“It was horrible,” Alex said. As if to protect herself, she pulled her thin hospital blanket up around her throat.
“Yes,” Bestat said.
“Max and me?”
“Very simply, you and Max are its opposite.”
“We emit light?” Alex frowned with disbelief.
“No one has ever told you that you are a bright light?” Bestat smiled at Alex.
Rather than confess that Bestat was right, Alex scowled. Bestat gave her a toothy grin.
“Is this the first time you’ve seen the black skeleton?” Bestat asked. “In dream world or the living world?”
“Is it always a skeleton?”
“No,” Bestat said. “It can be a shadow or a feeling of dread or quite possibly a flash of terror for no reason.”
“I’ve seen a shadow,” Alex nodded.
“I’m not surprised that he’s come to you now,” Bestat said. “You will have to watch for him.”
Alex shivered at the thought of having to see the dark creature again.
“Can you tell me who is behind all of this?” Alex asked. “We’ve found the families, like Josh’s old partner Dex, who’ve kept track and watched for everything to fall apart again. We’ve even heard of people who ‘want to watch the world burn.’ But I don’t know who is behind this or why they want this to happen.”
“It’s a good question,” Bestat said.
“And the answer?”
“Is complicated,” Bestat said. “As for why, the clearest answer, is that when the world is poorer, and people are hungrier and more desperate, some rise in wealth and have more power. This has always been true. As for who is behind this? That is much less clear.”
“To whom?”
“To me,” Bestat said. “I once had an answer. I believed it was one man. He created a world of evil and . . . That was a long time ago. He and his world are long forgotten, and I . . . I’m not sure what to believe. I’ve seen the world cycle through this pattern more times than I’d care to describe, and, still, I have no idea who is behind it.”
“Why?”
“I no longer believe in simple answers,” Bestat said and gave a sad smile. For the first time in knowing her, Alex felt like she was seeing the real being that was Bestat. Alex touched Bestat’s hand.
“How long has this been going on?” Alex asked.
“All of my long life,” Bestat said. “As soon as there is more liberty, more freedom, and more food, they unleash pain upon the world.”
“The way you say it . . .” Alex said. “Is it humans doing this to other humans?”
“Of course,” Bestat shrugged. “But remember, you are not the first species to burn to death on this planet. I’m not sure it’s not some kind of natural cycle for this planet. They are merely using it, enhancing the suffering, in order to bring about their own ends.”
Bestat put her hand over Alex’s and smiled.
“You are a dear friend. I’m grateful to know you.” Bestat smiled and leaned forward, “Where is the key?”
“What key?” Alex shook her head.
Alex blinked against the pain the simple movement caused.
“Good girl,” Bestat said. She put her hands on Alex’s head, and Alex felt immediate relief. “Have you found all of the components?”
“Maybe. I’m not sure,” Alex said. “What’s that have to do with this skeleton?”
“The key opens the lock to an archive,” Bestat said.
“Archive?”
“In Linear A, no less,” Bestat smiled.
“What is in this archive?” Alex asked.
“How to make it stop,” Bestat said. “Answers to the riddle of who forces the world to suffer so much. It’s an amazing place. I was there a long, long time ago. You will love it.”
“But no one knows where it is,” Alex said.
“No,” Bestat said. “I was young at the time I was there, and . . . No, no one knows. They want to get there as badly as we do.”
“Why?”
“Because we stole a few things from them,” Bestat said. “Without them, the world stays in balance. They want their items back; we want the information. There are many, many people, scholars, who say the archive doesn’t exist. It’s a dream or a myth. Linear A and the location of the archive have been lost. But I . . . I remember the archive. I know it exists.”
“I think my brain damage washed Linear A out of my brain,” Alex said.
“Did it?” Bestat asked.
“No, not really,” Alex said. “Oddly, I think it fell into place while I was sleeping. Or maybe, I’m now receptive to learning it.”
“Imagine that,” Bestat smiled.
