“It happens to us all down here,” Howard said as he stood and patted me on the arm. “The sun’s going down, and I’d like to get back to the hotel before it gets dark.”
“Wait!” I said a little more urgently than I intended. I swallowed and cleared my throat. “What did you find down in the pit? Can you take me there? I want to see it.”
Howard glanced around at Delores and our local tag team as they seemed to exchange some sort of silent opinion. He sighed and turned to me. “Andie–”
“Take me there, Howard,” I said through clenched teeth.
He rubbed at his tired face. “You’re not ready to go down there.”
“I think I can decide that for myself,” I replied.
“We’re all very tired, Andie. Another day,” he continued to push. “I promise. When I feel like you’re ready, I’ll take you down.”
Who was he to decide I wasn’t ready? I was never much of a child, let alone one that couldn’t handle dangerous situations. Was he worried the place would cave-in again? Or did he truly think I wasn’t capable of handling the sight of where my father and Silas died? I wasn’t an emotional mess. If anything, I was the opposite. Void of feeling anything at all on a good day. I just wanted to see it. I just wanted some answers and to see the images in my dad’s journal for myself. Through my own eyes.
But I said none of that. Instead, I nodded in contempt and followed the team out of the underground city where our Jeep awaited to take us back to the hotel. The whole ride I was silent. Partially because I was steaming inside at the way Howard regarded me in front of the others. But mostly because I had no words. The team was here to do research. To discover the history of this ancient site. Suddenly, I began to worry that I’d agreed to come for all the wrong reasons.
Chapter Seven
I sat on the bed in my hotel room, propped up against the headboard with pillows as I nursed another tiny bottle of vodka and studied the spread of information in front of me. Dad’s journal opened to my left, all my notes in the middle, and photographs along with my phone to the right. I scanned through it all, trying to piece things together like some cosmic puzzle.
The underground city was amazing. But what caught my attention the most were the unknown letters mixed in with the Egyptian symbols. I was sure nothing like it had ever been recorded, yet it still possessed some kind of familiarity to me. Like an itch in the back of my mind.
I glanced at the clock next to the bed. A little past midnight. I should get some rest. We were heading back to the site first thing in the morning. I carefully stacked my precious findings to move them aside, but Dad’s journal fell to the floor. As I leaned down to retrieve it, I noticed a page had torn a bit. One near the back of the book that I had skimmed over when I first found it. It meant nothing to me then, back home. I’d figured it was just one of Dad’s kooky cryptic messages. But now, I looked at the page with new eyes. The entire spread consisted of a couple dozen letters, the ones from the site, and next to each one a dash followed by notes by my dad’s hand. Meanings and letters from the English alphabet. I stared in stunned awe.
It was a transcribed codex of the unknown symbols.
Dad and Silas must have figured it out. Hastily, I scattered my notes once again and examined the pictures I took earlier. Matching each symbol to Dad’s system. Before long, I had figured it out and began adding to my own notes. One of the rooms I photographed wasn’t a living space but actually an infirmary, according to the carvings above the doorway. And the Great Hall wasn’t just a cafeteria, it was a meeting place for celebrating and entertainment.
My fingers sifted through the pile of papers until I found the photograph of the strange wheel carving. But even though I had the means to figure out the symbols, it still didn’t make any sense to me. In the center was a sun and its rays moved outward to the perimeter of the clock, creating sections that contained different symbols in each space. Together, it didn’t read cohesively. But when I separated the symbols by section, it almost seemed like…directions? No, some kind of coordinates, for sure. But to where?
Just then, a knock came at the adjoining door that divided my room from Howard’s, startling me from my secluded world on the surface of the bed. After finding him in my room earlier, I decided to keep it locked from my side, so I stood to let him in. But not before I covered everything with a blanket. It felt as though I were getting closer to what Dad and Silas were really up to and I wasn’t about to let it all get taken away from me.
