Lacuna - N.R. Walker Page 0,80
got to the door.
“Oh, nice of you two to show up,” Soko said with a sly grin. “We didn’t keep you from doing anything . . . important, I hope.”
“Shut it,” Crow mumbled as they went to the table where the old mentors sat. It appeared that Soko, Karasu, and Kohaku, and the other guards from Southlands and Eastlands were stockpiling weapons, and they didn’t seem to need any help. But Elmwood and Samiel, along with Asagi, Erelis, Sirocco, and Oaken were in a quiet, serious conversation, their brows furrowed with worry. Maghdlm was gone, though her book was still on the table.
“What have you found?” Tancho asked.
The four books they’d brought—the white, black, red, and green matching books—were set out on the table in what appeared to be some deliberate formation. The books were open and together, and their pages made one larger picture.
No, not a picture.
A map? But not like any map Crow had ever seen before.
All four books joined together formed a picture. It all joined together like a puzzle but Crow couldn’t seem to make out what it meant. There were circles and lines and dots and . . .
“What is that?” Tancho asked.
Asagi turned Maghdlm’s book around so they could see it. “The same as this.”
The exact drawing, only smaller, was in Maghdlm’s book. It was hand-drawn, inked in the scratchy scrawl that filled the rest of her book. Her handwriting.
Hers.
Maghdlm’s very own handwriting matched the drawings in each of their own books that together made the same picture. Maghdlm’s handwriting . . .
“How is that possible?” Tancho whispered. “These books are hundreds of years old, are they not? How can Maghdlm’s own book be the same? By her hand?”
“We think it’s a chart,” Asagi said.
“A chart of what?” Crow asked. He could barely trust his voice to speak.
“A chart of the sun and moons,” Erelis answered. “To an exact point in time.”
“When?” Tancho asked, though he didn’t need to.
“Tomorrow,” Crow answered for them.
Oaken nodded. “The eclipse.”
“Fuck!” Crow seethed. “I knew it! Where is she now?”
Just then, a white guard raced through the door, out of breath and alarmed. “The doorway. She opened it.”
Everyone was on their feet, and Crow stepped forward. “Who? The small woman with the bruises on her face?”
Maghdlm.
He nodded. “Yes. The doorway closed behind her. She’s gone.”
Chapter Eighteen
Crow was livid and Tancho didn’t blame him. Crow had tried to warn him and Tancho hadn’t listened. “I’m sorry,” Tancho said. “I should have questioned her. When you had your doubts about her, I should have listened.”
Crow shook his head. “It’s not your fault. I didn’t question her on my own doubts. I shouldn’t have expected you to.”
Kohaku and Soko ran back into the room. “It’s gone. There’s nothing in her room.”
Tancho wasn’t surprised, but he was disappointed. The pouch with the metal elements that they’d helped her obtain was gone.
The key to the doorway was gone.
“Not all of it,” Erelis said. “When she asked the Northlands to source her the four elements, I didn’t give it all to her.”
“She asked for more?” Tancho asked.
Erelis nodded. “She did.”
“She asked our guards as well,” Kearmore said.
“And ours,” Addax added.
This wasn’t good . . .
“You kept some?” Crow asked.
He nodded. “I could tell you didn’t trust her. I’ve known you every day of your life, Crow. I can read you. You helped her, you saw that she was cared for when she was injured, but you didn’t trust her. I can tell when you don’t like someone . . .” His gaze darted to Tancho. “And when you do.”
Tancho preened a little. He couldn’t help it.
“And we have more indium,” Asagi said. “It was the one ingredient hardest to find.”
“How can we be sure she wasn’t lying?” Elmwood asked. “Why would she just give us the ingredients so easily?”
“We have her book,” Asagi noted. “From what we can tell, it is the only four components required.”
“She wants us to follow her,” Crow said fiercely. “She wants us in Aequi Kentron. She gave us the components; we know the chant to open and close the door. She made a run for it knowing full well we’d follow.”
“Then we should counteract and not do what she expects,” Tancho allowed. “Let us find another way.”
“We are out of time,” Crow said. “I say we give her exactly what she wants.”
“She knows our plans,” Samiel said. “She knows we have our armies at the ready, she knows about the smoke bombs. She knows we are coming.”
“Tancho,” Asagi whispered. He