Carpathian (52 page)

“What man, I don’t—”

“Oh, he’s right outside and his thoughts are near to battering down my already aged door.” She stopped talking and a funny look came over her features. It was if Anya was seeing her grandmother leaving her body for the briefest of moments. “Keeper of Secrets,” she said as her eyes opened and she smiled. She looked up at Anya with a curious arch to her brows. “Your man has come from America accompanied by the Keeper of Secrets.”

“What are you talking about?” Anya asked, worried that her grandmother had not only lost the ability to see into her mind accurately, but that maybe she was starting to lose it mentally as well.

“Bring them in, Anya. Marko, are you out there?” she called out, knowing he had been standing in the shadows listening to their conversation.

“Yes, you know I am,” he said as he stepped past his sister with a look that wasn’t pleasant.

“Get a large quilt from my room, no, make it two. Take one from the bed if you have to. Cover Mikla as best you can.” She smiled and gestured for Marko to hurry.

“Anya, I asked you to bring your man and his friends inside. Marko, when you are done make the soldiers that have accompanied Anya’s companions comfortable. Feed them and make sure they are watched. And it makes me wonder, Marko, why none of the adult Golia have ventured down to the house to see Mikla, this is most strange. Perhaps they are not inside the temple just as they have not been the past few months.”

Marko removed a quilt from the bed and stood before Madam Korvesky not answering her query. Then he tilted his head and leaned over and kissed his grandmother.

“The Golia have been vanishing for close to a year now,” Marko replied. “I have asked Stanus about it but he has become overly distrustful since the construction began at the castle. He has thus far kept his promise to me and not molested any more of the Romanian workers on their night crews. Stanus will have to change with the times just as we will. He must learn how to protect the Golia and still live among mankind. This is something he must do or the wolf-kind will perish.”

“I will not allow that to happen. You know this. We will speak with Stanus tonight and decide how best to proceed. Now, girl-child, bring me the visitors to Patinas. I will now speak with them and the Keeper of Secrets.”

Anya looked from her grandmother to Marko, who only shrugged his shoulders in just as much consternation as his sister as to their grandmother’s intent.

Marko spread the blankets over Mikla and then brother and sister left for their tasks.

As for Madam Korvesky, she sat in her chair and smiled at the memory of a long-ago night in Hong Kong harbor and the young American woman and the handsome one-eyed scoundrel she had met that seemingly ancient evening.

“Welcome to Patinas at long last, Keeper of Secrets.”

*   *   *

Stanus sat high on a ridge with his massive head on his front paws as his eyes scanned the scene below. The wolf had just recently settled on the ridge after investigating the two men held in the barn. From the scent of the two humans Stanus knew them not to be a part of the defilement of his valley. Still, his instincts told him the outsiders needed to be watched closely.

As Stanus studied the revelers below, another Golia, this one female and the mate of Stanus, lay down beside the giant alpha male. Stanus leaned over and sniffed her muzzle. The familiar smell was there and it was pleasing to Stanus. The beast allowed his eyes to roam to the small house where he knew Mikla lay in pain. The huge yellow eyes blinked twice and then the large male nuzzled up to his mate. He licked at her filthy paws as she lay against his thick, muscled body. The claws were ripped and torn and the pads were bloodied in a few places. Stanus licked the wounds and the female allowed him.

The adult Golia had been working at a task Stanus had set them to not long after he had figured out that Marko had lied to him. While connected mentally he had told Stanus that the construction was a benefit for the Golia and the Jeddah together. Against its instincts Stanus had allowed Marko to have his way and the resort had started going up. Stanus allowed this without fighting back. And then Stanus had realized that he had been deceived by Marko. The castle started going up and Stanus went on the attack. It wasn’t until Marko had convinced Stanus that would be the very last encroachment to the pass. The castle was the last insult they would have to endure and then their lives could settle back down to normal. Marko had assured Stanus mentally of this.

