The Minoan Legacy

by R G Peterson

  Grace shot off the couch and hurried over to him. She took hold of his hand. He tried to extract it, but she held firm.

  “Come sit down. You’re one of us. We’d like you whether you had all the Elements or none at all. After all we do like AJ…most of the time.”

  She smiled at AJ letting him know she was teasing.

  “We’re all in this together. And AJ might not have any powers, but so what? He’s helped in so many other ways.”

  Terry allowed her to lead him back toward the circle. He stood next to where Anthony sat on the floor. He hung his head, disconsolate. Grace gave him a hug, which he failed to return, but that he didn’t try to extricate himself from either. When she let go, Maddy stepped forward, reached up and gave him another, followed by Miriam.

  AJ, Nick and Anthony shared uneasy looks, trying to figure out if they should join the girls, but Maddy put an end to that when she said, “Don’ bother gettin’ up. He knows yeh love him, too.” She sat back down on the couch and asked, “So, tell us ‘bout it. When did yeh find out?”

  Terry sheepishly replied, “Um, Grace was right. I didn’t write down the dates but that sounds ‘bout right, late January, late February and last Friday.”

  Nick cleared his throat and asked uneasily, “Does Thanatos know?”

  Terry shook his head, “I don’t think so. It’s never come up and I didn’t tell him.”

  “Does anyone else know?” Grace asked.

  He answered with another shake of his head. “Maybe Gabriella.” He shrugged to indicate he wasn’t sure.

  The others sat quietly contemplating what had been said, when it all came bursting forth from Terry. “You guys don’t know what it’s like. Every day of my life I was told I was The One. Every day I was being prepared to take over. To be the most powerful person the world has ever known. It’s become such a big part of me. Or at least who I think I’m supposed to be. It’s hard…I’m having…it’s tough…I don’t know. I’ve come to realize it’s all been a big fat lie, a fairy tale. That I’m not The One. That everyone around me was so wrong this whole time. I know deep down that Nick’s supposed to be that person. I guess I’ve known it for a very long time, but there’s a part of me – and it’s a really big part – that’s having trouble accepting that. That’s why I keep hoping, like with Nick, everything comes back, but…” They all waited for him to finish.

  When he didn’t Maddy said, “But yer gut tells yeh it’s not. Right?”

  Terry nodded.

  “And that’s okay,” Grace said soothingly. “You’ve got your real family now. And real friends. We’re all in this together. Right?”

  Everyone muttered their agreement.

  Grace hesitantly brought up the prophecy again not wishing to upset Terry. “Do you mind if we talk about it? I mean the prophecy some more and what I figured out?”

  Terry waved his hands as if it was no longer a big deal. He sat on the floor and stared at his shoelaces.

  Grace looked at him as if he was some sad, lost puppy dog, before she gently said, “Okay, so the riddle and the first prophecy from the pyramids were basically the same. ‘Four moons, complete, gain, loss.’ What does anyone think it means, ‘six uinals, reveal?’ ”

  Miriam studied Grace and said, “It looks like you’ve got something to add to that, already. Why don’t you just tell us?”

  “Sorry, yeah. Using Nick and Terry’s birthday as the starting point means the first uinal falls on my birthday, January 11th. Then it’s January 31st, February 20th and March 11th. The last two would then be March 31st and April 20th. So can anyone think of anything that happened on those dates?”

  Grace extracted the figure of Quetzalcoatl from her pocket and held it up. Hoping to jog their memories. Everyone but Nick looked at her uncomprehending.

  “Nick gave me the statue on my birthday. It eventually revealed to us the way to find the other prophecies.”

  “Oh, yeah,” AJ said excitedly as he sat forward in his chair.

  “So that takes us to January 31st.” She looked expectantly around the room.

  They all started to shake their heads again until Terry mumbled, “That’s the day Gabriella told us about herself and what the future would have been if our mom and dad had lived.”

  Everyone else sat bolt upright.

