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Storh the mansion into the sunroom that had been added on at the rear, a roolass, filled with plants and trees, fountains and a bubbling hot tub, and paths that wound aenious beauty of the indoor paradise before they were exiting through a glass door and heading along another path This one led through an even larger paradise, an outdoor garden that seemed to cover acres
The entire area was heady with the al scent of countless flowers Above the trees, was a broad expanse of sky painted orange and pink by the sunrise The path they took wound and branched until Storain without an escort At the center of the garden, or what Storranite sculpture of the goddess Athena She stood proudly, an owl on her shoulder, a staff in her hand and a crown of stars encircling her head Her stone robe flowed from one shoulder to pool around her feet and drape in places over the square base on which she stood The base had been chiseled with twisting vines, and a few real ones had begun to creep over it The entire i
"My God," Stormy whispered
"Goddess, you mean" Lupe knelt in front of the statue&039;s base, which was at least four feet high, and touched one of the leaves that were carved there I hidden tracks in the ground
Storasped, shocked She hadn&039;t even realized there were searanite, they were so cleverly hidden by the pattern of the vines
"This way," Lupe said, and she walked into the black void behind the chunk of stone
Sing hard, Stormy followed, and as soon as she stepped inside, the stone slid hoht
"Stay still a second," Lupe said Storainst her shoulder, as if to ensure she obeyed
Then there was light, and Storhtness before she realized Lupe was holding a glow-stick in one hand Lupe held it out ahead of her, and Stor at the top of a set of stairs that vanished doard, into the darkness, plunging deep into the earth
"You guys take this secrecy shit seriously, don&039;t you?"
"We have to Follow ht, with a hundred-yard tunnel at the end of it, and a door at the end of that When they finally reached the door, Lupe punched a code into a numbered panel mounted to it, and the door opened
She led Storht ca more of the incredible room they had entered
Rooe and round with a concave ceiling And the entire thing was lined in books Hundreds-no, thousands-of thein to exae, and that could have come as much fro else
"What is this place?" she asked in a whisper Because it seemed appropriate to whisper in there
"The Library of Athena," Lupe said "There&039;s barely a subject we can&039;t research here We have a hundred wo the books into computers, one by one They don&039;t knoho they work for or why they&039;re doing what they are They just type and save, or scan the ones that are solid enough to withstand it"
"That&039;s probably wise If there were ever a fire-"
"There was, once At our library in Alexandria"
Stormy blinked, stunned "That was ?"
"This way," Lupe said She crossed the vast room, and at the far end, she took a book from one of the shelves and reached into the space left behind The shelf behind her swung open to reveal a hidden doorway "Follow me"
Stormy followed her into the shadowy dimness, down another set of steps-a smaller one this time-and at the bottom there was a far smaller room It was square, and its walls seemed to be made of rows upon rows of small doors in various sizes One section held tiny doors, another slightly larger ones, and another, still larger ones Some were tall and narrow, others short and wide Each one of thes in common: a lock and a number
Two of them were very different from the others Both were tiny And both stood wide open
The rooht came from the still-open doorway into the stairway But as Stor at the two tiny open doors, her ested to her, she heard a moan and tore her eyes away from the little vaults
"Melina!" Lupe shouted And then she was darting into a dark corner of the roo to her knees beside the limp for on the other side of the fallen woman She lay on her back, eyes closed, and the dark blotch on the right side of her forehead looked suspiciously like blood Stormy touched her cheek, patted it "Melina Wake up, come on Tell us what happened"
Melina&039;s eyes fluttered "The ring," she whispered
"That&039;s right, the ring Where is the ring?"
Melina&039;s eyes opened She tried to focus on Stor!" She sat up rapidly, then swayed to one side, but Lupe gripped her shoulders and held her upright
"Easy, Melina You&039;re hurt You&039;re bleeding"
"Help me up Hurry"
Lupe and Stormy flanked her and helped her to stand As they did, she stumbled a few steps forward and stared at the open doors Then her hand flew to her neck in search of so A key, Stormy recalled She&039;d worn it on a chain, but it wasn&039;t there
"The key God, she took the key"
"No Look, it&039;s right here" Lupe bent and picked up the broken chain with the silver key still on it "And here are the others" She scooped up another ring, this one huge, with et it Look, sos to me, and fast," Stormy said "What happened down here, Melina? And where the hell is Brooke?"
"Brooke" Melina lowered her head "Oh, God, Brooke What the hell is she doing?"
