Toby stretched and jumped out of bed, grabbing for his running sweats.  He needed to run and chase away all the cobwebs.  Determinedly, he didn’t think about the strange day they’d had the day before.  But memories kept popping up of odd moments when silences gave way to looks or laughter and he still hadn’t figured out all the undercurrents.

 Stepping quietly out of his bedroom, he headed down the stairs, reaching the bottom as the grandfather clock chimed out six a.m.  Grinning, he followed his nose to the source of the coffee smell.  Sam was standing at the window over the sink watching something in the backyard while sipping his coffee.

 Detouring only far enough to get his own cup, he joined his brother.  Ruth was dancing among a flock of birds that swooped around her in lazy circles.  Part of her dance resembled a martial arts kata he’d seen Mei Ling perform.  All her movements were slow and fluid as if she were performing them underwater.  The birds served as a counter point to her own positions acting more like a partner than a flock of disparate entities.

 Toby realized she was finished when she stood for a long moment, her hands outstretched as if in supplication to someone unseen.  He found he was holding his breath and waiting for . . . something, he wasn’t sure what.  That’s when he noticed the tree branches bending under the wind.  The birds scattered, pursued by an unseen force.  She stood straight while the wind picked up snow and dead leaves, whirling them around her until she could not be seen at all.

 Sam gave a little moan and made an abortive attempt to move to the back door, halting when the force began to slowly die away, leaving the debris scattered across the garden.  Ruth knelt on one knee with her head bowed to the invisible visitor.  The birds slowly returned, clustering around the still figure.  One brave cardinal flew onto her shoulder and she turned her head to answer his questioning chirp.

 His brother gave a shuddering sigh and gulped his coffee.  “She told me yesterday that she didn’t matter because she belongs to her goddess to be used as needed.  I’m afraid for her but then something like that happens and I don’t know whether I should just step back and let it happen or step in to try to help.”

 Toby watched Ruth stand and move towards the back door.  “Comes down to trust, big brother.  If the fate of the world is going to come down to one person, do you want it to be her?  I mean, she got us both killed before.”

 Sam looked at him.  “Better to have some casualties then to lose the world although those deaths weigh heavily on her.  Is it better to have someone who cares about the people she’s defending or a crusader who goes out to fight for the glory of winning?”

 “It’s the whole big picture thing, isn’t it?”  Toby sighed.  “If there is a Goddess who watches over us, She has to care for all of us.  And sometimes, some of us are going to have to be sacrificed for the greater good.”

 “Nonsense, Toby, I’m no martyr and neither are any of you.”  Ruth’s husky voice came from the back door.  “This time, there aren’t going to be any casualties.  I hope.”

 “We’re going to go for a run, Ruth.  You’ll be all right?”  Sam set his coffee cup in the sink after rinsing it.

 “I’ll be fine, Sam.  Go and sort yourself out.”  She smiled at them both and headed for the stove and the gently steaming teakettle.

 Toby nodded to her and left with Sam.  They stretched in the drive until they could move easily, then took off towards the country club golf course.  In the winter, the golf cart paths were popular with the runners in the neighborhood.  They exchanged waves with another pair of runners then settled in to an easy pace.  By the eighteenth hole, Toby figured that Sam had had enough time to sort out his thoughts.

 “So, Sam, what’s with Seth and you?”

 Sam stumbled, turning wide eyes to him.  “What do you mean?”

 “You do the whole quiet thing Sunday night then suddenly he’s helping us and you’re going out to dinner with him.  And you can’t quit touching him.”  Toby pointed out.

 “Oh.”  Sam was blushing and he’d slowed to a jog.

 “I mean if there is something going on, I’d be okay about it.”  Toby studied his brother out of the corner of his eye.  “Mei Ling mentioned something on Monday about the two of you so I’ve kind of been thinking about it.  He’s a nice guy although I can’t see the whole ‘studly’ thing.”

 Sam choked and stopped completely.  Toby ran in place while Sam got himself together.  He listened while the whole story poured out, then they were running again, side by side while Toby thought about what he’d heard.  Knowing that Sam had been attracted to Seth long before the dreams began was a comfort.  He still hadn’t quite come to terms with the dreams yet or how he felt about them.  He was confused but he didn’t want to hurt his big brother’s feelings.

 “I can’t say I totally understand, Sam but you’re my brother and I don’t want you to get hurt.  Does Mom know?”

