The iron grip he’d kept on himself the past two nights disintegrated. The grim realities of their mission got shoved to the edges of his mind. He wanted this woman with an urgency that ate into him like nothing had before.
“Master!”
Max jerked his head up and smothered a curse when he spotted Peony darting toward them. Rain soaked her gown as she dodged puddles and rushed up to them.
“Chief Eunuch Tai has come with a message from the empress,” the maid gasped, gesturing toward the figure who stood in the open doorway, his arms folded across his chest and his jaw tight.
If looks could kill…
Cassie was right, Max thought. He’d made an enemy there. What he couldn’t understand, though, was the hot greed that came into the eunuch’s eyes when they raked over Cassie’s drenched robes. The man had been castrated, for God’s sake!
Then again, look what she did to Max himself. One kiss had damn near doubled him over.
He met her eyes and saw his own frustration mirrored in their green depths. The fact that she’d felt the same hot desire provided scant consolation as he scooped up the wolf pelt, draped it over her now-shivering form and steered her toward the waiting Tai.
Once inside, Max shook off the rain and addressed the eunuch. “What’s the message?”
“Her Most Heavenly Empress commands you to appear in the north hall at the hour of the tiger, when she will invest you with the rank of duke.”
The eunuch delivered the message without inflection, but he wasn’t happy about it. That was apparent when he turned to Cassie.
“You are ordered to consult with the imperial astrologer this afternoon. Together, you and Lord Sing will study the omens and recommend the most propitious time and date to begin the celebrations for the Fourfold Assembly of the Twelve Thousand.”
Max heard Cassie’s swift, indrawn breath even as his own pulse skipped a couple beats. This was it! The big show! If modern-day historians were correct, Jao would take advantage of this Buddhist holy day to step out from behind the shadow of her ailing husband and take the reins of government firmly in her own hands.
The festivities culminating in the Fourfold Assembly of the Twelve Thousand—the day Buddha’s thousands of disciples spontaneously gathered from the four corners of the world—traditionally took place in March. But there was no accurate record of the exact day the great fete began in AD 674. None that Professor Carswell had been able to find, anyway. Some texts placed it on the third day following the full moon, some the day before.
Everything depended on the mercurial March weather. Sunshine would symbolize the gods’ approval of the ceremonies and, by extension, of Jao’s authority. Storms or snow could be interpreted as a bad omen and cause heads to roll. A now-familiar tension kinked Max’s gut as Tai stabbed a finger toward Peony.
“You! Assist Spring Leaf to change, and dress her hair. I am to escort her to the chambers of the imperial astrologer at once.”
“You’ll escort us both,” Max countered.
His thoughts whirling, he dried off with the towel Peony hastily provided while the maid herself scurried into the sleeping chamber with Cassie.
Did this command mean the “seer” was still being tested? Or had the rain this afternoon convinced the empress to accept the gift from her duke-to-be? Either way, Max wasn’t letting Cassie get swallowed up and lost from sight in this vast palace.
Excitement crawled along Cassie’s nerves like fire ants as she and Max trailed Tai through a series of richly decorated corridors.
She’d spent a childhood marked by extraordinary sensitivity to nature’s vagaries. In college, she’d majored in meteorology and took a minor in biology to better understand natural phenomena. As an air force weather officer, she had been trained to support air and ground assaults using data from the global to the mesoscale. Her analyses had incorporated real-time observations, upper-air soundings, National Aviation Weather Processor model visualizations, lightning analysis and weather radar reflectivity products. She’d also been one of the first air force officers trained on the updated Global Assimilation of Ionospheric Measurement model.
Cassie fully appreciated modern technology, but her own inbred instincts engendered a healthy respect for the knowledge acquired by the ancients over past millennia. The prospect of actually sitting down with an astrologer who had access to more than a thousand years’ worth of accumulated knowledge both excited her and scared the dickens out of her.
But neither emotion came anywhere close to the kick in the gut she experienced when Tai stopped in front of a red door studded with brass characters representing the twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac.
