by R G Peterson
Nick gave her an aw-shucks smile and said, “Yeah, it feels pretty great. I can’t believe how lucky I got with that goal. I was just trying to clear it because I was afraid of what Terry was gonna do.”
“Terry?”
“Yeah. I could tell just by looking at him that he stopped taking his meds. I had this vision that when he lost the puck he was about to swing his stick at the guy and hit him in the back of his knees.”
“Oh. My. God.”
“Yeah, well anyway, I dropped my stick on purpose so I could touch the ice and send a small ripple toward where he was skating. Thank god, it threw him off balance and he went down. I was sure once he got back up he was gonna come after me next. But I guess not.”
Grace looked at him thoughtfully. “I was watching him and he looked as happy as anyone out there.” She scrunched up her face and added. “How come he just didn’t go over it or stop it? You know, the ripple. After all, he has water. It shouldn’t have bothered him much, if at all. Right?”
Nick’s eyes grew wide. “Wow, yeah. I never thought of that. It shouldn’t have affected him. Maybe he was so locked in on getting even that he didn’t see it coming.”
“Yeah, that’s probably it,” Grace said, but her tone conveyed a much deeper suspicion.
“What’re you thinking? Nick asked.
Grace shook her head, “Nothing, really. It’s just that…Well, it seems so strange. He seems like he’s kind of pulling away from us lately. Including Anthony. I can tell something’s really bothering him even though he hasn’t said anything. It’s just…I don’t know, a feeling. Something’s…wrong…different about Terry. You know what I mean?”
Nick considered what Grace had said for a minute before answering. “Yeah. When AJ and I asked him about it the other night, he said it’s his lessons with Thanatos? Ever since they’ve been meeting he’s changed.”
Grace shrugged. “It’d be nice to know for sure. You think Red’d know?”
“Nah. Red’s never around when they meet. And I don’t think he tells Red much, anyway.”
“Do you think Gabriella would tell us?”
“Fat chance.”
“Yeah, I guess.”
They sat in silence on the bed, their hands enfolded, contemplating the recent events.
Nick asked, “What do you think that stuff means that I found in the Minoan Book? For some reason I get this feeling we’re supposed to go back to find the answer somewhere in Mexico.”
“Yeah, I thought about that all the way to and from Madison. You know, there’s not much difference between the Mayan’s Kukulcan and the Aztec’s Quetzalcoatl. They’re both called plumed serpents. And they’re both described as gigantic white men. Although anything over six-feet would probably seem tall to the Mayans or Aztecs. They were only about five-feet tall.
“But the thing I can’t figure out is who is Aether? Do you think that’s Thanatos? We’ve never seen him use his power. He’s always had others do stuff for him. And what do you think that line about the part, ‘Four no match for Aether,’ means?”
When Nick shrugged, Grace said, “Okay, here’s what I think. I believe the ‘four’ is talking about the other elements. We don’t know anything about Aether. Just that at one time people thought it was the thing that holds the universe and everything in it together.”
Nick waited a beat then asked, “So what’s our next move?”
“I’ll research it some more. Both things. I’ve got a pretty good handle on the, Kukulcan, Quetzalcoatl stuff already. I’ll look into the place of flight mural and Aether element.” She once more reflectively touched the statue in her pocket. “I’ve got a theory but...well, I’m not ready to share it quite yet, at least.”
“Any ideas on Terry?”
She hesitated before saying, “What do you think about talking to him? Anthony can’t seem to get him to talk anymore. And I don’t think he trusts Maddy because of her and AJ being together. And Miriam…I don’t know. He’s never seemed particularly warm toward her. So that leaves you.”
“I dunno. He’s been a little cool toward me, too. I’m not sure why, but when he knew I lost all of my powers was the time we seemed the closest. And now since I’ve gotten back Water – and now Wind – he’s become cold. You know what I mean?”
She nodded, “What do you think of me talking to him? See if I can get through to him somehow. Who knows, maybe he’ll talk to me?”