"That&039;s what I&039;d like to know," Stormy muttered
Melina lifted her head, met Stormy&039;s eyes and nodded slowly "We ca to use my key, the master key, to open vault number one" She nodded to the first tiny door that stood open "That&039;s where all the other keys are kept I&039;m the only one with the iant key ring in its vault and closed it She used Melina&039;s silver key to turn the lock, then handed it back to her Melina eyed the broken chain "She hit ," she said softly And she lifted a hand to the back of her head "I turned around to face her, and she hitthe chain from my neck She took the master key and I don&039;t know I lost consciousness"
"Where was the ring at that point?" Stormy demanded
"In my hand" Melina lifted her hand, opened her palm and blinked at its emptiness, her eyes wet "I can&039;t believe Brooke would betray , didn&039;t she?" Stormy asked
"She must have"
"But why ? What the hell could she ith the ring? Unless it&039;s just the value of it," Stormy said "She could sell the stone It&039;s probably priceless"
"It&039;s notat the second of the two little doors, the one that still remained open
"What was in that vault?" Stormy asked
Lupe looked at Melina, who looked to the open door Her face changed It was overco that looked a lot like fear Shethere
"What was in that compartment?" Storuess," Lupe said "But if it hat I think it was" She turned to her mentor "It asn&039;t it? We have to tell her, Melina"
Sighing, Melina lowered her head "The rite"
"The rite?" It took aof the words to sink into Storaped "The rite that&039;s supposed to be used with the ring? The one that&039;s supposed to restore Elisabeta to life? It&039;s been here all along? And now Brooke has it?"
"It looks that way, yes" Melina closed the door She didn&039;t lock it
"But why? Why the hell would you keep so like that from me?" Stormy demanded
Melina averted her eyes "You&039;re an e You had no need to know-"
"Don&039;t give me that bullshit, Melina You knew aboutand to Elisabeta That&039;s why you hired hts here, and you had the only bullet You should have told me"
"It wouldn&039;t have mattered"
"No? You don&039;t think so? It&039;s my life, Melina Shouldn&039;t that have been hed "I&039;ht was best I hope you can believe that"
"Yeah What was best for you and your damned Sisterhood, et back to the et to the bottoht we do," Stormy said
Brooke sat in a darkened room in an eed remnants of curtains that rehtly as they could be, diht The only other source of illu candle that stood on the small round table before her The other items on the table included a round slab of balsa wood, on which was painted a series of letters and nulass, a pad and a pen
Brooke had two more items to add She took theht at the base of the candle The carefully rolled parch The Ring of the Iertips on the botto you Speak to me, Elisabeta I&039;ve done as you asked the last ti and the scroll"
At first nothing happened But Brooke was patient The reward Elisabeta had proh to instill patience in her She repeated her words and waited some more Eventually she felt a breeze rush into the room She saw it in the way the candle flame flickered, felt it icy cold on her face She closed her eyes as was her custohtly at first, but then itsover the s arcs and circles When it stopped, Brooke opened her eyes to look and see what letter the glass covered, wrote it down and began again
The spirit board spelled out: G-O-O-D
"What do you want me to do now?"
G-E-T the spirit spelled Brooke took one hand frolass was itated manner than it had before T-E-M-P-E-S-T
"And do ith her?"
P-U-T-R-I-
Brooke frowned at the letters and kept scribbling as fast as she could, even while keeping one hand on the glass, which was flying over the board now It barely paused on one letter long enough for her to ascertain which one it indicated before sliding to the next
N-G-O-N-H-E-R
Brooke&039;s pencil fell froet it, relass to reach for it, snatched the pencil up and reached for the glass again
And then she just sat there, staring Because the wineglass wasAll by itself-she wasn&039;t even touching it
A door slammed, but no one was there
P-A-Y-A-T-T-E-N-T-I-ON
"I&039;o ahead" She looked at the notepad and read what she had written there PUTRINGONHER Put ring on her
"You want er Yes? But she&039;s not going to let me do that, Elisabeta"
F-O-R-C-E
"Yes, yes, I understand"
P-E-R-F-O-R-M-R-I-T-E
Brooke nodded, but disappoint about her, not a word about how Elisabeta would keep her proift of immortality in repayment for her help
"I understand," Brooke repeated "I take her, put the ring on her and perform the rite By force, if necessary It&039;s very simple" She cleared her throat "And after I do all this, assuot that, Elisabeta, but what I want to know is, what happens to et it And how?"
A-F-T-E-R
Brooke frowned, disappointh her She didn&039;t trust this Elisabeta, had suspected a trick fro "No," she said slowly "No, I don&039;t think so You need to tellto work or the deal&039;s off"
The icy wind returned, blowing harder now than before It blew so hard that a shutter slammed outside the house and the door burst open The candle went out, and the wind kept co you to do anything Just tell me, that&039;s all Tell me how it can happen!"
The wind increased Her hair whipped, tugged against her scalp and tangled in the air The candle tipped over and rolled across the floor But there was no response from the board
"You were one of The Chosen, Elisabeta But I&039;ain i
"At least tell me this much, Elisabeta," Brooke shouted into the wind "Why does it have to be Tempest&039;s body? She&039;s not one of The Chosen either So why her? Why?"