Jake Ransom and the Skull King's Shadow

by James Rollins

  Jake pictured the grakyl at the Broken Gate, writhing against the force shield. “Are you saying there’s a barrier across the entrance?”

  Her face was in shadow, but Jake knew she was frowning. “What do you think I was saying back at the park? Only Magisters may enter…and apparently the Ur.”

  Jake had thought the temple was guarded by men or by mere superstition. “What if we can’t get in?”

  “Like you said, Jake, maybe we are the Magisters now, and we’ll be allowed to pass. Or maybe Bach’uuk will know a secret way inside known only to the Ur. He mentioned a tunnel.”

  Jake nodded and increased his pace. He would cross that invisible barrier when he got to it.

  They continued through the forest in silence. This deep in the woods, the whispers and calls had grown quieter. None of the townspeople hiding in the Sacred Woods had gotten this far. And why would they? If Marika was right, the temple offered them no refuge.

  Jake sensed the pyramid before he saw it. The air grew heavier and somehow charged, like before a thunderstorm, when the skies were low and dark and chains of lightning crackled in the distance. His senses grew keener. His ears picked out the rustle of leaves over the canopy. He smelled the sweetness of night-blooming moss that grew with a ghostly luminescence on the twisted trunks of the trees. His skin prickled with every skittering breeze.

  Then there it was.

  The forest stopped a few yards from the pyramid’s bottom step.

  Jake stepped out into the clearing. It wasn’t a wise thing to do as the war continued to roll toward them overhead. But he had never seen such a wondrous sight. There was no doubt. It was exactly the same as the golden artifact at the museum, the one recovered from his parents’ dig.

  Only this one is giant-sized.

  Each of the pyramid’s tiers was taller than Jake’s head, rising higher and higher to crest above the tallest trees. And there, perched at the very top, crouched the stone dragon. Moonlight turned it silver, crisply outlining each and every detail.

  The outstretched wings were inscribed with feathers. Jake stared up at it. The statue truly was a feathered serpent! No wonder Marika’s people named it Kukulkan when they first came here. Then again, perhaps the myths of Kukulkan among the Maya came from this place. Jake remembered what he had spied in Magister Balam’s library. It made him wonder once again: Had ancient people long ago found a way back home from here? Had they carried myths of monsters and feathered serpents from this place back to their native lands?

  Jake studied the statue. The dragon’s face stared toward the horizon. The face did not look quite saurian, nor did it look even reptilian, but somehow something entirely new, even vaguely human. That last sense came from the crinkled stone eyes that looked outward with such hope and seemed full of ancient wisdom.

  Lastly Jake noted its tail. It curled fully around the uppermost level, as if it were protecting a nest of eggs. The tip of the tail formed a perfect circle, marking off a round door at the top of the pyramid. It looked to be the only entrance. It was at the spot where Jake had inserted the two halves of the Mayan coin into the golden artifact at the British Museum.

  “This way,” Marika said, pointing forward.

  Down the center of that side of the pyramid, the giant tiers had been sliced through with a narrow staircase of ordinary-sized steps. The stairs aimed straight for the round entrance. She headed there.

  “We’d better hurry!” Pindor added, looking over his shoulder as he passed Jake.

  Jake craned up and saw the writhing storm of grakyl and razor-taloned raz had reached them. They had no more time. Jake hurried after Pindor with Bach’uuk behind him.

  Jake hit the stairs and began climbing. He fumbled out his penlight. He wanted it in his fingers if they were attacked. He kept a thumb on the switch, but he kept the light off. He wanted to save the battery. He didn’t know how long it would last. He also feared the beam might attract the wrong eyes.

  But in the end, it made no difference.

  The grakyl proved to have sharp vision. A few of them spotted the four figures climbing the moonlit pyramid. A screech pierced the night. Jake glanced up and saw a dozen grakyl diving toward them. The one in the lead was the largest, with spiraled horns on his head, and his black blade reflected the moonlight off its wicked length.

  One of the grakyl lords.

  “Everyone together!” Jake screamed.

