The Secret Six

by Evie Del Mar

  Cole came up and tapped me on the shoulder. “You look like you’re deep in thought. Everything ok?” I was too focused to answer him right away.

  As I continued humming the lullaby, some of the words caught my attention. “Earth”, “Light”, “Shadow”, “Fire”, and “Wind.”

  I stopped dead in my tracks. “There’s no way that’s a coincidence,” I whispered to myself. I repeated it once more, just to make sure I was right.

  Cole waved a hand in front of my face. “Melody?”

  “It’s a map!” I shrieked, startling him. I walked back to the group, hardly believing I’d known where the pieces were this whole time.

  “Guys, it’s a song! The map is this old lullaby my mother used to sing to me when I was younger!” My breath came in short pants, excitement filling up inside. “She secretly told me where the pieces were hidden, in case a situation like this ever were to happen and we needed to get to the crystal.”

  “Let’s hear it,” Tony blurted out.

  I cleared my throat and sang the lullaby,

  “Where eagles soar

  and giants reside,

  in the arms of the general,

  Earth’s power doth hide.

  Seek out the Pharaoh

  to find what you need.

  The light has been hidden

  with sinners and greed.

  The gate made from death

  is where you must run.

  The shadow is cast

  by a midnight sun.

  Where hello and goodbye

  are one and the same,

  fire’s ember glows

  where Pele is aflame.

  In a city of wind

  near a salty sea board,

  between land and sky,

  the breeze holds your reward.

  To finish this journey

  just look to the song.

  Close to the heart

  it’s been all along.”

  Once I finished the song, everybody stared at me, waiting for me to continue. Awkwardly, I cleared my throat once again. “I’m finished.”

  “That’s it? That doesn’t really tell us where they are,” Drake complained.

  Blair chimed in. “Well, I thought that was very lovely. I never knew you had such an amazing singing voice.”

  “I’m sorry, but that’s all I have to go on right now.” I shrugged my shoulders. “Each verse has something to do with each of us individually, so we’re going to have to do some serious research.”

  “Why don’t we all go to the computer lab and figure this out. It shouldn’t be too hard to look up the answers.” Lily stood up with a smile. “I love riddles.”

  “Of course, mine has to do with a place of death,” Blake mumbled, shuffling his feet toward the computer lab.

  I made my way out of the kitchen but noticed Tony didn’t follow behind. “Tony? Are you coming?”

  He jumped at the sound of his name, like he had been in deep thought and I accidentally brought him back to reality. “Yes, I’ll be right there. I just left something in my office.” He turned and darted away.

  I looked at Cole, thinking he must’ve thought that was as strange as I did. He shrugged his shoulders. “That’s my dad for you,” he laughed. “Come on, let’s go join the others and see if we can figure this out.”

  CHAPTER NINE

  The words on my computer screen blurred together as my eyes drooped. I had no idea how long I’d been looking at the same webpage, trying to figure out where I was supposed to look for my piece.

  “I don’t know how much more of this I can take!” Drake groaned, running a hand through his hair, frustrated. “We’ve been at this for hours and we still don’t know where any of our pieces are.”

  Blair stood up and stretched. “Ok, we need to look at this from a different angle.” She put a hand to her chin, thinking. “What if, instead of everyone working on their individual sections, we team up and work on Lily’s together, since it’s the first one? The more brains and different views we have on a section, the better our chances.”

  “Good idea,” Blake yawned. “I don’t think I can stare at my screen for another minute.”

  We all made our way to Lily’s computer, some of us rolling our chairs next to hers while others stood behind her. Needing to stretch my legs, I opted to stand, glancing at her screen over her shoulder.

  “All right,” Blair sighed. “Lily, how far have you gotten on your research?”

  Lily adjusted her glasses, which had fallen to the tip of her nose. “Not very far, sadly.”

  “Not to worry. Let’s all start with the first line and work our way down from there. ‘Where eagles roam…’”

  Everyone was quiet, thinking.

