by Justin Sloan
“Solomon’s Throne.” Allie looked up at five peaks of limestone. She could almost see how one of the peaks was shaped like a throne.
“Come on, we gotta find her,” she said as she began climbing a steep path.
Daniel darted up the rocky slopes, struggling to stay with Allie. A group of tourists passed, like everyone else, not seeing them. The path was narrow with jagged rocks and wisps of long brown grass. No trees or buildings were on this side of the hill, so the harsh wind whipped around the rocks. In September Washington wasn’t cold, but the biting air on this hill made Allie wish she had something on over her white sweater.
When they reached the top, there was still no sign of Paulette. Daniel caught up with Allie and she turned to see him join her but paused, then froze. The light over the city was dimming in spite of the sun’s position in the center of the sky. Past the city, night crept toward them. A dark shadow moved along the earth and sky, consuming everything in its path. As if it all vanished into complete nothingness, if black was nothingness.
“You are a weird friend to have,” Daniel said as he stared at the darkness that approached them like a tidal wave of night.
“Something tells me we shouldn’t wait here for whatever that is.”
Daniel looked back and shook his head vigorously. “I agree.”
Allie scrambled toward the other side of the hill, looking for the way back. She wasn’t sure where they should go. She knew they shouldn’t stay there, but the approaching darkness seemed to captivate her, pull her in, as if she could watch it forever. Still, she sensed something terrible would happen if she stayed in this spot.
She attempted to step across a gap but a dirt clot beneath her foot crumbled and she slipped, falling fast. She screamed and flailed. As she felt the air whipping around her and she knew she was falling, Daniel grabbed her wrist.
“Got you,” he said, then looked past her with excitement. “Look what you found!”
He gestured in the direction she was falling. The drop didn’t continue too far, sloping off at a forty-five degree angle, five feet down into the rock.
Allie looked into the sky and saw the darkness growing close. The sun was starting to turn orange, the edge of it purple. “We have to get into hiding.”
“What about your friend?” Daniel said, looking around frantically.
Allie nodded. “Let’s pray she found somewhere to hide herself.”
The rock was gritty and provided easy traction as they lowered themselves into the cavern. A cave opened up before them, but somehow the cave’s lack of light was nothing compared to what they had seen approaching. Its damp coolness welcomed them with the scent of untouched pools of water, which reflected when Allie opened her phone for some light.
“Let’s move,” Daniel said, and they started into the cave.
They kept walking and as they went deeper, the walls narrowed. Daniel expressed his worry more than once, but Allie assured him there would be no bears or snakes in the cave.
Something snarled ahead. Allie gulped and dropped her phone, but a light still shone. A light from her necklace reflected into the eyes of a wolf as it drew close. She bent down to retrieve the phone. More snarls rose around them, creeping through the cold air to chill her spine. The first wolf, with scraggly greying hair and paws the size of her face, began to circle her.
“Come to me Daniel,” she said. He did, and she held out an arm as if to shield him. She held out her other hand, and the wolf took a step back. A wolf to her right snarled and leapt into the air. It came at her, claws outstretched, teeth bared. She thought it was over for her and Daniel, then—
THWACK!
The beast fell back, rolling across the rocky ground. Allie looked to Daniel, but he still stood behind her looking scared and a bit curious. “What happened?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “It’s like he hit a wall when he jumped for us.”
Allie inched forward, ensuring Daniel was behind her. She faced the wolves and watched as the larger one nuzzled the one that had failed in its attack. A third wolf came from behind, but approached the other two and lay on the ground, its shining eyes watching Allie and Daniel patiently.
“Just keep moving,” Allie said as they left the wolves in the dark tunnels behind them, moving deeper in.
The cave curved down deep, always descending. She couldn’t hear anything behind them, but she was sure they were there. One time she almost went flying onto her face when she came across a stair, but she leapt into the air and caught herself on the tunnel wall. Daniel wasn’t so lucky, but he only banged a knee. The deeper they went, the more her necklace glowed. That or her eyes were adjusting, she couldn’t be sure. Either way she was able to make out the surrounding walls. There were hundreds of carved patterns. Kings and queens, angels and demons lined the walls, an intertwined knot tracing the ceiling.
“Are you seeing this?” Daniel hissed. He grabbed her shoulder and she jumped. “I can’t keep running, slow down.”
“But they’re coming!” she said.
“Who Allie? Who? No one’s coming!”
She paused in the silence, hearing only an indistinct dripping of water somewhere in the distance. The light from her necklace began to glow brighter, increasingly illuminating the tunnel. Reflecting on the walls, the light revealed a relief of a man on a giant throne, surrounded by animals at his feet and angels above. Allie wanted to stay and inspect the intricate artwork, but at the same time she wanted to run. The sandstone felt soft to her touch, brittle. Her slightest contact made it crumble. At that moment, the light from her necklace became a single ray of light that shot through the hole in the rock wall that her finger had made.
