They turned a corner into yet another corridor. And just as Lincoln had written, so it was. Along the walls on both sides were racks of skulls.
“No, this can’t be – there’s no way!” Breanne said, stopping to appraise the racks. Some had fallen apart over time but most still stood, dust-covered and fragile. It was too incredible, too impossible, too… coincidental? “This can’t be here, you guys. Jesus, this can’t be here! There must be dozens? Maybe hundreds?” If the circumstances were different, she would be content to spend hours – no, days – examining, measuring, and cataloging the skull racks.
What would her father say if he were here right now? Something like, This will change everything we thought we knew about America’s history, baby girl! But her father wasn’t here. She didn’t even know if he was okay. And there was no time to investigate, no time to waste.
“Well, I guess we don’t know what is possible – it isn’t like any of us have ever been in the temple of a Native American god before,” Pete said.
Garrett glanced back. “Native American god? This is a tomb.”
Ahead the corridor appeared to end, showing only darkness beyond.
“Okay, tomb,” Pete conceded. “But tomb or temple, what’s inside is a Native American god. An evil god, but a god nonetheless.”
“Pete. There’s a space alien in there. One of the old ones. I thought you said you knew what was inside?” Garrett asked.
“Yeah, well, that makes sense, man. You can understand why the natives would think this thing was a god,” Pete said.
They reached the end of the corridor, where a large room stretched out before them. Breanne could feel the vastness of the space in the depths of the darkness, but she couldn’t see more than a dozen feet in front of her face, even with the flashlight. The chamber smelled of centuries-old musk, and the air was cold. “A god, sure, because of its magic powers or whatever.”
“Powers? I don’t know, maybe. But I’m talking appearance,” Pete said.
“Look, at the walls,” Breanne said, pointing her headlamp to both sides of the doorway they had come through. There was a ledge about shoulder high, standing a few inches off the wall, like a shelf, but it wasn’t a shelf. It was more like a really long window planter box that stretched away into obscurity in both directions. “Those held a flammable fuel used to light the chamber.”
“Oh, wait guys,” Garrett said, retrieving James’s Zippo from his pocket. He flicked the flint, and the Zippo sparked to life, a tiny flame burning steadily. “I doubt after all these years it will still light, but here goes.” Garrett reached over and touched the flame to the ledge.
Instinctively Breanne shielded her eyes as the flame sprung to life, racing across the wall to stretch several feet in a flash of brilliant orange. The dancing flames continued into the depths of the chamber to circle around the entire vast room, before completing the loop all the way around to the opposite side of the door.
They had been in the dark with nothing more than flashlights for over an hour. Breanne squinted and blinked, her eyes adjusting. Suddenly she realized why she hadn’t been able to see very far into the chamber with her flashlight.
“Holy shit balls!” Lenny said.
25
Lever
Wednesday, April 6 – God Stones Day 1
Rural Chiapas State, Mexico
At first the lever only moved a little. Sarah pulled harder, but still it wouldn’t budge farther than a few millimeters.
She figured there were two possible outcomes after the lever finally broke loose and flipped and, truth be told, she didn’t like either one. Either the bottom of this damn shaft was going to fall away, and she was going to go plummeting down into unknown depths, or this thing was a trap and would start filling with water. Why water? She didn’t know, it was just a feeling. She supposed it could be anything, but water seemed simple and effective enough. She checked her figure-eight knot again with a nervous tug. “Fredy, prepare for my rope to go taut,” she said through the two-way. Clicking the button again, she added, “And prepare to pull like hell on my signal.”
“Okay… we’re ready,” Fredy answered, his voice crackling over the radio with obvious concern. Then Fredy’s voice returned a moment later, mixed in with other voices. “But Sarah, why would your rope go taut when you are about to climb up?”
In the background Sarah thought she heard Itzel’s voice and she sounded excited. Normally they spoke in English around her. She never asked them to. They just always did. She knew it was a gesture of respect, so that she would always understand what was being said. But through the radio it sounded like Itzel was yelling in Spanish. They must be freaking out with worry, she thought.
