by K. T. Tomb
The humans continued toiling, planning, and building. Crops were planted, and the Apetorees watched, and waited.
***
“We’re approaching the veil now,” Captain, Ri called out. “Would you like me to call Hugh to the bridge?”
“I think you can handle it, Ri,” Captain Jarreth replied.
“I think she can too,” Hugh said coming up behind them.
“This one seems a little more difficult than the last one we encountered,” she responded.
“It wouldn’t be the first rough landing we have endured,” Hugh smiled, glancing over at the captain who returned his smile with a knowing one of his own.
Ri chewed on her lower lip for a moment. Since they had left what their crew had referred to as Ape Island, which had later been called Jarl’s Gift, there had been plenty of invitations for contracts with the Jarl, but they had been turned down by Jarreth with full support of the crew. She thought she understood why, but had not asked for an explanation up to that point; as far as she knew, neither had anyone else. “I’m curious of something, Captain.”
“You haven’t much time to satisfy your curiosity, Ri, but go ahead,” Jarreth responded.
“Why have you turned down all of the contracts to Jarl’s Gift? Why are we still exploring when we could sit ourselves up comfortably in that new world?”
“Ri, there are some things that I have come to understand about the world that have come with the great number of experiences I’ve had. The first of those is that things are not always as they would seem.”
Hugh’s smile broadened at Jarreth’s response.
“You mean Jarl’s Gift and the New World are not as peaceful and plentiful as it would seem?”
“That’s exactly what I am saying,” Jarreth replied.
“But the Aportee was driven back into the deep woods and haven’t bothered the colony,” she responded.
“That is exactly what I’m talking about.”
“So, you think that they are just biding their time?”
“I think that if I had found that place and made it my home that I would not give it up so easily,” he pointed out.
Hugh nodded his agreement, but did not break into the conversation.
Though she already knew the answer to her next question, she was curious to have the captain’s answer to it anyway. “Do you think the Aportee are watching, learning and waiting for the precise moment to attack the colony when they could cripple it most?”
“I do.”
“But you will not go to their aid?”
“I will not.”
“Might I ask why?”
Captain Jarreth allowed a heavy sigh to escape his lips. He had considered the question hundreds of times, but had only come up with one answer. He had shared that answer with no one, feeling that there was a consensus among the crew to never go back to Jarl’s Gift. Maybe it was time to put his thoughts into words.
“Though they held us captive, their intent was to integrate us into a civilization that… well… might be superior to ours in a lot of ways. I guess you could say that I respect what they have and, in all honesty, I sort of hate to see it destroyed…”
“And so you won’t be a part of that,” Hugh cut in, finishing his statement.
It was exactly the response that Ri had expected and it made her smile. “I’m glad you don’t want to go back. I have the very same feelings of respect.”
“Well, Ri,” he said in a tone of dismissal. “At this particular moment, I need you to concentrate on getting us through that next veil so that we can see what else there is outside this realm.”
“As you wish, Captain,” she beamed. “We’re right up on it now. Let’s do this!”
“You’ve trained her well, Hugh,” Jarreth said, leaning into the sentient standing beside him and speaking in a low tone.
“I’ve only made her aware of her skills and given her confidence in them,” Hugh replied.
“It is enough,” Jarreth responded as he felt the tugging of the veil and set his feet to stand firm through the passage.
Epilogue
Leaped up the graybeard: God he thanked,
mighty Lord, for the man’s brave words.
For Hrothgar soon a horse was saddled
wave-maned steed. The sovran wise
stately rode on; his shield-armed men
followed in force.
The footprints led along the woodland, widely seen,
a path o’er the plain, where she passed, and trod
the murky moor; of men-at-arms
she bore the bravest and best one, dead,
him who with Hrothgar the homestead ruled.
On then went the atheling-born
o’er stone-cliffs steep and strait defiles,
narrow passes and unknown ways,
headlands sheer, and the haunts of the Nicors.
Foremost he fared, a few at his side
of the wiser men, the ways to scan,
till he found in a flash the forested hill
hanging over the hoary rock,
a woeful wood : the waves below
were dyed in blood.
The Danish men
had sorrow of soul, and for Scyldings all,
for many a hero, ’twas hard to bear,
ill for earls, when it’s head
they found by the flood on the foreland there.
Waves were welling, the warriors saw,
hot with blood ; but the horn sang oft battle-song bold.
—Beowulf
***
It was one full season since the first ships had set sail from Daneland for Jarl’s Gift in the New World.
The settlers there produced a record harvest, the majority of which was stored for the following season, since none knew what to expect. The remainder was shipped back to Jarl Algoth so that he could illegally distribute it to his people and sell the rest for profit. However, the second shipments were delayed significantly.
“If those cargo ships do not dock by tomorrow, we are sending out a recon mission. They shouldn’t be this late,” Algoth said to his advisers.
“Perhaps we should make some… subtle inquiries… with the Guild to see if they intercepted our cargo on its way here?” the Senior Adviser asked.
