King Ogliosh explained his race was heavily centered around the movement of celestial bodies. They didn’t have weapons like hers, they didn’t use electricity, or power anything with nuclear power. But despite his world not having the modern advances Gabi’s had, it soon became clear Ogliosh understood mathematics on a level well beyond her own. Ogliosh tried to explain his world was a world of magic and that the laws of the universe work differently where magic is present.
Could there really be magic? As quick as she asked herself the question, she answered it. Yes, of course there could be magic. If there could be dragons, giants, and telepathy why not magic? The best she could understand was that magic took math to a whole different level. Honestly, she didn’t get it… not even a little. Maybe magic was its own type of science or math or whatever.
Finally Ogliosh said, “Our worlds are both governed by mathematical law. That’s why math is one of the first things I taught your people long ago – math is universal. But magic distorts mathematical law, bends it, and in some cases even circumvents it altogether.”
After that she knew she couldn’t understand his math and she decided she didn’t care to. As long as the end result was justice for her parents, she never needed to understand.
Now, finally, Gabi was going into the pyramid to see how it worked – how he would use it to open the gate to his world. And although he hadn’t said it and she hadn’t asked, something told her she could choose to go with him and leave this horrible place behind. This place that had nothing left for her. The more time she spent with Ogliosh, her giant, her friend, the more she didn’t want him to go without her. She walked quickly down the long corridor, dodging smaller rocks as she took five or six steps to the king’s one lumbering stride.
Before reaching the end of the corridor, Ogliosh stopped abruptly.
“What’s wrong?” Gabi asked.
“We have a guest, Gabi.”
“The other giants?” she asked.
“No, something else.”
49
Cooperate or Die!
Saturday, April 9 – God Stones Day 4
Rural Chiapas State, Mexico
Breanne’s palms pressed into the dry earth as she retched. Her head spun wildly, as if she had been turned in circles repeatedly, and she wasn’t sure if she was on the ground or falling off it. Her stomach twisted and she retched again, but nothing came up. The horrible spinning had happened eight times, she thought. Eight times? Nine times? She wasn’t sure, but each time Apep spoke the strange words, unconsciousness had followed, for how long she couldn’t say. She was sure days had gone by, and she hadn’t eaten anything. She blinked at the dry ground cast in the shadow of her tormentor, the cloaked man looming over her. No, not a man – a murderer.
“You make this hard, Breanne. You make this hard, and my patience is growing thin. We can keep doing this until you die, or you can simply point toward the location of your father’s dig site. Given time, I will find it anyway.”
She swiveled her head up to look upon Apep’s face, but she didn’t meet his eyes. He looked so different in the sun. His sharp ears were almost translucent, an opaque blue-grey, like discolored rice paper. His facial features were sharp too; his skin there was a darker, unblemished blue-grey. Sweat beaded on his forehead, and it was here she focused. There was something mortal about the fact he was sweating. If he could sweat, he could die. And she wanted nothing more in this world than to kill him.
Apep shook a bottle of water at her. “Drink, Breanne.”
She took the bottle with a shaky hand and tipped it back, gulping the water down. When the bottle was empty, she tossed it to the ground and wiped her mouth across her sleeve. “You’re an evil bastard! I’m not helping you!”
“That’s what you think? I am evil. Is that it? You have no idea what has been taken from me. You have no idea what your kind has done to me. No idea what my own people – my own family – have done. No, but you aren’t capable of comprehending time in any meaningful way, so how could you understand my suffering? I am righteous in my convictions.”
“You killed my brother! I will never help you!” she choked.
“Then you no longer have value!” Apep shouted as he kicked her in the ribs.
Breanne fell over onto her side, away from him, and groaned.
Apep took a step closer. “What about your father and your other brother – the bigger one, Ed? I can assume, like you, they made it out of the pit?”
She didn’t answer. She pressed her face into the hot, sandy dirt, choking out sobs between gasps.
“Ask yourself this, Breanne. Would the brother you still have alive want you to die? Would the father who still lives want you to die? Or would they want you to cooperate and live?”
She didn’t want to die. She thought of her dad and knew what her death would do to him. Besides, if she died now, she couldn’t kill Apep. And if Breanne Moore was nothing else, she was determined to watch him die.
“I know your father’s site was somewhere in Chiapas. I am growing tired of randomly teleporting. We are just outside Palenque, Breanne, and I know we can’t be that far from the site. I can only teleport to places I have seen before or can see now. I am going to lift you up high above this place. Point me in the direction of the site. If you refuse, or mislead me, we will randomly teleport over and over until it kills you! Do you understand?!” Apep shouted, grabbing her by the wrist and yanking her onto her feet.
Breanne shouted in pain again, but reluctantly she nodded.
“Good,” Apep said.
Then, as the elf began shouting a command in some strange words, the earth fell away from her feet with a whoosh as hot wind blew across her face, forcing her eyes closed. Suddenly she was hovering high above Palenque.
“Now point, Breanne, and remember – the closer you get, the fewer times we will need to do this.”
The sun was high and bright. Far to the east were the Sierra Madre del Sur mountains. Breanne looked to the southwest, found the general area she was searching for, and pointed.
