He reached into his backpack and pulled out the stone tablet—The Prophecy. At least that’s how Chazic had referred to it. Cody read it for the thousandth time:
The Power of Full Divinity,
Rests EnCoded Within Earthly Trinity.
Where Sacrifice of the Pure Angel Who Fell,
Is the Way to Retrieve the Pearl Within the Shell.
With Humble Heart and Golden Key,
The Universe’s Most Powerful Force Is Revealed to Thee.
And for the thousandth time, Cody could make no sense of it. He rubbed his forehead. Maybe there was no sense to make of it. Perhaps, like everything else lately, it simply existed to further confuse and muddle his life. He raised the stone tablet and wound his arm back, preparing to catapult it off the wall and out of his life. As he brought his arm forward a grunt from behind stopped him in mid-throw. “Randilin?”
The dwarf looked like Cody had never seen him before. Rather than the grimy hobo he had become accustomed to; he looked clean and polished like a long-neglected set of chinaware finally cleaned. His straggly hair had been combed behind his ears and even his beard had been given some much-needed care.
The dwarf frowned. “Ruddy well right it’s me; who the blazes else would I be? The bloody tooth fairy?” He snorted and added an entirely unnecessary curse, as if to assure his listener that despite his appearance, he remained the same grumpy scoffer as always.
Cody smiled. “I simply love what you’ve done with your hair.”
Randilin’s face flushed red and his thick fingers quickly pulled the hair out from behind his ears.
“I knew it looked ridiculous,” he muttered defensively. The dwarf plopped himself beside Cody. After a moment he huffed, “Welcome to my life, son.”
Cody raised his eyebrows. “Excuse me?”
Randilin held out his palms motioning to the surroundings. “This. Always frustrated. A disappointment to yourself and to others. Always alone.” Randilin pounded his chest. “Take it from me, I’m the patron saint of miserable lives!”
Cody couldn’t help but chuckle.
“What a wretched pair we make.” Randilin brushed his hair back behind his ears again and grinned. “Well, at least I still have my dashing looks.”
Cody smiled. “You’re right; I guess things could always be worse,” he laughed before pausing, “Randilin…why did you do it?”
The Dwarf’s ugly smile faltered. His shoulders slouched and he pulled his hair from behind his ears again. “Why did I sell out my only friends to a man I can’t stand? Why did I throw away everything for the sake of my own selfish, pitiful existence?”
Cody dropped his gaze.
“I wasn’t going to put it exactly like that…”
Randilin snorted. “I’ve been asking myself that same question every day for hundreds of years. But the answer is simple—I’m a bad man.”
Cody opened his mouth to protest, but Randilin shook him off. “Oh, don’t bother. I’ve long since accepted my own curse.” He took a deep breath, holding the air in his chest for several seconds before releasing it slowly. “Do you want to know the reason I jumped into the wishing well that day to return to Atlantis after centuries of banishment?” Cody leaned forward, anticipating the answer.
“Because of you.”
“Me?”
“You deaf, boy? That’s what I just bloody said! Because of you…because in you I saw the same curiosity and passion for life that I had so many years ago. And I saw a chance for you to become the man I never was.”
Despite the leathery skin and rigid wrinkles, there was a softness in Randilin’s face. But it didn’t last long. The dwarf’s hand shot out and whacked the back of Cody’s head. “So stop moping around like a ruddy child and man up!”
Cody rubbed his throbbing head. “But I don’t know what to do.”
Randilin scrunched his forehead. “It was a book that got ya’ into this shoddy mess…maybe a book can get ya’ out. The Great Library wouldn’t be a bad place to start.”
“There’s a library here?!” Cody asked excitedly.
Randilin grinned. “Aye laddie; the biggest stinkin’ one your eyes have ever seen. More books than you could read in a million lifetimes.” Randilin looked over his shoulder carefully. Cody’s eyes followed. A dozen yards down the wall the glimmering crystal eyes of a Dark-Wielder peered at them from the shadows. How long it had been watching was impossible to tell. Despite his distance, Cody had the eerie feeling that their words were no longer private.
