The Bone Scroll: An Elemental Legacy Novel

by Hunter, Elizabeth

  * * *

  They flew down from their perch and shook off the damp as best they could under the verandah. Tenzin flew to the breaker box on the side of the house, and Ben could feel the nearly imperceptible shift in energy when the electricity went completely dead.

  Using a set of lockpicks, he quickly opened the french doors leading to the dining room; then he waited for Tenzin to catch up. When she finally appeared, she looked like a cat that had fallen in a lake.

  “I hate being wet.”

  He smiled and tucked a wet chunk of hair behind her ear. “You look adorable though.”

  “I want a warm bath when we get home. Maybe a steam bath.”

  “I’ll see what I can do.” He nodded toward the darkened house. “Can we go steal some stuff now?”

  She perked up. “Yes, please.”

  They split up and went to work, checking each room for hidden safes, doors, or wardrobes. The dining room was a bust, as was the meeting room, library, and one room that looked wholly devoted to maps. There was also a room full of athletic equipment and a salon that held a grand piano and pretty much nothing else.

  Ben was starting to fear they’d have to intrude on the residence side, which he had wanted to avoid, when Tenzin hit pay dirt in the billiard room.

  There was a tall locked cabinet that seemed like it would be the perfect place to store cue sticks, but why would it be locked? Ben quickly picked the small lock and opened the cabinet to reveal exactly what he’d expected, cue sticks, frames, and various sets of billiard balls.

  “Wait.” Tenzin moved him to the side and worked a single fingernail into the velvet edge of the frame holding the sticks. “It’s too deep for only this. There’s something behind it.”

  “A false bottom?”

  “Or back.” She couldn’t budge the velvet backing. “There has to be a trigger.”

  Ben searched the rack for anything that looked out of place and found a single bracket where the velvet seams ran around the base of the bracket instead of being smooth. The base was worn in a way that the other brackets weren’t. He gently pushed in and was rewarded when the bracket sank into the wall and triggered a soft click.

  The front of the cabinet swung open to reveal a simple wooden door, which was also locked, but this time it was a combination.

  “Let me.” Tenzin nudged Ben to the side and put her ear next to the lock. While humans needed extra equipment to hear the delicate clicks of an old-fashioned combination lock, vampire ears were better. Within minutes, Tenzin had the lock open and a door leading to a set of stairs finally revealed itself.

  “Interesting.” He left the door open—God knew if there was a way out from the inside—and he and Tenzin descended the stairs.

  The feeling of confinement made his amnis twitch. He was a creature of air now, and the longer he spent in his element, the more confinement uneased him. He wasn’t claustrophobic, but he definitely preferred having space.

  They reached the bottom of the stairs, and Ben was pleasantly surprised. It didn’t smell like a normal basement—there was no earthen smell or dampness. The walls were lined in cedar and the floor was polished stone. It was cold and windowless, but other than that, it felt exactly like the rooms in the main house, even down to the wingback chairs and reading nook in one corner.

  Ben turned in a circle. “Where is it? It has to be down here somewhere.”

  Tenzin walked over to a tapestry hanging on one wall. “Here.” She pulled back a corner and Ben saw the vault door.

  He held up the tapestry and asked her, “Can you get in?”

  She cocked her head, then crouched down to examine the large wheel that blocked the door. “It’s really just a combination lock with fancier clothes. I can get in, but it’ll take a little longer.”

  Ben was mentally calculating how much time they’d already spent in the house. They were nearing twenty minutes at least. “Get to it,” he said. “This is what we came for.”

  Tenzin put her ear to the large metal door while Ben held the tapestry up. She fiddled with the lock, turning it right, then left, making mental notes when she hit a catch in the combination.

  Ben kept his ear aimed at the stairwell and was shocked when he heard a small tapping coming near the door.

  “Shit,” he whispered.

  “What? I’m almost done.”

  “Someone’s coming.”

  Tenzin’s head popped up. “What? I don’t hear… It’s a dog.”

  “A dog?” He shook his head. “The dogs don’t go in the house.”

