by Rai Aren
The throngs of people reacted to the man’s angry words. Heads nodded, the word revenge began to circulate.
Traeus was sickened at what he was hearing. His enemies had known exactly how to throw his kingdom into chaos. ‘Who would believe so many people had been viciously and coldly murdered just to get at me?’ he thought. It was an outrageous idea.
Princess Anjia and Odai pressed on in the King’s defense, trying to get things under control. Many present refused to listen to reason and just kept on shouting all manner of accusations at the Royal Family and the priesthood. From not doing enough to protect their people, to being liars, to being complicit, accusations and even a few threats were hurled at them. Royal guards stood nervously nearby.
The King was beside himself at the display. He felt it was nothing short of an indictment of his rule. His enemies knew just how to strike at them and he knew they would not stop with Derepet. Zhek would never give up until he had Setar and had toppled the Royal Family. As the King, the Head Priest, and Princess went to leave, accompanied by Royal guards, he looked back at the angry crowd. ‘Dark days were ahead. Dark days were behind. Dark days were all around them,’ he thought to himself.
He tried one last time to address his people. “I give you my word,” the King said, “I will find those responsible. They will be brought to justice.”
Though he dearly wanted to, he did not utter the Draxen name.
Chapter 50
The Sphinx, Present-day Egypt
THE night was cool and the sky was clear. The four friends, each lost in their own thoughts, walked somberly into the desert towards the Sphinx. The moon shone brightly in the night sky, illuminating their path.
Eighteen months ago, they made an evening march, not unlike this one, to protect humanity from a deadly secret. Now they faced a similar dilemma to protect the powers of the Pharom, but this time the trade off was the lives of their friends, Dr. Khadesh and Khamir.
Mitch looked up at the evening sky. He could see the stars in the Belt of Orion shining brightly. He felt the connection between the past and present strongly, reflecting on the alignment of the pyramids and the Nile to those stars, and the sense of being part of something far greater than any one person or event. What they were experiencing now was only part of the journey, he knew. ‘Perhaps this is a good omen,’ Mitch thought, as the sight of the ancient stars seemed to give him strength.
On the surface, Alex appeared calm, but inside her mind was a raging storm. She was terrified, thinking of every possible way this could go wrong.
Jack and Bob were extremely anxious. Bob longed for the comforts of home, his video games that he would play until the wee hours, while enjoying his cans of pop, and bags of chips. He wasn’t sure if he would ever see home or feel safe again.
Jack was trying to be brave, trying to remain steady for his friends, but this was wearing him down. They had barely slept. They had all been through so much, he wasn’t sure how much they had left to draw on for what was to come.
On they walked, silently, to whatever fate awaited them.
As the four friends came within sight of the Great Sphinx, they paused for a moment. Alex couldn’t help but stare and marvel at the massive limestone monument. The colossal monolith statue was the largest in the world. The moonlight shone brightly onto the Sphinx, showcasing its unique features – the reclining body of a lion with the enigmatic face of a Pharaoh. It seemed so imposing, so otherworldly…an ancient guardian. She thought about how much she and Mitch had been through in the past eighteen months, and how they were now drawn back to this place…like it was destiny.
Mitch looked at Alex and smiled at her to say he understood.
A few of the lights surrounding Maximilian’s excavation site were on. The heavy equipment that had surrounded the site was now gone. The four friends knew Maximilian and his men were waiting for them out there.
“Are we ready for this?” Mitch asked, checking his watch. It was nearly eleven pm.
“Ready as we’ll ever be,” Jack said, trying to muster his game face. He wasn’t having much luck.
“What he said,” Bob replied, unable to hide his apprehension.
They all hugged.
“Good luck, guys,” Alex said, fighting back tears.
“You too,” Jack replied.
Jack and Bob nodded as they headed off on their own.
Mitch and Alex kept walking towards the Sphinx. They were within one hundred yards of the site when suddenly an armed guard, clad head-to-toe in black and wearing night vision goggles rushed towards them.
“Halt! Put your hands up!” he shouted with a heavy German accent. He lifted the goggles off his face, propping them up on the top of his head.
Mitch and Alex stopped in their tracks.
Two more men, also carrying semi-automatic weapons sprang out of the darkness towards Mitch and Alex. The armed men quickly surrounded Mitch and Alex. They recognized them as Hans’ henchmen from the airport. Then they spotted Hans.
