Secrets Of The Serpent's Heart (The Arkana Archaeology Mystery Series Book 6)

by Wikarski, N. S.

  Joshua gave a slight nod. “Yes, that method will do quite nicely.”

  Chapter 47—Bad News Bearer

  Cassie drummed her fingers fretfully on the cushions of her living room sofa. Griffin, no less tense, was seated beside her and making a supreme effort not to tap his foot. Maddie had taken up a position by the front window, peering through the side of the curtains. It was almost five o’clock in the morning. Something had gone terribly wrong. The Pythia could feel it but she didn’t want to alarm the others by saying so out loud. Erik and Zach were supposed to bring Hannah straight to her apartment. After the attack on the farmhouse, Faye’s home was no longer considered safe. Taking Hannah to the Vault was out of the question because it would make her privy to all sorts of information she was better off not knowing. Since the Nephilim hadn’t been able to track Cassie to her new place, this was the best location they could find on short notice.

  The Pythia stiffened at the sound of a car pulling up.

  “They’re here,” Maddie announced. She immediately swung the door open.

  A few minutes later, Zach entered sheepishly.

  “Where’s Hannah?” Cassie asked.

  “Where’s Erik?” demanded Maddie.

  “Can I sit down?” the tyro asked in a weak voice. Without waiting for permission, he sank into an armchair.

  Maddie closed the door but remained standing.

  “This is bad, isn’t it?” the Pythia asked in a small voice.

  The boy nodded, afraid to meet her eyes. “I was waiting on the ladder at the top of the fence. I had night vision binoculars so I could keep tabs on what was happening. I saw Daniel and Hannah come out of a side door. They stood there for a while, waiting for Erik to show up. I could tell Hannah was getting antsy. Then, for some reason she looked in my direction. I don’t know how she knew I was there. It was too far for her to be able to see me in the dark from that distance. Maybe my spy glasses reflected off the yard lights. I don’t know but I swear she looked straight at me. I saw her lips move. It seemed like she was saying ‘Zachary’ and then she took a step toward where I was hiding.”

  Zachary raked his hands through his hair distractedly. “One step. That’s all it took. She must have moved out of a blind spot and one of the cameras caught her. Right after she took that step, I could hear a commotion in the guard tower by the front gates. I still had my glasses trained on Hannah and I could see Daniel pulling her back inside the building. He must have realized what happened and I guess he figured they couldn’t make it. If they tried to run for the fence, the guards would have cut them off before they got halfway there. Their best bet was to go back the way they came and get her into her room before anybody noticed she was missing. I sent an alarm call to Erik on the two-way radio but I couldn’t track him. Next thing I knew, his radio came sailing over the fence and almost hit me in the head.”

  “In an emergency, ditch anything that can connect you to the Arkana,” the Chatelaine said mechanically.

  “Yeah,” Zach agreed feebly. “That’s what he did. Then I heard his gun go off somewhere in the woods at the back of the property. I guess he was trying to draw the sentries away from the spot where I was waiting. Then he was going to double-back. Four guards went charging for the place where they’d heard the shot. They all had assault rifles with silencers and they just started spraying bullets everywhere—not even aiming, just shooting into the trees. Erik didn’t stand a chance. I’m so sorry!” Zach groaned and sank his head into his hands.

  “He’s dead?” Maddie sounded baffled, as if the words made no sense.

  Cassie and Griffin were too shocked to speak.

  “Yeah, he’s dead.” The tyro glanced at the Chatelaine regretfully. “I heard one of the guards yell that they’d got him. Then their security chief showed up. Two of the sentries dragged Erik out of the woods. Another one of the guards called out that he was dead. Then I heard them ask their boss what to do about the body. After that, I had to clear out of there or they might have gotten me too.”

  Cassie turned toward Griffin and buried her head against his shoulder. He wrapped his arms around her and bent his head over hers.

  “This can’t be,” he whispered in disbelief.

  To her own amazement, Cassie didn’t cry. She was too stunned by the news to feel anything at all.

  The four of them remained frozen in place for what seemed like hours. The only sound was the ticking of the wall clock.

  Maddie broke the stillness by walking to the dining room to retrieve her purse. Then, without saying a word, she drifted back toward the door in a kind of stupor and let herself out.

