The Secret of Namana (The Arnaka Saga Book 2)

by Lucia Ashta

  From atop a neighboring hill, Coyote watched the villain approach. Coyote’s ears were pulled back against his head, and his eyes were as keen as ever. Coyote surveilled the man’s every move. And when the man neared Sitting Bear and Willem, Coyote began to move. He drew closer to the pyramid where it seemed that everything would converge.

  38 Namana’s Secret

  The twins made their way to the underwater pyramid as quickly as they could. They swam through the Haakal River and entered the Hosuul Sea. Their bodies breathed in water as naturally as if it were air. Ashta and Anak had become one with the water in their early adolescence, and they were one with it now. They breathed in without conscious thought. Their bodies took care of the rest.

  When they finally arrived at the underwater pyramid, Ashta was again amazed at the jewels that encrusted its sandstone surface, scattered all around as if by the whims of gods, adorning the pyramid with the beauty of sparkling color. Just as when she first discovered it, the jewels were undisturbed by the corrosion and lackluster that affected most shiny objects that plummeted to the ocean floor. Ashta now understood this pyramid was charmed; natural phenomena were suspended here.

  The ruby drummed happily against Ashta’s chest, pleased to return to its home. When Ashta looked at Anak, she realized he had not been there before. His eyes were alight with delighted surprise, just as hers had been when Vilu first brought her here.

  Regardless, the twins allotted scant time for appreciation and reflection. They remembered that Brazzon flew closer with every flap of his wings. Baldub and Carn were somewhere in the unknown with dark extraterrestrials, potentially in life-threatening danger. So much depended on what they would do next. After only moments, they swam inside the pyramid.

  Ashta did not enter the pyramid last time. Now, the entrance was open for them, and the ruby urged them to go in. So they did. Quickly, the twins swam to the pyramid’s center. They did not have to look for the capstone to line up with it. Many years of repeating the same movements made them seasoned experts. They stood precisely beneath the pyramid’s crowning center.

  Then, Anak removed Namana from beneath his shirt. He and Ashta stared at it. The time when Namana would reveal its secrets was nearly upon them.

  Kaanra still leaned his head on Thom’s shoulder, although he was now composed. Tears stained his face, but they no longer fell from his eyes. Instead, Kaanra turned his thoughts to what he and Thom could do to protect the twins from Brazzon. He had an idea, and he closed his eyes to feel into it. Once he was certain it was the right thing to do, he stood up straight and began immediately.

  From within his mind, he reached out to their community at the Temple of Laresu’u Kal. The masters and pupils felt Master Kaanra’s call for help right away. The pupils were in training then in the main courtyard, and they looked to the master leading their practice for guidance. Master Payuu gave a silent nod, and the pupils stopped what they were doing and assembled.

  By the time all able masters and pupils met at the temple’s front gate, they were loosely gathered in organized lines that would make their travel across the island efficient. Masters Payuu and Shixou headed the formation, and Masters Quon and Yaku brought up the rear. Master Sina was still unfit for travel, but her condition was improved. She would be able to care for her basic needs while the others were away.

  They did not have very far to travel, but time was of the essence. They began their journey immediately.

  Kaanra smiled. He sensed the temple community’s response. He knew masters and pupils had mobilized and were on their way. He looked over his shoulder to Brazzon. He was too close. It would be up to Kaanra and Thom alone to protect the twins until help could arrive.

  Kaanra pushed his chest out imperceptibly. He was ready for the challenge. He would do whatever it took to secure victory for the light.

  Ashta and Anak came together as they had so many times before. The only difference was the doman between them. Anak pulled Ashta’s chest tightly against his own, and he balanced the doman on the shelf their joined chests created. Then, in the dance they knew intimately, they threw their heads back to allow the blue light to stream through them.

  Ashta was not surprised that blue light shone from their chests, and she expected to see the capstone swivel out of place to allow it to beam easily through the water to disperse into the skies. What startled her was that nothing more happened.

  Eventually, Ashta and Anak brought a quiet close to the light emission. They examined the doman. It looked just as it had, like a giant deformed acorn. Nothing was different about it.

  Then Ashta felt something faraway in her consciousness clamor for her attention, faint at first, but quickly becoming insistent. Ashta realized it was Elena. And, all of a sudden, Ashta knew what they needed to do. Elena and Marco—another version of their souls—must open a pyramid to light at the same moment they did. Only then could the doman respond. Only then could Ashta and Anak journey to find Baldub and Carn.