“Ah, good!” Apep said.
Her world spun again and this time she woke on top of a mountain, a foot striking her back. Again, her stomach was wrecked, and she tried to vomit but couldn’t. Then she heard his voice.
“I have been waiting for you to wake,” Apep said, as if this was her fault. “You humans are pathetically fragile. We are where you pointed. Now get up and show me where the pyramid is,” he demanded.
She tried to stand but fell backward, her equilibrium completely out of sorts. She felt like she was trying to stand atop a merry-go-round. Her head was pounding harder than ever, and she wasn’t sure she could or should open her eyes.
Apep grabbed her by the wrist once again and yanked her to her feet. She blinked rapidly, trying to get her eyes to focus, but before she could look around, she was off the ground again soaring upward.
“Point!”
She squinted. She knew it had to be right there, right there in the cluster of mountains a little further south. “There.” She pointed, hating what came next.
She woke up some time later. This time Apep didn’t wait for her to get her bearings. As soon as she started to dry heave, he yanked her up into the air again.
“Point me to the…” Apep began to say but trailed off. “What’s this?”
Breanne squinted, trying to focus as she followed Apep’s gaze. A few miles to the south, maybe less, she saw what he saw. There was a mountain with a large cavern opening several meters from the top. The opening appeared to spill out onto a ledge. Did she see a vehicle on the ledge? Below the opening, far down the mountain, were more vehicles. One was on its side and the others had rocks piled against them. Below the vehicles was a deep gorge. The only way she could be sure it was a gorge at all was because the jungle had been drawn back, shredded by falling boulders that she could only guess were pulled from the opening in the mountain. She wasn’t sure what was going on, but she was sure this was her m
ountain.
Then Apep said the words. Her gut twisted and, before she could even scream, everything went black.
50
Guests
Wednesday, April 9 – God Stones Day 4
Rural Chiapas State, Mexico
Gabi spun around to see the silhouette of a tall man standing on the opposite side of the ledge from the Jeep. Something was heaped in a pile next to him, but she couldn’t tell what it was.
Ogliosh moved past her. “Stay behind me, Gabi. When we get close, get inside the Jeep.”
“Who is that?” she asked.
Ogliosh didn’t answer as he strode forward.
As they drew close, the tall man pulled something that looked like a jagged crown from his cloak and placed it on his own head. Gabi felt a pressure in her head; the closer she drew, the worse the pressure became. Still, she stared at the crown, unable to take her eyes off of it. The object was radiating beautiful colors until finally one appeared she had never seen! The harder she looked, the worse it hurt – but the color! She couldn’t look away.
The pressure in her head turned to pain that turned to an unbearable anguish. Blood began to trickle from her nose. Everything became muffled and then something wet ran down both sides of her neck. The colors changed from one to another, then to another still, until she once again saw the color she couldn’t understand. Both her eyes began to bulge, and everything took on a blood-red tint. Bloody tears ran from her eyes and her stomach began to curl.
Gabi tried to scream, but her mouth went dry and her throat constricted so tight she couldn’t draw a breath. She doubled over as her stomach surged, but nothing could come up. Just when she thought she was going to pass out, she felt something inside her head pop with a loud crack like a snapping branch. She sat down hard on her bottom and fell over onto her side.
Slowly, too slowly, the pain started to pass. She wiped her bloody eyes and nose and looked at her hand covered in wet crimson. Her heart pounded against her chest. Ay, María Purísima, she was bleeding! She stretched her jaw and her ear popped, allowing her to hear again. Gabi sat up shakily, still nauseous as she began pushing herself backward toward the wall, trying to catch her breath.
Leaning back against the wall of the pyramid, she observed the two creatures talking through blurry eyes. As her senses returned, it appeared King Ogliosh might kill the other creature. She was sure it wasn’t human, though it wasn’t a giant either. But now they seemed to be just staring at each other. Suddenly Ogliosh pointed at her and both began walking toward her. She realized he wasn’t pointing at her, but beyond her, toward the back of the corridor. As they passed, the tall man looked over at her with a sneer. She gasped. She could feel his hatred toward her and, for a second, she thought he might kill her. Soon the two disappeared from her view, moving deeper into the pyramid.
As the pain in Gabi’s head subsided, she realized something was different. Two and a half days she had spent with the king and most of that time was spent speaking to each other with their minds. So far, she had only been able to hear what he wanted her to hear, but now something was different. There was some other noise, some kind of buzzing…
Her thought was interrupted as the soothing voice of her father spoke in her mind. “Gabi, you have been exposed to the Sound Eye. Most humans would not survive such an exposure. You are lucky to be alive. I must deal with this creature. I will explain soon – go to the Jeep if you can, and rest,” Ogliosh said.
She never really got used to that voice coming from him. “What is a Sound Eye?” she asked.
“The key to the doorway home. Now, when you can stand and walk, I want you to go and rest.”
She wanted to ask a million questions, but she knew this wasn’t the time. Okay, she thought back. She wrinkled her brow, hearing that something else again. This new buzzing sensation mingled into the presence of Ogliosh.