  “Maddie!” the Pythia called after her.

  They all heard the sound of her engine as she drove away.

  Zach seemed frightened and confused. Looking from Cassie to Griffin, he asked, “So what do we do now?”

  His question was met by bleak silence.

  Chapter 48—Phantom Pains

  Cassie sat on the top step of the schoolhouse in the glade. Afternoon sunlight was slanting through the canopy of budding trees, forming bright patches on the grass. It had been over a week since Zach had returned from the failed attempt to rescue Hannah—a week since the night Erik had died. The last seven days had passed in a kind of blur as the Pythia and her colleagues mechanically performed their duties.

  Shock hadn’t quite dissolved into acceptance yet. They all felt the loss but Maddie had taken it hardest of all. She’d grown very subdued, reminding Cassie of the Chatelaine’s meltdown when she’d tried to quit smoking. The Pythia allowed herself a brief smile of irony. Everybody knew Maddie was alright when she was yelling but during the past week she’d barely spoken a sentence to any of them. For the most part, she’d spent the interval locked in her office. Cassie didn’t need to be a psychic to predict that this behavior didn’t bode well for Maddie or for anybody else.

  All further attempts to rescue Hannah had been placed on hold until Maddie showed some inclination to tackle the problem once more. Zach was understandably anxious about his girlfriend’s plight but he knew better than to pester the Chatelaine before she was herself again. Like Cassie and Griffin, Zach kept out of her way. The tyro went back to combat training and filing, the Pythia returned to validating artifacts, and the Scrivener resumed management of the Central Catalog.

  Cassie drew in a deep breath of soft spring air. She’d hoped to shake off her lethargic mood outdoors but the strategy didn’t seem to be working.

  At that moment, Griffin emerged from the schoolhouse and stood on the platform. Gazing down at the Pythia with a troubled expression, he asked, “How are you today?”

  Cassie glanced up at him. “I came out here to clear my head. So far, no luck.”

  The Scrivener took a seat beside her on the stairs.

  The Pythia scowled pensively. “Griffin, do I strike you as a cold person?”

  He stared at her in confusion. “I beg your pardon?”

  “I mean do I seem uncaring?”

  “That’s ridiculous! Given your sensitivity and your empathy, coldness would be impossible for you. Why would you ask such a question?”

  She swiveled to face him directly. “Then why can’t I cry?”

  “You mean about Erik?”

  She nodded.

  “I imagine people have different ways of handling their grief.”

  Unconvinced by his theory, she knit her brows. “Maybe it’s because we ended things between us for good last month.”

  Griffin seemed taken aback. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “Didn’t I?” Cassie registered confusion.

  He drew himself up. “I’m quite sure if you had, it’s the sort of thing I would have remembered.”

  “That’s funny. I could have sworn I told you.” Her voice took on a faraway quality as she recalled the scene. “It was the night of my birthday.”

  “Pillock!” Griffin muttered. “Although one shouldn’t speak ill of the dead, I must say Erik couldn’t
have chosen a more inappropriate time to terminate your relationship.”

  Cassie laid a restraining hand on his arm. “Hey, it wasn’t his fault. He’d just come back from Spain and you and I were about to leave for China. There wasn’t going to be another chance.”

  Griffin relented slightly. “Perhaps I overreacted.”

  “Ya think?”

  “If I’m not being presumptuous, would you mind giving me the details of your conversation?”

  “Sure, why not.” Cassie shrugged in resignation. “For starters, he admitted that I’d been right about him in India.”

  “Very magnanimous of him, I’m sure.”

  “Do you want to hear this or not?”

  “You’re quite right. Please proceed.”

  The Pythia stared off toward the tree line at the edge of the clearing. “He said that he didn’t think he could be the guy I needed. At least not now anyway.”

  Griffin’s eyes narrowed. “Let me guess. Like most women who have fallen under Erik’s spell, you forgave his weakness and promised to carry a torch for him indefinitely.”

  “You’re automatically assuming I cut him some slack because he’s so pretty?” Cassie asked in an annoyed tone.

  “Reductive but accurate,” the Scrivener admitted.

