The Seal of Oblivion (17 page)

“That’s…. Me? I think. But, it’s
not.”

“You know who you are,” Sheera
said. “These drawing are prophetic. Has anything you’ve ever drawn come true?”

“Always,” Laqiya admitted as she
remembered the most recent, which had revealed the location of the last staff
piece.

“Then that’s your future, and I’ll
be damned if that’s not the dark mistress caught up in that storm,” Sheera
muttered. “You’re destined to win this.”

“I never said I would lose if I did
go,” Laqiya muttered.

“Arrogant much?”
Sheera asked.

“I blame it on my dad. Besides,
it’s never been about winning or losing. It’s about whether or not my powers
will stay under control.”

 
“All the more reason for you
to go find Sahajah and take back your staff piece.”

Laqiya appeared to be ignoring
Sheera as she continued her drawing, but then she stopped and leaned back in
her chair. She looked at the angel and sighed.

“Another problem,” she said.

“What?”

“We have no idea where she is.”

“You mean to tell me you don’t know
about that
either
?” Sheera asked

Laqiya groaned. What hadn’t
Nightshield told her this time?

“You’ve always had a special
connection with the mistresses. I bet you never laid eyes on Sahajah, and you
knew exactly who she was.”

That was it. “How do you know so
much about me? Have you all been watching me too?”

Sheera ignored her and said, “You
could find her if you really put your mind to doing it.”

“How?”

“If you were the dark mistress,
tell me. Where would you hide?”

Laqiya shrugged. “I don’t know.”

Sheera shook her head, not allowing
Laqiya to even continue her doubtful train of thought, as she said, “You do
know. You have a very intimate relationship with all the mistresses because at
some point or another, you fought every single one. They know you, and you know
them. Think about it.”

Laqiya had only met the woman once,
at the museum and started to ask Sheera how she was supposed to assume anything
based on one encounter? Sahajah had been sending the Anaxars to do her dirty
work. The only reason she seemed interested in even doing that was to get the
staff piece. Other than that, Sahajah hadn’t seemed threatened. Her dismissal
of Laqiya seemed to have nothing to do with fear and everything to do with the
fact that Sahajah though little of a thirteen-year-old girl who couldn’t
control her powers. Then again, maybe that was the point.

“She knows my identity,” Laqiya
said as it dawned on her. “She knows I’m thirteen. If she felt threatened by
me, she would hide somewhere she knows I wouldn’t go because I’m thirteen with
a mostly watchful mother, two sisters, and an over protective guardian…” Laqiya
trailed off. That could be anywhere.

“Shadow City.”

“Adria?”
Laqiya turned to the girl who had appeared in the doorway. “Where did you come
from?”

“We were worried about you. You
disappeared after school,” Adria replied and then looked out the door and
shouted, “Guys, she’s up here.”

Adria went to sit on the bed and
said, “Who were you talking to?”

“Sheera…” Laqiya trailed off as she
turned and saw that the woman wasn’t standing there.

“Who?”

“I… Never mind,” Laqiya said
sitting at her desk and then asking, “Where’s Shadow City?”

“I keep forgetting you haven’t been
here long,” Adria said as the others filled into the room. “It’s the bad part
of town.”

“The bad part?”
Isis asked.

“Well, not really. It’s just where
all the casinos and night clubs and the night life is and some of the projects.
I went there once for a gala with my parents,” Sakura said. “Otherwise, it’s no
place for children.”

“Why?”

“Because casino and bars
aren’t
the only thing Shadow City is famous for,”
Nightshield said coming into the room. “You can call it the red light district
of Roselyn if you want.”

Laqiya scowled. She knew more than
she cared to know about those kinds of areas of town.

“Why is it called Shadow City
anyway?”

“All the streets are names and
synonyms for black and dark. Why are we talking about Shadow City anyway?”
Sakura asked.

“Because I think Lady Sahajah may
be hiding there,” Laqiya said looking out the window.

“In Shadow City?”

“I doubt it,” Nightshield said.

“Why?”

“It’s not exactly inconspicuous.
Something is always happening in Shadow City. Someone is bound to notice her,”
Nightshield explained.

“Well then,” Chasity Pearl said
climbing in through the window. “Maybe she isn’t directly in Shadow City.
Maybe, she’s hiding behind a veil.”

