by Alex Temples
I tried to stop the smile that spread across my face. His voice was teasing and something told me he was staring at my ass. I shook my head and continued onward.
Finally, we reached the summit of the highest hill and as the vegetation cleared, I saw the tops of the Andes mountains jutting out of the fog around us.
“Wow.” I breathed.
Aiden echoed my appreciation, taking in the site of the rugged, blue mountains. Beyond us, Lake Guatavita sat nestled in a crater, it’s rocky shores blanketed with shrubs and flowers. The water was a greenish gray and appeared to be darkening even as we gazed at it.
The air sizzled with energy as we made our way to the lake and I had the strongest sense of Déjà vu. A crackle of thunder made me jump, bumping into Aiden who was now in front of me, eagerly striding to the shore.
“Don’t worry, the storm is still a few miles away.” He reassured me.
The trail wound down to an observation platform. Aiden passed by this, opting to cut through the thick brush that probably acted as a wall to keep tourists on the trail.
“Where are you going?” I asked.
“To the lake. We aren’t going to find anything on a platform built for tourists. There are small boats kept here. Follow me.” Aiden headed down the trail, his steps quick and carefully placed.
Not seeing an alternative, I followed him as he walked toward the water. Thunder rumbled again, sounding closer. I glanced at the gathering clouds, wondering how long we had before it started raining. We kicked up dust on our way down the trail and it swirled about, obscuring the path behind us.
“Aha.” Aiden’s voice was triumphant, and I turned to see he’d found a small canoe and was carrying it down to the shoreline.
“You can’t mean for us to row out on the lake right now?” I asked, glancing worriedly at the darkening sky.
“Yes, we’ll be fine.” He said, holding my gaze. I wouldn’t let anything happen to you. His voice in my head acted as a balm, soothing my frayed nerves.
I nodded, following him to the shore.
“Get in, Brin.”
I moved to get in the boat, my feet sinking into the sand. First, I unbuckled my pack and threw it in. Then, throwing one leg over the side, I hoisted myself up and plopped down onto one of the wooden seats.
“Ready.”
I felt a thrill as I looked up at him. With the stormy sky as a backdrop, his blue eyes blazing with a glint of mischief.
Aiden pushed the boat into the water, wading in several feet before hoisting himself into the boat and settling onto the seat across from me. He picked up the oars and began to row, his thickly corded arms rippling under his silk shirt.
There was an eerie quiet hanging over the lake, disrupted occasionally by the sound of an oar slicing through its graying depths.
It was a crater lake, sunken into the top of the mountain, surrounded by high walls that sloped down on one side, meshing with the less steep, sandy shore we’d entered on.
“What are we going to do?” I asked.
Aiden wore the strangest expression and I tilted my head, waiting for him to respond.
“I don’t know. Look at that.” He gestured towards the steepest wall at the end of the lake. I spotted what he was pointed at. There was a large V cut into the side of the rock face.
I examined the strange site, looking back to him for an explanation.
“That’s where the conquistadors forced the Muisca to carve a hole in the side of the lake in an attempt to drain it.”
I stared at the wall, marveling at the dramatic angle. The cut went from the top of the wall to where the water lapped at the rocks.
“Were they successful?”
Aiden nodded. “Yes, they managed to take the lake down several meters, discovering gold and precious gems along the shore. Then, there was a collapse, and the rock walls came crashing in, killing hundreds of the Muisca and the Spaniards.”
I gaped in horror at the place where hundreds of men had died.
Aiden shook his head. “They say in the weeks following the accident great thunderstorms ravaged the banks, bringing more rocks down to fill the cut made by the Spanish. The water flooded the lake, replenishing what had been drained.”
As if on cue, thunder crashed in the distance, and I felt the wet trickle of a raindrop sliding down my cheek. I brushed the moisture away with the back of my finger.
The air took on an electric hum. Turning to Aiden, I realized the energy was radiating from him. We were floating towards the middle of the lake.
