Beverly Hills Dragons- The Complete Collection Page 38

  Dr. Morrick smiled. “That can be fixed. I’ve set you up in one of the nicest hotels in the area. No sleeping out on the ground for the best translator in the world!”

  Kaylee flushed as she followed him down a dirt pathway. It had been carved by thousands of feet, traveling amongst the crumbling stone walls that had once housed numerous people. While some parts of the ruins were remarkably preserved due to the masterful masons who had once built them, there were others that had been reduced to nothing but piles of perfectly shaped granite bricks. “You don’t have to say that just because I’m right here.”

  “I don’t have to say anything; that’s true. But I don’t think either one of us can deny that you’re at the forefront of our industry. People talk about you, my dear.”

  “I’m not sure it’s always in a good way.” The curving walls of the Great Enclosure rose up in front of them, and Kaylee felt an immediate appreciation for the site. It spoke of ancient people, lost religions and stories that spanned centuries. Archeologists would never truly know everything about the Great Zimbabwe, a monument so stunning that an entire country was named after it, but it was still a lot of fun to guess.

  Dr. Morrick reverently touched the stone walls that framed a doorway. “Don’t take any of that to heart. They’re just intimidated by you. Some of them have studied for decades and yet they can’t decode the way you can. They don’t think that a young woman such as yourself should be able to hold so much genius in her brain. Sexist, I know, but old ways die hard.”

  “Or they die without a single explanation of why.” Kaylee had read everything she could get her hands on about this ancient site as soon as she’d received the request from Dr. Morrick to come out there. She’d been excited both to work with her mentor and to see a new place, but as soon as she’d begun packing her bag, she started to realize the reality of it. She could handle the rigors of airport security, even when it involved flying to a different country. She could handle living out of a small suitcase for a week. She could even handle the inevitable change in diet.

  But she knew the worst of it was yet to come.

  “Perhaps you can help uncover a few of her secrets,” Dr. Morrick replied hopefully. He led her into a circular stone wall and past several other structures, all built of the same stone. They reached another doorway, and upon entering it, descended down a set of stairs that had been freshly uncovered from the earth. “As I said in my email, we’ve only just recently uncovered this new chamber. It’s been quite exciting for us, as I’m sure you can imagine. These new technologies that keep popping up are hard to keep up with, yet they’re always giving us new information about old sites. I love it. Anyway, we’ve found a tablet we’d like you to interpret for us.”

  “Has anyone else had a go at it?” The steps beneath her were still slick with the dirt that had been covering them for centuries, but Kaylee confidently made her way down them. She glanced up from her footsteps to see that a vast underground cavern had been dug out of the dirt. LED lights on strands had been set up at intervals, run by a generator that grumbled to itself somewhere above them. Several other rooms extended off the one they were in with more glowing lights emanating from them.

  He paused at the bottom of the stairs and turned to her, a look of concern in his houndlike eyes. “Well, Dr. Atwood is here.”

  Kaylee’s heart, which had been fluttering somewhere between excitement and anticipation, now dropped into a solid state of dread. She knew how Dr. Atwood felt about her, but then again, he’d made no attempt to hide it. She raised one eyebrow. “And did he have any success?”

  Dr. Morrick’s mouth was a hard line. “Not exactly, although he claims he’ll have all the answers very shortly. I should tell you he was rather offended that I called anyone else in on this project. You know how he is, always thinking he’s the end-all, be-all of any given situation. I never would’ve brought him on except that his connections with the local university helped me get the permission to dig here in the first place. Besides, I know you have a lot going on while you finish up your degree. Tell me, were you able to make sufficient arrangements with your professors?”

  That had been the very first thing Kaylee had done when she’d received Dr. Morrick’s invitation, and her teachers had been happy to accommodate her. Knowing where she was going and why had only made it easier. “Of course. I’ll have a few things to catch up on once I get back, but it shouldn’t be an issue.”

