by Dave Ferraro
Stepping forward, Amelia moved in for a closer inspection of the statue. She had her stone arms in the air, as if imploring an unseen force, her god. But her head was turned to look back over her shoulder, her mouth open in a half-gasp. “Hmm. You’re an archaeologist, right?”
“What of it?” Rachel asked, coming up behind her. “Don’t think I’m too impressed with these ruins. I’ve seen Greek ruins and these ones are infamous for having been combed over by every amateur archaeology student in the field. There’s nothing left here to find that hasn’t already been documented and catalogued ten times over.”
“Touchy subject?” Amelia asked, raising an eyebrow.
Rachel shrugged, a smile tugging at the corner of her lips. “I was surrounded by people who wanted to do what I love because the idea of traveling appealed to them. It
got annoying after a while. Anthemoessa was like Mecca to the wanna-bes. Exotic location, not very dirty or interesting.” Rachel shook her head sheepishly. “I pointedly avoided this place and signed up for the toughest locations available to an up-and-comer. I wanted to prove that I wasn’t like the rest of them. That I was serious and would work hard to further exploration.”
Amelia blinked. “Well, then.”
“Yeah. Just ignore that rant.”
They smiled at each other for a moment before Amelia gestured to the figure before them again. “So, any ideas who this is?”
Rachel stared up at the statue for a moment, deep in thought, a frown slowly stretching across her face. “You know, this…doesn’t seem to be a deity. There are no tell-tale clues as to the identity. Statues of gods aren’t typically anonymous.”
“So, it’s just art?”
“I…yes, I suppose so. Although it feels…I don’t know. Just odd, I guess. Especially being the pinnacle figure here and all.”
“Huh.”
Rachel shook her head. “Anyways, back to the task at hand then.”
Amelia sent her a wry smile and put a hand up to her forehead in mock salute.
***
“There are a lot of creepy statues out here,” Cameron commented as they came upon another statue in what proved to be the largest building they’d come across yet.
“Yeah,” Shanna mumbled noncommittally. The sun was much closer to the horizon than earlier, the sky turning purple for their progress, the ruins becoming darker. Sunlight still streamed in through holes in walls and open windows, fiery orange beams that cut through the thicker shadows that were beginning to congeal in corners.
“Maybe we should head back soon,” Cameron suggested. “The ruins are-”
“Sshhh,” Shanna cut him off as she approached the statue.
“Like I said before, plenty of statues.” Cameron followed Shanna, uninterested in the statue at first, but quickly perking up when he noticed what lay at its base. “What…?”
Shanna looked up at him, then gingerly touched the gold-handled knife that lay there like an offering. She ran her fingertips over the hilt with its intricate swirls, then up the curved blade to a red liquid that Shanna knew immediately was real blood.
“I think we’ve found a clue,” Shanna observed. “Someone was paying tribute here…to her.” She looked up at the figurine, the beautiful face, frozen with a look halfway between sadness and horror.
“Is that an apple?” Cameron asked, pointing at the statue’s hand that was holding a piece of fruit.
“A pomegranate,” Shanna corrected him. “That’s a statue of Persephone. Hades’ queen in the underworld. She was kidnapped and dragged to the underworld and her mother, Demeter, was devastated, causing all of the vegetation she ruled over to die. It was how the first winter came about. Then Zeus intervened, but because Persephone had eaten some pomegranate seeds, she had to live in the underworld for part of the year, one month for each seed, thus the cycle of seasons.”
“So, whoever left this…offering…was leaving it for Persephone?” Cameron asked.
Shanna hesitated. “Well, it would make more sense to pay tribute to Demeter. People would want to honor her to bring about fruitfulness for the coming harvests.”
“But whoever left that wasn’t interested in coming harvests,” Natalia said, stepping into the room and startling both of the hunters.
“Jesus,” Cameron cried. “Don’t do that.”
Natalia smiled. “My apologies. I was lost in Shanna’s analysis. Very clear. Spoken with quite a bit of confidence for somebody who learned it in high school. Probably.”
