Among Galactic Ruins (16 page)

“You authenticated the vase, right? And
knowing you much better than I did before—” he raised a brow and
made her laugh “—you would have checked that damn vase a hundred
times to make sure it was the real deal. And translated that map a
thousand times until you were sure you had it right.”

“Yes.”

“Was it real? No, don’t think about it, just
answer the question. Was it real?”

She drew her shoulders up. “Yes.”

“You sure?”

She shot to her feet. “Yes, dammit. I am
good at my job and that vase and its map are real.”

“Which means there’s a temple here waiting
for us to find it.”

She nodded, a decisive move accented by the
spark in her eyes. “Follow the Dragon’s Spine to the Temple
Divine.”

“What was the next clue?”

“The Heart of the Goddess beats deep.”

He pondered that. “What do you think it
means?”

Her gaze was on the stone circle. “I don’t
know. This isn’t the Temple Divine, so I don’t know—”

“Focus, Lexa. Use that clever brain of
yours. What’s the Heart of the Goddess?”

She chewed on her lip, which almost threw
him off track. She had a deliciously full bottom lip and he wanted
to chew on it himself.

“It can’t be a literal heart, but the heart
was an organ the priestesses knew gave life. So the Heart of the
Goddess could be something that gives life.” Brown eyes widened.
“The egg! It’s their ultimate symbol of life and birth.”

He nodded. “So, the egg is…somewhere
deep?”

Together they spun. Dathan was wandering the
stone circle, hands on his hips.

“Another tunnel?” Damon suggested.

“Maybe.” Her tone was distant, she was lost
in her thoughts.

Damon smiled. God, he loved watching that
mind of hers at work. He shook his head. He’d always considered
himself a breast or a leg man. Now, apparently, he was a brain man
when it came to her. Not that she didn’t have a fine set of both
those other attributes.

“Hey.” Dathan’s voice. He was now crouched
by the egg-shaped rock in the center of the stone circle. “This has
grooves worn into it…looks like maybe water flowed through here
once.”

Lexa hurried down and Damon followed. She
crouched beside the treasure hunter.

“I think you’re right. It’s some sort of
fountain or water feature.”

Damon stuck his hands on his hips. “How did
they get water to the fountain?”

“Not over these dunes,” Dathan said. “It’s
been desert here for centuries.” He scowled. “Maybe it never had
water.”

Lexa shook her head, her hand stroking the
rock. “This had water in it. Look at this basin near the bottom.
It’s just like the one I found on the other side.”

“There is underground water here, like at
the oasis,” Dathan offered.

She turned her full attention to the
fountain now and ran her hands all over the rock. She reached under
it, then beamed. “There’s a carving under here.” Her smile widened.
“It feels like an oval, another egg.” Her brow creased. “There’s
some sort of…lever.”

The fountain stone moved with a groan of
rock on rock and Damon pulled Lexa back beside him. Together, they
watched the fountain sink down into the rocky floor.

When it stopped, the three of them leaned
over and looked into the dark, circular hole.

A set of stairs led down into the
blackness.

The steps went on forever. Lexa felt her
thigh muscles start to burn but she kept moving downward, her heart
beating in time with the tread of her boots. Damon was just ahead
of her, holding up his ion light, while Dathan followed immediately
behind her.

“This is the bottom,” Damon said.

They all stepped into a long, stone-lined
corridor. It was dank and their footsteps echoed around them. At
the end, a large door waited.

“Big sucker,” Dathan murmured.

The treasure hunter tried to move the heavy
door, but it refused to budge. It took all three of them, grunting
and shoving, before it inched open.

“Ready?” Damon asked.

Lexa swallowed and nodded. Funny to feel
nervous when she’d wanted this for so long. Maybe she just wasn’t
sure she could face another dead end.

He held out his ion light to her.
Suck it
up, Lexa
. She took it and stepped inside the door.

She gasped. The narrow beam of light
reflected back off the dull gleam of gold in the darkness. It was
hard to tell, but she thought it was another chamber, similar to
the one in the sinkhole.