  “Maybe it’s in a nest?” Cole suggested, thinking out loud.

  Blake looked at him, skeptically. “The next line has to do with giants and they don’t exactly live in nests.”

  “Obviously, we know that giants aren’t real, so maybe it’s a metaphor? For what, I don’t know.”

  “What about something tall like a giant?” I suggested. “We do know that each verse has to do with us individually and our abilities, so since Lily’s has to do with nature, what if we’re looking for a giant tree?”

  Cole smiled. “Not a bad idea. Lily, search for the world’s tallest tree.”

  Lily turned her attention to her computer and began typing. Different websites popped up with lists of the tallest trees around the world. As she scrolled through the list, a word caught my eye. If I hadn’t been paying attention, I would’ve missed it.

  “Stop!” I shrieked, causing everyone to jump. “Go back up!”

  I scanned across the screen, trying to find what had caught my eye earlier. “In the arms of the general…” I said under my breath.

  Hearing my mumbling, Cole looked at me. “So, are we looking for someone in the military?”

  I pointed to an article with the headline ‘General Sherman’. “We’re not looking for a person in the military, but for an actual tree!”

  Lily clicked on the link and read. “The Giant Forest, located in California, is known for its giant sequoia trees in the ‘United States’ Sequoia National Park’. One of the sequoia trees, ‘The General Sherman Tree’ is the world’s largest tree, standing at 275 feet tall and over 36 feet in diameter at the base.”

  Lily whistled in amazement. “I’ve never seen a tree that large before.” She suddenly gasped. “Wait! Did we just find the location of the first piece? My piece is in California?”

  Blair jumped up and down, excitedly. “Yay! Road trip!”

  “Don’t get too excited, sis.” Blake interrupted. “Remember, we’re on a mission to find the pieces, not some vacation.”

  Blair scoffed. “I know, but thanks for raining on my parade.”

  “How do we know The Brotherhood doesn’t already have it?” Drake asked.

  “I don’t believe they do,” I answered. “My mother said that only members of The Secret Six would be able to access them. I’m assuming that using our powers must be the key to getting them.”

  Tony walked into the room, clapping his hands together. “How’s everything going?”

  “Hey, Dad. We believe the first piece is in California.” Cole beamed.

  “Congratulations, guys!” Tony cheered, embracing his son in a hug. “What about the others?”

  Drake leaned back in his chair, putting his hands on the back of his neck and crossed his ankles on top of one of the computer desks. “It’s still a work in progress.”

  Tony nodded. “Well, you all need to have a game plan figured out before you start hightailing it across the country.”

  “Then, let’s jump onto the next one, which is mine!” Blair squealed. “‘Seek out the Pharaoh to find what you need. The light has been hidden with sinners and greed.’ Does this mean we’re going to Egypt?”

  Blake shook his head. “No, I don’t think so. Egypt doesn’t have anything to do with sinners an
d greed.”

  Drake leaned forward in his chair with a wicked smile. “Or maybe there’s a Pharaoh that’s buried with his treasure due to his greed.”

  “Slow down, Indiana Jones,” Lily joked. “Mine wasn’t as black and white as it seemed, so I don’t think the rest will be, either.”

  Cole began pacing up and down the computer aisle. “Well, greed is one of the seven deadly sins. What is one thing that everyone craves?”

  “Money,” Drake joked under his breath.

  Cole abruptly stopped and looked up at Drake. “Repeat what you just said.”

  Drake raised his hands up, looking like a little child who was just caught by his parents for saying something he shouldn’t have. “All I said was money.”

  “Exactly!” Cole shouted. “We’re looking for a place with either lots of money or a place where people go to spend it.”

  “Oh, like a mall?” Blair perked up.

  “That doesn’t have anything to do with a pharaoh,” Blake retorted.

  Blair threw up her hands in frustration. “How come mine isn’t as easy as Lily’s was?”

  “We’ll figure it out,” I reassured her. “What do people spend their money on? If they’re ‘sinners’, that means they could be spending it on something bad.”