 “I told her yesterday.  She agrees with Mei Ling about the ‘studly’ thing.”

 This time is was Toby who stopped dead in his tracks.  “No way!  Mom said that?”

 Sam held up his fingers in a boy-scout salute.  “Honest.  I thought my jaw was going to drop right to the floor.  I haven’t told Dad yet.  I kind of wanted to see what would happen.  There’s so much going on right now, it seemed better to just keep quiet about this . . . attraction.”

 “Okay.  I mean, I want you to be happy and if Seth is the guy who can do it then I’ll be fine.  Just take some getting used.”  Toby smiled at his brother and got a shy smile back.  Even though there was fifteen years between them, Toby was feeling rather protective of Sam.  He’d watched him date over the years and even he could see that none of them came close to making him happy.

 “On another note, are you and Mei Ling going to come into Boston with me?  I got a hold of David Wells and he’s going to cover the clinic for me but he can’t come until noon so I need to go in and open up for the first three hours at least.”  Sam had his doctor’s face on, the one that Toby recognized from his childhood.

 “Sure.  I gave Matt a call last night and he’s going to let us in the side door at eight.  We can maybe even have the crates upstairs by the time you get done.”

 “Seth is going to meet you there with his cousin Marag.  He said between the two of them, they should be able to cut through all the red tape.”  Sam smiled faintly while they began to slow for the last few blocks to home.

 “Which of us is Ruth going to be with?”

 Sam looked startled.  “I don’t know.  She said she needed to go in to Boston and I assumed she meant to the Peabody.”

 Toby snorted.  “I don’t think you can assume anything around her.  She doesn’t look at the world the way anyone else does.”

 “True.  But my instincts say to trust her.  Even if she did get me killed the last time around.”  Sam smiled at him and opened the kitchen door to the smell of bacon cooking.

 Toby shook his head and followed him in.  Mei Ling was squeezing fresh oranges with the juicer while Ruth buttered bagel halves and Julie scrambled eggs.

 “You have fifteen minutes or we eat it all ourselves.”  Julie said over her shoulder.  “Sam, you can use our shower.  Edward finished a few moments ago.”

 “Thanks, Mom.”  Sam kissed her cheek and headed upstairs while Toby stole a strip of bacon from the draining tray before hugging his mom and heading for his own shower.

***********

 Ruth sat in front beside Sam while Toby and Mei Ling sat in the back.  They’d decided that one car would be enough.  They were two blocks from the Peabody when Ruth tugged on Sam’s arm with an exclamation.

 “Sam, pull over here, please.  There’s Joe.”

 Toby sat up and craned his neck to see who she meant.  The shabby old man who waved at their car looked to be a hundred years old and his hand trembled with palsy.  Ruth rolled the window down.  “Joe, is there something wrong?”

 “Police, mi’lady.  They come rousting out us who were left.  Asked at the clinic about a scarred woman, acting crazy.  Thought the Doc should be warned.  I remembered you talked about the museum so I stuck around in case you came by.”  His voice shook as badly as his hands, where they lay on the car.  “You look some better, mi’lady but the sparrow said you did.”

 “Thank you, Joe.  Doctor Sam did a wonderful job in healing me.  I’m going to stay here at the Peabody today.  Would you be willing to stick around until this evening?” Ruth warmed his hands in her own.

 “If’n you need me, you just got to ask.  There’s a real warm grate in the alley behind the Museum.  Hasn’t really been cold enough to need it yet so I can stay there without getting in somebody’s territory.”  He nodded with a little smile.

 “Good.  If I can’t come myself, you can trust the others here.  Joe, this is Toby Hamilton, Doctor Sam’s brother and his friend Mei Ling Chang.”

 “Hi, Joe, it’s nice to meet a friend of Ruth’s.”  Mei Ling smiled at the old man and Toby gave him a wave.

 He blushed as if he’d never been introduced to anyone before, nodding a greeting then stepping back from the car.  “Oh, mi’lady, the Wolf come by and said he was ready when you were.”

 “Excellent, Joe.”  Ruth sighed and pulled up her backpack, unzipping the side pocket and pulling out an apple.  “Mrs. Hamilton gave me three of these, I’d appreciate it if you’d take one of them off my hands.  She gets real upset if I don’t eat everything.”

