Zoltan gritted his teeth. She might be over two thousand years old. He eyed the watch with its hot pink band and sparkly decoration. “What is that? A cat?”
“Hello Kitty,” Janos murmured. “I can give you an excellent price for it.”
Zoltan grabbed the watch and studied it closely.
“Is she fond of cats, my lord?”
He snorted. “I suppose so. Box it up. And when your new ones come in, save the most expensive one for me.”
“Yes, my lord. Of course. We’ll let this one be on the house, shall we?”
“Thank you, Janos.” Zoltan shoved the small gift box into his jacket and teleported back to the castle. He found Howard in the armory stuffing the box of arrows into a huge duffel bag.
“Good, you’re back.” Howard set the last of the books into the overloaded bag and struggled to zip it shut. “I promised Elsa you would drop by the chapel. I helped Alastair move the mummy this morning before the tour, and Domokos followed us the entire time, warning us that you would throw a fit if anything happened to it.”
Zoltan snorted. “I don’t throw fits.”
Howard gave him a curious look. “Domokos said it was special to you, but he wouldn’t explain why.”
“I’ll go there now.”
Howard straightened. “Wait. You need your—”
Zoltan teleported to the courtyard and looked around in the moonlight. The main keep where he and his servants lived was in excellent shape since he’d renovated it about twenty years earlier, but the east wing and tower were in bad shape. They were now sectioned off with yellow tape.
He zoomed over to the chapel. Built five hundred years ago, it still boasted the original stone walls, but he’d had to replace the roof and stained glass windows two hundred years ago.
Inside, he found Elsa equipped with a spray bottle of glass cleaner and a roll of paper towels, busily polishing up the glass case that housed the mummy. The wooden chairs had been removed to make room for the glass case, which was now resting on several wooden crates so it was waist high.
“Good evening,” Zoltan said.
Elsa jumped, turning to face him. “Oh, you came.” She set down the Windex bottle and paper towels on a windowsill. “The glass got all smudged with fingerprints from the tourists. I wanted to make sure you were happy with the mummy’s new home.”
Zoltan walked around the glass case, studying the familiar form inside. “She looks fine.”
Elsa approached. “I thought it might be a woman, but I wasn’t sure. Did you know her?”
Zoltan nodded, his mouth quirking with a wry smile. “She would probably find it amusing to be housed in a chapel.”
“Why? Was she very religious?”
Before Zoltan could answer, Howard rushed inside the chapel and screeched to a halt.
He glowered at Zoltan. “You had to teleport here? Don’t you know exercise is good for you?”
Zoltan snorted. “Would I live longer? What took you so long?”
“You left your sat phone in the kitchen.” Howard handed it to Zoltan.
“Guess what?” Elsa grabbed her husband and pulled him over to the glass case. “Zoltan just told me the mummy is a she. I already suspected that, though. See the long hair? And she’s a little short, just around five feet, although I suppose men were shorter, too, at one time.”
Howard leaned over the case and grimaced. “All I see is a shriveled-up, horrid thing. Why would anyone want to keep something so creepy?”
Zoltan winced as he pocketed the phone.
“Oh no!” Elsa fussed at her husband. “She’s very interesting. If you look closely, you can see all kinds of detail. Like the gown. Another reason why I thought it was a woman, although I think men used to wear long robes, too. But look at her sleeves and the hem of her skirt. See the embroidery? It’s deteriorated over time, but I bet it was beautiful when it was new.”
“But look at that.” Howard pointed at the mummy’s right hand. It reached out, the blackened fingers outstretched like the talons of a bird. “It looks like she’s trying to grab hold of you. How creepy is that?”
“It does look kinda scary,” Elsa conceded, then glanced at Zoltan. “Do you know why her hand is like that?”
He nodded. “She was buried with a Bible under her hand to keep her soul from roaming the Earth and seeking vengeance. Over the centuries, the Bible deteriorated but left her hand frozen in that position.”
“Creepy,” Howard repeated, and Zoltan shot him an annoyed look.
“Why did they think she would seek revenge?” Elsa asked.
Zoltan stepped closer to the case. “She was murdered by the villagers.”
Elsa gasped. “Why?”
“It’s a long story.” Zoltan placed his hand on the glass, where it rested over the outstretched hand of the mummy. “They thought she was a witch.”
“Oh.” Elsa’s eyes widened. “So that’s why you said she’d think it was funny to be here in the chapel.”
“She was executed for being a witch?” Howard asked.
Zoltan sighed. Both Howard and Elsa looked fascinated, so it was obvious they would hound him with questions if he didn’t tell them more. “The villagers couldn’t decide whether to stone her or burn her, so they did both. And then they couldn’t bury her in holy ground in the churchyard, so they stuck her in a cave and sealed it. Years later, there was a rock slide down the mountain that opened up the cave, and the villagers discovered that her body had mummified.”
Howard made a face. “So they brought her out and put her in a glass case? Why would they want to look at something this creepy?”
Zoltan gritted his teeth. “They thought it was the best way to keep an eye on her. So they could make sure she stayed dead.”
“But you knew her, right?” Elsa asked. “Was she really a witch?”
“No. I’ve always believed she was innocent. The count at the time was a merchant who traveled the Silk Road to China. He’d lost his first wife when she gave birth to his son, so I suppose he was lonely. He came back from one of his journeys with a new wife from the East. The villagers didn’t know what to make of her. She didn’t speak Romanian, she wasn’t Christian, and she looked a little different. She converted and took the name Donna Maria, but people still suspected her. When the Mongols invaded and killed most of the villagers, the survivors pointed their fingers at her. She was from the East, so she must have caused the Mongols to invade.”
“She became a scapegoat,” Howard concluded.
“Exactly,” Zoltan agreed. “Everyone had lost most of their families, so they were eager to blame someone. They tied Donna Maria to a post in the village square and decided to execute her.”
“But she was married to the count,” Elsa protested. “Surely he stood up for his wife.”
Zoltan shook his head. “The count’s eldest son was killed by the Mongols. He was so devastated that the poisonous gossip from the village took hold of him. He started to believe that he’d brought home a witch. The thought that his son’s death and all the other deaths were ultimately his fault made him fall into a deep despair. So he did nothing to save his wife.”
Elsa winced. “The poor woman. She must have felt so betrayed.”
“I’m sure she did.” Zoltan regarded her sadly. “But at the same time, I can see why people thought she was a witch. She could communicate with animals and birds.”
Elsa stiffened. “I can communicate with animals. And my aunt can communicate with birds. Thank God we live now and don’t have to worry about being stoned to death.”
“Wait a minute.” Howard lifted his hand and gave Zoltan a pointed look. “Aren’t you able to communicate with animals?”
“What?” Elsa’s eyes widened. “Can you really?”
Zoltan nodded. “Something I inherited.” He touched the glass above the mummy’s face. “Along with the almond-shaped eyes.”
Elsa gasped. “Oh, my God.”
Howard stiffened. “You mean . . . ?”
Zoltan nodded. “That’s why the steward said she’s special to me.”
Howard blinked, then snorted with laughter. “Your momma’s a mummy?”