  The corner of her mouth turned up. “This one does.”

  The clicking of nails on the stairs was unmistakable. Just as Tenzin unlocked the combination and wheeled the door open, a tiny ball of fluff trotted from the base of the stairs over to them and looked up. The animal’s fur was grey with a bright white vee marking his forehead. His ears were floppy grey puffs, and his tail was a pom-pom curled over his back.

  “What is that?” Ben asked.

  Tenzin laughed a little. “I believe that’s a shih tzu. Or a Tibetan lion dog.”

  “Lion dog?”

  The small canine squinted up at them, and a low growl came from his tiny squashed face.

  “Yes,” Tenzin said. “They were prized by Chinese royalty. Known for their playful personalities and…”

  The dog opened its small underbitten mouth and let out a loud string of yaps that threatened to pierce Ben’s eardrums.

  “Shit!” He reached to pick the dog up before it could make any more noise. He put a hand over the dog’s muzzle, but the creature continued to growl and bark.

  “Yap yap yap yap!”

  “Loyalty,” Tenzin said. “They’re known for their loyalty.”

  “How do we make it stop barking?”

  “Yap yap yap!”

  Ben was certain that lights were being tried all over the residence, and even though they were in the basement, the dog’s piercing barks were echoing everywhere.

  “Tenzin, do something!”

  “They’re usually quite sweet.” She batted Ben’s hands away. “Don’t smother the little thing. He’s only doing his job.”

  “You take it then!” Ben held the animal out to Tenzin just as it opened its jaw and snapped Ben’s finger, drawing blood. “Oh, you little—”

  “Come here.” Tenzin lifted the dog up to her face and answered its growl with a curled lip and growl of her own.

  The little thing let out a small whine and quieted down. Then Tenzin took something from her pocket and gave it to the dog.

  “What is that?”

  “A piece of bread.” She ruffled the fuzzy head and lifted the collar. “Bowie. Bowie likes bread.”

  And Tenzin apparently. After her growl and offering of food, the little ball of fluff had settled into the crook of her arm and snuggled down. Every time Ben got too close though, it growled. Just a little.

  Ben snuck back out of the basement and waited at the door to hear if any humans were stirring in the house. He heard a few loud snores, then a murmured admonition and the snoring died down. Five full minutes later, he returned to the basement to see Tenzin standing next to the safe door, the dog nestled happily in her arm.

  “Enough dogs,” he muttered. “Let’s see what’s in here.”

  He pulled the door wide and walked inside, lifting the electric lantern he’d brought and swinging it around the room.

  “Damn, Nigel.” Ben shook his head. “You have been a greedy boy.”

  The walls of the room were hung with gold-framed paintings and various crosses that looked to be solid gold. At the end of the room in a glass case was a velvet, gold, and pearl crown sitting on a blue velvet rest. There were carved masks and bronze artwork. Ben spotted the carved wooden box on his second pass.

  “Here.” He set the lantern down and reached for the box. “Look at the carvings. They’re typical of Lalibela artwork.”

  “Lalibela?” Tenzin frowned. “That was the Zagwe capital.”


  “So maybe it was found there,” Ben said. He lifted the hinged lid of the box to reveal a delicate gold, pearl, and diamond diadem. “Oh my God. Here it is.”

  “Desta’s crown,” Tenzin said. “It looks just like Lucien’s sketch.”

  The delicate circle of gold was rich with pearls and bright blue stones that sat in a diamond-cushioned setting. The motif was lively, with paper-thin gold leaves circling the diadem. Pearls hung from the bottom of the crown with one giant gem in the center that would hang on the wearer’s forehead.

  “It’s stunning,” Tenzin said. “Truly fit for a queen.”

  “Or the true love of an emperor at least.” He nodded toward the other crown. “Any ideas about that one?”

  “Later era,” Tenzin said. “But still well over two hundred years old. Solid gold and velvet. The stones alone are worth a fortune. I don’t think that belongs to the British government, do you?”

