By the time they returned upstairs, Leyla had asked for every message received since the previous evening.
Among them was a fax from Chicago.
Jonathan recognised the drawing before she had finished reading the covering note. He placed it beside the image sent from Cambridge, then looked towards the metallic case Daniel had carried from South Africa.
The same central stone. The same five smaller ones.
Four shaded.
Lindiwe drew her chair closer while Daniel read the account of Michael Kane and Salvador Alvarez seeing the object together. Neither had been able to describe the four people they felt near it, only the certainty that they would be safe with them.
She rested her hand beside the case.
“The boy.”
Leyla read the account again, then reached for the telephone.
The Watchers were better at arranging journeys than explaining why they were necessary.
By lunchtime, a private aircraft had been made available for the Istanbul group. A second was being arranged in the United States. Leyla dealt with both through conversations so brief that Daniel suspected most of the work depended on people who had been expecting, for years, to receive such a call.
Hertfordshire offered space, privacy and a household accustomed to unusual arrivals. They would meet there, compare what they knew and decide how to proceed towards Chile.
Isobel’s report remained beside Jonathan’s copied map. Leyla asked Professor Valdés to keep her informed of the independent checks. The metallic bar was wrapped and placed in a padded box, which Jonathan inspected with more concern than he had shown for his own luggage.
Mara kept her amulet with her.
She had put it down twice since leaving the chamber and recovered it within minutes, each time finding a practical reason to do so. Daniel accepted both explanations. He had begun to miss an object he had never held.
In Chicago, the reply from Istanbul settled very little until Elena had spoken to Leyla herself.
She wanted an address, the names of the people waiting there and an explanation of what they expected from her son. Kane wanted the same answers, although he approached them from several less comfortable directions.
Leyla remained on the telephone.
Afterwards, Elena sat with the written details in front of her while Sal leaned against Kane’s uninjured side. The boy had become calmer since the reply arrived, but he still reached for Kane’s hand from time to time.
“Can we go?” he asked.
Kane looked towards Elena.
“If your mother agrees.”
She studied them both. Whatever Sal had felt in the church had drawn him towards people she had never met. Yet she had seen what happened when he and Kane were together, and the thought of separating them now troubled her almost as much as the journey.
There were still practical matters to settle.
The Watchers’ connections brought the right people to the telephone, but Elena’s lawyer remained involved, and documents still had to be obtained through Mexican consular contacts. Lucía stayed beside her through the appointments. Gabriel carried folders, made calls and learned to provide coffee before mentioning another signature.
Kane told Mercer he was extending his leave and going to England.
Mercer stared at him.
“Your sister move?”
“No.”
“Of course she didn’t.”
Kane left a number where he could be reached, then called his sister. She listened, asked whether he was taking care of the wound and made him write down her children’s school holidays before allowing the conversation to end.
Elena spent their final evening at her sister’s home. Her older child would stay there during the visit, with money left for anything needed and times agreed for regular calls. She checked the arrangements twice, then once more from the car.
Sal brought his pencils.
Kane brought the drawing.
The Istanbul group left first.
At the courtyard gate, Leyla embraced Lindiwe and held Mara’s hands for a moment. She asked Jonathan to send her anything he discovered about the map, preferably before declaring it to the rest of the world.
Then she called Vale Adem.
This time, no one looked surprised.
Their exchange was in Turkish. Daniel understood none of it, but Vale listened without interrupting and answered more gently than he usually answered them.
The aircraft waiting for them was smaller than Daniel had imagined and considerably more comfortable than any flight he had taken before. Jonathan settled into a leather seat, accepted a drink and attempted to behave as though this was a familiar inconvenience.
Mara watched him over the rim of her glass.
“You can smile.”
“I’m trying not to encourage them.”
Once they were airborne, conversation gradually faded. Lindiwe slept. Vale read the messages Leyla had given him, and Daniel sat beside Mara while clouds passed beneath the window.
Her amulet rested in her lap, its centre and three smaller stones glowing softly beneath her hand.
Across the cabin, the unclaimed pair waited in their cases.
The British house stood beyond a long drive bordered by mature trees.
