Lacuna - N.R. Walker Page 0,87

were a race of creatures on a different planet . . .”

“You mentioned a quest,” Crow pressed.

“Yes. They needed to find a new world.” Tancho’s pale face grew paler still. “They travelled by the stars. When the stars aligned, it created a . . . road, of sorts. I read it so long ago . . .”

“The stars are aligning now,” Samiel said.

“The eclipse,” Tancho whispered. “They arrive here in time for the eclipse. When the sun is blocked by two moons. It cannot be a coincidence.”

Gabel nodded. “There was a chart, but it is not written in any language I know.”

“Show us,” Crow said. “Now we are getting somewhere. Now we are getting answers.”

Gabel scurried away to return holding out a book. He began frantically flipping to a certain page and turned the book around to show them. The book was old, the pages weren’t any kind of papyrus Crow had ever seen; mottled and thick, brittle and stiff. The writing, if that’s what it even was, appeared to be no more than faded scratches and scrawling.

Crow carefully lifted the page and inspected it on both sides. There were fine patterns, tiny filigree lines, uneven texture. Surely not . . . “This . . . paper,” he said slowly, “is not paper at all, is it?”

Gabel shook his head. “No. I . . . I think it is skin. The same mottled skin as the creatures. The cover is a leather, but from which creature, I don’t know.”

Crow shuddered. “So this is not a drawing, as such, and more of a tattoo. Inked into the skin of the creature, then cut out and used as a paper.”

Gabel nodded. “It is hard to say for certain, but perhaps. I cannot guess at the age of this tome, or its origins. I don’t know from where it came.”

“Or how it came to be here,” Adelais added with a shrug. “There are tens of thousands of books, probably others just like it yet to be found.”

“Maghdlm’s book had similar writing,” Tancho said, drawing their attention back to the book. He pointed to the tattoo. “And this was in her book also.”

The drawing was a straight line down the middle of the page, marked with a series of circles and dots. There were lines and arcs and notations in that scratchy writing that no one could read, but one thing was very clear. It wasn’t a drawing, per se; it was a chart.

“What is this a map of?” Crow asked.

“The skies,” Gabel answered. “At least, we think.”

He pointed to the circle at the centre of the page. “This is us. The Aequi Kentron, the equal centre.” Then he moved to the circle above it. “The first moon. Here is the second. This is the sun.”

Crow pointed to the series of small dots at either end of the page. “What are these?”

“Constellations,” Gabel said. “This one here is Corvus.” And then he pointed his finger at the second one. “This is Pisces.”

Crow turned to Tancho. “Corvus and Pisces,” he whispered.

Tancho stared right back at him. “The crow and the fish. The constellations of us, the eclipse.”

“This eclipse also aligns with the crow and fish constellations, passing directly over Aequi Kentron,” Gabel explained. “This line”—he pointed to the line in the tattoo—“intersects perfectly.”

“It explains the bond between you,” Adelais said. “And why, when Maghdlm discovered the Corvus and Pisces connection, she left in such a hurry. When she saw your birthmarks react at the initiation ceremony, she didn’t rush to the archīvum to research. She rushed through the archīvum to this old grand hall to the ancient compass.”

“To send a message?” Elmwood asked.

“It is what we assume,” Aelfflaed answered. “A signal, perhaps.”

“If she could send a signal through the doorway,” Samiel said. “Why not just open it to the creatures? Why have them go through the Westlands and alert us?”

“No,” Tancho said, shaking his head slowly. “They had arrived at my castle before then. They arrived the day after we left. Asagi sent those riders with that message the day after we left. It was a six-day ride. Six days before the initiation ceremony.”

“If those Ascii creatures were already down here, where we sit right now,” Crow said coldly. He stared at the three elders. “Then your story doesn’t add up. Because it took us six days to ride back to Westlands with an injured Maghdlm, and that was two days ago.”

The three of them stared, blinking quickly. “But it has to,” Gabel said. “We’re