  Grace gave Terry a warm smile. “Exactly. Okay, then we have February 20th.”

  Her gaze swept the room hoping someone would remember.

  Maddy spoke up, not sounding too sure of her herself, “Was that the day Red told us ‘bout Val’s book and where we might be able ta find it?”

  “Yes,” Grace exclaimed. “Don’t you see? All along the way, every twenty days something else has been revealed to us to help us get to this point.”

  Everyone grew more excited and AJ asked, “So what happened on the next date, ah, March 11th.”

  Grace gave him a get-serious look.

  “Oh, yeah, that’s when we went back to Mexico and found the stuff on the walls.” Maddy leaned over and gave him a hug and a smile.

  Grace shot Nick a disapproving look and said, “And it goes without saying, it was also the night Nick decided he had to play hero once more.”

  Nick flushed.

  AJ piped up, “How come people say, it goes without saying, then say it anyway?”

  Grace turned red faced and rushed to say, “Well, um, anyway, now we wait to see what March 31st and April 20st have to reveal to us.”

  “How ‘bout the rest of the stuff?” AJ asked. “You know, like the conquer the other’s mind and what Nick told us at the dance?”

  “Um, well, that’s still kind of a mystery,” Grace said as she looked away from AJ, and stole a furtive glance at Nick. Positive AJ would see right through her lie, she immediately drew their attention to the last prophecy. “We kind of figured out that Aether must be Thanatos and that’s why Terry couldn’t free himself from him. I figure it’s the best answer because of who and how he got to where he is. Don’t you think? ‘Four,’ which we think means the other four Elements, is ‘no match for Aether.’ So I’m guessing that’s how he became head of The World Council. I think it’s also what the first part of the last prophecy means. You know, the part that says, ‘Four lose to Aether.’ But what the second part of that – ‘one distant solve hole bow and arrow tale archer path or paths lose to win’ – means, we haven’t figured out yet.”

  AJ chuckled and said, “It probably means me because the other day in archery class, I hit four straight bull’s-eyes.”

  No one else laughed because they were so preoccupied as to how they could defeat Thanatos’ Aether if he was invulnerable to any of the other Elements.

  Chapter 52

  “What’s the matter, buddy? You look jumpy”

  They spent the next week huddled together at lunch, but made no further progress toward interpreting the other riddles or clues. Their after school practices filled much of the rest of their days, baseball for the boys (Anthony, to be around Terry, offered to be the team manager for the baseball team) and soccer for the girls.

  AJ kept prodding Nick about the second riddle they had found in the pyramid – the one Nick and Grace had partially figured out. But Nick was reluctant to share what they knew with the others. He was unsure how any of them would take to the knowledge that he could hear what they were thinking on occasion. Grace was softening, however. She felt the others deserved to know. Nick convinced her to hold off for a while until he figured out how he was able to do it.

  He toyed with the idea that it might be similar to how they were able to transform into an animal and that it had to do with an adrenaline rush. He experimented while they were at lunch, but he soon discovered it had no effect.

  When AJ caught Nick struggling with his face screwed up with effort as he attempted it a couple of different times he asked, “What’s the matter, buddy? You look jumpy. You got gas or something?”

  After a few days he put any attempt to discover what allowed
him to read people’s thoughts on hold and spent a majority of the time in and out of class going over the last two prophecies from the murals.

  He was confident they had solved the ring and much of the first mural. He was certain that he would acquire Earth and that Terry would most likely keep that element. The word omission could only mean that. It was only logical that Nick would acquire all four, otherwise, why would the prophecy and riddle reference four moons if he was only going to acquire three Elements and not the fourth. Plus, the original prophecy had one of the twins receiving all four Elements.

  The second prophecy threw him. More precisely, the numbers threw him. Two know one three rule four two become four know all betray final enemy. Which two? Him and Grace, or he and Terry. And who was ‘one?’ Was it the two of them knowing Terry so well? Or maybe even Terry and Anthony knowing him? He ran through every possible combination of couples. He even considered Maddy and AJ because they had technically been dating the longest. None of it made much sense.