“A veil?”
Sakura asked.

“A rip in time
and space that leads to another dimension or somewhere else on earth.
Teleporting is like that, except in short distances. The possibilities of where
a veil can take you are endless,” Nightshield said. “They’re doorways that
can’t be detected unless you know where to look for them.”

“In that case, it’s a hopeless
cause?” Sakura asked.

Laqiya looked at her sketch pad and
then at everyone else.
“Maybe not.”

“It’s not?” Isis asked.

“Sheera,” Laqiya began as she
picked up a pencil.

“Sheera?
That angel?
The guardian of the seal of
oblivion?”
Nightshield asked. “She was here?”

“Earlier,” said Laqiya.
“Disappeared right after Adria came in the room.”

“She’s always had a way of doing
that,” Nightshield said rolling her eyes. “They get on my nerve.”

“Anyway,” Laqiya continued, “Sheera
said the reason I can draw without looking is because some of my drawings are
prophetic.”

“But you do that without trying,”
said Isis.

“Exactly!”
Sakura said. “So maybe if she tries, she can control it.”

Laqiya looked at Nightshield. “What
do you think?”

“Well, no one has any other ideas,”
Nightshield said. “Go for it.”

Laqiya wasn’t exactly sure how to
do it at first, but she was positive that this wasn’t a new talent. She had
done this before, in her past life. So as though compelled by something, she
closed her eyes and brought up the picture of Lady Sahajah in her mind: yellow
eyes, blond hair, black dress, pale skin… and the last staff piece. She needed
to find Lady Sahajah and the staff piece, she repeated in her head like a
mantra.

“Laqiya?
Are you—
”

Nightshield stopped Sakura’s hand
from reaching out to Laqiya.

“Don’t touch her. She’s got
something,” Nightshield replied as Laqiya’s head lolled a bit.

Laqiya gasped and then snatched at
the pad in front of her.

“What did you see?”

“I don’t know,” Laqiya said as she
began to sketch what looked like a street.

“What is it?” Sakura asked.

“I’m not sure,” Laqiya said as she
continued to do a rough sketch of whatever it was.

“Are you done yet?” Sakura asked
after a few minutes.

“Not yet,” Laqiya said shaking her
head as she erased something and redrew it before drawing a big cloud over it.
“There.”

She handed it to Nightshield who
immediately said, “What’s that sign say?”

“What sign?”

“The sign on the
corner of the street.”

Laqiya took the paper and held it
up under her desk lamp. She shook her head.

“I can’t read it.”

“You drew it,” Isis pointed out
trying to get a closer look.

Nightshield took it from them again
while saying, “We don’t have to argue over it. Laqiya can only draw what her
limited power lets her see. But Plainshield can make this clear for us.”

“Plainshield,” Laqiya said and then
added, “Why don’t I ever see Plainshield except when we need her.”

“Because despite her much more
welcoming personality, she’s way more introverted than I am,” Nightshield said.
“Either way, she can clear this up with her computers.”

******

“
Iie
,” Sakura whined after Plainshield finally confirmed their
destination after Chasity Pearl had taken the picture to her and brought the
woman back to the house. “We’re really going to Shadow City.”

“Way into Shadow City,” Plainshield
said to her. “Dusk Street is in the heart of it. AKA: Hooker Lane. That address
you gave me is the perfect place for a dark mistress to hide a veil.”

“We didn’t give you an address.”

“That picture was enough,”
Plainshield assured. “Chances are there’s a veil there that will lead us
straight to Sahajah.”

“The question
is
are
you all willing?” Nightshield asked.

“I think, we should be asking my
cousin that,” Isis replied turning to look at Laqiya who was sitting quietly at
her desk.

Laqiya looked up seeing that they
were expecting an answer from her. She began to tap her nails on the desk. Was
she willing? A better question to ask even, was she ready? No, she thought to
herself. But when would she ever be?

“Do I have a second option?” Laqiya
asked Nightshield.

“Even if you did, I’d just keep
stalking you,” the feline woman said.

“If Laqiya is going, then I guess I
can go,” Sakura said clenching her fists in her lap as she tried to overcome
her fear. “Did it have to be Shadow City?”

