Jake Ransom and the Skull King's Shadow

by James Rollins

  The girl reached the piled boulders first. She searched for a gap in them, some way to crawl to safety. Jake and Kady reached her, along with the other boy.

  “Over here!” the girl called out.

  She dropped to her hands and knees and crawled into a gap between two of the boulders. “It widens!” she echoed back with relief.

  Jake nudged Kady toward the hole. “Go.”

  He made her head in first, but he kept tight to her heels. The boy in the toga followed last. He climbed in backward and kept his spear pointed toward the opening.

  Jake discovered the girl was right. Behind the boulder, a small cave was formed by slabs of broken rock. Though it was a cramped squeeze, it held the four of them.

  Just as Jake started to sit, their temporary shelter shook. The T-rex had slammed into the rock pile. Dust drifted down along with a scatter of pebbles. Jake stared up. He pictured the stack of stones overhead and cringed lower.

  A huffing breath washed over them. It smelled like rotten eggs. The T-rex snuffled after its prey. Jake leaned down to stare out the tunnel.

  “Stay back,” Kady warned.

  All Jake could see was a pair of tree-trunk-sized legs. Massive claws clenched and sank deep into the ground. One leg kicked back and threw aside a thick clot of mud and rock, leaving a deep gouge in the forest floor.

  Jake lay shoulder to shoulder with the other boy. His companion kept a grip on his spear, but the weapon wasn’t long enough to reach the tunnel’s end. Their eyes met. They sized each other up. The boy seemed about his age.

  “My name’s Jake,” he offered as introduction, not knowing if he’d be understood. He didn’t know what else to say. What was proper etiquette when hiding in a hole with a stranger while a T-rex outside wanted to eat you?

  “Pindor,” the boy replied. “Pindor Tiberius, second son to Elder Marcellus Tiberius.” Jake heard a note of shame in his voice. “And that’s Mari.” Pindor pointed a thumb behind him.

  “Marika,” the girl corrected.

  “Who cares who you all are!” Kady blurted out. “What the heck is going on?” Her exasperation and anger made her move too quickly. Her head hit the rocky roof of their cave. “Ow.”

  Before anyone could answer, the T-rex began to kick and claw again. It ripped more gouges, like a chicken digging for worms. But the four of them were the worms. The T-rex slashed at the entrance to the tunnel.

  If it didn’t stop, the beast could bring the whole place crashing down on them. Jake glanced around. There was no other exit. They were trapped.

  He stared out again. Why was the T-rex so determined? There had to be easier prey.

  The explanation came from Marika.

  “You shouldn’t have tried to steal her egg,” she accused her friend.

  Pindor twisted around. “I would’ve gotten it if you hadn’t stepped on that broken shell and made so much noise.”

  Jake sighed. So the T-rex was a female, a mother guarding her nest. No wonder…

  The beast suddenly slammed again into the rock face and rattled their shelter. Somewhere overhead, a boulder crashed. They all held their breaths—but their shelter held.

  Only for how much longer?

  From behind, Kady poked Pindor in the back of his leg. “You have a spear. Go out there and drive it away.”

  The boy’s face blanched. He turned aside and mumbled under his breath. “It wouldn’t do any good.”

  “He’s right,” Marika said. “One spear is not enough. Not against such a creature.”

  Still, Jake noted how Pindor’s fingers tightened on his spear—to stop the trembling in his hands.

  “We’ll have to hope she goes away on her own,” Marika said with little conviction.

  Kady swung around, as if putting her back to the matter would make it all go away. It was how she faced anything beyond her control. By denying it existed. Out of sight, out of mind.

  He remembered her heated words back at the museum. About their mother and father. She seemed to find it easier to bottle the hurt away, to deny it, to turn her back on it all.

  Jake refused to do that.

  What would his parents do in this situation?

  He struggled for a long breath and came to one firm conclusion.

  He had no idea.

  The T-rex struck the rocks again with its shoulder. Another boulder came crashing down outside and bounced across the forest floor. Startled, the T-rex grumbled at the stray boulder—then returned its attention to its buried prey.