She sat a moment longer trying to catch her breath, trying to understand the fuzzy noise in her mind. It was coming from far in the background of her mind, like static from a radio. Not the kind where you can’t listen to a song, but the kind that is just slightly annoying. She focused on the sound, pushing her mind into the static, trying to hear it. She frowned. There was something there alright, she was sure of it.
Gabi let her mind wade deeper into the fuzzy noise until it was completely submerged. What is this? she wondered as the strange static changed to something else. Gabi cocked her head to the side, listening as she instinctively tuned the frequency of thought until what came into focus was a muffled conversation. The static now formed into words.
At first, the words didn’t make any sense. It wasn’t her father’s voice, and it wasn’t speaking Spanish nor English. She couldn’t understand it at all, but she could hear it clearly now. She took the words and pulled on them, stretching them. Then she pushed them, working the words into something pliable. As she worked, she found she could almost shape them, like when she helped her mom make tortillas for the entire dig team. The memory of sitting by the campfire and working the masa dough broke her concentration and sent a pang through her heart.
Determined, Gabi pushed the pain down and refocused on the words. They came easily now, but she still couldn’t understand what she was hearing. She twisted them, bent them, and even folded them in upon themselves, only to stretch them back out again just like the masa dough. Somehow, she knew this was solvable. And then it happened. Gabi’s heart raced as an invisible cog slid into some place in her mind, completing the puzzle. And with that she understood! It made no sense how, but she understood!
There were two voices. One called himself Apep and the other was King Ogliosh, but he no longer sounded like her father. Now, she realized with a gasp, she was eavesdropping on a conversation happening in a language she shouldn’t understand. The conversation was taking place somewhere deep inside the pyramid between Ogliosh and this new creature.
“The interior structure will need some work, and the sub-level stone water column was destroyed by Azazel, but the rest has been preserved well and is mostly intact.” The giant king’s voice was no longer warm and kind. Instead his voice had a grim, gravelly tone – still deep and heavy like a vast ocean, but no longer smooth or soothing.
The creature called Apep spoke next, and she noticed right away that he sounded like he should be a king. His voice had a regal tone to it. “Fine. How long before the others arrive?”
“The others, yes. First tell me again, what happened to General Balor?”
“I already told you, it was chaos. The humans beat me to the chamber and were about to cut off Balor’s head when I stopped them. I was able to break the spell, but Sylanth woke too and everything went bad. Balor assembled the Sound Eye, knowing it was our only hope to make it out, but Turek’s descendant killed him while I was dealing with the dragon.”
“Humans killed my general?” Ogliosh asked, and Gabi could feel mistrust in the question.
“That’s what I said.”
Gabi felt sudden annoyance with the giant. It was a strange sensation to become annoyed over something she didn’t understand.
“I find it hard to believe a few humans killed my general all by themselves. You – what were you doing to help Balor? You had the Sound Eye, did you not?”
Gabi felt skeptical, as if she had just been told a lie she could see right through.
“I already told you, I was dealing with the dragon, which is now dead! Turek and the ones who killed Balor are all dead! I’ve told you what happened, Ogliosh – let’s move on. You will have vengeance on the humans soon enough.”
Vengeance on humans? But Ogliosh doesn’t hate humans, he wants to help them, she thought. She didn’t like the conversation, and she didn’t like this Apep either.
“Turek?” Ogliosh said in surprise. “One of the seven?”
“Seven what? Mages of old? No, he is the descendant of the old mage. Rather, was before he died,” Apep said simply.
“Not mages. Turek is a very
old name not spoken on Karelia since the humans were banished. It is the true name of the humans’ god.”
“What are you talking about? I am speaking of the descendant of the human mage of old. The one who cast the spell on you. That Turek.”
“The descendant of the god Turek then?”
“Why do you keep calling him a god? I killed the human mage hundreds of years ago. His bones are submerged over a hundred feet underground on an island, so he couldn’t very well be a god now, could he? This was some prophecy he concocted to try and keep the humans following him even after death. All part of their plan to try and keep me from the God Stones!”
“Prophecy?” Ogliosh asked, and Gabi was consumed with a deep dread.
“Yes, a last-ditch effort, a Hail Mary, a pathetic last line of defense. Humans are quite dramatic that way.”
“Last ditch? What is a last ditch?”
“Never mind!”
“If the human god is interfering on this planet, we should be very concerned. Creating a prophecy, allowing you to kill him – you should be asking yourself why, Apep. What is the human god planning? Are you positive the human descendant is dead? You saw him die?”
“Yes, now let’s move on to more pressing matters than that of human children and false gods! Did the others survive their awakening with the dragons? How close are they? We’ve an army to build!” The anger poured off Apep and washed over Gabi, overwhelming her until she too became angry.
The conversation stopped and her mind became abruptly quiet. She could feel Ogliosh stare down the smaller creature. In the silent pause, Gabi realized these rapidly shifting emotions were not hers. They swirled strangely inside her, two separate creatures feeling different emotions at the same moment, and she was feeling both while also feeling her own. Annoyance, anger, and impatience from Apep, while skepticism and mistrust radiated from Ogliosh.
The Keepers Of The Light (God Stone Book 2) Page 34