Saba still hadn’t spoken. She opened her mouth, then closed it.
Tenzin looked away. She’d enjoyed surprising the unflappable queen of the vampires, but the sheer maternal longing in Saba’s expression was too intimate to view.
“How can you be sure?” Her voice was hoarse.
Tenzin glanced at Saba’s red-rimmed eyes and looked away again. “We matched the crown to a sketch that Lucien gave us. It was found in the secret collection at the British embassy in Addis.”
“We think it might have been part of the treasure looted at Magdala,” Ben said. “It had been kept with—”
“Show it to me.” Saba stood and her chin rose. “I will tell you whether it was Desta’s or not.”
They led her to the library, where Giovanni and Beatrice stood behind the large library table. Giovanni opened a velvet-lined box with Desta’s polished crown while Beatrice placed the devotional manuscript on a padded wedge and opened it.
Saba stared with a frozen expression, saying nothing. Tenzin could see the stories flashing behind the ancient woman’s eyes and tried to imagine what she was seeing in her mind.
Was she remembering the daughter she had chosen and nurtured for centuries honored with riches and glory? The gifted artist, her talent a cry of joy to the God she worshipped?
Or was she seeing the ashes and hearing the screams of a beloved child’s death?
“The manuscript in particular,” Giovanni said softly, “is a testament to Desta’s obvious talent as well as her training. While she painted this devotional in the style typical of iconic Ethiopian artists in the late Aksumite period, the depth of color is, I think, most telling. It lifts the manuscript beyond what were the normal standards of Orthodox iconic art into pieces that are truly profound.” Giovanni flipped the manuscript to a page where the Virgin Mary held the infant Jesus. “I believe she used your face for the inspiration to this piece.”
Saba nodded but still said nothing.
Ben reached for the manuscript and slid it toward Saba. “You must have been very proud of your daughter.”
Saba reached for the crown and held it between fingers that had clung to survival far longer than Tenzin could even imagine. She turned it in her hands, examining every part of it.
Saba turned and met Tenzin’s eye. “When they took her from me, I was inconsolable.”
“You ended an empire to avenge her death.”
“I wanted to do worse.” She closed her eyes. “I would have done worse. Love is a dangerous gift.”
“And yet you survived.” Tenzin nodded at the manuscript. “As did your daughter, in her own way.”
Saba looked at Ben. “The bone scroll is ash and dust to the gifts you have given me. I find myself in your debt again, Benjamin Vecchio.”
“There is no debt.” Ben smiled a little. “Maybe just… try to let me live my life from now on. No more chess games.”
Saba narrowed her eyes, then looked at Tenzin. “He doesn’t understand.”
“No, but that’s part of what makes people like him. It frustrates my father too.”
Ben looked between them. “What are you talking about?”
Tenzin continued, “I will consult with Zhang and send something official from Penglai.”
Saba nodded. “Very well. I’ll expect your messenger.” She opened the box where Desta’s crown had rested, placed the manuscript inside, and set the crown on top. Then she handed the box to Gedeyon, who was also looking at it tenderly.
“Desta’s legacy is going home,” Saba said. “I will give the crown to Hirut, who is of my daughter’s line. The manuscript I will keep for myself.”
Ben said, “We’re very happy to be able to bring them back to you.”
Saba spoke to Tenzin. “Where are the men who stole these things from our country?”
“Dead,” Tenzin said. “Long ago. We stole them from their ancestors.”
“Good.” Saba nodded. “That is good.” She looked at Beatrice and Giovanni. “I wish good fortune on your family, son of Kato.”
“I thank you,” Giovanni said. “Good fortune on your people, Saba.”
“A self-serving wish.” She looked around the room, and a smile touched her lips. “You are all my people. Every single one of you.” And without a backward glance, she walked out of the room and out of the house.
The front door shut and Saba was gone.
Epilogue
The flight back to New York was quiet. They’d left at the end of a long day, stopping in Addis to refuel before they headed to Dublin, where they would drop off Daniel and Chloe, who was meeting Gavin in the city. Then they’d stop in New York to leave Ben and Tenzin at home.
The scroll that had caused so many problems would be joining the archives in Italy for a while. After much deliberation, Ben had decided to let Giovanni and his librarians try to reconstruct the unknown language of the original text while Ben did his own work learning Ge’ez and coming to grips with what could be a centuries-long task of exploring Mithra’s work.
Since the mother of the vampire race had given the scroll to Ben, Giovanni didn’t think that he or the scroll would become a target for opportunists. That and the general incredulity about the artifact itself were the best protections they could hope for.
Giovanni and Beatrice had briefly entertained the idea of staying in New York for a couple of weeks, but Ben’s reaction must have persuaded them that over three weeks of family togetherness was quite enough.
Ben wanted Tenzin to himself. He was starting to understand her need to escape from the world. He didn’t want to see anyone. He wanted to wave at Arthur—who’d been good enough to feed their birds and water their houseplants—and then not see a living soul other than Tenzin for a month.
She lounged against him, a tiny powerhouse bursting with manic energy from being on a plane for so long.
He tugged her hair. “How do you travel to Tibet?”
“Not in a damn plane,” she muttered.
“No, tell me. It’s really far to fly over the ocean. Do you go north?”
“Yes, I travel to Alaska and then across that way. That way I avoid ocean storms too. I have found a quicker route over the Pacific, but it’s not as comfortable.”
“It sounds cold though.”
“It is.”
His eyes were drooping shut. “I think we’re headed into the sun.”
She nodded and brushed his hair off his forehead. “Let’s go to our room.”
“Sounds good.”
They entered one of the narrow bedrooms that had been added to the plane when it stopped being just Giovanni’s plane and became a family vehicle. Ben lowered the bed and folded it out from the wall. It was a tight squeeze, but then again, vampires weren’t exactly restless sleepers.
While Ben was getting the bed ready, Tenzin engaged the lock and used the small basin to wash her face. Then they both slipped into comfortable clothes to sleep.
Ben pulled Tenzin into his arms. The temperature in the plane was cool, and Ben knew she’d start complaining about the overly filtered dry air soon.
“Guess what?” he asked.