The Arkana Mysteries Boxed Set

by N. S. Wikarski

  “Marta, Bill, please come in.” Faye stepped back to allow them to enter.

  “Granny Faye!” Marta exclaimed and swept the tiny old woman into an embrace. “So good to see you.”

  Her husband followed her lead and bent down to give Faye a peck on the cheek. “Hello, Granny,” he murmured.

  The couple’s demeanor changed the minute they set eyes on the boy on the couch.

  “You have a lot of explaining to do, young man!” the woman said sharply.

  Faye interposed herself between mother and son. “Don’t be too hard on the boy, Marta. He’s been a model house guest while he was here.”

  Zach gave Faye a furtive look of thanks. He apparently wasn’t sure if his brief career as a burglar was going to be a topic of discussion.

  “I certainly hope so!” his father exclaimed. “Do you have any idea how many decades you’re going to be grounded?”

  “I believe I’ve punished him enough already.” Faye gestured for her guests to seat themselves. “He’s actually been working quite hard during his visit.”

  “Yeah, and I’ve got the battle scars to prove it.” The boy held out his hands for inspection. His fingers and palms were covered in blisters. “Staying with Gamma was kind of like being on work release.”

  “Good!” his father said. “Maybe you’ll think twice next time before taking off and worrying us half to death.”

  Zachary looked down at the carpet but said nothing.

  “Bill, I do think he’s learned his lesson.” Faye tried to forestall any more scolding by changing the subject. “Where’s Sally? I haven’t seen her since last Christmas.”

  “She’s home studying,” Marta replied. “Just like Zach should be.”

  “Gimme a break,” the boy moaned. “It’s summer!”

  “Sally is taking extra credit courses.” The woman glared at the boy. “Just like you should be.”

  Zach rolled his eyes but kept silent.

  “Can I offer either of you some refreshments?” Faye asked tentatively.

  “No need,” Marta replied. “We’ll only be staying a few minutes. Just long enough to collect this one.”

  “Are you ready to go?” his father asked.

  “All packed for the gulag,” Zachary muttered under his breath. He stood up and slung his backpack over his arm.

  Just then, an assertive knock was heard on the front door.

  “Gracious me, who can that be?” Faye speculated.

  Before she could rise, Zach darted over to the foyer. “I’ll get it,” he volunteered. He grinned when he saw who the new visitor was. “Now how did I know it was you?”

  Maddie looked startled. “Haven’t you left yet?”

  Zach turned back to the occupants of the parlor. “Mom, Dad, allow me to introduce you. This is Gamma’s friend Maisie.”

  “Maddie,” the visitor growled through gritted teeth. “You know my name is Maddie.”

  Zach’s parents looked bemused. “Very nice to meet you,” they both said in unison.

  “I’m glad Granny Faye has somebody in the neighborhood looking out for her,” Marta commented.

  “Oh, it’s better than that,” Zach offered impishly. “They’re both on the neighborhood watch together.” He gave Maddie a sly glance, daring her to offer a plausible explanation.

  “The neighborhood watch!” Marta gasped. “Why Granny, don’t you think you should leave that to the younger generation?”

  Faye looked at Zach archly. “I’ve been thinking about that very subject quite a lot lately.”

  Maddie looked from Zach to Faye, her face registering both confusion and alarm. “I… I… uh… didn’t mean to interrupt a family gathering. I can come back later.”

  “No dear, it’s quite alright. Come in.” Faye gestured for her to enter.

  “We were just leaving,” Bill volunteered. He stood up decisively as did his wife. The couple frog marched their son to the door with Faye toddling behind.

  “Zachary has expressed an interest in coming to visit me on a regular basis,” the old woman said.

  Bill paused to regard his son. “Has he? Good. He needs to be around someone who won’t stand for his moon bat ideas. A grown-up who’s practical and down to earth.”

  Faye and Zachary exchanged a meaningful glance.