  “Lots of people spend it on pornography,” Drake teased.

  I rolled my eyes, laughing. “Of course, you would think of that.”

  “What about gambling?” Blake proposed.

  Lily smacked her hand against her forehead. “Of course! How could I have forgotten?” She turned her attention back to the computer and began typing. “My father used to have a gambling problem and spent his weekends away in and out of casinos, where ‘sinners’ went to spend all their money, which I guess is how Las Vegas got the nickname ‘Sin City’.”

  “But what does that have to do with a pharaoh?” I looked over her shoulder at the computer screen, hoping something on the screen would answer my question. All of the pictures of the nightlife sure looked intriguing, like one never-ending party.

  Lily became quiet for a moment, while searching through the browser. She scrolled through pictures and stopped on one image of a huge pyramid with, sure enough, a statue of a large pharaoh at the front. “My father would come home drunk claiming that ‘the pharaoh took all of his money’, so it got me thinking that there is a pharaoh somewhere in Las Vegas, and here it is.”

  She clicked on the image, which took her to a description article. “The Luxor Resort and Casino is a 30-story hotel and casino at the end of the Las Vegas Strip, located in Las Vegas, Nevada,” she read. "It says the hotel is named for the city of Luxor in Egypt.”

  Alarmed, Blair stood up. “What is that pyramid behind the hotel? The one with all the light?”

  Lily was quiet again, reading the rest of the article. “According to this, that is the ‘Luxor Sky Beam’, which is the strongest beam of light in the world.”

  “First California, and now Vegas? I’m liking this mission even more now,” Drake said with a wily grin. “Guess I better go and start packing my bags.” He started to stand but Blake put a hand on his shoulder, stopping his movement.

  “Not so fast. We still have four more destinations to find, including yours. I think we should at least have half done before we start hightailing it out of here.”

  Groaning, Drake sat back down in his chair. “Alright then, who’s next?”

  Blake cracked his knuckles, sighing. “I’m next.” He picked up his notepad and read his passage. “The gate made from death is where you must run. The shadow is cast by a midnight sun.”

  Blair’s face scrunched, her eyebrows furrowing in confusion. “Well that already doesn’t make sense because there’s no such thing as a midnight sun. I would know.”

  “Remember, it may not be exactly as it seems,” Lily chimed in.

  Blake took over the chair in front of the computer and typed the words ‘United States’ and ‘midnight sun’. “The first two places were in the U.S., so I think it’s a safe bet to assume that the other four might be here, too.”

  Blake clicked on the first article, from Wikipedia, and read out loud. “In Barrow, Alaska, the sun does not set for more than two and a half months during the spring to summer seasons, in comparison to the fall and winter seasons when the sun never rises above the horizon.”

  “Can you imagine anyone not having any sunlight for that long?” Blair shuddered.

  “Oh, hell no! Forget the sunlight!” Drake howled. “Can you imagine living in the cold? I mean, who wants to live near the Arctic Circle? There’s a reason I’m from Miami.” His mischievous grin returned to his face. “There are warm beaches, suntans, and swimsuits.”

  “Ok, now that we’ve got a basic area, we still need a more precise location,” Cole mentioned.

  Continuing to read the article, Blake answered. “It seems that the town isn’t very big so we should be able to ask around. Someone will be able to point us in the right direction.”

  “I’m going to have to agree with Blake,” I added. Cole turned to me, his eyebrows raised in curiosity. “We really need to get a head start before The Brotherhood finds out that we’re looking for the pieces.”

  Cole shifted his weight from one foot to the other, deep in thought. “I’m not sure I feel comfortable with the fact that we haven’t finished the song, yet.”

  I tried to play off his unease. “There’s still plenty of time to figure out the last three during our journeys to California, Nevada, and now Alaska.”

  He gave me a warm smile in agreement and turned toward the window where his father had been quiet this whole time, patiently waiting for us to acknowledge him. “What do you think?"

