After Glow

Chapter 30

"So this is where they came to die after the Last Battle of Cadence." Emmett studied the skeletons. "According to the old legends they had made a suicide pact and vowed to carry it out if they were defeated. But I've got a hunch that they were a little more practical than that. Probably intended to hide from the Guild hunters until the heat died down."

"I'll bet something went wrong when she tried to de-rez a tunnel in the trap," Lydia whispered. She thought about how close to disaster they had all come a moment ago when the opening she had made through the wall of shadow had begun to narrow without warning. "It wouldn't have taken much. One tiny miscalculation and they would have been caught in the backlash when the trap shut."

Emmett nodded. "They would both have been exhausted from the battle and the desperate retreat through the catacombs. Some of the firsthand accounts claim that Vance had been singed. One thing is for sure, by the time they reached this place neither of them would have been in any shape to tackle this monster trap."

Lydia rubbed her arms against the prickly chill that had raised goosebumps on her skin. "They got caught. The effects of a trap as massive as this one would probably be enough to kill a human outright. At the very least it would have plunged them both into deep comas. Without medical help, they would have eventually died right where they fell without ever awakening."

"The historians are going to be rewriting a few chapters in the textbooks after this place gets taken apart by the pros."

"What a truly dreadful way to go." Lydia shivered again and reached up to touch Fuzz. "Trapped in an alien nightmare."

"Hell with 'em, they deserved it." Emmett leaned down and picked up Vance's infamous amber signet. "These two nearly destroyed the colonies trying to conquer them. The punishment fit the crime."

She smiled ruefully. "Okay, that's definitely a point of view."

"What the hell is this place?" Vance's amber in his hand, Emmett turned on his heel, surveying the great circular chamber. "I've never seen anything like it in the excavation reports. I'm damn sure it isn't a tomb, though."

Lydia followed his gaze. The vaulted ceiling was high, much higher than in the antechamber. A number of wide, curving balconies had been cut into the quartz walls. They rose in tiers almost to the top. There were a number of niches and openings. Some of them appeared to connect to other, smaller chambers.

Many of the relics in the chamber were familiar in style and design. She had seen similar pedestals, urns, and abstract sculptures at excavation sites and in muse-urns and galleries. But the long rows of shallow quartz boxes topped with ornately carved lids were new to her.

"You ever seen anything like these before?" Emmett crossed to one of the long boxes and ran a finger along the elaborate designs that decorated it.

"No, I haven't." Lydia went to stand beside him. "We can't be sure that this isn't some kind of very elaborate tomb built for a great leader. Maybe Herb was right. Maybe this is the burial site of Amatheon."

"Don't think so."

She frowned. "What makes you so certain? No offense, but you're a hunter, not a trained P-A."

Emmett shrugged. "The place doesn't feel like a tomb."

"You can't go by feel. The truth is, we know almost nothing about how the Harmonics used any of the rooms and chambers we've excavated in the past two hundred years."

"True."

Cautiously she raised the lids of several of the long boxes. There was nothing inside. "I wonder what they kept in these trays?"

He glanced back at the seething wall. "We don't have time to do an archaeological report. We've got to get out of here."

"I just want to take a quick peek in a couple more of these trays."

"Damn it, Lydia—"

She had the lid of another box partially open. There was an object inside. Her first thought was that it was a smaller version of the outer container. It was intricately decorated with the familiar, flowing abstract designs that appeared on so many of the relics.

"Look, it's hinged on one side just like the cover of a… oh, jeez, Emmett." She hardly dared to breathe. "Emmett, look."

"Save it for later." Emmett grasped her arm to haul her away. He glanced impatiently at the object that held her riveted to the spot. He went very still. "I don't believe it."

They both stared at the first of several extraordinarily thin sheets of quartz. Each was covered with still more abstract designs.

"A book." Lydia swallowed and gently turned a page. "I think it's a real book, Emmett. The first one that has ever been found in the ruins."

The thrill of the discovery threatened to overwhelm her. Very carefully she turned another page.

