Still, the long night had taken its toll on him.
On all of us.
Sharyn crossed to stand over Naomi’s shoulder. “What did you find?”
Her roommate held Duncan’s phone over the book’s leather cover. She fixed its camera light on the crystal eye, setting it aglow, and studied it closer using the phone’s magnifying feature.
“You were right,” Naomi said. “The symbols aren’t engravedintothe surface but laywithinthe crystalline structure itself.”
Sharyn had already suspected as much. “What about it?”
Naomi, her eyes as bright as the crystal, glanced to Sharyn. “Come see.”
Sharyn leaned down, drawing Tag and Duncan closer. Naomi slightly rotated the orb, while attempting to hold the phone steady. The image on the screen jittered, then settled enough to make out one of the symbols.
Tag gasped.
Duncan swore.
Embedded shallowly into the crystal, a stylized gold centaur shone in astounding luminous detail. In its hands, it held aloft a stretched bow with a notched arrow.
Sharyn gaped at the sight. The image had to be no larger than a matchhead. Yet, the artistry—the exquisite detail—stole her breath. She remembered visiting a museum in New York that held an exhibit of carvings made from single grains of rice: birds, roses, busts of famous people, even a rearing stallion like shown here.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Naomi murmured.
Tag squinted at the crystal. “The skill and know-how to do this seems impossible for a book of this age.”
“And it’s not just thisonesymbol.” Naomi rotated the orb.
With each halting stop, she revealed more tiny golden figures: a ram with curled horns, a crab with menacing pincers, a charging bull with its head held low, a scorpion threatening with a raised poisonous tail.
They all knew what these shapes represented, but Duncan was the first to voice it.
“Zodiac signs.” He pointed to the centaur, which Naomi had returned to again. “That’s supposed to be Sagittarius. Look at those silver lines that cut across the gold. They link together brighter blebs... stars... forming the constellation for the symbol.”
“Tiny celestial maps,” Sharyn whispered. “The entire crystal orb is a chart of the heavens.”
“But what does it mean?” Tag asked.
No one had an answer, but one thing was clear.
“The crystal sphere,” Sharyn noted, “the rare artistry on display, it alone must be worth a small fortune.”
Tag stared at the book. “If something this amazing sitsatopthe book, imagine what might beinside.”
“Whatever it is,” Naomi noted, “someone locked it up tight for a reason.”
“But who and why?” Duncan asked.
Archie interrupted with a gruff snore, loud enough to stir himself fully awake. He lifted his face and gazed blearily around the room. “What’s going on?”
Duncan sighed, shook his head, and stood up. “Enough of this. At this point, we’re just faffing about. We’re all shattered and need sleep. In a few hours, it’ll be morning. We can figure out a plan then. Maybe we risk going to the police. Maybe we reach out to Archie’s dad, who has a lot of pull. Right now, we’re too tired to think straight.”
Sharyn tried to raise an objection but all that came out was a jaw-straining yawn. She recognized he was right. Adrenaline could only carry one so far.
Duncan pointed across the common area to a short hall. “Sharyn, you and Naomi take my room. Tag can bunk with Archie.”
“What about you?” she asked.
