Jasmine nodded, her eyes bright with excitement. "I did. I need a piece of paper to write it down before the image fades."
"You didn't understand it either?" Kyra asked.
Jasmine shook her head. "No, I hoped you did."
"It wasn't Arabic or Farsi." She grimaced. "The vision was blurry for me, and I didn't get the same sensory input as the two of you. I think I was seeing it through Fenella's eyes rather than experiencing it directly."
"We need to write it down," Fenella turned to look at Kalugal. "Or rather, draw what we saw before we forget the details."
Kalugal rose to his feet. "I'll be back in a moment."
He returned promptly with several sheets of paper and pencils. "Here," he distributed them among the three of them.
Fenella grabbed a pencil, her hand moving almost of its own accord as she tried to recreate the symbols. It was harder than she'd expected. The inscription had been small, precisely carved, and she'd been seeing it through someone else's eyes. But she did her best, drawing each symbol as accurately as her memory allowed.
Beside her, Jasmine and Kyra did the same, and while they worked on the inscription, everyone else watched them with bated breath. The room was silent except for the scratch of three pencils on paper and the barely audible breathing of their audience.
"That's the best I can do." Fenella stood up and walked over to Kalugal. "I hope you can decipher the language."
When he frowned, her heart sank.
Kyra and Jasmine handed him their creations next, and as he laid them out side by side on the coffee table, Fenella could see that they'd all captured the same basic symbols, though with slight variations in detail and proportions.
Kalugal studied the drawings intently. "I think this is written in the old language," he said finally.
Gathering up the papers, he walked over to where the Clan Mother sat. "You are more fluent in the old script than I am. Perhaps you can read what it says?"
Annani accepted the papers, and the silence in the room was absolute as everyone waited for her to speak.