  Tony uncrossed his arms and leaned away from the window. “I agree with Melody. I don’t need to remind you of the serious situation that would arise if—”

  “Yes, Dad we know,” Cole interrupted. “We cannot let The Brotherhood get ahold of the crystal, at any cost.” Satisfied with his son’s reply, Tony leaned back into the window, smiling at himself.

  Blake pulled up a map of the U.S. on the computer. “It’s a good thing all the states are on the west side. We won’t have to travel across the whole nation, searching.”

  “Oh yeah, it’ll be a great time going from the sunny beaches of California to the blizzardy tundra of Alaska,” Drake said sarcastically.

  “I think you’re being a bit overdramatic,” Blair laughed. “It won’t even be that cold because it’s summer.”

  “Which might play in our favor,” Blake replied. “I can’t imagine how hard it would be to find anything when the sun doesn’t rise.”

  Something occurred to me as I pictured my first ever cross-country trip. “So, how are we going to get from one place to the other?” I cleared my throat, praying I didn’t sound too desperate. I hoped they didn’t expect me to pay for my own ticket.

  Everyone turned to each other, smiling, and looked toward Tony. I felt like I was missing some inside joke. Tony chuckled to himself. “I think I can help answer that.” With his index finger, he motioned for us to follow him to his office.

  Once inside, Tony took out a set of keys from his pocket and walked to one of the shelves on the wall. He inserted a key on the top shelf, just above the frame. A sudden “whoosh” caused me to jump back when the entire shelf came forward like a door, revealing ten rows full of large stacks of money, from different parts of the world. On the bottom shelves were various credit cards, stacked neatly, one on top of the other. I had never seen so much currency in my entire life.

  “Goodness, did someone win the lottery?” I jokingly asked.

  Blair came over and dropped one of her arms over my shoulder. “Well, when you’ve got gods and a goddess watching over you, you don’t really have to sweat the small stuff,” she said with a grin. “Every generation of The Secret Six is always financially prepared.”

  “I say we fly to California,” Lily remarked. “It’s the quickest
and easiest way. Once we’re there, we can rent some cars to get around and then head off to Vegas.”

  “Which means everyone needs to hurry and go get packed!” Blair began ushering us all out of Tony’s office.

  Blake was almost to the door when he stopped, looking back at his sister. “Geez, what’s the rush?”

  Blair placed her hands on her hips. “Besides the fact that we have to beat The Brotherhood to every location, I have no idea what I’m going to pack!”

  Blake rolled his eyes, muttering under his breath, “Ugh, women.”

  Before Cole made his way upstairs, I grabbed him by his arm, pulling him off to the side.

  “Is everything ok?” he asked, concerned.

  I bit my bottom lip, a nervous tic I’d always had when I was worried or stressed about something. “Do you really think we can do this? Find all the pieces, I mean.”

  Cole chuckled to himself. “What happened to the confidence you had just a short while ago?”

  “Everything just seems to be happening quicker than I can keep up. I’m just getting nervous,” I confessed, looking down.

  Cole placed his hand under my chin and forced me to look up into his eyes, causing an electric shock to run through my whole body. Every time we touched, it was like I forgot how to breathe and my heart picked up, making me weak in the knees. I didn’t mind it one bit.

  He leaned closer to my face, just inches apart. “Everything will work out,” he whispered. “We’ll find the first three pieces, and then we’ll figure out where the last ones are.” He straightened back up. “Think of it this way,” he continued, “this could be a great opportunity for us to get to know each other better. It’s going to be a long flight.” He winked and gave me a flirtatious smile before walking up the stairs.

  I watched him as he headed to his room, unable to breathe, move, or even think, until he disappeared down the hall. I let out a huge breath. These feelings that were consuming me were so powerful and amazing, yet I felt helpless, like I couldn’t control them. I never believed in love at first sight, always thinking it was only for fairy tales, but I couldn’t explain, nor deny, what was happening between us. I didn’t know what scared me more: my intense feelings for a guy I barely knew, or wondering if he felt the same.