Something shimmered on one of the green quartz sheets. A section of the page wavered before her eyes. She yelped in surprise, yanked her hand away, and took a quick step back. Fuzz grumbled about the sudden movement and dug his small claws into her shirt to maintain his balance.

Emmett leaned over the book and cautiously examined the shimmering section. "I think it's a picture of some kind. But it's out of focus. The reader probably had to activate some mechanism to make it clear."

"Psi powered?" She studied the wavering page. "I can feel a trickle of energy."

"So can I."

"It doesn't feel dangerous."

"Famous last words from a P-A." Emmett tightened his grip on her arm. "We're sure as hell not going to run any experiments here. For all we know the energy ghosts and illusion traps may have been the least lethal of the psi-tech gadgets the aliens left behind."

"I won't argue, but you know what this place feels like, Emmett? It feels like a library."

"You P-As are always warning everyone not to draw parallels between humans and the Harmonics, remember? You say we're not supposed to make assumptions about the aliens' culture based on our own."

"I know, but for now I'm going with my intuition. I think this was a library or something similar. At some point they packed it up, perhaps when they abandoned their colonies. But they left one book behind. Maybe it wasn't very important to them. Or maybe it just got overlooked. But it is our first Harmonic text. They're going to go wild at the university."

"And you'll go down in the records as the one who found it."

She closed the cover and gently lifted the book out of the long storage box. It was lighter than it looked. "I'm taking this with me."

"Lydia—"

"I'll be careful, I promise. I won't open it again until I've got it in a research lab. Emmett, please, I can't leave it. Last time amnesia wiped out my memories of this chamber and the people who knew the truth lied about everything. I just can't take the chance of losing it all again."

His face hardened and for a moment she thought he would refuse, but in the end, he just nodded once, very curtly.

"All right," he said. "How do we get out of here?"

Relieved, she clutched the book in both hands and angled her chin toward an opening flanked by two elegant columns. "I remember that passage, I think."

"Is there another illusion gate that way?"

She frowned, trying to summon up the memories. "Yes, but it's a much smaller one."

Emmett scooped Fuzz off her shoulder and put him down on the floor. "We'll let you go first, buddy. You've got better senses than either of us. Home, pal."

Fuzz promptly scuttled off, leading the way through the twin columns.

Lydia and Emmett followed. Fuzz tumbled and bounced through another chamber, past more mysterious objects, and then he turned into a short hall and stopped abruptly. His fur flattened against his sinewy little body.

Illusion shadow blocked the path.

"No problem," Lydia said.

She de-rezzed the barrier quickly.

And nearly blundered into the massive ghost waiting on the other side.

It was huge. Green fire ebbed and flared in a terrible, unpredictable rhythm. There was a narrow space between the leading edges of the ghost light and the wall.

Emmett caught hold of her and yanked her back out of range.

"Now I remember that thing." Lydia watched the ghost pulse and glow and swirl. The last of her missing memories flooded back.

"Is this the one that singed you?" Emmett asked, studying it intently.

"Yes." She shuddered, clutching the book close. "There was no other way out. I couldn't go back. So I waited until the pulses seemed to ebb somewhat and then I tried to slide past, hugging the wall. But it flared suddenly and scorched me. I was running on pure adrenaline at that point and I managed to keep going a few more yards. I got as far as the next intersection, turned into another passage, found a chamber, and collapsed. The next thing I remember is Fuzz licking my face."

Emmett bent down and picked up an object lying on the floor. He held it between thumb and forefinger.

"My bracelet," she breathed. "This is where I lost it. I broke the catch when I escaped from the guards so I clutched it in my hand. It got me this far, but when that ghost brushed me I must have dropped it."

Emmett eyed the huge ghost. "If that chamber we just left really is a library, I guess this would be the circulation desk."

"Staffed by the librarian from hell."

Emmett tossed Vincent Lee Vance's amber signet into the air and caught it in his hand.

"Lucky for us I've got my library card," he said.