Chapter 5: Where the second key hides...

The surroundings of the building weren't very different from those of other old towns. Its narrow streets were crowded with tourist and the surface of its ground was covered with stones. Lara and Kurtis entered the ancient building and used the lift to reach the apartment they were looking for. They opened the door and saw a woman standing by the window. They both aimed their weapons at her. The woman turned to looked at the newcomers and moved towards them without a moment hesitation.

"I'm IsisDeiyan Illsay." She introduced herself "From the exiled."

Lara looked at her. She wear her black curly hair loose, her eyes were black and her clothes dark.

"We've come for the key you are supposed to have." She asked

"We don't have it anymore. It was...'stolen'." replied IsisDeiyan

"How?"

"That's a long story." answered IsisDeiyan with a smile. "But you should know that now it is in our enemies hands."

"Our enemies?"

"You have yours and we have ours. I'm afraid they have formed an alliance."

"So they have access to two keys." said Kurtis "Any idea of where we can find the others?"

"In the past it was believed that beyond the mist hid a land out of time. Does it a ring a bell to you?"

"Lands beyond mist" repeated Lara "It's not such an uncommon legend among cultures from north Europe." She then started thinking about it and, unconsciously, she began lowering her weapon. There might be several places that fulfilled that description, but, right then, she could only think of one which might be considered as a refuge. "Avalon" she finally whispered, as if talking to herself.

"What?" said Kurtis looking at her in disbelief. "Are we going to look for an isle that doesn't exist?"

Lara didn't answer. Meanwhile, IsisDeiyan remained silent, knowing that she couldn't say anymore. The consequences of it may be dangerous for her. Lara was still thinking. Kurtis was right; Avalon was probably a legend, as King Arthur, as the Holy Grail…

"It's in Glastonbury!" she finally shouted "It must be the place. It has preserves many legends…'of the world of men'.

IsisDeiyan smiled in agreement. "You should go know. And leave that map there. You won't need it anymore." She then looked at Kurtis. "By the way, don't you think it's about time you lowered your weapon? If I wanted to attack you, I would have done so by now."

"How can we know we can trust you?" he asked.

"Honestly, you can't know that and right now there's no way I could prove it to you, unless you want to wait for other five minutes. Reach for the building next to this and escape."

She then went out of the flat and started descending the stairs with Kurtis weapon still aimed at her.

IsisDeiyan went down the stairs quickly but not running. After all, she was not in a hurry, knowing as she did, that her sister was already inside the building. She really wanted to meet her. She stopped as she reached the ground floor and moved towards the exit of the building until she noticed it was already blocked.

"It's been a long time, little sister" said a voice behind her

"At least two years" answered IsisDeiyan, as she turned around to find her sister and some of her soldiers.

"Are you counting it, IsisDeiyan?"

"Aren't you?"

Ellein smiled "Are you alone or is our dear queen going to appear?"

"Ellein, if I weren't alone, don't you think you would have been already attacked? Replied IsisDeiyan returning her sister's smile. "Besides, do you think she would remain there, waiting for you to come?"

"Of course not. Why are you there then? And where has Erel gone?"

"I can't believe you think I'm going to tell you that." answered IsisDeiyan. "Anyway, nice try."

Ellein beckoned to one of the soldiers and he aimed his weapon at IsisDeiyan.

"You'd better think of other ways of threatening." Continued IsisDeiyan, as she fixed her black eyes into her green ones.

"That's why you are coming with me." Added Erel. One of the men took her by the arm and led her out of the building through the back door.

Lara and Kurtis couldn't help but look at each other as IsisDeiyan went out of the room. She had given them the information they needed, warned them and then she had gone.

Kurtis took the map from Lara's hand as she was still holding it.

"Do you think we should leave it here?" he asked

"I don't know, but we can't loose anything" she answered.

"You are right. If she is working for Karel, he must already know the location of the keys, so we aren't giving him any new information. If not, she is only trying to help us."

After saying that Kurtis dropped the map and they both went out of apartment, in the direction they had been told.

The man led IsisDeiyan to a group of cars parked outside the area and tried to make her went into one of them, while they wait until the others came. However, he had to release her arm as he felt a pain in his hand as if it were burning. IsisDeiyan kicked his stomach so that he would loose his balance and started running towards the crowed streets, hoping to reach them before someone saw her. She managed to get lost among the people, as her sister arrived at the area and caught a glimpse of her.

