Page 30 of The Satyr's Guilt
“Things change.”
“What about this Cerberus?” asked Echo.
“Cadmon’s assigned my stronghold to hunt forthe ass … er … individual,” said Rein.
“Any progress on finding him?” asked thechief historian. “Do we know if he has any Blood Covendescendants?”
“Nope to both.”
“Too bad. I might as well bring you up todate on my department’s role in the search for descendants.” Echo,a pride demon, rose, adjusting the folds of her robe. “We areplodding through genealogies of Aeternals. As part of the coverstory, of course. Thanks to the records already archived at thisministry and the ones coming in from families who responded to ourcall for help, we are progressing. Slow work, though. SomeAeternals have painstakingly over the centuries kept records ofhumans in their bloodlines. I laud their endeavors. WheneverEarthers in their family trees have witch or warlock ancestry, Igive their names to the healers responsible for getting their bloodsamples to test. To the best of my knowledge, none has proved to bea Blood Coven descendant.”
Giving her brother a thumbs-up, Indigobreezed back into the room. “Just in time for the juicy stuff, Isee.” She took her seat, punching Rein on the shoulder.
Echo’s lips formed a tight, disapprovingsmile as she continued. “Sad to report, those few families who arerelated to the original coven of thirteen maintained sparsegenealogy records. Not one human noted in their trees. Which bringsme to another discovery.” She looked at Alarik for permission toreveal this information.
He nodded.
“Bring it on.” Indigo blew a large bubble.When it burst, it left gum on her lower lip. She took the wad outof her mouth and dabbed it to get the dregs. “I hate it when thathappens. Don’t you?”
Wrinkling her forehead, Echo shifted hergaze from Indigo to scan the room as if she prepared to drop a bigbomb. “Allias … you might all know him … is my most relentlessresearcher. He found the obscure reference toCustodesTemplii, a secret society in the late 1800s and early 1900s.Then they disappeared. Here’s the thing. They may have existed muchearlier, and they may have kept genealogy records on Blood Covendescendants. Braelyn, I understand you’ve pursued this avenue.”
Rein’s mate flipped through the pages in hernotebook. “I’ve confirmed the existence of the group, and it mightstill be active. The info came from a possible Blood Covendescendant I’ve mentioned before. Miller is currently on the run.Rein and I met up with him in a restaurant, but he gave my mate theslip.”
She returned Rein’s glare with a smile. “Ofcourse, the guy was very slippery, being ex British Special Forcesand all. My father’s tabloid,Strange But True, is stilloffering a reward to anyone who can prove witch or warlockancestry. No believable takers since Miller Nash, but thanks toAlliance agents we continue to monitor the phones. I wish the papercould do more.”
“Indigo? Anything from the river?” Alarikasked.
Of all Aeternals, his sister was the onlyone who could read the River Am. The trips to its banks showed onher face, though. Creases jutted from the corners of her puffy,weary eyes. She wasn’t getting enough rest. He hated forcing her toreturn to the river time and again, but the knowledge gleaned therewas vital to Aeternals. Alarik hoped it was not too much toask.
“Miller Nash is the key to the lock. Themissing piece of the puzzle. The ring which decodes the secretmessage. The combination to the vault. The…”
“That’s good, Indigo, dear. We get theidea,” Alarik interrupted when she got too excitable.
“To summarize, he’smuyimportant,playing a role in many potential futures.” Her hand came up to tugon the dark curls hanging about her face.
Alarik clasped onto her fingers before sheyanked out strands of hair. “Thank you. Your task is troubling butvital.”
“Wait, bro. There are more beans in theenchilada.”
“What, dear?”
“The River Am is changing.”
Attention flipped toward Indigo. Despite herodd ways, her power was without equal among witches andwarlocks.
“It is always changing, but I suppose yourefer to something more propitious.” The warlock Eliphias wasAlarik’s chief scientist. “Is it altering course? Is it deeper? Isit wider? Be specific. I’m a scientist, not a poet.”
“Oh. Pish-posh. That’s the word of the day.It means I’ve got it handled.” She returned to twirling a strand ofhair around her finger while she gazed out the window. “One morething, Rein, tell Margo to increase the beds in the barracks duringthe rehab. She should have two spaces, each with fifty beds.Th-th-th-that’s all, folks.”
Rein’s brows tightened as he stared at hisaunt. “What rehab? We’re not remodeling the stronghold.”
His aunt grinned. “You will be.”
Alarik continued around the table, knowingwhen to give up. “What about you, Eliphias?”
The warlock chief science advisor rose,facing the entire group. “My people perfected the BCA Variant Test.Simply put, once the healers bring in a blood sample from acandidate, the test detects if the human has a Blood Covenancestor. The hang-up continues to be the initial search of Earthmedical records for those with ancient mage DNA. The process isslow and hit-or-miss. My department still has not found a fasterway to identify these humans. We’re stymied. We haven’t been ableto create a spell which draws them to us. We have searched for aplant or talisman only descendants might react to. No luck. I hopethisCustodes Templiigroup works out. Before you ask,Indigo, we tried Karmas Root as you suggested. When one of myresearchers broke out in hives, we dropped the investigation.”
“I bet he got a nice high, though. Or soI’ve heard.” Indigo’s lips curled into a smile as her head bobbed afew times.