 “You sure?”  Joe asked uncertainly then took the bright red fruit with a look of delight.  “Be a real treat, mi’lady.  I’ll be there when you need me.  The grate’s out behind the museum near the dumpsters.”

 “We’ll see you later, Joe.  Stay alert.”  Ruth patted his hand and he shuffled away, holding tightly to his apple.

 Toby considered his view on street people while they drove the last few blocks to the museum.  He’d always considered them people who had no ambition or halfway patients released from institutions as not crazy enough to be taken care of but still not quite all there or hopeless drug addicts just panhandling enough to keep themselves in the drug of choice.  But there was something almost sweet about the old man who’d been so careful of Ruth.

Mi’lady, he called her.  I wonder if he thinks of himself as the prince?  Toby wondered if Joe had shared a life with Ruth before and if he had, which one it was.  He said goodbye to Sam absentmindedly while still pondering fate and destiny.  He’d been born to a family of comfortable means and the ability to choose his own path while Joe looked like he’d slid from poor to homeless in his life.

 And how far down are you when an apple is a real treat?  He sighed and made a promise to himself to be more alert the next time he came upon a street person.

 “How many are like Joe, Ruth?”  Mei Ling put one of his thoughts into words.

 She smiled faintly.  “More than I would like, Mei Ling.  The lost ones who live in the shadows because they’re not ‘pretty’ enough or ‘sane’ enough are always with us. Society has never turned its back on so many before.  There are predators out there but most of the street people I’ve met are victims of one kind or another.  Joe’s an alcoholic, enthralled by a drug that’s legally sold everywhere.  But since I met him, he hasn’t had a single one.  Sometimes, all that’s needed is a reason not to take that next drink.”

 Toby thought about that then risked a question.  “Was he in one of your lives?”

 “Atlantis.  Captain of the guard at the palace.  A good man but even then he had a powerful thirst.”  Ruth shook her head.  “Why don’t you two go first?  Matt is expecting the two of you.  Perhaps I should be a cousin, Toby?”

 He snorted at her.  “At the very least, you’re family.”

 “Why, thank you.  That’s one of the nicest things anyone’s ever said to me.”  Ruth fiddled with the scarf that hid some of the scars on her left side.  “If he should ask, I had a car accident.”

 “Got’cha.”  Toby nodded and rang the bell beside the steel door.

 Matt must have been waiting because the door opened immediately.  “Come in, come in.  I don’t know what you said to the Board but this place is like an anthill being stalked by an anteater.  This is so exciting.”

 “Ruth, I’d like you to meet Matt Somers, one of the worker ants here at the Peabody.  Matt, this is my cousin, Ruth . . . Hamilton.”  Toby stumbled over the last name when he realized that he didn’t know what it was.

 “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Matt.  Please just call me Ruth.  My cousins have been telling me all about this wonderful institution and your fascinating job here.”  Ruth put out her hand and Matt shook it gingerly.

 “The pleasure is mine, Ruth.  Mr. Griffin and Mrs. Campbell are already in the basement looking at the crates.”  Matt didn’t seem to even notice Ruth’s scars while he bounced up and down on his heels.  “This is too cool.  I’m supposed to take you down as soon as you come.”

 “Lead the way, Matt.  The sooner we get there, the sooner we can see what’s in those boxes.”  Toby clapped him on the shoulder and winked at the other two.

 All the way down the stairs, Matt babbled about the orders from the top about clearing out the boardroom, assembling the boxes, bags, brushes and other tools needed to take care of whatever they found in the crates.  Once they reached the sub-basement, more introductions were made.

 Toby approved of Marag Campbell immediately.  She was tall and well curved with the reddest hair he’d ever seen.  Her green eyes were identical to Seth’s and there was something in her smile that reminded him of the Marine Colonel.  He found himself eyeing Seth while he tried again to see what Sam saw in him.  Or for that matter, what Mei Ling and his mom saw when they looked at him.

 While they moved the first crate onto the four-wheeled dolly, Seth had taken most of the weight as they manhandled it over the stack of boxes in the way.  Toby was impressed and wondered if he lifted weights in his spare time.  He had a sense of humor and topped his cousin’s tall tales quite neatly.  For an old guy, he seemed to be pretty up on modern day slang too when he swore under his breath.