  “Please! Give me a little credit!” she protested. “Since when have I ever been like most women? I told him that by the time he got around to being the kind of guy I needed, I wouldn’t still be the kind of girl who needed that kind of guy.”

  “I see.” The Scrivener pondered her comment. “It sounds as if you made a clean break and parted ways with no further expectations from one another.” He raised a skeptical eyebrow as a new thought struck him. “But then again, people’s words are frequently at odds with their emotions.”

  “I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t some feeling left.” Cassie’s voice was regretful.

  “Especially now,” Griffin agreed.

  She did a double-take. “What do you mean?”

  The Scrivener’s mood seemed to darken. “I don’t wish to seem callous but I believe a certain glamor attaches to a demise as tragic as Erik’s. I doubt any fellow of flesh and blood could strive for your affections against a slain hero’s ghost and hope to win.”

  “Are you moonlighting as a matchmaker or something?” Cassie asked suspiciously. “Don’t be in such a hurry to hook me up with anybody new. I haven’t even processed what just happened. It’ll be a long, long time before I get emotionally involved again.”

  She paused to consider another idea. “Maybe I can’t cry because I feel guilty.”

  “About what?” Griffin asked absently, apparently lost in thoughts of his own.

  “About the fact that the last memory I have of Erik is an argument.”

  The Scrivener chuckled grimly. “I have more reason to feel guilty on that score than you do. I once punched our Paladin in the jaw.”

  Cassie sat bolt upright and peered at the Scrivener. “When did this happen?”

  He seemed baffled by the question. “I’m sure I told you.”

  Mimicking his accent, the Pythia retorted, “I’m quite sure if you had, it’s the sort of thing I would have remembered.”

  “Sorry.” He winced sheepishly. “It was the night Erik left us high and dry in India. I had a row with him in the parking lot afterwards. Certain accusations were flung and, suffice it to say, I lost my temper.”

  “I can’t see Erik letting you clock him,” she countered.

  “I caught him off-guard. He did say that if I ever repeated that action, and I quote, they’d be scraping me off the sidewalk for days.”

  “That sure sounds like Erik.” Cassie chuckled. “But why would you pick a fight with him in the first place?”

  The Scrivener faltered, casting an apprehensive glance toward the Pythia. “I thought he didn’t know how to value you properly. I’m sure any decent man would have counted himself the luckiest chap alive to be romantically involved with you. Yet Erik treated that immense gift as if it were commonplace. I thought someone should teach him a lesson, that’s all.”

  The Pythia studied him with wry amusement. “Look at you, resorting to fisticuffs to defend a lady’s honor. You really are an old-fashioned kind of guy, you know that?”

  “I’m feeling positively ancient at the moment,” Griffin murmured under his breath.

  Cassie’s face took on an earnest expression. “Given everything that’s happened in the last couple of weeks, promise me you won’t get yourself killed or fall into a coma or let the Nephilim kidnap you. I’m not ready to lose somebody as special as you.”

  “I’ll always be near, Cassie.” The Scrivener squeezed her hand reassuringly and gave a bleak smile. “Even though I might occasionally wish that my heart had a stronger sense of self-preservation.”

  Cassie knit her brows and was on the point of asking what he meant when Zach came bursting through the schoolhouse doors.

  “There you are!” the tyro exclaimed. “I’ve been looking all over for you two. Something’s up.”

  They both rose and turned to him in puzzlement.

  He continued. “I went to Maddie’s office to see if she was ready to talk about Hannah again. When I got to the door, I overheard her on the phone. She’s calling for a blackout. I don’t exactly know what that means but I’m guessing it’s a bad thing.”

  “A very bad thing indeed!” Griffin blanched.

  “So I’m also guessing you’re gonna want to stop her,” the tyro added. “She’s arranging a meeting of the Circle for tonight.”

  Cassie and Griffin traded stricken looks and ran up the stairs.

  Trailing after them, Zach asked, “But what does it mean?”

  “The end, that’s what!” Cassie exclaimed.