  They were only a quarter of the way up the side of the pyramid. They’d never make it. All around them, grakyl crashed to the stone sides of the pyramid. The lord of the foul beasts landed a few steps below Jake. It crouched, wings out, its sword pointed straight at Jake’s heart.

  Jake raised his only weapon. He pointed his penlight at the grakyl’s face and clicked on the light. The glare bothered the beast at first. A wing snapped around, shielding its eyes like a cape. Then it suddenly wailed as the freezing touch of the light turned its eyeballs to ice. It fell backward, clawing at its own face, tearing gouges as it rolled down the steps.

  Its sword struck the step below and rattled. Jake lunged and grabbed it before it bounced away. They needed every weapon. Jake passed it to Pindor, but he caught a glimpse of an emblem melted into its hilt. It struck Jake as familiar, but he didn’t have time to examine it further.

  The grakyl lord’s cries had ignited a bloodlust in its brethren. They came at the small group from all sides. Jake hit two more in the face, blinding them and sending them tumbling after their lord. Pindor did his best to ward off the others with his sword. But more beasts closed in from all directions, screeching in agony and fury.

  They had to keep moving.

  Jake twisted and pointed his light toward the grakyl on the stair above. It hissed and hid its face. The creatures were learning. Thinking quickly, Jake aimed for its knees instead. He flashed his beam between the two bony joints.

  “Run!” Jake yelled. “Follow me!”

  He ran straight toward the monster ahead and hollered a challenge. The beast tried to step forward to meet Jake head-on—but its knees were frozen solid and wouldn’t bend. It toppled forward, straight at Jake, ready still to rip the boy’s throat out. But Jake ducked and used a Tae Kwon Do shoulder flip to pitch the beast down the stairs. It crashed end over end. The others dodged past it and followed.

  Jake took two steps at a time. Behind him, the other grakyl gave chase, scrabbling up the stairs, flapping from tier to tier, trying to cut them off. They’d never make the entrance. Their pursuers were closing in.

  “Jake!” Marika yelled.

  He turned. One of the grakyl had grabbed Marika by the ankle. It flapped and tried to drag her off the steps. Then Jake heard a whistling noise and something struck the head of the monster. The grakyl dropped like a rock and let Marika go.

  Suddenly a great barrage of stones were pelted from the forest fringe. A group of young men in togas stepped out into the clearing below. They had slings and whipped them with expert skill.

  Jake recognized a familiar face.

  “Heronidus!” Pindor yelled, spotting his brother, too.

  The rain of stones crashed down upon the grakyl demons from below. Bones broke and skulls cracked. The beasts sought to escape, but next came a flurry of arrows. The twang of bows sounded again and again. Behind the Roman ballplayers, a line of Viking women appeared with short bows in hand.

  The fleeing grakyl were peppered with arrows and tumbled back to earth.

  But the battle at the pyramid did not go unnoticed. More screeches erupted from the churning war overhead. An entire black wing of the grakyl horde swept down toward the bloodshed. More than three dozen strong. Some aimed for the pyramid, some for the forest’s edge.

  “Jake!” a call burst out below.

  He tore his eyes from the skies. A woman in Viking garb waved at him, motioning him to make for the pyramid’s opening.

  “Run, Jake!”

  It was Kady!

  He hardly recognized her. Her clothes were ripped,
her face bloody, but she somehow stood taller. In her hand, she lifted a sword and pointed it to the top of the pyramid.

  “Go! Now!”

  He watched Kady and the others flee back into the forest. Jake sprinted for the opening in the pyramid. Overhead, the stone dragon stared off into the skies, its expression never changing, aloof to the flow of blood and screams.

  Jake pressed harder but Pindor had taken the lead. Jake and the others chased after him. They had to reach the entrance. It wasn’t much farther. They were almost to the top.

  Then a dark clutch of graykl landed on the stairs ahead—eight of them, led by another grakyl lord. They blocked the way. Pindor faced the monster with his stolen blade.

  Jake pushed forward, ready to help defend him.

  But Pindor sensed it was a fight they could not win. They were outnumbered. The point of his sword dropped, giving up. The grakyl lord grinned like a shark, revealing a gaping maw of sharp teeth.