But unlike the empty sinkhole room, this one
was filled with brilliant paintings, and carvings etched into the
walls.

Her light cut across a set of glyphs and her
chest tightened as she translated them—Temple of the Goddess
Divine.

“This is it.” Her head was spinning.

“Hang on a second, I think I’ve found…”
Dathan’s words trailed off as he touched something in the dark that
made a clanging noise. “Here we go.”

Lights flared to life.

“There’s some kind of ancient lighting
system. Don’t know what the energy source is, but it’s obviously
still working.” He sounded pleased with himself.

Oh, Goddess
. Lexa pressed a fisted
hand over her thumping heart. It was…indescribable.

Every wall was filled with art. The room was
packed with treasures, most glittering with gold and gems.

“All this history.” Her throat was thick,
thinking of the final priestesses setting these artifacts here.

“And all this treasure,” Dathan added.

“Shh.” She shot him a scowl.

“Surely I can take some of this!”

“Not a thing. Not until it’s catalogued.

“That’ll take forever!”

“I have to call in the Institute of
Historical Preservation for a find of this magnitude. You’ll get
paid and after, I’ll make sure you get your three things.” She
moved over to the wall to study the brilliantly colored paintings.
She ignored the treasure hunter grumbling under his breath. A
glance at Damon showed he was smiling.

The paintings showed the priestesses at
work, right here in this temple.

Lexa turned and saw it.

The Fabergé egg.

Amazing
. She bit her lip, emotions
running wildly through her. It was nestled into an alcove in the
wall. A well-placed light illuminated it perfectly.

She’d done it. But not alone.

She moved the few steps to Damon and threw
her arms around him. “Thank you.”

“For what? You got us here.”

She pressed her cheek to his chest and
pulled in his scent. “I wouldn’t have made it without you. And I’m
not just talking about wrestling desert wolves or following me into
a sinkhole.”

He kissed the top of her head. “I think you
would have made it by yourself just fine. You wouldn’t have given
up. Now, go see what we came all this way to find.”

She walked over to the egg. The red was
deeper than she’d expected, the shine of the gold brighter. It was
in excellent condition for being here for centuries. She frowned.
Too good.

“I’d really hoped you wouldn’t find the
temple.”

The stranger’s voice made her start. Damon
was already moving, his body tensed and ready.

“What the hell?” Dathan burst out.

Lexa turned. She blinked. “You!”

“Who is he?” Damon demanded.

She studied the older man, with his
salt-and-pepper hair and strangely ageless face. “He’s a stall
holder I saw near the Desert Dragon in Kharga. He was selling fake
artifacts.”

The man stood straight and very still, there
was no sign of his cranky-stall-owner persona now. “A way to throw
people off course, and you hear all kinds of good information in
the market. Especially outside the bar. I can easily learn of
anyone who thinks they have a map that might threaten the Temple
Divine.”

“You overhead us talking about the map?”
Lexa frowned, wracking her brain to remember what she’d said, and
if she’d spoken close enough for this man to hear.

“Yes.”

“And you’re…what? The temple’s
caretaker?”

He inclined his head.

“What now?” Damon asked.

The caretaker’s eyes flashed red. Lexa
tensed. What the hell?

His hands clenched into fists.
“Unfortunately, now you die.”

Before Lexa could react, the man moved,
faster than any man—young or old—should be able to move. He slammed
an unforgiving fist into Lexa’s belly, and the incredible force of
the blow lifted her off her feet.

It was like being hit by a public transport.
She flew backward several meters and slammed into the wall.

Gasping for breath, she fell to the floor.
Through her wavering vision, she watched Damon and the caretaker
square off.

***

Damon pulled out his laser pistol and shot
the man. He wanted to race to Lexa, but first he had to neutralize
the threat.

The caretaker barely blinked. The laser had
no effect on him.

Damon pulled the trigger again, but the man
just absorbed the laser fire without blinking.

With a curse, Damon tossed his pistol aside
and moved forward to attack. He kicked the older man in the stomach
before following with a hard punch to the face.

The man’s head snapped back, but his face
remained composed. No reaction.