They were all there, Cassie noted. The dog, the rat, the snake, the rabbit. Then her glance shifted to the symbols embedded into timbers framing the door, and the air squeezed out of her lungs.
Those symbols were constellations! Sagittarius. Capricorn. Virgo. And there, across the upper beam, was the star cluster of the Pleiades!
Her heart thudding, Cassie recognized the shapes depicted on the medallion pieces brought back by other Time Raiders—Delia Sebastian, Tessa Marconi and Alex Patton. These were painted on wood, not carved in bronze. But they were the first indication that those constellations held special significance here at the court.
While Tai rapped importantly on the door, she poked Max with a sharp elbow and jerked her chin toward the symbols. She saw him glance up, felt him tense. A frisson of excitement passed between them, quickly suppressed when the door was opened by a middle-aged man in the long blue robe and black button hat of a scholar.
“Chief Eunuch Tai has brought Lord Bro-dai and the seer, Spring Leaf, to see Imperial Astrologer Sing.”
The scholar bowed politely to Cassie. “The master awaits you. Please come with me.”
With a final glance at the symbols, she followed their escort into a small antechamber. He signaled Tai to wait there, then lifted a leather curtain and ushered her and Max inside another chamber.
She wasn’t sure what she expected. Witches’ kettles emitting curls of steam, maybe, or stacks of diviners’ rods propped against the walls. A giant tortoise shell for deciphering the omens in its patterns. At the very least, a black-painted ceiling studded with the signs of the zodiac done in diamonds and pearls.
Instead she and Max entered a large, airy chamber warmed by braziers. Patterned wool rugs and wall coverings suppressed the drafts. Rich furs covered the benches arranged around the master’s chair.
Twelve men occupied the benches, all wearing the blue gown of scholars and small round hats to cover their topknots. When they turned to stare at Cassie, she saw each also wore a gold pendant depicting a different animal of the zodiac. Experts, she guessed, steeped in the knowledge of their particular sign. And all extremely suspicious of this interloper in their midst. She felt a dozen pairs of eyes stabbing into her back as she bowed to their master.
“This priestess from a distant land is humbled and honored to be invited to consult with Her Majesty’s most learned imperial astrologer.”
Lord Sing sat in the high-backed chair, stroking his beard. Both he and Cassie knew she was here by royal command, not invitation, but he accepted her deferential greeting with a nod that set the ruby button on his hat winking.
“I look forward to working with you, priestess.”
“And I you, most revered one.”
He invited Max to take a seat on one of the benches, and gestured Cassie to a spot beside his chair.
“Will you take tea and sesame cakes?”
“Yes, thank you.”
His rheumy eyes studied her while servants brought the refreshments. “When you have drunk your tea, priestess, perhaps you will tell me what omens you used to divine rain this afternoon?”
“I will most gladly, Lord Sing. In turn, I hope you will teach me the signs you used.”
“You are too young to learn them. That knowledge can only come to you with another forty or fifty winters. Then,�
�� he said with a chuckle, “your bones will ache as mine do when rain approaches.”
Cassie responded with a ripple of laughter and the men around them relaxed a few degrees. She could still feel their suspicion, but it wasn’t quite as hostile as before.
“Tell me,” the astrologer said, combing his beard with those gnarled fingers, “were you born in the year of the fire dog?”
“I was indeed, learned one. How did you know?”
“It had to be either that or the year of the earth tiger. You have been taken from your land and sold into slavery, yet nothing can quench your fire or your power.”
His gaze dropped to the silver cuff banding her arm, then drifted to the identical one on Max’s wrist. When it returned to Cassie, a smile appeared briefly under his drooping white mustaches.
“Does Lord Bro-dai control you, or you him?”
“Perhaps there is some of both, most learned one.”
“Ah, yes. It is always so with those whose destinies are entwined for all time.”
All time? Cassie fought to contain her start of surprise. Had the astrologer penetrated their disguises? Did he suspect they were from a time far in the future? Or did he see something she didn’t?