  But Pindor wasn’t done. He lifted his other hand to his lips—and blew. Jake heard a faint high-pitched whine that faded into nothingness. Pindor had Jake’s dog whistle to his lips and blew with all his heart.

  The grakyl horde screamed and clutched their peaked ears, as if trying to stuff them into their own canals to shut out the noise. Their foul lord hissed in agony and jumped straight into the air. It twisted and writhed as if off balance. The others scattered, fleeing the piercing ultrasonic whistle.

  With the way open again, Jake pointed. “Go!”

  Pindor raced up with him. “They have big ears,” he gasped out. “I thought maybe…”

  “You thought good!” Jake said, knowing Pindor had saved their lives.

  The four of them raced up the last few steps and leaped through the curl of tail that circled the entrance. Jake felt a slight tingle, like when he’d passed through the Broken Gate, but they weren’t stopped. They ran a few more steps.

  Jake paused to stare behind him. The grakyl returned, but they hovered at the entrance. One swiped a claw at them. A small frizzle of sparks ran over its skin. But that was all. It wasn’t repelled, which meant that the pyramid’s barrier, like the one around the entire valley, was down.

  Still, the creature pulled back. It refused to follow them into the pyramid. Others gathered outside, but none of them entered.

  “Looks like they’re afraid to pass inside,” Marika whispered.

  Afraid of what? Jake wondered with a trickle of fear.

  “Scared or not, they’re also not leaving,” Pindor said.

  It was true. More and more grakyl gathered outside. Jake pictured the entire pyramid crawling with those monsters. Maybe they were trying to get enough nerve to storm inside. Jake wanted to be gone when that happened.

  “Where to now?” Jake asked.

  Bach’uuk waved and led them forward. The entrance tunnel slanted steeply downward, heading toward the center of the pyramid. The way was dark, but light glowed at the end of the passageway.

  They had no choice but to face what lay ahead.

  24

  SHADOW IN THE MACHINE

  As Jake moved through the tunnel, he ran a finger along one wall. The stones fit perfectly, but rather than stacked, they were fitted together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, each block an irregular shape. Still, the stone seams were so smooth that he doubted he could slide a razor blade between any of the blocks.

  The light grew brighter ahead. Jake felt a pulse in the air, as if something were squeezing his chest, releasing it, then squeezing again. With each step, the sensation grew.

  Pindor rubbed at his stomach, feeling it there. Despite the danger, Marika’s brow pinched with curiosity. Only Bach’uuk seemed unfazed. But he had been here before.

  The hall continued to angle downward, but the end appeared to be just ahead. The pulse grew more intense, the glow even brighter as the passageway opened into a cavernous chamber, domed like the Astromicon.

  Jake stopped, awestruck by what lay ahead.

  A perfect sphere of crystal hung in the center of the chamber. It spun slowly in place, suspended in midair under the roof of the dome. It glowed steadily, but Jake felt that pulse burst out with each full spin.

  The crystal heart of Kukulkan!

  The pulse was its heartbeat.

  As Jake’s eyes grew accustomed to the glow, he saw something else that surprised him. The sphere was really three spheres, one inside the other, like Russian nesting dolls. Two layers spun in opposite directions: one spun left to right, the other right to left. The third spun from top to bottom. Strange letters were carved across the surface of all three spheres and spun to form all manner of combinations, like some crystal computer.

  Marika crept forward and passed between Pindor and Bach’uuk. Her eyes were huge. The floor sloped down to form a bowl under the crystal heart. Below the spinning sphere were three miniature versions of the larger one. One emerald, one ruby, one sapphire blue.

  The three primary colors of light again.

  Jake glanced at his silver apprentice badge. The same three stones formed a triangle around the diamond. He realized the pattern must be a miniature version of the layout here. The diamond represented the crystal heart. The colored gems stood for the three smaller spheres.

  Fascinated, he stared back at the center of the room.

  Below the giant crystal heart, the small spheres spun in place, like small moons trapped in orbit by the larger planet above—or rather two of them spun.

  The emerald crystal seemed to wobble, and while the others glowed with their own inner light, the green sphere was dull and dark. Something was definitely wrong with it.

