The Artifacts Of Elios (Book 1) (5 page)

It took several visits for him to figure out how to use it but soon he was activating all of the odd artifacts that he had found that had been inactivated.  Many of these he found useful in his hobby of snooping around the dig.

He finally decided that he would try to remove the activator and hide it elsewhere; he felt that this place was too unsecure and he expected that someone would stumble on it any day.

Ari
spent the next two weeks extracting the activator from the wall.  He hadn’t decided what to do with it yet but he knew that it was worth millions of crowns and the little larceny that he had within him, was battling mightily with is conscience.

Late one night f
ate made the decision for him.   As he was hoisting the activator up the shaft the rope snagged on a sharp edge and severed it in two.  The artifact fell almost the full height of the shaft and shattered into several unrecognizable pieces at the bottom.

After that he turned the room over to the archeologists but still kept the artifacts that he
liked to himself.  Even though he found quite a few other undiscovered locations, he never happened onto another activator again during his stay at the dig.

After the fiasco of losing the activator he resumed his prowling. 
As luck would have it he found he had quite the talent for noticing and catching those that would try to steal or smuggle artifacts.  After becoming bored with openly catching the criminal element as they would attempt to relieve the site of many a shiny object.  He soon found a more entertaining sport of occupying his spare time by coming up with inventive ways to thwart the robberies and unmask the smuggling attempts without the culprits even knowing that they had been discovered. 

The uncanny productivity of the dig
was soon highly publicized by the commandant to his senior officers at the capitol.  Senior officers being what they are seized the opportunity to organize a special visit to the dig with the crown prince and the governor of Jehhet.  Enemies of state being what
they
are seized the opportunity of a prince out of the palace to show off their ability to plan assassinations.  Ari being what he was saw it coming from the proverbial “milo away.” 

With enthusiasm
Ari decided to see if he could thwart any pending assassination attempts on the prince without the prince or the assassins knowing what he was doing.  Realizing that crown prince’s often had their own security as well as intelligence, they would in all likelihood be aware of any known threats and he would need to be very careful lest he did anything that would likely get in the way of their efforts “and” slash “or” have himself mistaken for the quote-unquote enemy.

As the day for the inspection neared it
seemed to Ari that there had been no preparations made to increase security.  No one had tried to verify the loyalty of those working the dig and there had been no advance preparations from the capitol to assure the princes safety – the Army that guarded and transported the artifacts were the only personnel that could be considered properly vetted as secure.  That left hundreds of civilian magetechs, archeologists, and laborers.  The only advance team that had arrived prior to the inspection was an snooty Attaché that introduced himself as the royal event planner, and a staff of courtiers and assistants that accompanied the supply train of accoutrements necessary to make the visit bearable for the royal guests.

Ari
began preparing immediately by gathering a number of useful artifacts.  Magetech may have bored him, but he
was
quite adept at their use, especially those artifacts that he found interesting.  He began by placing what he termed “snooping” artifacts, - artifacts he had previously cataloged and found useful in his hobby of thwarting smugglers; very small video senders that could save and view on a projection device that he kept in his quarters.  He carefully camouflaged them in the hostelry, the supply area, and other round about locations where many of the less than savory individuals congregated for clandestine conversations. In his quarters he would monitor and note those that seemed to be in on the conspiracy to attack the prince. 

According to regulation he should
report findings of this nature to the higher command.  To his consternation Ari found that in lieu of the upcoming inspection that he
was
the current higher command; all of his superiors were at the Capitol and would be traveling back to the dig with the prince, the governor and their entourage. 

Making up his mind that the evidence was clear
enough to use lethal force he devised a plan that included several very poisonous spiders indigenous to the area, a bee stinger, and a straw – it was said if you mixed the spiders venom with venom of a bee stinger that you could die in seconds; the stinger would provide the injection method and the poison under the cover of a bee sting would do the rest. - Maybe it was a scorpion’s sting.  He would have to try both. 

By the morning of the arrival of the inspection party he had eliminated all but one of the conspirators. 
No one the wiser, even though he had constantly been interrupted by the ever present Attaché who was constantly bumping into him making all sorts of frivolous requests.  The bodies were all decomposing nicely in the bottom of a recently buried latrine pit; after all a fresh pit needed to be dug for the crown prince didn’t it?  He had had a good chuckle requesting that the Attaché have his staff cover it up and dig the new latrine.

Assisting
the Attaché, Ari helped with the organization on a post-inspection luncheon.  As the seating arrangements were decided Ari made suggestions keeping the remaining conspirator in mind.  To Ari’s pleasant surprise the often snooty Attaché was surprisingly agreeable to his suggestions. 

The remaining conspirator
, he had found, was an archeologist from Jehhet.  Ari was certain that if someone were to dig deeply that the archeologist was likely in league with a competitor to the King’s artifact company rather than a foreign assassin.  Whatever the reason the man’s title and role at the dig was sufficient to merit him an invite to the luncheon.  

A pavilion had been set up to counter the afternoon sun and provide shelter should it rain.  Chairs and tables adorned with some of the more sparkly artifacts were set up as centerpieces on the tables.  The camp cooks
, at Ari’s and the Attaché’s insistence had out done themselves in preparing a veritable feast -  in all likely hood the VIP’s would consider it nominal fare but the soldiers and permanent staffers of the dig were enthusiastically excited and licking their chops in anticipation of the leftovers. 

With little time to prepare
Ari readied his final removal – all he needed was a rope another honey bee and some venom from one of his precious little black spiders and just for good measure some scorpion venom.

