Flight by J.A. Huss Read Free Book Online

too."
    Lili gets to come now? Perfect. "Huh. Whatever happened to third wing, Ashur? You're such an asshole." I wave Ryse on and follow him out towards the trains.
     
     
     
    Esta is thrilled to see me when we finally arrive at the museum almost an hour later. She barely notices Ryse, so I don't know what Ashur was talking about with the whole third wing thing. And Ryse, for his part, is so interested in the artifacts he hardly notices anything else.
    "Junco?"
    I turn and look at her, then smile at my sister. "Esta, I'm not really interested, but Lucan says he wants you to explain stuff about," I wave my hand to the hundreds of cylinder seals lining the walls, "all this stuff." There's quite a lot of artifacts and I don't recognize a single one and I've seen the entire private collection at the British Museum. "Where did you guys get it all? I mean, are these copies of what we have on Earth?"
    Esta links her arm in mine and begins walking towards the wall. "No, Junco. We have all the important ones. We only left the broken ones, or duplicates, or ones made by inconsequential artisans, back on Earth."
    I nod, appreciating the display. "Do you have any of Inanna?"
    She beams down at me from her slightly superior height. "Earth has no true images of Inanna, or many of the others, either. We have them all. Here, I'll show you." She walks over to one cast hanging on the wall next to the cylinder seal that, when rolled on wet clay, can make the impression of images that can then be visualized. They make a repeating pattern if you roll the seal more than one continuous turn, so it's like a wallpaper border my grandma might have had near the ceiling in her bathroom.
    Esta points to the figure in the middle of the scene. "This is Inanna, Junco." I study the woman who has inserted herself into my life with such force. Her hair is wild, her chest is bare of clothing, and her dress is lined with jewels. She has many weapons: spears, a knife, a bow with a quiver, something that looks like a pickax, and a wand.
    A very small wand that she holds in her hand, her thumb near the top. As if she's ready to flick it on.
    I point to the little wand. "What's that?" I look over at Esta and she's smiling so big she can hardly contain it.
    "That's her lapis rod."
    I nod. "Oh, OK. That thing she gave the first gatekeeper when she went to the world down below."
    Esta looks surprised. "Who told you that story?"
    I sigh at the memory. "Tier. When we were bathing in a hot spring back on Earth. It was a nice night. Before the nightdog ate my fingers, of course."
    Esta stares at me, her face serious. "You have a lapis rod too, ya know."
    My hand reaches into my shirt and I pull out my SEAR. "Is it lapis? I never knew that."
    I hand it to Esta's outstretched hand. No one has ever asked to see it before. She palms it and flicks her thumb over the small imperfection in the stone but of course, it doesn't power on. It's coded for me and she's not done anything to try and fake my print like Aren did that last night on Earth. "You're Inanna, Junco."
    I shake my head. "I absolutely am not Inanna, Esta. That is so much bullshit."
    She just laughs. "Very close, if not."
    I look around and find Ashur directly behind me, Lili is off with Ryse looking at something. Esta hands me back the SEAR and I look it over carefully. "It's blue, but I don't think it's lapis lazuli, Esta. It looks synthetic."
    "It's not really lapis. I was kidding. But it is weird that you have a rod of power." She shrugs one shoulder. "I think it is anyway."
    "So, I'm the killer then? Or what? I have to say, I really despise this myth. And if any of you were told your destiny is to kill people, you'd never want to hear about it again, either."
    Ashur moves in closer to me and I look up at him. "It's all bad stuff, Ashur. I'm the outcast, I'm the evil one, I'm the killer, I'm the impure one. I'm tired of hearing it."
    He squeezes my shoulder as Esta begins talking. "Junco, in my opinion, that is a