Nick nodded, although inside his stomach clenched and he had to fight back his jealous impulse.
Chapter 41
“Hey, riddle guy. Is that right?”
The following day, after brunch and Terry’s lesson with Thanatos, the Clan met at AJ’s to see if they could make any more headway with the various riddles. Grace started their meeting with a recap of the brainteasers and the possible solutions the Clan had put forth with regard to solving them.
“First we have the bracelet and ‘One will master other’s mind.’ Which we’ve thought could mean either, ‘rule other’s mind or know other’s mind.’ ”
Nick glanced at Terry and thought he heard him say, “Or both.” But Terry appeared to be just sitting there examining his fingernails.
To test him Nick said, “Could it mean both?” Terry raised his head an inch or two and peered at Nick through his eyebrows before he went back to contemplating his nails.
“”Both?” Anthony said.
“Why not? Sometimes a word in a riddle might have two meanings to throw the person who’s trying to answer it a curve,” Nick said.
“Is that right?” AJ directed his question to Terry, who ignored it. “Hey, riddle guy. Is that right?” AJ asked a bit more forcefully.
Terry looked up and gave AJ a menacing look. “Why you asking me? I solved one stupid riddle and now I’m supposed to know every freakin’ answer anytime one comes up. Get off my back Janikowski.”
“Is it possible? What Nick said? Could it have two meanings?” AJ said ignoring Terry’s barb and refusing to drop it.
“Yeah, I suppose. Sure why not?” Terry answered offhandedly.
“Then why didn’t you say that instead of getting all bent out of shape?”
Terry glared at AJ, “Well, unlike some people, I just don’t open my mouth whenever a thought pops into my head. I like to be sure.”
AJ squinted at Terry and figured the last part had also been directed at him, but because he wasn’t one hundred percent sure, he let it slide.
Nick jumped in before it became a certainty in AJ’s mind. “Okay, so maybe it’s both. One will know the other’s mind.” It took all he had to not look at Grace at that moment. “And one will rule the other’s mind.”
“No ‘the.’ ” Miriam amended.
“Huh?”
“Before when you told us the prophecy you said, ‘One will know others mind. So there’s no ‘the’ in the prophecy.”
“Yeah, sorry. They often leave that out. I guess articles were usually implied.”
“We’re getting off track here people,” Grace chided. The second riddle, the one from the ring says, ‘Six uinals, four moons, complete, gain, loss, reveal.’ We seemed to think the starting date for that was when Terry gained Earth and Nick didn’t and then lost all of his powers. December 7th. I went back and checked. The first uinal would be two days after Christmas. Twenty days after that is January 16th.”
She looked up expectantly, but everyone sat there shaking their heads.
“Okay, then we have February 5th. February 25th. March 16th. And finally April 5th. Anyone?”
More shakes of the head. Everyone turned to AJ and looked at him expectantly.
“What?” he asked.
Grace said, “You always seem to know when and what happened on the dates we bring up.”
“Only if it’s got something to do with sports or important things like that.” Maddy gave him a playful bump, and he added, “Or when Maddy and I started dating.”
Maddy laid her head on his shoulder.
“Oh, ah, well, let’s see.” He thought about it for a minute before shaking his head. “I got nothin’.”
Grace looked deflated but went on, “The new moons were or will be December 11th, January 9th, February 8rd and March 8th. The more I thought about it, the more I started thinking the two should come out closer together. Not over a month apart. So I also looked up the next new moon and it came out to be April 7th. Which makes sense. Okay can anyone think of what happened on any of those days, other than what happened to Terry and Nick on December 7th?”
Once more everyone looked at AJ. “Nope, nothing.”
“Oh shoot, I thought for sure we’d come up with something, anything. Okay, well let’s go on. Then we found Val’s copy of the Voynich manuscript and the last page of her book that Slate stole.”
Terry gave an involuntary shiver.
