Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 84237 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 421(@200wpm)___ 337(@250wpm)___ 281(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84237 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 421(@200wpm)___ 337(@250wpm)___ 281(@300wpm)
“So would we.” Thiago gave him a nod. “It’s why we’re sending a slightly larger team with you than usual. Also, if you do find where they were, we want you to report back immediately. We’ll send a full team in to investigate.”
“You’ll need us to,” Evora advised him. “I realize that from an archaeologist’s point of view, dragons and mages aren’t helpful to have on site, but something you must be aware of is that we mages are very territorial with our spells. It wasn’t until after the Dragon Wars ended that we chose to share magical knowledge freely. Mostly because so much had been lost already. If the Sousa chose to leave, and it wasn’t some disaster that wiped them out, then they are likely to have booby trapped the area prior to leaving, just to prevent tampering.”
Samuel winced. He hadn’t considered that possibility at all. “When you’re saying booby traps, are we talking like Indiana Jones level of traps?”
“Worse,” Luka assured him cheerfully, a wide smile on his face. “Explosions are a distinct possibility. That’s why we’ve included Gregori on the team. His specialty is traps and security measures.”
Lovely. “I’m suddenly quite glad I contracted you to come with me. It looks like I’ll need more of your clan’s services than I anticipated.”
“We’re very glad you did, too.” A momentary frown twitched across Thiago’s face. “If you don’t mind my asking, why are you here alone? Usually these kind of research trips have at least a team, right?”
The man would have to put a finger directly on Samuel’s sore point. Remembering Kevin’s parting words when he broke every promise he’d made still made something inside of Samuel flinch. A hard reminder of his own failings and how he’d come up short in the dating department. It was bad enough that he sucked as a mage, but did he really need to be a bad boyfriend as well?
“I wasn’t supposed to be alone on this trip. Things fell through at the last minute. I didn’t want to waste the money I’d already put into it, and I figured I could at least come down and find the location before arranging a full team to excavate.”
Thiago nodded. “Fair enough. I’d probably have done the same in your shoes.”
Luka pointed to the tablet. “Do you have the ship captain’s account on there?”
“I do, yes. A scanned version. Do you want to read it?”
“I’d love to.”
Luka, he had the feeling, was a historian at heart. If nothing else, he was a history buff. Samuel had the notion the two of them would get along just fine.
He navigated to the right folder and pulled up the account, which was a PDF of several pages. The captain’s handwriting was legible enough to not give Luka too much trouble. The man had been verbose and very descriptive, too, which was helpful.
“I’m surprised a fourteenth century sea captain was literate,” Luka noted.
“Granted, it was a rare thing in that time. I’m still studying him—I have a few feelers out with different colleagues—but I believe he was one of those minor noblemen who was a sanctioned pirate under the queen’s flag.”
“Ah, that would make sense.”
“It was quite the rage at the time. Spain wasn’t the only one doing it.”
Samuel flipped the tablet around to hand to Luka. As he passed over the device, he saw Evora discreetly peeking at a triangular device in her hand. A device pointed right at Samuel.
On instinct, his hand snapped out and he flattened her hand to the table, rendering the device quiet and still once more. She and Thiago both startled at his sudden movement, Thiago half reaching for his arm in a protective movement that he cut short before he could actually lay hands on Samuel.
It was painful in the extreme to see that device in her hands. Samuel managed to meet her eyes levelly but his voice sounded hoarse, the words pushing past a constricting throat. “Please don’t.”
Her eyes narrowed in shrewd study. “You know what that is.”
“I do, yes, and please don’t.”
Luka leaned forward to see around Thiago. “What’s going on?”
“I was testing his mage ability,” Evora explained simply, her eyes never leaving Samuel’s. “If you know what this is, surely you’ve been tested before. You know that you are a mage.”
“As I stated before, I come from a mage family, and I am very familiar with a range of magical devices, talismans, and spells. However, I am not a mage. What you’re picking up on is latent ability.” The words were acid and ashes in his mouth. They’d always been bitter to swallow. He wanted to shout, but it felt like he’d been shouting his entire life, and right now, he was too tired to explain himself to yet another person.
“That’s not how this device works,” Evora countered gently.