With a glance at Daniel, she pursed her lips and raised her hand, palm flat against the wall. When she pushed, the wall gave way. It crumbled to reveal an arched entrance. Daniel stepped in first and she followed. The smooth rock walls rose into a broad dome above their heads, while on the floor the rock was carved to form an ancient map of the world – like in the library at school. Allie spun in amazement, then stopped as the light from her necklace reflected back bright against what appeared to be a wall of solid gold. The gold wall rose to a plateau too high for them to see, but Allie’s necklace pulled toward the wall as if it were alive and its home were at the top.
With a flash, the light became so bright they were forced to shield their eyes. Allie saw the white behind her scrunched eyelids, the reflection of gold from the wall, and then it was gone. They were back in the school, in the dark room with the globe. Among the color circles she could barely make out Paulette, staring at them expectantly.
Chapter 11: Risk
Allie blinked, trying to clear the light blotches visible in the dark room. Daniel rubbed his arms, as if to make sure his whole body had returned. Whatever had happened, Allie was more certain than ever that her necklace was the key to figuring everything out, and her mom hadn’t simply been on some development mission.
“Did you get it?” Paulette asked.
“What could my mom have been doing there?” Allie asked, ignoring Paulette’s question.
Paulette raised an eyebrow.
“It’s some Indiana Jones stuff is what it is!” Daniel said. “I mean, did you see those carvings? And then the room!”
“You found the room?” Paulette stepped forward and started patting Allie’s pockets. “What was in there, what’d you find?”
“Stop it,” Allie said, stepping back. “What are you doing?”
Paulette took a step back and leaned against a nearby wall, her expression discouraged. Footsteps pounded in the hall. The doorknob turned. “Listen, we have to get you back there, I don’t know what it was, but we were meant to find something. Something very important or my necklace wouldn’t be telling me to help you. But for now, we have to get you to safety.”
They were in a room with only one door, which at the moment was rattling as someone from the other side was trying to break the lock. Paulette looke
d at the floor and around the walls for vents, but there was no other way out. Then she saw a dim light from a corner of the ceiling. She ran over and beckoned Allie and Daniel to follow.
“I’ll give you a boost.” She held out her hands, locked together for one of them to place their foot.
Allie looked at her apprehensively, then back to the door when it shuddered with a heavy clash. She ran and stepped into Paulette’s hands for a boost up. She felt herself rise to the ceiling and pushed hard on a square ceiling tile. She crawled up into the ceiling as she heard the door’s lock breaking with a clang. Daniel pushed past Allie and scampered away from the hole. Loud banging on the door drove Allie to poke her head back down to find Paulette struggling to keep the door closed.
“Go on, get help,” Paulette said as she held the door tight. “I’ll keep them away.”
“It’s not safe,” Allie said, but she saw that it was too late. The door was open and someone pulled Paulette through.
Allie placed the floorboard back where it had come from. Allie started crawling along the narrow passage, Daniel ahead of her. When they reached a tile above them that budged, they kicked it up and found themselves in a florescent-lit classroom, with posters of rocks and a large map of the earth.
“How fitting,” Daniel said, his breathing heavy but his eyes returning to normal. “History class.”
“We have to find help.”
He nodded and they ran into the hallways, trying to re-orientate themselves.
“She’s right though,” Allie said as they ran. “There was a reason we were there. We’ve got to go back.”
“Allie, I don’t know if you noticed,” they turned down a hallway to the left, “but the sky was turning black in the middle of the day, we ran into wolves, and then that crazy necklace was shining all over the place.”
“We have to find whatever it is we were meant to find, it has to be the key.”
Daniel stared at her. He nodded. “Okay. But we have to research that place. I’m going to find out about Osh and Solomon’s Throne. You get someone to help Paulette, then figure out how we can travel back there. We’ve got to make sense of all this.”
“Thanks.”
He nodded. “Meet me in the library after school.”
After he took off, Allie ran to find the principal, or maybe the librarian. But when she turned down a hallway she stopped short of running right through Paulette.
“I’m fine, I escaped.” Paulette looked ragged, her eyes bloodshot.
“But how?” Allie asked.
“Those fools aren’t as quick as they think they are. I simply slipped through them, tripping one on my way so the rest had to stumble over each other.” She grabbed Allie’s arm. “Go on with your day, pretend like everything is normal, we’ll meet back up soon.”
Allie did her best to get through the rest of her classes and when the final bell struck she dashed for the library. Gabe the librarian gave her a nod when she entered, then motioned toward the far wall. She found Daniel back there, rummaging through a pile of books.
“So?” she said when she reached him.
He didn’t bother to look up from the page. “This Solomon's Throne thing, I don't think you understand what we stumbled upon.”
“Yeah?”
“This place is like this big tourist attraction in Osh.”
“Okay, and?”
Daniel flipped through a large book, showing her pictures of the mountain named The Throne of Solomon – definitely where they were.
“Well, it was rumored that King Solomon used to travel through Osh, he may have founded the city actually.” Daniel closed the book and looked at her. “And some reports even say he may have been buried under those hills.”
“Wait, you don't think...?”
“Yes, I think that room we found, it was his tomb.” He grabbed the book and headed for the front desk. “Come on, back to my place.”