  Elena and Marco were the missing element of time and space. They were the final ingredient.

  Hurry, Elena. Hurry! Ashta urged. And Elena heard her.

  Brazzon saw the light stream up out of the water, and he feared he might be too late. But he would try regardless. He pumped his wings with a reserve of energy he was unaware he had, and he zoned in on his target. He was almost there.

  -----

  Elena and Marco stood together in the moment they were made for. With a tenderness that melted Elena’s heart, Marco reached out to her. He honored her as the divine feminine counterpart to his divine masculine. His touch was soft and delicate.

  He was fully aware there was urgency; apart from Elena’s explanations of why they must do this now, it coursed through his body, speaking to him directly of its importance. But he could never hurry the natural rhythm of the feminine, not even now; it had a wisdom of its own.

  In the darkness, Marco looked into Elena’s eyes. He could see enough to tell she was ready for what they had to do. Today was the day they became who they were meant to be. Today was the day they breathed in their destiny in one big gasp. This was when their souls again became the golden twins Dann foresaw. This was when Dann’s prophecy of the golden children, tinted by the memories of fluorescent stars, stepped through time to transcend it.

  There was no place else for them to go but further together. Marco pulled Elena to him, and, when he did, he forgot the reasons why they had to do this now.

  Marco held Elena against his chest as if they could breathe as one, as if they could be one. They allowed their heads to fall until they rested on their backs. Then, for the first time in this lifetime, it happened.

  Light streamed from their chests. The capstone above them, ancient and unused, creaked and groaned as it swiveled out of place to make a pathway for the light. When the light shone into the tumultuous sky, it brought the frothing storm to an instantaneous end.

  The light was blue, and it was strong. It illuminated the sky as far as the average human eye could see, and, beyond, it continued.

  Elena and Marco gave themselves over to the moment—to this one moment that contained all of eternity within it—and all conscious notions of time and of being abandoned them. This one eternal moment held nothing and everything, all at once.

  -----

  When Ashta and Anak sensed the light Elena and Marco were emitting, at once they recognized what they had been missing. But before the twins joined again as vehicles of destiny, Ashta transmitted a message to Elena. This one thing was vitally important.

  Elena, you must hold the light open for us so that we may return. Only with your light can we rejoin this world. You must sustain the light for us.

  Then Ashta and Anak brought their chests together again and placed the doman between them. And this time, something different did happen. As soon as the twins threw their heads back to allow the blue light to shoot from their chests, the doman came to life. Namana began to spin, illuminated by its own glow.<
br />
  Neither Ashta nor Anak witnessed the display the doman put on. Rainbow lights flickered everywhere, glittering and trailing through the ocean water, like an effect only the gifted and charmed could see. The twins’ heads tilted back, their conscious minds out of the way to allow what needed to happen to take place.

  But the twins felt the doman. At the periphery of thought, they sensed the doman opening. Like a rare flower sharing its momentous blooming with the world, the doman spread its petals.

  Fully open, from its exposed core, tender and fresh like the flesh of a newborn animal, Namana contributed its light to the twins’ blue beam. The rainbow-colored light intermingled with blue for only a few instants, but they were sufficient.

  Then, the doman floated down through the water, toward the pyramid floor. It sunk slowly, the water carrying it, caressing it, as it went. With the final moves of a graceful dance, Namana’s petals closed in pace with its gradual descent. Softly, gently, and without a sound, Namana again hid its secret. There, on the ocean bottom, among jewels that could not surpass its beauty, Namana would wait in hope that the twins would return.

  Ashta and Anak were gone. In the flash of combined light, the twins vanished.

  And merely an exhale before the multi-colored light disappeared, Brazzon reached the spot. Without pause, without breath, the dark raven took its aim. It flew into the beam of light in the very instant it was closing to this world.

  When the light was gone, so too was the dark raven. It had embarked on the uncharted journey with the twins.

  The blue light that bridged two different dimensions had combined with Namana’s secret to open a portal to the unknown.

  This strange world was unprepared for what would descend upon it in an instant.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Lucía Ashta is the author of many books, including

  The Prophecy of Arnaka and Irele: Magic Awakens, each the start of a series.

  You can discover more about her and her work here.

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