Garrick clapped a hand on the shoulder of his friend. “We don’t. But there’s no turning back now.”
“I suppose not,” Warren acknowledged. “What’s in there?”
“Not more bloody monsters, I hope!”
“Our true objective, according to Merrek,” Aldrick said.
“If it’s the right bloody place…”
“To save my people,” Aelianna said, peering inside the great doors.
“To save all our people,” Aldrick corrected.
Garrick grinned. “There’s only one way to find out.”
They strode through the opening and entered the shining temple, leaving behind the cool night air and crashing surf. The moment they crossed the golden threshold, the enormous golden doors swung shut behind them and closed with a resounding boom, sealing them inside.
Chapter 16
When the temple doors slammed shut, a blast of air extinguished the nearby torches, plunging the white marble hallway into semi-darkness. Warren flinched and yelped in surprise, but then miraculously the torches sputtered back to life. Scanning the hallway, they could see no one present beside themselves, and everything appeared identical to when they had first entered.
“What do you think Aldrick? Is it magic?” Garrick asked with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.
“At this point, I would believe just about anything,” Aldrick admitted in a flat tone.
Warren tugged at the handle of one of the large golden doors. “They won’t open!”
Garrick smiled. “We aren’t going that way, are we?”
Warren backed away from the entrance with a look of chagrin. “No, I suppose we aren’t.”
Dathan unsheathed his sword. “Right, I don’t know about bloody magic, but some damn thing relit the bloody torches. Better safe than bloody sorry.”
“Yes,” Aelianna nodded, retrieving an arrow from her dwindling supply.
They walked along the pristine white hallway for a while until it ended abruptly at the top of an immaculate marble staircase, which spiraled down out of sight. The stairs were narrower than the hallway, and they descended into the unknown depths of the temple in single file. They followed the curving stairs, which were just as pristine and polished as the rest of the temple, until they arrived at the bottom.
Another short hallway led to a magnificently carved archway. At its apex, a beneficent figure gazed down at them with an adoring expression, and a sky full of stars and expanding orbs sprung forth from his outstretched hands and down both sides of the arch.
“The All Father?”
Aldrick nodded. “Creating the sky and the stars.”
Passing through the majestic archway, they entered a large circular room, which was even more beautiful and immaculate than the rest of the temple. The round chamber was brightly lit by rows of smokeless, burning torches, held by more of the intricate golden sconces. The walls were painted and carved with images depicting various scenes from the past, some of which Aldrick recognized from his studies. The closest was an expanded, dramatic representation of creation, as described in the book of Anunnabi. The room was large; Aldrick suspected the entire town hall of Ubarra would have fit inside and still had room to spare.
A circular area of blue and green tiles dominated the center of the floor; the top of which protruded like a partially buried sphere. Aldrick was struck by the similarity of the object to what he had seen in his vision, when he floated far above the spinning globe of seas and lands.
A dozen stone pillars surrounded the spherical tiled object, arranged in an equidistant circle between the globular structure and the concave walls. Unlike the pristine white marble floor and walls, the pillars were fashioned of polished dark black marble, with bright gold bands evenly spaced up their length. Aldrick thought they made an interesting, if unusual contrast to the rest of the temple. The ceiling above was a lofty golden dome, shiny and brilliant in its perfection.
Aelianna broke the silence. “Clavis does not pull.”
“What do you mean?”
“It stop here.”
“Perhaps what we seek is in this room…”
Warren glanced around with a dubious expression. “I don’t see anything but the centerpiece, stone pillars, and the carvings on the walls.”
Dathan looked at the closest wall. “What are these bloody scenes?”
“They illustrate various stories,” Aldrick explained, turning to the closest wall. “For example, this one shows the creation story. Here you see the All Father creating his three children. Next it depicts the Tripartite Pantheon taking dominion over the three respective aspects of creation: Anu the spirited over the sky, Kian the logical over the land, and Nizar the covetous over the underworld.”
“I not know this story,” Aelianna said. “We believe Mother Zam’mana create world.”
“I read the creation story of Kemett once,” Aldrick said. “Although large parts of the story are different, many of the details are similar. I had always believed they were nothing but interesting stories and parables, yet here we stand in the Temple of Kian…”
Aldrick was interrupted when the foundations of the temple began to shake and rumble, and they were forced to grab the walls for support, or risk being knocked to the pristine marble floor. The rounded blue and green tiled semi-sphere in the center of the room abruptly split in half, and the resulting crack slowly widened into a large open circle.
There was an audible click as the sides of the sphere slid back to create a round circular pit. The tremors quickly escalated, as the head of a massive statue appeared in the opening. The rest of the form continued to rise amidst a cloud of dust and a cacophonous grinding. The towering statue ascended with a loud boom, and a muscular statuesque figure fashioned from polished white stone with gold highlights, gazed down at them. The reverential figure easily stood the height of an ancient tree, the head of the statue nearly reaching the glowing golden dome high above.
