The Navel of the World

by P. J. Hoover

  “Maybe there’s another way down,” Benjamin said, but looking at the sides of the shaft, he wouldn’t have wanted to scale down. “Maybe I can levitate you. Or Jack can.”

  But Heidi shook her head. “No. Just go ahead and go without us.”

  And so Benjamin, Helios, and Jack levitated down the lifting shaft. Really all was fine except that every so often Benjamin got the image of the volcano coming to life and exploding them back up the chute. But what were the odds? An extinct volcano generally stayed that way—at least for a while. And aside from being flattened intentionally, Benjamin couldn’t remember any stories of the ancient capital city exploding.

  When they got to the thing in the middle of the path, they stopped; Benjamin and Helios settled down on it, and Jack rested on Benjamin’s shoulder.

  “What now?” Benjamin asked.

  Helios smiled. “Now we teleport around it.”

  Jack went first. Given he was the littlest, the odds of him teleporting into a rock were the smallest. When he teleported back with a smile on his face, Benjamin decided he’d go next. But once he got to the other side, every bit of light vanished.

  “How do we see where we’re going?” Benjamin asked once Helios had joined them, but then he remembered his birthday present. He pulled the glass tube from his pocket and it started glowing bright yellow.

  “Where’d you get a lumitube?” Jack held his hand out.

  Benjamin handed it over to the Nogical. “Back in Mu. It’s a birthday present.” He looked at Helios. “Did you know credit works back in time?” he asked as they started levitating downward.

  Helios smiled. “Of course. I tried to use it to buy the access badge, but the owner of the shop insisted on a trade.”

  “So what’d you trade?” Benjamin asked.

  Jack laughed. “He tried to trade me, but I can be pretty rotten when I want to. So, instead the owner settled on some random telemagnifiers.”

  “I traded way more that the access badge was worth,” Helios said. “But wasting time squabbling with a shop owner isn’t how I normally spend my time-traveling days.”

  “You time travel a lot?” Benjamin could see ground coming up fast now, so he slowed his levitation.

  “Only when I need to.” Helios settled on the ground. “And now…”

  “And now we need to find a hidden chamber,” Benjamin said.

  What Benjamin really needed was Iva. With her telegnostic skills, he should have insisted she come along for the trip. But then again, Heidi’s telepathic skills had come in pretty handy with Minnolo back at The Silver Touch. Without her, they might not have gotten the access badge.

  “Any idea where we’re going?” Jack asked.

  “No,” Helios said. “But I’m willing to bet whoever hid the object wants you to find it. Let’s just keep our eyes open and look around.”

  But it turned out it wasn’t as straightforward as all that. When Benjamin looked around, all he saw were walls. Walls covered with picture after picture after picture.

  He looked over to Helios and Jack. “It was an art gallery?”

  “Did you find anything yet?” Benjamin heard Heidi’s voice in his head.

  “Lots of art.” Benjamin walked over to the closest picture. It looked like a bunch of feathers twisted into some sort of contraption which covered the sun. “At least I think its art.”

  “Just don’t forget about us up here,” Heidi said.

  Jack levitated over to another picture. “Hey look. A tribe of Baingels.”

  “Baingels?” Benjamin looked at the picture. Baingel seemed like as good a name as any; they each had twenty arms and apparently no head. “What’s a Baingel?”

  “A genetic engineering experiment.” Helios looked at Jack and narrowed his eyes. “One that never should have been performed.”

  Jack threw up his hands. “What can I say? Nogicals got lonely. It’s not easy being the perfect species, you know.”

  “So you made yourself some pets?” Helios said.

  But Jack shook his head. “Not me. I wasn’t alive back then. And they weren’t really supposed to be pets.”

  “They look more like roaches to me.” Benjamin looked around. “Do we split up? This place is huge.”

  Jack nodded. “Sure. I’ll take everything way up high.”

  “And I’ll start over here.” Helios motioned to the left.