“Hey, Howard,” I greeted as I moved aside to let him in. “Why are you up so late?”
“I could ask you the same,” he replied as his eyes scanned my room with an odd sense of curiosity.
I left the door open, hoping he’d take it as a hint not to stay too long. “I’m a night owl.”
“I just wanted to check on you,” he said sincerely. “I hope you’re not mad about earlier.”
My brow creased. “No, I’m fine. We’re fine. I was just anxious to get down there, is all. I don’t see why I can’t.”
“I didn’t say you can’t.” Howard paced my tiny room like a cat looking for a spot to lay. “I said you’re not ready.”
He was making me mad all over again and I leaned back against the door frame. “I despise being treated like a child, Howard. You know that.”
He laughed to himself. “Yes, that much I know.” He ran his fingers across the blanket on my bed. Surely, he could feel the lumps underneath. I could feel my heart beating in my throat. “But there’s quite a bit I don’t know about you, isn’t there, Andie?”
I’d never been nervous around Howard. Never in my life. He’d always been like a second father to me. But these last few years we’d grown apart, mostly by my own doing. I changed, and now I wondered if he did, too, because I suddenly felt uneased in his presence. His curious glances, his questions about Dad’s research. Did he know my father was hiding something?
With a shrug, I replied, “Probably. I’m not the same girl I used to be. But I’m tired,” I added with a fake yawn. “I’m going to grab some sleep before we head back tomorrow. And I expect to be shown the pit.”
“Not yet,” he replied and took a couple slow steps toward me.
I clenched my fists. “Why not?”
He flashed me a steady stare. “Like I said, you’re not ready.”
“That’s bullshit, Howard! Why am I not ready?”
He just stood and let his gaze fall on me, arms crossed in a fatherly fashion.
I pushed at his shoulder. Livid. Tears threatening to rise. Long buried emotions bubbled to the surface and I struggled to stifle them. “Why do you get to say I’m not ready?”
In one swift movement, Howard turned and plucked my backpack from the floor, dumping its contents onto the bed, and the bottles of vodka–some full, some empty–glistened in the lamplight.
“That’s why you’re not ready, Andie,” he spat and pointed at the tiny bottles. “How many more do you have tucked away? What kind of fool do you think I am to assume I can’t smell the liquor on your breath every time we meet? You’ve been teetering on the edge for far too long.”
I backed away, mouth gaping at the display of betrayal. At least, that’s what it felt like. But I knew, deep down, he was right. I wiped at the wet skin under my eyes and crossed one arm tightly around my torso. “Then why even bring me?”
Howard let his hands fall to his sides as he let out a deep breath. “Because you deserve to be here. And, if I’m being totally honest, I felt it was my responsibility to get you out of that damn house. Alistair would be heartbroken if he knew this was going on.”
I guffawed and my lips trembled. “Yeah, well, he’s not here, is he?”
Howard came closer, enough that I could feel his breath on me. “No, he’s not. But you are.” He gently patted my arm before walking past to enter his room again. “Don’t make me regret that.”
Those last words rang loudly in my mind as I let the heavy metal door slide closed.
I paced the length of my room until the inside of my lip had been chewed raw and the taste of iron touched my tongue. I was furious with Howard. But even more so with myself. I felt like an idiot for thinking I could hide my vice and I suddenly felt very exposed at the realization that he always knew.
Still…that didn’t mean I couldn’t handle it.
Howard was wrong. But I knew, deep in my gut, that he wasn’t going to let me down in that pit anytime soon. If I wanted to see where Dad and Silas died and piece together the puzzle they left behind, I had to find a way down there myself.
Without a second thought, I tossed my gear into my backpack and swapped out my pajama pants for jeans before tossing my leather jacket over my tank top. Quietly, I slipped out the door, through the hotel, and snuck outside in search of a taxi that would bring me all the way to the site. Instead, I found the same Jeep we’d driven in earlier parked off to the side, blanketed in a shadow.
Perfect.
