by Otto Schafer
Sarah pushed Gabi back and held her at arm’s length, her headlamp beam washing over Gabi’s face. “We got to get it together, girl. Don’t let the team see you freaking out!” Sarah said, as much to herself as to Gabi.
Gabi nodded, suppressing another laugh.
Sarah let go of Gabi’s shoulders and rubbed her sweaty palms down her pant legs. They nodded to each other and turned to the stairs as Fredy, along with María, Manuel, Andrés, and Itzel, the core of her archaeology team, entered the chamber. Each team member was loaded down, carrying coils of rope, harnesses, plastic tubs, camera gear, and tripod lighting equipment. Up above, the local laborers led by Juan, the foreman, would continue their efforts to clear debris in the other direction of the cave.
“Team, we have something major here,” Sarah said carefully.
The team froze in place, looking at her expectantly.
Sarah looked at Gabi, pressed her lips into a tight smile, and turned back to the team. “The skull racks appear to be holding the heads of a… of a… of a race of giant people with double-rowed teeth.”
Fredy blinked, then very slowly he sat a lighting tripod down on the floor with a soft clack.
No one else moved.
“See for yourselves,” she said.
Still, no one moved. They stood transfixed, perhaps in shock at Sarah’s spectacular claim. It was as if they had just stared into Medusa’s eyes and turned to stone.
Fredy was the first to break the stone-like trance, approaching the nearest rack, where one of the horizontal wooden shafts had rotted over time, causing several skulls to slide off onto the floor of the chamber. It only took Fredy a brief moment of close inspection. “Dios mío!” Fredy gasped. “Sarah’s right – they’re too large, and the teeth… I’ve never seen anything like it!”
The chamber exploded with excited energy, everyone talking at once. Andrés and Itzel began assembling the lighting and soon the circular chamber was bathed in artificial light. Fredy, Manuel, and María went to work measuring, photographing, and cataloging all the data the chamber had to offer.
“Gabi! Itzel, can you believe this?” Andrés said, taking his wife’s and daughter’s hands in his. “In my wildest dreams, I never thought we would discover anything like this place.”
Itzel shook her head. “No. Never. It’s truly amazing. This changes everything we thought we knew about the past. The implications are… my god, they’re…”
Andrés kissed her hard on the mouth then, pulling back, he smiled. “I know, my love! I know.” He grabbed Gabi, lifting her as he spun in a circle.
“¡Papá!” Gabi screeched as she twirled.
“Andrés! Please be careful! We can’t have you falling down in here.”
Andrés spun away, still grinning with excitement.
Sarah laughed to herself as she watched them. Then her laughter faded as her thoughts went somewhere else.
Gabi closed the distance between them. “Are you okay, Sarah?” she asked.
“Yes,” she breathed, “better than okay. I just wish Charles and Bre were here for this. Look there,” she said, pointing at Itzel. “It’s your mom I’m worried about.”
Gabi watched as Itzel’s smile changed to concern when she suddenly realized she was still wearing her wedding ring. Her mother always removed her ring before each day’s dig. Now she stood chewing her lower lip, apparently deciding whether to stuff the ring into her pocket or risk leaving it on her finger as she worked. “¿Mamá?”
“It’s fine,” she said with a forced smile, finally deciding to drop the ring into her front pocket rather than risk damaging it or knocking the small diamond loose.
Sarah approached her mother, pulling a long gold chain from beneath her shirt. Unclasping it, she pulled the chain through the eyelet of a small charm. “This charm was a gift from Breanne. This gold chain was a gift from someone else.” Next, she removed a thin bracelet from her wrist, attached the charm, then placed the bracelet back around her wrist, double-checking the clasp.
“Itzel?” Sarah said, approaching the woman. “Can I see your wedding ring?”
Surprised, Itzel smiled. “Of course.” Carefully she removed it from her pocket and passed it to Sarah.
Sarah slid the ring onto her gold chain and smiled in return. “Now turn around.”
“Oh, Sarah – I can’t take this.”
“Yes, you can,” Sarah said reassuringly as she pointed at the ring. “Now please, I insist – take this before you lose your ring.”
