Page 37 of Only a Breath Away

Lady Mairead sneered and raised her chin. “Nae, this is the crest of Lady Mairead.”

“Oh, well how about that? Right under my nose all along.” He asked, “Have you ever seen one of these?” He placed the vessel on his desk and poked it. “I can not figure out what it—”

The chest sprung open on Fraoch’s lap.

I said, “How the hell did that happen?”

“I daena ken.”

Joe looked shocked, “I’ve seen Finch open it before, he said he was the only person who could. I’ve never been able to get it open. How did you do that?”

“I just touched it.”

Inside the chest was a... machine or tech or an apparatus, it was hard to know what to call it, the whole thing actually looked like it was something... unexplainable. There was a place, smooth and oval, black obsidian, as if it was a river rock. There were grooves and markings around it. The markings reminded me of the markings on the vessel. It was difficult to not see that the vessel on the desk and the Bridge on Fraoch’s lap had the same origin.

Fraoch put the Bridge down on a table and poked at the interior.

Joe said, “Do you have any idea what it might be?”

I glanced around at all of our faces, you could see that we did know what it was, but we all said ‘no’ anyway.

Joe continued to peer down into the chest, “I suppose this is not what you’re looking for, it’s an apparatus of some kind. I might need to take it down to the school to have it looked—”

Fraoch closed the lid and it audibly locked.

Lady Mairead, keeping her voice steady, said, “I would be verra interested in studying this chest. I do believe it might have some interest as a collector, as it came from Donnan’s collection and…”

I said, “Yes, how can we… can we…? How can we talk to Finch about borrowing it to figure out what it is?”

Joe looked from one of us to the other.

I added, “We just want to look at it, to study it, then we could bring it back, or… we could pay you for it.”

He checked his watch. “What about you all wait here, let me call Finch and talk to him about it first.”

He stepped from the room.

CHAPTER 33 - HAYLEY

Isaid, “Oh my god, we found it, we found the Bridge, right?”

Lady Mairead said, “Aye, tis the Bridge.”

“I hope it does what we need it to do.”

Fraoch stared down on the chest. “I hope we can figure it out, it daena look like it has instructions.”

Lady Mairead said, “There is nae way Joe Munro will allow us tae walk away with it.”

I said, “Well, that would suck.”

“Aye, ye ought tae be memorizing the layout of the room.”

I said, “Oh shit, seriously?”

Fraoch said, “I am already on it.”

Joe was gone for about fifteen minutes. Then he returned and said, “Finch sends his regards, and his apologies, but thinks you would be better off waiting until he gets back,thenhe could meet you. He’s very mistrustful, comes with being famous.”

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