The one thing that Marko never figured on was the Stanus’s intellect. The Jeddah had always known the Golia to be the smartest animals ever created, but the one thing he didn’t know was that you could deceive a Golia, especially one such as Stanus, just once. After that he would never trust you again. Stanus had made a decision that went far beyond that of joint protection between the Golia and the Jeddah, because when it came down to it, Stanus would protect that which is most important to him—the Golia, nothing else in the world mattered, and that was what the alpha male’s role was. Not the protection of the Jeddah, but the right for the Golia to live on in this world of men.

Stanus was finished cleaning his mate’s paws when he held out his own outstretched fingers to allow the female to wrap her smaller, more feminine fingers over and around his. The two Golia sat like that for an hour watching the village below and the activity of the Jeddah as they celebrated the return of their princess. The female laid her head against the thick chest of Stanus. She breathed deeply as her mate watched the activity far below.

*   *   *

Alice, Niles, Charlie, Denise, Will Mendenhall, and Carl all stood watching the men and women around them they went into action. In a practiced act of precision the Jeddah had turned the small village of Patinas into any small county fair found anywhere in the world. Hundreds of torches lined the streets and the music was everywhere as people danced, ate, and talked about the return of the young princess to the mountain. It was as if everyone in Patinas knew that night that they would be safe for the next generation because now brother and sister were united as one and they would lead the Jeddah into their future. Charlie Ellenshaw jumped as a firecracker went off and several small boys went running by laughing as they were chased by an irate mother with a broom.

The door opened and Marko stepped out and was joined by his two companions and they quickly left. Anya then came out of the house and looked around and spied Niles and the others and then started walking toward them. She had to almost push her way through the adoring Jeddah to reach the Americans.

*   *   *

Marko watched the way the men and women of the Jeddah reached out to touch Anya. His eyes took in the fact that the people had missed her far more than he had ever realized. He never took into account the effect her return would have in vitalizing the way the people felt about their heritage and how much they would like to maintain that, even above Marko’s own grandiose plans for the tribe. He knew the people craved news of the outside and of Israel. But soon Marko had realized the people would be satisfied with a brief description of the outside world’s happenings and then they would return to their everyday routine and well-ordered lives.

As he watched the faces of the people as Anya passed by, the way their eyes followed her every movement, was a dagger into the heart of her older brother. He felt the gains he had made in supplying his people with the basic gifts of modern appliances and electronic devices that amazed the children were now lost among the euphoria of having their princess back among them.

Marko allowed his eyes to move to the tall blond American. He saw the way the man with the sharp blue eyes watched his sister. Could this be a way in which Marko solidified his power? He wondered as he watched the crowd part as Anya guided the Americans to their grandmother.

“She is far more popular among the people than we believed she would be,” the large man to Marko’s right commented as he too watched the adoring Jeddah fete Anya with praise and welcoming smiles and touches.

“Soon it will not matter. Anya is far too late to stop the Jeddah from moving out of the stone age. Even if my grandmother went mad and tried to name Anya queen over the leadership of the true heir, it is too late. Soon there won’t be a treasure to guard and thus no need of tribal leadership in that regard. The true leadership of the Jeddah will be established by the man that guides the Jeddah into the future to take our place among the people of the world. No more being the guardians of a culture that has long past slipped into history. No, she will not matter. The people will eventually see I mean to gain status for them after all of these years of servitude.”

“Are you capable of doing what needs to be done, Marko, if and when the need arises?” the man asked, watching the Gypsy prince closely for any deceit that may spring from his mouth.

“My sister will never be harmed. I don’t need to do that. I can see,” as his eyes continued to follow Anya as she squeezed past the crowd of adoring men and women, “that Anya has little interest in continuing with this ancient farce.” He turned and looked at all three of his companions as they stood near the gate. “Leadership will fall into my lap and then we can start using the proceeds from our tribal investment and move into a far brighter future than we have ever known on this mountain. The old days are done.”

The men watched as Marko looked back one last time at his sister and then turned and left, walking toward the temple entrance.