  “Good, good. Then let’s get started.” Dr. Morrick strode confidently across the dirt floor and through a doorway. While the first room at the bottom of the stairs had been fairly nondescript, this one was most definitely a library of some sort. The wall across from the doorway was covered in ancient scripts that had been preserved by centuries underground and away from the elements. A u-shaped assemblage of stone seemed to form a seating area in the center of the room, and shelves had been carved into the other walls. Each of these held thick sheaves of primitive paper, ancient wooden boxes, and stacks of stone tablets.

  “It’s beautiful,” Kaylee breathed, immediately intrigued by the amount of knowledge they might find there. Even if these writings were nothing more than diaries or recipes, they would certainly give the scientists some definitive insight into the lives of the people who’d once occupied these spaces.

  “I thought so, too,” Dr. Morrick said proudly, his chin rising slightly. “I assure you, the other rooms here are wonderful, but none are as fascinating as this one. Oh, where are my manners? I believe you know Dr. Parkinson?”

  A slender older woman with graying blonde hair stood up from where she’d been crouched on the floor, gently flicking dirt away from a small statue with a paintbrush. She extended her hand and smiled warmly. “So nice to see you again, Miss Turner.”

  “And you know I never leave the country without my partner in crime, Dr. Davison.” Morrick gestured to a man who turned away from the stone shelves to approach them, a fine coat of dust clinging to his salt and pepper beard.

  “No need to be so formal, Douglas. Call me Jonathan. I’ve heard so much about you that I’m starting to think Dr. Morrick here is thinking about adopting you.” He shook her hand as well.

  Kaylee felt a little better. Maybe she didn’t need to dread this trip at all if there were such good people there. “I’ve heard quite a bit about you, too.”

  “Only good stories, I hope?” Jonathan raised a furry gray eyebrow at his partner.

  “Mostly,” Kaylee replied with a smile.

  “Oh, she’s here.” This voice came from the doorway, and Kaylee turned to see a rather rotund man filling it. His dark hair had been slicked back and held in place with either gel, sweat, or a mixture of the two. Overdressed for the occasion, he’d eschewed the traditional garb of khakis and shorts for a dark suit. He made a disgusted face as he swept a bit of dust off the sleeve of his jacket.

  “Dr. Atwood, this is Kaylee Turner. I’ve asked her to give us a little help with the tablet.” Morrick forced a smile onto his face.

  The grimace on Atwood’s face increased, making him look like he’d caught a whiff of some old cheese as his eyes raked over Kaylee. “Yes, I know of her.” He advanced into the room with purposeful steps as though he owned the place until he stood directly in front of Kaylee. He didn’t offer to shake her hand. “You might as well fly right on back to your little college town and hang out on the quad, my dear. There’s nothing here for you to do.”

  Morrick cleared his throat. “There’s plenty for her to do, Atwood. You know as well as I do that she’s a true genius when it comes to this. Besides that, I’m the one in charge of this dig.”

  Atwood narrowed his eyes at the doctor, his chins wobbling slightly. “Do you really want to claim that? When you’ve brought in an impostor like her? We all know that she doesn’t really translate anything on her own. She’s got someone in the wings who does it for her, someone who’s happy to give her the credit. This child hasn’t been around long enough to know anything ab
out what we’re doing here.” His voice increased in volume as he prattled on, his face slowly reddening.

  “Sounds to me like you’re a little jealous,” Jonathan cut in. “You’ve had the first stab at it, but it’s time to step back and let the professionals handle this. Come here, Miss Turner. I’ll show you what we’re dealing with.” He took Kaylee by the elbow and turned her away from Dr. Atwood. “Don’t mind him,” he whispered as they headed to the far corner of the room. “He never likes anyone who he thinks might show him up.”

  “It’s okay. I’m used to it.” Unfortunately, Atwood wasn’t the first person who’d treated her like that. She’d been called in on several other digs and either openly ostracized or whispered about behind her back. If they only knew the truth, there would be a lot more scientists who felt that way about her.

