Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 112287 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 561(@200wpm)___ 449(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112287 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 561(@200wpm)___ 449(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
“Cheery.”
“Indeed.” Katrina pointed once again at the untranslatable word. “That word shows up again in references to what is termed the Book of Marduk.”
“I know that name,” Vivek murmured, frowning. “God related to Babylon? Few thousand years ago?”
“Yes. He was an angel,” Katrina said offhandedly. “Mortals made gods of angelkind once—still do in some quarters.”
“But then it can’t be related to the myth. That history hasn’t been lost.”
“That’s what I would think, except for this.” She ran her finger over a line of text in the paper that he’d missed because it was so faded. “I had to put it under a strong lamp to read it.”
It took him serious concentration to see it. But when he did—“Shit.” It came out an exhale. “It’s in the same language as the book.”
He looked from the piece of paper to the book. “This is the Book of Marduk.”
“That was my conclusion.”
Vivek rubbed his face, trying to put it all together. “How did you even know either of these texts might exist?”
“I didn’t. First I sent out an inquiry with the image of the evil eye and got this.” She tapped the piece of paper. “Then, I put out the word that I was looking for anything written in this tongue.” She ran her finger over the near-invisible line. “The book was the result. My acquaintance had forgotten about it, but his son remembered seeing it as a child in his father’s archives.”
Vivek put both the book and the piece of paper into the messenger bag with care, then picked up his drink and threw it back. Another shock of energy, another pleasurable buzz. “No ambiguity in that prophecy or warning or whatever it is.”
“Fight against great evil together or fall,” Katrina said. “We know that firsthand. We watched the Cadre work as one to defeat she who would’ve ruled the world in death.”
Vivek was liking this quiet trend of never mentioning Lijuan by name. Immortals, it seemed, had a way of erasing someone out of existence by refusing to acknowledge they had ever walked the earth. It might take them a millennium or seven, but they had the time. “Can I ask something, my lady Katrina?”
A cool glance as she handed over her empty flute. “Ask.”
“You weren’t in New York during the war. Were you part of it elsewhere?”
A slight curve of her lips. “You are ever the spymaster’s apprentice, searching for information.”
“My fatal flaw.”
Katrina’s gaze took in his face. “I am not a warrior,” she said at last. “Like you, I deal in information. And I know and am known by many old and . . . not necessarily ‘good’ people who will not talk to others. Let us say I was in charge of recruitment for the forces of a senior angel, and that those forces helped defeat multiple waves of reborn.”
She flicked open her fan, waved it to create the slightest breeze. “After the recruitment phase, I was in the business of arming our troops.”
“You’re an immortal arms dealer?” He put no judgment in his tone; he’d always known she walked in the gray. And when the time came, she’d chosen to arm their troops, not those of the enemy.
“I was once, in another lifetime,” she said. “I dusted off the skills to help ensure she who was evil wouldn’t achieve her objectives. My friends in that world were happy to join me in my quest. Even arms dealers have standards, and in using her own people with such callous disregard, she who was evil incarnate turned even the least moral of us against her.”
Friends, Vivek noted, rather than acquaintances. And decided he had a new goal in life. To be described as Katrina’s friend, rather than a useful acquaintance. “Will you come to the Tower if asked, in order to authenticate the provenance of this book?”
“Only at the request of the archangel,” she said. “But the provenance will not assist you. My acquaintance is what is called a hoarder in modern parlance. He collects not only books, but many types of objects.
“His huge estate is nothing but an endless warehouse. He does not keep records. He only wants and takes and holds. Remember it was his son who recalled seeing the book during an exploration of the hoard many years ago, and he knows not from where it came.”
Vivek figured a hoarder of this extent was likely to be known to a number of older immortals; Vivek could track him if needed. “Huh. I never figured that angels and vampires could become hoarders, too. But it makes sense. With that much time, even collecting a little here and there would end up in a hoard.”
“No.” Snapping her fan shut, Katrina allowed it to fall off her wrist once more. “As with mortals, immortals keep their homes manageable. Items are traded, sold, given away, or discarded, only those most precious to the owner kept.