Heart of Stone (An Aria For The Vampire Book 4) by Philippa Norcross & Michael Anderle

Author:Philippa Norcross & Michael Anderle [Norcross, Philippa & Anderle, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9798885419383
Publisher: LMBPN Publishing
Published: 2023-10-04T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

As was her wont, Jillian refused to say more until she’d led Cora to their destination. This turned out to be yet another of the caves in the underground complex, one that reminded Cora of a boardroom of all places. Apart from being underground, lit by glowing green lichen, and that the large table in the center of the room had been hewn from the same rock as the cave. As had the chairs. Judging only by the layout, this could have been any corporate meeting room in any high-rise.

The green witch crossed to a wall of shelves, which were slabs carved from the cavern’s wall. They were packed with scrolls and books, and if Cora wasn’t mistaken, there were also a few boxes of floppy disks and CDs. “Quite the library you have here,” she commented as her gaze roved over the collection.

“Mm.” Jillian didn’t elaborate, and Cora sighed, exasperated by Jillian’s occasional unpredictable reticence.

She picked out a scroll with a black end and slipped it from among its neighbors. She went to the large stone table and unfurled it.

Cora paused as she approached Jillian, her attention caught by the tabletop. Now that she was closer, she saw faint engravings blanketing the surface. The light from the lichen was too pale to see them clearly unless she was right up close because they were so small. They looked like runes.

She peered a little closer. Not runes. Too many swirls. Maybe Sanskrit, or something akin to it? Cora was an opera singer, not an archaeologist or a magical theorist. Hell, she wasn’t even a private investigator. This was so not her wheelhouse.

“What’s with the carving?” she asked aloud. “It’s beautiful. Must have taken forever. Did you do it?”

“What?” Jillian looked up from her study of the scroll she’d taken out, which looked like a map. A map of Europe maybe, although Cora was looking at it upside down and kind of sideways, so she wasn’t a hundred percent sure. “Oh, the table. Yes, I did it myself. A little bit at a time, over years.”

“Is it enchanted?”

Jillian’s look was withering. “Of course, it’s enchanted.”

“Okay, geez, sorry.” Cora raised her hands, palms up, and sheepishly came over to the end of the table to look more closely at the map. “You keep surprising me, that’s all. How is it enchanted?”

“With sigils.”

Cora bit her tongue to keep from saying “No shit.” This wasn’t a topic Jillian wanted to discuss, for whatever reason. Probably not worth pushing, at least not right now. Cora’s curiosity would have to wait.

“So, map?” she redirected, coming to stand beside the green witch and examining the scroll. “Map that leads to the Stone?”

“Sort of.” Jillian ran her hands over the scroll to flatten it more. It had taken some water damage at some point and was mildly crinkled, and some of its colors had run.

Despite the damage, it was a gorgeous map of most of Europe, with the Mediterranean Sea and its environs featuring prominently. It looked quite old, the style of illustration reminding Cora of illuminated manuscripts from the Middle Ages.

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