“I guess the material made an impression,” Shanna shrugged, turning back to the statue, uncertain. She tried not to let her thoughts drift too close to the subject she wanted clear of her head.
“Wait a second,” Cameron said. “If someone was hypothetically offering tribute to Persephone, it would be bad news, right? Being Queen of the Underworld?”
“It would seem so, wouldn’t it?” Natalia replied.
“Maybe not,” Shanna said, thinking. “I’m sure there could be other reasons to worship her, like the promise that she will return every year from Hell. It’s very…phoenix-esque.” She smiled at her interpretation and looked once more at the face of the statue. It looked too tragic, too sad, to be an object of dark worship. She liked the idea of rebirth. If anything, that’s what this woman should represent.
“Unfortunately, the blood offering doesn’t really support your case,” Natalia observed. “Now come along. The others are probably already gathering to return to the tower.”
Shanna nodded, letting herself be escorted by Cameron away from the sad statue and the blood that had not quite finished drying on the blade of the knife at its feet.
Chapter Eighteen
“It’s going to be dark soon. We have to get back…” Rachel implored in vain as she begrudgingly followed Amelia further into the ruined city. “Isn’t this going a little far for a hunch?”
Amelia looked back at Rachel before continuing forward. “Feel free to go back to the others…and tell them how you left me alone here to fend off the wicked thing that’s lying in wait.”
“Ha ha.”
Smirking, Amelia turned left down a small alley where weeds were beginning to grow thick in the path. Few ventured this deep into the ruins anymore. “We’re very close now, anyway.”
“And this is your wind powers or something telling you this?”
“Yes. The air is leading me somewhere. To something.” She hesitated. “I’m not sure what it is really, just that it’s ancient. And it’s been in hiding.”
“Well, that wouldn’t exactly shock me, given the amateurs that have been out here.”
“Mmm. They haven’t had a brilliant mind such as yours through here in ages, I’m sure.”
“A-men to that.”
Amelia rolled her eyes back at her and suddenly stopped cold in front of a small building with multiple pillars holding a ceiling up along its perimeter. There were no walls at all, just a stone altar at the center of the floor. “That’s it.”
“There?” Rachel asked, pointing at the altar, hidden deep in the shade of the building, the last rays of the sun slowly fading from violet to indigo, an ominous silence filling the landscape.
Amelia looked around, before nodding and creeping forward toward the altar quickly, as if doing so under the nose of a distracted security guard, stealthy and nimble.
Following cautiously, Rachel shivered, glancing around with the distinct feeling that they were being watched. She chalked it up to nerves in the end, but couldn’t help stealing glances over her shoulder from time to time nonetheless.
She had barely reached Amelia before the sorceress had conjured up a fierce wind that aided her in shoving the lid off of the top of the altar. The stone shattered as it struck the ground, the sound of its destruction sucked up with the maelstrom as it made its departure amid a spray of stinging sand.
“Oh, now we’re destroying priceless artifacts?” Rache
l asked, aghast. The color drained from her face as she peeked into the altar alongside Amelia. Blinking, she looked up at the other hunter, crestfallen. “There’s nothing here.”
Amelia frowned and motioned for Rachel to step back.
As Rachel watched, Amelia lifted a hand and thrust it up at the same time that a stone lifted from inside the altar, as if of its own volition, sailing through the air and crashing a few feet away near one of the support pillars.
Rachel was once again awed by the power that Amelia wielded. It was a little Carrie, but she’d be damned if it didn’t come in handy.
“Here we are,” Amelia announced, reaching into the depths of the altar and pulling something out. “Hidden beneath a false bottom.”
“I would have caught that,” Rachel murmured, waving a hand in front of her face to clear some of the dust that had been stirred in wake of Amelia’s actions. She walked over to Amelia to stare down at a yellowed scroll clutched in her hand. “What is it?”
“I’m not sure. Let’s go meet with the others and find out.”
