Empire of Shadows (Raiders of the Arcana, #1)

by Jacquelyn Benson

At that tender age, it had never occurred to Ellie that the life she wanted was an impossibility—that no amount of intelligence and determination would ever overcome the handicap of her gender.

“I am not interested in becoming famous,” she said tartly. “I would simply like to be permitted to use my skills and education to further our understanding of the ancient world.”

“No yellow, see?” he said. “She’s a snail sucker, not a coral snake. Harmless—aren’t you, lil’ darling?” He turned the animal’s face toward his own and gave it an affectionate little wiggle. The man was entirely insane.

He had the sort of male form Ellie had only previously seen in statues at the British Museum. It was admittedly distracting.

Of course, Ellie’s task couldn’t be as simple as Constance had made it sound back in London. Nothing was ever that easy for a woman trying to blaze her own path in the world.

“You must not have had to fight very hard for your education if you could walk away from it for the sake of a grudge.”

She remembered looking into her future and watching it narrow precipitously.

“Surely you can manage hauling one measly little steamboat upstream in the dark for a while. Can’t you, Mr. Bates?”

“Look—I can’t tell you what a Xibalba is, but I’ll keep you from wandering into the wrong snake or eating something that leaves you heaving your brains out for the next forty-eight hours. I might be an oaf, but I’m a reasonably useful one. Afraid you’re going to have to live with that. We’re a little short on scholars around here.”

“Thanks,” he said after a little while. “But I haven’t done anything,” Ellie admitted awkwardly. “You listened,” he replied.

“Fight with me,” Bates abruptly ordered. Ellie looked up with surprise. “What?” she blurted. “Fight with me,” he repeated, calling out the words over the relentless cascade. “Tell me why we should keep going.”

“Children,” she asserted as she warmed to the topic, “are another weight added to the chains of marriage. They trap a woman in the most intolerable of circumstances, depriving her of any slim hope she might have had of intellectual freedom or achievement. Do you know that as soon as a woman even becomes engaged to be married, she is dismissed from the civil service?

“That is not surprising,” Kuyoc replied. “I am sure they were written by self-important Englishmen.” “American men, actually,” Ellie blurted in response—not that it sounded much better. “Americans, English… Do not feel too bad about it,” the priest easily assured her. “They write all of the books.”

Her thoughts shifted to Adam as though by force of gravity.

“You’re an American!” He made the word sound like a venereal disease.

Perhaps I was simply an opening in your calendar, but you have been a very great deal more than that to me.”

“You and me,” Adam replied. “Against ten guys with guns. A murderous bastard with an infallible nose for lies.” “An imminent monsoon,” Ellie added, barely fighting back a giggle. “And one really sweaty professor,” Adam added wryly.

“Congratulations, Princess,” he said. His voice was flattened with wonder and shock. “Looks like you found El Dorado.”

It overwhelmed her with the awareness of how very much there was to learn… but this wasn’t a normal archaeological survey. It was a crime in the making, and she was a prisoner within it.

“But I do not work for a single individual, Mr. Bates,” Dawson returned meaningfully. “I am employed by… an association of individuals.

“Live first. Deal with the crazy priest later,” he declared.

We are going to find a way to get out of this, together, without endangering your friends. And when we do get out, we are going to make Dawson and Jacobs rue the day they ever considered illicitly buying stolen government property to come and loot a priceless piece of Mesoamerican history!”

“You’re thinking,” he pointed out. “Well, I am trying to,” Ellie retorted. “Want me to help?” he offered. She shot him a glare. “I think you are having the opposite effect at the moment.” Adam laughed at that. It was a very satisfied-sounding laugh.

“Bates…” Ellie protested. He tossed the other boot at her and she caught it awkwardly as he moved away. “Adam!” He paused, and then turned back to catch her by her belt and haul her closer for a sudden, firm kiss. He smiled at her through the dark. “That sounds nice,” he concluded, and then dropped below the surface.

“You absolute rotten bastard!” Ellie exclaimed. He laughed, his eyes glittering.

“Have I ever given you any reason to think I am the type to react irrationally?” she demanded. “You jumped off a balcony with your hands tied,” Adam replied. “I was taking the most direct route away from a pursuer,” Ellie retorted. “You were planning to blow up a boat to get me to listen to you.” “But I didn’t!” “And you tried to set Mendez’s pants on fire,” Adam finished. Ellie opened her mouth to reply, and then closed it.

“I’m going to break down the wall,” he declared. Ellie jolted with a quick panic. “You can’t do that!” she protested. “Why not?” “This is a priceless piece of Mesoamerican history!” “It’s trying to kill us, Princess!” he shouted back.

“Ouch,” Adam said. He danced a bit in his boots as they reached the end. “Will you still like me if I’m short a few toes?

“This is going to sound crazy!” she yelled as Adam joined her. Adam tugged her into his arms. “I’m with you,” he promised