Chapter 4: The map

Spending the night in Von Croy's apartment might not have been such a good idea after all. It was true that it was probably one of the safest places they could hide in, but the place brought to her horrible memories. She remembered how Werner had called her in the middle of the night, a few days ago. She didn't know why she had accepted to come to Paris. She was sure, and time had shown her she was right, that it would only bring problems to her. However, he seemed really terrifiedand she must reckon that she had felt some kind of curiosity about what could be haunting his mind. Now, she wished she had stayed at home, safe. Lara had thought she could never forgive Werner for what had happened in Egypt. But nobody deserves that kind of death and she felt that it changed it all, in more than one way.

Her thoughts turned then to the man she had met a days before. She was glad he was alive. She had noticed the bandages around his stomach where his t-shirt had been ripped off. That injury was probably the cause of the pool of blood she had found at the Strahov. However, Karel's men seemed to have done a good job wrapping it. They both climbed upstairs and retired to sleep.

IsisDeiyan reluctantly took her cell phone, which was on the table by her bed. She had been sleeping for a few hours but she was still really tired.

She looked at her alarm clock. 6 a.m. in the morning. She then looked at her phone. It was a call from her sister. Finally, she wished for a minute killing siblings was legal in some circumstances.

"What do you want?" asked Isis with a sleepy voice

"Do you have the map?" Asked Erel.

"No"

"Did they get the map?" Erel seemed now to be quite alarmed.

"No"

"Isis, what do you mean? Where is the map? What has happened?"

"I don't know who has the map, but I can tell you that it is not me and that it is not Ellein or his ally. I suppose it won't be long until we find it out."

"And couldn't you have tell me this as soon as we started talking"

"See it as a little revenge for waking me up. I'll arrive in the evening" finished is as she hung up the phone.

The door of Karel's office opened and princess Ellein entered triumphantly.

"Do you know where they are going or do I have to look for another ally before you fall?" She said sarcastically.

"We are tracking them, though we haven't found them yet. By the way, haven't you found your sisters yet?" Karel answered

"In fact, I'm pretty sure where they are. I'm leaving in an hour."

IsisDeiyan opened the door of the flat she had been in on her previous visit to the city. However, there were only six people in it, all of them playing cards.

"Weren't you supposed to be planning our next step?" She asked.

One of them, a young man in his early twenties answered to her "We are deciding who is going to make the dinner."

"And you've arrived just at the right time" added queen Erel.

"You'd better not make me cook if you don't want to eat something half-burnt" she replied. "I've already had dinner in the airport. Let me know when you finish. I'll be in my bedroom."

"IsisDeiyan" called her sister "We'd better talk now."

It was early in the morning when Lara woke up. Her right arm still ached from the point Karel's ball had hit her. However, no matter how tired she had felt the day before, it seemed that all her efforts to have more rest were useless. On the other hand, Kurtis seemed luckier, as he was fast asleep.

She got up and woke Kurtis up, knowing that they should start to study the map, before Karel found them.

"Do you know why they wanted the map?" asked Lara, once Kurtis was fully awake.

"Well, it seems that some kind of ancient being, Aslene, hid something called 'The secret of life' and locked the chamber with four keys, which she linked to a different place." Answered Kurtis.

"It isn't difficult too imagine why he wants something called 'the secret of life'. Do you know what it is?"

"No. Nobody has ever seen it. But I know where one of the keys is. The one that was given to the Lux Veritatis. We must find them before he does."

Lara then unrolled the map, but was surprised to find that instead of some kind of drawing, it only contained four paragraphs of clear hand writing. She read them aloud.

The first key you would find

Where the land hiddes beyond the mist

In the last refuge for the world of men

The second I shall give to my own people

Whose fate seemed to be that of exile

But too dear in my heart, to let them die

The ancient warrior of the Lux Veritatis

Received the third one, for protecting human race

And they hid it where they would find it in the future

The last was, however, remains in the power of the nephilim

Hidden underground, for even them are part of the Children

And might help to keep balance

"I will never understand why ancient beings, empires or brotherhoods didn't write things clearly, so that future generation wouldn't have to guess what they meant to say." Said Lara, although deep down she knew that she welcomed every opportunity that came to her to solve a mysterious puzzle or retrieve and ancient artefact. She continued talking "Let's see. You've said, where your key is, right?"