As they left the ruined altar behind, Rachel thought she heard a noise, of someone scurrying behind them. She paused and glared at her surroundings, as if doing so would force the shadows to obediently identify any potential threats. But nothing jumped out at her. A wind stirred the air, bringing with it a yellow feather and a few dead leaves, but no other sounds came to her ears. And so she left without noticing a shadow dart out from behind a nearby building, slipping away with the onset of the night.
***
“It’s gibberish,” Krystal revealed, looking over the scroll after the big unveil in the conference room an hour later. She shrugged as Hunter held the scroll open and peered down at it intensely.
“Hmmm,” Hunter bit his lip. “It looks to be in Greek, appropriately enough.” He looked up at Serene and Ligeia, who looked uncomfortable sitting in the cramped room amid strangers, in a building that wasn’t there not a day earlier. Maybe a little bewildered as well. “Would you…?”
Serene blinked. “Huh? Oh…yes, of course.” She stood up and walked over to Hunter, Krystal moving out of the way to make room. Her eyes roved over the paper greedily for a few minutes, before she sighed and shrugged. “It’s nothing, really. There’s a story about Arachne, who challenged Athena to a weaving contest, and was consequently changed into a spider. A story I have certainly heard before.”
“Makes sense,” Ligeia said. “She’s one of ours.” She glanced over at Serene quickly. “Greek. She’s from Greek mythology.” She looked around at the others and smiled. “We love the characters from mythology. We have several celebrations each year surrounding one deity or another - Dionysus, Morpheus, Athena - all in fun. There’s even a day set aside for Arachne, where the women try to weave a garment in one day, and sell their handmade wares in the streets. But we have plenty of celebrations such as that. Very fun. If you like parties, this is the right place to come.”
“What do you do for a Morpheus celebration?” Rachel asked dryly. “Sleep all day?”
“We saw plenty of statues in the ruins,” Shanna broke in. “Proserpira was where we found the sacrificial dagger and…and blood. And we saw her mother out there too.”
“Ceres,” Ligeia smiled proudly.
“Yes, that’s her. But I bet the celebration for Flora is just beautiful.”
“Oh, yes. Beautiful flowers everywhere. People come from across the globe to see the streets teeming with Spring.”
Shanna glanced over at Natalia quickly before turning her eyes on Serene, who she caught watching her. They both looked away.
“So the parchment doesn’t help at all?” Rachel asked suddenly, unable to disguise her disappointment.
“Well,” Hunter looked up at Rachel and Amelia, in turn, “a story hardly seems likely to be of use to us in our current situation. I mean, this parchment is priceless, to be sure, but in terms of aiding us during this predicament…I doubt it would hold the key to what drove these people from their homes.”
“But the scroll is old,” Natalia spoke up. “Perhaps it holds some power?”
“I didn’t feel anything particularly powerful from it,” Amelia admitted. “The wind just led me to it.”
“The wind helps you find things?” Ligeia asked her, curious. “Are you like…a psychic or something?”
“Or something.”
“So, aside from the scroll and the dagger, the search through the ruins yielded little else,” Hunter proclaimed. “Progress has been made on the machine, and it should be in working order within a day, I’m happy to say.”
“Thank god,” Jordan murmured.
“But our research was also fairly fruitless, I’m sorry to admit. We found no record of such an evacuation taking place surrounding the events of a…a song. We’ve made hardly a dent into several key texts, however.”
Krystal sighed.
“So, are we calling it a night?” Brett asked. “I’m pretty beat.” He winked at Ligeia.
“Well, sleep isn’t exactly at the top of our list of priorities right now,” Amelia told him. “We need to keep going through these texts and put a stop to the disruptions if we’re going to get home. None of us want to be stranded here for days. Or weeks.”
“Weeks?” Jordan mumbled in a defeated tone.
“But we also need a break,” Hunter relented. “It would be rather crowded if all of us were going through the texts at the same time. Perhaps working in shifts would be more beneficial. That way, each team can start fresh and reinvigorated for research and repairs. Unfortunately, our cots here aren’t exactly accommodating, but we can make due.”
