“You’re the one fated to raise Morindu,” Beltan said. “They must know that.”
“That is impossible,” Vani said, her visage darkening. “Besides the people in this room, and Grace Beckett and her closest companions on Eldh, only a few among the Mournish know this fact. I do not believe our closest friends have betrayed us to the Scirathi.”
“All the same,” Beltan said, using a cloth to wipe the edge of his sword, “they must know. And that means the Scirathi will come again.”
Deirdre cast a glance at the sofa where Nim lay. Something the girl had said echoed in her mind. “What did she mean?” She turned her gaze on Vani. “Nim said something about how the Scirathi wanted her because they think she’s a key. A key to what?”
Vani sighed, brushing her sleek hair from her brow. “I do not know what she means. A few times she has told me that the Scirathi have spoken to her. However, her story keeps changing. First she said they told her she was a precious jewel, then it was a little spider, and now it’s this–a key, she says. But I can only imagine she was dreaming. They have never gotten close enough to speak to her.”
“Haven’t they?” Travis said. “They were right outside her bedroom window tonight. Besides, you’ve forgotten how . . .” He cast a furtive glance at Beltan. “She’s not like other children, Vani. You know she’s not.”
Deirdre had heard the story: how the fairies had tricked Beltan and Vani, making each believe the other was Travis. While under the fairy spell, they had conceived Nim between them. Only it was more than that. Duratek had performed experiments on Beltan, infusing him with fairy blood. In a way, Nim was a fairy child. What that meant, Deirdre wasn’t sure, but the girl was certainly not a typical three‑year‑old.
Talk turned then to the matter of the stone arch–the gate– that had been discovered on the island of Crete. Vani was convinced it was a sign of Fate that the arch had been uncovered just when Travis needed to return to Eldh in order to fulfill his destiny.
“I don’t know if it’s Fate,” Travis said, gazing down at his hands. “But I’m willing to bet it’s not a coincidence that gate came to light on this world just when Morindu has been found on Eldh. There has to be a connection. Only what is it?”
Vani reached across the table, gripping his hands. “You are the connection, Travis Wilder. Don’t you see? The gate has come to light becauseMorindu has been found. It wants to take you there.”
He snatched his hands back. “What it if I don’t want to go?”
“You will go, because it is Fate.”
“I don’t have a fate,” Travis snapped, and Beltan cast him a worried look.
Vani seemed undisturbed. “Perhaps not. But my people do, and that fate is bound up with you. You will go to Morindu. We must go to this gate at once. Your blood will awaken it.”
“Blood,” Deirdre murmured, her mind humming. She glanced at the sofa and Nim’s sleeping form. “It’s what you and Nim have in common, Travis. That’s what connects you. Blood of power.”
Beltan cast a startled look at Nim. “A jewel, a spider, a key. Those things she said–all those words could be used to describe a scarab.”
“And the scarabs contain Orъ’s blood.” Deirdre felt hot, a sheen of sweat breaking out on her skin. “That’s why the Scirathi want both of you. Either one of you could be used to open a gate.”
“Or perhaps open something else,” Vani said, her coppery face turning ashen. “Why did I not see it before?”
Anders refilled her empty coffee cup. “Sometimes it’s hard to see the truth when you’re too close to it.”
Deirdre had to agree with that. And there was one truth the others couldn’t see yet. “The gate on Crete won’t do you any good. You won’t be able to open it.”
Vani scowled at her. “Why is that?”
“Because the arch isn’t complete. The archaeologists won’t find the center keystone with it.”
“This is madness,” Vani said, clenching her hands into fists. “You only say this to keep Travis here. How can you know the keystone will not be found?”
“Because it’s in the vaults of the Philosophers.”
Deirdre couldn’t help feeling a little satisfied as they all stared at her. It was good to be the one with the astonishing revelation for a change.
“You remember the Philosopher who was helping me?”
Anders cocked his head. “He hasn’t contacted you again, has he, partner?”
Deirdre thought of the message on her computer screen, just before Travis had called. “Actually, I think maybe he has. But he first helped me to learn about the keystone over three years ago.”
It had been almost that long since she had gone over her notes on the case, but it didn’t matter; she remembered every detail of the mystery as if she had just uncovered it. Anders knew all of this already–she had vowed not to keep any secrets from him, and she had kept that promise–but to the others it would all be new.
She began by explaining how her shadowy helper–the one who she was convinced was a Philosopher–had first contacted her, just after she had stumbled upon a computer file with her new Echelon 7 clearance. A file that was deleted from the system the moment she found it.
Deirdre had never learned what was in that file, but soon after she made another breakthrough with the help of the unknown Philosopher. She explained how she had stumbled across a reference to the keystone in the archives of the Seekers while researching an old case, one concerning a Seeker named Thomas Atwater. In the early seventeenth century, Atwater was forbidden to return to a tavern where he had worked prior to joining the Seekers. The tavern had stood on the same spot where the Seekers would later discover the keystone, and which, three centuries after that, would house the nightclub Surrender Dorothy.
Talking about Glinda was still difficult, even after this long. Deirdre gripped the silver ring Glinda had given her as she described the nightclub and its half‑fairy denizens. Duratek had been using them, hoping to learn from the experiments they performed on the folk of the nightclub, then had destroyed the tavern once they gained access to a true fairy.
“Are you all right, Deirdre?” Anders asked, his voice husky. As always, he pronounced her name DEER‑dree, but she no longer found it quite so annoying as she used to.
She did her best to smile. “I’ll be fine. Really.”
“You said there was writing on the keystone,” Travis said, his gray eyes curious. “Were you ever able to read it?”
Deirdre nodded. “My mysterious helper gave me a photograph of a clay tablet that bore the inscription on the keystone, as well as the same passage written in Linear A. Back then, I wondered at the connection, but now it’s fairly obvious.”
“To you, maybe,” Beltan said with a grunt.
She grinned at the blond man. “Linear A is the writing system used by the Minoan civilization on ancient Crete.”
Vani’s expression was guarded. “So what does the inscription on the keystone say?”
“It says, ‘Forget not the Sleeping Ones. In their blood lies the key.”
“The key,” Travis murmured, looking at Nim. However, whatever he was thinking, he kept it to himself.
There was one last thing she had to tell them. Deirdre took off the silver ring Glinda had given her and showed them how the same inscription as on the keystone was written inside it. However, there was one thing she did not tell them, and it was the one secret she had allowed herself to keep even from Anders: how, in the moment they had kissed, Deirdre had loved Glinda with all her being.