“Where are your two cohorts?” Hans asked as he approached Mitch and Alex.
“What cohorts?” Mitch said with an exaggerated tone of ignorance.
Without warning Hans punched Mitch in the face, knocking him down.
Alex screamed and jumped onto Hans, arms flailing. She dug her nails into his neck. Hans cried out in pain. One of the guards grabbed Alex and roughly dragged her off of him, throwing her to the ground.
She grunted as she hit the ground, hard. Slightly winded and coughing, she pushed herself back up.
Hans drew his gun and pointed it at Alex’s head. “You crazy little witch. I should pop you for that.” He felt his neck. She had drawn blood.
She froze.
Another man came into view, stepping out from behind the guards. “Hans, this is no way to treat our guests,” Maximilian said, in calm and monotone voice.
Hans glared at her a moment longer, then reluctantly put his gun back into its holster. “Search them,” he ordered the other guards. He gritted his teeth, trying hard to control his anger. He hated women who didn’t know their place.
Alex helped Mitch to his feet. The side of his face was bruised and throbbing, but he had managed to turn his head slightly at the last second to avoid being hit square in the face. He was sure Hans would have broken his nose had he connected straight on.
“They’re clean,” one guard said after they had patted them all down.
“Hans asked you a question. Where are your two companions?” Maximilian asked.
Mitch and Alex remained silent.
He stepped a little closer. “Do you want Hans to jog your memory again?” Maximilian asked.
Hans smiled wickedly, as he cracked his knuckles.
“Simian,” Alex whispered under her breath.
That wiped the smile off of his face. He lunged towards her.
She shrieked.
“Don’t touch her!” Mitch yelled.
Maximilian held Hans back.
“He doesn’t like you,” Maximilian said, again sneering at her. “Neither do I. Now answer my question, wretch.”
“Did you think we would bring our friends and the device to you without seeing that Dr. Khadesh and Khamir are okay?” Alex asked defiantly.
He regarded her for a moment, then nodded. “Fair enough,” he replied. “I guess I would’ve been disappointed if you did.”
Maximilian snapped his fingers. “Go get our other guests.”
“Yes sir,” one of the guards replied.
He and one other guard ran over to the large tent set up as Maximilian’s onsite headquarters. They emerged a minute later, forcibly pulling Dr. Khadesh and Khamir along with them. They brought them closer. They were badly bruised and limping slightly.
“Dr. Khadesh, Khamir are you all ri
ght?” Alex cried, relieved to see their friends were alive.
“It is good to see you again, my friends,” Dr. Khadesh replied, avoiding the question.
Khamir smiled weakly.
Hans pulled out his knife and walked towards Dr. Khadesh and Khamir. The guards knocked Dr. Khadesh and Khamir to their knees. They grunted in pain. Hans placed the tip of his knife near Khamir’s eye.
“No!” Alex screamed.
“Leave them alone, you dirtbags!” Mitch shouted.
“Answer the goddamn question now, or else,” Hans said, glowering at Mitch and Alex.
“I’ve upheld my side of the deal, now where is my device?” Maximilian demanded. “Or do you want to watch Hans perform impromptu surgery on them?”
“No!” Alex cried. She was shaking. “Okay, we’ll give it to you, just please don’t hurt them anymore.”
“Jack, Bob, bring it in! Hurry!” Mitch shouted over his shoulder, keeping an eye on Khadesh and Khamir.
“Okay, don’t shoot!” Bob shouted back. “We’re coming!” Off in the distance, Jack and Bob made themselves visible.
Two of the guards immediately sprinted towards them. One of the guards roughly yanked the duffel bag containing the Pharom from Bob’s hands. The other one did a pat down of them to search for weapons. Satisfied they weren’t armed, Jack and Bob were forced to march with their hands over their heads.
When they were closer, the armed men shoved Jack and Bob towards Mitch and Alex.
“You should not have done this,” Dr. Khadesh admonished them.
“We had no choice,” Alex cried. She was scared that it was all falling apart before her very eyes.
“Hans, open the bag,” Maximilian ordered. “Let’s see what our guests brought us.”
Mitch looked at Khadesh and Khamir. They were clearly distraught at what was happening. He felt awful.