  Which left Benjamin with everything on eye level on the right. Probably only about a thousand pictures or so. He walked to the first one and looked at it. Really, it looked like nothing. Sure, it was fine art and all, but how it was supposed to help Benjamin find a hidden chamber with a secret object in it, he had no idea.

  “This may take a while,” Benjamin told Heidi and Gary, trying to pull the picture away from the wall. Maybe someone had hidden something behind it. But the picture was glued to the wall. So he moved on to the next one.

  “Why?” Heidi asked.

  Benjamin laughed. “Because I have no idea what I’m doing.”

  “I can tell,” Heidi said.

  “Why don’t you go about it methodically?” Gary said.

  “Okay,” Benjamin said, not that it helped. The most methodical way he could think was to move from one picture to the next and look at each one. “But I don’t even know what I’m looking for.”

  “Look for something written in Ancient Lemurian,” Gary said. “Someone may have left you a message.”

  So Benjamin decided to do a quick pass first—checking each picture for writing. Not that he’d be able to read it. He’d been putting off learning Ancient Lemurian strictly on principle. But the first pass turned up nothing. And so he went back and started over. He must’ve missed something.

  The first ten pictures turned up nothing. So did the next ten. And the next ten. It was only around about the ninetieth picture that something finally caught Benjamin’s eye. Not Ancient Lemurian symbols like he’d been looking for, but a different symbol—one that he recognized as soon as he saw it. How had he missed it the first time?

  The painting was of a giant head—like the ones Benjamin had seen pictures of on Easter Island. And on the forehead of the giant stone figure was a symbol of three hearts intertwined. It was kind of messy and scratchy, but it looked just like the symbol which had been on the record they’d found back over Spring Break. Benjamin reached out and touched it with him thumb, and when he did, the painting shifted until the background had vanished and only the head remained. And then it spoke to him.

  “What do you want, Benjamin Holt?”

  Okay, so talking pictures shouldn’t be a surprise to Benjamin. But the fact that this talking stone head in this painting in a long dead capital city knew Benjamin’s name caught him off guard.

  “I asked what you wanted,” the statue said again.

  “Maybe you should tell him,” Helios said.

  Benjamin turned. He hadn’t even heard Helios walk over, but there he was with Jack floating in the air beside him.

  “I came to get something,” Benjamin said.

  “What?” the talking head said.

  “I don’t know,” Benjamin said.

  The talking head frowned. “You don’t even know what you want.”

  “It was hidden for me,” Benjamin said.

  The talking head closed its eyes. “I can’t give it to you then.”

  “What?” Was it kidding? Benjamin hadn’t traveled back in time to have some stupid painting refuse to give him what was rightfully his. “Why not?”

  “Because if you don’t know what it is, then you won’t know how to handle it,” the head said. “It’s dangerous.”

  Helios stepped forward. “That’s why I’m here. I’ll tell Benjamin how to take care of it.”

  “And not to use it?” the talking head prompted.

  Helios nodded.

  “And what about proper storage?” the head said. “He should not touch it.”

  Helios pulled out a small metal box. “I came prepared
.” He handed the box to Benjamin who took it.

  “Does anyone want to tell me what’s going on?” Benjamin said.

  “Not yet,” Jack said. “Helios has it all worked out. Actually the two of you worked this out together.”

  Benjamin’s mouth fell open. “You guys are from the future?”

  “Duh,” Jack said.

  “No, I mean even more in the future than I am,” Benjamin said.

  “Like I said. Duh.”

  “So do we have a deal?” Helios asked the picture.

  The talking head looked at Benjamin, then at the box in his hand. “You take full responsibility?” it finally said to Helios.

  Helios nodded. “Yes.”

  And then the talking head vanished, and in its place a gold coin appeared, no bigger than a quarter. Benjamin reached out to take it, but Jack was on his hand faster than lightning. “Did you hear anything the talking head just said? Don’t touch it.”

  Benjamin turned to Jack. “So how am I supposed to get it out then?”

  Jack smiled. “That’s where I come in.”

  Benjamin stared at him.

