we do with them? We can’t bury them now.”
“Put them in your pocket,” Thigocia said. “The box is worthless, so there is no sense taking it along. We can store the telegram and the ring in your bag’s waterproof pouch.”
After sliding the coins into her jeans pocket, Ashley handed the box to Walter, withdrew the telegram, and unfolded it. Holding the worn edges carefully, she read out loud. “Congratulations on the birth of your daughter. May she live in peace and learn the secret behind the Oracles of Fire. Signed, Gabriel.”
As she scanned the logo and address at the top of the page, she tapped her jaw. “Larry, I need you to contact the Western Union office on Stephens Avenue in Missoula. Find out the data source of the request for the telegram Gabriel sent to my birth hospital on the day I was born. It says it came from Glasgow, but I have my doubts. If they won’t give the source to you, go ahead and snoop in their database if you can. It could be a matter of life or death.”
“Consider it done.”
“What? No witty reply?”
“On a scale of one to ten, your tone of voice registers a nine point six on the ‘I’m-totally-stressed-out’ meter. It is not safe for man or machine to test your limits at this time.”
“Good choice,” Ashley said. “Give me your report as soon as you can.”
Walter nudged Karen. “Larry sneaked in a scale joke again.”
“Hush!” Ashley elbowed his ribs, but she couldn’t keep a smile from breaking out. “Or feel my fire-breathing wrath!” She held back a grimace. Walter didn’t laugh. Was that joke too lame? Shaking her head at her lousy timing, she propped the telegram in front of Thigocia’s nose, but not close enough to risk singeing the page. “Does it make sense to you that Gabriel would reveal his location like this? Glasgow is huge, but why even give a hint?”
“It would not make sense at all. Makaidos … I mean, Timothy and I asked that very question.”
“Could it be a clue to where he really was?” Walter asked. “Some kind of family code? You know, maybe Glasgow means some other city.”
“There was no code.” Thigocia’s red eyes seemed to darken as she recalled her story. “We left Gabriel near Glasgow with one of the Circle of Knights who took him to Patrick where he stayed for a time. We hoped he would be safe while we led the slayers to the States to get them off track. Patrick later told us that Gabriel disappeared, and before this telegram came, no one had heard from him for forty years.”
Karen pointed at the note. “So what’s that stuff Gabriel wrote about Oracles of Fire?”
Thigocia’s draconic lips turned upward, revealing a gentle smile. “While he was in Dragons’ Rest, Timothy met a girl named Sapphira who told him she was an Oracle of Fire, but he only knew that these oracles would bring about an end to Dragons’ Rest. He never saw her again, but we know that Dragons’ Rest was destroyed, so this girl might have had something to do with it. Maybe finding her is the key to finding Gabriel.”
Ashley refolded the telegram. “Or maybe even finding my father.” After sliding the paper into an inner pocket in her bag, she carefully lifted the ring from the box and laid it in her palm. “Mother,” she said, arching her brow, “I already have a rubellite ring, but may I wear yours?”
“I would be honored. I would have eventually given it to you anyway.”
Ashley slid the band over her right ring finger, but it wouldn’t pass her knuckle, so she moved it to her pinky. As she closed her fist, the rubellite seemed to glow with a deeper, more vibrant red. “Very strange,” she said, passing it in front of her eyes. “It’s almost like it changed when I put it on.”
Karen pointed at Ashley’s left hand. “Are you going to keep that one?”
“My other ring?” Ashley pulled it off and laid it in Karen’s palm. “You can have it.”
As Karen slid the ring on her finger, her face beamed. “I’ll take good care of it. I promise.”
Thigocia’s ears jerked around. Her eyes flamed as she growled, “I sense an increase in danger. Our safety could well be in jeopardy.”
Walter dropped the box and jerked out Excalibur. “Which direction?”
“There!” Thigocia blew a dart of fire, scorching the grass a mere ten feet away. “Where my living room used to be!”
Walter