36
A warm fire crackled behind Xiomara as she sat behind her massive desk. Or maybe the desk wasn’t so massive as she was diminutive, Melody really didn’t know.
The Head of the Hallowed Order left them sitting in their chairs for a full two minutes, steepling her fingers and staring silently back at the both of them. It was the first time since she’d met the woman that Melody found her at a complete loss for words.
“How in the nine hells did this happen?” she finally demanded.
Melody gulped. “H—How did what happen?”
“This!” Xiomara shouted, indicating Lucus. “This this this!”
Melody glanced sideways, expecting to see Lucus squirming uncomfortably in his chair. Instead, he only sat quietly. Not moving. Not flinching.
“Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”
“I rescued someone,” said Melody.
“Rescued?” Xiomara laughed. “Fucking rescued!” She stood up and began circling her desk. “Do you understand where this person is from, Larson? When he’s from?”
“I understand more than anybody,” Melody spat. For the first time, she was past being defensive. “And what about you? Did you understand what you were sending me into? Blindly, without telling me?”
Xiomara’s mouth twisted tightly. She said nothing.
“Of course you did,” Melody went on. “And yet you sent me anyway. And you sent someone else too! Another member of the Order who almost got me killed. Someone who—”
The African woman stopped pacing immediately and gestured for silence. On her face was an expression Melody had never seen before: confusion.
“Back up,” Xiomara ordered. “Someone else?”
“Yes. Another member with the same mission as mine. A pretty big blindside, don’t you think? I mean, at least if you’d warned me—”
“What the hell are you babbling about?”
Melody was angry now, more angry than she’d ever been with the Head of Order. She knew she was pushing a line. That part made her nervous, but it really couldn’t be helped.
“Hanham,” she snarled. “Eric Hanham.”
The room fell silent except for the crackle of the fire. When Melody looked back at Xiomara, she noticed the woman’s whole body had gone rigid.
“What did you just say?”
“You heard me,” said Melody. “Eric Hanham was there, screwing everything up for me. At first, I thought he was there to help.” She searched her memory. “Said he was sent by another officer… someone by the name of Aldwyn.”
Xiomara remained where she was, stock still. It wasn’t an act. She was at a complete loss right now.
“You knew all this already,” Melody theorized. Only now she wasn’t exactly so sure. “Right?”
The Head of Order took a deep breath, then let it out very slowly. As Melody and Lucus watched she walked over to the fire and turned her back on them.
“Eric Hanham,” she said in even tones, “was excommunicated. Banished from the Order long ago, for breaking rank and plotting against us.”
“Yeah,” sneered Melody, “well someone should probably tell him that.”
Xiomara reached back and clasped her hands behind her back. She looked stoic, like a statue. He body utterly motionless as she absorbed the heat from the fire.
“We always suspected he went after the egg on his own,” she went on. “Especially Aldwyn.” She paused before continuing. “Hanham disappeared decades ago.”
“D—Decades?”
“Yes. No one has heard from him since…” She paused, then turned back and shrugged. “Since sometime back in the 1980’s.”
Melody’s mind was spinning. She’d been gone three whole days at Evermoore. And yet here… only twenty-two minutes. Silently she did the math in her head.
And he’s been in there for decades…
It was too horrific to think about. Her heart dropped into her feet.
“Are you saying you ran into Eric Hanham?” Xiomara said, her voice suddenly deadly serious. “At Evermoore?”
“Yes.”
“And you’re sure you saw him?”
Melody nodded mechanically. “More than saw him.” Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out the amethyst pendant and dangled it from its broken chain. “The whole time I was there, he kept trying to take this.”
Xiomara glanced at the Heart of Isolomara, then back to Lucus. She seemed to be trying to determine something.
Melody was still livid. “Are you saying you didn’t know he—”
“No,” the old woman said quickly. “Of course not. We would’ve never risked you had we known.”
“But you suspected?”
Xiomara sighed heavily, then sank back into her chair. “Aldwyn did,” she shrugged.
“Then he’s an asshole,” Melody snapped.
“Was,” said Xiomara. There was an underlying sadness to her reply. “Aldwyn died years ago.”
Another stretch of silence followed, somber and melancholy.
“Now you know why I had to bring Lucus back,” said Melody. “Trapped in there, for all that time. It’s a wonder he didn’t go insane.”
Xiomara cleared her throat. “I still don’t know how you did it,” she said simply, “but this man doesn’t belong here.”
“Bullshit.”
“He’s from a different time, Ms. Larson. A different place.”
“And if it weren’t for this man,” Melody said, throwing her own words back at her, “I’d be stuck there, at Evermoore. Forever, probably. Just like Eric.”
Xiomara turned her attention to Lucus, as if considering him for the first time. Her expression was mostly impassive. She was perturbed by his existence, Melody knew, but she could tell the old woman was also intrigued. She’d surprised her with something completely and totally unexpected. In that one regard, Melody could sense she’d gained a certain measure of her respect.
“You know you could’ve told me what I’d be walking into,” said Melody. “That the plantation was trapped in time, its occupants from two and three centuries ago.” She pulled at her mud-streaked dress. “Hell, you dressed me for a cotillion for fuck’s sake! Told me I was going to a ball, and—”
“It doesn’t work that way,” Xiomara interrupted. “If you’d known, things would’ve been different for you. It had to be the way it was.”
Melody stared down at her bare, filthy feet. She suddenly wanted a shower. A hot shower. The hottest shower she ever—
“Now,” said Xiomara, “if you’re all done pissing and moaning about your dress and your shoes…”
She stood and leaned forward, planting her tiny fists on her desk. Melody could see every deep-set line etched into the woman’s wizened face. Their eyes met, and Xiomara’s expression was utterly solemn.
“Please fucking tell me you brought back the egg…”