Page 46 of Aleko
Lia looked around the table. From the blank expressions, no one knew how to reply to that.
“Well,” said Alekos, “hopefully, Lia can help with some of the German items and maybe the Egyptian stuff.”
Sebastian and Pellos both made the same approving vocalization. They thought this was a good solution.
“I can try,” said Lia. “I don’t know any Egyptian, so maybe not.” She didn’t want them to get their hopes up.
“I’ll find you some YouTube videos,” said Trevor. “I bet we could have you speaking it in no time.”
“Well, maybe,” said Lia. “But that wouldn’t help me read it.” They all stared at her. “Speaking and reading are two different skills.” There was more staring, and she shredded a bit of her biscuit nervously. “But I do read German. You said you needed German…” She was letting them down already, and she hadn’t even started.
“We do need German,” said Sebastian. “The logbook is almost dried out.”
“What about Latin?” asked Colin. “Those clay tablet bits we brought over had Latin on them.”
“Oh, yes, that’s easy,” said Lia. “But we don’t want to read those. Those are bad.”
“Well, Luca wanted to read them,” said Trevor.
“Luca is an experienced magic user,” said Alex, the tiniest bit of a reprimand in his voice. “I’m sure he wouldn’t be foolish enough to read them out loud or to activate the spells. And in case everyone is forgetting, we would not have found theStrumwolkedesignation code without him, and Hudson would not have been able to locate the files in the Arolsen Archives.”
“He has been helpful,” said Pellos calmly. “He just gets a little mono-focused on his own interests sometimes.”
Alex grimaced in a clear admission that Pellos was right.
“Well, I’m here to do a job,” said Lia, with a smile that she hoped would smooth things over. “Client interests always come first.” Sebastian and Pellos both smiled at her, but Alex made a grumpy grunt.
“Buongiorno,”said a pleasant baritone voice, and Lia jumped in her seat.
She looked over her shoulder to the dining room doorway and saw a tall, thin man with sandy brown hair. His most narrow face was distinguished by a wide mouth and deep-set eyes. He was unusual looking, seeming slightly disjointed or asymmetrical, but there was an odd quality of attractiveness to him.
“Eliandra,” said Alex, “this is Luca.”
“Buongiorno,”said Lia, smiling politely.
“Our little translator,” he said, cocking his head and smiling.“Affascinante.”
“Not that fascinating,” said Lia, feeling awkward.
“But you spoke to a mummy. How is this not of interest?”
“I don’t think she was ever mummified,” said Lia. “I think she just got stuck in that sarcophagus without her body. Or at least, without her talisman, so she couldn’t have a body.”
“Perhaps so,” said Luca, nodding. “And perhaps if she returns, that is something we can use.” He went to the buffet table andbegan to load his plate.
“Or perhaps we could try talking to her,” suggested Lia.
Luca looked amused. The expression was irritatingly condescending.
“Seemed to work OK when Lia did it,” said Trevor, eyeing Luca. “She only got really peevey when she couldn’t get that gew-gaw of hers.”
Lia smiled at Trevor.
“Dunno about that,” said Colin. “I don’t want to end up as a body suit. Might be better to shoot first and ask questions later.”
Sebastian made a noise that said he found that philosophy appealing.
“I think it is probably best to have multiple contingency plans,” said Alex. “We don’t know what she wants.”
