by Angie West
***
The airport in Seattle was crowded. The one good thing about Seattle though, was that after trekking through Africa for hours on end, it didn’t feel so hot. The three of us were bone weary by the time we pulled into the driveway of my house. Mike insisted on doing a thirty minute walk-through of the house before we went in. I figured it was safe enough, given the length of time we had been gone, but stranger things had happened—literally. So I sat patiently in the car with the little girl while he searched closets and corners.
“All clear?” I called out when he poked his head out the front door.
“Looks that way.”
“Come on, honey, we’re finally home. Well, at my house anyway. You’ll be safe here, I promise.”
She followed without question. Her eyes widened as she took in her surroundings. Mike cleared his throat and shot me a pointed look.
“Yes, I know. We need to talk. Why don’t you go take a shower in the guest bedroom while I get her something hot to eat?”
An hour later, I had fed my new houseguest and she was snoozing contentedly on my bed. I even managed to get a little bit of information from her. Her name was Ashley and she was six years old. Both of her parents were dead, killed by some ‘bad men’ when she was five years old. She’d lived in an orphanage since then.
Mike was waiting for me in the kitchen.
“Is she asleep?”
“Yes. Just now.” I dropped into the chair across from him and cradled my head in my hands.
“Good. I didn’t want to say too much in front of her.”
“Neither did I.”
“Claire…”
I looked up.
“Why did you come after me?” he asked quietly. “You were supposed to find the key and destroy it. Why didn’t you?”
“That’s simple. Would you have left me to die?”
He smiled ruefully. “No, of course not.”
“Well, there you go.”
“What happened after I left?”
“Well, first John and his bunch of jackasses called me into a meeting and told me that you swindled a bunch of money from them for a fake expedition. I decoded your notes and ran. It took some time, but I figured out how to get to Terlain. And then I…found you. And here we are.”
“Huh. Did you get the package I left you in the yard?”
“Yes, I got it.” I filled him in on that little adventure too. He paled visibly when I got to the part about the attack.
“Good God, Claire. What did you end up doing with the package?”
I grinned at that particular memory. “I turned it in to the police on my way to the airport.”
He hooted with laughter and hugged me. “Are we bad people, Claire? To be laughing at a man losing his freedom?”
“Hey, who said we were laughing at a ‘man’?”
“True enough.”
“So is it true—what John said? Did you take money from them?”
“No. I had a man working with me. He was an associate. It was never my intention to find Terlain on my own. But my partner was in with John Hanlen the whole time. He was paid handsomely to feed him information about what we were doing.”
“What happened to him?”
“John killed him after he had what he needed to threaten me.”
“Why did he want to find you so badly?”
Mike shook his head. “It was never me he was after, not directly at least. He wanted the key.”
“But why?”
“Why else? Money. Terlain is not only the find of the century—it’s a gold mine.”
I thought back to the seeing stones and the spun gold on the leaves and nodded. “Is that why you went there?”
“Not for the money. The fame? Maybe. At first I had these ideas about changing the world…” He trailed off into a lengthy silence.
“And now?”
He looked at me then with the most tortured expression I had ever seen. “Let’s just say I have seen the error of my ways.”
“What do you mean? What happened over there?”
“I…it’s too dangerous over there, Claire. It’s just too damn dangerous. We had no business going there. There was a reason the key was buried deep. There was a reason why the elders of the time wanted it destroyed.”
“The elders. I read about them, while I was looking for you. Do you think they were connected somehow to the band of men that appeared in Terlain during the last year of the war? The Racanes?”
“Racanes?”
“Yes, they were a band of men that appeared near the end of the war. They were very active in the revolution. Before they disappeared, they predicted that a talisman would be the key to Kahn’s downfall.”
“Racanes? Are you sure they were called Racanes?”
“Yes, they were foreign.”
“Racanes…racanes…Africans?”
“Oh my God,” I whispered. Mike and I exchanged wide-eyed stares as comprehension dawned.