Randilin turned back to Cody and lowered his voice. “Find the library,” he winked. “The beauty of books is that nothing lost is ever lost forever.”
63
History Erased
CODY WAS AWESTRUCK. The room was immense, the walls stretching thirty floors high with spiraling balconies twisting along the side. A majestic chandelier hung from the ceiling, thousands of lights dancing on candles. The walls were crusted in gold and made entirely of cabinets. Each space was teeming with a thousand bundled scrolls.
Cody’s eyes explored the room in astonishment. There must have been tens of millions of scrolls. The American Library of Congress would have appeared as a small-town kindergarten bookshelf in contrast to this breathtaking hoard of literature.
He walked in slowly, his senses overwhelmed. A long shadow stretched from behind him. When he turned an exceedingly old man was standing several feet away. He had a haunting skeletal face and his cheek and chin bones jutted out as though they would cut right through his thin pale skin. His stringy, pure white hair hung to his feet and his black eyes were wide and calculating like a cat.
The librarian’s steady gaze made Cody turn back around uncomfortably. He stepped to the nearest wall and retrieved a scroll. Removing the binding, he unrolled it. The title read: Journey to the Top of the Earth. As he pretended to read, the shadow behind him disappeared. Cody returned the scroll and quickly ventured deeper into the boundless library.
The room was like a majestic coliseum. Each of the large archways led to another hall filled with wall-to-wall books and scrolls. At the top of each passage were titles spanning every imaginable category. In the center of the immense hall was a pavilion. Above the lone entrance were the words: THE ANCIENTS.
Unlike every other section, a barricade blocked the smaller building and a guard stood before it. Cody bit his lip. Now what? Suddenly he felt an uncomfortable sensation come over him. Cody again could feel the stare of the gaunt librarian.
Cody muttered under his breath, “Byrae.” As he did, there was a loud boom as an entire shelf of scrolls came hailing to the floor from two balconies above. The librarian’s head jolted up, and he vanished.
The moment he was gone Cody approached the pavilion. He squeezed his hand into a fist and whispered to himself. The golem guarding the room raised his pick-axe. Cody held out his hand and revealed a royal seal—a seal identical to the one Hansi had used to gain access into the sacred glen. The guard nodded, stepping aside to let him in.
The room was not large. Around the room were thirteen gold pillars. On each of the pillars was a single book. In the center of the room was a statue—three rectangles in the form of an upside arrow. Cody’s breath accelerated. This is it.
Cody circled the room. Each of the antique volumes was tattered and the titles were faded, several to the point of being indecipherable. Of those he could make out were: Proverbs of Boc’ro the Wise and Transcript of the Great Assembly.
He stopped before the middle pillar. It was slightly higher than the other twelve and the hefty book on it was three times the width of the others: The History of Under-Earth. At the bottom of the cover was: Written and Compiled by Lamgorious H. Stalkton.
Cody hauled the weighty book slowly. He carefully flipped through the pages, unsure what exactly he was looking for, but convinced that whatever it was lay within these pages. Skimming the pages he noticed that every time The Twelve was written it was smudged out as though by a troublesome child wi
th crayons. But Cody knew it was no accident: Because it didn’t say Twelve…it said Thirteen. Somebody had gone through the painstaking process of blotting out every reference to The Thirteen.
Cody began to read:
It was in the third day of the first week of the discovery of Under-Earth when The T——— made the most astonishing discovery—they were not the first inhabitants of the new world. The native watched the Founders day and night—but only from afar; never making contact with the Tribe, but always looking on. His eyes were dark, and continually open, for they were not covered by eyelids. The Alac-icacs came to call him The Watching One. The age and origin of the wandering hermit remain unknown.
