The power to heal … who wouldn’t risk everything to have it?

The tablet looked just as it had in Fitzwater’s photo.  But having it in front of her, close enough to touch, was … different.

Emilie reached a hesitant hand toward the tablet, then pulled it back.  A moment later, she reached in again, this time laying the tips of her fingers on the face of the orange-red clay.

Her fingers tingled for a moment.  A rush of warmth filled her body.  The sounds of the dig dropped away and a high-pitched singing filled her ears.  Her eyes fluttered and closed.

Night.  An ebony sky, close enough to dip her hands in and scoop out the stars.  A hot wind rushing past her lips.  She stood on the edge of a platform, the ground hundreds of feet below her, where flickering torchlight mirroed the stars above.  She swayed, lightheaded.  A hand caught her arm.  A hand that reached from a black robe, from a man with a shaved head and empty eyes, who had once been so familiar. …

“Ms. Nazzaro!”

Dr. Herrigan’s voice pierced her thoughts.  Emilie blinked, shook her head, and pulled her hand from the tablet.

“Ms. Nazzaro, are you unwell?”

No, no unwell.  But perhaps … unwise.

Emilie Nazzaro saw her father’s obsession with an ancient tablet result in his murder. Now, as an archaeology graduate student, she’s been charged with deciphering the symbols on this same centuries-old piece of clay, reputed to contain omens with healing power. When the unexplainable begins to happen, Emilie finds herself probing the deep mysteries of life–and wondering if she, too, will fall prey to Marduk’s tablet.