“Did I . . .?” Alex asked.
“Would you believe me if I told you that you’ve known it all along?” Bestat asked.
“And I had to tap my heels three times to make it come to mind?”
Alex smiled.
“What are you saying?” Bestat asked.
“Never mind,” Alex said. “No, I would not believe you.”
“That’s good, because it was not true,” Bestat smiled.
“Then how . . .?”
“You’ve been working on the puzzle with a singular focus for almost six months,” Bestat said. “My guess is that you could figure out anything if you gave it that amount of time and effort.”
“Is it going to take me as long to figure out the maps?” Alex asked.
“Maps?” Bestat became very intense. She leaned forward. “What maps?”
Alex held up her hands as if Bestat were holding a loaded gun.
“I’m sorry,” Bestat leaned back. “I was surprised.”
“My grandfather had some maps,” Alex shrugged. Bestat’s reaction kept her from saying anything about the map of Ultima Thule. “I’m a cartographer. Why would you be surprised by maps?”
“The location of the archive has been lost,” Bestat said. “I thought maybe you had found a map to that location.”
“I memorized a map from a bookstore in Paris,” Alex said. She again avoided telling Bestat that she had the map. “It was of Ultima Thule.”
Bestat raised her eyebrows.
“It had a mark on it,” Alex said. “May I have a piece of paper and pen?”
“Draw on my hand,” Bestat said.
Alex scowled, but Bestat nodded to assure her.
“Let me finish it before you look,” Alex said.
“As you wish.”
Alex drew the compass rose using her finger. As she drew, lines appeared on Bestat’s hand. Alex nodded when she was done. Bestat looked down and gasped.
“Where did you see this mark?” Bestat asked.
“The maps Rebecca’s father gave her and Ben,” Alex said. She nodded, and, then, as almost an after-thought, she said, “And the map of Ultima Thule.”
Shaking her head, Bestat put her hand over her heart.
“I found a cartographer’s set at the bookstore,” Alex said. “One of your kin was there.”
“Who?” Bestat asked.
“Eloise Le Grande,” Alex said.
“No,” Bestat said. “You are mistaken. She is . . .”
“Living in Paris, apparently,” Alex said.
“Think of her,” Bestat ordered.
Alex envisioned Eloise Le Grande as the older woman she’d appeared to be, and as the young, beautiful woman Alex had met inside the store. Bestat rested her hand gently on Alex’s wrist. Bestat gasped and leaned back. Bestat’s eyes welled with tears.
“I don’t know what to say,” Bestat said. “I’m not sure if you got caught in a time loop — that bookstore has been there for a hundred years at least and has always been a mess — or, if she’s really alive. But, why . . .”
“There was a man there,” Alex said. “He used to be in French Intelligence. I didn’t realize he had left their service. He met her there.”
Bestat described the man perfectly. Alex nodded.
“Her rider,” Bestat said. “
I thought he’d killed her.”
“Controlled is more like it,” Alex said. “Dominated.”
She told Bestat about getting trapped in the bookstore by Eloise Le Grande. Bestat nodded.
“He wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference,” Bestat said.
“Josh knew something happened,” Alex said.
“Exactly,” Bestat nodded.
“Oh,” Alex said.
Bestat leaned forward and kissed Alex’s cheek.
“It heartens me greatly that Eloise Le Grande is still here,” Bestat smiled. “She’s still fighting our fight. It must have taken a tremendous strength of will to pull off the time jump without her rider knowing. She has given you an enormous gift.”
Alex smiled because she didn’t know what else to say.
“This cartographer’s set . . .” Bestat said.
“It has that mark on every piece in the set,” Alex said. “And a book in Linear A, but get this.”
“What?”
“Three of the pieces were out of the set,” Alex said. “One of them, Max and I inherited from Mom’s father. Another I got from Ben. The books was the third.”
“Good Lord,” Bestat said.
“Do you know it?” Alex asked.
“No,” Bestat said. “But it’s been a very long time since I’ve been this close to the struggle.”
