Owl and the City of Angels

by Kristi Charish

  Rynn was finding my discomfort way too entertaining. I switched my attention back to Nadya. “See if you can find where Carpe is. We need that map. Now.” Carpe was off with our friendly neighborhood genie, Nomun. Apparently the agreement to get us into the city meant through the front gate. Not that I was complaining; I think Carpe was more afraid of the genie than Rynn . . .

  As soon as Nadya was out of earshot, Rynn set in on me. “So Dr. Hill is the postdoc who ruined your life?”

  I nodded and did my best to stifle another coughing fit. “Yup, that’s about it.”

  Rynn seemed to consider that. “No offense, but present company excluded, you have horrible taste in men.”

  “Right back at you,” I said.

  “What is that supposed to mean?”

  I nodded in the direction Nadya had headed, where Nomun was also overseeing Rynn’s collection of pirates. “Funny, when you said you’d been working on the pirates, I didn’t think you meant it quite so literally.”

  He frowned. “I was pressed for time. Besides, they’re enthralled, not mind controlled. I’m not doing any permanent damage, and it’s not like I had a lot of options. Deal with it.”

  “So the best solution you could come up with was to make the five of them fall madly in love with you?” Turns out Rynn hadn’t had to fight any of the pirates. Once he’d had enough of them enthralled, they’d just let him out. “You realize it’s not helping the case that you aren’t a whore,” I said.

  “Will you please, for the love of God, stop with the whore jokes? At least until we get out of this mess? And only one of them thinks he’s in love with me. The other four don’t play for that particular team, and to be honest, I don’t think number five thought he did either. They’re more like extreme super fans. And who are you to complain? I put up with the stealing.”

  “The point is you enthralled a pack of pirates.” When I said it like that, it sounded like collecting baseball cards. “It’s creepy, all right.”

  “For the love of— Trust me, this isn’t a walk in the park. It’s disturbing being inside their heads, even on an emotional level. Granted, you’d be worse—”

  “Wait a minute, how the hell am I worse than pirates?”

  I watched as Rynn weighed his answer. “They’re mean and enjoy violence—it’s uncomfortable, but I can manage. You’re a roller coaster of conflicting emotions on a good day. It’d take more effort than I’m willing to expend to manage what goes on inside your head.”

  Not sure how I felt about that assessment . . . “Just so we’re all clear on this though, you could do that to me, the whole enthralling thing?”

  “I already promised I wouldn’t. Can we please drop the pirates?” he said, then gave me a critical look. “To be honest, I’m amazed you’re taking it this well.”

  “Blame it on the fever. I’ll freak out once I’ve got the curse lifted.” Not to mention the over-a-few-thousand-years-old detail Artemis had hinted at back at Daphne’s. That is, if I got the curse lifted . . . which reminded me, I might never have the chance to ask Rynn again . . .

  “What the hell does seereet mean?” I said.

  “I prefer the game where you try to guess where I’m from.”

  I shook my head. “Odds are not in my favor. I have it on questionable authority you were around for Caligula. Borders change too much over a couple thousand years—”

  Rynn swore.

  “You can thank your cousin for that tidbit. Come on. Seereet means ‘thrall’ or ‘incubus dinner,’ doesn’t it?”

  “Alix—not now.”

  “You might as well tell me. Come on—‘nonsupernatural’?”

  “My God, if I didn’t—” Rynn made an exasperated noise and drew in a breath. “There is no direct translation for seereet. It’s an old word, and it’s a description used for someone’s energy—aura, you might call it, but that’s a human word as well and not completely accurate.”

  I knew it. They’d been calling me some derogatory word for humans to my face . . . “Spit it out. What have all the supernaturals been calling me?”

  He swayed his head from side to side, weighing his answer. “The closest translation would be—”

  “Thief, it’s thief, isn’t it?”

  “Train wreck,” he said.

  Oh . . . Somehow I hadn’t seen that one coming. “I have the aura of a train wreck?” Somehow that was a bit of a letdown.