Sarah let the radio fall back against her vest, where it was clipped, then bent over and wrapped her fingers firmly around the lever between her legs. She heaved with all her strength, using her legs and back.
Slowly, slowly she felt the lever yielding.
And then, all at once, it lifted free and locked into place.
She waited, frozen like the giant stone statue a hundred feet up, her chest pinned up tight as she dared not breathe. The lid stayed below her. There was no sign of water gushing in. So, what’s this thing do?
Suddenly, she got her answer when her whole world began to shake as the stone lid under her rotated a quarter of a turn, knocking her off balance before stopping abruptly. A loud clunk sounded, vibrating up Sarah’s legs.
She looked down, searching for one of the strange notches – the ones that disappeared below the floor. There! She located one. The notch was no longer an open hole. Some sort of mechanism now protruded outward from the lid, locking into the groove. Shit! Shit, shit, shit! she thought, I triggered a trap!
26
Stoneclad and Thunderbird
Wednesday, April 6 – God Stones Day 1
Petersburg, Illinois
The chamber stretched upward, its four walls narrowing into darkness as black as obsidian. Somewhere up there, deep in the shadows above, out of sight for untold centuries, the four walls met in a perfect apex. The distance across the chamber from front to back must have been a hundred feet or more and the same side to side. The walls were painted with strange symbols. Pottery, remnants of pelts, hoards of shields, armor, and weapons were piled along a wall.
But Garrett, like everyone else, had no attention left for the size of the place or its incredible adornments. All his focus was directed toward the massive stone slab at the center of the chamber – and to the thing that lay atop it. “My god… it’s huge,” Garrett said.
“This can’t be real!” Lenny said.
“Well, yeah, of course it’s huge. It’s a giant,” Pete said, as if he had seen dozens of them.
Garrett struggled to find words. “But…”
“I mean, what did you expect? I thought you said you knew what was in here?” Pete said with a shrug, but the quaver in his voice betrayed the nonchalance he was trying to put up.
“I… I thought I did,” Garrett said. “I mean I do. This must be the old one, right? The one I’m supposed to destroy. The one from another planet. I just didn’t expect it to be so… so goddamn big! I mean this is a giant, an actual giant!”
“Well, when Lincoln said giant, he meant it,” Pete said. “Maybe the world should have listened to the clues?”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Lenny asked.
Pete cleared his throat. The eyes of that species of extinct giants, whose bones fill the mounds of America, have gazed on Niagara, as ours do now. Old Abe said that all the way back in eighteen forty-eight.”
Lenny shook his head. “There is something wrong with you. You know that, right? Something very wrong.”
“For sure,” David said.
They approached cautiously.
The giant lay only a couple dozen feet away, face up across the stone slab, which rose several feet off the floor, obstructing their view of the rest of the chamber. The giant wasn’t mum
mified or bones, as one would expect of something that had been there for so long. No, it was flesh and blood, fully intact. It looked as if it were asleep; its one oversized eye centered in the middle of its head was closed.
“It’s so big! And it looks so alive!” Breanne said.
“I’ve seen it all. My god, I’ve seen it all now,” Paul said, limping forward.
“James said something about a state of suspension. Some kind of spell is keeping it preserved,” Garrett said.
“Guys, um, I’m just going to hang back here by the door,” David said.
Garrett heard something in David’s voice. It didn’t sound like fear. It sounded like something else. “David, you okay?”
“Yeah, I feel weird that’s all. A little lightheaded maybe from skipping dinner. I’ll be okay. If it wakes up, might be best if I’m by the door. I am probably the slowest one here,” he said, leaning back on the wall.
“Don’t be so sure, kid,” Paul said.
Janis had the opposite reaction, suddenly running forward with reckless abandonment.
“Wait, Janis!” Pete said, giving chase.