“When are we leaving?” Isis asked.

“Now,” Adria said looking out the
window. “It’s still light out. We can get in the city before the night life
begins, while everyone’s still sleep.”

“How do you know?” Laqiya asked,
and Adria gave a cheeky grin.

“My brother frequents Shadow City.
Don’t ask me why,” Adria replied.

Chapter
Thirteen

Shadow
City

 
“Are we ready?” Isis asked.

Laqiya shook her head, even though
her cousin couldn’t see it. She reached for the case under her bed holding the
two staff pieces they had so far. She slid back out with it, carefully
unlocking the chest while everyone else just looked at her. Laqiya grabbed the
two staff pieces and set them in her bag. Then carefully she stared at the
pendants in it.

“Laqiya.
What are you doing?” Adria asked.

Laqiya ignored her as she looked at
the pendants, two in particular. One was a curved piece of gold with lines
imprinted on it going in the direction of the curve. The next was a round flat
piece of gold with an eye that Laqiya usually saw in Egyptian art. Wind and
mind, Laqiya thought to herself as she picked the two up, along with the
necklace she had discovered in the museum a few nights ago. She then turned to
Adria and Sakura. She handed the mind pendant to Sakura and the wind to Adria.

Sakura inspected the charm and then
said, “What’s this?”

“I’m not sure,” Laqiya said tapping
the toes of her boots together. “But I just felt like you two were meant to
have them. They’ll help you.”

Nightshield exchanged a look with Plainshield
and then looked back at Laqiya who clasped her own pendant around her neck and
turned to Isis.

“Sorry I don’t have one for you.”

“I was never into gaudy jewelry,”
Isis said smiling. “Are we ready now?”

Laqiya grabbed Isis’ hand and
nodded. Sakura grabbed Isis’ other hand, while Adria grabbed her arm.
Nightshield, Plainshield, and Chasity Pearl touched her shoulder, and again
they felt the sensation of their feet separating from the ground and then
abruptly touching it again as they reached their destination. Laqiya winced at
the ache in her legs.

“Is there a way for better landings
when teleporting?” she asked.

“You all have to learn to be light
on your feet,” Nightshield said bluntly as she looked around and then said.
“Isis, where are we?”

“Why?” Isis asked.

Adria looked around. “It’s
definitely Shadow City, just not the place Laqiya drew.”

“The picture must not have been
clear enough for Isis to picture,” Plainshield said looking around for a street
sign. Shadow Street… That’s close. It crosses Dusk Street eventually.”

“Shadow Street?” Adria asked.

“What?” Laqiya asked but Adria
didn’t get the chance to answer

“Stay close,” Chasity Pearl said to
all of them. “Don’t get away from me and the kitties.”

“What’s the problem?” Laqiya
demanded.

“Shadow Street is the heart of
Shadow City.” Adria explained. “We’ve still got some daylight though. So we
shouldn’t run into too much trouble until the bars and casinos start to fill.”

Laqiya shook her head as she sensed
something coming from her right.

“There’s something in that
direction,” Laqiya said to Nightshield.

“Do you think anyone will mess with
three tall woman and four teenage girls?” Plainshield asked everyone sounding
unsure herself.

“I hope not. I wouldn’t want to
have to hurt someone,” Nightshield said starting to walk. “I’ll lead. Stay
close.”

No one objected. The four girls
walked so close together, they almost tripped over each other’s feet a few
times. Nightshield glared back at them.

“Would you four stop? Every one’s
looking at us,” she snapped.

“Sorry,” Laqiya whispered pushing
Isis, Adria, and Sakura back from her. “Is that better?”

“I guess,” Nightshield muttered as
they kept walking.

Laqiya couldn’t help but feel like
someone was watching them though. Her hair stood up on end and slowly she looked
past Nightshield to where a group of older teenagers occupied the corner.
Nightshield didn’t stop as they passed them though. She just kept walking and
so did everyone else, except Laqiya. Chasity Pearl was the first to notice that
they were leaving Laqiya behind and turned to look at her.

“Let’s go.”

Laqiya only turned to look back at
the teenagers on the corner and sure enough, her eyes locked with a tall boy
with a bandana on his head. It was his eyes she had felt.

“You look lost,” he said.