  “Not exactly, but close enough.”

  Hunh. I picked up the binoculars and started surveying the monastery again. The supernaturals had been calling me “train wreck” to my face . . .

  Rynn gave me a wary look. “I didn’t tell people to call you that, I swear—”

  It was my turn to shake my head. “No. I heard you the first time. It’s an aura thing.” Though I decided it was time to switch subjects. I jerked my head in the thralls’ direction. “Are you sure we can trust them?”

  Rynn shrugged. “As far as you can trust anyone enthralled against their will—”

  Someone cleared their throat.

  I put down the binoculars. Carpe stood behind us with Nadya . . . and Nadya looked pissed.

  “Carpe, where’s my World Quest map of the Syrian temple?” I said, letting the threat come through in my voice.

  He cleared his throat again and glanced warily at Rynn. “There’s been a complication—” he started.

  I’d had it with his bullshit. First the detour to Egypt, now this. I didn’t let him finish. Instead, I jumped up and pinned him to the cliff wall behind us. The nice thing about elves is they’re light. “Let’s just be real clear on something before another word leaves your mouth—if you even come close to insinuating I just wasted two days and my life chasing after your book and you can’t get my map—”

  “No. I can get the map! Just stop strangling me and I’ll explain.”

  Against my better judgment, I let Carpe go.

  He rubbed his neck for a moment and glared at me. “The programmers have agreed to give us the map. It’s just that they want to have a meeting with us on World Quest—to negotiate . . .”

  “I told you to make World Quest your bitch. Where the hell do you figure negotiate fits into that?”

  He straightened up. “It means we won’t be stealing, and they promise they’ll give us the map. They just want to talk.”

  I closed my eyes. Deep breath, Owl . . . “Fine, get them online now so I can tell them to give me my fucking map.”

  “It’s not technically your map, and it’s not that simple—”

  I opened my eyes and narrowed them at him. He fidgeted but tread onwards. “Look, they want to meet with us in an hour and a half. As a piece of goodwill, they won’t remove our characters or ban us . . .”

  “So let me get this straight. You have your spell book and I’ll maybe have a map in an hour and a half if the game designers decide to give it to us in a place of their choosing?”

  “They’ll give us the map, but all bets are off if we no show. Sorry, but that’s the best I could do in line with my own ethics.”

  The best he could do? I held out my hand. “Rynn, give me your gun,” I said.

  “Why?”

  “So I can shoot the elf and take my goddamn spell book back.”

  Rynn and Nadya tried to grab me, but on account of my extreme sweatiness I slipped through their grasp, knocked Carpe to the ground, and straddled him. Considering Carpe was taller and heavier than me, I was surprised I’d knocked him over. “Give me my book back!”

  “I’ll get you your map, I give you my word!”

  “In an hour and a half I could be dead!” I wound up to hit him.

  The fever had slowed me down, and he was able to hook my leg and flip me over. He pinned me down. Not hard, just enough to keep me from hitting him. “Will you please listen—What are you d
oing?”

  I didn’t have enough strength to throw Carpe, so I was doing the next best thing—reaching around and grabbing his backpack zipper. “Getting my spell book back until you give me the fucking map.” I reached inside and felt around . . . found it. I started to pull it out, when Carpe grabbed my arm.

  I used the fact that Carpe wasn’t trying to hurt me to my advantage. I grabbed both sides of his collar and crossed my arms, hoping chokes worked as well on elves as they did on humans.

  “Will you stop that? It’s a matter of life and death that I deliver the spell book into the right hands—” Carpe forced his hand between my fist and his neck, buying his carotid artery a little more time.

  “So is my map.”

  It was at that point Rynn and Nadya hauled us apart.

  I noted the genie, Nomun, had made an appearance as well and was watching from a little ways away.

  “You’ll get your damn map soon enough,” Carpe said to me, sitting up and rubbing his throat.

  “It’ll be too late,” I said. I was doing a passable job pretending I was OK, but it was a show. I was weak, and my vision was acting up.