Grace caught his reaction and said, “Sorry. Anyway, it pointed us to the bookstore and the Minoan book in which it had the prophecy…” Grace consulted her notes once more. “Here it is, ‘Four no match for Aether. The remedy lies among the twilight skinned people across the Great Waters who believed us to be feathered gods.’ And then Val wrote in the margins, ‘Go to, the place of flight mural.’ Well, I did some more research on that. What I’ve found was there is a Mayan pyramid at Cholula. It’s also known as Tlachihualtepetl. The pyramid is just west of Puebla, Mexico. The site was once called Acholallan. It means, Place of Flight.”
Chapter 42
“We seem to have come out near the Plaza of Altars level”
The Clan left for Mexico on Friday night, the 11th, after dinner. They met at Cherney Maribel caves at 7:30 and made their way through the series of wormholes to the Balankanche Cave. They maneuvered their way through the hidden door to the Tree of Life. Nick found the key to Tlachihualtepetl in his mom’s directions hidden in her diary. He punched in the code and within twenty minutes of leaving Wisconsin they were in the Mayan pyramid near Puebla, Mexico.
From her readings Grace knew some essential facts about the pyramid. It had been built in stages and had six structures built on top of one another, one for each ethnic group that ruled the area over time. An archeological dig had given up three of the six. The outer structure stood one hundred-eighty feet above the surrounding area, while the sides measured four hundred feet. A local myth also accompanied the pyramid. It was said that a giant named Xelhua had originally built it.
Skeletal remains from over 2100 years ago had been found inside the pyramid and over eight hundred tunnels opened to the public. Two large murals had also been uncovered. One was a depiction of grasshoppers with a black skull in the middle of the swarm. The second was of natives drinking pulque – an alcoholic drink of the ruling class.
The Clan arrived inside the pyramid along a long narrow corridor an hour after the structure had closed for the day. They scanned the area to see if there were any guards roaming the structure but all seemed quiet.
“Tell me again what we’re looking for?” AJ said in a stage whisper that echoed off the passageway walls.
“Shhh,” everyone shushed him at once, the resulting echo was much louder than AJ’s question had been.
Grace patted the air indicating that everyone needed to be quiet. She grabbed a map of the diagram of the interior of the pyramid she had pulled off the Internet and tried to get oriented. She played her flashlight on the wall and scrounged for any sign of recognition.
Her face lit up. “We seem to have come out near the Plaza of Altars level,” she whispered.
She ran her flashlight along the wall about two-hundred-feet. “This is called, ‘Bebedores.’ It’s a mural that shows a drunken revelry. That means party. Anyway, they’re drinking pulque. It’s an alcoholic drink made from guava and was usually available only to the nobility and their priests.”
The colorful mural showed people in various drunken stages, some throwing up and others offering sacrifices.
“Wow!” AJ exclaimed reverentially. Once more it echoed through the hall. “Sorry,” he added only to have that echo as well. He threw his hands over his mouth and gave an impish smile.
“Now what?” Nick asked Grace in a barely audible tone.
Grace shrugged. “I think we’re looking for a secret passageway. But that’s just a guess. Something tells me that if they’ve been all over this place, what we’re looking for is buried even farther inside on one of the other levels. My best guess is that it’s probably the first pyramid in the center of all of this. Want to split up?”
Grace swept her gaze over the others. Everyone seemed to think that was a good idea.
“Terry, you and Anthony take Miriam. You guys go that way. We’ll go this. I think if we find something we should give three sharp raps on the wall. With the way it echoes I’m sure we’ll hear it. Okay?”
Everyone nodded. Terry’s three turned and walked away. Grace watched them go before turning and heading in the opposite direction. They moved cautiously as they scrutinized every last nook and cranny. They examined cracks and crevices. They pulled on irregular surfaces and pushed on others. They had been at it about a half-hour when they heard three distinct taps on the wall echoing ever-louder coming toward them.
“Let’s go,” Nick said and they moved back to where they had come from.
Grace cautioned, “We need to be on guard. It’s possible they’ve been caught by security. Everyone turn off your flashlights. I’ll put mine on low beam and everyone follow me.”