“Why are you now?” Alex asked.
“Just my turn, I guess,” Bestat said.
Alex knew that Bestat was not telling the truth, but she was too tired to confront her.
“How is Ji a part of this?” Alex asked.
“You will have to ask him,” Bestat smiled. “You are tired and have been very ill. I’m going to take my leave.”
“But . . .” Alex started.
Bestat disappeared.
Alex was so desperately tired that she could only blink. A nurse came in and chatted while she took Alex’s vitals. Alex could only nod in agreement. She struggled to keep her eyes open so that she wouldn’t see the skeleton again.
Before the nurse left, Alex fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.
Chapter Thirty-four
One and a half weeks later
Saturday morning
June 11 — 9:05 a.m. MDT
Denver, Colorado
Laughing at John, Alex pushed the shopping cart into the warehouse club store. The twins were sitting on a quilted shopping-cart cover in the front compartment of the shopping cart. The babies loved the warehouse club store.
“Hey!” Max called from the door. “I forgot my card.”
Coming from behind, Wyatt flashed his card and walked past Max, who was rooted at the door.
“Hey!” Max said again.
Alex pointed to Wyatt, and Max laughed. He jogged to catch up. They were early enough that the store wasn’t crowded. Leena and Joseph were walking in front of them with a cart. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Margaret and MJ sitting with Ooljee at a white plastic table outside the snack shop. She heard Trece’s distinctive laugh near the pharmacy. They walked past Matthew and Troy arguing over an enormous flat-screen television. Alex smiled.
She loved it when everything came together.
“What adorable children!” an elderly woman wearing a headscarf said in a thick Persian accent.
“This is Joey,” Alex said. “And his sister Máire.”
Her husband stopped to say hello to the twins. The husband’s large, dark eyes took in the children and Alex. He gave her a white, toothy grin.
“They are very sweet,” he said in his deep voice. His accent matched his wife’s.
“Makes me want to have a dozen more,” the woman said. “What do you say, Heydar?”
The man laughed, and they moved on. As they walked away, Alex could have sworn the man had a bony ridge down his back. One minute the ridge was there, and the next it was gone. He turned to smile at Alex. She smiled back.
“Our list,” John said. He made a show of taking out his smartphone.
“It’s huge, I know,” Alex said. “Cian is in total freak-out mode.”
“It’s our babies’ birthday,” Wyatt said. “He should be.”
Raz came up from behind them.
“Sorry I’m late,” Raz said. “Sami’s parking the car. We got stuck in traffic picking up . . .” Raz leaned in as if he were telling a big secret. He mouthed, “the cake.”
“There’s a special half-birthday cake?” Alex asked.
“Of course, there is — a half-cake,” Raz said.
“We’ll get a regular cake for their birthday,” John said. “In December.”
“But really, it’s such a mess with the holidays,” Wyatt agreed.
“They need their own celebration,” Raz said.
Max and Alex looked at each other and then looked at John, Wyatt, and Raz. The twins laughed. They continued walking along the wide concrete aisle toward the back of the store. The warehouse seemed cold, so Alex checked the twins. They were warm and happy.
“Do we need another couple of carts?” Alex asked.
“Oh,” John stopped walking. “You think so?”
Alex laughed. John leaned forward and kissed her.
“Let’s get one cart at a time and only if we need them,” Max said.
“Good thinking,” Raz said.
“Sorry,” Samantha said as she jogged up. Samantha leaned over to say hello to Joey and Máire. “How are the birthday twins?”
Joey grabbed Samantha’s long auburn hair, and Máire laughed. Alex stepped back from the cart so that Samantha could free her hair. Samantha took over pushing the cart.
“Bread,” Alex said. “We need seven loaves or something. Is he really making a bread pudding?”
“I’m afraid so,” John said.
