Hours passed in silence, but nothing worthy caught their attention. Under the layer of thousand year old dust, some parchments were nothing but heap of ashes. Letters on the manuscripts were often impossible to read, making them useless pieces of antiquity.
Nobody gave up though. The fomoires and Alexander restlessly continued their monotonous work. They needed to get to that book.
Leir needed it.
All I've been through, everything I've endured... It's too late to give up, even if I wanted to. My enemies will never win. Not without a fight.
All of a sudden, a weird grating sound from the neighboring tunnel shot the silence. The fomoires froze, exchanging alarmed glances.
"Could anyone find us?" Charna twisted a lock of her red hair around her finger, her free hand reaching down to a dagger in her boot.
"I'll check," Tane drew out a hunting knife and disappeared in the darkness, moving like a wild cat ready to attract.
Charna anxiously bit her lower lip. "How much further do these underground mazes stretch?"
"I have no clue," Alexander admitted. "There must be miles and miles more. The part we're in is new, at least comparing to the rest of the labyrinth. It was made in the Early Middle Ages, used to connect cities. I won't be surprised to know that you can get straight to Machu Picchu from here. Or even farther than that.
"Not a single soul," Tane came back, utterly relaxed. "Apparently, some rats forgotten by ancient nuns."
The others returned to their job of tossing the papers, while Tane dropped to the floor by the exit, with his back leaning against the icy cold bricks. Leir watched him shrug off the sleeve of his jacket and inspect the bandage wrapped around his forearm. The cut under the bandage wasn't that bad really, but it caused a lot of pain—Leir saw Tane grimaced every time he moved.
Alexander noticed it, too. "It's true then," he flicked his eyes to Nagal, who was frowning over a worn out book cover. "True what I've heard of your shiny blue daggers? They leave wounds that can't be healed with the crystal power? Nagal, I remember shooting you in the thigh just a few days ago, and I don't see you limping." He whipped his gaze back to Tane. "You, on the other hand—"
"Yeah, your friend Michael stabbed me with the shiny blue daggers," Tane hissed and quickly covered his injury. "Happy?"
Alexander cleared his throat, and looked off.
For several minutes, awkward silence hovered over the crypt. Tane searched Nagal's bag that was lying next to him on the floor, fished something out. Leir lifted his eyebrows as he saw a bottle of whisky. When did Tane manage to get the drink?.. Anyway, there was not a chance of stopping his friend from emptying it now.
"Congratulations, Alexander," Tane raised the bottle up over his head like he was making a toast. "Now you know how we can be killed." He took a sip and smiled, tasting alcohol on his lips. "What a pity, it's so hard to find a lāvan weapon on Earth..."
"I gave Alexander Michael's dagger," Leir said. He knew he would regret admitting it. Why did he admit it?..
"You did what?!" Nagal's roar was so loud everyone winced. "Are you out of your mind? And what if this human murder us in our sleep?"
"I'm not a murderer," Anya's father groaned.
"And I am not a believer!"
"Stop it." Charna stood between them before the innocent conversation turned into a fight. "Are we going to accuse each other of the possible and the impossible like brainless children, or are we going to find a map first?"
Leir sighed in relief as Nagal and Alexander obediently walked to the opposite corners, exactly like children accused of mischief. He gave the fomorian a thanking look. She smirked, pleased. She was good at commanding people, and she knew it. The only thing she was better at was getting into troubles herself—even Leir couldn't tame her when she was in a rush to break somebody's bones.
"Leir told me the daitias are about to attack your country," Alexander released a tired breath, flipping the dusty pages. "And that this book is the only chance for you to win..."
"Did you really say so?" Charna whispered in Leir's ear.
Leir grinned. "Right amount of truths and lies mixed together, remember?"
"...I'm not going to stop you. But I wouldn't be helping you either if it wasn't for my family."
Tane cackled, still sitting on the floor and holding the bottle. "You want to know where your wife is, right, Alexander?"
"Yes."
"Tell me this, how can one woman be more important than a war? And—" Sip by sip, whisky was disappearing down Tane's throat. "Mm... If you haven't learned a thing about The Book of Fates by now... Well, it can unravel any secret of the universe! You have no imagination of your own?"
Alexander's expression hardened. "I had no interest in your book and your war until my family got involved into your ploy."
"Ah, I see."
"And now all I want to know is why Eva got tempted by your secrets."
"Uh, I see." Tane drank the rest of the whisky off in one swallow. "Adam, have you ever thought of a possibility that your Eva simply left you, uh?" He toyed with the empty bottle in his hands, his eyes bored and sad at the absence of another drink. "Maybe to her, you seemed as boring as you are to me."
Anger altered Alexander's face for a fraction of a second, then he breathed heavily through his nose. "No. You clearly don't know a thing about relationship and what it's like to lose someone you love."
"I had a fiancée once." Words escaped Leir before he could strangle them.
As a result, as though an invisible trigger had been pulled, phantom memories flooded his mind. Home. A beautiful girl smiling at him. Her celestial eyes full of love, melting and warming Leir's heart. Then, the war. Battles. Cries and blood. Pain and—
Leir hurriedly cut himself off, before the visions of the past could turn him numb.
"I'm sorry." Alexander said quietly.
"Don't be." Leir put a mask of seriousness back on his face. "She's alive, she's just... changed. We've all changed. That's what wars do to people apparently. They change us in ways that can't always be seen with our eyes."
"Has she—"
"Found it!" Charna clasped her hands and demonstrated a folded paper to everyone, her eyes glittering with triumph.
"Let me see," Alexander took the paper and scanned it, screwing up his eyes. "Yes, that's what need. We can go now."
Indistinct sounds were heard again. The fomoires and Alexander halted, listening. This time, heavy footsteps were coming from above.
"Someone's in the cathedral," Nagal concluded, scratching his bald head. "We're not the only ones sneaking around in the night."
"It's—hiccup—eleven—hiccup—am," Tane struggled to get to his feet, flashing his phone before Nagal's face. "Or am I—hiccup—that drunk?"
Nagal ran his disdain eyes up and down Tane's body, thinking. "No, you're not that drunk. I've seen worse."
Footsteps were getting louder. Someone was roaming about the hall upstairs.
"Any ideas of how to get out of here unnoticed?" Anya's father queried.
Leir nodded. "Just one."
They quickly passed the creepy hallways and returned to the steep steps under the jaguar wall. Leir went up first and looked around the corner. At the far end of the cathedral, two old men wearing robes were lighting the candles, murmuring prayers.
"They're going to open the doors to the tourists in a few minutes," Charna said, peeking over Leir shoulder.
"Yes, we've spent more time than were planning to."
"May we play now?"
"We may, but no threats, Charna."
"I had nothing like that on my mind!"
"Hash, sure you did not," Leir chuckled, seeing Charna hide disappointment flickering across her feature, and looked at the others. "Close the passage and wait till my command."
He waited for the priests to open one of the doors and head toward the other one. Then Leir put sunglasses on and a cap reading 'I ♥ travelling' that he'd stolen from a sleepy traveler at the airport; Charna fetched a camera out of her bag, put a witless expression on her face instead of her permanently arrogant one.
They sneaked to the entrance, and Leir slammed the door noisily. Laughing and hugging, the two adventure lovers marched across the cathedral with pretentious excitement.
One of the priests flinched at the sight of them and hurried to light the remaining candles. Meanwhile, Tane, Nagal and Alexander pushed the wall closed over the passage and left—Alexander admiring the icons; Nagal grumbling, preventing Tane from falling with one arm and trying to snatch the empty bottle out of his grasp with the other.