“Aiden?” I asked in question.
I shivered as I met his eyes. “What are you doing?”
He smiled at me as he stood, balancing precariously in the middle of our tiny boat. He held out a hand.
I hesitated only briefly before placing my hand in his.
We stood in the middle of the boat, hands linked as the heavens opened and rain began to fall.
Aiden began chanting in an ancient language.
I felt the buzzing energy building between us, and in the water below us.
He let go of my hand long enough to pull a small gold figurine from his pocket.
“What is that?” I asked.
It was very old, whatever it was. The small gold figure in his hand was shaped like a jaguar, it’s sheer, emerald eyes twinkling up at me.
“It is an offering for the goddess.” He replied and began changing again, lifting the tiny golden cat to the sky.
Thunder rumbled, louder this time. The storm had to be on top of us.
My clothes were now soaked, the thin fabric clinging to my body. Something was happening. I felt the magic in the air, it’s power concentrated around us.
Aiden turned his head towards the dark sky. Rain poured down his face. The water washed over him. His red silk shirt was ruined, plastered to his body. He chanted another string of words and threw the jaguar into the water. With a sudden flash, fire explored around us and we dropped into the abyss.
Chapter Thirty-Two
I fell into the lake, sucking in a last breath as shockingly icy water closed in around me. I slipped from fire into ice, struggling to react quickly enough, barely able to take a breath of air before I slipped under.
Aiden faded from site. The last I’d seen him, he was engulfed in flame. I wondered if he had been struck by lightning. A flash of panic shot thorough me at the thought. I struggled through the inky blackness threatening to swallow me, paddling toward what I thought was the surface.
My head broke above the water and I sucked in great gasps of air. The haziness in the corners of my vision faded. I didn’t see him.
Looking around frantically, I remembered I had other ways of communicating with him. I searched my consciousness, finding the last place he’d been, feeling for that unique energy that was Aiden.
Finally grasping at it, I concentrated harder, willing him to respond to my silent call. Suddenly, I found him. He was still underwater. Sensing danger, I clung to his essence, diving back under the water, moving in the direction of his silent struggle.
Swimming a few paces, I made out a flash of red silk in the corner of one eye. I paddled frantically in that direction. Above me thunder rumbled, echoing through the water.
Aiden was floating just below the surface, unconscious.
NO. I cried frantically in my head, paddling over to him and slipping an arm around his waist. He was easily twice my size. How was I going to drag him to shore?
Refusing to accept defeat, I pulled and kicked until I was above water. Looking around I saw we were no more than a few meters from shore, but we were now on the opposite side of the lake– the side where the deep gash cut into the stony cliff.
Aiden looked pale, his normally bronzed skin a sickly white. He wasn’t breathing. Fear gripped me
I’d just met him. I couldn’t lose him now. There was something between us I needed to explore, something we needed to explore together.
I wasn’t going to lose this man. I refuse
d to let nature claim him. I rolled him over onto his back and began to swim backwards with renewed determination, pulling him after me. The icy rain continued to pour down, battering us as it suddenly turned to hail.
We were in a very bad place.
My muscles quivered, a cramp starting in one of my sides. I took a deep breath, swimming faster. We were close enough to where the water ended that I could see there wasn’t much of a bank. A horizontal wall loomed before me. Bushes and shrubs grew wild, their bright orange flowers dotting the hillside. There was nowhere for us to go.
I couldn’t believe how cruel fate was. I was tiring quickly. Never mind that, if I couldn’t get Aiden breathing it would soon be too late. We’d been under the water for only 30 seconds or so, but I’d been paddling for a minute. His brain couldn’t go much longer without oxygen.
As we neared the shore, I spotted what looked like a rocky overhang. Paddling closer, I saw it was a cave, cut into the side of the cliff.