  Claws began to dig.

  Jake backed away and bumped into Kady. She pulled him closer. “This has gotta be a dream, right?” she asked.

  He had wondered the same thing. But from the fear in her eyes, she didn’t believe it. Neither did Jake. This was all real.

  “What are we going to do?” she asked.

  With his eyes accustomed to the dimness, Jake spotted movement at Kady’s shoulder. Dangling from her vest pocket were the earbuds from her iPod. As the buds bobbled and swayed, Jake stared for a second, half hypnotized. An idea struggled through his panic.

  Something…

  Hadn’t he read…

  High ranges of pitch…

  “Watson!” he suddenly yelled out.

  Kady jumped and struck the crown of her head on the rooftop again. “Ow…Jake, you idiot…”

  Jake twisted around to his new backpack, khaki colored to match his clothes, and fumbled it open. He searched inside. Back at the hotel, he had simply dumped all the stuff from his old backpack into the new one. He should have spent more time organizing it.

  The T-rex roared.

  At last, Jake’s fingers blindly found what he was searching for. He pulled it out and scooted next to Pindor by the entrance.

  “What are you planning?” the boy asked. “Do you have a weapon?”

  Jake lifted the dog whistle up. “I hope so.”

  The T-rex filled the world outside the cave. One claw lifted to attack the boulder pile again.

  Jake took a deep breath and brought the whistle to his lips. With all the strength in his chest, he blew as hard as he could. No noise came out, but Jake knew the effect the whistle had on his basset hound at home. Watson could hear it from a mile away.

  As he blew, the T-rex lowered its raised claw and backed a step away—then another. It shook its head, plainly bothered.

  Out of breath, Jake had to stop and suck in more air.

  The T-rex lowered its muzzle and bellowed.

  Jake’s hair blew back from his forehead. The T-rex’s breath reeked worse than a gym locker.

  “What are you doing?” Kady said, and tried to pull Jake away. “You’re just making it more angry.”

  Jake shook her off. “That’s the point!”

  Turning back to the entrance, Jake blew the whistle again. The T-rex shook its head and began to wobble on its feet.

  “What’s happening?” Kady asked.

  “The skulls of T-rexes,” Jake explained, sucking in another breath. “At least, their fossils…show they have giant tympanic cavities.”

  Kady frowned at him. “In English, Einstein.”

  “They have big ears!” he gasped out. “So high pitches are magnified to them. Dog whistles should be excruciating.”

  Bringing the steel whistle to his lips, Jake blew with all the strength he could muster. It felt like his head was going to explode.

  At last, the giant carnivore swung around with a heavy sweep of its tail. It pounded away with a final roar over its shoulder—then dove back into the jungle.

  They waited to be sure.

  Marika finally spoke. “I think she’ll head back to her nest now!”

  Just in case she was wrong, Jake kept the whistle in his hand.

  “Is it safe to leave?” Kady asked Marika.

  The girl shrugged and stared at Jake’s hand. “A silent flute that scares away thunder lizards. You bear powerful alchemies.”

  With the immediate danger over, questions flooded J
ake’s mind. They jumbled together. What was this place? How were humans and dinosaurs living together? How did Jake and Kady get here?

  Before he could settle on a single question to ask, Marika said, “We should go now. All the noise might attract other creatures.”

  Pindor shoved forward with his spear. “Let me go first,” he said glumly. “In case there are more beasts about.”

  But the boy’s look betrayed him. He would not meet Jake’s eye. After the demonstration here, Pindor plainly wanted some distance from these strangers. Suspicion pinched his face.

  Pindor’s companion was not as wary. After they climbed out of the cave, Marika’s gaze locked on Jake for a moment. Sunlight flashed from her eyes with an emerald fire, revealing a mix of curiosity and amusement.

  She pointed an arm up toward the neighboring cliff. “There’s a path up that way. We must get past the Broken Gate. Then we’ll be safe.”

  Safe?

  Jake glanced back toward the dark jungle as it resumed its squawking and buzzing chorus. Just as he suspected, no place was truly safe in this new world. A saurian bellow echoed out of the deep jungle.

