Israel zipped up his dark pants and glanced up, catching her gaze.
Oh my God, Alyx, shut your mouth, you’re drooling.
She clamped her lips together and tore her eyes away from him. “What are you doing?” she exclaimed, forcing herself to remain staring at the thick dark carpet. In the corner of her eye she could see his half naked figure moving as he continued to change, teasing her, taunting her. Don’t look, dammit, Alyx. Don’t you dare look again.
“You act like you’ve never seen a man undress before.”
“I,” she spluttered, “I barely know you. You can’t just drop your pants in front of me.”
“You don’t have to look if it makes you too hot and bothered.”
“I am not hot and bothered.”
“Do you want to help me do up my buttons?”
“I— You—” she spluttered.
He laughed, a warm and rich sound. “Relax. I was only kidding. I’m dressed now.”
Her gaze drew back to him before she could stop herself. He was fully dressed now in his black uniform. It fit him perfectly. And damn him, he looked good, the dark pants snug across his strong thighs and his slim hips, the jacket emphasizing his broad shoulders, the ends of his hair curling over the high collar. It was tough yet regal. And ridiculously sexy.
He shot her a half-grin which, to her annoyance, made her knees tremble. “Like it?”
“It does…fit you.”
“I wasn’t talking about the uniform.”
Alyx sniffed, trying to ignore all these inappropriate feelings. “I guess some girls might find you…appealing.”
“Are you some girls?”
“No.”
“Could have fooled me.” He raised a dark eyebrow and it disappeared into the mess of hair sweeping across his forehead, the mess that was so frustrating she wanted to sweep it aside. “Are you going to change?”
“I’m hardly going to change in front of you. What kind of girl do you take me for?”
“You haven’t got anything I haven’t seen before.”
Alyx made a noise in her throat as she snatched the jacket to her chest in indignation. “You have not seen anything of me before.”
“I’m just saying. I’ve been around enough girls before that it’s no big deal.” She felt a stab in her belly. What girls? How many girls? Did he actually like those girls?
Did he like her?
Gods, why did she care if he liked her?
“I’ll turn around if you’re really such a prude.” Israel made a show of facing the other wall, his back to her. He stood with his weight on one leg, his hands in his pockets. It made the material cling to his muscular ass. Jesus, Alyx, stop being such an ogling freak.
She narrowed her eyes at his back. “You better not peek.”
“I promise you, I can be a perfect gentleman. When I want to be.”
Alyx shimmied out of her clothes and slid on the black pants and shirt. It was stretchy and thick yet light, and there were more sections across the thigh and calf of the pants where that thin, lightweight metal had been sown in. She glanced over at Israel. He was still standing there with his back to her. He didn’t look like he was peeking. But he was humming something, his hips swaying slightly, like a pendulum. It was mesmerizing.
Snap out of it, Alyx.
She tore her eyes away from him and pushed her feet into the boots, a perfect fit. Wait… She knew that song: “You Can Leave Your Hat On.”
“Stop it.”
“Stop what?”
“Humming that song.”
“I thought you’d appreciate it.”
She glared at him. “Are you always this annoying?”
“I think the word you’re looking for is charming.”
She shook her head and hid a smile as she did up her boot laces. He was infuriating.
She slid the jacket on. It felt warm and comfortingly strong yet lightweight and it had a faint leather smell to it. “You can turn around now.” Finally she buckled her sword sheath back around her hips.
She looked up and caught Israel staring at her. “What?”
“Wow. You look…deadly.”
“Deadly?”
“Badass.”
She snorted. “Why do I never quite know whether you’re giving me a compliment or not?”
“I happen to think badass is sexy. Especially on you.”
Alyx fussed with her jacket as she tried to hide her flaming cheeks. “Um, thanks. You don’t look too bad yourself.”
He grinned wider.
“What?”
“I think I’m growing on you.”
“You are not growing on me.”
He raised his hands so that his thumb and forefinger were about in inch away from each other and nodded. “Just a little bit. Go on, admit it.”
“I admit nothing.”
“I take that as a full admission.”
Alyx rolled her eyes. “Let’s go.”
They exited the dressing room to Francois cooing and ahhing as he fussed about them both, tugging at hems and flicking invisible lint of their shoulders.
“Thanks, Francois,” Israel said. “Sorry about the threatening you with swords thing earlier.”
“No need to thank me. I’m just doing my job.”
“Before we go,” Alyx said, “we were wondering if you could help us with some directions.”
“Certainly.”
“We need to know where the Mapmaker’s store is.”
“Why,” he said, clasping his hands together before he pointed out the front window, “it’s just across the road.”
“Across the road?” exclaimed Alyx. “No, it’s—” she trailed off when she saw through the store window a large golden sign decorated with a brass compass entwined with a globe that read Mapmaker.
That definitely had not been there before.
Chapter Seven
There didn’t appear to be anyone in the street. At least, not for now. Israel slipped out of Francois’s shop and strode with light feet across to the Mapmaker’s store, his hands holding to the hilt of his sword, Alyx close behind him.