  “Yep, I can touch it, but you can’t. It doesn’t have any power over Nogicals.” Jack reached out and pried the golden coin from the painting. He held it up and looked at it, and then dropped it into the box in Benjamin’s hand. Benjamin snapped the box shut.

  “Well that wasn’t too bad,” Benjamin said. They started back to the shaft. “What is it?”

  But Helios shook his head. “It’s called a life force disk. And that’s all you need to know.”

  “But you told the painting—” Benjamin said.

  “I told the painting I would tell you how to take care of it,” Helios said. “Which is simple. Don’t touch it. Don’t talk about it. Don’t take it out.”

  Benjamin stared at the box holding the coin. “So what do I do with it then?”

  “Put it in your pocket,” Helios said. “Forget you have it. You’ll know when you need it. But until then, just leave it alone.”

  When they got to the top of the lifting shaft, Heidi and Gary stood at the edge waiting.

  “You guys took forever.” Heidi looked over at Gary. “Gary’s been nice enough to tell me about every old library that used to exist in Geros.”

  Gary puffed his chest out. “Only the ones in the Ruling Hall.”

  Heidi gritted her teeth. “It felt like a million.” She looked back to Benjamin. “So I guess you found it?”

  He nodded then looked at Helios and Jack. “Yep, but before you ask, I don’t know what it is, don’t know how to use it, and can’t touch it. So, no, I can’t show it to you.”

  Heidi’s face fell. “You’re kidding, right?”

  But Benjamin shook his head. “Look at Helios. Does he look like he’s kidding?”

  Helios smiled and put up his hands. “I do what I can.”

  Heidi looked at Helios and then shrugged. “Well, at least you got it. And you know, we’ve been gone forever.”

  Gary glanced down at himself. “Yep. Maybe it’s time to go back.”

  Benjamin looked at Gary. “I’m sure your temporal chromosomes are fine,” he said after reading Gary’s thoughts.

  “I hope so,” Gary said. “All I know is it’s been a long day.”

  “For us, too,” Jack said. “We’re going now.” And before Benjamin could ask him or Helios another question, the two of them teleported away. Which left Benjamin, Heidi, and Gary in the ruins of Geros alone.

  “You know, like I said, it’s way past time for us to go.” Gary pulled out the TPT, and they all reached out and touched it. Benjamin thought of present day, and of the ruins in Tunisia where they’d started, and in an instant, the crunching and bending began, and Benjamin felt his body compress.

  When it stopped, the telemagnifier was gone. Benjamin shook his head and took a moment to reorient himself. He looked over just in time to see the tourist crest the hill and head toward them.

  “You know, come to think of it, I am going to take that rock with me,” the man said.

  “It’s gone,” Benjamin said.

  The man pursed his lips together. “I threw it over here just a minute ago.”

  “That was a minute ago,” Benjamin said. “A lot can change in a minute.”

  CHAPTER 16

  Time Travel Is Dangerous—for Girls

  You’d have thought they’d been gone for days. Andy sat in the dining hall drumming his fingers on the table.

  “It’s lunch time,” he said. “What took you guys so long?”

  “Lunch?” Benjamin said. “Feels like dinner to me.”

  Heidi yawned. “Or bedtime.”

  “With time travel, you should’ve been back hours ago,” Iva said.

  “Well, we had to find the TPT in Tunisia, and that took a while,” Benjamin said. “And then there was this tourist who almost took it.”

  “The actual traveling to the past didn’t take any time at all,” Gary said. “When we got back to Tunisia, the sun had hardly moved in the sky.”

  “So what was it like?” Iva asked. “I want to hear everything.”

  They relayed the story as best they could, constantly interrupting each other to add forgotten details.

  “So you’re telling me that Walker Pan traveled back in time, sold Minnolo Midas the Ammolite chess set, then traveled back to our time, cheated to win the Bangkok Chess Open last year, followed us around all summer, and then bought the chess set from Morpheus Midas,” Iva said.

  Gary nodded. “That sums it up.”

  “Or maybe he sold Minnolo Midas the chess set then traveled forward in time,” Andy said. “Maybe he’s really from the past to begin with.”

