Crystal Tomb (Starfire Angels: Dark Angel Chronicles Book 3) (31 page)

Raea opened her wings and pushed
Nare's hands off. ["Let's go."]

["Yes, ma'am."] Nare dropped behind
while Raea let gravity pull her to the portal and simply flapped to
fight the wind trying to toss her about like a leaf.

She'd been through portals before—once
before while she was conscious—but the instant burning and feeling
like all the molecules of her body simultaneously burst apart and
reconstituted a microsecond later still caught her by
surprise.

They emerged into the dark of night,
the lights of a city shimmering along one horizon. Nearby, three
peaks poked from the desert around a shape like a giant animal
which had to be the famous Sphinx, while barren desert dunes
undulated below them, not the patchwork of fields they had left a
second ago.

The cold of night passed through Raea
in a shiver, and she wrapped her arms around herself to keep the
breeze from billowing the jacket. For one of the hottest places on
Earth, the desert could be one of the coldest at night by contrast.
Coming from North Dakota, that was saying a lot.

["Now where?"]

The vision of the old man replayed in
her mind, or at least she hoped it was a vision. ["Follow
me."]

She led Nare from the pyramids and the
distant city lights, across the dunes and past a few dark towns.
They flew high enough to not be seen easily from the ground as more
than large birds but low where Raea could make out features of the
land from the dream. It had to be the right way. It was no
coincidence Elis had wanted her to locate the pyramids, and the
vision had shown her exactly that as a starting point into the
desert.

So far, so good. In the back of her
mind, she'd wondered about the local air force going on alert from
the portal forming, but nothing appeared. This was almost too
easy.

* * *

It
was
too easy. Without incident, they
reached an empty valley, or at least it appeared to be empty,
except for the shallow river and the vegetation matching her
vision.

Raea flapped hard to slow her landing
on a grassy patch surrounded by a cluster of leafy bushes. Nare
landed nearby and folded her wings behind her.

The chirrup of insects sang around
them in harmony with the soft trickle of the shallow river. Her
eyes had adjusted to the darkness, but the shadows of the cliffs
deepened into caverns. Somewhere to her right, a goat
bleated.

A shadow on the horizon blotted the
stars in the sky. It looked like a man. She blinked but the shape
vanished. Wishful thinking; it must have been her imagination,
probably a desire to see Elis there.

She shook off the thought and
whispered, ["This way."]

Nare followed her without a word, but
their steps crunching on grass and rocks disturbed the
peace.

Around a jut of cliff towards the
river, they stopped. The sound of running feet sent her heart
racing, but the feet ran away, the sound disappearing into the
darkness.

The ruffle of feathers from Nare made
her conscious of being ready to fly at a moment's notice, but she
wasn't ready to fly yet.

["Wait,"] Raea whispered. This had to
be the right place.

The air stilled around them, except
for the faint dingaling of a bell and a shape moving along the
river. Too low to the ground to be a human, it had to be a
goat.

Footsteps rose from the darkness where
they had disappeared, and a gravelly voice spoke. By the tone, it
was a question, a question in a language she didn't
know.

Raea leaned close to Nare and
whispered, ["Do you know Arabic?"]

["No."]

Great. Two American angels in the
Middle East. Uh-huh. Sure. That would fly over like a lead
brick.

Think!
There had to be a way to communicate.

[You are what you are.
Should they not understand that?]

Easy for Atia to say. If the people
didn't understand, they'd probably shoot her and Nare on the
spot.

[Should this not be one of
those sworn to protect the Eye you seek? The others knew the
stories. The protector here should also.]

Good point. She hated to admit it, but
Atia might be right.

How could they show themselves in the
dark…

Starburst marks. Of course.

The voice called again in a more
threatening tone, taking a few steps closer.

["Resonance glow and lift your
wings."] This had better work.

["You're sure?"]

["No. Just do it."] She didn't have
time to explain. Raea found the resonance and held it, the energy
setting the marks on her hand aglow as she lifted them out aside
from her and lifted her wings. If it didn't work, they just gave
themselves away as targets.

In the light of their glow, a man
stumbled back towards a cloth along the cliff face. He fumbled with
the curtain and disappeared behind it, his voice calling in fright
into a hollow darkness, a cavern by the acoustics.

["Now what?"]

Raea had no idea. ["Wait and see."]
And hope they didn't bring guns out. Elis would have known what to
do. In his gentle way, he would have convinced the man to show them
where the Eye was, if it was here.

Now it was up to her alone.

The aching in her chest returned, or
it had never left but for her distraction. She noticed it again
with the pain of grief tangling in her emotions and the
determination to finish her task as a Crystal Keeper.

The reappearance of the man redirected
her attention before the tears flowed. He held the cloth aside for
an old man with a gray beard who hobbled out. In the light from
their Starburst marks, he waved them forward.

Should they? Was this a trap or the
real thing?

Her stomach twisted with doubts, and
Nare's shrug only churned it more.

What to do…

Man, she wished Elis was there. He had
always been calm and decisive. She could use that now more than
ever.

She had to choose now.

All right. The vision had led her here
and the old man seemed to understand, although as they approached,
the eyes of the younger man widened.

The old man knelt before them, despite
the awkward difficulty of bending down. The younger man followed
his example, ducking his head in subjugation with his hands out so
the palms were up. The old man held his hands the same, exposing
the mark which caught her breath—a protector!