  And who was ‘three?’ Did it follow that when two “knew” one that the three of them would rule the other four in the Clan. He believed that made the most sense. After all, he and Terry talked about using one another as counsels. It stood to reason that if it were he and Grace or even Terry and Anthony, the couple would seek out the twin for help and ideas. He felt good about that solution, although to be sure he knew he would run it by Grace to get her thoughts.

  Two become four, was puzzling and a bit disturbing. How could two Elements turn into four? Was it a prediction as to the One Spoken of in the Prophecy’s offspring? Would he and Grace have four kids? And even if they did, what did it have to do with what was supposed to happen about a month from then? He knew it had to mean something else but nothing made any sense to him.

  As to, know all betray final enemy, he tried to put the punctuation in different places to see which made the most sense. He thought back to what Thanatos had told them a year earlier that The One was supposed to gain all of the knowledge of their ancestors after he acquired all four Elements. Could that be it? But then he thought about Terry having four at once and he seemed no more the wiser for it. Maybe, like with the riddle, Terry had held out on them.

  He discarded that theory because Terry had been so willing to flaunt, or at least not hide, that he had all four Elements. Why wouldn’t he have also shared with them that he had the ancient knowledge? He was sure he would have used it to help save him when he had been scalded in the attack. Why risk going to Greece when he could have done it himself? The more Nick thought on it, the more he convinced himself that, as AJ had said, no one could have all of that in their head. It would explode. It had to be an extremely old urban myth. But what else could it mean? Know all?

  And betray. Who would betray them? Red? He had once already, but after Thanatos had tried to kill him, Nick was sure Red would never go that route again. Gabriella? Possibly. She had fallen once, could she fall again? Maybe it meant one of the other parents. Maybe the Janikowskis, to insure AJ would be all right, would tell Thanatos what they knew. Or Maddy’s father, to protect his daughter. Or Calvin Robinson to ensure that Anthony didn’t have to suffer anymore than he already had with everything else he had lost in his young life.

  On the other hand, maybe it was someone who might betray Thanatos. Maybe Ligeia would become their ally? The more he thought about it, the more Nick convinced himself that his last idea was the solution. After all, she had always showed Nick deference and kindness. She helped them when no one else associated with Thanatos seemed willing. Yes, definitely. He was positive. He looked forward to that day and couldn’t wait to see the look on Thanatos’ face when he discovered that one of his most trusted servants turned on him.

  When he had exhausted every avenue for solving that prophecy, he moved onto the last, Four lose to Aether one distant solve hole bow and arrow tale archer path (paths) lose to win. If his mom’s notation in the Voynich manuscript was correct – four no match for Aether – how could they defeat Thanatos? If she (and he assumed this was what the first part of the last mural meant) was correct then Thanatos was impervious to any of the other Elements, even if four Elements attacked him at once.

  It was the last part of that prophecy that caused him the most consternation, though. Once again he tried to put in commas and periods to see if it made more sense saying it one way or another. He convinced himself that one distant also referred to Ligeia, who he had come to regard as a dear friend. It had become evident to Nick that she cared deeply for him because she risked Thanatos’ retribution to help save Nick. And she had been instrumental in helping them even before then. He was certain she would come to their aid, his aid, in the future. But the, solve hole bow and arrow tale archer, made absolutely no sense to Nick no matter how he parsed it. And, path or paths, why repeat the phrase? Lose to win, how can you win if you lose? Maybe the answers lie in his mom’s copy of the Voynich manuscript? Or in a hidden passage in her diary? Maybe the answers were back in the old Minoan Archival Hall at the bottom of the sea? If so, was it possible for them to somehow retrieve it at such great depths?