 As long as he didn’t think about what Sam and he did when they were alone, Toby decided that he could accept Seth into the family.  While he was coming to that realization, they moved the first two crates out of the basement and up the creaky freight elevator to the third floor.  It was a whole other world up there with soft lighting and thick carpet in subdued colors.  The boardroom had a table that was so big, Toby figured they could have used it as a runway for his ultralight aircraft.

 There were stacks of cardboard boxes in small, medium and large sizes for when they emptied out the crates.  Mei Ling and Ruth covered the gleaming oak with a triple thickness of newspaper to protect the surface.  The three women stayed behind while the men went back to the basement to get the next two crates.  They promised that they wouldn’t start without them.  But Toby wasn’t so sure that Ruth would be able to keep her hands off the crowbar.  She just had a gleam in her eye that portended action of the opening kind.

 The next two crates were much lighter so they decided to put the third heavy one on the dolly first then stack the other two on top of it.  Seth steadied it on one side while Toby lightly held it in place on the other.  Matt steered them into the elevator then squeezed in so the doors could close.  Toby felt every bit of the heavy vibration and clanking as they moved slowly upward.

 “Does this thing have a weight limit and how badly are we over it?”  He asked somberly.

 Matt started to laugh and he could hear Seth chuckle.  They were all still laughing when the doors opened on the third floor.  Quickly, they off loaded the crates in the boardroom, numbering them with a black magic marker in the order in which they’d come from the basement.  Ruth sat down with the notebook and began the written inventory they would need of each crate.  Toby and Mei Ling began the lifting out of each object while Matt prepared a box for it and Marag wrote up a tag with a full description of its contents.

 Seth carefully went through each piece of straw packing material in case some small item got missed.  He also helped Toby lift out the heavy statues that were in the bottom layer of the first crate.  Time flew by with the number of helping hands they had and two crates had been emptied by the time 12:30 came around.

 “That’s enough for now, people.  I ordered lunch to be delivered in a few minutes and we all need to wash up.  I, for one, am grubby.”  Marag declared and laid down her pen, shaking her fingers free of cramp.

 “I am so hungry I could eat one of those cook pots we just tagged.”  Mei Ling stretched like a cat, all over.

 “Food would be good.”  Toby thought longingly of their last meal at the Border Café.

 “Dibs on the Director’s private bathroom.”  Seth stretched and made for the office through the door to the right.  “Where did you order from, Marag?”

 “Border Café.  Their combination plates are to die for.”  Marag grinned at Toby and Mei Ling’s muted cheers.  “Come on, ladies, there’s another restroom on this floor.”

 Matt and Toby were left alone with the debris of their morning’s work.  Matt was tracing the lines of one of the kitchen god’s statue that every ancient Chinese home would have had by the fire pit.  “This is over two thousand years old and it’s been sitting in our basement for almost a hundred years.  Look at the loving attention to detail that the artisan took.  Most of the statues I’ve seen are sketchy with few extras.  This little guy has hair and buttons and some kind of herb in his hand.”

 “It’s yarrow.”  Ruth’s voice came from the doorway.  “Well known for it’s medicinal properties.  Most households had some drying in the eaves at all times.”

 Toby locked gazes with her while part of his mind remembered watching her dry the herbs from the garden and hang them from hooks in the great beams of the long kitchen.  She had to stand on a chair to reach them and Li had promised her that when he was big, he would help her.  Her cool touch to his cheek brought him back to the here and now.

 “You never got big enough to help.”  Her murmur held traces of tears unshed and he caught and held her scarred hand.

 “Not your fault, Mama.”

 “Destiny can be cruel, little one.  I wish yours had been happier.”  She sighed and dropped a kiss on his head.

 “I was loved my whole life.  That’s a pretty good destiny to have.”

 “Yes, you were.  And are this time as well.”  She fingered one of the small carved ivory belt hooks.  “Your papa was so proud of this.  The dragon was supposed to ensure a long life for its wearer.”

 “We have the life we are supposed to have.  Not one day more or less.”  Mei Ling’s voice joined theirs and Toby gazed up at his friend who was hugging them both.

 “Wise child.”  Ruth finally smiled.

 “Food’s here.”  Seth’s voice broke into their conversation.  “Shall we eat it at this end of the table?  It’s that or the floor.”

 The next few moments were chaotic while everyone filled a plate with their favorites.  Matt sat beside Toby and waited for him to finish his first few bites before asking his question.  “When did you learn Chinese?  That’s what the three of you were speaking earlier?  Yes?”