For the first time on their walk home the sun decided to peek out from behind the clouds, but Daniel and Allie were too excited to notice. They went over what had happened, with the people in Kyrgyzstan being unable to see them, and then the darkness moving as if alive. And now this, the discovery of a long lost tomb. Allie hadn’t been into this Dungeons and Dragons or Warcraft type-nerd-fest stuff for a couple of years, but now she found her heart pumping and her words flowing out in excitement.
The first thing Daniel did at his house was turn on his laptop and start typing, leaving Allie to look over his shoulder and tell him to click on different links she thought sounded interesting. After searching for a while, they found they were no closer than when they began.
“Have you heard from Paulette at least?” Daniel asked.
Allie checked her phone and clicked on a text. “Paulette says she's working on something, she'll meet us at school in an hour or so.”
“Great. Let's keep looking for now then.”
“We tried everything. What has this done for us?”
“Well at least now we know what we're dealing with.”
“We do?” She fell backwards onto his bed. “All I see is a bunch of Wikipedia junk saying this and that about Solomon's Throne. What’s this have to do with my mom? Some ancient guy who controlled angels and demons with his ring?”
“Sounds pretty awesome to me.”
“Where do we draw the line? How do we know what's myth and what's reality?”
“Welcome to the study of history.”
“Get serious,” she said. “Don't you realize how important this is?”
“I am serious. That's how history works, you can get as close as primary sources, firsthand accounts of how it happened and all that, but then who do you trust? How do you know how to interpret the facts? Because some 'expert' says so, that's how.”
“You are truly a nerd, you know that, right? Seriously, how old are you?”
“Whatever.”
Allie let out a long sigh. “This is all useless anyway.”
Daniel swiveled around in his chair, his eyes determined. “If we’ve come this far, we’ll get back there. Otherwise what’s the point of all this?”
Allie fumbled with her necklace, agreeing with him but still completely confused and frustrated. “But we have no idea how to control this thing.”
“If you don’t want to wait for it to do its magic, maybe we could buy tickets and fly?”
“To Kyrgyzstan? How much would we need for that?”
He turned to the computer and clicked through a website. “About two-thousand, each, this time of year.”
“How about we take the more realistic route, I grow wings and we fly. You can sit on my back.” Allie allowed a smile and Daniel laughed, a nervous, uncertain laughter. Allie stood and started pacing, the way she saw her dad pace when he was upset. “How do we know we can even find our way back when we want to? Maybe it's like Narnia or something.”
Focused on his computer again, Daniel pointed to the screen. “Maybe this has some connection. Look, legend has it that either Solomon or Alexander the Great founded Osh. Alexander was one of the Nine Worthies. Solomon wasn't, but maybe there is a reason the two are connected here.”
Allie turned to the window and placed her hands against the windowsill, her forehead against the cold glass. “The Nine whats?”
“The Nine Worthies, historical figures determined to be of great spirit and—”
“I know we established this, but you truly are a nerd.”
Daniel ignored her. “I don’t know, it’s like I was born to read about this stuff you know? These Nine Worthies, all this stuff it makes me want to jump into battle and win the day for good, you know?”
“Wow.”
“Wait, I remember a map, of Alexander's empire, like it reached towards the area where modern-day Kyrgyzstan would be. Maybe Alexander went there for a purpose, to find something. Something of Solomon's!”
Allie turned to him, a spark of hope in her eye. “Could this have something to do with my mom? I
mean, her necklace took us there, and all this stuff sounds so crazy, but maybe?”
Daniel smiled at her then looked to the window with surprise. Staring in at them was Chris.
“Perfect timing,” Allie said, sarcastically, as Chris disappeared from the window to head for the door. “What’s he doing here?”
“Give him a chance,” Daniel said as he moved to the door to let Chris in.
She waited for them to return, then frowned to see Chris carrying a board game.
Chris smiled at her. “I was hoping me and Danny-boy here could finish our game from his birthday, but you can join I guess.”
“So you have nerd in you too?” she said. “We don’t have time.”
“I mean, we do need a break.” Daniel looked at her and shrugged. “Maybe clearing our minds would get the juices flowing.”
He had a point, how much longer could they look at Wikipedia? They were going in circles, and she could think of nothing else to try before meeting Paulette.
“Allie?” Chris said. They both stared at her, waiting. Something about the way Chris’s green eyes gleamed when he looked at her made her want to forgive him, to play this dumb game with him and Daniel.
“Well….”
“It’ll be fun.”
“We have forty minutes, then we have to go,” she said and sat on the bed. With a hint of scorn, she watched them set up the little soldiers on the map. She had never played Risk before, though she had heard her brother talk about playing it with his friends. When it came to sports in the family, she was the one to go shoot some hoops with her dad. She never thought that when she moved to a new school and started seventh grade, she would be sitting with two boys playing one of the many games she made fun of her brother for spending his Saturdays on.
Still, she enjoyed herself as they got into the game. Thirty-five minutes into it and she already owned South America and had moved over from Australia with plans for Asia. And Chris could be a real charmer – he had the sort of laugh that caught on in seconds, and more than once the three found themselves rolling on the carpet, holding their stomachs and cracking up.
