The Keepers of the Rose

by DJ Dalasta

  Part two to free, respond with me

  “What is that supposed to mean?” Anna asked when Rock finished reading.

  Rock didn’t have an answer but thought maybe they could work it out aloud. “Well, the location is pretty simple, the NW corner of the Boston State House. But the word first could have multiple meanings, and noon could be a time or a code word of some sort.

  “The Boston State House might be the place to start,” Sayla chimed in.

  “Perhaps,” Rock replied. He put the piece of leather down and picked up the book. “Or maybe this is where all the answers lie.” Up to this point, he was scared to even touch the book for fear it would fall apart in his hands.

  “Who is Robert Ryder,” Sayla asked before Rock could open the cover. “I’ve never heard of him before. Captain Kidd never had a son in the history books.”

  “Exactly,” Rock replied. “If he did have a child with someone other than his wife, Sarah Bradley Cox Oort, he might have kept him a secret. In addition to that, his two daughters were from her previous marriage so he had no real blood ties to them. So, his secrets must have passed to someone and this is as logical a conclusion as anyone has yet to put forth. And with this evidence, who are we to doubt it. I’m guessing Robert Ryder was very influential but was able to fly completely under the historical radar. But Delega knew about him, his name came up in a few of our conversations.”

  Anna jumped in, “so he knows about this?”

  “No, I just think the name came up in some of his leads, he used it as a sliver of intrigue to get me to come on.”

  Rock waited for the conversation to move along but neither of the girls continued with the banter. He took that as a clue to open the book. He ran his hand along the outside and felt the tough wrinkled cover. Touching gave the item such emotion. He wondered who was the last person before him to do the same. Was it this Robert Ryder he was now connecting with?

  The first page was off white, but looked to still be in a good and sturdy condition. There was a large symbol in the middle, and the rest was left unmarked. He recognized it immediately. It was the Mayan symbol of hunab ku. This particular symbol, within the Mayan culture invoked their creator God and stood for perfection, or the balance of forces. That page alone, staring at him from the past, made Rock anxious.

  “The Hunab ku,” Sayla whispered to him.

  “I remember that symbol,” Anna said. “It always made me feel lost, like I was missing something.”

  “It’s quite an important glyph to start this thing out,” Rock said. He gently pulled on the page and it stretched out, unfolding in an accordion style fashion.

  There were only four existing Mayan codices that survived the culture’s invasion and subsequent destruction by the Spanish. Almost all their writings and history were labeled satanic and burned to ashes. It was the main reason that the Mayans remain such a mystery, and why all their secrets still have yet to be uncovered. But he knew from study that the codices were all put together the same way and folded in a screen type manner.

  “Just like the others,” Rock said aloud. “Definitely Mayan, even the paper is huun, not Egyptian papyrus.” He stretched out the sheet counting the folds and leafs as they unraveled. At twenty-four, he felt the resistance weaken and the long page slipped from the book and the end floated to the floor. Sayla quickly but gently grabbed it before it settled.

  “I take it that’s not supposed to happen,” Anna said after seeing Rock’s nervous expression. He carefully folded his end towards Sayla until it was small enough to fit on the counter.

  Rock bent down and examined the last page. “I didn’t hear it tear,” Sayla said.

  “That’s because it didn’t tear. Look,” Rock drew his finger down a perfectly straight line at the edge of the sheet. “Somebody did this with a knife, it’s been cut.” He hurried over to the book and looked closely at the next page. The cut inside was slightly more jagged. “These cuts don’t match, there are pages missing. Somebody took them.” Rock put his hands behind his head and sighed. Nothing frustrated him more than having found something incomplete. When the time came to translate this, no doubt these missing pages would be the most critical.

  “Rock,” Sayla called over to him. Her tone held that exotic hint of dismay or discovery.

  “Yes.”

  “The writing. I don’t know if you’ve even looked at it yet or not, but the writing isn’t Mayan either. It looks like that other language from the stone.”

  He took a step over to her and bent over the first twenty pages. She was right, not that he doubted her abilities, but it wasn’t what he expected. “Are you sure you’ve never seen this anywhere else, nothing in any books or the Internet?”

  “I’ve never seen it,” she said. “Sorry.”

  “Anna, anything familiar at all to you,” she was studying the stone on the table, with a furrowed brow.

  “I’ve never seen it before but I was thinking that maybe that’s why the stone accompanies the book. “Maybe it’s like the Rosetta stone. A type of translation tablet?”