Hans grabbed the duffel bag from the guard. He opened it and took out the heavy custom box. He looked at Mitch and Alex, his eyes narrowing. “It’s locked.”
“Open it,” Maximilian ordered Mitch and Alex.
She looked to Khadesh. Her eyes were pleading with him.
Mitch nodded almost imperceptibly.
Khadesh considered them for a moment. He set his shoulders. “They cannot. Only I can.”
“Then do it!” Maximilian said.
Hans brought the box over to Khadesh.
Khadesh pulled the long, thin key out of a hidden pouch attached to the inside of his belt.
As Maximilian watched carefully over his shoulder, Khadesh opened the lock, punched in his 15-digit security code, and scanned his thumbprint. The container snapped opened, revealing the foam-filled steel casing within. Gently, Khadesh pulled the strange metallic obelisk from its protective case.
Maximilian immediately grabbed it from him. It was much heavier than he expected from its size. He felt its faint trace of energy. “Incredible,” he whispered as he gazed at it. There was no mistaking it was the object he had been seeking. “Finally, it’s mine.”
Khadesh looked at Mitch and Alex.
Khamir shifted uneasily.
Maximilian, holding the Pharom in one hand and leaning it against his arm, unhooked his walkie-talkie from his belt holster with the other. “Professor Dustimaine, Fessel! Come in. Are you ready for us?”
“We are,” a familiar voice answered.
The four friends tensed at the sound of Dustimaine’s voice. It had been a year and a half since they had last seen him or Fessel, and after what had happened in Egypt last time, they didn’t expect to cross paths again.
“And you still have my pendant?” Maximilian asked.
“Yes,” Dustimaine replied. “So far, I’ve found a couple of glyphs down here that match symbols on the pendant. I think there could be more.”
“Excellent,” Maximilian said, smiling. That was progress. His anticipation was reaching a fever pitch. He felt electric. “Meet us at the entrance right now. Over and out,” he said, then he put the walkie-talkie back into its holster. He looked at the group assembled before him. “Let’s go.”
Hans and the guards nodded.
“Go where?” Alex asked.
“To the chamber where you stole my artifact from,” Maximilian said. “I know that there’s a power source down there where we can connect this device. I’ve had your former bosses studying it since you so kindly left the door open for us.”
“A pleasure,” Jack sniped.
Bob was shocked at his friend’s brazen attitude in the face of these dangerous men. “Be quiet, Jack,” he whispered.
“I’m sure,” Maximilian replied to Jack, smirking. He looked to Mitch and Alex. “I think you’ll enjoy being down there again, reminiscing about how my employee met an unfortunate end there. Thanks to your carelessness, I might add.”
Alex’s blood ran cold at the memory of the man’s grisly death.
Maximilian saw her reaction. “Feel a little guilty about his death, do you?”
“Shut up!” she screamed, her intense reaction betraying more of her feelings than she meant to.
“It wasn’t our fault,” Mitch said, putting a calming hand on her shoulder. “We had no idea what we were dealing with or that a spy would sneak down there behind our backs.”
“Regardless, down we go. Great things await me.” He gazed admiringly at the object in his possession. It was remarkable and unique in all the world. ‘This is going to change my life,’ he thought to himself. Nothing would stop that now.
Chapter 51
Prelude to War, Circa 10,000 B.C.
ZHEK had been working on two fronts as he stepped up his campaign against the Royal Family. He had known that it was only a matter of time before the King and his guards came looking for both him and Rekar. The two men had left Rekar’s home and moved out to a small hamlet far outside of Tessea. They had scouted it as the perfect place to begin the next phase of their plan to topple the Royal Family.
There, Zhek had continued to marshal his forces. After he and the still grieving Rekar had established a base, he had sent word for the rest of his followers to join him with horses and weapons and other supplies. He was raising an army to take the Palace by force.
The second front Zhek had worked on was the leaking of additional disinformation to the people to further turn them against House Selaren. But this time, it was the Queen he attacked. Word was spread that it was the Queen herself who had killed Princess Zazmaria. That fact had never been revealed. It was said that for a long time Mindara had desired to weave and trick her way into the Royal Family as more than a mere handmaiden. When Zazmaria confronted her about this, Mindara killed her. It was claimed that the Royal Family had knowingly and willingly participated in the cover-up, as the King had long desired Mindara and hated Princess Zazmaria.