“I’ve already done that. We have solid men in the Guild these days—men who want to get their families out of here and would never jeopardize their family’s future for Guild loyalty. They assure me that interception was not the cause for this major delay.”
“Well then, sir, the best course of action is what you request. You should wait, and if the shipment was not received by tomorrow, will send a reconnaissance mission.”
The next afternoon, with no sightings of the ships the jarl was waiting for, and no documentation of the ships arriving at their suspected ports, the jarl put together a crew to investigate what the hold-up was. The ship launched immediately, and due to the urgency of the mission, the three sentients aboard worked up a wind storm to blow them to, and through, the veil with urgency. A trip that would normally take a day and a half on the seas took their ship just mere hours.
The crew, upon seeing the shoreline, was devastated. Smoke billowed, a greasy gray and black streak in the sky met their unbelieving eyes. They began sailing in for a closer look when the man in the crow’s nest shouted, “Ships to sta’bar’!”
All eyes turned to see a massive fleet—thousands strong—sailing directly toward them. One sentient cast a wall of energy that would redirect any incoming projectiles back towards their point of origin. The other two sentients quickly re-created the wind to drive them back through the veil. Once on the other side, the three worked together to create a barrier that would immediately transport anything that came through, for a time, into the frozen, ice-locked seas far to the north of their homeland. They set sail for the jarl, and, upon reaching him, they shared with him their findings.
The jarl called an emergency session of the Danish Coun
cil. Once all the men were there, he sat them down and said, “The demons from the other side have destroyed the outpost. It’s burned. Everyone we had out there is presumed dead. Prepare yourselves for war.”
The End
The adventure continues in:
Snake Island
Return to the Table of Contents
SNAKE ISLAND
by
K.T. TOMB
Islands That Time Forgot #3
Snake Island
Published by K.T. Tomb
Copyright © 2015 by K.T. Tomb
All rights reserved.
Snake Island
Introduction
Aberdour Castle
Fife, Scotland
“Welcome back, everyone. I hope you’ve been adequately refreshed and ready for the end of this bizarre lecture I’ve had you wrapped up in for most of the day,” Savannah Summers said. She was addressing the audience that had reconvened in the Great Hall at Quests Unlimited to hear her speak that day.
“At the beginning of this talk today I said that I would challenge you. Have I done that so far?”
There was a resounding reply of “Yes!” from the audience, punctuated by loud applause.
Savannah smiled. At least they were still with her on this!
“So now, fast forward from the 1860’s to 2012, roughly five generations, and we come to two interns here at Quests Unlimited; Adam Andrews and Eva Lunes.” The crowd murmured in response, which only made Savannah’s smile widen. “And what do these two recent graduates of St. Paul University have to do with the stories we are discussing today? In particular, Mr. Adam Andrews? Well, with his permission, I can reveal to you that he is none other than the great- great- great- grandson of our esteemed founding father, John Lee!”
The words got the response she wanted. Indeed, she only wished Adam and Eva were here to see the applause... but they were back at it, in the field, living their dream of research and adventure.
Even before the room was calm again, Savannah continued, “Adam’s and Eva’s adventures truly parallel that of John Lee’s. Indeed, both involve islands, and both involve... let’s say... unsavory creatures. As some of you know, the two students dove head-first into their Mayan Mythology research on the Yucatán of Mexico, setting out to Mayan pyramids, ruins and cross referencing everything they saw with the myths they’d only recently learned about.
“So what took them to Snake Island? Why the most fantastic, least-seen ruins of all Mayan culture, of course. And just how did they got to the prohibited shores of Kukulkan’s Island? Well, only Adam and Eva can say... but what we do know is what happened when they arrived at the ruins in search of evidence of the Serpent god.
“Well, what they encountered in Kukulkan’s pyramid is a story seasoned explorers will exchange over drinks at cocktail parties for many, many years to come…”
Prologue
In the beginning, the god Huracan blew as a great wind over the primeval ocean, causing the earth to rise from the depths.
Then Xpiacoc and Xmucane, “old man and old woman,” performed magical rites that helped Huracan and other creator deities form plants, animals, and eventually the human race. The gods, Tepeu and Kukulkan, fashioned the first man out of clay, and he melted into the water. The next race of people was made of wood, but was dull, spiritless, and easily destroyed by fire. In their third attempt, they mixed yellow and white maize flour together and made the First Fathers, the ancestors of men, from the dough.
The First Fathers were worshipful, handsome, and wise. The gods decided that they were too wise and feared that the creation would become as powerful as the creators, so they blew fog into their eyes and took away some of their knowledge. Following the creation of the First Fathers, they made the First Mothers and eventually the sun and moon in order to bring light to the world.
