by Leena Maria
CHAPTER EIGHTY-SIX
86. In League With the Shadows
She watched them go up the stairs and into Lilith's room. When the door closed behind them, she crossed to the big stairs, and descended to the main hall. The guards recognized her and opened the doors for her on her way to the cafeteria.
She took a cup of tea and walked to the far end of the room, to the furthest possible table. It was beside a little door. She had picked its lock last night, once everyone else had left the room and placed a piece of folded paper in the latch to stop the door from locking. This effectively meant that the alarm system was not active either.
Now she placed a pile of papers and her laptop on the table next to the exit. To anyone looking in her direction it appeared as though she was deep in her studies and wanted to be left alone.
She waited until no one seemed to be paying any attention to her, poured her tea into the nearest plant pot and was out the door without anyone noticing. If anyone noticed her table was vacant, they would see her laptop and papers and think she had gone to the toilet. She listened to the noises from the kitchen in the little corridor that led to the back yard and rubbish bins. And then, as quietly as possible, she slipped out of the back door.
Keeping right to the wall, thanking her luck for the fact that the windows had been built so high she could walk right under them, she reached the garden and was quickly hidden by the shadows of the huge trees and bushes.
A little path took her to the edge of the premises, to a small gate in a wall that was so overgrown the gate was barely visible.
And there it waited for her – a big shadow with intelligent looking eyes. It did not move into the garden, but its presence was so overwhelming she felt her knees tremble.
"I got your message," she said and lifted a small note from her pocket.
The shadow nodded. Then, it wrote a few words down on a piece of paper. The combination of the shadow and the mundane, almost homely, writing implements it was holding made her shudder.
"We have taken him. He is changed."
Upon reading these words her knees gave way and she fell down. Another note was dropped over the gate onto the moss covering the old path under her.
"You will help us."
She looked up pleadingly.
"Why? There's nothing I can do anymore. You have done your worst and he is lost."
Another note.
"No, not lost. You can be together with him for an eternity. If you help us."
She read the words several times, her face hidden in her hair. When she finally looked up and met the piercing black eyes of the shadow, a look of disbelief was etched on her face.
"You mean.. That I..."
"You can be changed too. For helping us. You will love one another again."
Her hands clutched a little golden necklace around her neck. The shadow observed how the tiny little heart trembled at her throat. She was quiet for a long time, eyes downcast. The shadow waited.
"What should I do?" she finally whispered.
The shadow had won. For this it might win its own independent life from her.
Nervously the shadow listened to the connection to its Hunter, but he was far away and had cut the connection almost completely, no doubt because he did not want to reveal what he was doing to his shadow. The shadow carefully controlled its feeling of excitement so the Hunter would not become curious and notice what the shadow was about to do.
The shadow began to write in the notebook, and other shadows appeared from under the trees around it. Birds were silent, and rustling was heard in the grass as animals fled from their condensed darkness.
CHAPTER EIGHTY-SEVEN
87. The Diary
"This is written with a pencil, the text is barely visible," Lilith observed. adjusting her reading lamp closer to the page, "and the pages are much worn and crumbled... Not to mention the language. It is Finnish. Not my forte, I am afraid."
"I have translated most of it. Much is missing as pages have been damaged or torn away." Mr. Donnelly produced a little black notebook from his other pocket, cleared his throat and started reading.
"Elijah, where are you? I remember how we were watching the stars at night, next to the Nabta stones, and next morning when I woke up, you were gone. I tried to go back into the mists on my own, but I couldn't. It's as though you were never here. I know you would never leave me. So what has happened? Have they caught you? Have they... killed you? I don't know where to go. Nothing but desert everywhere and all I have left now is one bottle of water. I cannot wait for you any longer. I have to leave to survive.
"I lay there, dying, when she found me. She walked from the desert as if the sun had no effect on her. She had some kind of an animal skin bottle with her, and she gave me water from it. She carried a piece of cloth on her back, with wooden sticks, and she erected a little tent over me to give me shade. By that time I had already burned my skin. I lost consciousness for a long time. I only remember her giving me water, and humming in a strange way. She must have hunted something, because she began to feed me pieces of dry meat as soon as I could swallow. My burned skin peeled off. When I was strong enough to walk, she forced me to my feet and so we walked. I had no idea how far I had reached from Nabta until I saw the skeletons in the sand. The huge skeletons of ancient whales, lying where they had died in the ancient sea. I realized I had to be in the Valley of the Whales, the Wadi Hitan, in Egypt. I feel so relieved - we are bound to meet some tourists sooner or later!
"...and we reached the lake. A beautiful, big lake, with crocodiles in it, and a fisher village on its shore. And it was a shock. Elijah - all these people were... ancient. There was nothing modern anywhere. No cars, no TV-antennas, no wrist watches, no bright colored clothing. No shoes. I fear what this means. I sit here in one of the small mud brick houses, surrounded by women and children who gawk at me, trying to touch my hair all the time. Like they had never seen blonde hair. They speak a language I do not understand at all. I don't even understand the language of the woman who brought me here. It is certain it is not Arabic, though.
