Once dinner was finished, Annja did the dishes and put them away. Then she poured them both another glass of wine.
"What do you want from me?" Annja asked.
Roux was quiet for a time, and Annja had begun to think that he wasn't going to answer.
"I need your help in recovering an object," he said quietly.
Annja's heart beat a little faster. Roux had searched for Joan's sword for five hundred years. What else can you be responsible for finding? she wondered. "Why should I help you?"
"Because you want to."
"No, I don't." I want to know what you know, but that isn't the same as wanting to help you. Annja was very clear about that in her own mind.
Roux grimaced. "It's a shame to ruin the digestion of such a good meal."
"My digestion isn't going to be affected." Annja kept her eyes on him.
"Without my help, you can't go to China."
"Who said I wanted to go to China?"
"You did. The instant you set foot on that plane in California."
Annja knew, there was no way to win that argument. "Maybe I can't go right away, but I'm working on getting the show to pay for the trip."
"Oh, really?" Roux looked smug. "Is that why you've been dodging your producer's calls for the last few days?"
Annja knew Roux wouldn't tell her how he knew about that.
"Look, we're both over a barrel here. Otherwise you wouldn't have come to me. Furthermore, I don't even know why I should want to go to China," she said, bluffing.
"To Loulan, more specifically. And you want to go there because the answers are there."
"I don't even know what the questions are."
Roux smiled. "The man who accompanied you to the grave in Volcanoville was hired by a man named Ngai Kuan-Yin. Does that name mean anything to you?"
"No."
"He's a very wealthy businessman. He's well connected in China, England and Canada. He's starting to make some inroads in the United States."
"Ngai wanted the belt plaque?"
Roux nodded.
"Why?"
"Because he believes in the legends of the City of the Sands."
"He thinks there's some kind of treasure there?"
"Oh, I'd be very surprised if there wasn't a treasure there," Roux said.
"Is that why you're interested?"
"No. Getting treasure of any size out of China in this day and age would be problematic. I'm not after treasure. I already have great fortunes that grow more every day."
"Then what are you after?" Annja asked.
"Something that was lost."
"What something?"
"I can't go into that, I'm afraid."
Annja blew out an angry breath. "I'm supposed to drop everything I'm doing and go with you to China?"
"Otherwise I'll go without you."
"Why do you need me?"
Roux was silent for a time. "Because you're an archaeologist, Annja. This is what you do. Your curiosity about the past pushes you forward through your own life."
"You've lived through a lot of those years."
"I have, but that's the problem, you see. I've lived through those years. I've not studied them. And I only lived in certain areas. Villages, towns, cities. I know those places, and I was fortunate to meet a few important people over the years. But I don't know history the way you know history."
"You could have learned."
Roux smiled. "My dear girl, I'm far too old to be learning new tricks, and those aren't tricks I'm interested in. I've always been more caught up in my own pursuits and diversions than I have been in the world around me."
"You've been more self-involved, you mean," Annja said.
Roux spread his hands. "Most people are. But you see, that's something that sets you apart from a great deal of other people. That's another reason you and the sword were reunited." He nodded at her glass as he stood. "Can I get you some more wine?"
"No. Thank you." Annja didn't want her wits slowed down by the wine. "There's bottled water in the refrigerator."
Roux replenished his own wine.
Annja accepted the chilled water when Roux handed it to her. She screwed the top off and drank, thinking of ways to get around the old man's reticence to tell her what he was truly after. "It might help if I knew what you're looking for."
"If you find the City of the Sands it will be there or it won't."
"If it exists the city was buried over two thousand years ago."
"I know," Roux said.
"Why didn't you go get it before now?"
"LoulanCity died out in the fifth century. Do you know why?"
"No one does."
"Really?" Roux frowned. "Pity. That might have answered some questions I had. Oh, well. The point I was making was that everyone thought that if Loulan had died, so had the City of the Sands."
"Because Sha Wu Ying died?" Annja asked.
"I certainly hope he's dead. While he was alive, he was a lot of trouble."
"What kind of trouble?"
"He interfered with things, and he tried to harness powers that he had no right to." Roux looked at her for a moment, then seemed to waver. "As you know, there are items of incredible power in this world."
Annja found herself almost hypnotized by his words. She knew he was speaking the truth, but she didn't know how she knew.
"Joan's sword – your sword now – is one of those tools." Roux peered at her with his blue eyes, and Annja saw a softness in them that wasn't often there. "There were others. It was up to the individual who possessed them to do what he or she wanted to with them. Most have been lost to this world, but a few have been lost in it."
"Is that what Sha Wu Ying stole?"
"One such object, yes."
"What is it?" Annja asked.
"It was an object of the greatest evil, Annja." Roux's voice was soft. "More than that, I cannot – dare not – say."
Annja's imagination ran wild for a moment. Throughout all of history, mankind had dreamed of – or remembered – weapons and objects of great power. Excalibur, the philosopher's stone, the Holy Grail and hundreds more.
"Let's just say that I can help you find the City of the Sands. If I do, what are you prepared to do with your mysterious object if it's still there?"
Roux was silent for a moment. "I don't know yet. But I know we have to find it."
"Why?"
"Because Garin is looking for it, too."