Laqiya didn’t say anything as he
walked toward her.

“I bet I could help you out.”

“Depends on the help,” Chasity said
pulling Laqiya back. “Let’s go.”

“You don’t look like you’re from
around here,” a girl with hair that was obviously dyed blonde said. “What brings
you here?”

“We don’t want any trouble,” Laqiya
assured.

“I already knew that. Still,” she
said coming to stand next to the boy. “There’s something about you. I can’t put
my finger on it.”

“I can tell you,” the boy said.
“She’s rich for one.”

Laqiya blinked. “Rich?”

The girl only gently picked up a
charm on Laqiya’s necklace to make her point.

“If I thought you’d believe us, I’d
tell you what we were doing,” Laqiya said to them.

“I wouldn’t have bothered you if
you hadn’t looked back you know?”

“We have no time for this,” Chasity
Pearl said starting to pull Laqiya in the opposite direction.

The blonde haired girl grabbed
Laqiya’s arm, pulling her away from Chasity Pearl as she asked, “Why did you
look back?”

Laqiya opened and closed her mouth
quite a few times, watching Nightshield gear up for a fight, before saying,
“You were watching me.”

Laqiya pulled her arm out the
girl’s grip and started to walk away with Chasity Pearl before the blonde girl
told her to wait. The older girl approached her again, not quite looking at
her, but past her.

“That girl up
there.
Isn’t that ‘Siris’ sister?” she asked.

“Siris?”
Laqiya asked, but Adria seemed to know who they were talking about.

“Osiris?” she asked, and they
nodded.
“Yeah.
That’s him.”

“Damn,” the boy muttered. “Your
brother will kill me if he knew I saw you here and didn’t help you get to where
ever you needed to go safely. Does he even know you’re here?”

Adria
blushed
a little as she shook her head. The boy groaned and let out another expletive.
He went back to the group he had been with and explained something to them
before coming back.

“So where do you need to go?” he
asked.

Adria looked at him. “You’re
kidding right?”

“I am not getting in trouble with
‘Siris,” he said.

“Dusk Street,” Chasity Pearl said.

The girl and boy looked at them
with raised eyebrows before saying, “Why there? That’s where all the hooker
corners are.”

“You’re not…” the boy trailed off.

“No!” Laqiya said. “In fact we’re
just looking for an old building. We… There’s something we need to find there.”

“It’s not drugs is it?” the boy
asked.

“Would we tell you if it was?”
Chasity Pearl asked.

“We get it,” the girl said as she
and the boy led them forward. “I’m Sanyra by the way and he’s Jaru.”

“Laqiya,” Laqiya replied walking at
the front with Jaru and Sanyra.

“You don’t look like a Laqiya,”
Sanyra pointed out.

“There aren’t many Laqiyas. You
know another?” Nightshield asked.

Sanyra shook her head. “You just
seem different. There’s something kind of ancient about your aura. You look like
should have some kind of Ethiopian or Egyptian name or something.”

“There you go reading auras again,”
Jaru muttered rolling his eyes. “Ignore her.”

“Well then,” Sakura said. “Let’s
give her a new name.”

“Sakura,” Isis said.

“I’m serious!” Sakura replied.
“Something Egyptian.
Your name’s Isis. Know any other
Egyptian names?”

“Cleopatra,” Adria joked.

“Nefertiti?”

“Sayyida,” Nightshield muttered.

“What?”

“Sayyida,” she said louder
receiving odd looks from Chasity Pearl and Plainshield.

“Sayyida?”
Laqiya asked. She recognized the name and the fact that Nightshield would say
that concerned her. “You think so?”

Nightshield nodded as they got to
the Dusk Street.

“This is it,” Jaru said. “You sure
you don’t want to tell us exactly where you going?”

“It’s alright,” Adria said. “We can
take it from here.”

“Be careful. Dusk Street isn’t a
place for kids or the weak of heart,” Sanyra said. “Good luck finding whatever
you’re looking for.”

Plainshield pointed to their left,
and they made their way down the street. Though it was quiet when they got
there, they could hear the street coming to life as it got darker.

Laqiya hung back so that she walked
with Nightshield and then said to her, “That was my name, wasn’t it?”

“What?” Nightshield asked.