“Although if what’s happened in town occurs again tonight, it might be a good idea to stage a group past the ruins,” Natalia observed.
“There are plenty of open houses in town,” Rachel said. “We should be able to find a nice place or two to settle in for a little shut-eye, so if the singing resumes, we’re ready to move on it, locate the source.”
Jade sat up. “I vote that we work in three shifts. A third of us would be about the right amount of people in the library, and then there would be plenty of people in town to take on any menace thrown our way.”
“Alright. Three rotating groups it is,” Hunter confirmed. “We can probably make do with four hours holed up here with some of the texts before switching out, and Ligeia and Serene should certainly be escorted into town and protected. Any volunteers to go into town with them first?”
“I’ll go,” Brett raised his hand like the exemplary student, not at all hiding the fact that his eye was on Ligeia as he spoke.
“I need a break from research mode,” Jordan said.
“And I’m going stir crazy,” Jade added, smiling at her brother.
Saul, Todd and Krystal also opted to go into town, as did Cameron, who was looking rather tired again, despite his days of rest under sedatives.
Shanna frowned as she debated whether to go or not. Cameron would be there…but she really wanted to help with the research this time around. And maybe see if she could spot something in the texts about Diana while she was at it. She looked over at him as Amelia volunteered for the last slot that needed to be filled, noting a glimpse of disappointment run over his face before he turned to grin at her.
“Okay. We have a pair of walky-talkies so we can keep in contact with one another.“ Hunter announced as he handed one to Saul. “I’ll stay here through the night to help guide each of you as much as possible.”
“But you need your sleep, too,” Krystal protested. “What good are you going to be dead-tired?”
Hunter shook his head, determined. “I can sleep in a cot if I need to. But I must be here. Todd and Saul can look after you.”
Krystal blushed and looked over at the other two scholars as she nodded her acquiescence.
“All right,” Amelia said. “Let’s go.”
They all stood at once
and Shanna was immediately greeted by Cameron, who gave her a brief hug.
“Stay safe,” he said and offered a warm smile.
“You do the same.”
She watched him leave with Jordan and Jade, knowing that he was at least in good hands.
When the room had cleared out, there only remained four of them, and Hunter immediately led them upstairs to the library, Natalia and Rachel taking the rear.
“Well, that was a warm-hearted goodbye,” Rachel said to Shanna, knowingly. “Nothing to worry about at all, was there?”
“Nope.” Shanna grinned back at her and paused when she saw Natalia’s look.
“That was very clever of you,” Natalia told her.
Rachel looked back, frowning. “What? What’d I miss?”
They all entered the library and everyone was suddenly watching Natalia, who seemed to greet the attention with indifference.
“They slipped up,” Shanna said. “Well, Ligeia did, at least.”
“Slipped up?” Rachel exchanged a look with Hunter, obviously as confused as he.
“I’m afraid I don’t follow,” the scholar admitted.
“Brilliantly, Shanna called Serene’s bluff,” Natalia surmised. “We’d been having doubts as to the girls’ intentions, and now we know that they are lying to us.”
“And how do we know this exactly?”
Shanna shrugged. “Well, first of all, I didn’t really believe that Arachne was the legend related on the scroll. Why would Amelia’s powers lead her to a scroll that’s all but useless to us, especially if it didn’t feel powerful to her as an object? So I forced a little enthusiasm and name-dropped Proserpira, the Roman name attached to Persephone.”
Hunter nodded. “Yes, the Ancient Greeks and Romans rather had different names for many similar entities.”
“Like Aphrodite is the Greek equivalent to the Roman goddess Venus,” Rachel piped up.
“Or like Artemis and Diana are both goddess of the hunt.”
Shanna looked up at Hunter and stared for a moment, a little startled, before she turned away. “Exactly. So not only did she acknowledge the Roman name of Persephone in her native Greece, but she named Demeter with her Roman name.”