  “I think Gamma’s just the guy for the job,” Zach declared, giving her a hug. “Til next time.”

  Faye tousled the spikes in his hair. “Come back to visit me after your next birthday. Then we’ll have a nice long chat.”

  “You can count on it.” The boy grinned.

  His mother gave him a searching look, apparently trying to fathom the strange rapport that had developed between her son and his ancestor. “Thank you for keeping an eye on him, Granny Faye.” She hugged the old woman and then nudged the boy outside.

  Faye waited until the trio was safely in their vehicle and down the street before she shut the door.

  “What the hell was that about?” Maddie asked, mystified.

  “The consequences of curiosity,” Faye murmured cryptically. She didn’t elaborate.

  The operations director took a seat on the now vacant couch. She appeared distinctly grouchy. “Do you ever answer your phone anymore? Maybe I should just buy a house down the street given the number of times I’ve had to drive over here during the past week!”

  “I am sorry for the inconvenience. Now that Zach is gone, things can get back to normal.”

  Maddie scowled. “Maybe, maybe not.” Her tone was ominous.

  Sitting down in her purple arm chair, Faye leaned forward, “What is it, dear?”

  “We may have a situation.”

  “A what?”

  “Griffin called for sweepers to be sent to a location on Mount Ida. Apparently, our guys had a run-in with some local bandits.”

  “Oh dear.” Faye felt a growing uneasiness. “Did you speak with him? What happened?”

  Maddie shrugged helplessly. “I haven’t been able to reach any of them. I only found out about the sweepers because the Anatolian Ops Division contacted me for authorization.” She paused. “But that isn’t the worst of it. I just got a transcript of Hunt’s last phone call to the Nephilim.”

  “Yes?” Faye asked guardedly.

  “Hunt and that Daniel character were getting ready to leave Turkey. He said they got the relic.”

  “But that’s good news!” Faye exclaimed. “Apparently they aren’t suspicious that it’s a fake.”

  “No,” Maddie’s gloomy expression didn’t change. “That part went OK. But Hunt said they had some trouble recovering it.”

  “You don’t think they encountered our team, do you?”

  “I don’t know if it was the whole team. I can’t confirm anything from our end because I haven’t had a report for days. I’m hoping it’s because they’re already on their way back home. When I called the hotel where they were staying, all I was told was that their party had checked out.”

  “Then what on earth is the matter, dear? You look positively stricken.” Faye wasn’t used to seeing the operations director appear quite this worried about anything. The image alarmed her.

  Maddie rubbed her eyes wearily. “Hunt said he ran across one of the people from Karfi. One he thought he’d taken care of before.”

  “Good heavens! That means he spotted Griffin or Cassie or Erik and knows at least one of them is alive!”

  “That’s just it. He said he tied up that loose end. From the physical description he gave Metcalf, I think he meant Erik.”

  Faye was too shocked to speak.

  Maddie sighed. “I hope to goddess this is bad information but, if it isn’t, Erik may be dead.”

  Chapter 41 – Swap Meet

  “Come in, my boy, come in!” Abraham’s face was beaming.

  Daniel stepped tentatively over the threshold of his father’s prayer closet.

  Unexpectedly, the old man wrap
ped his son in an embrace. He held him for several moments before saying, “This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.”

  Daniel winced at the unexpected contact as well as his father’s choice of scriptural text. Obviously, he fancied himself to be the voice of God now. Flustered, the young man stepped back a few paces and cleared his throat. “Ahem, yes, well…Thank you, Father.”

  “This is a day of great rejoicing for the Nephilim. Come, sit down and tell me all about your travels.” He indicated the two chairs drawn up to the small table under the dead diviner’s portrait.

  To Daniel’s mind, the portrait seemed to be glowering less fiercely today than usual. Not that the thought gave him any comfort. His head was still too full of other images. A golden bee flying through the air to land at his feet. A young man flying off the edge of a cliff to meet his death.