  Jake shivered, suddenly remembering the darkness that had brought them here. And the words that had scratched out of the blackness between their world and this one.

  Come to me…

  6

  BROKEN GATE

  Jake climbed the narrow trail that headed up the cliff in a series of steep switchbacks. Marika led the way. Pindor guarded their rear and urged them to move silently so they wouldn’t attract other monsters. They hiked quickly. The pace had left little time for questions.

  Still, Jake managed to get a closer look at Marika’s jade necklace. It was carved with a symbol.

  There was no mistaking it. It was definitely Mayan. The glyph’s name, balam, meant “jaguar.” The symbol even looked like the jungle cat. Marika also wore an embroidered Mayan blouse, like one Jake’s mother once brought home from Central America. Even the girl’s skin was the same shade as his mother’s morning tea, mixed with a generous dollop of cream.

  Could she truly be Maya?

  And what about Pindor? Jake managed a closer look at the cut of his sandals and the bronze work of his spearhead. It was all of Roman design, possibly second century B.C. Even his hair, tied long in back, had bangs cut straight across the front like some caesar out of time.

  Maya, Romans, and T-rexes.

  What was going on?

  After another two turns in the trail, the top of the cliff appeared high overhead. A narrow pass cut through two massive guard towers built out of dark stones, each ten stories high. An archway once bridged the two towers, but it had fallen away, leaving only stumped ends. The spires appeared long deserted.

  “The Broken Gate,” Marika said.

  As they climbed toward the pass, Jake noted the pocked and blood-dark color of the gate’s bricks. Volcanic stone.

  Marika stopped ahead of him, so suddenly that Jake bumped into her. An eerie screech split the continual droning whir of insects. It came from the sky, sounding like a rabbit being strangled. Marika twisted around, her eyes wide with raw terror, more terror than she’d showed with T-rex.

  Jake turned, too, and Pindor and Kady halted. High in the sky, a large creature drifted on leathery wings. At first glance, Jake thought it might be a pterodactyl, another saurian hunter like the tyrannosaurus. But as he squinted, he recognized his mistake. The wings were attached to a gaunt creature that appeared to be just leather over bone. As it swept past, Jake spotted arms and legs and a bald domed head ridged by a hard crest.

  Jake’s whole body shuddered, sensing the unnaturalness of this creature. Yet, at the same time, it reminded him of something—something he’d seen before.

  “A grakyl!” Marika’s voice rang with disbelief and horror. Her gaze ripped from the skies and fixed on Jake. For the first time, he read suspicion in her open face. Then it was gone, hardening into concern. “Make for the gate! It’s our only chance!”

  Marika set off as another screech split the sky.

  Jake followed, but he kept watch. Overhead, the creature turned on a wing tip. Jake sensed its cold gaze upon them. With another cry, its wings tucked and it tilted into a dive. They’d been spotted.

  Marika sprinted up the rocky trail toward the pass. The stone towers waited. Jake chased after her, followed at his heels by Pindor and Kady.

  As they neared the towers, Jake’s skin began to prickle, as if a thousand spiders were dancing over his flesh. With each new step, the feeling grew more intense. The prickling began to burn. Confused, Jake stumbled on a loose rock.

  “Mari!” Pindor called ahead.

  The Mayan girl glanced back and saw Jake stumble. She reached and grabbed his wrist. The burning sensation snuffed out with her touch, though Jake still felt a strange electricity and pressure in the air.

  He allowed himself to be dragged up to the Broken Gate and into the shadow of the towers. Marika hauled him another few steps, and the pressure popped away. He turned and saw Pindor had a grip on his sister’s elbow as they dove together through the gate.

  The winged creature swooped down with a shriek, diving under the broken archway. Jake ducked, but the creature slammed to a halt. It writhed in midair, fixed in the archway like a living insect pinned to a board. Spatters of lightning coursed over its body. Some kind of field seemed to restrain it.