“Sayyida.
That was my past name,” Laqiya stated more than asked. She had only guessed
before, when she read it in the book of names she found, but as soon as
Nightshield said it she knew because something in her stirred. Nightshield
could have called her that years ago, before all of this, and she would have
answered to the name. That bothered Laqiya. “Did it have a meaning?”

Nightshield smirked as they
stopped. “It means
mistress
or
lady
.”

“Coincidence?”

“Never in your
case.”

The building they arrived at was an
old townhouse type home, long abandoned if the boards covering all the
entrances were any indication. Plainshield told them to wait while she looked
for an entrance they could go through, and Laqiya continued her conversation
with Nightshield.

“What was I like?”

“In the past?”

Laqiya nodded.

“Different,” Nightshield said. “You
had a much harder personality. But that’s what happens when you grow up in the
dessert. But you were the same too.”

“How?”

“You were just as fearless then as you
are now. You were never afraid of the unknown and usually ran headfirst into
things without thinking of the consequences first. Kind of like now,”
Nightshield said. “Do you have any idea what you’re going to do when you face
Sahajah?”

Laqiya slipped her hand in her
pocket and took out the picture she had shown to Sheera earlier.

“This is the only thing I have to
go by, that eventually I’ll trap Lady Sahajah just like this.”

“Prophetic?” Nightshield asked, and
Laqiya nodded.

“I know that’s what’s going to
happen, but I don’t know exactly how.”

“Of course not,” Nightshield said
dryly. “You never do.”

Laqiya wasn’t sure if Nightshield
was talking about her or Sayyida, or if there was really a difference.

“Are we sure it’s here?” Chasity
Pearl asked Plainshield when she came back. Plainshield just shrugged and
Chasity Pearl continued, “So we’re going on the basis of a picture that may or
may not be prophetic? This could very well be a waste of time.”

Laqiya focused on the building,
waiting on that electric tingle in her spine that would let her know, that
would tell her if they were in the right place. She didn’t have to wait long.

“It’s here. I don’t know where in
here, but certainly here,” she said.

“There’s an entrance around the
side,” Plainshield said.

“Are we sure no one’s in here?”
Sakura asked.

“I doubt it,” Nightshield said
climbing the stairs to the side door first. She effortlessly took off the
boards blocking it, tossing them aside.

“Is it safe?” Isis asked.

Nightshield peaked inside.
“Safe enough.”

“What’s enough?” Sakura and Adria
asked at the same time as they followed Nightshield’s cue.

Laqiya went in first and
immediately coughed from the dust that became unsettled after they disturbed
it. It was dark, the only light being an orange glow from the setting sun.
There was a couch and a coffee table in what looked like a living room, covered
in dust like everything else abandoned in the place.

“It doesn’t look like anyone else
is here,” Laqiya said. “It’s too calm.”

“Way too calm,” Nightshield said. “Lady
Sahajah’s been keeping everyone away.”

“This is disgusting,” Sakura
muttered squealing at the dead roaches and spider webs.

“It bothers you? It looks just like
your room,” said Nightshield.

“My room does not have dust and
cobwebs all over the floor.”

“How can you tell with all that
junk on the floor?” Chasity Pearl asked.

“Do we know exactly where the veil
is?” Isis asked.

“Can you sense it Laqiya?”
Plainshield asked.

Laqiya shook her head. “
There’s
a lot of things going on in this place. I sense a lot.”

“Then we have to look,” Nightshield
said. “Sakura and Isis, you stay with Plainshield and look on this floor.
Chasity and Adria, you two go to the second floor and me and mistress will take
the last floor. I don’t know how old this place is, but be careful. The
foundation’s shaky.”

“The stairs are this way,” Adria
said.

“We have to hurry up before it gets
dark,” Plainshield warned. “
Me
and Nightshield can see
in the dark, but I don’t like this place. I have a bad feeling about it.”

“Me too,” Laqiya said as they
started up the stairs to the second floor.

The stairs creaked dangerously, so
much that Laqiya was sure they would fall through them at any moment. They
didn’t and they safely arrived on the second floor without event.

“Where’s the third floor
Nightshield?” Laqiya asked her.

“It’s the attic. Look for an
entrance on the ceiling in the hall,” she said as Adria and Chasity began to
check the rooms.