Chapter Thirty-Nine #2
“It just made a high-pitched ticking sound,” Kade stated. After a few seconds of silence, he subtly nodded. “There it is again.”
She still couldn’t hear anything, just their breathing and the sound of their hearts beating. Did a hunter’s hearing work on a sonar level, like bats? She quickly discarded the idea.
The tempo of the flashing lights had increased. Blues and whites had been joined by a dark green and gray. The colors transitioned quickly, barely lasting only a second before they were replaced. On the wall, the colors merged into a twirling kaleidoscope, the pattern enthralling and hypnotizing.
Talik took another step closer to the box. “I can hear it now.”
Tick.
Khalida tilted her head, trying to pinpoint if it sounded familiar. “So can I.”
Tick. Tick. Tick. The sound was getting louder and more insistent, if that was possible.
“No hint of explosives, right?” Talik asked.
Kade walked to the wall opposite them and hit a small, inconspicuous black button. Thick unbreakable glass descended from the ceiling, locking into place, separating them from the box. “A precaution.”
The pace of the ticking was increasing until it reminded her of a countdown.
Click.
The box slowly folded into itself, revealing a small black cube, no bigger than an oversized die, in the center. It must have been where the light was emanating from.
Khalida leaned forward, careful to keep some distance between them as she tried to get a closer look a second before blinding light burst into the room.
“Shit.” She covered her head. Black spots peppered her vision as she sucked in a breath.
Blinking a few times, she shielded her eyes against the unbearably bright light.
Her cheek was damp. She wiped it away and stared at the red drops on her fingertips.
A random shard must have penetrated the glass.
Opposite to her, Kade groaned, and she actually felt sorry for him.
His eyes were even more sensitive than hers.
“You may want to see this,” Talik said. “The wall.”
She wiped her face as she stood. Within the protected enclosure, the small cube was tilted at an angle and began spinning incessantly fast until it was a blur.
On the wall, multiple images flashed in succession, barely long enough for her to register before they suddenly slowed down and it was like watching a time-lapse video of a world that had existed thousands of years earlier.
She tried to memorize every single aspect just in case there was a clue.
Bright green hills appeared, so realistic that if she reached out, she swore she could touch the breeze-blown blades of grass.
Rapidly, the landscape transitioned. Another time-lapse stream.
Now the hills in the distance were covered with snow peaks, but below them, there were the hints of a temple structure; giant columns that touched the skies against the backdrop of a fertile crescent.
She blinked, and the temple had been completed.
This time, hundreds of people traipsed within the holy site, placing wreaths and votive offerings at the foot of giant sandstone and wooden statues.
The landscape changed again. The temple appeared half forgotten.
Its once grand statues that had protected the entrance had fallen, moss covering their faces, the temple becoming part of the landscape until it was buried and forgotten.
In another heartbeat, the landscape revealed an excavated temple with distinct T-shaped pillars.
“Gobekli Tepe, in Turkey,” Talik said. “Dante funded the archaeological excavation. It was the one Rieka and Chaucer worked on together.”
The scenery switched, moving in a burst of light from ancient Turkey to somewhere else. A prehistoric campsite surrounded by seven hills and a dying sunset. The full moon was mostly hidden by stormy clouds.
“This could be anywhere,” Talik muttered.
Quickly, the campsite grew from a handful of wooden houses and temples into a sprawling ancient town, before transitioning to large stone buildings, palaces, and forums that dominated the landscape. Streets and aqueducts appeared from thin air—and then she suddenly recognized the city. “Rome.”
The streaming lights appeared again. This time, they were directed to a rolling desert where sand dunes towered over a thriving oasis.
In the center, there were small mud structures, one-room houses, that quickly transformed into a large stone fortress that rose high enough it could blot out the sun.
She knew it in a heartbeat. It was unmistakably her home. “House Azaes.”
A second later, and they were transported into an area of marshy swampland and forests surrounded by an ancient waterway and bordered by a tumultuous ocean on the other side.
The scenery appeared static for a few seconds.
Khalida glanced at the unmoving cube. Maybe it had run out of charge?
It let out another high-pitched tick, and then the light fizzled for half a second.
The pristine landscape was rapidly replaced by a small village, early European, if she wasn’t mistaken, but they were no longer in Europe.
The village quickly grew from a busy commercial port to a city filled with infamous skyscrapers and reputation.
“New York City,” Talik said, breaking the silence.
The light flickered three or four times before it went black, and they were left in the darkness as the object stopped moving and finally fell silent.
The three of them stared at it, the tension in the room rising.
“Kade,” Talik broke the silence. “What haven’t you told us?”