It was an old stately manor, broad and pale beneath the afternoon sky, with tall windows, weathered stone steps and wings extending on either side of the main entrance. The grounds had been kept with care, although one section of the roof was hidden by scaffolding.
Daniel stopped beside the car.
Mara followed his gaze.
“What?”
He looked at the building again, trying to place a familiarity that belonged to nothing he could remember.
“Nothing. It just feels as though we’ve been expected for a long time.”
Inside, rooms had been prepared, fires lit and a late meal arranged. Someone took Jonathan’s suitcase; he retained the padded box.
The four amulets were brought into a sitting room overlooking the drive. Mara and Lindiwe kept theirs close. The other two cases rested on a low table beside the window.
For the moment, their centres remained dark.
Kane’s aircraft arrived the following day.
Sal slept through much of the crossing. Elena managed less, despite Lucía’s efforts and a seat that reclined farther than any she had encountered before. Kane woke whenever he shifted towards his wounded side, then found the boy watching him and assured him, repeatedly, that he was all right.
A car was waiting when they landed.
Gabriel spoke to the driver while Lucía helped Elena with the bags. Within minutes they were travelling north, leaving the airport behind.
Sal grew quieter as the roads narrowed.
He had been interested in the cars, the signs and the fact that everyone appeared to be driving on the wrong side. Now he sat with one hand against the window, watching hedges pass.
Kane felt the change too.
The pressure behind his eyes returned without pain. Beneath it was the same easing he had felt in the church, but stronger now, accompanied by a sense of people becoming distinct before he could see them.
Sal turned towards him.
Kane nodded.
“I know.”
Elena looked between them, then towards Lucía.
Lucía watched the road ahead.
At the manor, Lindiwe stopped halfway through a sentence.
Mara looked up from the papers spread across the sitting-room table.
Her amulet had brightened in her hand. A fourth smaller stone was shining beside the three already lit.
Across the room, Lindiwe drew hers from beneath her blouse, revealing the same change. Daniel rose.
He could feel someone approaching, although the drive beyond the window was empty. Two presences moved at the edge of his awareness, close to one another. One felt tentative; the other carried a concentration that seemed to sharpen everything around it.
Vale had already turned towards the door.
On the low table, a fifth small gem lit in each of the unclaimed amulets.
Jonathan leaned over the cases.
“Something’s happening.”
Lindiwe smiled.
“They’re nearly here.”
The car passed through the gates.
Kane recognised the manor before Gabriel could identify it.
The angle was different from the television report, and the reporter was absent, but the tall windows and scaffolding remained.
He looked at the building as they followed the curve of the drive.
Inside it, the four presences became clearer.
Sal sat forward. Elena placed a hand against his chest to keep him from leaning between the seats.
“Wait until we stop.”
He scarcely seemed to hear her.
The front door opened.
Daniel stepped outside with Mara beside him. Lindiwe followed, then Vale and Jonathan.
Mara’s amulet was partly concealed in her palm, but Kane saw light between her fingers. Lindiwe held hers openly, its centre surrounded now by five shining stones.
Sal pressed his hand against Kane’s.
The car stopped at the foot of the steps.
For a moment, Kane remained seated, looking at people he had never met and recognising the ease he had felt in their presence in the church.
Then he opened the door.
Sal waited while his mother climbed out, but only just.
He took two steps towards the house and stopped.
Lindiwe had come down to meet him. She crouched, bringing the amulet into view without offering it.
The boy looked at its light, then beyond her towards the open doorway.
His expression changed.
“Mine’s inside.”
Elena caught up with him.
“Sal.”
He took her hand, keeping his eyes on the house.
Daniel stood beside Mara, feeling the group settle around him. Her five smaller gems were lit now. He could see the relief in Kane’s face beneath his caution, and the way Sal no longer seemed uncertain where to go.
Jonathan glanced back through the doorway.
From where he stood, he could see the cases on the low table.
Both central stones were shining.
He looked towards Kane, then the boy.
“Vale.”
“I see them.”
Kane followed their gaze into the house.
Beside him, Sal began to smile.