  Chapter 49—Going Dark

  Cassie and Griffin warily entered the main hall of the old schoolhouse. In the hours since Zach had made his alarming announcement, they’d been unable to discover anything specific about Maddie’s plan or how to counter it. Now they’d run out of time. The sun had set and the Circle was beginning to assemble. For once, the overhead lights weren’t blazing. A single pendant lamp had been lowered above the center of the table. It cast immense shadows against the walls, obliterating the stained glass birds and flowers which decorated the windows. Faye’s throne rested forlornly in a corner. There would be no need to carry it forward. The Memory Guardian would not be in attendance. Thirty four chairs had been arranged around the vast circular table. Many were already occupied by representatives from the troves of Asia, Europe, Africa, Australia and the Americas. No one had worn a mash-up of their national costume tonight. The topic under discussion was much too serious to allow for any fashion frivolities.

  As the Pythia searched for empty seats, she noticed an unoccupied chair draped in black bunting. With a start, she realized it was meant to be a memorial to Erik. Feeling a lump forming in her throat, Cassie hastily looked away. “C’mon,” she urged Griffin. “Over this way.”

  They found two seats together on the opposite side of the table.

  Once they’d settled themselves, a familiar voice piped up. “It’s nice to see you both again.”

  “Jun!” Cassie exclaimed. In the dim light, she hadn’t noticed that they’d taken seats beside the Hongshan trove-keeper. “What are you doing here?”

  The old man shrugged. “I thought this meeting was important enough for me to fly to Chicago.”

  “How is your foot?” Griffin asked.

  “It still hurts but I’ve graduated from a crutch to a cane.” Jun smiled ruefully. He pointed to the walking stick hooked to the back of his chair. “My granddaughter sends her regards.”

  “Rou was a big help to us,” Cassie assured him. “I don’t think we would have been able to pull off the relic switch if not for her quick thinking.”

  “Ever since her return, she’s become very...” The old man paused to select the right word. “Chatty.”

  A
ll three of them laughed knowingly.

  “I’m sure Rinchen had something to do with that,” Griffin noted.

  “Yes, they speak all the time. In English. Full sentences.”

  While Griffin continued to converse with Jun, Cassie scanned the Circle. Much to her surprise, the Pythia recognized several other attendees because they had assisted her team in the quest for the Sage Stone. Michel Khatabi, the Berber trove-keeper from North Africa, sat three chairs away. She smiled at him and he inclined his head to acknowledge the greeting. Since this was a closed session for voting members only, his daughter Fifi was nowhere to be seen. Cassie gave a mental sigh of relief. The meeting was bound to be stressful enough without the added annoyance of Erik’s former hookup lamenting theatrically over his crepe-draped chair.

  The Pythia allowed her gaze to wander further until she spotted Stefan Kasprczyk, the Kurgan trove-keeper from the Kazakh steppes. She was unlikely to ever forget the tainted artifact he had brought for her to validate. Stefan waved when he saw her looking in his direction.

  Toward the opposite end of the table, the Pythia also spied Aydin Ozgur from the Anatolian trove in Turkey. He didn’t see her because he was conferring with yet another familiar face—Grace Littlefield of the Haudenosaunee trove in upstate New York.

  The murmur of small talk died abruptly when everyone felt a blast of cold air emanating from the front doors. The Chatelaine strode into the hall. Taken aback by the sight of Cassie and Griffin, she faltered for a second but recovered quickly. It was obvious she hadn’t meant for them to know about this gathering. She moved forward to claim the remaining empty seat at the table. “The Circle is now complete,” she announced authoritatively. “I call this meeting to order.”

  An expectant hush fell over the group. Several people leaned forward in anticipation.

  Maddie settled herself and began. “I want to thank you all for attending on such short notice. I wouldn’t have summoned you unless there was an emergency and, in my opinion, what we have is a full-blown crisis on our hands. As you all know, the Arkana’s search to recover the Sage Stone has forced us to cross paths repeatedly with the Blessed Nephilim. We did more than cross paths with them when one of their own ran away from the cult and took refuge with our Memory Guardian Faye. The girl’s name is Hannah and she’s the youngest wife of the Nephilim’s Diviner. Needless to say, he made her recovery a high priority. I seriously underestimated the measures he would take to get her back. Abraham Metcalf went so far as to send a raiding party to Faye’s house. In the process, his thugs put our Memory Guardian in a coma.”