“But, Sarah…”
Sarah gestured to her to turn around. “Maybe someday I will have a ring to hang from it and you can give it back to me,” she said, with a small smile.
The pain in Sarah’s eyes did not go unnoticed. Itzel started to turn but then suddenly threw her arms around the woman. “Thank you! I promise I will keep it safe for you until you need it.” She turned around, pulling her long hair to the side.
Sarah clasped the necklace around the woman’s neck. “There you go. Now then, let’s go make history!”
Itzel spun back toward her, tucking the necklace into her shirt. “Yes! History!”
“Gabi, if it’s okay with Itzel, let’s take another look at that hole.”
Itzel nodded. “Just be careful, Gabi. I am itching to get photos and measurements of these skulls, and did you see the murals? We should photograph those right away. Just in case the air or all of us breathing in here causes a reaction with the pigments.”
Gabi knelt down, reexamining the rim of the hole under the new wash of artificial light. She could see no tooling marks in the four equally placed notches, nor could she see tooling marks around the walls of the perfectly circular hole. Finally, she said, “Sarah, I don’t think this place is real.”
Sarah nodded. “I think I know what you mean, Gabi. How closely did you look at the stairs when you came down?”
“The seams on the stairs? And the ones on the walls of the staircase?” she asked. “You noticed them too?”
“I did, but I don’t think the others have, and I don’t have an explanation for it… not yet. Do you?”
“You’re asking me?” Gabi asked in surprise.
“Of course,” Sarah said, matter-of-factly. Lowering her voice, she continued, “Listen, Gabi, sometimes you have to use your intuition.” She pointed at her gut. “I believe in it as sure as I believe the sun shines. So, I ask you, Gabi, what is yours telling you about this place?”
Gabi gazed aimlessly at the top of the chamber, considering Sarah’s words as she tried to consciously access her gut, to feel something inside her, to listen for it to tell her how she felt. But that wasn’t how it worked, was it? No. She knew that. Instinctively she knew that just like she knew this place wasn’t natural. “Sarah? I think this place was constructed. Just like the pyramid above isn’t really a mountain, this place isn’t really a cave. The whole thing – the stairs, this whole room, and this hole too – I don’t think it leads to a cenote,” she said, gesturing with a nod.
Sarah nodded too, looking around the room as if for the first time. Then she looked back at the rim of the hole and ran her hand along the surface. “Smooth as glass. Maybe you are onto something, Gabi. Fredy, come here, please,” Sarah said, scanning the chamber.
Gabi’s face stretched into a wide grin.
Fredy came to her side, his eyes dancing all around the newly lit room. “Sarah, this place is incredible. The skulls… they’re, they’re… Sarah, this is a whole new race of people right in the heart of Mesoamerica! And unknown until now! Have you looked at the walls? The murals! María and Itzel are brushing them now, and the colors they are revealing are as vibrant as the day they were painted! Sarah, they may tell the whole story of this place! Just think of it! Until this very moment! A race completely forgotten by history! I… I just… just…” But the words wouldn’t come.
Gabi giggled. It was funny to watch Fredy struggle with the initial shock of what she and Sarah had already experienced.
“Alright,
Fredy,” Sarah said, chuckling. “You’re going to be world famous, but first let’s figure this out. This place is just starting to show us its secrets.” She pointed down the shaft. “I need to get to the bottom of this shaft. Help me gear up. I’m going in.”
Gabi looked at Fredy as concern washed over his face like a dark shadow.
Suddenly Fredy found his voice. “Sarah, please, wait. I recommend you send Andrés first. We don’t know what this is or what problems you may encounter.” His scowl deepened as he pressed his lips into a tight line.
Gabi looked back to Sarah.
“I’ll be fine,” Sarah said firmly, her own face hardening with determination.
Now back to Fredy.
Fredy’s jaw tightened as he seemed to realize he was in for an argument he couldn’t win. But he made one more effort. “Andrés is a professional climber. Let him go first and at least make sure it is safe.”
Before Fredy could finish, Sarah had her harness on and was connecting the figure-eight device to a length of cord like she had done this a thousand times. Gabi thought she probably had done this a thousand times in a thousand places all over the world.