The thing was covered in cobwebs. Janis picked a spot and quickly cleared the webs with a brush of her hand as if she were drawing back a curtain. Without hesitating, she reached out to touch its massive hand. “Guys, its skin is cold!”
“Janis, don’t do that!” Pete scolded. “What if it wakes up or something?!”
Garrett and the others fell in beside her.
The hand was even with Garrett’s shoulders as the body lay prone. In the reflected flames, he could see its black veins webbed under its greyish, opaque skin. “Have you ever seen a hand this big?”
“It must be as big around as a car tire!” Breanne said.
The giant wore some type of hide around its middle that seemed similar to the furry material of its boots; both were dried and decayed with age. A ragged tunic hung from its torso, riddled with tears that appeared singed along the edges. The front half of its head was completely bald. However, from the back half, beginning behind its disproportionately small ears, grew long, black hair. The coarse hair was woven into one long braid, as thick as a rope used to anchor a ship. The massive braid was adorned with stark white bones and stretched down over the giant’s shoulder, the end tucked between the giant’s arm and ribcage. Garrett wondered if the bones were human. “I’ve seen that hairstyle before on Kung Fu Theater,” Garrett said, pointing toward the thing’s head.
“Yeah,” Lenny said, nodding. “Jet Li wears his hair like that in a bunch of his movies. Well, minus the bones. It’s called a queue.”
“How in the hell would you know that?” Pete asked.
“You’re not the only one who knows stuff, asshat,” Lenny said, flipping Pete the finger.
“A while back I actually thought about rocking it, but let’s be honest my hair is just too amazing to shave half of it off.”
Janis rolled her eyes.
“Besides, what if I got tired of wearing it in a braid? Then I would have a half ’fro and who in the hell has ever heard of half a ’fro? Nobody does that… not on purpose anyway.”
Pete shrugged. “Maybe not nowadays, but I do know some Native Americans also wore their hair in this style. Perhaps we have old Stoneclad here to thank for ancient hairstyle similarities from one continent to another.”
“Wait, did you just refer to it as Stoneclad?” Breanne asked.
“Of course,” Pete responded as if the giant’s name were tattooed right across the back of its massive hand for everyone to see. “According to the Potawatomi boy from Lincoln’s journal, this must be Nuyunuwi, also known as the infamous Stoneclad. I was able to actually find a little info on this guy. He was a cannibalistic giant in Native American folklore who terrorized whole tribes. He killed by the dozens, stole their women for breeding, and if the natives couldn’t retrieve their dead after battles Stoneclad ate them. He was a baaaaad dude.”
Garrett shifted uncomfortably. He knew one thing. If half of what Pete was saying were true, he did not want this thing waking up. From the look on everyone else’s faces they were suddenly feeling just as apprehensive as he was.
“Stoneclad? Sounds pretty damn indestructible,” Lenny said, taking a step backward, his eyes never leaving the impossible creature.
“Yeah, according to my research, the tribes set aside their bickering to come together and defeat Stoneclad,” Pete said. “Supposedly, it took six witch doctors to finally kick his ass, but they could do it only after taking his talisman. They spiked him through the wrist and feet, pinning him to the earth before burning him in a great fire that took many trees and lasted for days. Of course, these were just stories told around campfires. I mean, look guys, I don’t know what I thought Lincoln really saw here, or what I expected to find, but this is… it’s insane!”
Garrett lowered his voice to a whisper as if afraid he might wake the sleeping giant. “Insane, yeah, but the story makes perfect sense when you compare it to what Mr. B told us. Six sages defeated the old ones and took a God Stone from each. God Stone equals magic talisman. Sages equal witch doctors. It even looks like this thing might have been in a fire of some sort, and there is some kind of old wound on its wrist,” he said, pointing.
“So, if this thing has skin like stone… how in the hell are you going to destroy it?” Paul asked.
Garrett turned to Paul, taking his eyes off Stoneclad for the first time. Paul looked bad – really bad. He must still be losing blood. Garrett needed to hurry. He swallowed, drawing his sword with a swish of metal across leather. “I’m going to cut the thing’s head off with this sword.”