  Carpe’s face softened. “Look, I want you to get the curse lifted as well—as much as those two do—”

  I snorted.

  “But I’m not stealing it from the developers when they’ve offered me an alternative.” He stood up. He actually looked mad; he was even clenching his fists by his side.

  Granted, so was I.

  “Enough, both of you,” Rynn said, stepping between us. He pointed at Carpe first. “Give the book to Nomun. If you deliver the map, you can have the book. If not—” He shrugged.

  Carpe glared at Rynn. “You know perfectly well I need that—”

  “I know you traded Alix for a very specific map, which you have yet to produce. No map, no book. Only fair.”

  Carpe swore but pulled the book the rest of the way out of his backpack and handed it to Nomun.

  Rynn turned to me next. “Alix—”

  “It doesn’t matter if he gets the map in an hour and a half, if I wait any longer I might start bleeding out of my nose. I need to be in there now, map or not.”

  “There are two of you, no?” Nomun said, frowning.

  Nadya shook her head. “Alix is the trap and tomb expert—I’m translation.”

  “Nadya can pick up some of the slack, but not if I’m a drooling mess.” This was what I got for going on Carpe’s damn goose chase. I should have ditched him in Egypt . . .

  “What if we went in now and you logged in once you were inside? We have a general idea where to go, no?” Nadya said.

  I weighed that idea. The pirates’ notes on the dig had been surprisingly sparse, as if someone had given them most of the directions. Still, I had a general idea where under the monastery I was headed. It was the details about the catacombs underneath, the city itself, I needed.

  “If we go now, we can use the thralls as a distraction,” Rynn added. “It’ll buy you time to get in. Nomun, can you get us in closer undetected?”

  The genie looked over the encampment and nodded. “Close, yes, but not to the gates, not if you wish to remain secret.”

  Rynn turned to me. “Alix, it’s your call.”

  Risk getting caught in an IAA camp or put my trust in Lady Siyu being sufficiently motivated and capable of finding her own cure . . .

  I grabbed my pack and shoved my laptop inside, since I’d be needing it.

  Most of the lights in the monastery were on now that dusk had rolled into the mountains. I nodded at Nadya and Rynn. “Well, it certainly is prettier with the lights on. What do you say we wander over and take a look?”

  Nadya grabbed her bag. “I thought you’d never ask.”

  There certainly were a lot of IAA agents milling around. Funny how it looked like a lot less from a half mile away . . .

  “I think I preferred the IAA when you could just stroll right in,” I whispered to Nadya.

  We crouched behind an old stone wall that kept us hidden in the dark but wouldn’t provide an iota of cover if they started shooting. On top of that, my stomach was still churning after Nomun had dropped us off by way of air genie travel, which, by the way, is unnerving as hell . . .

  I tapped my earpiece. Miraculously I hadn’t broken it yet. “Any bright ideas how to get inside?” I asked Rynn. Nomun had dropped him and his pirates off on the other side of the monastery, where the mountain offered more cover.

  “At this point? Not without alerting every agent in the area,” Rynn said.

  Nadya jabbed me in the side and pointed towards the main entrance as Cooper walked in accompanied by two other people, one of which was Odawaa, much to my dismay.

  “Damn it, I’d really hoped the golem had gotten him,” I said.

  On the bright side, Odawaa looked pissed and was having heated words with Cooper—probably about the disposable pirates.

  I focused in on the third person following a few feet behind, who didn’t follow Odawaa and Cooper in but instead hung back by the entrance. Wait a minute . . . the gait, hunched shoulders, general meek stance. “Nadya, guy by the door,” I said, just to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating.

  She peeked over the crumbling wall. “What is Benji doing here?” she said after a moment. “I thought he was in Egypt.”

  “That’s exactly why he’s here. You said yourself your Russian contacts were putting pressure on them to close this dig down, right? Where better to fly more manpower in from but Egypt? Benji knows his tombs, and it’s faster than flying someone in from overseas. Probably grabbed a few extra hands from Turkey and Israel too.”