“I know, Fredy – that’s why he is going to come double-check my gear and make sure my tie-off is secure.”
As Gabi listened to the back and forth, she realized that if Sarah was getting this much trouble out of Fredy, there was no scenario that was going to have Gabi rappelling down the shaft next to Sarah.
Fredy knelt beside Sarah, placing a hand gently on her upper arm. “Please, Sarah, reconsider. It may be booby-trapped like the tile was. Let us not forget that whoever built this place put in a false ceiling in the upper chamber. We still don’t understand how they were able to get all those stones in place. I beg you, Sarah. Who knows what they were capable of!”
“Which is why I can’t let Andrés go first.” She smiled then, placing her hand on Fredy’s. “Fredy, I will be fine.”
Fredy could only nod as he handed her a two-way radio. “Andrés,” Fredy called out, “Sarah needs you to check her gear. She is going to descend into the shaft.”
“Me estás tomando el pelo,” Andrés answered in disbelief.
“No. No, I’m not kidding.”
Andrés crossed the chamber, making his way around the foot of the giant statue. “Sarah, let me go. This could be very dangerous. There could be traps… or gas… or—”
Sarah held up a hand and rolled her eyes.
Gabi never tired of watching Sarah grab the lead and take control. Sarah was a strong woman – and a fierce leader, just as Gabi planned to be when she was running her own digs.
Andrés looked at Gabi. “What? What did I say?”
Gabi shrugged. “If you don’t know, Papá, I’m sure not going to tell you,” she said with a smirk.
Andrés’s eyebrows went up.
“You didn’t say anything, compadre. Sarah is just muy obstinada.” Fredy frowned.
“Ah… I can see that,” Andrés said, giving Sarah’s figure-eight knot a firm tug before nodding his approval.
“What’s that, Fredy? What did you say?” Sarah asked, pulling on her leather gloves.
Fredy smiled as he clipped the gas sensor to Sarah’s waist. “I was just saying you are very determined.”
“You know, Fredy,” she started to say as she backed to the edge of the shaft. “I speak Spanish… enough to be dangerous anyway. And I would not have gotten this far if I weren’t stubborn.”
Now Fredy rolled his eyes.
Andrés held up his hands. “¡Culpa mía! ¡Lo siento!”
“You should be sorry,” Sarah said, an ornery smile spreading across her face. She reached up and clicked on her helmet-mounted headlamp, then leaned back over the opening until the rope pulled taut. Sarah met Gabi’s eyes, grinned, and winked. “Keep them in line until I get back, Gabi!”
Gabi’s face lit up as she returned the smile.
With not an ounce of hesitation, Sarah jumped backward, dropping into the shaft.
This was the woman Gabi wanted to be. The woman she would be: strong, fearless, and unapologetic.
But as Gabi watched Sarah disappear over the side, a strange sensation panged in her stomach. If this was intuition, she didn’t like it.
10
The Samurai
Wednesday, April 6 – God Stones, Day 1
Petersburg, Illinois
The tip of Phillip’s sword nicked Apep’s neck on the first lunge. Without missing a beat in his rhythm, he spun and struck at Apep’s side.
Apep easily deflected the strike and retreated as Phillip advanced.
When Phillip made the plan, he knew the basement ceiling was low and the back room too small for a proper sword fight. He also knew that he needed to force Apep to stay within striking range. Give him too much space or time, and he would use the God Stones. Phillip had no intention of giving Apep either and responded with a flurry of lunges, backing Apep across the small room until the heel of his foot struck the wall. He had him against the ropes. Once cornered, Phillip began an assault of precision strikes, gracefully flicking his wrist back and forth.
Apep struggled to match Phillip’s speed and technique.
It was time to end this. Phillip stepped in close to Apep, grabbing him by the throat with his free hand. Flexing his jaw in determination, he squeezed with all he had in hopes of crushing the bastard’s throat. He looked Apep dead in his soulless eyes as he raised his sword horizontal to Apep’s face.