  “As you can see,” Jonathan said, “there’s quite a lot in this old room for us to go through. Most of it is pretty mundane, and we haven’t had too much of an issue with the interpretations. But this tablet was set aside in a small stone box with a few other artifacts. We’re not yet sure what any of it means. Usually, we can get some idea simply from the context of where an item is found, but we’re a bit mystified.”

  He gestured at what was indeed a small stone box. Like the shelves on the walls, it had been carved out of the structure of the room itself. A carefully fitted lid had been lifted and set aside, revealing the contents.

  “What makes it even more of a mystery is that we don’t know what language it’s in,” Dr. Morrick added from over her shoulder. “It doesn’t appear to be the same as what we see in the rest of the documents here.”

  Kaylee was heavily aware that Dr. Atwood was watching her, but she was slipping into her professional mode. She knew what her job was, and she was excited to do it. There was a special, peaceful feeling that came over her when she was presented with a new item to translate. It drowned out the rest of the world, and it gave her a sense of purpose. She quickly pulled her pack off her lap and removed a flashlight from it, shining it down on the tablet. A small smile crept across her face. She knew exactly what it said.

  But she also knew how the world worked. She couldn’t just turn around and reveal an exact translation of an ancient tablet written in an unknown language. Instead, she handed her light to Dr. Morrick. “Hold that just there for me, please.” Kaylee removed a camera from her bag.

  “What are you doing?” Dr. Atwood bellowed from behind her. “Nobody is allowed to take any evidence from this site until the work is completed!”

  Kaylee ignored him and quickly began firing away, taking as many images as she felt were necessary. She knew what the tablet said, but there was nothing wrong with documenting it thoroughly.

  “Considering this is the only price she requires and that I trust her, I say it’s all right,” Dr. Morrick argued. “Besides, you can’t expect her to just camp out here for weeks while she translates it.”

  Putting her camera away, Kaylee nodded at the professor. “I think that’s all I need. I’ll contact you as soon as I’m done.”

  “Good, good. Then come with me. There are a few other things I’d like to show you while you’re here.” Dr. Morrick led her back up the stairs and out into the fresh air. They wound their way around several walls until they were on the opposite end of the Great Enclosure from the fresh discovery. “I truly am sorry about that. I knew he’d be a pain in the ass, but I didn’t think it would be that bad.”

  “It’s fine,” Kaylee assured him. “He can gripe all he wants to, but it won’t stop me from my work.”

  He pressed his lips together and dipped his head, looking up at her curiously. “So, you can read it?”

  Kaylee had long wondered if Dr. Morrick knew her secret. She’d never told him, but she’d worked with him more than anyone else. As tempted as she was to just reveal the whole thing, Kaylee knew it was best to just pretend that everything was normal. “I’m sure I can.”

  Chapter Two

  Archard lay back on the rocky surface of the mountain, absorbing the last bit of heat from the day before the chill of the night completely took over. He propped his head on his hands as he stared up at the sky, watching the slow whirl of the stars overheard. It was barely noticeable, the kind of thing he’d never been patient enough to watch for when he was a child, but now he easily tracked each of the stars he was so familiar with move through their nocturnal dance. “It’s almost time for Zimryr.”

  “So?” Callan asked from off to his left. “It’s not like it means anything.”

  Archard sat up, his back stiff from being in his human form for too long. He spent much of his time in his scales, but it was easier to communicate when he was among the remains of his clan and they were all walking on two legs. Nobody could lash out and slice a throat with one swipe of a claw, and their teeth and tongues were more precise when they spoke. It was the way things had been for centuries or more, and at least some of their old habits still remained. “It could mean something if we wanted it to.”

  Callan shoved his dark blonde curls back off his forehead. The firelight reflected the mischief that always lived in his eyes. “Why would we? Archard, you know as well as I do that all the old ways are dead. We should move on and find our own way to live.”

  But the mere idea made Archard’s blood boil inside him, and he felt the ripple of scales threatening a shift on his back. “So we just forget? After everything that’s happened, after everything that our people have gone through, we just decide that none of that matters anymore?” Cousin or not, Archard was tempted to challenge Callan. He deserved it many times over.

