Page 31 of Stone
“I find it,”Garenthtold her with confidence.
“But what if you can’t? What if it’s so far away, you can’t find it?” she persisted.
* * *
He couldn’t explain to her how he would be able to find the mother idol. Its presence was ingrained in every inch of hisbody, giving him a strong, clear beacon to follow. Yet, this woman had managed to block that beacon, leaving him confused and hesitant.
He sniffed the clothing she’d worn. Yes, he could find the mother idol, but before he could do so he had to remove himself as far away from this woman as possible. Give his head a chance to clear.
Garenthstared at the item of clothing in his hands. But therewas something else that didn’t make sense. Something that told him his goal might not be as easy as he anticipated. The mother idol’s scent was on her garment, but it was so minute, so faint, that it was almost impossible to detect until he pressed his nose directly into it.
Then why was he drawn to this female? It couldn’t be because of her contact with the mother idol, but something causedit. Something he couldn’t fathom.
Impulsively, he sniffed again. Her fragrance was there, and for the first time in millennia his body tightened. There was a spasm of pain…
He pressed a hand to his chest. The pain was centeredaroundhis heart.
His heart?
Closing his eyes, he focused on what he felt within himself. It could be his imagination, but he thought he could feel a faint vibrationbeneath his palm.
Could it be he still had a heart? If he had a heart then, yes, there was blood flowing through his veins. It was truth, not a belief. And if there was blood, he had a brain. And lungs.
He breathed deeply as realization crept back. His humanity remained with him, but it lay buried beneath this stone shell that used to be skin. His true self was still here underneaththis hideous mask that in no way looked like him.
He touched his face and felt the hard curve of elongated teeth jutting out of his jaw. Glancing back at the woman, he half-expected to see fear in her eyes, but there was none. There was compassion and curiosity, and a lot of confusion, but not fear. She didn’t fear him. She didn’t feel threatened by his appearance. How could he explainto her that once, long ago, he had been a man? That he had been as human as she was? But if it hadn’t been for him changing into this ghastly effigy, he wouldn’t have survived all these centuries.
Brielle was speaking again into the shiny stone that spoke a crude version of his language. Despite the difficulty he had listening and understanding it, nonetheless he was grateful for it. Otherwisecommunication between them would be impossible, and there were a thousand questions he wanted to ask her about this time and place...afterhe recovered the mother idol.
“Garenth, if you find the mother idol, what then? What will you do? Will you go back to Egypt?”
They were the same questions he’d had hovering in the back of his mind ever since he’d emerged from his paralysis. Right now hiswhole focus was on the hunt, but after he had the mother idol safely back in his possession, what would he do?
Minbarhad never conceived this would happen...or did she? Did she foresee my resurrection? Did she know I would awaken to a new and frightening world?
“Garenth?”
He didn’t realize he’d been gazing unseeing into the distance until Brielle reminded him he hadn’t answered her lastquestion. “I do not know what I will do. But I do know I cannot and will not return to that dark prison from where I awakened.”
The woman seemed to ponder as she listened to his response. A shaft of sunlight came through the clear wall, highlighting her from behind and illuminating her in its glow. And in that moment, he could almost seeHanashep’sface smiling at him—the same dark hair, thesame oval face, the same brown-gold eyes, and the same delicate arch of her eyebrows as she gave him a curious stare.
“Garenth, have you been asleep all this time? I mean, from the time you were imprisoned until now?”
“Yes.”
“But you only woke up when my uncle removed the mother idol from your temple, correct? You woke up because you had to get it back?”
“I must. But I was not in a temple.I was in a prison,” he repeated.
Her expression grew more puzzled. “Are there more of your kind in that prison?”
“There are no others of my kind. Or there are none that I know of.”
“So you’re the last of your kind? The last living gargoyle?” She’d moved closer to him, until her womanly scent wrapped around him like a gentle blanket.
“No, Brielle. I am not what you see. I am a man. I hadto take this form in order to survive. In order to be able to protect the mother idol.”
Her eyes widened. “You changed into a gargoyle?”