Cody almost shouted. I’m not crazy! Others have seen him! It was a reassuring discovery. He resumed scanning the pages with increased urgency. He heard noises from outside the pavilion. I don’t have much time!
His eyes stopped at the phrase: It was during this period when we first discovered The Prophecy….
A footnote at the bottom of the page read: *For a detailed account of The Prophecy and the search for the Earthly Trinity, see page 2812.*
Cody quickly flipped to the page—and frowned. The page was a detailed description of the history of de-fossilized food. Cody licked his fingers and pressed against the page sure he had missed one. He had not. I don’t understand. It was then that he noticed a single, jagged piece of paper, no bigger than a fruit fly, sticking out from the middle crease. He held the book up to his eyes and ran his finger down the crease. Somebody has torn pages out of this book.
Cody heaved the book back onto the pillar in frustration. He had been so close. He reached to close the cover when he saw it, tucked against the corner of the page and so faint he almost missed it—a penciled inscription: Find the Fallen Angel.
64
In Search of Answers
SHE HAD BEEN MISSING for too long. No one had seen Tiana since the previous night. It made Cody uneasy. They had not parted on good terms. Maybe she just wanted some privacy? It wouldn’t be all that unlike Tiana after all. For crying out loud, the girl lives on a rooftop a thousand feet above all other civilization! But in his gut he knew it was something else. Something’s wrong. It was becoming increasingly clear that peculiar things were happening and people were going to great lengths to keep them hidden.
He was determined to get to the bottom of it. He shoved the Book into his backpack and swung it over his shoulder. It was time to find the truth.
With a soft thud his feet hit the ground. He looked up at his chamber window a hundred feet above him and the leafy vine ladder he had created weaving down the wall. “Fraymour,” he whispered. The vine began to sizzle before crumbling to the ground scorched and wilted.
Cody set off swiftly. Reaching the end of the palace wall he peered around the corner. It was dark and the streets were empty. Even from across the clearing he could see straight into several open-walled homes, the tenants peacefully sleeping within. He frowned. The slightest untimely noise would wake them and he would be fully exposed. There was no room for error.
He began scampering down the alley. A rumbling noise caused him to stop. With nowhere to hide he froze like a statue and bit his lip. One of the house tenants rolled over in his bed. Moments later, he could again hear the sound of soft snoring. Cody exhaled and continued forward.
Peering across the slumbering city he saw the massive gold Orb monument marking the heart of El Dorado. His mind drifted back to the banquet and the Story-Weavers’ tale. Their ending climax had been to create an orb and then light it up from the inside. Then there was the young servant girl’s peculiar advice: “Explore to the very heart of the Orb.” Everything seemed to point to the Orb; it was as good a place to start as any.
Cody skidded to another quick stop. Directly across the alley two Dark-Wielders were approaching between two houses. Cody looked around, desperate for a place to hide, but the courtyard was empty. The Wielders were almost at the clearing. If he didn’t move quickly he would be seen.
He jumped through the open wall of the closest house. The noise brought another rustle from the snoring man in the bed. Cody ducked low and held his breath. Like silent wraiths the two Dark-Wielders appeared in the courtyard.
Their gemstone eyes spied into the open houses that flanked them. Scanning the inside carefully, they glided to the next two houses in the row and repeated the process…each time moving closer and closer toward Cody.
Cody glanced around frantically. He needed somewhere to hide and quick. Under the kitchen table! He turned and scowled. The table elevated only two feet off the ground, surrounded by several large cushions. OF COURSE they have to eat laying down, he thought bitterly.
Cody glanced around but couldn’t see anyone. Yet he could hear the Wielder surveying the house next door. What do I do?! The footsteps approached his hiding place.
65
The Heart of the Orb
THE DARK-WIELDER SCANNED the house only to find a couple sleeping soundly in bed. Their steady breathing was genuine. There was nothing suspicious there.
The Dark-Wielder’s eyes moved toward the kitchen. They paused and lingered on the table. The Wielder leaned forward, its crystal eyes glistening from under its hood. Then it was gone.
