CHAPTER THIRY-SIX

MEANING OF THE SEVEN

“GET HIM!” MARCO raced across the quad, his feet barely touching the ground. He leaped, extending his arm upward.

His fingers just grazed the bottom of Cass’s shoe.

As Marco fell empty-handed, Cass’s pleas for help echoed dully.

I raced to Marco’s side with Aly.

The beast gained altitude with each mighty flap of its wings. Cass’s legs hung like a puppet’s. We stared in horror as they receded into the distance, slowly becoming a silhouette.

A sharp crrack rang out. Torquin was on one knee, sighting with his rifle.

“Don’t shoot!” Bhegad pleaded hoarsely. “You could hit the child!”

Bhegad.

In the horror of Cass’s capture, I’d neglected him. He’d been crushed by the creature. I knelt by him, cupping his head with my right hand. “Are you all right?”

Bhegad struggled to sit up. Mustering all his strength, he called out: “My tracking device is gone, Torquin. Have someone run a trace on the boy!”

Torquin barked an order to one of his goons. Behind him I could see Aly and Marco, still frozen, eyes to the sky. Aly was sobbing.

Bhegad’s eyes flickered shut. I helped him lie down, scanning his body for wounds. I saw no bleeding, but his leg was twisted like a rag doll’s and his face was gray.

“I get doctor,” Torquin said.

“Yes…thank you…” Bhegad said through his teeth. “And summon all three of the Select—now!”

As Torquin ran off, Bhegad looked up at me with bloodshot eyes. “We—we thought…they had all been killed,” he said.

“All what, Professor?” I asked.

“The griffins,” he replied. “The guardians of the Loculi. Massarym…slaughtered them. But in a rift…in time…there’s no telling how far back…”

His head was sagging.

I didn’t know what to say or do. I was stiff with shock, weighted down with guilt. This monster was here because of me. Because of my curiosity, Cass was gone.

“I’m so sorry…” I said.

“Get him…” Bhegad moaned.

“How?” I begged.

I looked up to see Torquin running our way with a tracking device. Aly and Marco were close behind him. “Professor,” he said.

He knelt, holding the device in front of Bhegad’s face. Behind him, a medical team began laying a stretcher near Bhegad. Aly and Marco knelt silently beside me.

“Of course…” Bhegad said, squinting at the screen. “It is on a quest to find a Loculus. The object it was born and bred to protect.”

“Then why does it have Cass?” I asked.

“For food,” Bhegad replied.

Aly gasped. Marco held her close.

“But…the griffin cannot…digest human flesh raw…” Bhegad continued. “Hid its prey in caves…cocooned it…macerated it with saliva…. You must go after it…”

“Prepare jet?” Torquin said.

“Yes,” Bhegad said. “And Torquin…you will take the Select with you.”

“No room!” Torquin snapped. “Trapped us. In cave!”

“Of course there’s room,” Bhegad replied. “Do not…let your anger get the better of you…”

As the medical team began to lift Bhegad, he begged them to stop. Turning to us with half-lidded eyes, he said, “The Heptakiklos carvings…done by Karai…each tells where a Loculus was hidden. I know…where the griffin is going…”

“The griffin is headed to the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World?” I said in utter disbelief.

“Yes—yes, my boy!” Bhegad was breathing sporadically, trying to focus. “Built by finest minds of the time…funded with lots of money. Secret passages…storage…hiding places…state of the art. Perfect for the Loculi. We should have suspected…”

“But they don’t exist anymore, Professor Bhegad!” Aly insisted. “Haven’t the Wonders all been destroyed—except for the pyramids?”

“Follow the griffin…” Bhegad said. “Cass’s tracker…headed toward the Mediterranean…”

His voice was fading. The medics were lifting the stretcher, starting for the Karai Institute hospital. I ran along with them. He seemed desperate to tell me something. “Promise…bring back…”

“We will!” I shouted. “We’ll find Cass and return him!”

“Bring…back…” Bhegad repeated.

His eyes finally fluttered shut. But not before uttering two last words.

“…the Loculus.”