As soon as Phillip’s hand wrapped around Apep’s throat, Apep reached out with his empty hand. He flexed his fingers, drawing in the power of the God Stones.
Phillip felt the God Stones’ power electrify the air. It was familiar – even though he hadn’t felt it since the days of Turek, he knew that power. But not like this, not free of the arc; never free of the arc. His mind screamed in agony as he took aim at Apep’s right eye, thrusting the business end of the sword toward Apep’s face.
Raw power surged into Apep’s hand. With the tip of the blade only millimeters from his eye, Apep grabbed Phillip’s sword with his bare hand, wrapping his fingers around it as if gripping a stick and not a razor-sharp blade. With an easy twist of the wrist, he snapped the ancient blade with a metallic crack.
The sound from the fracturing blade was wrong. A sound that should not be possible from a blade impossible to break. Phillip’s eyes stretched wide, first in horror then in rage. He renewed his grip on Apep’s neck, feeling his fingers sink into the soft tissue. He would rip the throat from his neck with his bare hands if that’s what it took.
Apep began to laugh. Then he drove the broken piece of sword into Phillip’s chest.
Phillip twisted, trying desperately to slip the strike. The awkward maneuver locked up his bad hip and shot white-hot pain down his leg and into his toes. While he managed to protect his heart from the strike, the blade still hit home, biting sharply as it slipped between the rib bone just below his left shoulder. The cold steel had missed his heart but not his lung.
Apep gave Phillip a push and stepped forward, away from the wall. His hood fell back, revealing a familiar face, wreathed with an unfamiliar psychotic smile.
“You!” Phillip said, raising his broken sword.
“Surprised? I’ve been here in this tiny town for some time now, Phillip. Did you really think I was unaware of what you have been up to? Did you think I did not know the Keepers’ plans?” Apep said, stepping forward again.
Phillip retreated now, backing slowly toward the collapsed tunnel.
“You’re all fools to believe Garrett is your savior. You tried to hide him from me, changing his name, then changing it back. Ridiculous. I’ve known who he is for years. I’ve inserted myself into his life, gained his trust. Turek always thought if he put enough sand and dirt on top of what he didn’t like, somehow that would make everything go away. He could never do the hard bit, could he? Never just kill what he didn’t like – and that is why humans will always be inf
erior. You see, Keeper? Turek tried to hide me under the ground, but I didn’t go away!” Apep spat. “No amount of dirt could keep me buried.”
Phillip coughed bloody spittle into his fist. His lung was filling with blood. He wasn’t sure if it was the coppery taste of blood or Apep’s foul voice that was causing the bile that stung the back of his throat.
Apep spun the sword in a figure eight as he stepped forward again.
“You have made this too easy. I think even Turek would be disappointed in you. You have unwisely instructed the boy to lead me to the temple. To the very thing you don’t want me to find. How could you be so stupid? Before you speak, I know, I know – you’re human. But even that should be no excuse for a faux pas like this.”
Apep stepped forward again. Phillip had no more room. One more step and Apep would be in range to strike. He needed to think of something.
“Now look at what your stupidity has gotten you. Once I align the stones back into the Sound Eye, I’ll soon have my army and this wretched world will be nothing more than a distant, burning memory.”
“It wasn’t… stupidity… Apep. It was… careful planning.”
“Yes, of course – your little prophecy. To believe in such foolishness is worse than if you had just erred. How will your people ever forgive what their blind faith is about to cost them?”
Phillip grunted as he leaned forward, scooping up the lantern from the floor.
“You sure you want to do that, Phillip? The whole fire thing didn’t work out so well last time. Too bad about that hip – damn thing seems to be on its last leg.” Apep chuckled at his own pun. Suddenly he advanced on Phillip, his face twisted anew as he bit down on his lower lip and raised his sword.
Phillip’s hip screamed again as the pain tried to rival that caused by the steel blade lodged in his chest. He shuffled sideways past the collapsed tunnel to the furthest point from the basement entrance.
Apep charged forward.
Phillip threw the lantern just as his feet tangled, and he fell back hard to the rough floor. The lantern sailed past Apep, smashing into the threshold of the basement doorway.