I knew how to hot wire any vehicle, a little trick my father taught me when I was twelve, but I was surprised to find I didn’t need to rely on my skills because the driver had carelessly left the keys sitting right on the seat. With a quick glance around to make sure no one was watching, I hopped in and sped off through town. The hot night air clung to my skin as my damp hair whipped around my face and I inhaled long and deep.
I pulled up in front of the site in no time at all, thankful that our tracks from earlier were still visible. It took some muscle, but I managed to haul aside the wooden slab door that covered the entrance. As I clicked on my headlamp and began walking the dark stone halls, I thought about how venturing into a bottomless tomb in the middle of the night would terrify most people.
But I was not most people.
This was my entire childhood. This was my life. An integral part of my very being. I lost count of how many nights Dad and I spent under the stars. How many train rides we took across who knows how many countries. Shaking the scorpions and spiders out of my boots every morning. Living off dried rations for weeks, not because we couldn’t afford a good meal, but because we’d rather spend every waking moment down in a cave or climbing untouched hillsides in search of everything and anything.
Dad had been everything to me. My teacher as well as my parent and my best friend. My home. And when Silas came along, he became my heart and I was finally whole. Losing them meant losing myself and I hadn’t been able to find my way back since.
Until now, that is. Now I had a shred of hope that I could put them to rest and move on with my life. Maybe I’d use this trip to finish the secret research they were doing and start my career with that. Dad and Silas’s final gift to me. I could just see the headlines now.
Andie Godfrey Discovers Ancient Language.
Alistair Godfrey’s Daughter Continues Ground-Breaking Research.
I laughed to myself as I made my way through the winding corridor that I knew opened up to the Great Entrance and stopped at the top of the landing to shine my light down over the massive staircase. With a deep breath, I descended to the archways below and picked the one Howard had gone through earlier, knowing it would lead me right where I wanted. The sounds of my boots crunching bits of sand against the stone floor were some of the only sounds to be heard, matched by my deep breaths of anticipation as I neared the pit.
The hallway continued, and I wondered then if it were really an actual pit I was looking for. But that answer came abruptly as my next step didn’t have anywhere to land and I slipped over the edge of…something. My hands gripped the coarse edge of a broken ledge as my body dangled in the darkness that lurked below.
With a shriek, I scrambled to grab hold of anything else I could. My fingers ached as I clenched the sandy surface and attempted to pull myself back up. With great difficulty, I finally managed and collapsed on the floor to catch my breath. And my bearings.
I adjusted my headlamp and crawled to the edge I’d just fallen over, curious as to why the floor just suddenly dropped off. I peered down over, and a gasp escaped my dry throat. The drop must have been at least two stories to the bottom of, well, a pit.
“Jesus…” I muttered as I craned my neck to cast the light around the space.
This must have been what they all talked about. The floor just ended, opened up to a massive empty space. A stone stairway sat to my left. The only way down. I tightened the straps of my backpack to fasten across my chest before I took that first step and descended to the black abyss.
My feet touched the bottom and the headlamp broke through the darkness as I took in the sight before me. The stone walls that towered all the way up past the ledge I’d fallen over were covered in symbols. Every square inch. I moved closer to make them out and found that some were recognizable, but most were part of the foreign language of numbers and letters my father decoded in his journal.
I pulled it out of my backpack and began deciphering the secrets of the pit. After collecting more notes and pictures while referring to the journal, I began to think this was some sort of hub. That’s the only word that came to mind as I noted the many ways that travel was depicted on the walls. Physically, mentally. By air and land. Everything depicted showed the possible–and impossible–ways these people would have traveled. Some of the hieroglyphs told tales of people meeting here. Like a gathering place. Like…an airport?
My mind spun from lack of sleep, but also from the enormity of my discovery, and I knew I’d been down there too long. But when I tilted my head down to return my gear to my backpack, the headlamp shone over more symbols on the floor beneath my feet. Symbols I recognized immediately.
