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He chuckled. “This was a gift to my grandfather from a very grateful seer. She foresaw a threat against her life, and he was the only one who would believe her.”
“Then it’s rare?” I guessed.
He nodded. “Very rare.”
I hung my head and bit my lower lip. “Should I really have this?”
“Why shouldn’t you?” Ben asked me.
My eyes dropped to the ribbon tied around my wrist. “I haven’t taken that great a care of what I already have.”
Ben cupped my chin in his hand and lifted my eyes to his smiling face. “You have need of the flame, and so I gladly give it to you, but I also trust you with my life and you’ve taken good care of that several times.”
I snorted. “You’re just saying that so you don’t have to walk me through the graveyard.”
A crooked grin slipped onto his lips. “There is that advantage, but I stand by what I said. I trust you with everything I have. Now then-” He dropped his hand to his side and turned his head to inspect the gate. “We should head inside. The night won’t pause for us, and we have The Court to visit afterward.”
I reluctantly let him lead me toward the gate as his last few words conjured up a memory. “That’s the name of one of the cemeteries, isn’t it? The Court?”
Ben opened the gate and stepped inside, holding it open for me. “Yes. It was the courtyard to the old imperial palace, and was created as a cemetery for commoners and affluent alike.”
I stopped a few steps inside the gate and swept my beam over the silent cemetery. “Why do graveyards always have to be so creepy?”
Ben stepped up to my side with a pensive expression on his face. “Mortals fear death, so it’s understandable we would fear the reminder of our mortality.”
“And it doesn’t help that a bunch of dead guys keep popping out of the ground,” I added.
He chuckled. “No, that doesn’t help matters, but let us see where the first ‘dead guy’ popped out.”
Ben guided me along the uneven ground and over to the mound I had earlier discovered. We found the grave and Ben inspected the ground. I kept my eyes on the area around us and cradled my ball close to my chest. The orb gave off a soft warmth that comforted me and gave me the courage to take a few steps away from Ben. My light illuminated the far end of the graveyard.
That’s when I saw the figure. A person in a tan cloak stood at the opposite gate. They stood at such an angle that I knew they were looking at us. The moment my light fell on them, however, they bolted.
“Ben!” I shouted as I sprinted forward.
Ben shot up and raced after me. He was at my side by the time I reached the gate. “What is it?”
I swept my light over the area. “There was someone standing here watching-there!” My beam had caught sight of the tail end of a cloak as it rounded the corner of a house to our right.
Ben grabbed my hand and together we dashed down the street. Our prey could be seen far down the road heading in a southwesterly direction as he disappeared between two buildings. My feet pounded the hard cobblestones as we continued our chase with our ever-elusive goal keeping several steps ahead of us.
I was very winded by the time we neared the outskirts of the Plaza. The stranger, too, lagged a little as we inched ever closer to catching them. Our prey turned onto a narrow street and I noticed a low stone wall that ran north to south. However, I knew we hadn’t quite reached the Plaza, and I glimpsed trees and small stone buildings within those hard boundaries.
The cloaked person leapt over the low wall and slipped into the darkness that lay beyond. Ben stopped us at the border and my breath caught in my throat.
We stood before a huge cemetery. A forest of headstones stretched out before us for some hundred yards. Huge ancient trees shaded small winding dirt paths, and here and there were mausoleums, some with porticos but most with only a simple metal door leading into their interior.
It was at one of these stone buildings that I caught sight of the person we pursued. Our prey slipped through the door and out of sight.
I stabbed a finger at the structure. “That one!”
Ben leapt over the wall and I did the same, and we hurried over to the stone building. We stopped short of the two steps that led up to the ajar door, and Ben stretched his neck out to peer into the dark confines. His bright red eyes glowed eerily in the dark as I motioned my channel orb to cast a soft light around us.
“Is he in there?” I whispered.
Ben pursed his lips. “No.”
My heart dropped into my stomach. “W-what do you mean? He’s not a ghost, is he?”
