Ghost of a Chance

“Then how do they know this is a calendar?”

Iggy laid the book back on the table and pointed to the innermost ring.

“These are months,” he said. “Days, then years.” He moved his finger out to each of the other rings.

“But the linguist has no idea what these say,” Alex said, picking up one of the symbols Iggy had torn out of the rune book. It looked the head of snake with a string of pearls around its neck and too many teeth.

“Even if he could read Mayan, I doubt he’d understand these,” Iggy said. “It’s clear that these are runes, and from a school I’ve never heard of. That concerns me.”

“So you’re going through the Monograph to see if there’s any mention of other schools?”

Iggy nodded.

“All the known schools are mentioned,” he said. “All the writers seem to believe that Archimedes was the first runewright, and that the Kanji and Arabic schools are offshoots of that. But I’m starting to doubt it.”

“How could ancient Mayans have copied from Archimedes work?”

Iggy shrugged.

“It’s technically possible,” he admitted. “Archimedes died around two hundred B.C. and the Mayans existed until about the seventeen-hundreds.”

“Assuming someone knew how to get from Ancient Greece to South America,” Alex felt compelled to add.

Iggy didn’t respond, just shrugged and stared at the strange runes scattered around the table.

“That’s not what’s worrying you, though,” Alex guessed. “Is it?”

“No,” Iggy said, picking up the Monograph. “This book has been legendary for the better part of a century,” he said. “I always believed it was the pinnacle of runic lore. A collection of the most powerful and dangerous runes ever created.”

Alex nodded, seeing where Iggy was going, and he picked up the black book.

“But now there’s a new game in town,” he said. “And we have no idea what they can do.”

The thought was sobering. Alex realized that if he thought enough about it, it would probably be terrifying.

He resolved not to think about it.

“So far,” Iggy said, beginning to stack up the reference books, “the runes we’ve seen have been fairly straightforward. Tracking, force, fire, that sort of thing.”

“But how did they activate that rune that burned the dead man?” Alex asked.

“And burn that rune into Mrs. Cunningham,” Iggy agreed. “They’ve definitely got a few tricks over on us.” He indicated the black book. “I’d feel better if I knew what any of these glyphs did.”

“Glyphs?”

“That’s what Mayan writing is called.”

Alex set down the glyph book and picked up the Monograph. Just holding it in his hand, he could feel its power. Normally, the book was shielded by powerful obscurement runes, but they didn’t work when it was open.

“I take it there’s no rune in here for translating languages,” he said.

Iggy took the book and closed it, setting it back on the table.

“Actually there is,” he said, “but I wouldn’t try to use that on an unknown magic. What if it activated the rune? That’d be fine if it was a light rune, but what if it was something more deadly?”

“Point taken,” Alex said.

Magic was a great tool until it wasn’t. Iggy was always telling him that there weren’t any shortcuts when it came to being a detective. Still, Alex seemed to always be doing things the hard way. It would be nice if something came easy, every once in a while.

Alex helped Iggy clean up, putting the Archimedean Monograph back on the bookshelf in the front room. The shelf and even the space where the book sat were covered in invisible runes that drove the viewer’s eye to look anywhere but at the book. Alex knew it was there and still had problems looking right at it once it was back in its place.

“I’m hungry,” Iggy said once Alex was done.

“Don’t look at me,” Alex said. “Dinner is your department.” He hadn’t been paying attention, but now that Iggy brought it up, his stomach rumbled.

“I was busy learning about glyphs so we can hopefully find your missing draftsman,” Iggy said. “What did you do to help?”

A slow smile spread across Alex’s face but he didn’t answer.

“You figured it out?” Iggy guessed, sounding impressed. “You know why these glyph runewrights took Cunningham.”

“Not yet,” Alex said. “But I’ve got an idea. That reminds me, did Danny call for me?”

Iggy shook his head.

“It’s too late to cook,” he said, heading for the stairs. “I’ll get my coat and we’ll walk down to the diner for a bite. While we eat, you can tell me all about your solution to the kidnapping.”

Alex’s stomach grumbled again but he shook his head.

“I can’t,” he said. “I need to be here in case Danny calls.”

Iggy looked at the big grandfather clock standing in the corner of the front room. It was already pushing eight o’clock.

“By the time we get back, Danny is sure to be home,” he said. “You can call him then. Now let me get my coat and we’ll go.”

Iggy went up the stairs and down the hall to his bedroom to remove his smoking jacket and put on his suit coat. Alex waited impatiently. That feeling that he should be doing something more to find Leroy kept coming back.