The wheel.
Tears welled in my eyes as I thought of Dad and Silas standing right where my feet were planted. Tried to imagine what they were talking about when the cave-in began. I couldn’t ignore the sudden rush of images which filtered through my mind; their scared faces as they huddled together. Or their useless attempts to scramble up the ladder as the rocks buried them alive. The tears spilled over then, streamed hot and wet down my dry face.
I pressed my hand to the cold stone as tears leaked into my mouth. “So…this is where you died.” I sank to the floor and crossed my legs, hand still firm on the stone. “I’m sorry. Sorry for keeping my relationship with Silas from you. For leaving you with one less person you trusted just so I could prove…something. I don’t even know what anymore. But I finished school,” I added with a shaky smile and then gave a nervous laugh. “Best in my class, but that’s no surprise. You already taught me everything I ever needed to know. I love you, Dad. And I miss you like crazy.”
I lost all control of the tears and the cries that crept from my body as I pulled my necklace out from inside my shirt where I kept it safe. The stone felt warm in my palm as I clenched it tight. “Silas. Thank you for being here with him in those last moments. I’m glad you guys had each other. I, um, I took a detour for a while. But I’m trying to get back on track now, trying to make you guys proud of me. I just…I love you so much.” I let out a stifled wail, one that seemed to last forever, as I leaned forward and lay on the floor. “It hurts to think about you, but ignoring your memory makes me feel…nothing at all. I don’t want to be empty anymore. So, I’ll bear the pain. For you and for Dad.”
I peeled myself from the cold floor then placed a kiss on my fingertips before pressing them to the stone beneath me.
“I love you,” I whispered. “Both of you. Take care of each other.”
With tired and weary bones, I made my way over to the rope ladder and began the climb. As exhausted as I was, I felt renewed. I was leaving behind two years of broken emotions and the unspoken thoughts I’d carried around for so long. Too long. I finally, for the very first time, felt as though I could begin to move on. To do something with my life and the gifts that my father and Silas left behind for me.
I held on to those happy thoughts as I gripped the edge of the landing and hauled myself over the ledge. But all of that rushed away with the startling rea
lization that I wasn’t alone.
“God, I thought you were going to stay down there all night,” Howard spoke calmly as he leaned against the wall of the narrow corridor, twisting a small knife in his hands.
My heart thumped in my chest and I willed away the nerves I felt in his sudden presence as I stood on my feet. “Did you follow me?”
“Of course,” he replied as he took a couple steps forward and casually pointed the blade at me. “I know you better than you think, Andelyn.”
“What does that mean?” I asked, unable to back away.
He continued to advance slowly. “You have your father’s stubbornness. He never liked being told what he could and couldn’t do. But he was brilliant. I thought if you possessed even half the abilities he had, maybe you could help me decode the symbols.”
Howard laughed then, an unsettling sound that grated against my ears. He was close now, just inches from me, knife still pointed at my chest.
“Howard–”
“I just never imagined that you’d bring the answers with you,” he said.
The blade touched my jacket and I sucked in a cold breath as fear froze me in place. He slipped it under one of the backpack straps and swiftly cut it from my body. A gasp escaped my lips as the bag swung across my back to hang from the other shoulder.
“Howard, don’t do–”
“Give me the journal, Andelyn,” he spoke angrily.
I clutched the remaining strap and took a step backward, even though I had nowhere to go. “Never.”
“Look,” he said, his face red with fury, “I didn’t come this far only for some drunken child to swoop in and take all the glory.”
I shook my head in disbelief. This man was Howard. Professor Danes. My father’s oldest friend and someone I trusted. But the person in front of me was someone else entirely. A harsh wave of anger mixed with fear flooded my body.
“Why are you doing this?” I asked as fresh tears of betrayal filled my eyes.
Ancient Hearts: A Time Travel Fantasy Romance (Kingdom of Sand & Stars Book 1) Page 7