  “Definitely not.” Ben closed the box that held Desta’s crown and turned to the crown. “I have an idea.” He looked around the room. “One that might gain us some goodwill here in Addis.”

  Tenzin rubbed Bowie’s furry head; the dog was completely under her spell now. “I have a feeling I might know what you’re thinking.”

  “Crowns, crosses, and I see at least one manuscript that looks like a contemporary of the Garima Gospels.” He shook his head. “All of this should be in museums.”

  Tenzin looked a little crestfallen. “You mean we’re returning all of it?”

  “All of it, Tenzin.” He picked up the box. “Except for this one. This is for Saba and Saba alone.”

  Bowie whined a little when Tenzin stopped petting him.

  “I know, Bowie.” Tenzin sighed. “I feel exactly the same way.”

  20

  Giovanni watched with wide eyes as Ben and Tenzin unloaded everything they’d managed to stuff in their backpacks, along with the wooden box that Ben carried and the small dog Tenzin hadn’t yet returned.

  What could she say? Every time she put it down, it started barking.

  Giovanni shook his head. “You cannot keep the ambassador’s dog, Tenzin.”

  “You tell her,” Ben muttered. “I couldn’t get her to leave it there.”

  “He threatened to wake the house every time I put him down,” she said. “What was I supposed to do? Let us get caught because Ben doesn’t like the dog?”

  “He bit me!”

  “You did not make any effort to establish dominance,” Tenzin said. “Lion dogs are small but very proud.” She didn’t understand why it was a hard concept for him. He was certainly not shy about establishing dominance with human or vampire males.

  Sadia had followed them in the library, and she was jumping up and down. “Can we keep him? He’s so cute!”

  “No, Sadia. He belongs to another family.” Giovanni unwrapped a particularly beautiful cross with a Star of David worked into the gold. “And you have a dog at home. My God, they had all this in their safe?”

  “And more,” Ben said. “We couldn’t carry half of it. We just took the most valuable pieces from what I could tell.”

  Sadia was petting Bowie’s head. “He’s so fluffy!”

  Tenzin handed the dog to her. The little lion dog was panting and wagging his tail so furiously Tenzin thought his butt might just fall off. “Take him out to the garden. He probably has to urinate.”

  “Okay.” Sadia bounced out of the library with Bowie in her arms.

  Ben pointed at the door. “You’re taking it back.”

  “Tomorrow night.” She shrugged. “Let Sadia play with him tonight. I don’t think he gets enough attention at that house.”

  “That dog looks pampered within an inch of its life,” Ben said. “Can we talk about these crosses please?”

  There were over a dozen crosses that appeared to be solid gold in every configuration imaginable. Lalibela-style, Gondar-style, Coptic-style crosses, and those with Judaic iconography.

  Giovanni touched them gently. “These all must have been taken from churches, but I have no idea how to get them back to their rightful places.”

  “We give them to Hirut,” Ben said. “We’re flying to Lalibela tomorrow night, right?”

  “Yes. Doug and Zain have already left with the Land Cruisers. Mika has arranged other transport for us to the airport.”

  “Call Hirut tonight,” Ben said. “Tell her we’d like a meeting tomorrow before we leave. If we return these crosses to her along with the crown and the manuscripts, she’ll know where to send them, right?”

  Giovanni nodded. “I would think so.”

  Tenzin said, “And we’ll also garner more than a little goodwill.”

  “Yes, I imagine you’re right.” Giovanni looked at Ben. “And no one at the embassy is going to raise the alarm?”

  “What are they supposed to say?” Ben pointed to the crown. “Oh, by the way, someone stole a bunch of antiquities that were looted a hundred years ago from our secret vault of stuff we’re holding on to. Can the police investigate that for us or no?” Ben shook his head. “They didn’t want anyone to know they had this stuff; they’re not going to report it.”

  Daniel barreled into the library with a muddy face and clothes that definitely needed to visit a washtub. “Glorious. Absolutely glorious forest. The leopards were stunning.” He pointed over his shoulder. “Is that the ambassador’s dog Sadia has in the garden?”

