Chapter 319
The bidding for the scroll continued. As the price moved higher and higher, Katelina leaned close to Jorick. "I thought we were going to buy it?"
Jorick arched an eyebrow. "For once, Torina is right. Let Sorino buy it." Katelina and Oren gaped and Jorick added, "We'll have to rely on him to read it, anyway, unless one of you knows Sanskrit?"
Oren growled low. "I don't trust him."
"Neither do I, but we have no choice. Now be silent before he thinks we're bidding."
Oren and Katelina gave Jorick identical scowls, and then looked away from each other.
"Do I hear twenty-five?" Thadimus asked cheerfully.
Traven raised his hand and Sorino said coolly, "Thirty thousand."
"Thirty-five," Lurid offered.
Iris shook her head and stepped back. "This has gotten too rich for my blood."
"Forty!" Jill cried and waved her arm excitedly.
Sorino yawned. "Fifty."
"Fifty-five!" shouted Jill
"Sixty," came from Lurid.
Traven drummed his fingers on the table. "One hundred thousand pounds, and it's my final offer."
The other treasure hunters fell silent. Jill turned first to Iris and then to Lurid, motioning them to join her in a bid, but they shook their heads."
Thadimus looked from one vampire to the other. "One hundred thousand pounds. Do I hear one thousand one hundred?"
Sorino rubbed his chin and then shook his head. "No. He can have it."
"What?" Katelina cried.
"Are there any other bids? No? Then it's sold to Traven for one hundred thousand pounds!" Thadimus slapped the table excitedly. "Goods to be delivered when payment is received. In cash."
Traven straightened his vest and cast a superior look over his colleagues. "Yes, of course. Though I will have to get the necessary funds."
Hope glimmered in Katelina for a moment. Maybe Sorino would get the scroll after all-
"Of course, of course. Unwise to carry so much on one's person." Thadimus gave him a toothy smile. "Perhaps a little something to be going on with?"
Traven pulled a glorified coin purse from his pocket and counted out several bills. "Is twenty thousand enough?"
"Oh yes, yes." Thadimus thumbed through the cash so fast that it was a blur, then stuffed it in his pocket. "And until you're able to produce the other eighty thousand, best to keep this in a safe place." He moved to a large old-fashioned safe.
Katelina tugged on Jorick's arm. If they were going to take the scroll they needed to do it before it was locked up!
The three women sighed in defeat and Jill pulled a pair of sunglasses from her pocket. "Now that that's finished, I'm famished."
"Refreshments are available," Thadimus said as he negotiated the series of complicated locks. "For the usual prices."
Jill laughed and led the women out the door. Lurid followed, though he paused on the threshold and cast a calculating glance back at Sorino before disappearing.
"There." Thadimus declared as he thrust the scroll inside and set the locks again. Then, he turned to Sorino. "A pity you couldn't afford it."
"Yes," Sorino drawled. "A pity. More's the pity that Traven won't be able to read it. I'd be happy to offer him my translation services for, oh, fifty thousand?"
A frown creased Traven's lips. "What?"
"Unless he knows someone else well versed in long dead languages, that is." Sorino stood and tugged at Kai's chain. "Never mind. Good luck, Traven." And, with a wave he led his human out the door.
Traven rounded on Thadimus. "I assumed a translation came with it. Sorino can have it, give me back my deposit."
Thadimus took a step back and the twinkle in his eyes went dark. "I must apologize, my friend, but all transactions are final."
Traven's fa?ade of friendliness also evaporated. "But I don't want it, after all. I demand you return the deposit!"
"Not only will I not return your deposit, but I must insist you pay me the remaining eighty thousand pounds within a week."
Sorino leaned back in the door, his expression bored. "Since you seem to have so much trouble, Thadimus, perhaps I can help. I hate to see an artifact such as that go unsold, so I'm willing to pay you fifty thousand. With the current deposit, that means I owe you thirty." He waved a stack of bills. "Or, you can try to collect the rest from him. It matters not to me."
"How does that help me? He's already taken my twenty-thousand," Traven snapped.
The smile that spread over Sorino's face reminded Katelina of the Cheshire cat. "Since you have so kindly donated twenty thousand towards the purchase price, I will give you the translation you so desperately seek. As you said yourself, the original is useless to you anyway, and twenty-thousand is less than half of my original fee."
Traven's mouth snapped shut and his eyes glittered before he said smoothly, "Fine."
Thadimus looked from one to the other, his expression dark. "And what of the other fifty thousand?"
"It isn't worth that much," Sorino replied. "But if you'd rather hang on to it and hope a rich fool will come along, then good luck." He started to stuff the money back in his pocket when Thadimus motioned him to stop.
"It's a deal, Sorino, but only because we are so close."
Sorino held the money out. "In that case, I would like my merchandise."
Thadimus snatched the money from his hand, counted it in a blur, and quickly retrieved the scroll. Sorino glanced to Jorick with a half-smile as he took the tarnished cylinder. "Thank you, Thadimus. It's been a pleasure doing business with you."
Traven stepped towards him menacingly. "Don't forget the translation I've already paid for."
"Have no fear, you will get your translation." Sorino tucked the scroll inside his coat, gave a mock bow, and slipped out the door again.
Verchiel had been so silent during the auction that Katelina had forgotten about him, but he stepped next to her and said suddenly, "Well wasn't that fun?"
She jumped away in surprise. "No! Not really."
Oren cast a final suspicious look at Traven and then motioned towards the door. With a nod, Jorick took Katelina's hand. "Come, little one. Business is concluded."
***
"You knew what he had planned all along, didn't you?" Katelina asked as she munched on a pear in the reclining room.
"Perhaps." Jorick gave her a wink and settled back on the sofa, a glass of spiced blood in his hand.
"And when he's finished translating it, who's to say he'll tell us what it says?"
"Because we have the Heart," Jorick answered.
Katelina wasn't so sure. "Actually, Maeko has it, and I haven't seen her all night." Katelina had a sudden panicked vision of the child-like vampiress' mangled body sprawled on the floor and Sorino clutching the withered heart.
"If you're worried, go check on her." Jorick took a sip of the crimson liquid. "I'm sure she's fine."
Katelina wasn't convinced, so she set off towards the girl's room. No light leaked from under the door, and no one answered her knock. As she counted the seconds, her imagined image seemed more and more plausible. Finally, in a near panic, she threw open the door.
"Oh! Kate-chan!"
Katelina slammed the door as fast as she could, but it was too late. The image of Maeko, Hikaru and Takeshi tangled together in the bed, pale skin gleaming white in the light thrown by the open door, was burned into her retinas, and she didn't think that anything would ever remove it.
Her mind reeled as she stumbled back towards the reclining room. The scent of incense choked her, and she detoured to the courtyard for relatively fresh air. The moon glittered like a sliver of crystal in the sky above her, though the stars were blotted out by the compound's lights, just as she wished her brain could be blotted out.