  “Could be,” Benjamin said. “All I know is Walker is not what he seems.”

  “I disagree,” Gary said. “He seems like a snake; he is a snake.”

  Benjamin wasn’t going to bother disagreeing. And Magic wasn’t anywhere to hear. “So we had to negotiate for the access badge,” he said.

  “Minnolo needed me to open some Atlantis spying portal for him,” Heidi added.

  “And?” At the word spy, Andy’s eyes had stopped blinking, and if Benjamin hadn’t known better, he’d have sworn Andy stopped breathing.

  “I got a telepathic peak into Atlantis. It was depressing.” And then Heidi’s mind froze, and Benjamin felt it too.

  He held his breath. “You recognized something.”

  Heidi nodded. “A feeling. I didn’t realize it until right now.”

  “What?” Iva said.

  Benjamin looked at Heidi, and their eyes locked. He knew exactly what she’d recognized. “Reva.” He could sense the evil through the Alliance bond.

  Heidi nodded. “Right. Reva—the woman who used to rule Xanadu until she was thrown out. But nobody thought of her as Reva.”

  And then Iva sucked in her breath. She must’ve felt it too. “They thought of her as Gaea.”

  “The first of the false gods?” Gary said. “She should’ve been dead millennia ago.”

  But Heidi shook her head. “The presence I sensed in Atlantis is the exact same one from Xanadu. Reva is Gaea, and a thousand years ago, she was back in Atlantis.”

  Benjamin’s mind flew to his experience in Xanadu. He’d found the second key of Shambhala there—after a horrible test that involved his mom and his twin brothers almost dying. Ananya—the current ruler of Xanadu—had told him it was just a test. That Reva was imprisoned and most likely dead. But Heidi and Benjamin had sensed her presence when they were leaving. And whatever presence Heidi had sensed in Atlantis had been the same.

  Harsh reality hit Benjamin. “Reva is Gaea, and if she’s really out, then I know she’s responsible for that awful test from the caverns.”

  Heidi reached out and put her hand on his arm. And the weird thing was it didn’t feel awkward at all. If anyone understood what he’d been through, she did.

  “She wasn’t alone,” Heidi said. “There was another
strong presence nearby.” And her eyes narrowed and focused on Benjamin. “And you know, come to think of it, there was something about it that reminded me a lot of you.”

  Benjamin held his breath. What was she getting at? “You think it was one of my brothers?”

  But Heidi shook her head. “No. I don’t.”

  “My ancestors?”

  Heidi shook her head again.

  “You think it was his father,” Iva said.

  Heidi nodded. “Exactly. At least that’s what every part of my mind is telling me now.” She looked right at Benjamin. “Your father was in Atlantis a thousand years ago.”

  Really, Benjamin wasn’t as surprised as he could have been. He’d known his biological father was probably from Atlantis. So apparently, he’d just traveled back in time the same way Benjamin had. No big deal. Back in time was better than here in the present day hunting Benjamin down.

  They finished eating and got up to leave the dining hall, when Benjamin spotted someone walking toward them. His skin started to crawl at the sight of Nathan Nyx.

  “What is he doing here?” Andy asked.

  “I have no idea,” Benjamin said.

  “Benjamin.” Nathan waved as he called out.

  Benjamin reached out and waved back. “Hi, Nathan.” Why was Nathan bothering him? “Thanks for the credit account by the way. I got a pretty cool birthday present.”

  “What’d you get?” Andy asked.

  “Oh, I forgot to tell you guys.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out the small, glass rod. “It’s called a lumitube. It’s supposed to be some sort of eavesdropping device.”

  “A lumitube,” Nathan said. “Those are impossible to come by. Impossible because they’re illegal.”

  “Illegal!” Iva said.

  Nathan nodded. “They have been for about the last seven hundred years.” He licked his lips. “Do you mind if I look at it?”

  Illegal. Great. Now Benjamin had contraband on him. He looked down at the lumitube in his palm. “Sure, I guess.” He handed the rod over to Nathan.