lizards.” He smoothed out the emblem on his vest, a screaming dragon with an arrow protruding from its belly. “I am not about to bow to hypocrisy just because our raiment is out of step with the vagaries of this century’s fashions. Unpretentious and unmasked, we have stripped the dragons’ disguises with the point of a sword, and we will continue in that sacred tradition.”
“As you wish, my liege.” Palin drew his sword, his eyes scanning the blade as it emerged from its scabbard. “It is freshly sharpened for the ceremonial undressing of the queen of the demon witches.”
“Excellent!” Devin raised the candlestone in front of his eyes. “If this Logan fellow speaks the truth, Thigocia will soon be ours. The witch who whelped the entire coven will finally be exposed.”
“And then only two more,” Palin said, shoving his sword back in place.
“Yes. I will repay Hartanna for wounding me, but” Devin clenched a fist around the candlestone’s chain “I want Clefspeare’s blood more than any other. To use his power to extend our lives would be the ultimate victory.”
Chapter 2
REUNION
Still facing Hannah, Elam reached back into his mind and recalled the ancient Hebrew he once spoke so well. Now the language seemed foreign, but the words came quickly enough. “I know who you are,” he said.
Hannah’s mouth dropped open. She sputtered, also speaking Hebrew. “What . . . what did you say?”
Elam slowly withdrew the Ovulum from his pocket and lifted it in his open palm. “I know who you are.”
Hannah grabbed Elam’s arm, pulled him into the bedroom, and slammed the door. “Who are you? How did you get the Ovulum?”
Elam raised a shushing finger to his lips. “Are any other boarders here?”
“None who speak Hebrew!” She gripped his wrist so tightly, pain shot along his arm, making the Ovulum tremble in his palm. “If you are a slayer, you were a fool to come with neither sword nor shield.” She squeezed even harder, revealing a strength that belied her petite frame. “Now, I will ask again, and you will answer. Who are you, and how did you get the Ovulum?”
“I am Elam, son of Shem,” he said, laying a hand on his chest. “The Ovulum came to me by the will of Elohim. Since Noah was my grandfather, and Methuselah was his grandfather, it rightfully belongs to me.”
Hannah gasped. “Noah was your grandfather? How is that possible? You are not more than sixteen years old, eighteen at the most!”
Elam extended a hand and gently placed his palm on her cheek. “How old are you, Thigocia?”
Hannah released his arm and backed away, her voice spiking with alarm. “Where did you hear that name?”
He stepped toward her, but when he noted the anguish in her eyes, he halted and spoke in a soothing tone. “I have kept watch over you for fifteen hundred years. I prevented Devin and Palin from finding you at least a dozen times.”
Hannah backed up against the bedroom’s far wall and flattened her palms against the plaster. “You” she swallowed hard “you have been following me around for centuries?” She glanced at an open window, just an arm’s length from her hand. “Why should I believe a word you are saying?”
Elam raised the Ovulum onto his fingertips. “Because I bear the dwelling place of the Eye of the Oracle.” He drew it closer to his face and said, “Fiat lux.” The glass began to glow, and a nebulous crimson cloud took shape within.
A look of curiosity swept across Hannah’s face. She took a half step forward, craning her neck. “Can you see him?”
The cloud congealed into the shape of an eye, bright and clear. Dozens of reddish hues painted the pupil, the iris, and every serpentine capillary. Elam nodded at the pulsing egg. “Yes, but he rarely speaks, he ”
A squeak sounded, the whine of the front door’s rusty hinges. Elam spun around and laid his ear on the bedroom door, whispering, “Are you expecting someone?”
Hannah shook her head and began inching toward the window. A slow creak drifted in from the hallway, a bending floor plank on the other side of the door.
The Ovulum’s temperature spiked hotter in Elam’s hand, and an urgent whisper hissed from the shell. “Fly! A dark knight is coming quickly!”
Elam rushed to the window. Hannah had already straddled the sill. Grabbing her wrist, he lowered her to the ground, then scrunched low and leaped out. They backed away from the cottage, watching for any movement in the room. Suddenly,