"...and this is what I saw from the boat. Elijah - it is a pyramid, and it is whole, not eroded at all. I saw a temple in front of it - and it too was whole. I have no knowledge on how to get back to you! I have no other option but to stay here at Mi-Wer, which is the name of this place of women. How could I send a message to you? Could you come back in time and fetch me? How would you find me now that I have left the stones of Nabta? How would you know how to come to this exact time and place? My heart weeps - I have lost you for good!"
Mr. Donnelly raised his eyes from his notebook.
"You know Finnish?" Reggie asked.
"I learned it – there were Finns at the City of Immortals, and I befriended them. With the use of a dictionary and all the time in the world in my hands..." Mr. Donnelly looked around nervously. "After translating most of the notebook I found these pieces of paper tucked under the leather cover. I think Elijah should read these himself."
To my surprise Mr. Donnelly was clearly holding back tears, when he fished the said papers from the back of the book. He carefully arranged them like a pieces of a puzzle on Lilith's table - this page had crumbled to the smallest bits. Elijah stepped closer and bent over the pieces.
"Translate for us," Lilith said. Elijah swallowed hard and read aloud:
"We are at Mi-Wer now. She seems to know Tiye, and has told her that I am a seer. Now that I know where I am, and with whom, I can pretend to be a clairvoyant. I try to remember everything I ever read about them, so that I can stay here. I have to because..."
Elijah stopped reading and stared at the pieces of paper.
"What is it? What does it say?" Daniel and I asked at the same time.
Elijah stared at the wall with unseeing eyes, unable to move. Gently Daniel reached across the table, turned the papers so that he could read them. I saw his lips moving, and realized he must know some Finnish too. Then his face set and he look
ed at his brother with a surprised and even alarmed expression. Elijah did not look back. After a while Daniel cleared his throat and read aloud:
"I have to because now more than ever I need a safe place to stay. I am pregnant. Elijah - I am carrying your child."
For a while it was so quiet in the room it made my ears ring.
"Elijah..." Daniel touched his brother's arm gently.
Elijah turned his head and looked at Daniel with a look of desperation and wild hope in his eyes.
"We had a child... she ended up by mistake in the times of Amenhotep the third, and she carried my child!"
"That is an amazing coincidence," Lilith breathed, "that she ended up in the very time where we are about to travel. Elijah - you might find Merit again! And your child..."
Elijah sat down and buried his face in his hands. Lilith was the only one who dared approach him and hugged him quietly.
After a while Mr. Donnelly lifted his own notebook and looked at us questioningly.
"Yes, please go on," Grandma said and Mr. Donnelly continued reading:
"All is well now. I had a fever and they feared I might die, but I survived, much to their surprise. They took care of me and..."
"Elijah, I stumbled across an incredible mystery... Those who kept an eye on us... disappeared... They were doomed to..."
"I am traveling in search of answers. There are many ancient writings preserved here that we have no idea about in our time. They have vanished during the millennia in between, but they still exist here. I did learn to read some hieroglyphs at home, but those were mostly offering formulas in tombs. I have taken on the task of learning to read this writing properly. Thankfully I am in a position where I can do so. I have become one of the children of the kap, it seems, despite the fact I am an adult."
"And I finally found my clue to the location of the neteru. It was written on a piece of papyrus in the House of Life of Inbu-Hedj, or Memphis. I do not dare write the clue down as it may get into the wrong hands. I know no one can read this yet, because the language does not even exist - what a curious feeling that gives me! But if this book ends up in the wrong hands in the future... And I admit I tore that part of the papyrus out and took it with me."
"And I have found there are Immortals here as well. I do not know how long I can keep myself hidden from them. I think my looks will raise their suspicions, if they haven't done so already. I have to retreat to Mi-Wer and keep in hiding there, out of sight, protected by the guards of the royal harem, and trust that there are enough light-colored ladies there so that I blend in. Otherwise I shall draw doom over those I love as well. But rest assured, Elijah, I will do everything I can to find you again. If I cannot enter the mists of the buffer zone, then perhaps others near me can and they can lead me through the mists of time back to you... However, to find out if that is the case, I might need to wait for many years yet. They are still so..."
Mr. Donnelly sighed, placed his notebook on the table, took his glasses off and started cleaning them vigorously with his handkerchief.
"I came to the conclusion Merit has found what the dark Nephilim are searching for. The Place of Neteru – that translates as the Place of Gods. Abode of the Gods. And the mention of 'those who kept an eye on us' could mean 'those who watched over us'..."
"The Watchers..." we breathed the word simultaneously with Diana.
"Yes, I think Merit found the location of the Watchers," Mr. Donnelly said solemnly.
No one had time to answer him, because that is when it happened. All the alarms started howling inside the Center.
"We are under attack!" the intercom on Lilith's table yelled, "The shadows are inside the Center!"
