Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 112287 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 561(@200wpm)___ 449(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112287 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 561(@200wpm)___ 449(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
They both looked down at the seemingly innocuous object.
“Oh yeah,” Elena muttered, “that’s no blade. And, to reiterate, I never want to meet the Ancestors. Just putting that out into the universe. Meeting their grandson or great-grandson Marduk is more than enough.”
“In that we are in agreement. Come, Elena, I must inform the others,” he said, and they flew upward instead of down to the ground.
Rather than making a call, he sent a simple message using the same system the Cadre used to talk: Found. He’d just finished the task when Elena picked up the object again, and he saw the “metal” begin to pulse with life as it had when he’d taken it.
Archangelic cells.
Just a few.
They shouldn’t have been enough for this, especially when she showed no other sign of archangelic power. But, then, Elena had always been a being unique, an angel-Made. Ambrosia had changed her, and that ambrosia had come from him.
The obsidian-blue of the strange metal reflected in the silver clarity of her eyes as she turned it this way and that in open fascination—only to smile with joy sudden. “The melody just came into tune.”
Suyin made the call a mere three minutes later. “We now have a complete set.” She held up an artifact identical to the one in Elena’s hands; Raphael’s consort stood beside him for this meeting.
The others all held up their own finds, Zanaya looking askance at the glowing metal. “I can hear the hum you mentioned, Raphael. It took until I found mine to start.”
The others confirmed they could hear it, too.
“Perhaps you heard it earlier because Alexander’s and yours were in close proximity at the time?” his mother suggested.
“Perhaps.” He blew out a breath. “We must meet in person again, to triangulate the position of the base into which these subcomponents must be placed.”
“As soon as possible,” Titus added, even his naturally warm expression tight today. “I’ve just had word of a volcanic eruption off the coast of New Zealand.”
“Fuck.” Raphael’s imprecation wasn’t the only one.
“Where do we meet?” Aegaeon said, and for once, he wasn’t blustering. “The base could be anywhere, so we chance being too far from it no matter the location we choose.”
All of them frowned, because he was right.
Elena, who never spoke at Cadre meetings if she could help it, said, “How loud is the hum you hear?”
Suyin was the first to answer. “Subtle. And I only hear that when I’m holding the object.”
“I can hear it when it’s in the room,” Aegaeon said. “No farther.”
The others said much the same, except for Alexander, who could hear it across the desert closest to his home. “But no farther. Perhaps an hour’s flight on the wing.”
That left Caliane. “It is irritating to the nth degree.” His mother scowled. “Akin to a whispering courtier who will not be quiet. No matter if I fly to the mountains or across the ocean, I get no peace.”
Her eyes zeroed in on Elena. “Yes, you are right,” she said, though Elena hadn’t spoken again. “If the hum is so loud for me, and louder for my closest neighbor than for any other of the Cadre, then we should meet here. Per Marduk, the Ancestors didn’t intend for this to be a test except of cooperation.”
Zanaya nodded. “Yes, it makes sense that the location would be provided once all the subcomponents were active. All we had to do was talk to each other to work it out.”
“We fly now,” Raphael said. “We can’t risk waiting, and there’s no point in coordinating a single arrival time, because it might be that the more pieces in proximity, the louder the signal—but all of us need to be contactable so that we can change route midflight if needed.”
The agreement was total.
“Where is Marduk?” Elijah asked with impatience unusual for the Archangel of South America. “He should be there. We might need the entire current Cadre even if he doesn’t believe so.”
“I’ll bring him with me,” Raphael promised. “Fly safe.” Words he’d never before said to the Cadre at large, but these were uncertain times.
“Remember the storm cells that have been forming over the oceans,” Suyin added. “A storm might not kill us, but it can break our bones and crumple our wings—and speed, as Raphael has pointed out, is of the essence.”
Sober nods before the others signed off.
“Go, get changed into your flight leathers.” Elena thrust the relic into his hand. “I’ll find Marduk.”
They separated without further words, their ability to work as a unit a thing that had grown until it was seamless. All the while, the subcomponent of the Compass hummed like a contented cat in the back of his mind. As the Legion had once murmured, their presence there but unobtrusive.
A clatter of sound, a loud crack.
He shot a look to the window . . . and saw his sunset-kissed city under assault from a squall of hail the size of small stones.