  He struggled with it by himself for days. And he and Grace grappled with it when they had time to put their heads together. They made no progress until…

  Chapter 53

  “And, ah, today is supposed to be one of those days”

  AJ tried to convince his mom that April 1st should be a national holiday. He had inherited his dad’s sense of humor and love of pulling pranks on friends and foe alike. He explained to her that to celebrate April Fools he wanted to start a new tradition of having friends over for dinner the night before so they could have what he called, ‘a truce party,’ which he equated to Fat Tuesday of Mardi Gras. The Clan had declared there were to be no practical jokes played on one another until after they had solved the riddles. AJ lobbied for April 1st being the exception and received reluctant approval from the others. That’s how they came to be eating pizza and drinking soda in AJ’s rec room the evening of March 31st.

  After they recounted the jokes they recalled being particularly funny in the past and laughed so hard they had to be careful not to shoot soda out of their noses, they settled in to discuss the prophecies one more time.

  “So what’ve you got?” AJ asked as a way to recount the progress they, more specifically Nick and Grace, had made in deciphering the bracelet and the 4th and 5th pyramid murals.

  “Well, as we know, the ring and the 6th pyramid we think say the same thing. It talks about things changing after four lunar cycles.”

  Nick glanced uneasily at Terry who withdrew into himself every time they discussed it at lunch. He watched as Terry pulled his knees in close to his chest and wrapped his arms around them as he sat in his usual spot on the floor near Anthony.

  “Um, well, you know. Anyway, every twenty days, different stuff is supposed to be revealed to us somehow.”

  Grace gave him a gentle nudge.

  He gave her a sideways glance and added, “And, ah, today is supposed to be one of those days.” Everyone was already quite aware of that, as it had come up often during the times they got together at school. “But so far, nothing, unless Tommy Tompkins sitting in a pile of mashed potatoes is revealing?”

  Nick chuckled at the stunt AJ had pulled on one of the freshmen at lunch, calling it a one-day-off practical joke. Everyone else seated around AJ’s basement, however, stared at Nick in anticipation of him telling them something they didn’t already know.

  When no one had an answer or a thought as to what could have been that day’s revelation, they broke into separate conversations. Anthony tried to bring Terry out of the shell he had entered while Miriam joined in to help. Maddy and Grace talked about the last prediction and what it could possibly mean, while AJ stared at them because he couldn’t get a word in edgewise. Nick took it in and forced his mind to make sense of it all.

  After attempting three times to wedge his way into Maddy and Grace’s conversation wit
hout success, AJ in a loud voice said, “Hey, you two, can I get a word in? I feel like a second orange over here.”

  “That’d be banana, darlin’. And you know you’re always number one with me.”

  “Obviously not. I’m number two.”

  Maddy laughed, but Nick stiffened.

  Grace felt it and turned to him, “What? Are you as upset as your friend here?”

  Nick stared right through her and mumbled, “That’s it.”

  “What’s it?”

  “The two, one, three, four stuff from the prophecy.”

  “Huh?” AJ, Maddy and Grace said as one.

  “Two, one, isn’t the number of people or Elements. It’s different people.”

  “Laddie, I’m getting’ more confused by the second. Could yeh be o wee bit more clear, please?”

  “Ah, sure. You see, two isn’t two people. It’s me. The second born. One is Terry, the first born.”

  Out of the corner of his eye Nick saw Terry sit up straighter and say, “So, what does it mean, ‘The second born knows the first born.’ ”

  But once more, he could swear he didn’t see Terry speak. Nick looked down at his hands. He had grabbed the wrist of his left hand with his right. He was touching the bracelet with both arms. He glanced around the room and heard each person’s thoughts as he glanced from one to the other, one at a time. The instant he shifted his gaze to a person he could hear his or her thoughts. As soon as he moved to the next, the previous person’s thoughts would stop. Yet no one’s lips moved. His eyes went wide and he pulled his hand away from the bracelet and the voices stopped. He began to laugh maniacally.