  Rock smiled. She was right. It was a perfect tool for translating. The Rosetta stone was the icon of translation and this was identical in its purpose. He recalled that the Rosetta stone was a single script written in two forms of Egyptian and the other in Greek. It served as the starting point to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics and was dated all the way back to 196 BC. This stone tablet could be even older.

  “That’s exactly what this is. Sayla, do you have the camera?” She held it up and started wiggling it. “Good. We need to get pictures of every inch of everything. Start with the letter and leather map, then the stone and then I want every page of that book photographed. Clearly.”

  “You got it.” Sayla picked up the letter and laid it out flat. She started taking the pictures.

  Rock took Anna by the arm and brought her into the other room. He sat her down on the crusty blue sofa. “We have to get you out of here,” he said.

  “I know,” she nodded her head. “Do you plan on handing any of that over to Delega when you’re through with it.”

  “Probably not,” he said. “And even if I do, it will be many months if not years before it is done being examined. It might never be. I doubt Delega will ever see it.” Anna looked a little upset.

  “I was hired by him, to get whatever that is. It’s very difficult for me to turn my back on him. He hasn’t wronged me, not him personally anyway.”

  “He’s not a good guy, I think you know that.”

  “True. But he’s still the guy that brought both of us here, spent the money and will then be backstabbed, by us. I don’t want to be that person, with that reputation. Nobody is going to hire that person.”

  “Think of it this way. I found it, and I never took his money. You could consider this my find in truth and thus I have the say as to where it goes.” Anna smiled half-heartedly. “If Delega gets that,” Rock pointed to the kitchen. “My guess is it will never be heard from again. That is a vital piece of Mayan culture and some other culture we have yet to even discover. That’s not a private piece for a collection. That cannot be trusted with Seth Delega.”

  “You do see my point though,” she stared at him. He did see it. This was a disgusting act of betrayal, on her part. But he was trying to look at the bigger picture.

  “I do, Anna. I see your point. And perhaps you are right and I will give it to Delega, eventually, but first I need to know why this is worth so many lives. Too many people have died and too many put at risk to hand it blindly over where it may disappear. But he may get it, as I said, eventually.”

  “That is the only reason I will go with you on this,” she said. “I feel the same. Those lives need to count for something.”

  “So how do we get you out,” he asked.

  “I’ll talk with Seth tomorrow, I’ll figure something to tell him.”

&nb
sp; “Act normal,” he told her, knowing that would be almost impossible.

  She forced a laugh. “What are you doing tomorrow?”

  “I’ll be diving, I can’t suddenly stop my quest and you suddenly leave at the same time. That wouldn’t be too obvious.

  “What are you going to do with the find tonight?”

  “I haven’t decided. Maybe I’ll leave it here, maybe take it with me. I don’t know. Once Sayla is finished, I’ll take you two back and we’ll go from there. But we need to be leaving soon. For some reason I always feel paranoid, like either I’m being watched or being looked for.”

  “I know what you mean,” Anna shifted uncomfortably.

  “But the important thing is, this needs to be kept safe until it can be deciphered,” Rock walked back into the kitchen. Sayla was unraveling the rest the book. When it started unfolding Rock was amazed at the amount of shapes and lines that filled up the pages rather than straight script and writing. Little marks adorned strange spirals and curves. What looked to be an outline of the solar system as well as notable constellations stretched from page to page. Small lines like computer code were written between and around them. He’d never seen anything like it in an ancient text.

  “Math,” Sayla said as she snapped a photo. “It’s all math, universal.”

  Rock understood what she meant. Math was the only truly universal language. The equations, if correct, were the same cross cultures, and worlds, if that was even a possibility. “So the front section is written in story form and this back section is all mathematics. I wonder what is missing.”

  “I don’t know,” she said.

  “Are you almost done?”

  “No, I have a bunch left to take.”

  “Keep going,” he said moving back into the living room. He found Anna huddled in the same spot.

  “We’re almost ready,” he said. She jumped at the sound. “Whoa, where were you,” Rock smiled at her.

  Anna looked up at him with tears wetting her cheeks. Rock lost his smile immediately. “I don’t know Rock. I feel empty or lost. Something’s not right. This isn’t going to end well, is it? I know it. I just know it.” She stood up and came over to him and wrapped her arms around him and squeezed.

  He embraced her. “Yes it will.” He rocked with her in his arms. “Just keep your mind clear and focus on what you have to do. In a few days you’ll be gone from here and it will be all behind you.”

  She broke the embrace and stepped back. Her eyes met his. “I wish that were true,” she said. “But I think we both know that’s not how this is going to end.”

 

  Chapter 15

  Nova Scotia, July 2012