  He sat down as instructed and drew a small wooden box out of his coat jacket. “Here it is,” he said simply. He pushed the box across the table to his father who fell on it eagerly.

  With trembling hands, the old man opened the lid. He seemed overcome with deep emotion. Daniel thought he saw his father brushing tears out of his eyes.

  The diviner gazed hungrily at the golden bee. “So long, so long,” he murmured. “I have waited many years to behold this sight.” He took the object out of its wrapping and held it up. Even in the dimness of this heavily-draped room, it gleamed.

  Abraham looked up in surprise as a new thought struck him. “Where is Mr. Hunt?”

  “He accompanied me to the gates of the compound and then instructed the driver to take him back to the city. He did say he would contact you later about his fee. I got the impression that the prayerful atmosphere within our walls upsets him.”

  Abraham nodded sagely. “It is often the case that the Fallen are uncomfortable in the presence of sanctity. No matter. I understand he acquitted himself admirably during your trip, did he not?”

  Daniel hesitated. He wanted to say that Hunt acquitted himself as befitted a cold-blooded murderer, but he bit back the words. “He insured that we recovered the artifact without hindrance. There was a young man. He—”

  “Yes, I heard about that.” Abraham cut him off. “Mr. Hunt did the right thing under the circumstances and afterward escorted you out of the country before any entanglements with the law might arise. All quite satisfactory.” The diviner was smiling again. Almost grinning in fact. Even the thought of collateral damage couldn’t suppress his elation, it seemed. He turned the bee over in his hands, noting the script on both sides of its wings. He peered up at his son. “Have you translated this yet?”

  Daniel shook his head. “Not in any depth. I ran into some difficulty with my computer program and didn’t have all the necessary reference material with me in Turkey to resolve the problem. I have copied down all the hieroglyphs from the artifact, and I should have the full translation in a day or so.”

  The old man studied his son’s face for several seconds. “Never mind that for now, my boy. You need rest.”

  The diviner must have noticed Daniel’s haggard appearance. What he attributed to fatigue, Daniel attributed to an increasingly guilty conscience.

  “You should spend some time with your wives and children.” Abraham stopped short. “That reminds me. There is another matter we need to discuss.”

  Daniel was only half paying attention, so his father’s next words caught him completely off guard.

  “I’ve reassigned Hannah.”

  “What?” Daniel wasn’t sure he’d heard his father correctly.

  The diviner turned his eyes to the far wall. In a casual tone, he said, “She began to have delusions about the state of your marriage.”

  “Delusions?” the scion repeated uncomprehendingly.

  “Yes, delusions.” Abraham’s tone remained casual. “Absurd lies that your union had not been consummated.” He didn’t bother to ask Daniel to confirm or deny the statement. “I knew it for what it was. The work of the devil. An attempt to demoralize the people by raising doubts about the scion.”

  Daniel found himself on the horns of a dilemma. If he leaped to Hannah’s defense, he risked exposing his own problematic behavior. Instead, he asked, “You didn’t punish her, did you? After all, she’s only a child.”

  Abraham nodded in agreement. “That is why I reassigned her to a man who can keep her vagaries firmly under control. One who can bring her around to a proper way of thinking.”

  Daniel hadn’t even formed the question before his father answered. “I am the only man strong enough to grapple with the demons who are attempting to possess Hannah’s soul.”

  “You!” Daniel echoed, trying to keep the shock out of his voice. Although he had been raised with the practice of older men taking younger wives, a sixty-year age difference was obscene. The thought of his father coupling with Hannah made his flesh crawl. “And is Hannah happy with this new arrangement?” he asked tentatively.

  Abraham seemed surprised by the question. “Why shouldn’t she be? As the wife of the diviner, she will have many advantages.”

  “But did you ask her what she thought about the reassignment?”

  The old man’s puzzled expression remained. “There was no need. She hasn’t complained.”

  Daniel gave a weak smile. “Then I’m sure everything is alright,” he lied.