  The cause for that became apparent when shadows boiled out of a hallway on the far side of the dome. They fluttered around a humanlike shape, but details were impossible to pick out. They cloaked the figure completely and spat around him like black flames.

  It had to be the assassin Bach’uuk had seen fleeing Kalakryss.

  Jake withdrew to the shelter of the passageway and drew Marika with him. The shadowy man—if it was a man—knelt by the green crystal and placed two hands over its surface. From his fingers, darkness flowed and sank into the emerald stone. The wobbling grew more erratic.

  The assassin was doing something to restrain or possibly destroy this one sphere. But why? To what end? Jake remembered Marika talking about the gifts of Kukulkan, her description of the field cast out by the pyramid, how it granted a common language to all, protected the valley against dangers, and kept the crystals in the valley powered.

  Three gifts…three colored spheres

  Two gifts still worked—language and the power of the crystals—but not the third. Not the barrier. Jake now knew how the Skull King’s forces had penetrated the valley’s defenses. He was staring at it. This creature had weakened the barrier at its source—he had poisoned the emerald sphere.

  He had to be stopped or the entire valley would be destroyed.

  Jake stepped out. He rose to his toes and flicked on his penlight. If he moved quietly, he could catch the shadowy assassin by surprise. And with the reach of the penlight’s beam, he wouldn’t even have to get that close. It was worth the risk.

  Jake lifted a hand to warn the others to stay back. He had continued a few steps farther when a piercing cry rose from the grakyl horde outside. Jake cringed at the triumphant keen to their wails. He feared what that might mean for everyone in the valley. But at the moment, it meant disaster for Jake.

  The shadowy figure, perhaps curious about the noise, glanced toward the entrance. His swirling face swung straight at Jake. Jake froze as if struck by the beam of his own penlight. The creature sprang up, carried by the shadows beneath him. He rushed straight at Jake.

  Jake finally reacted and raised his penlight. He shone it straight at the pool of shadows that hid the figure’s face. The freezing light burned through the shadows. The darkness flowed away from the beam like water.

  The creature shied to the side. Jake almost caught a glim
pse of the face behind the mask—then the beam from his penlight flickered and died.

  Panicked, Jake shook the flashlight. He got it to shine for another second, then it blinked off again. The shadows poured back over the face and swallowed the features away.

  The figure cast up both arms and shadows boiled out from his form and washed over Jake’s lower body. His legs went immediately cold. The shadows thickened to the consistency of tar. He couldn’t move.

  “Jake!” Marika cried out to him.

  “Stay back!” he yelled. Or we’ll all be trapped.

  The creature seemed to have no trouble wading through the shadows toward Jake. Though the figure had no face, Jake imagined a vicious smile.

  Words flowed out, muffled by the shadows: “You survived my trap. My master will be pleased. He has grand plans for you.”

  Jake didn’t know what the creature was talking about. He frantically shook his penlight, but the batteries had completely failed.

  Jake heard feet running behind him. He glanced back and saw Marika, Pindor, and Bach’uuk sprinting to his aid, aiming straight for the pool of shadows. They hadn’t listened to him. Emotions warred inside him. He was both selfishly relieved, while at the same time terrified for his new friends.

  Pindor hit the pool of shadows first, and his legs went out from under him. He fell face-first into the black pool. Bach’uuk and Marika used the boy’s body like a bridge. Bach’uuk was in front and when he reached Pindor’s shoulders, he twisted, grabbed Marika by the waist and threw her toward Jake. She flew over the pool and landed two steps behind him—then she sank to her waist like Jake.

  She tried to take a step, hauling her upper body, but she could not move. The entire bit of their gymnastics seemed only to amuse the shadowy creature. A muffled chuckle flowed, but it held no warmth, only ice.

  “The Magister’s daughter and the Elder’s son. And a young Urling. You few think to thwart the Skull King?”

  Again that dark laugh.

  “Jake…” Marika said behind him.

  He glanced back. Marika held one hand to her throat and tapped a finger under her chin, as if signaling him. He didn’t know what she meant. Her other hand rose from behind her back. In her fingers, she held a long slender rod, tipped by a fiery crystal. It was her father’s dowsing stick.