Alex looked up and saw that Peggy, Sergeant Dusty’s wife, and Sergeant Dusty were standing near the meat section. Their middle child was sitting in the cart on a quilt that looked suspiciously like her twins’ cart quilt. Peggy’s mother was carrying their youngest. Their oldest son took off running, and Sergeant Dusty ran to catch up. Alex pointed down an aisle.
“I’ll get the bread,” Alex said.
“I’ll help carry,” Raz said.
John stepped close to Samantha to show her the list. Wyatt and Max moved closer to the cart. Halfway down the aisle, Alex turned to look. John and Samantha looked like they were taking their twins for a day out. Raz put his arm around Alex, and they moved quickly down the aisle. The shopping aisle ended at a wall of the store. Leena was kneeling down to get bread from the bottom shelf in the corner of the store. Colin was standing next to her with a cart. They didn’t acknowledge Raz and Alex.
Alex and Raz walked past Colin and Leena to a door. Raz pushed open the door, and Alex walked through. Raz followed. They were standing on the edge of an open storage area. Alex took out her handgun, and Raz had his hand on his. He pointed to his left, and they went between two aisles of stacked pallets of kitchen appliances wrapped in cellophane.
Zack was standing in the middle of the aisle. He nodded to Alex and gestured behind him. Alex and Raz continued down the aisle. They found Matthew and Troy standing in the middle of the aisle. They were both holding machine guns.
“He’ll meet you back there,” Matthew said. He pointed with the weapon toward the aisle behind him.
Alex nodded. Looking where Matthew indicated, she saw that a brand-new leather couch had been pulled from a stack of couches and set up along the end of the aisle.
“You’re to get there first,” Matthew said.
Alex nodded that she remembered. She gave Matthew and Troy a vague smile before she and Raz went to sit on the couch. Raz put his arm on the back of the couch. Alex gave an involuntary shiver, and Raz scooted next to her.
“Cold,” she said. “I can’t seem to warm up after . . .”
“After seeing an energy-absorbing skeleton?” Raz asked under his breath. “Gosh I don’t know why.”
She smiled at him.
“I’ve missed you,” she said. “We should hang out.”
“I’ve been there,” he said. “More than the others. I took you to the hospital.”
She smiled to acknowledge the gift of his friendship, and his eyes scanned her face.
“You think my father . . .”
“Who knows?” Alex shrugged. “I’ll find him. I promise you that.”
Raz nodded.
“Do you think I’ll meet him?” Raz asked.
Alex smiled.
“What?” Raz asked.
“You’re not worried about whether or not your mother was a dragon rider,” Alex said. “You just worry about the dragon.”
“Oh, Momma . . .” Raz sighed. “She had everyone tamed. It’s not too surprising that she could tame a creature such as that.”
He looked at her and nodded.
“I’m a little surprised that you’re not a dragon rider,” Raz said.
Alex smiled.
“What?” Raz asked.
“Max and me, we’re fairies,” Alex shrugged. “In Ireland, fairies are a different kind of being, a separate, possibly older, species of human. Any archeological remains are commonly thought to be fairy mounds. Move a fairy mound and you risk utter ruin. Many people believe that fairies were a different species, something unique.”
“What happened to them?” Raz asked.
“Inter-bred with humans,” Alex said. “Killed outright. Those folks from Rome didn’t like anything they couldn’t control. They set a lot of Irish ‘snakes’ on fire.”
Alex shrugged.
“Here he comes,” Raz said.
Alex and Raz stood from the couch. They watched the Admiral in Charge of Special Operations and his bodyguards walk toward them. When he arrived, his security team went to join the Fey Team. His personal bodyguard, Waltry, stood by one end of the couch, and Raz stood by the other end. Alex gestured to the couch, and the Admiral sat down.
“How’s the fishing, sir?” Alex asked.
“Good,” the Admiral said. “The trout are eager but wily.”
“That sounds like a good thing,” Alex said.
“My wife appreciates the chance to spend time with the grandkids,” the Admiral said. “Thank you for the use of your family cabin.”
Finding North Page 33