The Maya believed that, because they were made out of a mixture of yellow and white maize, humans had been put on earth to nourish the gods. Human sacrifices served that purpose. They also engaged in the ritual called bloodletting, in which priests or nobles pierced parts of their bodies and offered the blood to the gods or to ancestors in exchange for guidance. Clouds of smoke from burning blood offerings were to summon the Vision Serpents, images of snakes with Mayan gods and ancestors coming from their mouths.
One of the great creator gods was Kukulkan, the feathered serpent, who was not only a part of creation, but also an important part of Mayan art and religion. However, his powers went beyond art and religion and had a part in all of Mayan civilization, including codes of the law, agriculture, fishing and medicine.
Kukulkan also represented the forces of good and evil in a paradigm similar to the ying-yang of oriental religions. He was also the god of the four elements of earth, wind, fire and water upon which the nine levels of heaven rest. With such great power and influence over so many aspects of Mayan culture, it is no wonder that the feathered serpent is one of the most important deities in the Mayan pantheon.
Kukulkan was a deity closely associated with the Itza state in the northern Yucatán Peninsula, where the cult formed the core of the state religion. Although the cult of Kukulkan had its origins in earlier Mayan traditions, the Itza worship of Kukulkan was heavily influenced by the Quetzalcoatl cult of central Mexico. Throughout the centuries, Kukulkan headed a pantheon of deities of mixed Mayan and non-Mayan provenance, which was used to promote the Itza political and commercial agenda. It also eased the passage of Itza merchants into central Mexico and other non-Maya areas, promoting the Itza economy.
El Castillo in Chichen Itza served as a temple to Kukulkan. It is interesting to note that during the spring and fall equinoxes, the shadow cast by the angle of the sun and edges of the nine steps of the pyramid combined with the northern stairway and the stone serpent head carvings create the illusion of a massive serpent descending the pyramid.
Modern folklore speculates further to the origin of Kukulkan and what became of him when the Mayan people began to decline in power and influence over the Yucatán.
In one tale, Kukulkan is a boy who was born as a snake. As he grew older it became obvious that he was, indeed, the plumed serpent and his sister cared for him in a cave. He grew so large that his sister was unable to continue feeding him, so he left the cave and plunged into the sea, causing an earthquake. The story says that in order to let his sister know that he is still alive, Kukulkan causes earth tremors every year in July.
A collection of folk stories from the Yucatán tell how Kukulkan was a winged snake that flew to the sun and tried to speak to it, but the sun, in its pride, burnt his tongue and that he always precedes the Mayan rain god, creating the winds as he sweeps his tail in order to cleanse the earth before the rains come, from that, one can predict the coming season of rain.
Some say that Kukulkan is an evil, monstrous snake that is the pet of the sun god, while others still connect him with the advancements in art, architecture, astronomy, law and culture that was abundant in the Yucatán during the Mayan heyday. What truly became of him?
Some say that he destroyed himself after the Aztec god, Tezcatlipoca, began to rise into greater influence over the entire region, having deposed Itzamná. After having been seduced by Tezcatlipoca, he exploded his heart and became the bright morning star. Most, who belong to the cult of Kukulkan, however, believe that he plunged back into the sea and will return again in the End Times.
The most prominent of legends says that seeing how powerful Tezcatlipoca had become, Kukulkan left on a raft made of snakes, promising to return and restore the Mayan people to even greater glory than they had before.
***
“Great Kukulkan, we beseech you to return to us and cleanse our land.” The snake priest raised the still beating human heart high above his head and presented it toward the massive stone image of the feathered serpent. “Our people are in bondage and we cry out to you. Receive this meal of flesh from one who has been lost and departed from your people. With the
heart of this one and the blood that is shed, regain your strength, rise again and return to the land of your people.”
The young woman, though in a drunken state of delirium was conscious long enough to watch her beating heart being lifted up toward the image of the serpent, though she was completely unable to process what her eyes were taking in. It was only a moment more, as she listened to the words of the priest in some ancient tongue, before her eyes grew dim and all light slowly faded away into eternal darkness.
After the ceremonial sacrifice was over and all who had been in attendance had left, a hooded figure, the apprentice to the priest unfastened the bindings on the wrists and ankles that held the lifeless body of the woman in place on the table. As he unfastened the strap that was buckled across her nude hips and the one that was fastened over her ample breasts, he couldn’t help feeling a tinge of regret that such a beautiful and sensual woman had been sacrificed.
In spite of the ancient beliefs of his people and his desire to one day be a powerful priest, he couldn’t help thinking that she might have made a beautiful lover, wife and mother. Could he take a human life? He lingered a moment longer, battling with something deep inside of himself, but was eventually able to push aside his emotions and focus on the greater good. Our people need Kukulkan to become strong again in order to restore us to greatness.
With that justification in mind and the bindings unfastened, he took hold of the lever, undoing the catch that kept the table in the horizontal position and then pushed up on the end that supported the woman’s feet. Giving it a healthy shove, he raised the table and watched as the body slid off. He winced as the head smacking into the stone ledge of the pit with a loud crack, before the weight of the body caused it to tumble over and plunge into the darkness below.
