‘And you will have thoroughly researched Ker-Gwagenn and all the implications by then, I presume?’
She grinned at him, forcing all the bravado she didn’t feel into the expression. ‘It’s like you know me already, Rafael.’
He smiled back, and a softness entered his dark eyes.
‘What is it? What’s wrong?’ she asked.
‘Nothing. Just…I’ve finally graduated from being a cartoon character.’
CHAPTERSEVENTEEN
When Ari got back to the gîte, she was surprised to find it deserted again. There was none of the usual gang who wandered in and out at a whim. Even the tents in the garden flapped wanly in the breeze with no sign of life. Perhaps the loss of Thierry had been too much for them.
The door was unlocked. They had all rushed out so early this morning that they must have forgotten to lock up after themselves.
It was dark and cold, without a single light on inside.
Something didn’t feel right.
It was even eerier in the house itself. She was used to there being someone in every room, music playing or the TV on, and at least one argument breaking out at any given moment. But there was nothing.
A cool breeze brushed over the back of her neck, setting the hairs there standing up. Someone had been in here.
She knew it as surely as she knew her own name.
A floorboard creaked overhead.
Was someone still here?
A thousand fears rushed through her, for herself, for their belongings, and then she realised the most precious thing of all.
Running to the store cupboard, she found the lock broken, a mangled mess of metal. It hung there, like a one-armed man clinging to a clifftop.
Ari jerked the door open and searched desperately.
It couldn’t be gone. Who knew it was even here? The mask was the one thing they still had that proved they weren’t all deranged or deluded. The archaeologists might not have believed it was real, but she knew what she had seen, the condition in which she had found it. Jason was determined to get it dated somehow and Rafael would surely pay for that. If it proved to be as old as they thought…
It was still there. She found herself gasping in relief. The mask lurked in its watery enclosure, the liquid milky and opaque around it, worse than the last time she had seen it, hiding it from easy observation. Almost as if something was bleeding from the mask into the water, polluting it. All the same, she caught a glimpse of the artefact itself, gleaming in the light coming from the open door. It looked even brighter, the gold even more pronounced, glittering through the murk. She pulled the box out and brought it over to the kitchen table to get a better look.
The lid stuck as she opened it, as if it didn’t want to let her in, and she had to tug it free. Water slopped over her hands, but she didn’t care. She cursed under her breath as she dropped the lid beside it and peered inside.
The mask didn’t look old now. Not at all. It shone like something freshly made, a work of art. It was subtly altered and she couldn’t quite work out what it was. The mask looked even more lifelike somehow, delicate curves and hollows in the surface that she was certain were not there before. It had been smooth and sleek. But this was something else. Like a human face, weirdly familiar…
The gold lines swirling on the porcelain were thicker and brighter, and there were more pronounced blue lines as well, a bright lapis lazuli. Ari ran her fingers over the surface, and could feel the changes. It felt warm to the touch, almost like skin.
And the face…she knew that face…
‘Put it on.’
The voice came from the air around her, drifting through the unnatural stillness of the house. She shook her head, trying to focus, but the world shifted sideways into a misty, watery world. Light rippled around her, blue-green, undulating. Her breath caught in her throat and she couldn’t breathe, couldn’t swallow, couldn’t stop herself.
‘Put it on, Ariadne. It will show you everything. It will show you the truth, even the truths you hide from yourself. It will answer all your questions. And you have so many questions…’
Her hands shook and the mask trembled in them. Tears stung the corners of her eyes. It wasn’t possible. She was hearing things, imagining things. But it felt so real.
Shadows rushed in towards her, long and sinuous, like the eel which had wound its way around the rocks when she had found this thing. This cursed thing.
‘Ari, don’t.’