As he sipped his tea, she sneaked a glance at Max. She hadn’t really thought beyond their mission. What would happen when they returned to their own century? Would Max rejoin his unit? Would she ever see him again?
Probably not. They didn’t have anything in common except their search for the medallion. Once they got back to their own time—if they got back—they would each go their separate ways.
The realization produced a surprisingly hollow feeling in the pit of Cassie’s stomach. Gulping, she tried to rationalize it away. They’d been through so much these past few days, shared such close quarters. Naturally she would feel a bond.
Then there was that kiss a while ago….
Her stomach hollowed again, so tight and fast she had to wrench her attention back to the imperial astrologer.
“When you finish your tea,” he said calmly, “we will consult the omens to determine the best day to begin the ceremonies of the Fourfold Assembly of the Twelve Thousand.”
“I’m most eager to do so, Master Sing. And if we have time, will you tell me about the symbols on the lintel above the door to your chambers?”
“The constellations? What is your interest in them?”
“I’m interested in all things, learned one, but the stars have great significance in my land.” She hesitated a moment, weighed the risks of showing her hand and took the plunge. “Legend has it that such signs were once inscribed in a bronze disk of great antiquity. Have you heard of such a disk, or seen pieces of it?”
“Perhaps.”
Her excitement returned with a wild rush. At last! Their first indication that the piece of the medallion they’d come to find might actually be somewhere in the vicinity. Struggling to conceal her leaping emotions behind a placid expression, Cassie made a polite request. “Will you tell me of it?”
“Perhaps,” he said again, slanting her a sideways glance. “We will speak of it after the Fourfold Assembly of the Twelve Thousand. For now, we must devote all our attention to ensuring the days and times we recommend to the empress for the ceremonies are most propitious, must we not?”
“We must indeed.”
“The sly old dog!”
The emotions Cassie had struggled to contain burst their bounds the moment she and Max returned to their chambers to prepare for his anointment as a duke of the realm.
“He knows where the piece of the medallion is! I know he does.”
“Then we’d better hope the sun shines on the day you two chose for the start of the festivities,” Max said with some feeling, “or the knowledge might die with him.”
“Thanks a lot. Make me feel good about our prediction, why don’t you?”
Sheer nerves tempered her excitement. After a grueling four hours of combining their knowledge and best guesses, Cassie and Lord Sing had decided on the day before the full moon for the start of the great fete. Sing would present their recommendation to the empress when he delivered her star chart for the week.
That gave Jao five days to summon her nobles to the capital. Five days for the palace cooks to prepare a great feast. Five days for Cassie and Max to wait until—hopefully!—the astrologer clued them in to the location of the bronze medallion piece.
Five days, and four nights with Max.
The thought did funny things to her stomach again. Thoroughly disgusted, Cassie summoned Peony to help rig her out in her finest robes.
“Do me up right,” she told the little maid. “I gotta go watch Bro-dai the Barbarian become a duke.”
Chapter 9
Life is really simple but men insist on making it complicated.
—Confucius
B ev Ashton stalked down the corridor leading to Athena Carswell’s office. The marine in her sounded in every rifle-sharp crack of her heels on the tiles. With each step, she swatted the thin report clutched in her right hand against the leg of her charcoal-gray pantsuit.
“We’ve got a problem,” she announced grimly as she swept into Athena’s office.
The professor’s eyes flooded with instant alarm. “Cassie and Max? They signaled? They need immediate extraction?”
Her white lab coat flapping, Athena leaped out of her chair. Bev halted her headlong rush toward the transport area with a quick negative. “No, they haven’t signaled.”
Relief coursed over Athena’s heart-shaped face. Blowing out a shaky breath, she put a hand to the brown hair that was always threatening to spill free of its careless twist.
“Then what’s the problem?”
“Not what,” Bev said, her jaw tight. “Who. Specifically, my neighbor Allen Parker. Or whoever is purporting to be Allen Parker.”
“I don’t understand.”