  His father took his words as a sign of consent. “I am glad, my son, that you see the wisdom of my decision. I confess I should have been distressed if you were going to make some difficulty about the situation.”

  “No Father, not at all.” While Daniel was glad to be relieved of the burden of a superfluous wife, he felt nothing but sadness for Hannah’s fate. He needed to let her know that somehow. “May I speak to her?” he asked. “I’d like to say goodbye.”

  Oblivious to the thoughts running through his son’s mind, Abraham smiled magnanimously. “Of course, my boy, of course. I believe she has been scheduled to work in the bakery this week if you wish to seek her out. I’m sure she will be pleased to see you.”

  Daniel believed Hannah’s reaction to seeing him would be anything but pleasure. If he hadn’t abandoned her on their wedding night, she might never have mentioned the incident to anyone. She might have remained safely beneath the notice of the diviner. The girl couldn’t possibly be happy to be married to a man old enough to be her great-grandfather. This was Daniel’s fault. All his fault. He had already charged himself with the deaths of three people in obtaining his father’s artifacts and now this. He didn’t know how much more guilt his soul could bear. He stood up abruptly. “Do I have your permission to leave now, Father?”

  Abraham had refocused his attention on the golden bee. He spoke absently. “Not right now, my son. I’d still like to have a full report of your journey. After that, I think we should spend some time in prayer and thanksgiving. Surely you can postpone your other duties until this afternoon.”

  The scion lowered himself back into his seat. It seemed his ordeal was to continue. Several more hours of uninterrupted attention from his father. Considering all the misery he had inadvertently caused, it hardly seemed penance enough.

  Chapter 42 – Marital Affairs

  Hannah paused to rub a smudge of flour off her nose. She’d been kneading bread dough for what seemed like hours. Her fingers were beginning to cramp up. She stood at a long butcher block table flanked by a dozen other women engaged in the same occupation. Providing enough daily bread for two hundred people was a time-consuming chore. She happened to glance toward the door of the bakery and dropped the lump of dough she was holding. Daniel was standing there. He hadn’t seen her yet. He was scanning the faces of the women to her right, obviously looking for someone. Looking for her it seemed because when he saw her, he gave a little start. Their eyes met. He offered a tremulous smile and motioned for her to join him at the door.

  She hurriedly wiped her hands on her apron and scurried over to where he sto
od.

  “H…hello,” he began. “How are you?”

  She blushed and looked at the floor. “I’m alright, I suppose.”

  “Will you please come for a walk with me?” he asked.

  Could it be possible? Had something changed? Had he persuaded his father to give her back to him? She hadn’t felt anything like hope for a long time. She nodded.

  They walked down the corridor in silence, their footfalls echoing over the stone floor.

  “Let’s go in here where we can speak privately.” Daniel motioned toward the chapel. It was deserted at this time of day.

  Hannah realized it would be unseemly for her to invite him to her quarters now that she was married to another man.

  They walked down the central aisle together. The irony was not lost on her. The last time they had met in public, it had been to walk down this same aisle on their wedding day. Daniel led her to the front row and indicated that she should sit down with him.

  She complied wordlessly.

  He seemed to have difficulty meeting her gaze. He looked at the floor and asked, “Are you happy with your new marriage?”

  She didn’t know what to say. He was the son of the diviner. If she told him how she really felt, he might report back to his father. If she didn’t say anything, he might assume she actually wanted to be married to that old man. She hesitated for several more seconds.

  When she didn’t speak immediately, he finally looked at her. The expression on her face must have told him what he needed to know. “I am so sorry this happened to you, Hannah.”

  His apology meant that he wasn’t in sympathy with what his father had done. That was good. Maybe there was a chance to fix things after all. “I’d rather be married to you,” she offered shyly.

  Unfortunately, his reaction wasn’t what she’d hoped for. The blood drained out of his face. “I… uh…” He stammered and cleared his throat. “Um…I don’t think that would be a good idea.”