*   *   *

Anya finally made it to the front door. Niles leaned aside as one old woman reached out and touched Anya’s hair. The girl dipped her head and smiled but Niles could see that this situation of people admiring her didn’t make the young woman comfortable. She tried to smile and nod but the old woman continued to hold Anya’s long black hair in her hand. Finally it was Everett who stepped up and gently removed the woman’s hand and smiled down at her. Anya felt bad but she reached for the door latch and stepped inside. The others followed. Everett waited until everyone was in the house and then he let the woman’s hand slip free. For her part the old Jeddah grandmother was still watching the door with adoring eyes for Anya. Carl was amazed at what he was witnessing.

As Everett stepped into the semidark house he closed the door. Denise Gilliam, Charlie Ellenshaw, Niles, and Alice were standing just inside as they watched Anya as she leaned over and was hugging someone they couldn’t see. Anya finally stepped away and that was when they saw Madam Korvesky for the first time close up. The woman Alice was looking at was the same young girl she had met many years before in Hong Kong harbor aboard the yacht
Golden Child
. The woman had aged far more than Alice had. The years of worry and of protecting her people were etched in every deep-cut line and wrinkle in the woman’s face.

Madam Korvesky tilted her head as her eyes locked on Alice Hamilton. The two women were meeting across a vast crevasse of time and the reunion was one that made them both realize that time had not stood still for either of them.

“It has been many years, Mrs. Hamilton.”

Anya was the first person to register her surprise that her grandmother knew this American lady. She looked from face to face and was shocked that none of them was registering the same surprised expression that she was.

“Indeed, we were never really introduced before our evening was cut short … when you blew up the
Golden Child
right under our feet.”

Niles Compton allowed Alice to play this out her way. She was the closest to the investigation and knew what had to be said where this woman was concerned. He was still apprehensive because he didn’t know how the intrusion of his team would sit with the queen of all Gypsies.

“Actually, Mrs. Hamilton, I used far less explosive power than my great-grandmother wanted to use that night in Hong Kong. She had ordered no survivors.” The eyes were locked on to Alice’s own and they didn’t flinch.

“Well, if it’s any consolation my date that night took good advantage of your light batch of explosives and managed to get us out, as you well know.”

“Ah,” the old woman said as she used her cane to stand, shrugging off the helping hands of Anya. Alice looked down and saw the Eye of Ra emblazoned in gold on the handle. The same cane her great-grandmother had used that night on the
Golden Child
. “The Keeper of Secrets,” Madam Korvesky said as she reached out and took Alice by the hand.

“Yes, that’s what you called him that night: the Keeper of Secrets. But he wasn’t the only keeper of secrets aboard that yacht that night, was he, madam? I believe you tend toward keeping things rather tight to the vest yourself, correct?”

The old woman smiled and then looked over at Niles, ignoring the statement Alice had just made. Madam Korvesky released Alice and then reached for the hand of Niles Compton. Niles felt uncomfortable and he stepped from one boot to the other. Charlie Ellenshaw stood next to the director and was smiling from ear to ear as the old woman closed her eyes.

“The watcher. So much weariness, so much concern for those … for those…” She smiled and then opened her eyes. “No, you gather, guard … you are also a Keeper of Secrets.” She looked away at nothing and then back at Niles. “To have so much knowledge is not a comfort to you most times, is it?” she asked as Niles felt as if she not only read him perfectly, she felt the drag his position had on his thoughts, his personality, and the ever-present feeling of being overwhelmed by the massive responsibilities he carried with him on a daily basis. She patted his hand and then released it. “One comforting thought for you, Keeper, the job doesn’t get any easier and one day you will realize that it’s not the task, but the people who do the task that is what’s important. I learned that a very long time ago.” She patted Niles on the chest and then moved over to Denise Gilliam.

Denise for her part was not a big believer in any form of clairvoyance or prophecy. She was an old-school MD that knew what she could feel or see was the real version of life, not mysticism in any form.