They moved steadily down the corridor. When they passed the mural Grace slowed down even more. Grace felt as if she was holding a million candle lumen beam, signaling their presence, despite the light from her flashlight not much more than a dying ember.
Four minutes later they heard Anthony say, “Hey, we’re over here.”
Grace scanned the area with her light and saw them standing by some rough-hewn walls. She turned her flashlight to full power and directed it toward the wall the three of them were staring at. The four new teens examined the area Terry, Anthony and Miriam were focused on, smiling.
“What?” AJ asked sending echoes through the hall.
Everyone spun and glared at him. Maddy’s stare was the fiercest of them all.
“Sorry,” he said in a whisper only he could hear.
They examined the wall for another minute before Grace turned to Terry and shrugged as if to say – what? I don’t see anything.
Anthony stepped forward and pointed at an area that looked like someone had taken a knife to it and scratched out a hole. Nick’s eyes went wide. Maddy gasped and covered her mouth at the last second. AJ snapped his fingers. Everyone turned and looked at Grace.
She turned her hands, palms up, and thrust her head towards Terry mimicking that she didn’t see what the rest felt was so evident. Anthony said, “Give me the statue. I know you’ve had it with you ever since Nick gave it to you on your birthday.”
Grace’s face showed comprehension. She dug in her pocket and pulled out the small Quetzalcoatl statue. Grace had handled it so much that most of the patina had worn away. Beneath was the original clay surface. She started to hand it to Anthony. He refused and motioned for her to do the honors.
She hesitated, then stepped toward the wall and with a shaking hand placed the statue inside the carved out area and gave a gentle shove. There was a rumble and a section of the wall swung open. The entrance was five feet high forcing all of them to have to duck to enter, even Maddy. Once they were inside, they discovered they could all stand to their full height. The air was putrid and musty causing the teens to cough. The dust mites swirled, caught in the beams from their flashlights, as the cleaner air rushed in. The door suddenly closed behind them. It sounded as if it had vacuum-sealed. They turned to one another with concern. With a sense of urgency they moved their flashlights around the small square ten-by-ten room. Each light reflected off a different portion of the wall.
All six voices ca
lled out as one, “There.”
Chapter 43
“This is the part that can be interpreted a number of different ways”
They held their lights steady and scanned the walls. The whole room was one large pictograph. Mayan symbols were everywhere. There didn’t seem to be a beginning or an end. Everything flowed together in one continuous mural.
Seconds later everyone turned to Nick, who swept the room looking for a logical place to begin. It had been months since he last had to decipher Mayan. Many of the hieroglyphs came back to him, but others left him scratching his head.
“Well?” Terry asked after Nick appeared focused on one section of the wall.
“Um, well, most of it is similar to what was on Grace’s plaque and in your fath…in our mom’s book. It’s the prophecy. But there’s a little more added on.
“More?” Terry asked. His tone carried a hint of excitement as well as dread.
“Yeah. It starts here.” Nick walked over to a section of the wall and placed his hand on one of the glyphs. “This part says, ‘At the solstitial moon when earth, moon and sun are near, twins from two seeds are born, one of earth, one of fire both from wind and water.’ ” Nick had reached the end of the first wall. He turned and looked at Grace and gave her an uneven smile.
He turned to the second section and began to read, “ ‘After thirteen cycles when the old becomes new, one will…’ ” Nick hesitated. He turned to Terry and said, “This is the part that can be interpreted a number of different ways.”
Terry nodded for Nick to go on.
“Well, we – Grace and I – decided that the translation we thought was best was ‘surpass.’ Your father believed it meant vanquish or conquer.” Nick shrugged his shoulders as if to concede he didn’t know for sure who was correct.
Terry’s reaction caught everyone off-guard when he got a very sad faraway look in his eyes. He turned to Nick pleading with his eyes for forgiveness and mercy. Nick grew uncomfortable and spun back to read the wall.