The Governor and the Prince were not quite what
Ari had expected. They were most congenial and very complimentary to the soldiers and other staff that they met with as they made their rounds through the especially prepared locations at the dig; locations that showed off the talents of the teams as well as the recently discovered chambers and glyphs that the archeologists used to find locations most likely to contain artifacts.  A couple of these locations had artifacts intentionally left un-removed so that the prince and the governor could lay claim to uncovering an artifact of their own.  Soon the tour was over and the group convened to the pavilion.

Sitting around the tables the prince, the governor, the commandant and various other
members of the cadre were laughing and smiling as they verbally patted each other on the back regarding the success of the dig.  Amidst the laughter and chatter a musical tinkling sound not unlike a music box suddenly began to play.  The conversations ceased as everyone began to look around the pavilion to locate the source of the music.

“What an incredible
device,”  the prince said as he spotted a small square box  with a projection of a girl in a flowing dress twirling round and round, on a table at the far side of the pavilion.

“
It is a special artifact that I was saving for your highness,” spoke an older man dressed in the frock of an archeologist. “I had hoped…”  The man paused and gulped; a strange look on his face. “I beg your pardon your highness, I think I just swallowed a bug.”  The crowd in the pavilion all chuckled as the man paused, opening and closing his mouth smacking his tongue and swallowing a couple of times before continuing.  ”…I had hoped, your highness, to present it earlier to you but alas your rounds did not make it to the vaults that I was supervising,” he continued dismissively.

Ari
had intentionally arranged for the tour to miss the area where the conspirator was working.  His suspicions now confirmed.  Ari’s current plan was to make sure that the assassin died in front of a crowd as he attempted to kill the prince so that there would be witnesses and the princes guards could assist if it ended in an overt attack.  From his spying Ari suspected that the assassin would likely use a slow acting poison that would not affect the prince until the killer would be long gone.  If Ari was correct the musical artifact was likely coated with a poison of some sort that would accomplish such a deed.

“Bring it forth,” commanded the prince enthusiastically.  “We are pleased that you would save such a unique item for us.”

The archeologist rose and strode from the rear of the pavilion with a toothy grin, holding a felt pillow with the artifact centered neatly in the middle.  Suddenly his feet were tangled in an unseen rope that everyone would later swear wasn’t there probably due to its sudden disappearance after the assassins fall – That and because their attention was on the pillow with the artifact.  Almost in slow motion the archeologist fell. With a cross between a thud and a whack he landed face down with a grunt, onto the ground. 

Whether by reflex or on purpose the archeologist
had held on to the pillow; perhaps trying to cushion his fall. Whatever the case his actions caused the artifact to sail through the air and crash onto the ground breaking into several pieces. 

Ari
and the Attaché were the first to respond.  The flustered Attaché gasped as if in exasperation and quickly bent to pick up the broken bits of the artifact begging his prince’s pardon and that he would have the mess cleaned up shortly gushing that he wouldn’t want his highness to cut himself on a fragment.  “Use a napkin,” Ari prodded the Attaché; handing him a square piece of linen.  “There are a lot of sharp edges you might cut yourself.”  Quick as a wink the Attaché grabbed the offered cloth napkin and began gathering up the several broken pieces of artifact. Ari moved just as quickly to the fallen archeologist as if to help him to his feet.  The archeologist made as if to kneel but suddenly collapsed.  Ari turned the man on to his back.  The archeologist’s eyes remained open but his chest was dramatically still; his breathing ceased.

“This man is dead
!”  Ari exclaimed in feigned surprise.

The room exploded into a
maelstrom of activity.  The prince and the governor were rushed from the pavilion amidst a heard of royal guards.  Tables overturned, dishes fell, people were yelling.

“Lieutenant
Ari,” the commandant hollered to him. Cordon off the pavilion area.  We need to investigate what happened here.

“Yes sir,” responded
Ari with a salute as he dashed away to set up a perimeter of guards.

By the time the sun had been down an hour the body had been removed, the pavilion disassembled and the prince the governor and the royal guard were packed and
long gone.  The staff healers could find no cause of death.  Their only guess, without more specialized equipment which they didn’t have in the field, was that he must have had a heart attack.

With the commandants
decision that it had just been a bizarre accident and that the prince hadn’t been in any real danger, Ari was done for the day and with a tired stride walked back to his to his billet for a good night’s sleep after a very long day.

Ari
entered his quarters - A small wood framed canvas structure with one room, a bed, a foot locker, and a small desk with a comfortable padded chair.  Ari activated the switch near the door for the light crystal.  As the room brightened, Ari was surprised to see the prince’s Attaché sitting comfortably at his desk, arms behind his head with a smirk on his face.

“Cut it a little close didn’t you, Captain?”  The man smiled.

Realizing that the man was obviously more than he seemed and not merely a flamboyant event planner, Ari took a seat on his bed and began unlacing his boots.  “I didn’t want to step on your toes if you had a plan of your own,” he replied tiredly, “and its lieutenant.”

“It’s probably for the best
, I was just going to trip him and intercept whatever weapon he had.  It turns out the artifact that he was presenting was covered in a slow acting poison.  Thanks for suggesting the napkin; you saved me from a nasty couple of rounds of who’s got an antidote.”  The agent paused and stretched.  “Your method was very admirable, to the point of elegance.  How did you do it?”

Ari
yawned as he kicked off his first boot and began unlacing the second one.  “That’s a long story,” he yawned again.  “Beg your pardon,” he said as he tried to stifle the second yawn with his hand across his mouth.