The smooth surface of the Tiger’s Eye crystal her grandmother had given her when she was younger warmed her skin. She pulled the crystal from the pouch, and even in the small light the flashlight offered, she saw the beauty of the brown and black crystal. And she felt it. She felt the courage it brought to her soul, the strength to see this mission through.
Diel’s face rose to her mind, a conjured mirage. Noa imagined the expression on his face when they managed to locate his sister. When Noa returned to the manor with the ledger that told him where Cara was. As she thought those things, the crystal in her palm filling her with its powerful energy, Noa felt her legs loosen and her feet begin to move.
She opened her eyes and, without overthinking anything, ran to the gateway to her personal hell. Hands trembling, she opened the door and stepped inside. She heard the familiar flowing water below, the spring underground that Auguste made full use of.
Swallowing, and clutching the crystal tighter, Noa made her way to the steep, winding staircase that had been formed from the earth. And she descended.
Damp slicked the walls; dankness swam in the air. The further she dropped, the darker everywhere became. She heard her own labored breathing echoing in her ears; she felt her heart thumping hard in her chest. Yet she didn’t stop. She didn’t stop until she landed in the main space. Noa couldn’t help the harsh burst of air that slipped past her lips. Her eyes were wide as all the devices came into view. Some she recognized well, and some were new.
You can do this. For Diel. For Cara.
Noa calmed her breathing, then began to search the room, detaching herself from any memories that threatened to rise inside her. She felt along the stone walls, searching for any sign of a hidden door, a closet. She searched and searched, but there was nothing.
Despair and disappointment ate at her soul as she frantically searched further, only for her hands to remain empty. “It has to be here,” she whispered. “Think!”
Then her eyes fell on a statue of Mary Magdalene at the far side of the room. Hands clasped together in prayer, shawled and veiled, a wayward woman redeemed by Christ.
Shunned.
Mary Magdalene had been shunned by the people, by Judas, until Jesus brought her into his fold. Some scholars believed she had been possessed by a demon and Jesus’s faith had cast it from her flesh.
Noa ran across the room, conscious that at any moment someone might find her. She stopped at Mary Magdalene’s feet and roved her eyes over the veiled face.
Shunned. Veiled. Hidden from the world … Noa wondered if that was what this statue represented. Those who the Brethren believed should be removed from society, from view.
Then her gaze fixed on one particular part of the statue, a faint circular mark on Mary’s hand. To anyone else it would seem a chip in the statue, a minute section of eroded stone. But to Noa, it was a key. She pressed it down. The stone sank, then the statue split in two, revealing a perfectly concealed safe.
Noa’s heartbeat was a fast-paced hymn as she shined the flashlight on the single shelf. Wrapped in a red cloth was a large book. Her hands shook as she reached in and withdrew it. She moved the cloth and opened the red leather-backed cover.
Noa’s legs weakened when she saw, written in perfect calligraphy, the word “Shunned” on the title page. She slammed the book shut and closed the safe, leaving no sign that the ledger had been taken. Noa was as quick as lightning as she climbed the steps back to the main body of the church and away from the hellish devices that sat mockingly below. She burst through the door to the altar, when a shuffling sound came from behind her.
Noa whipped around, knife pulled from her belt. Her body braced for an attack as she clutched the ledger closer to her chest. She drew her knife high, readying to strike, but as she sliced down, a petite person in black blocked her wrist. Noa locked on a familiar pair of brown eyes, the rest of the face hidden behind a leather face covering just like her own.
“Beth.” Noa drew back her knife, adrenaline still surging around her body.
“You were taking too long.” Beth focused on the ledger in Noa’s hand.