  Jake fell back, getting a good look at the creature. Thrashing limbs ended in claws. Razored spurs decorated knee and elbow. But its face was the worst of all—not because it was monstrous with its porcine nose and fanged maw, but because it was too human. Jake read the intelligence in its agonized eyes. That gaze focused on him, intently, as if recognizing him.

  Then with a final screeching cry, the grakyl battered back against the force that held it trapped. It twisted away from the Broken Gate, wings beating desperately. Once well enough away, it finally seemed to catch a bit of wind and flew a crooked path back into the forest.

  At his side, Marika let out a long rattling sigh. Her eyes tracked the creature, making sure it had truly departed. Finally she turned away. “A grakyl,” she mumbled again. The fear in her voice was still there, but now it was threaded with elation and a trace of amazement. “I never saw one before…only drawings…from stories.”

  “But what the heck was it?” Kady asked, pushing forward.

  Marika finally seemed to notice that she still held Jake’s wrist. She pulled her fingers away.

  Pindor answered Kady’s question. His voice dropped to a whisper, his eyes on the sky. “A grakyl. They’re the cursed beasts of Kalverum Rex. The Skull King. His slaves. They—”

  Marika cut him off. “We should be going. The sun’s already dropping low.”

  Jake rubbed his wrist where Marika had gripped him. He remembered the pricking burn as he neared the far side of the Broken Gate. Jake sensed that if Marika hadn’t grabbed him, he might have ended the same as the creature. Unable to pass.

  Had it been some form of invisible wall? A defense to keep anything from passing over the ridge? Jake studied the towers. While the stones did seem to be volcanic, no mortar glued them together. Instead they were fitted together in a complex pattern, a jigsaw puzzle made of stone. Jake also noted faint writing in bands along the tower on the left.

  It wasn’t like any writing he’d ever seen.

  Before he could study it further, Marika headed down the trail away from the gate.

  Jake had no choice but to follow.

  Past the towers, a huge valley opened. Steep cliffs surrounded the valley in a continuous circular ridge. The valley looked like a meteor crater, but Jake noted vents dotting the edges, steaming with sulfurous gases.

  No, it wasn’t a meteor crater.

  The valley was the cone of a massive volcano.

  And it wasn’t empty.

  “What is that place down there?” Kady finally asked.

  Jake had the same question as he tried to make
sense of what he was seeing. Far below, a good section of the valley floor had been cleared of trees and spread outward in a patchwork of tilled fields and orchards. The open lands all surrounded a sprawling city of stone buildings and timbered lodges.

  From the distance, there seemed no rhyme or reason to the place’s layout. To one side rose what appeared to be a medieval castle. But beyond that, carved into the far ridge, were tiers of cliff-dwelling homes, similar to ones Jake had visited in the deserts of New Mexico. And was that an Egyptian obelisk rising out of a town square? It looked like a miniature Washington Monument but was topped by a scarab beetle, the ancient Egyptian symbol for the rising sun.

  It made no sense.

  “Calypsos,” Marika said proudly. “Our home.”

  She began to head down the gentler slope on a narrow road of crushed gravel.

  “Hold on,” Jake said, struggling to find words to voice the sheer volume of his confusion. “How…Where…?”

  Pindor headed after Marika. “You’ll get your answers in Calypsos.” His words almost sounded like a threat.

  “Wait,” Jake continued, needing something, anything. “You’re Roman, aren’t you?”

  The boy straightened his toga. “Of course. Are you calling my heritage into doubt?”

  “No, no…” In a hurry, Jake turned to the girl. “And Marika, you’re Maya, yes?”

  A nod. “Going back fifteen generations to the first of my tribe to arrive here. Pindor traces his family to sixteen. But other Lost Tribes have been here longer. Much longer.”

  She headed down again.

  Jake stared after her.

  Lost Tribes?

  He studied Calypsos again. Could that grass-roofed structure be a Viking longhouse? And what about that pile of homes raised on stilts? It looked African. But he wasn’t sure. Either way, it seemed all of history had been gathered down below, ancient peoples from every age and land.

  But how…and why?

  Jake itched for a closer look.

  Unlike his sister.