A pang of sympathy touched her with
the memory of that fateful phone call about Matthew Stein. She did
this as much for Torres and Stein and all surviving protectors as
for Elis.

With her hands still glowing, Raea
pointed to the old man. ["He's the one we seek. He's the protector
of the Eye."]

["I think I can help."] Nare knelt
before him and reached her hands to his head, her Starburst marks
glowing brighter.

Of course! A direct mind scan through
the Starfire energy. That's how Elis had taken the information from
Torres in the first place.

But the old man hadn't given his
approval. Saffir had warned that it was an intrusion to scan
someone without their permission. They had no choice, but after
what she'd learned on Inar'Ahben about her responsibilities as a
Keeper, the idea upset her more.

After a few seconds, Nare stepped
back. ["They've sworn total subservience to the Light Bearers for
generations, each protector giving up his life to serve the Eye of
God and us. His prostration was an invitation. He freely offers
whatever we want."]

Had Nare added that last part to
justify her behavior or did she speak the truth? Raea would never
know, but the old man looked up and Nare spoke to him in his own
language. When did that happen?

She could wonder later. The old man
rose with help from the younger man and led her through the cloth
into a cavern lit by a lantern he carried with him.

The corridor was low and branched off
into a couple of large rooms, the voices of women and children
silencing as they passed. Their eyes could have burned holes
through her back; the feeling of being watched creeped her
out.

She leaned towards Nare ahead of her.
["Where are we going?"]

["Inside."]

Of course. The paranoid side of her
brain argued that the whole invitation was a trap, but the man bore
the mark of the protectors. He wouldn't harm them.

They entered a small chamber at the
end of the narrow corridor and halted. This couldn't be it. Where
was the Eye?

The old man held his hands out,
exposing his palms. His shadow flickered with a life of its own
along the bare walls. He spoke and Nare translated. ["He welcomes
us and expresses his gratitude that he may rest and worry no more.
The secret has lied buried for hundreds of years, sealed behind
rock and never spoken of, until now."]

The old man brushed sand away from the
rough stone of the wall, clearing the outline of fitted bricks
while speaking.

["He says the sand hides the wall,
that to cover it with anything else only invites
curiosity."]

[A wise man.]

Definitely. Raea wouldn't have thought
of it—hiding something almost in plain sight.

In the light of the lantern, he swept
away sand exposing the bricks and pulled them out one at a
time.

No mortar.

Behind the wall, a small chamber
opened to them, while a pile of bricks littered the floor at their
feet.

The old man halted and held up the
lantern, speaking again in his language.

Words were unnecessary. Raea
recognized the amulet the size of her fist—a golden ring around a
transparent center bearing a shard of aquamarine.

Awaiting them was the Eye left by the
Inari mission nearly five thousand years ago in the hopes that
Heffin's Gate would never reach full power. They had found
it.

The whole vision of Salera's visit to
Earth which the Starfire had shown her three weeks ago replayed
from her memories. The Crystal Keeper had been unaware of the true
mission to Earth until the partial Keeper tasked with finding a
safe place for it revealed the truth.

Now the history would come full
circle.

["That's it?"]

"Yeah." Raea blinked from
her daze as Nare picked up the dusty artifact.
No. Wait.
The words stuck in her
throat too late, but nothing happened. Why should it? The shard was
sealed to prevent detection by any mechanical device.

Nare's icy blue eyes widened, the
marks on her hands glowing. ["I hear them…Like a thousand voices at
once but not in words."]

["Sounds right."] The Starfire had no
language yet spoke universally through intent.

The old man let out a heavy sigh and
prostrated himself before them again.

Nare spoke in his language and he sat
back on his legs, a glint of moisture in his eyes.

["Time to go."] Nare's push on her
shoulder directed her down the corridor to the opening cloth, past
staring eyes. But the old man—

Nevermind. Raea held her wings tight
to her back and hurried out, her heart pounding in fear and
excitement. They'd done it. They'd retrieved the Eye, as Elis had
hoped to do, and the old man seemed satisfied.

The time had come for the final two
parts of her plan, with the worst yet to come.

Her heart ached again upon considering
retrieving his body, or what remained of it—she couldn't guess what
the Risaal might have done.

Raea stepped out behind Nare into the
chilly desert night with her hand over her chest and a dry breeze
cooling the tears on her cheeks.

["Time to—"] Her hands glowing
faintly, Nare turned and hesitated. ["Are you all
right?"]

No. Raea wiped her eyes and sniffed.
["I will be. Let's get this over with."]

["Home?"]

["Yes."] They should return to
McClarron before testing the shard, the shard that should have
turned Elis into a Crystal Keeper. Why didn't the Risaal and the
Shirukan just shoot her dead? Every moment without him was another
death, leaving her cold and empty, yet it always felt like he was
still there with her, soothing her with his love. Her spirit sank
into the deepest pit when she let herself imagine the warmth of him
surrounding her.

But she had to focus. After this, she
could grieve and mourn.

She wanted to give it all up and close
out all worlds, but the Risaal would never leave her or anyone else
alone if she didn't end this.

Closing her mind to the grief hurt
nearly as much as clouding her heart, but Raea opened her hands and
focused on the sky and the connection with the Starfire.

Forming the portal home came easily,
and she flapped her wings to rise with Nare towards the blackness
set against the lightening sky. The valley disappeared beneath
them, but a shape in the sky blotted out the stars and seemed to
move, a shadow in the night.