“What?! You really think that sword is going to cut through that thing’s big-ass neck? Its skin is like stone,” Pete exclaimed, holding his hands palms up. “Hence the name!”
Janis turned to face Garrett and the others. “Maybe he’s right, Garrett. Maybe we shouldn’t.”
“Yeah, I mean what if you hack at it and it just wakes it up or something,” Pete said.
“Guys, Jesus Christ!” Garrett said in disbelief. “This is why we’re here! There is no other way! Do you want this thing waking up!? Apep is on his way here right now, and if we don’t do this, he will wake it up!”
No one answered.
“Now, if anyone wants to stand by me while I do this, let’s go.”
“I’ll be right beside you, bro,” Lenny said.
“You’re right. Sorry, Garrett.” Pete nodded, reluctantly stepping forward. “You know, Lincoln said he never actually went into the large chamber but only stood at the entryway, observing the giant by the light of his lantern. Once he was convinced of what he saw, he never returned to see it again.” Pete inhaled the musty air, drawing it deep into his lungs. “Guys, we’re further than any person has come since – well, since god knows when.”
Quietly, afraid they might wake him, they eased alongside the thing’s waist and past its chest. They couldn’t see over it due to the thickness of the giant combined with the thickness of the stone slab it rested on.
“How tall do you think this thing is?” Lenny asked.
“Twenty-five feet,” Pete guessed.
“No way, bro – I bet it’s at least thirty, maybe more,” Lenny said.
When they finally made their way to its head, Garrett sheathed his sword and climbed onto the stone slab. The giant’s face was the scariest thing he had ever seen. This creature was no gentle Gulliver. No, not at all. This thing was battle-worn and menacing. Rather than resting in a peaceful sleep, the giant looked frozen in a state of rage.
“Jesus Christ, it looks seriously pissed off,” Lenny said, joining Garrett.
Its lips were parted and curled in a contorted snarl. A glimmer of teeth shone beyond its parted lips, but what he could see looked wrong – more like they belonged to a shark than a – well, than a giant. But the most startling thing was that single eye, centered right in the middle of its forehead. Thankfully, it was closed. Neverth
eless, Garrett couldn’t shake the feeling the eye was going to pop open at any second and catch him in the act. Its brow was frozen in angry wrinkles broken by vertical scars. Probably from ancient battles, he thought.
“We’re coming up there too,” Janis said, climbing up onto the slab and scrunching in close to Lenny.
“Watch it, Janis. There is plenty of room – no need to get all frisky with my booty,” Lenny said. “Better watch your girl, Petey!”
“Don’t you wish, Lenny!” Janis said, punching him in the shoulder. “You couldn’t get that lucky in your wettest dream!”
Pete and Breanne climbed up next.
“I’ll stay here,” Paul said pointing at his foot.
“I’ll keep him company,” David said, leaving his post by the doorway and coming closer to Paul.
Garrett caught movement out of the corner of his eye and turned to see a large rat scurrying away on the opposite side of the slab. Wondering why the rats didn’t try and eat the giant, his eyes followed the rat until it disappeared into the shadows in the back half of the chamber. That’s when he noticed it – something else that didn’t belong – something impossible! The sight of it staggered him backward, nearly causing him to fall from the stone slab. He grabbed at Lenny’s dobok sleeve and yanked. “Look! Jesus Christ, guys! What the hell is that!?” Garrett pointed toward the back of the chamber.
Only now from their perch on the slab could they behold what lay in the back half of the chamber. If they had set out to find anything more unbelievable than a giant in an underground pyramid in central Illinois, then they were looking at it.
“What do you guys see?” Paul asked.
“Well, the journal does mention it. I just didn’t realize it was literal, and Lincoln wouldn’t have known either if he didn’t go past the door,” Pete said.
The Keepers Of The Light (God Stone Book 2) Page 18