 Toby took a drink to give himself some time to figure out how to answer his friend.  “Ruth’s studied Chinese all her life.  She’s the reason I learned what I have.  Meeting Mei Ling my first year of college just gave me more incentive to practice my language skills.  I’ve always been fascinated by the stories Ruth told me of ancient China.  It’s one of the reasons I was so excited when we found the crates.”

 “Matt, you can’t know how excited I was when Toby came home and told me of the chance that there might be artifacts from Professor Turner’s expedition.”  Ruth leaned forward and smiled at Matt.  “Then when Seth said he was related to Silas Griffin, well, you can just imagine how I felt.”

 “When Seth called me, I just couldn’t wait for the Director to get back from that conference he’s at in Seattle.”  Marag smiled at the graduate student.  “We’re so lucky that you were willing to help us out, Matt.”

 He blushed and stammered a disjointed reply at how glad he was to help.  Toby breathed a sigh of relief that the question had been so neatly deflected.  It was disconcerting to find that he’d been speaking Chinese again without realizing it.  He promised himself a long talk with Mei Ling in the very near future.

 “Is there enough for a poor starving doctor?”  Sam’s voice came from the boardroom door.

 Seth was on his feet instantly and Toby watched them come together like steel to a magnet even though they kept from physically touching.  Now, he could see what Mei Ling had meant by thunder and lightning.  In that first moment, Toby would have bet that they’d forgotten everyone else in the room.  He happened to look at Marag and he caught her sending them a tenderly amused smile.

 “Of course there is, Sam.  Hi, I’m Marag, Seth’s cousin.  And it is a great pleasure to meet you.”  She took his hand and held on to it with both of hers.  “He’s told me so much about you that you feel like family already.”

 Sam blushed and shyly smiled at her.  “Thank you, Marag.  We must sit down so you can tell me exactly what he’s told you.”

 “Only good things, love.”  She shot Seth a wicked look and he covered his eyes with his hand.  Then she took care of introducing Matt to him and they all sat down to finish eating.

 The next two crates took more time because at some point, water had gotten into one and some of the clay had begun to disintegrate.  They went slowly and carefully while piecing several shards together like the three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle they were.  It all took time and Toby could feel Ruth’s patience begin to fray at the edges.  When they stopped for a break about four, they’d just opened the last crate only to find what appeared to be a ledger on top of the straw as if placed there at the last moment.

 Matt sat down with it while the others stretched and poured coffee from the coffee maker on the sideboard.  “Oh wow, guys!  It’s Professor Turner’s logbook.  This should have been taken out when the crates first arrived.  Even if they didn’t have time to process it, they should have at least put this into the archives.  There are scholars who’d give their diplomas to have a written history of an early archaeologist and his dig.”
 “Wonderful.  Is it readable?”  Marag asked.

 “Yes.  Thank God it wasn’t in the one that got wet.  Oh man, this is too cool!”  Matt never even looked up from his reading.

 The others left him to it while they munched on oatmeal cookies that Julie had sent with them.  Ruth’s hand was trembling with fatigue and Toby realized that it was her first day out since she’d gotten pneumonia.  He watched her rub her temple with her good hand and close her eye against the bright lights they’d turned on when dusk fell.

    “Hey, there’s all kinds of neat geological specimens in this leather sample case.”  Mei Ling had gone back to the last crate and brushed aside the straw from the brown leather object on top.  Lifting it gently, she brought it over to the table and began to take out each specimen.

 “It says here that he thought some of the petrified wood and rock samples might be used to help date the site.  He’d been digging for two weeks and he was already pretty sure that it wasn’t the capitol city of Emperor Shi Huangdi.”  Matt still hadn’t looked up from the ledger he was reading.

 “That’s it.  You know he could be right about helping to date the site.”  Mei Ling chattered while putting the case onto the chair seat below table height.  “I wonder what kind of stone that one is.  It’s awfully pretty.”

 Toby watched Mei Ling distract the others while Ruth’s hand slipped under the leather flap and groped for whatever his friend had not displayed on the table.  Her eye closed and her head drooped for a brief moment then she was sitting up straight again.  She pointed to one of the shards with her left hand and asked a question while her right hand came out of the bag and immediately went into her cardigan sweater pocket.

 Mission accomplished.  Now what?

*****************
End chapter ten