Chapter 11 - Next step along the road
As they emerged into the sunlight, a great wind blew up and running as fast as they could towards the jeep, jumped in without caring what hurt, and Lara started the jeep gunning it as fast as she could, foot down to the floor. They looked around behind them, and watched as the doorway disappeared back into the sand.
"Find what you were looking for?" asked Bryce.
"Show him!" said Lara, and Bryce noticed that she had a particularly cold edge to her voice. She was obviously very angry. He knew that mood - it was "I'm contemplating something, and if you get in my way you won't be getting out of it alive!"
He watched as Alexa took the ring from behind her and showed him. It was silver, like the doors, and engraved with patterns and..
"What are they?" asked Bryce, pointing at the symbols.
"Words" said Lara.
"Well what do they mean?"
"Dream of me, and you will see me in daylight" "Think of me, and I will see you" "Blue is my colour, Silver is my light" "Truth is my love, Day is my night" "Search for me, you will be blind" "Do not and you will find" "That looking for is in vain" "Destruction brings no gain" "If your heart is true, you'll want for none" "You will find your goal and all is done".
"Sweet!. What's that for?"
"Oh it's a key alright. But it's not the key to the sword"
"Really Lara?" said Alexa.
"Really"
Lara slammed the breaks on and they stopped.
"What is it then?"
"It's the key to the city, and it's a riddle, telling us that if we look for it, we're not going to find it"
"So this is a wasted trip. Oh my God!"
"I have a feeling it's not a wasted trip and you know it. I know exactly what that riddle is and you do to. You have a strange compass which you just happen to buy and which is made of the same material as this and has a core of blue. Your pendant, glows blue!. Your eyes - they glowed blue! You know far more about this than you are letting on. Tell me something about this city - did they have a ruler when there was no guardian?"
"Yes! An emperor or empress"
"And how exactly did you know that?"
"I…I….I just know!"
"My father had hundreds of books on this, and in all of them, not once have a seen a mention of an emperor or empress!"
"The fact must have been left out!"
"And there was never any mention of a compass or pendant"
"I don't know Lara, really I don't"
"Alright. We are going back to the plane and then I am going to study that ring, if you don't mind. Oh, and sorry about the outburst. In my line of business you learn not to trust anybody, and suspect everyone."
" I know. I'm sorry too"
Lexa turned away, and Lara still looking in her mirror, saw her visibly sigh.
"Stop suspecting her" said Lara to herself.
They drove in silence for another 3 hours, trying to keep cool. Lara was still thinking.
"She's probably completely and utterly innocent and I've seen some weird things, so it probably did all start with that pendant and compass thing, and the letter"
"OH SHIT!" she shouted out loud.
They had arrived back at the landing area and her plane was a mass of flames. She saw a solitary figure wandering around too close to the flames.
"Sergeant!" she cried.
She leaped out of the car and ran as fast as she could. She got the sergeant, picked him up and carried him back to the car as fast a possible. When they were safely enough away they stopped completely. She watched the burning shell of the aircraft and then looked down.
"Sergeant?"
He lay quite still on the sandy ground next to the jeep. The smoke burned Lara's eyes. She gently lifted the soldiers head and gasped in horror. A thick trickle of blood ran from the corner of his mouth. Lara moved his body into the recovery position, and then saw that he had been shot in the back from a point blank range, but his bullet proof vest from the front had prevented it from coming out the other side. Lara bent her head down to his mouth. She could hear a rasping.
"Laa..r.a?"
"Yes James. I'm here"
"Tell my father, it was the best trip."
"Shhh. Don't say that"
"Good Luck Lara"
And with that, his last breath was expelled from his body in an audible sigh. Lara rolled him back, and closed his eyes. Tears stung her own, and silently ran down her cheeks, running channels down the dust on her face.
"Lara?" said Bryce.
"How do you know he was called James?"
"The Colonel, back in England was his father. Steve was my Godfather, and I was James' Godmother. He was 19. I had so much to do with him. I did half his weapons training. He was like the son I never had…I…I don't think I can tell Steve"
She got up, looked the sky, and screamed:
"NO!!!"
She slumped to the floor on her knees, and then noticed a jacket hanging on a rock nearby. A leather jacket. Chase's jacket.
She kicked the ground, grabbed her knife from her boot, and stood over James's body. She cut a long slit down her hand.
"I'll get him James…and the glory will be yours"
~~:~~:~~
Lara had been in a foul mood for the rest of the day. Neither Bryce nor Alexa had dared to say anything to her. It was difficult when she was like that, but they understood. Bryce had handed Lara the satellite phone, and she had called Hillary to let him know what had happened. He had ordered a helicopter, and it was now on its way to pick them up, at the co-ordinates that Lara had given. Lara sat staring at the ring. She hated it at the moment - and it glimmered evilly. She didn't want to find the Empire, but she did. She didn't want to look for it, but was. Her mind was in a whirl, a mixture of emotions wanting to make her shoot something. She walked back into the tent that they had put up to keep the sun off them.
"Can I borrow that?" she asked Alexa, who was fiddling with the pendant at her next.
"Sure"
"And the compass?"
"Here"
Lara walked back to the ring. She stood it up on its side - and it balanced there. On its side. At the top, there seemed to be a groove that matched the shape of the pendant. At the bottom, one that matched the compass. Then she recognised the symbols on the ring, just above each of the grooves. They were letters - English letters. N, S, E and W. North belonged to the pendant shaped groove, South to the Compass. West was empty but east? There was already a piece there. Lara took the pendant, and moved it closer to the groove. It started to glow, and hum. She could feel the energy.
Suddenly the pendant flew out of her hands, and attached itself to the ring.
"Oh shit!!"
She put her hands on the pendant, and with a considerable amount of force, managed to pull it off the ring. She looked at the figure in the East. Again, she placed her hands on it, and pulled. It came away more easily than the first.
"Ohhh Bugger!"
The ring had risen into the air, started to spin and then, broke into 4 pieces. She picked them up, and saw that they fitted like a puzzle.
"Convenience carrying" she said.
She picked up the pieces, secured them to her backpack, and walked back to the tent.
"Cold drink Lara?" asked Bryce
"Chopper'l be here in 10 minutes"
"Lets pack up then" said Lara
"Where's the ring Lara?" said Alexa
Lara turned around. Alexa gasped in horror when she saw the 4 pieces.
"You destroyed it! How could you?!"
"I haven't destroyed it. I vac-packed it. We also need 4 small separate pieces for it to do whatever it does. To start it. We have 3"
"3?! Only 2"
"How do you know I'm talking about the pendant and the compass?"
"Cause you borrowed them from me"
"Oh, of course"
"So why do you say we have three?"
"Because one piece is already on the ring. Its off now. I took it off. The whole things fits like a puzzle"
"So where is the 4th piece?" came Bryce's voice from behind them
"You remember a certain animal that wanted to come with us, and broke into my house?"
"You mean…..??" said Bryce
Lara looked at Lexa.
"Yes. That's right"
"Chase!" they said together.