CHAPTER EIGHTY-EIGHT
88. Together in Blood
Ambrogio and Selene sailed to Ephesus, the city of Artemis. The captain of the ship did not come below deck, where Selene guarded Ambrogio's coffin. Artemis had given her instructions, and they were closely followed. Live birds were kept in a cage nearby and every day he drank the blood of one and Selene threw away the body later. It was not much, just enough to keep him looking human, but he could satisfy his hunger later when they came to shore.
The first night at sea Ambrogio came out of the casket, and told Selene what had happened. He explained that he was no longer an ordinary human, how he had killed swans to give them as gifts to the great goddess Artemis, so she would lift Apollo's curse. He could not bring himself to reveal what the swans really were, and so Selene believed that he had killed magical birds with silver blood.
Ambrogio told her about the world beyond, and of Hades's realm and Selene listened to him with shining eyes, bent forward, eager to hear more.
The hardest part was telling her about the deal with Artemis. He did not tell her that Artemis had made him immortal. Maybe he wasn't sure about that himself either. But he could not deny the changes in his body. So he carefully explained to Selene how he had made a deal with Artemis to become her Hunter. And for this reason he had been changed, so that from now on he would drink animal blood. This would make him a better hunter.
Selene accepted that. She ate meat, so she saw nothing strange in consuming the blood either.
Ambrogio stressed the fact they could not live as man and wife in the traditional way.
"Artemis told me that I will infect you if we do, and you will become very ill."
"Can't we touch?" she asked.
"I don't think so... My skin is so strange now that I am a Hunter," Ambrogio extended his arms so she could see his skin. "There is some kind of poison in it. It helps me to kill my prey. Maybe it will infect you."
His skin had changed again. Now it had become an odd pale golden color, translucent.
Selene looked him in the eyes and smiled, but Ambrogio saw the slight tremor of her lips.
"It does not matter," she bravely said, "I had already decided I would dedicate my life to the gods, maybe even be the next Pythia, if chosen, because my sister has become more and more ill with each passing year. The fumes of the earth do that to her. I never planned on marrying anyone before I met you."
"We can return. I'll take you back to Kirrha, if you so wish," Ambrogio said.
"No," Selene said, "I have made my decision. I shall remain with you."
And so they sailed together to Ephesus, to live together till the end of their days, as Selene thought.
Selene had brought with her some jewelry, and selling these meant that they could buy a small house for themselves. Ambrogio spent most days indoors, because his golden pale skin looked almost like marble in sunlight. Also his eyes had turned the same strange yellow color as Artemis's.
Ambrogio spent his time studying. The city was full of learned men, and he earned enough with the beasts he hunted to collect some savings. With these he bought copies of various written works. Studying these was a good excuse for him to stay indoors during the hours of daylight and he got himself a reputation of a scholar in a few years.
Sometimes he went hunting for days, wandering in the lonely hills where there were not many people. It was easy for him, because of the great strength, speed and agility of his body.
The did find a way to touch - Selene bought a thick, woven blanket, and wrapped it around Ambrogio. She could then hug him, and let her head rest on his shoulder. Or she wrapped herself in the blanket and he could put his arm around her. They sat like that in the evenings, under the stars, strangely content.
Their life was not rich, but they managed. Selene wove good cloth, and Ambrogio hunted. The animals that he brought to the buyers were drained of blood.
And then time began to show on Selene's face. Her young skin showed the first lines, and then its freshness began to dull. Ambrogio did not age, and began to believe that Artemis had actually made him immortal. He watched Selene with sorrow in his heart. He loved her so much, and did not want her to die and leave him alone for all eternity.
There had to be something he could do.
He had never tried t
o enter the misty world after Artemis had changed him. He was too afraid Hades would be there.
He decided he would try to contact Artemis. He still had the singing device he had used all those years ago to lure the silver wings to him. Now he ran far, into the mountains and attached the device to his throat. And then he began to sing Artemis's name.
She came so quickly it was as though she had followed him all along, and simply stepped out of a hiding place.
"How did you do that?" she asked. "What is this?"
She pointed at the device on his throat.
Ambrogio explained.
"Show me," Artemis said and Ambrogio gave her the device.
She turned it in her hands, and then put it against her own throat and sang.
The sound was so beautiful and horrible at the same time that Ambrogio could not move. She sang for a long time and the odd voice echoed from the mountains, silencing nature around them. Ambrogio was sure it froze every living thing. Her voice was so different from his human voice. Metallic, like enchanting layers of wind.
Nothing happened. No one came.
"Well, it seems they are all dead, and none is left to answer the call," Artemis said. "Here, you can keep it. It is of no use to anyone any more, and I have enough trinkets. Now tell me, why you called for me."
"My Selene is aging. She will die."
"But of course. She is mortal. Humans die," said Artemis with a lift of her brows."What else did you expect?"
"You made me immortal. Can you not do this for her too?"
"I do not need a woman to serve me. I needed a Hunter, and that is you," Artemis said and turned to leave. "I only transform people for my own needs, not from charity."
Ambrogio was certain she would disappear, but suddenly she stopped and turned.
"There is one thing no one has tried yet... might be an interesting experiment..."
"Yes, my goddess?"