With a few more kicks, I dragged Aiden under the overhang and discovered it was a small cave. It was pitch black inside. I pleaded for a surface to climb onto. With a sigh of relief, I remembered the combination key chain with a flashlight hanging from ]my belt loop. Sam had given it to me before she left. I groaned when I realized I would have to tread water to retrieve it, and Aiden was in my way.
Struggling, I pressed my back into the stone wall for leverage, supporting Aiden with my left arm. I reached down and fumbled with the carabiner holding the flashlight to my belt. I was moments away from giving up and venturing into the dark cave when I finally felt it unclip.
Thank God.
I breathed a quiet thank you in the direction of the sky as I depressed the button on the waterproof flashlight. It sprung to life, illuminating the dank cave with a cheery yellow glow.
There was a shore!
I pulled Aiden towards it, breathing a sigh of relief when my feet hit the sandy bottom. I walked out of the water, dragging him behind me.
Grunting with the effort, I pulled him until his upper body was out of the water. I pressed my fingers to his neck in search of a pulse. I felt a strong throbbing under my fingers and breathed a sigh of relief.
Unfortunately, he still wasn’t breathing. I knelt in the sand and bent forward, pressing my mouth to his as I’d practiced in First Aid class. I gave him a couple breaths, watching as his lungs filled with air. I repeated this for several minutes, waiting eagerly for him to take a breath on his own.
“Come on, Aiden. Please.”
Nothing. What would I do if he died? I shook my head, forcing the dark thoughts away, knowing they wouldn’t help me. In my desperation, another idea came.
I put my hands on him, focusing in my mind on the vision of Aiden gasping for breath and opening his eyes. As I did this, I felt energy begin to hum within me. I channeled it into the lifeless form in front of me. My hands grew warm on his cool flesh.
Suddenly, he began to cough.
Relief flooded through me. I helped him roll to his side. After several great racking coughs, he expelled the water from his lungs and stilled, leaning on an elbow. He sucked in a breath with the desperation of one who wanted very badly to live.
“Aiden.”
He looked up and I saw the familiar fire burning in his eyes again. His skin grew pinker with each breath. He stopped gasping.
I found what I was looking for, gazing into his eyes, recognizing the same need I knew was reflected in my own. I’d almost lost him. We’d almost lost each other and this strange bond we’d forged in the wilds of the jungle. Now, it had been solidified in the depths of this bottomless lake and we wouldn’t risk losing it again.
Brin.
I heard his voice in my head, watched as he pushed himself up and helped me up. The ceiling of the cave was very high, at least several feet taller than Aiden, who now stood before me.
I grasped his hand and let him pull me up. As we pressed against each other warmth returned to his body.
He reached down and pulled my wet tank top over my head, taking my stretchy bra with it.
I pushed his ruined shirt down his arms, pulling it off and tossing it onto the sandy ground. We pulled each other’s clothes off as quickly as possible until we stood naked in the dim glow of my little flashlight, which I’d placed on a nearby boulder.
I stared up into his eyes, wanting to capture everything – the way his dark hair was tousled, the lock hanging in his eyes, the way his wet skin glistened in the dim light.
He stood with his legs apart, comfortable in his nakedness, looking more animal than human.
I burned for him, and in the space of a few seconds, I was in his arms.
His hands twisted in my hair as he tipped my chin back, exploring my mouth before trailing kisses down my throat and chest. We were both frantic for each other, desperate to celebrate life after our brush with death.
Aiden lifted me and I wrapped my legs around him. He took me against the wall, without question, without hesitation.
I cried out in pleasure, my nails digging into his shoulders.
Our cries grew louder. Aiden whispered beautiful words in my ear in the ancient language. Chills raced up my spine as my body recognized what my ears did not.
He thrust into me a final time, calling out my name as he climaxed, and I reached my own undoing, shattering into a thousand pieces in his arms, arching my back and bucking against him until I melted into his chest without a single ounce of energy left.