“What in bloody Urkalla?” Dathan cursed, as the rumbling tremors slowed to aftershocks.
“That statue is so realistic,” Warren marveled, his voice filled with wonder. “Who is it?”
Aldrick blinked. “It’s Kian.”
Garrick raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure? It doesn’t look like depictions I’ve seen of him.”
Aldrick nodded. “You’ve only seen artist’s representations, but that’s him. I recognize him from my vision.”
“Why did statue come from floor?” Aelianna demanded. “What you do?”
“I don’t know,” Aldrick shrugged. “I was just describing the creation story.”
Garrick appraised the statue. “It happened after you mentioned the Temple of Kian. We should check it out.”
“What?”
Garrick grinned. “What could possibly go wrong?”
Warren rolled his eyes. “Yeah, what could go wrong?”
“I hope we don’t bloody find out,” Dathan muttered.
Aldrick was normally a cautious man, but Garrick was correct; they would not locate their true objective by doing nothing. The Clavis had brought them here, after all. “Please be careful Garrick!”
Garrick put on an innocent expression. “When am I not careful?” Warren snorted loudly, to which the king replied in an offended tone, “Do you mind?”
Warren shrugged and looked around nervously.
Approaching the statue, Aldrick felt a chill down his spine as the intense gaze of the lifelike stone eyes followed him.
Garrick was the first to reach the statue, and called for the others to join him. Clustering behind him, they saw a large stone tablet centered between the feet of the immense statue, the front of which was inscribed with unfamiliar runes.
“I don’t recognize these symbols,” Aldrick said.
Garrick grinned. “It says, ‘speak the magic word to receive the ultimate power of the universe.’”
Warren gaped in amazement. “Really?”
“No,” Garrick laughed. “I can’t re
ad ancient runes!”
Aelianna scowled. “Sly desert fox try to be funny at wrong time.”
Aldrick decided to head off an argument. “Since we can’t read it, let’s look around and see what we can find.”
When examination of the tablet provided no clues, Aldrick moved to study the walls, starting at the creation story. The others spread out, meandering around the statue and the room, trying to decipher the stories and parables pictured.
Aldrick was starting to feel frustrated, when Garrick called him over. “Aldrick, take a look at this! In this carving, a man is placing a small pyramid into the base of a statue. In the next scene, it’s handing him a large wedge shaped object.”
Aldrick gasped when he recognized the small pyramidal object in the first scene. “That looks like the artifact! It’s so small; I’m surprised you saw it.”
“I felt drawn to this area.”
Aldrick nodded in understanding. “Aelianna, the artifact please.”
The warrior handed him the small tri-pointed device. Aldrick strode back to the statue of Kian, which maintained its silent vigil in the center of the room. They gathered around while Aldrick studied the tablet, until he grunted in surprise and pointed to one of the strange runes that was carved the exact size and shape of the Clavis.
Aldrick held his breath and placed the golden device into its matching rune. Not knowing what to expect, he released the artifact and leaned back cautiously. There was complete silence in the vast chamber for a moment, until the Clavis slowly fell out of the carved rune and toppled to the marble floor with a resounding clack.
“That’s inconvenient,” Garrick muttered.
“Indeed,” Aldrick agreed.
“Maybe you didn’t bloody ‘want’ it enough,” Dathan suggested.
“Stupid men!” Aelianna blurted, grabbing the Clavis from where it lay on the floor. “I get what I want, not you!”
Aldrick smiled. “True, maybe you should try it. You are the one who led us here.”
Aelianna stepped up to the tablet. “You could do nothing if you not have me.”
Garrick rolled his eyes. “No, of course not.”
She stepped up and held the Clavis out towards the corresponding rune on the tablet, pausing just before placing it into the carving.
“What’s wrong?” Aldrick asked.
“I travel far to save my people,” she said, all hint of sarcasm gone from her voice. “I pray to Mother Zam’mana this is what I seek.”
“Good luck,” Garrick said, and Aldrick thought he might have even been serious when he said it.
Slowly she moved the Clavis towards the carved rune. She yanked her arm back in surprise when Aldrick abruptly blurted, “Remember to concentrate on how much you want it to work.”
“Yes, I want it to work!” Aelianna scowled and returned to the tablet. Stretching out her hand, she gently placed the Clavis into the carved rune.
There was a muffled click and they cautiously backed away from the statue. Three heartbeats of silence passed, and Aldrick was beginning to think it had not worked, when the Clavis began to emit an unnatural glow.