After several still moments one of the cushions jiggled, and was shoved aside. Cody lifted his body out of a large hole in the floor. He watched the two Wielders turn down another alley and disappear from view. He wished he could see the house owners’ expressions when they awoke to find a giant crater in the middle of their kitchen. He replaced the cushion to conceal the opening and checked that his escape route was clear. Being sure, he exited the house.
Cody continued his trek toward the immense Orb monument. The moment he reached it he realized his problems were just beginning. Stationed along the perimeter of the monument were dozens of fortified golden golems. I must be on to something.
Movement in his periphery caught his attention. A cluster of people marched toward the monument. Four Dark-Wielders walked at the corners of a silver crate that floated on its own accord amidst them. Leading the group was Prince Foz.
Cody watched as Foz led the procession past the line of guards, straight toward the monument. He stopped before it. Then, without a sound, the wall began to move. Two pieces spread apart revealing a crack down the middle. The next moment the seemingly solid wall had been transformed into an entrance.
The heart of the orb. Those had been the servant’s words. Cody grinned. There’s something INSIDE the monument! He needed to get inside. As the final Wielder followed Foz inside, the entrance began to shrink. It’s now or never.
Cody focused on the inside of the monument. The entrance continued to close. It became a sliver.
“Spakious!” Cody dove head first through the portal.
Cody face-planted to the ground. He heard the door close behind him, trapping him inside the monument. He had made it. He stared down a long corridor. The assembly escorting the silver crate turned and disappeared into a side room several yards down the hall.
Cody crept down the long hallway and stopped at the door. It had been left slightly ajar. There was a thud as the crate was released to the ground. Cody risked peeking farther into the room that was empty except for a single, elevated bed. Hanging on the walls by hooks were various contraptions and devices. Many of them had sharp blades and needle-like ends. Cody tried not to imagine their purpose.
The four Dark-Wielders and Foz stood around the crate on the floor. One of the Wielders began muttering. As he did the crate’s lid slowly lifted into the air. With a loud clank it crashed to the ground. The other three Wielders stepped toward the crate and pushed it onto its side.
Cody covered his mouth. Out of the crate rolled a limp body. Cody recognized the distinctive, deep dimples of the young palace servant girl. Her face was pale and her body was lifeless.
They’ve been transporting people in the crates! Cody shuddered. Foz looked down at the girl in
differently. “Let us begin.” Two of the Wielders lifted the unresponsive girl onto the bed. Foz turned and walked toward the door. Cody pulled his head from sight and looked down the corridor. He didn’t have enough time to run in either direction without being seen. He pressed his back against the wall and braced himself.
With a soft click the door was pressed closed. Cody didn’t waste any time. The next instant he dashed down the narrow corridor, finally reaching the end. The hallway opened out into a massive domed room.
Cody’s gazed over the room in disbelief.
It was horrifying.
66
A Living Sacrifice
IT WAS UTTERLY DARK. She couldn’t even see her own body through the impenetrable shroud. Tiana tried to move but her limbs were locked in place. She felt the firm squeeze of the ropes binding her arms and legs and was light-headed and dizzy. She tried to take a deep breath but couldn’t move her mouth. She tried sticking her tongue out but it pressed against a hard, smooth metal surface. Oh, no. She had been gagged by the golden platelet that was now fused into her face.
I’m going to suffocate! She thrashed at her bindings enough to teeter her body over. Her face pressed against the cold ground.
Where am I? There was something familiar about the stale air. She relaxed her muscles. Her bindings were so tight that any struggle would deplete her energy. She needed to reserve what strength she could and wait for the proper moment. She couldn’t feel her dagger against her leg, nor did she expect to. She would have to resort to the strategy she’d been using her whole life: play the weak damsel, and once the victim was lured into a false confidence—strike hard and fast. Her head continued to spin. Unless that opportunity came soon she was going to run out of air.
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