  “Look, just because you still think you have some sort of sacred duty doesn’t mean the rest of us have to be subjected to all the boring ceremonies and stuff.”

  “Excuse me, but I very much do have a sacred duty! And you would as well if you’d actually bother to follow it. Your family has been timekeepers for more generations than you can even count, but you’re never the one watching the stars or noting the shift in the sunrise and sunset.” Archard was on his knees now, furious that Callan should challenge the legacy that had been in his family for so long.

  “All right, boys!” Lucia stood up and stepped around the campfire they’d built in their midst, holding her hands out to stop her son and her nephew from arguing any further. “I don’t see much point in having the exact same argument every single year. If Archard wants to celebrate then he’s most certainly welcome to. Personally, I’d be happy to join him.”

  Callan snorted his disgust and got to his feet. “Whatever. I’m done with all of this.” He turned and stalked off down the mountain towards the woods, his form slowly shifting into a larger, more agile one as he disappeared into the shadows.

  “He’ll be fun in the morning.” This came from Kieran, who had been lounging on one elbow and watching the altercation with amusement in his dark eyes.

  “Don’t mind him. I’d hoped he would find his way in the world, but maybe it’ll just take a little more time.” Lucia settled herself onto the rock next to Archard and laid a cool hand on his shoulder, bidding him to calm down. Her long brown hair had streaks of gray in it now, her thin face a little more drawn than it used to be. “I think it’s very admirable that you still want to keep the old ways. Life has changed so much since the War of Storms.”

  “I know,” Archard sighed. Or at least, he knew what had been told to him. He’d been so young when the war between the dragons and the ogres had broken out that he didn’t remember any of it, except for the general idea that it happened. Things hadn’t looked too bleak until the wizards had decided to join forces with the ogres, and it was the spell cast by the evil Tazarre that had wiped out the vast majority of the dragons. The Great Curse had backfired, however, taking many of the ogres and wizards as well.

  “I remember what it used to be like,” Lucia said with a smile. She turned her head to look up at the mountain behind them, toward the ancient caves where their ances
tors had once dwelled. “There were so many fires that they lit up the night, burning with such a pleasant warmth that even the oldest dragons felt young again. We sent our wishes for the coming years up into the flames, dispersing into the universe.”

  Archard was quiet for a moment, delving into the back of his mind for the few faint memories he had of the holiday as a child. “I’ve been spending a lot of time in the royal caves,” he finally admitted.

  “I know,” Lucia replied quietly. “We all know, but I think I might be the only one who understands why.”

  “Hey, give me a little credit,” Kieran argued. “I like to think I perform my duties here as best as I can. There’s just not much of a border left to guard anymore.” He looked off into the dark distance as though he longed for someone to come charging in upon their secret little spot, someone to challenge him and make him rise up to the occupation that had been in his family for time immemorial.

  Archard knew that feeling. His father and grandfather had been royal guards. It was what Archard was destined to be, but it was impossible now that there were no royals left to guard. The Queen had been killed by The Great Curse, and the King had died fighting the wizards. Even with the rulers gone, Archard still felt that innate pull inside him, demanding that he do something to fulfill his destiny. “Have you ever taken the time to read the walls inside the royal caves?”

  “Those old stories? Don’t let Callan hear you mention those. You’ll just piss him off all over again.” Kieran threw a small stick in the fire and watched it burn.

  “Go on,” Lucia encouraged.

  Archard could see the intrigue in her eyes. She understood. She kept up with her job as timekeeper, even though it didn’t really matter anymore. “As I said, I’ve been spending a lot of time in the royal caves. I’m no linguist, and I haven’t been able to understand all of it. I probably don’t even understand most of it, if I’m honest, but I can’t seem to stop trying. Even though it’s written in our own language, it doesn’t all make sense. What gets me most of all is what seems like a prophecy.”