  In fact, the archaeologists were running around like worker ants. Burning the candle at both ends—dangerous and stupid. Dig sites—­especially cursed ones—induced sleep deprivation in the best of grad students all on their own; working them like this was a recipe for disaster. On top of that, how the hell could the IAA expect to keep track of them all?

  That and the addition of Benji to the equation gave me an idea . . .

  “Change of plan,” I whispered. “I think I found us a better way in.”

  She gave me a wary look. “How come I get the distinct impression I’m not going to like this?”

  I smiled and pulled my hood up. “Because it’s a little out of the box.” I tapped my comm again. “Rynn, I think I know how to get inside. How about a distraction your way?” If they were focused on the mountainside, they wouldn’t be looking in our direction.

  “The deal was to go in together.”

  “Trust me, will you? Besides, you’ll be next to useless in the tomb, and we need someone out here to tell us what the hell Odawaa and ­Cooper are up to.”

  “You don’t want to risk being spotted.”

  “I’ll be fine. I’m not going on a vengeance streak against my former boss,” . . . who ruined my life, completely annihilated any trust I had for authority figures . . . stole my goddamned thesis project I’d worked on for three years straight. . . .

  “You forget I know you, Alix.”

  I opened my mouth to say something snarky back, but there was no accusation or judgment in Rynn’s voice.

  I let out my breath and calmed my nerves as I watched Cooper step outside to talk to Benji. I couldn’t bring myself to lie—not even a white one. “I’ll try to avoid him . . . no promises though if the opportunity presents itself.” There was a pause on Rynn’s end, so I added, “I’ve managed to stay alive for the past twenty-seven years all on my own—I can handle a few more hours. Just trust me, will you?”

  “All right, one distraction coming up. Odawaa being there gives me an idea.”

  I waited for what seemed like an awfully long five minutes.

  I saw the flash before something exploded in the hills, and the next thing I knew there was screaming and gunfire.
All the nearby IAA rushed towards the other side of the monastery. Odawaa and Cooper came out and jogged towards the commotion.

  Now or never.

  I threw my backpack over my shoulders. Captain mewed inside. “This time no vampires. I mean it. I don’t care what the hell you catch smell of.”

  Captain mewed in acknowledgment, but I’m not sure it was in agreement.

  We waited for two nearby guards to rush by before jumping the fence and entering the throng of panicked archaeology grads—unfamiliar to both the IAA and each other—every last one looking as worn out as we did.

  Heads down, we hightailed it to the main entrance. Benji was hugging the nice, sturdy stone wall, where he had easy access to rooms that had stood thousands of years through earthquakes, wars, and other disasters. Good for Benji; he was learning to find good hiding spots from monsters and shrapnel.

  My hand fell on Benji’s shoulder, and I squeezed. “Hey, fancy meeting you here.”

  He spun around, his face drained white as if he’d seen a ghost. There were heavy bags under his eyes, a few days’ worth of stubble, and his normally neat hair was greasy.

  “You look awful,” I said, and it was true; he looked worse than when I’d seen him a few days ago in Egypt.

  He opened his mouth to say something, but before he could, Nadya clamped her hand over his mouth and together we pulled him into a darkened, unguarded side alcove just inside the monastery proper. I made the universal symbol for Shhh and, slowly, Nadya removed her hand from his mouth.

  “Alix—what the hell?” Benji started.

  “Knock off the high horse. I’m not the one opening up a cursed dig site.”

  He glared as he pushed greasy bangs out of his face. “I’m not here by choice. They moved me and ten other archaeologists in two days ago, and we’ve been working nonstop. Now get the hell out of here before I get in trouble. I almost got sent to Siberia for Alexandria.”

  “I’m sorry, you must not have heard the cursed part.”

  “You think I don’t know? Everyone knows the site’s cursed, and they have us excavating anyways. It’s not my call—”

  “They’re selling cursed artifacts, Benji,” Nadya said.