now?"
"I spoke to Debbie the other day because of the reports of frequent gravity anomalies in the sky. They've attracted the attention of several agencies, from the Air Force to NOAA and who knows who else."
Yeah. Raea hadn't considered that, or she had but no one had said anything so she pushed it from her mind. Apparently she'd been wrong about it, about many things. This all felt like an admonishment, as if she were a child caught with her hand in the cookie jar.
"I knew Debbie understood, but you disappeared later, before she could tell you. You must cease whatever you're doing, or nothing we can do will cover your secret."
Nare turned to Raea. ["Have you been practicing portals?"]
"Mm, hmm."
"We understand these anomalies are interdimensional portals generated through the crystal. This was how your mother arrived on Earth. She told us everything."
"She did?" What use was denying the truth when Anita already knew everything? "Wait. The other day?" Then Anita’s visit with Debbie wasn't about graduation.
That sly smile returned. Man, Anita gave the impression of someone taunting her with a secret. The woman hid something more than what she explained.
"From our understanding, that crystal is better off here than on your world. Earth is safer with it here. So, I did offer my help with your graduation party, to keep the impression of a normal life like Padina requested for you; but no, that wasn't all of it. I told Debbie what I told you. I didn't think you'd listen to my request to cease these portals and had hoped you would listen to Debbie."
"Debbie didn't say anything. She didn't have a chance." Raea and Elis had gone out to practice connecting to Giza when the Risaal came.
"What agency are you with?" Nare's eyes narrowed with suspicion.
Crystal Tomb (Starfire Angels: Dark Angel Chronicles Book 3) Page 18