“No, it doesn’t matter.” He blinked and shook his head vehemently. “It’s done now.”
“Except for Ashley.”
“Ashley?”
“The little girl. Her name is Ashley.”
“What else did she tell you?”
“She’s six years old. The guards killed her parents last year and she has been living in an orphanage ever since.”
“Oh, hell, we kidnapped a child.” He scrubbed a hand over his face and began to pace.
“Not really. Besides, what choice did we have? If I had not gone after her, she would be dead now. And we couldn’t very well have left her in the woods at the mercy of the guards. They have no mercy—you know that. They would have sold her to a brothel or killed her. Or worse.”
“I know, I know. But damn it, she had a home. Even if it was an orphanage, it was still a home.”
“Yes, and she is also bone thin and covered in bruises. I was sorry that we had to take her at first too. Not anymore. She asked me if I was going to be her new mommy.”
“Oh, man.”
“Exactly.”
“So what are we going to do with her?”
“I’m going to keep her. I’ll need a few things for her, though.”
Mike regarded me in silence for several long moments. “Just say the word.”
“Let’s see…she is going to need basically everything; a new bed, clothes, a new birth certificate and social security card.”
“I’ll get the documents if you get the clothes and the bed.”
“That sounds fair.” I smiled at him and we walked out onto the porch together. The moon shone clear and bright, illuminating the entire porch and yard in a gentle glow.
We stood there next to each other for several minutes, enjoying the peaceful night.
“I met Aries,” I finally murmured into the night.
Mike looked at me with surprise…and hope. I smiled.
“Is she…”
“Yes, the last time I saw her, she was okay.”
“Good.”
“Do you miss her?”
When he didn’t answer, I continued. “I met someone, you know. Over there.”
He turned his head and studied my face with open curiosity, but waited for me to finish.
“His name was…is…Mark.”
“Do you miss him?”
“Oh, yeah.” I swallowed hard and looked away.
“Claire…we can’t go back. You know that. We were lucky to have gotten out alive the first time.”
“I know.”
He took my shoulders and faced me. “You look tired, Claire Bear. Why don’t you go inside and get some sleep.”
“Are you staying?”
“Might as well, if that’s all right with you?”
“Take the guest bedroom. To tell you the truth, I think I would feel better if you did stay the night.”
“No problem.”
I turned to go inside.
“One more thing, Claire.”
“Yes?” I glanced over my shoulder.
“I need your half of the key.”
“Why?”
“I’m going to destroy both halves.”
My eyes felt gritty all of a sudden. “Tomorrow. Please.”
“It has to be done, Claire. I’m sorry.”
“I know. I just…want to look at it tonight. Tomorrow…I’ll even help you destroy it.”
“Okay, tomorrow then.”
“Goodnight.”
“‘Night.”
***
We destroyed the key the next night. We threw both halves into a fire and stood as silent witnesses to their passing. Afterward, Mike returned to the guest bedroom in my house. He seemed to be lost in his own private thoughts. I let him be. After all, I was lost in my own. I shut the lights out and double-checked the lock on the front door, lingering in the doorway and peering out into the darkness. I had the strangest feeling that someone was watching me.
“No, wonder, with the month I have had,” I muttered.
I changed into my nightgown and silently locked the bedroom door. Then I opened a drawer. The key was heavy in my palm. I removed the bottom drawer from my nightstand and tore off a piece of tape. I touched the key one more time, then secured it in the hiding spot I had chosen the night before. The decoy that I had thrown into the fire had cost a mint, but the likeness had been remarkable—enough to fool Mike, at least.
I checked the locks one final time before quietly tip toeing into my room to check on Ashley. She was sleeping peacefully. The moonlight shone on her face. She looked like an angel and my heart broke for her. At that moment, I thought of another orphan, a little boy who had been searching for food in alleyways and garbage cans, with no place to call his own. I leaned over and kissed Ashley’s cheek, and knew that I was making the right decision.