It was strange enough that this store just appeared without warning. Blood-red curtains had been drawn across the windows so that he couldn’t see in. An uneasy feeling settled in his stomach. What would they find inside? And who was this mysterious Mapmaker?
He reached the door and froze. He grabbed Alyx’s arm and placed his finger to his lips, telling her to keep quiet. She frowned. He pointed to the door of the Mapmaker’s store. It was cracked open.
With one hand holding his sword handle, he toed open the door so it swung open wide. The warm air from inside hit him in the face, and under the smell of must and paper there was a faint metallic smell he couldn’t place. There were no lights on so at first all he could see were irregularly shaped shadows. He stepped into the dimness, letting his eyes adjust, cringing slightly when his first step caused the floorboard to creak.
This place was a mess: a jumble of wooden bookcases and flat display tables, some of them toppled over. Drawers had been pulled out and contents dumped in piles, and half-rolled-up maps were scattered on the floor. Metal compasses, binoculars and other metal instruments on the shelves had been knocked over.
“What happened here?” Alyx whispered from behind him.
There was movement and a noise from the back.
“Hello?” Israel called. “Mapmaker?”
Something moved from the shadows and a large figure in a hood stepped out from a short corridor. “Who are you?” his voice boomed out, deep and stern.
“I’m Israel and this is Alyx.”
“What do you want?”
“Are you the Mapmaker?”
“Of course I am.”
“We need your help.”
“Help?” The Mapmaker snorted. “I can’t even help myself.”
“What happened here?” Alyx said.
“What does it look like happened?” he said, his voice laced wit
h bitterness. “I just got here and found the place like this.”
Israel glanced around. Someone or several someones had ransacked the place. Was this a random break-in? He noticed the cash register tipped on its side; coins and paper money were scattered around it. His skin prickled. This hadn’t been a robbery. The thieves had been looking for something. He turned back to the Mapmaker. “They weren’t here for the money. What did they take?”
“The only thing of any real value. They took my globe. It’s not where it should be.”
Israel squinted. The Mapmaker’s hooded face was still swathed in shadows. He would feel better if he could just see the Mapmaker’s face. He had learned as a police officer that you could tell a lot about a person from their eyes. “What did you two want again?”
“A map of this city,” Israel said. “We need to find our way out through the mountain in the north.”
“Do you have gold to pay for the map?”
“Gold?” Israel looked over at Alyx. She shook her head.
The Mapmaker made a noise under his hood. “I’m sorry but I don’t run a charity here. As you can see, I’ve already lost a lot today just in damages. Some of the items in here are irreplaceable.”
“But we need that map.” Alyx’s voice came out strained.
Israel placed a hand on her arm to comfort her. “We’ll figure something out.” But what? How would they buy the map they needed with no gold? They needed to get some gold. Maybe there was a jeweler’s or something around here. He could put his…particular talents to use then.
“Is there anything we could give you instead?” she asked the Mapmaker. “Something else that you want besides gold? We could help you clean up.”
“No. But I will make you a deal.” He dug around in his pocket and pulled out a papyrus scroll. “Whoever took my globe left this in its place.” He held it out.
Israel stepped forward and took it, noticing that the Mapmaker wore black leather gloves under his long-sleeved hooded jacket.
“What is it?” Alyx asked. Israel felt her presence at his side.
Israel unrolled the scroll. “It’s some kind of riddle.
In a place of memories old,
Of distant lands and lessons told,
With stiff spines and arms fold’d,
That can be borrow’d but nev’r sold.
There ’neath the spiral stars of gold,
Lies a world within a globe.”
He frowned as he read the riddle over again in his head. “What does it mean?”
“If I knew, do you think I’d be asking you?” the Mapmaker growled.
“Why would the thief go through the trouble of stealing your globe only to make you go on a treasure hunt?”
“How the hell should I know,” grumbled the Mapmaker. “Get me my globe back and I’ll give you your map.”
Israel and Alyx stood on the sidewalk after the Mapmaker had kicked them out of his store, claiming his need to start tidying up. He scanned the street for the men who had pursued them earlier but it was empty. There were no sounds of footsteps in the distance. They must have lost them.
Slung over Alyx’s shoulder was the drawstring canvas bag given to them by the Mapmaker to carry back the globe. She also held the papyrus scroll in her hand, muttering the riddle under her breath. “Don’t you think this is strange?” Alyx asked quietly. “Why would someone break into his store and steal something just to play a game of treasure hunt?”
“This whole place is strange. But it doesn’t matter why the thief did what he did. We just need to figure out the riddle and get that globe.”
“If the globe is even where this riddle says it should be.”
“It will be.” He lifted his eyes up to the top of the mountain peeking up above the roofline beyond. “It has to be.”
Alyx stared at the scroll again. “What do you think it means?”
“I don’t know. But we’ll figure it out.” His mind ran over the lines of the riddle…
In a place of memories old,
Of distant lands and lessons told…
“Lessons told… Could it be…a school?”
Alyx ran her finger across the scroll. “And stiff spines and arms fold’d are the students. But which school? Saint Joseph has several.”