Damon fought back a frown, circling,
readying for his next attack.

This time the caretaker came at him.

Damn
. The man’s blows were far harder
than Damon had anticipated. He was stronger. Too strong.

They moved around each other, ducking and
dodging each other’s blows.

A chop landed between Damon’s shoulder
blades, sending him stumbling. He caught his balance and spun
around, but the caretaker had moved in the blink of an eye and was
out of reach.

He was too strong and too fast.

Damon studied him more closely, but couldn’t
see any enhancements or implants that would indicate he was a
cyborg. Maybe some sort of stimulant?

Dathan raced out of the shadows and swung a
hefty golden statue at the caretaker. The statue made contact, but
the caretaker just spun, grabbed the idol and tossed it aside. Then
he slammed a wicked front kick into Dathan’s chest.

The younger man flew backward, taking out a
few larger treasures with a loud crash. He groaned and flopped onto
the stone floor.

Damon snatched up the statue from where it
had landed near his feet. He held it up like he was stepping up to
the plate in the Galactic Baseball Championships. When the
caretaker turned back to him, Damon swung the statue with all his
strength.

It connected with the caretaker’s head.

The man’s head turned under the blow, but he
didn’t stagger or lose his balance.

Slowly, he turned back to face Damon and
Damon’s stomach tightened.

The blow had ripped off the left side of the
caretaker’s face, uncovering a mass of wiring and blinking
lights.

“You’re a syndroid.”

“Yes. Appointed and programmed by the
priestesses.”

And he was a damned good model. More
lifelike than anything Damon had seen.

Lexa stepped forward. “That isn’t possible.”
She was cradling her middle but seemed okay. “You’re clearly a
modern model of droid. The priestesses have been gone for
centuries.”

“For eight hundred years, five months, and
twenty-seven days. That’s when Tialla, final Orphic priestess, took
her last breath. She was the one to program the first early model
droid—not much more than a metal can with a computer—as caretaker
of the temple and the treasure of the goddess.”

“First droid?” Damon prompted.

The caretaker gave one small nod. “Part of
our programming was to continually update and download our
programming into a new model syndroid as the years passed.”

“Ingenious,” Lexa murmured.

“Tialla wanted to ensure this temple’s
legacy, to ensure the security of the egg and ensure it never fell
into the grubby hands of those who only saw its monetary value.”
His dark gaze landed on Dathan.

Dathan cocked a hip. “Hey, my hands are not
grubby.” He held them up.

“Phoenix, Dathan. Treasure hunter in
training, apprenticed to your father, Phoenix, Brocken. Your sire
has sold a small fortune in ancient artifacts. The probability is
that you will follow him.”

“I’m not planning to follow him anywhere,”
Dathan said vehemently.

Lexa shifted “Look, I think—”

The syndroid’s gaze landed on her. “Carter,
Dr. Alexa Cassandra. Astro-archeologist, finished in the top
percentage of your class. Currently curator of the Darend
Museum.”

“Then your records tell you that I restore
and safeguard artifacts and treasures.”

“But not in their rightful places.” His gaze
moved over all of them. “The egg stays here.”

“Where no one can see it?” she asked, her
voice earnest. “It should be enjoyed. Appreciated.”

“It’ll be where someone can’t sell it.”

“I don’t want to sell it!” she said. “I want
to know its story, and share that with the galaxy.”

The syndroid regarded her steadily and took
a step toward her.

Damon moved. “No closer.”

The caretaker turned to look at him. “Malik,
Damon. Head of Security for the Darend Museum, although you’ve only
recently begun the role. Strangely, I am unable to access any other
information on you.” The droid tilted its head. “From your fighting
ability, I would deduce military training or something
similar.”

Damon stayed silent. The droid could deduce
all it wanted. If it touched Lexa again, Damon would end it.

“My sensors detect your body’s responses
which indicate an emotional connection to Dr. Carter.”

“If you’re asking if I’d kill for her, the
answer is a very easy yes.”

Lexa put a hand on his arm, but she was
looking at the syndroid. “If we found this place, others will,
too.”