Draiks and Angels: Rescued

19 - God's Marble

Cona removed her hand from Michael's and rifled through her satchel, bringing out the instruction sheet. She had the next line memorized, but she felt she needed to do something with her hands. Michael felt a little bit of loss for not having her touch anymore.

"Fifth lies in the Gods' Marble, last seen between the First and the Fourth," Cona read.

"As I was saying before we were so rudely interrupted, it seems obvious to me that it will be south-east of the ruin, somewhere along the line between this last one and the temple."

"If we had brought the map that would make this easier, but I was not going to bring that whole atlas or, heaven's forbid, tear it out."

Michael thought about it for a moment, "I guess we'll have to go back to look at it then. Better to take that time then waste more wandering around and risk getting caught."

They had two pursuers now. Cona nodded.

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Cona pulled the map of the county back out and laid the atlas on the table. She found the location of the temple while Michael did his best to figure out where the cave was. Cona ran her finger along the line connecting the two. It started in the city by the temple, crossed the Volatum river, ran through some suburbs, then entered the mountains.

"Maybe we should start at the center point between the two?" Cona suggested.

She gauged about where that would be and placed her finger just east of the river, in the suburbs. She looked for some nearby major street names to tell where to go. If they had to fly low enough to read street signs, that would be bad, but it couldn't hurt to know as much as possible.

"I'd say we head northeast after that. Less of a chance to be seen, and if we still don't find it, we can head into the city," Michael added.

"Agreed."

Cona closed the book and put it back on the shelf. She led the way back through the kitchen and out the back door. It was full dark outside, now, though there was a small light above the door that made the immediate area visible. Cona locked the door with her fingerprint, and they walked a few yards away in preparation to take off. There was a noise of feathers in the air, and something crashed into each of them, flattening them to the ground.

Cona felt hands on her shoulders pushing her down as she tried to lift herself out of the dirt. She spread her wings violently, smacked the person standing over her between the legs and heard them exclaim in pain. New hands grabbed her wings and forced them closed. She felt something being shoved on her wings and when she tried to open them again, a band of some sort held them closed. They released her shoulders, and she was able to push herself up enough to see Michael under assault by several Angels. A couple Angels quickly grabbed her wrists and twisted them behind her wings, slamming her back onto her chest.

Michael hit the ground and immediately someone grabbed each of his arms, pulling them away from his body. He saw bare feet and felt someone remove his sword from its scabbard on his back. Still more hands pressed his wings closed and fit bands over the tops so they wouldn't open.

"Toche fiir!" he yelled into the dirt.

He heard a yelp and a thump as whoever was holding his sword dropped it, unable to touch it now that he had made it feel like it was burning. He wasn't going to let them use it against him this time. He looked to where Cona had been standing and saw she was pinned to the ground by two male Angels. He yanked one arm out of the grasp of the Angel holding it and used it to push to his feet.

He was surrounded by six Angels, including the one holding his other arm. Michael pulled his arm out of this Angel's grip just as three of the others jumped on him. One grabbed the arm he had first freed, one grabbed the other arm as it swung away from its original captor, the last threw his arm around Michael's neck and slapped a large strip of tape over his mouth, holding it there with his hand. Two more Angels leapt forward and held Michael's arms as well.