“Perhaps memories of old is an indication of the age of the school. Saint Paul’s Public School? I know where that is. I went there.”
Saint Paul’s was a large, rambling gray stone building. It used to be a large hospital before the first World War and was now a state run public school.
Alyx pursed her lips. She didn’t look convinced. “When was Saint Paul’s founded?”
“In the 1800s as a hospital, I think. God, my memory’s rusty.”
“It could be Saint Catherine’s Private School for Girls. It was founded in 1348. By an old wealthy sea captain and his Indian wife.” Alyx gasped. “That’s where the distant lands comes in.”
Israel nodded. “Okay then. Let’s go to Saint Catherine’s.”
Alyx led Israel through the streets, eyes peeled for any signs of their chasers. She was met with several dead ends, forcing her to recalculate her route. The quicker they retrieved this globe, the quicker they could get their map in exchange and be on their way out of this eerie city.
It was so strange to walk these silent streets. It was like she and Israel were the only two people in the whole world. She glanced over to him and found he was already looking at her.
“So,” he cleared his throat, “who’s waiting for you outside? A boyfriend?”
She had forgotten all about Daniel. What would he say if he knew that she had barely thought of him at all in here?
“I don’t have a boyfriend,” she said. I have a fiancé. She opened her mouth to clarify this but nothing came out. She snapped her mouth shut then cringed internally. She didn’t want Israel to know that she was engaged to another man. Why?
“Parents?” Israel asked, snapping her out of her thoughts. It was too late to say anything now about Daniel. Right?
“My parents are dead.”
Israel flinched. “Oh, I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine.” Alyx tried to ignore the echoes of sorrow whispering in her. It had been years since her parents passed away but she still felt their absence like an unmendable hole in her soul.
“What do you remember most about them?”
She never spoke about them. She’d barely told Daniel about them. So perhaps it was the soft, earnest way Israel asked. Perhaps there was a part of her that was so desperate to be heard, to be known, and it clung onto the sound of Israel’s voice and cried, “Yes, tell him. He deserves to hear it”. She found herself speaking before she even knew what she was doing.
“My father was a carpenter and my mother was an artist. They spotted each other through the crowded el Souq marketplace one day and they both knew. Well, my father knew.” She let out a soft laugh. “My mother took some convincing but she eventually came around. They were young and penniless when they had me but that didn’t matter. They loved each other and me so much, and that was enough. They died in a car crash when I was fourteen…” and I was never the same again.
What would they say if they knew she was marrying Daniel instead of moving to Prague and following her dream? Her mother with her artist’s soul and father with his dreamer’s heart would lament her choices.
They never should have died. If they wanted her to make different choices, they never should have left, should they? Daniel was reliable, consistent. With him she would have stability and security, something she never felt through those years after her parents passed away and she was left to tread in this murky world alone. She would never have to waver too far out of comfort from a narrow band of existence. It’s not safe to stray too far, to dream too big, to want too much.
No, she would not apologize for her decisions. Not to them. Not to Israel. Or anyone.
“Did you ever go away together as a family?” he asked.
/> A memory burrowed its way up to the surface like a pearl among dark sand. “We never had that much money. But one Christmas we took a train up to Prague. It was glorious; the lights twinkling off the Vltava, the statues on the Charles Bridge frosted in snow, the castle looming up in the distance. We walked through the Christmas markets in the Old Town Square.” The scene appeared before her mind’s eye. The stalls had been trimmed with lights, displaying wooden toys and scented candles and knitted gloves, the towering Christmas tree swathed in a blazing dress of lights against the dark gothic buildings, the air thick with the smell of salty grilling sausages, the caramelized sugar of the trdelník pastries and the spicy hot wine. “My father bought a cup of medovina for him and Mama to share. They bought me a hot chocolate.” She could still remember her tiny hands around the large mug, the sweet steam rising up into her nose, the warmth of her parents on either side of her, laughing and making eyes at each other over her head and passing their honey liquor between them.
“That’s better,” Israel said.
“What’s better?”
“When you smile. You look beautiful when you smile.”
Her cheeks heated, matching the glow in her chest. She turned her face away before Israel could see how much his words had affected her. On one of the second floor balconies that they passed, a sunflower unfurled its petals.
Minutes later, Alyx stared through the iron bars at Saint Catherine’s Private School for Girls, a slight tang of rust reaching her nose along with the smell of damp earth. The real Saint Catherine’s had a well-manicured lawn that stretched from the gates to the imposing stone school buildings, regularly cleaned so they remained a polished light gray. But in her “dream” the lawn was overgrown, weeds pushing their way through the cracks in the driveway. The buildings were blackened from moss and age and loomed like large crouching dragons with their spires and scales, dark windows like glassy eyes. Along the other side of the wide gravel driveway that ran along the lawn was a bushy overgrowth that turned into thick trees, trees that continued in a messy jumble along the east wing of the school, even coming so close as to scratch at the windows like grabbing hands.
Legends of the Damned: A Collection of Edgy Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance Novels Page 261