Kurtis nodded "And I suppose the nephilim's one must be in their underground city. But I have no idea about the other two."

Lara remained silent for a few minutes and then said. "Well can't get Karel's key and we should leave yours for the moment so they can't kill you."

"I really appreciate your concern Lady Croft" Added Kurtis sarcastically.

Lara gave him a black looked, but continued talking as if she hadn't heard anything. "So that's two out of four. I don't know where the land beyond mist is, but I think I know someone who might help us with the exiled. He is an 'expert' in all kinds of strange theories. I guess he'll probably knows where to find them."

"Do you trust him?"

"No. He swaps information, but right now he is our only choice."

The door of the bedroom opened and a blonde woman entered into the dark room. She approached one of the beds and sat next to the figure lying there. She touched lightly her sister, as if to wake her up, thought she already knew she wasn't sleeping. IsisDeiyan turned around and looked at her sister's green eyes. A few hours ago, she had explained to the council everything she had seen in the Louvre and her own opinion, but she had retired before any decision was made.

"We've been talking. Our dear sister has decided to come after us. She seemed to have at last understood that we are still a menace to her." Said Erel with a sad smile. "We are leaving tomorrow morning,"

"Again hiding?" asked IsisDeiyan.

"What other choice do I have? There had been enough deaths among our people. They chose me to protect them. You know as well as I do that we both are too young to take any action of our own."

"It was not my intention to criticise you. I'm sorry if it had sound like that."

"I know. But I still feel so…" Erel started but her sister stopped her.

"We might not be able to defeat totally Ellein on our own. But we can always block her plans. We know something she doesn't: the location of the keys. We can get her before she and his ally do."

"Isis, we can't get them. Remember that one is for the nephilim, one for the Lux Veritatis, one for the people of the water and one for us."

"No, but we can find help. Or better, I think the help will find us."

"Do you mean the two people you saw in the Louvre?"

"Why not? Our contact told us one was a Lux Veritatis member, he can get the key."

"And how do you know they will come to us?"

"Well, we are probably their best option." Added IsisDeiyan. "I will remain there."

"That's your decision to make."

Kurtis followed Lara into an old building that looked as if it were going to collapse. It was totally abandoned but for an apartment from where came some light. Its door was opened and Kurtis didn't know whether to find it strange or not till he saw worry on Lara's face. He also pulled out his gun as he noticed Lara had done the same with hers.

He pushed slightly the door so they would have more space to cross it and wait till Lara entered the room. They both soon realised that there wasn't anyone in the flat, but for the corpse of a dead man lying in the floor next to some computers.

"Is that the man?" asked Kurtis

"He was always afraid of 'his enemies' finding him. Of course nobody believes most of what they say, but he seems to have been right after all." Said Lara. "Let's see if we find something useful."

Kurtis started to search for it in the computers while Lara tries to find something among the amount of papers lying on the floor, the tables and inside some of the books. The place was clearly a mess, thought she doubt it has anything to do with the people who have murdered the man. Her search was soon interrupted by Kurtis calling her.

"What have you found?" asked she.

"Look. His archives about the exiled were the last he used."

"Probably that was because the people who killed him were looking for the same information as us. I wonder why they didn't destroy it."

"They either didn't expect anyone to want to know where they are or they didn't care at all." answered Kurtis.

"Where do we have to go?"

"To the gothic area of Barcelona, Spain"

"We have found them Sir." Informed Gunderson

"Where are they?"

"They've just cross the French border."

"Contact Ellein, she would take care of them."

"Yes, Sir."

The streets of the gothic area of Barcelona were crowded with tourist, thought, in fact, there wasn't much space. However, Lara and Kurtis managed to drive through them, thanks to Kurtis motorcycle. They stopped in one of the streets behind the old cathedral and parked the vehicle. As they both got off of it, they looked up to the building in front of them.

At last I've been able to update! I really wished to have updated sooner but I have been very bussy writting a birthday present for a friend.

Thanks to all my reader for their interest and to all the people who have reviewed.

I promise it wouldn't take me that long to update next time.