  “I told you he followed us,” Tenzin said. “Yes. I’ll return him tomorrow night. I’m a thief, not a dognapper.”

  “You’re a dog borrower,” Ben said. “Totally different.”

  “It is different because I’m giving the little animal an adventure. He’s descended from wolves, you know.” Not that you’d be able to tell from the soft fur, silly underbite, and elaborate tail. “If we give these to Hirut, she’s going to know we have ulterior motives, but she might not care.”

  “Nevertheless,” Giovanni said. “We told her that nothing of Ethiopian origin would leave Ethiopia without Saba’s permission, and we’re holding to that.”

  The following night, as Giovanni and Beatrice prepared to move the household north to Lalibela, Ben and Tenzin met Hirut at the top of Entoto Hill, which overlooked Addis. Hirut strolled through the restored grounds of Emperor Menelik’s palaces and throne rooms, which were open to the public during the day and used for the occasional state banquet in the evening.

  “It’s beautiful to see these things restored,” she said. “I remember when they were built.”

  The cobblestone path was lined by towering cedars and flowering jacaranda trees. The gardens were a riot of color, and the fountains in the distance trickled a playful melody in the night. The stars were more visible on the hills above the city, and the night sky was a deep blue washed with drifting clouds.

  “The complex is beautiful,” Tenzin said, looking around the colorful buildings and lush gardens. “And very human.”

  “Thank you.” Hirut gestured toward the banquet hall, which was painted with bright colors in front. “Saba approved of the buildings the human emperor built. They were royal without being ostentatious like European structures.”

  “Very natural. Their balance and proportions remind me of Penglai.”

  Hirut smiled. “I accept that as a compliment, though Saba’s empire is, of course, far older than the Eastern court.”

  Tenzin held her tongue. Hirut was proud, as most vampires were, and doubly so being a direct descendant of Saba’s line.

  “Hirut, thank you for meeting us,” Ben said. “We have enjoyed our time in Addis. The city and the people are very welcoming. It’s a fascinating place, and I look forward to returning. I believe Giovanni told you we’ll be heading north tonight.”

  The vampire nodded. “The churches of Lalibela are truly a grand sight and very holy places, a destination of human and immortal pilgrimage. I hope your family enjoys their time there.” Her eyes shifted to the large duffel bag Ben had with him.
“Is there something else you wish to share, son of Zhang?”

  Ben paused and reached into the bag where they’d stored the treasures they’d taken from the British vault. “In the course of investigations for our client, we happened to enter a vault where there were many treasures from Ethiopia. This was… not a museum or any place that should have these items. Do you understand?”

  What Ben was really saying was: we stole these, but it was for a good cause.

  Hirut was listening. “Much of our cultural heritage was acquired by others in less than ethical ways. If you have happened to come across heritage items that you believe are the rightful property of the Ethiopian people, I am happy to accept them on their behalf.”

  What Hirut was really saying was: if you’re stealing other people’s stuff but giving us our treasure back, I’m not going to ask any questions.

  “The most precious item we found was this.” Ben carefully unwrapped the gold and velvet crown.

  Tenzin said, “I dated it to the seventeenth century, but you may be able to identify it more precisely.”

  Hirut took the crown in both hands with a soft look on her face. “I remember the empress who wore this crown, a humble and devoted queen. Thank you for returning it. I will see that it goes back to the correct institution.”

  “Likewise, we found a collection of crosses that must have been looted from churches,” Ben said. “Along with a number of scriptures in Ge’ez.”

  Hirut wasn’t an easy vampire to read, but Tenzin knew the woman was surprised and delighted. “You said you were on a mission of restoration, and I confess, I doubted your intentions. I would like to apologize for my cynicism.”

  Tenzin gave her a slight bow. “It is cynicism born from bitter experience, daughter of Saba. I understand, as I understand duty.”

  “Do you?” Hirut met Tenzin’s gaze, and the piercing look she directed toward Ben, then back to Tenzin, told her everything she needed to know.