Where the artifact had appeared to be a solid piece of gold before, it now glowed brightly from within, and with increasing luminescence. The pyramidal front abruptly detached from the back and began to spin. Another rumbling ensued, but unlike the earlier tremors that had encompassed the entire temple, these were focused only around the statue.
Aldrick stepped back and caught the gaze of the statue. The intricately carved white stone and gold figure of Kian still appeared to be staring at him. Staring up at the face of the deity, he took a few more steps back and was amazed to see the head of the statue move to follow him, with a small grinding sound of stone on stone. The stoic expression on the face of the statue softened, and the corners of the stone mouth turned up slightly in a smile.
Aldrick felt his heart skip a beat. “Did anyone see that?”
“What?”
The others began to back away, putting some distance between themselves and the statue. Abruptly the stone monolith began to move, and with a burgeoning rumble the gigantic feet broke away from their rocky foundation in the floor, amidst a billowing cloud of dust and spray of rubble. The stone Kian took a lumbering step towards them, joints grinding like an immense millstone.
“All Father help us, it’s alive!” Warren squeaked, and turning to run he tripped and fell to the marble floor.
“That’s alarming,” Garrick unsheathed his sword and turned to face the enormous statue. “Everyone move back to the hallway!”
“Wait!” Aldrick shouted.
The stone Kian turned his head, and the warm smile he had given Aldrick creaked into a frown upon seeing Garrick with his sword drawn. The giant held out a massive stone fist, and an immense flaming sword materialized. Kian took another lumbering step forward.
“Put your sword away!” Aldrick shouted in desperation.
Garrick just had time to yell, “Are you joking?” before he blocked a mighty swing from the towering statue. The force of the blow knocked him backward off his feet. The king grunted as he landed hard on the white marble, and his sword tumbled away, clattering across the floor. Dathan had his sword in hand and drew the attention of the statue, only to suffer a similar blow that sent him sprawling across the glittering marble floor.
Regaining his sword, Garrick ducked a sweeping fiery blow and struck at one leg of the stone behemoth. His sword rebounded with a shower of sparks without leaving so much as a scratch. Aelianna had bow in hand, and two consecutive arrows deflected harmlessly off the stone stomach of the giant. The warrior retrieved another arrow as Dathan recovered with a curse, striking Kian from behind with no more success than Garrick.
Aldrick pleaded for them to put away their weapons, but they ignored him and continued to attack, while dodging fiery sword slashes. Aldrick felt certain that fighting was not the answer to this situation. Failing once more in his appeals, he whirled back to the walls where he suspected the key to the true solution was. Rushing over to the creation story, Aldrick studied the carvings for clues.
He saw the depiction of the All Father creating all of existence. Next, He created the starry Tritaph to bind everything together. The carving continued with His creation of His three children, Anu, Kian and Nizar, and the split of the Tritaph into thirds, one for each child.
Kian. Creation. The Tritaph. There was something to the creation story that tugged at his memory, but when he tried concentrating on it, he was continually distracted by both the din of battle raging around him, and the others calling for his help.
He risked a glance back to see Dathan move too close to the immense fiery sword. The soldier scrambled back from the raging stone statue with the front of his tunic smoking and charred, but it appeared he would survive. The others had all but given up on attacking the slow moving, but powerful statue, concentrating their remaining energy on avoiding its mighty blows. Aldrick knew in his heart that continuing this useless battle would solve nothing.
Turning back to the wall, Aldrick closed his eyes and concentrated. He let go of his lifelong commitment to logic, reason and disbelief, and embraced the strange power he had somehow inherited. His visions always came to him when he most needed them, lately with increasing regularity and vividness, and if ever there was an opportune time for a vision, it was now. Aldrick took a deep breath and, ignoring the cacophony behind him, gave into his vision.
Chapter 17
Tiberius relit his pipe with a glowing ember from the grand fireplace in the library, and stepped back to eye the serene carved lions flanking the immense stone hearth, standing eternal guard. Their cold stone gaze seemed to cast judgment upon him. Justified or not, he felt he was at an impasse.
“What will you do?”
Tiberius turned and faced Jelénna. “I don’t know what else I can do. I’ve requisitioned additional guards and handpicked those stationed in the dungeon. The people will not stand for anything
more expansive, and rightly so.”
“He’s doing what he can,” Gormond added, taking a large bite out of a sandwich.
Jelénna grimaced. “Still, it feels we should be doing more. I don’t think we have much time before this rebellion.”
“I believe you, but until I get proof of this revolution from Paden, and some idea of their plans, there isn’t much else I can do.”
Jelénna flinched as the distant library door boomed. “I’m telling you Tiberius, it will happen.”
Tiberius sighed as he sat down in his favorite chair. “I agree with you, yet I must treat it as rumor until I have confirmation. I cannot take action based solely on rumor.”
The Key of Creation: Book 03 - The Temple of Kian Page 14