We sunk to the floor together, not minding the wet sand. It was a long time before we spoke.
I shattered our blissful cocoon, unable to keep the question from my lips.
“What happened out there on the water, Aiden?” I asked, picturing him standing in the boat as the energy exploded out around us.
Aiden had been laying back with his eyes closed. At my question, he opened them and eyed me lazily. “I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?” I asked, giving him a concerned look. He was supposed to know the answers. I was relying on him to understand whatever magical chain of events we’d set in motion.
Aiden peered up at me as if wondering why I was confused. “That’s right.”
“What was your intention with the jaguar figurine?” I asked.
“I thought I should offer the goddess something, seeing as how this is a sacred site. It appears she didn’t accept my offering. In fact, I would say she was quite displeased with it.” He said, laughing.
We sat silently for a few moments. I had no idea what to do next. We’d come to the lake to find the tablets. This was a historic pilgrimage site, a sacred place where the Tairona, and now the Kogi presented offerings to the goddess, but she’d rejected Aiden’s offering. What now? Perhaps we needed to perform a ceremony?
I examined the cave around us, wiling answers to appear before me. It was much bigger than I’d imagined when I’d first spotted it.
Perhaps the Tairona had used the cave. I struggled to remember what old man had told us, replaying the story of the gilded Muisca in my head. Finally, I stumbled across something useful.
Kogi mamas spent the first nine years of their life in a cave. Could this be one of those caves? If so, there might be a clue to help guide us. I glanced down at Aiden, who lay propped up against a rock with his eyes closed, a look of contentment on his face.
Ignoring my nakedness, I picked up the small flashlight and took a few steps away from the sandy shore, moving deeper into the depths of the cave. The flashlight beam bounced off the walls, causing shadows to dance around me. I didn’t see anything of interest and was about to turn and make my way back to Aiden when I spotted it.
Aiden barreled out the darkness, looking around for what had made me cry out, crouched as if he were ready to charge into battle.
“It’s okay, Aiden. Look.” My voice was hushed as I gestured toward my discovery.
His eyes flew to the wall. Shock registered on his face. The wall was covered in paintings, with chara
cters scrawled next to them - many, many, characters. It was as if someone had written a novel on the side of the cave wall.
Aiden reached out and touched the letters, tracing their shape.
“What language is it?”
“A dead language.” He said softly, his lips working as he read it silently to himself.
“You can read it?”
His eyes met mine. “I shouldn’t be able to read it, Brin. No one has spoken this language for a thousand millennia.” He paused. “It’s ancient Edenese, the language of the first keepers.”
There was wonder on his face as he traced the letters.
“Yet, you can read it.” I replied, my brow furrowed. “How can you read it?”
Aiden glanced at me, then back to the stone wall where the twisted characters appeared to dance and shimmer as he touched them. He frowned
“I don’t know.”
I stared worriedly from the words on the wall to Aiden and back again.
“What does it say?”
His eyes met mine again, his gaze solemn. “It talks about the tablets.”
My heart leapt. There was something about the tablets. Perhaps we wouldn’t fail after all.
“Well, what does it say?”
Aiden was quiet.
I didn’t like the silence at all. I sensed there was something he wasn’t telling me.
“It’s a way to summon the tablets, Brin.”
I practically leapt for joy.
“That’s amazing. What do we have to do? Can we do it now?”
Aiden nodded, looking hesitant. “We can try.”
“What do you mean try?” I asked, confused.
Aiden frowned, thinking for a moment before responding. “We can try and summon them. You will have to read the words very carefully and channel your energy at the same time. You must focus your energy, will it in the direction of your desire.”
I pursed my lips. I remembered the last time I’d used magic, the feeling of the runes burning under my hands, the sensation of losing myself. It was both liberating and terrifying. I was untrained. My magic was raw and untested, volatile.
“Can’t you do it?”
Aiden shook his head. “No. Only the descendant can call forth the tablets.”