Ellein approached the fallen man, fighting the urge to kill him, and asked him what had happened. The man removed his glove and show her his hand. Although she was surprised by what he saw she didn't allow herself to show it. She looked at the man's hand, which seemed to me partially frozen, as he explained how it has suddenly begun aching as if it was burning. She turned to went into one of the cars and ordered her soldiers to get ride of the man, as if it would clean her failure.

As she reached one of the windows of the corridor, Lara noticed the two buildings weren't far from each other. She and Kurtis could easily reach the other building without much effort, and so she told him. They opened the window and were about to discuss the best way of reaching the other side when they heard the sound of footsteps coming. By the way it sounded, there must be several people coming up the stairs and they both knew that nothing good could come out of it.

Lara looked apprehensively at the closed window of the balcony in the building in front of her and took her guns hoping that a few shots will break the glass so they could use it to enter the building, although it may alert the soldiers of their presence. However, before she could fire any shot, the window blow. She looked at Kurtis, who was smiling at her, with his hand raised. Lara didn't have to think much to guess what had just happened. She didn't have the time either, so she quickly jumped over the small space that separated both places.

She turned to see Kurtis behind her, who wasn't that sure that he could make it to the other side. Lara remembered his wound and realized that it was probably the cause of his hesitance to jump. They were running out of time and the soldier would catch them at any moment. She has to think of something quickly. She looked at the frame of the broken window. She didn't know if it would be long enough, but it was their only chance of getting out of there. Fortunately, it worked and, with its help, Kurtis managed to get to the other side.

They looked at the window they have just leave behind and they could see the soldiers at the other end of the corridor approaching them.

They started to come down the stairs of this new building, knowing that the soldiers they had seen would have probably warn the other of their presence. As they reached the ground floor, Lara realised that they had two options. Either they could use the front door and go straight to the motorbike parked outside, or they could use the back door and hope to lose their pursuers among the crowd of tourists.

Lara looked at Kurtis to asked him about his opinion about it when she noticed that he seemed somehow absent. She called his name but obtained no answer, until he seemed to shake for a moment.

"What the hell where you thinking?" said Lara.

"I'll explain you later. Come on. Let's go this way" he answered pointing the front door.

"How do you know it's safer?"

"There's no time now. We can take my motorbike, if we hurry. They are waiting for us at the other exit, but if they see we don't turn up soon, they'll come here."

Lara agreed, not knowing at all why she trusted his opinion about it. They try to go out of the building and find out that there were only a few guards on the hall. They took refuge behind some columns and shot them without hesitation. They couldn't risk they alerted the other ones. Lara looked round the corner and saw that there were six soldiers. She shot from her safe position several times and heard a corpse fall and after a few seconds another one. The other four have also taken refuge behind the other columns and it was going to be difficult to get ride of them. She remembered something and opened her backpack. She took the round object she had found at the Strahov and handed it to Kurtis. He thanked her with a smiled and used it to attack the soldiers. The objected flew around the room and got easily ride of the men there. As soon as the last of them fell to the ground, Kurtis caught his weapon again and they managed to go out of the building and use Kurtis motorbike to escape.

"You have a lot of things to explain." Said Lara as they both rode the bike.

Inspector Genet was studying the papers from his research about the theft in the Louvre. He was about to finish it, as there was nothing else he could find out about it. As far as he knew, nothing has been 'taken'. They have only broken an urn and probably the have been something inside it, but as he had no proof of it, there was nothing he could do. His telephone rang and he reluctantly lifted his eyes from his papers and took it.

"Inspector Genet?" asked a female's voice. "Do you remember I promised to keep you informed?"

The inspector remembered his conversation with the woman he had let go.

"Of course. I supposed nobody has managed to 'open a hole through you' yet. Do you know something?"

"Well, if I were you I'd stopped a group of cars, that's going to cross the Spanish border. They are probably carrying a map."

"Why is it related to my investigation?"

"The map was hidden inside the broken urn."

The inspector quickly thanked her and hung up the phone. He then dialed another number and gave instruction to stop the cars.

There is another chapter, hope you enjoy it.