Daughter of Death

II

Cade hadn't heard Hallez this excited since before her parents' death, and he had known her since he was nine. Her father had been a good friend to his dad, so, naturally, Cade had been a good friend to Hallez. At least, he'd liked to think so.

    Hallez used to have a more cheerful personality. Three years ago, the first time Cade saw her after her parents' death, Hallez looked like she'd seen a ghost. She hardly spoke to anyone at first, and when she did, there was no emotion. And while she had barely shown any emotion towards Cade before the incident, the new Hallez showed even less. Cade had seen her nearly every day after the incident for the past three years, and he didn't need to count how many times she'd cracked a genuine smile, or laughed, or any of those positive emotions, because the answer was zero.

    Even when he cracked a joke about the homeschool-homework that they were given, mailed from Cade's dad to their group's private place in an oasis, Hallez didn't show any emotion. That didn't mean she lost her sarcasm, however, which Cade supposed could be counted as a good thing.

    When he came back from the vans where the others were packing away the tools, he found Hallez with her gloves back on, kneeling, with her brush in hand, focusing on something on the ground in front of her, her sleeves rolled up to her biceps. Hallez had pushed her hair up into a ponytail.

    She looked up at the sound of Cade's footsteps, her face covered in sand and dirt.

    Cade gestured to whatever was in front of her—it looked like it was made of some kind of golden material. "So, judging by your tone of voice just then, and that thing, and your treasure-detector in front of you, I'm guessing you found it?"

    Hal's eyes gleamed with what was the closest thing to excitement since three years ago. "Yes, Sherlock. I mean—it has to be. Look." She touched the antenna of the device to the polished surface. It let out the sound that a heart monitor would make if the heart stopped beating.

    Cade ran a hand through his curly brown hair. He didn't want to ruin Hallez's mood, but he couldn't help but think of some of the other times she had been wrong before. "But, Hal, how can you be sure this is what your parents were looking for, and not another million-dollar artifact? The device has been wrong before. It could be another piece of Aztec pottery! The round surface and design does look similar to that pot we found in—"

    "Cade," Hallez warned sternly.

    Cade winced internally. Was that a warning? Did he push too far? What if—

    "One," Hal continued, "if you even mention that time in Central America, I will tell your dad about the Cookie Incident."

    Cade winced again. The Cookie Incident had been a disaster that nearly burned down their whole villa. The less said about that, the better. If his dad knew, it would be another disaster, and Cade would probably be grounded for eternity. Although he suspected Hal was just kidding and wouldn't actually go through with the threat, he couldn't be sure. She was unpredictable.

    "Two, the Aztec Empire didn't even make it to Southern California, much less the Mojave Desert. And three, shut up and help me get this thing out."

†††

The two of them were quite experienced at digging out artifacts despite their age, so with the two of them working together, it didn't take long at all for the thing to pop out.

    Hal held it up, surprise in her eyes. Another emotion Cade hadn't seen her express so openly in years.

    The artifact was...odd, to say the least. Cade knew not to trust his own eyes when studying something the color of gold, but he was fairly certain that it really was, well, gold. The artifact was a long oval shape, apart from the two symmetrical curved indentations on either side, forming what looked like a figure eight. One side, it was smooth and rounded around the edges, with carvings of swirls, diamonds, and various other shapes combined together, surrounding one big blue gem in the center in the shape of a parallelogram or a diamond. On the other side, two leather straps were near the middle. The whole thing was a meter long.