Kade glanced at her, his expression giving no hint of what he was thinking, but it didn’t need to. He trusted Talik but wasn’t one hundred percent sure about her. She may not have taken the oath of an immortal, but she was one in everything except name.
She held out her hands in a peace offering. “I will not share this information.”
Kade stared at her for a few seconds longer, his gaze inscrutable before he gave her a quick nod.
“The archives hint at an ancient battle that was fought on Palatine Hill, in Rome, after the fall of Atlantis.
The hunters were responsible for wiping it from memory.
And destroying any evidence of the battle.
“Against Ninhursag?” Khalida asked, her mind going one hundred miles a second as she tried to sort through all the information she knew about their history, and the human Rome, and to see what else they had missed.
“Ninhursag was captured and placed underground. Bound by iron and with no access to the sunlight, her powers were weakened.”
Talik moved, stepping closer to the object as if he was entranced. “How did the hunters ensure it was wiped from memory?”
“On orders from the council, they burned the original town to the ground and executed all survivors, Atlantean or human. For centuries, humans were too scared to enter the region.” Kade grimaced.
A tick on his lower jaw was the only hint of emotion.
“Hunters remained in the area and guarded Ninhursag, with the occasional support from the immortals.”
Khalida straightened up. The hunters and the immortals had been on the same side, even for a short time. What else had been forgotten? “What happened to the hunters that guarded Ninhursag?”
Kade stared stoically at her. “Most of them were executed after the hunter purge. All entrance points to the tunnels were demolished or built over.”
“Do the archives detail a way to kill the Anki and the O’hurani without accidentally slaughtering a percentage of the Atlantean population?”
“Atlantean population?” Kade repeated, ignoring the rest of the conversation. He leaned against the wall, casually surveying the area. Khalida almost felt like prey, almost.
“If the O’hurani or the Anki are killed, anyone carrying a drop of their blood will also perish.” Talik took another step closer to the pedestal. “Or so our new acquaintance, Lucien, informed us.”
“I am aware,” said Kade. He shifted slightly, his focus entirely on Talik. “I did not realize it was common knowledge.”
Her mind continued to reel with the information Kade was giving them. This was not what she considered to be valueless as he had originally inferred. “What else do you know?”
Kade hadn’t taken his gaze off Talik. “Nothing that is of concern.”
Bullshit. She stopped herself from voicing the sentiment out loud. Something was not quite right.
Talik tugged at the sleeve of his shirt, his yellow consort mark a bright contrast to the dark color of the material.
“Is Ninhursag still trapped?”
“It appears she is no longer confined by her prison, thanks to the cave-in triggered by the grenade you used in the catacombs. Ninhursag was sighted twenty minutes ago. We are tracking her movements.”
“How?” Khalida asked. “And why didn’t you lead with this information?” Hunters. It was why she didn’t trust them. “If you say because I didn’t ask the right question, I will stab you with your own knife.”
“It would not have made a difference. We know where she is going.”
Talik looked up, his eyes flashing in the darkness. “Where?”
“The artifact confirmed it. Palatine Hill. The archives are convoluted and do not speak directly to it, but there is an obscure mention about Ninhursag leaving a piece of her ?a behind.”
“?a?” she repeated, not recognizing the term.
“It is an ancient Atlantean dialect and roughly translates to mean heart,” Kade explained.
He moved from the wall, stopping next to Talik.
“When the hunters destroyed the original town, they placed the ashes and anything that could not be burned in a pit. The Romans built around the surrounding areas, but Palatine Hill is over it.”
Talik crossed his arms. “And you think Ninhursag will return there?”
“Yes. She wants her ?a back,” Kade answered. “And she is unlikely to be alone. Egypt is not the only place where we have registered sightings of wayfarers and the serpopards.”
Another secret the hunters had kept from the rest of their society.
“How will we stop her?” Khalida asked, emphasizing the we. There was no way she wouldn’t be involved with the fight. She had a score to settle with the so-called god, and she was going to see it come to fruition. “We don’t even know what the ?a is.”
“The archives describe it as being wrapped in material and placed in a silver-coated oval case. As for Ninhursag, we lay an ambush for her. Trap her in an iron cage and transport her to a prison that she cannot escape from,” Kade said.
“I have kept Dante in the loop. The reinforcements will be positioned throughout the city.”
“We are looking for a silver egg-shaped relic?” Talik translated. “And why do we want the ?a?”
Kade glanced at Khalida before he turned to answer Talik. “If the archives are to be trusted, the ?a Ninhursag is searching for belongs to the O’hurani. Ninhursag will use the piece to find Atlantis and awaken the O’hurani to his full power.”