Bev held up the report clenched in her fist. “I had our computer whizzes run an inquiry on Parker. According to his financials, he used his American Express card to purchase a flight to D.C. and tickets to a performance at the Kennedy Center on Tuesday night. He also had room reservations at the Willard, and a homebound flight scheduled for today. None of which he canceled when he decided to stay here in Flagstaff and cook dinner for me instead.”
Athena blinked in surprise. “You had dinner with him? Isn’t this the neighbor you said would never pass the military’s ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ test?”
“That’s another thing.” To her disgust, Bev felt a surge of heat rise in her cheeks. “At dinner…We…well, sort of clicked.”
The professor was too polite to let her jaw drop, but couldn’t hide her astonishment. “You and Mr. Pinkie?”
“Exactly.” Frowning, Bev hitched a hip on her partner’s desk. “Parker acted as swishy as usual at first, but by the end of the evening he’d transitioned. Or maybe the right word is transformed. In any case, he was starting to look very good to me. Then, when I got ready to leave, he nuzzled my neck and messed around in my head somehow. I damn near had an orgasm on the spot.”
The memory of the cataclysmic sensations that had short-circuited her entire system tightened Bev’s mouth into a grim line.
“I think he’s a Centaurian, Athena. Either he always was and is just now showing his hand, or he’s taken over Parker’s body. My guess is he hopes to use me to access the lab and/or the pieces of the medallion we’ve recovered.”
The professor chewed on her lower lip. Centaurians weren’t the only ones out to sabotage Project Anasazi and steal the medallion sections. The private investigators Bev hired after the break-in at Athena’s house had tracked the burglars to a corporation with so many impenetrable layers and double blinds they still couldn’t ID the person or persons behind it. Given the vast sums of money involved, though, whoever it was had to have a corner on the petroleum or pharmaceutical or video-game market.
“How do you propose we handle this pseudo neighbor?” Athe
na asked.
Her unquestioning support eased a little of the tension that had Bev by the throat. Despite their differences, she and the professor made a heck of a team.
Athena Carswell was soft-spoken and so brilliant it made Bev’s head hurt just to try to keep up with her. By contrast, the Marine Corps had honed Bev’s leadership skills and toughened her in ways the professor couldn’t begin to comprehend. Together, she and Athena would take Allen Parker—or whoever he was—apart.
“Okay, here’s my thinking,” Bev said. “You possess the starship navigator gene. Using the crown, you can transport people through time and space. So maybe, just maybe, you could do to Parker what he did to me.”
Athena’s eyes widened. “You want me to mess around inside his head and give him an orgasm?”
“I’ll leave that part up to you. Mostly, we need to blunt whatever power he possesses.”
“I’ll do it.” Her mouth set in a determined line. “If your neighbor is in fact susceptible to sine waves, he’s in for the ride of his life.”
“Attagirl!” Bev high-fived her and pushed off the corner of the desk. “We’d better wait until we retrieve Cassie and Max, though.”
“Most definitely! If I engage in a mind battle with someone who possesses the same powers I do, it could affect my ability to bring them back. I will not lose any more Time Raiders.”
“I’ll stall him,” Bev promised. “Let’s just hope we get a signal from Cassie and Max soon.”
Real soon.
To Cassie’s surprise, the days before the Fourfold Gathering of the Twelve Thousand whizzed by in a blur of frenetic activity.
Most of that was due to Max’s new status at court. The empress not only granted him the title of duke, she invested him with the lands and revenues of the general she’d banished. Suddenly fabulously wealthy, he became an overnight favorite among courtiers anxious to curry favor. Invitations poured in to dinners, to theatrical performances, to wrestling matches and poetry readings.
Cassie was almost as popular. Everyone wanted a glimpse of the seer or, better yet, her input on their star charts. She made several visits to the Court of the Blue Hyacinth to consult with the emperor’s concubines, all but abandoned now that Jao ruled in her enfeebled husband’s name. The imperial exchequer requested her opinion on when the sap would rise in the mulberry trees so he could calculate the silk-worm tax for the coming year. Even Inspector Li came to let Cassie know he expected a suitable reward for bringing her and Max to the attention of the empress.
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