Elixir of Life: A Novella (A Hank Boyd Adventure - Book 4) (The Hank Boyd Adventures)

by Matthew James

  “Yes?”

  “It was nice not dying when I lost my head…”

  Rand laughs, cheering up some. “Yes, in a fight…living is good.”

  “Back to the fruit trees,” I say, “I didn’t actually eat one, though. It was only a dream…” Rand looks at me, “right?”

  He taps his head. “Remember that your mind is essentially an organic computer. Thoth’s presence, along with the vision you had, might have been enough to rewire your mind without actually eating the granny smith.”

  That reminds me… “Thoth’s presence in the necropolis…how was it there if his body wasn’t? The priests make sense since their sarcophagi were there. From what I was told, they used the power from their bodies to detain their brother, leaving their minds intact.”

  He stops again. “That is something I can’t answer, Hank. To be perfectly honest…I don’t even know if Thoth is truly dead.”

  “What!” I say, shocked.

  He smiles. “Relax, Hank. I personally believe he’s long gone, but I don’t have proof other than a gut feeling.” He turns and starts off again. “But you never know, I suppose.”

  I don’t follow, my jaw hanging open. The fact that Rand, Thoth’s personal buddy, doesn’t even know if he is dead or not has me floored.

  Great, I think, finally taking a step forward, but that’s where the internal line of questioning ceases. Rand breaks my concentration after he calls out.

  “Let’s move out everyone.” His voice echoes around the chamber. “I have a sneaking suspicion that we’ll be seeing Gerard again soon. I’d rather him not find this place, if possible.”

  “Why?” I ask. “What could he do with a bunch of corpses?”

  He turns at the end of the row. “Not him, Hank. I speak of someone else.”

  “Who?”

  “His master… Anepou Ansah.”

  “Anepou?” I ask eyebrows raised.

  “Who’s he?” Nando asks.

  I answer…sort of. “Anepou is the Egyptian name of Anubis, God of the Dead during the Old Kingdom. Eventually, he was replaced by Osiris later in history.”

  “Anubis is the Greek name,” Nicole adds. “He was always represented with the head of a jackal.”

  “Another Atlantean who inspired a godly legend,” I say, sighing.

  Rand stops and faces us, his face turning into a frown. “He’s the very embodiment of death, my friends. Anepou followed my route to Egypt in search of me. But when he arrived, I was long gone, having left years before. The locals were already warned of powerful beings, both good and evil. He and Thoth, along with a few others, built what would become the Egypt you know now.” Rand sighs. “Anepou needs the Elixir to make him powerful enough to raise an army of immortal warriors from the dead—his followers from a lifetime ago.” He steps forward and burns his eyes into mine. I even think I can feel my brain start to quake. “He wants the world, but in his dark image. He wants the ability to choose who lives…and who dies.”

  I swallow hard. And I thought Nannot was bad news.

  11

  Beneath Chichen Itza, Yucatan

  “So, where exactly is this exit of yours?” Nando asks, waiting impatiently to leave. He’s been on edge ever since he discovered we arrived at an Atlantean mass grave site. Maybe it’s because Nicole and I work in the field of digging up dead people that we weren’t taken back by it.

  Or maybe it’s that we’re both mentally damaged from what we’ve been through?

  I shake off the internal question and turn and wait for Rand to answer him. But, as an alternative to verbally communicating his reply, he instead decides to show us. Actions do speak louder than words in most cases.

  Let’s see what he’s got…

  The four of us are standing in a small bodiless section of floor dead center in the dry cenote. I think I caught a glance of it earlier but was too preoccupied with my Atlantean history lesson to give it a second look. It’s about eight feet around and perfectly circular. It doesn’t surprise me either considering how Rand can control the stuff.

  “Stay close,” the Atlantean says as he raises his hands and closes his eyes. We surround him on three sides and turn, putting our backs to him. Then, the floor starts to vibrate slightly, building in strength. But as quickly as it starts, it fades.

  “Um…” Nicole mutters as we’re lifted off the ground. I look down and watch as the rows of bodies gently tip over one by one. They don’t fall, however. They just gently lay down. Each one of the golden crypts then melts away until there’s only enough orichalcum to cover the bodies.

  The flow of the liquefied alloy rushes to meet our ever rising pedestal as we’re shot towards the solid ceiling overhead. Reflexively, Nicole, Nando, and I duck, expecting to be smashed against it. Instead, the likewise orichalcum roof splits and reveals a perfectly circular tunnel, rising vertically through the ground beneath the park.

  Where the hell are we going? Feeling safer, I stand and glance at Rand. His eyes are still closed, but I can see flashes of light behind his eyelids. Incredible…

  I catch Nicole staring at me and shrug. Not surprising, she smiles her response. She’s enjoying this as much as I am. I look over Rand’s shoulder and can’t find Nando. Where…? It’s not until I lean away from Rand that I see our friend, huddled between the Atlantean’s legs, gripping one of them in fear. Unlike Nicole and me, Nando is most definitely not enjoying this display of power. I grin and turn, looking to the tunnel above.

  “Get ready,” Rand says, his voice sounding far away and muffled.

  For what? I think, drawing my gun. Nicole does the same and steadies her stance. Holding my weapon at the low ready, I watch as the earth above us morphs away, revealing the light of day. Then, like an underground missile silo, the four of us are shot out of the vertical launch tube and sent flying into the air. Ready for it, Nicole and I drop the six feet to the ground and land in a controlled crouch. Nando, on the other hand, goes sailing off to one side and lands in a heap, rolling a few times on the stone floor of the…

  “Oh,” I say, seeing our surroundings.

  “Are we in the ball court?” Nicole asks, turning in a full three-sixty. At 225-feet-wide and 545-feet-long, Chichen Itza’s ball court is by far the largest found to this day. Built like an enormous “=” sign, the Great Ballcourt was used for a Mesoamerican game resembling handball, or something close to it. A solid rubber ball would be thrown or hit into the high stone walls and would need to be kept in play for as long as possible. Various forms of the game are found throughout Mesoamerican history, some even ending in the team captain’s decapitation. Some early art even shows the severed heads being used as game balls.

  I rub my neck and groan.

  “Yes, we are,” Rand says, breathing hard, getting my attention off the vision of chanting crowds and headless bodies surrounding me.

  “Nice…” I add, shaking my head and looking around. The park around us is empty, which is good. The last thing we need is to run into Gerard out in the open. If we can make it through the back entrance, and get on the road before he finds us, we should be fine.

  “Architect!” a voice shouts, echoing through the tall rock walls of the ancient Mayan ruin. We all turn as one, Nando still sitting on the ground, wiping the grime from his pants.

  “Damnit,” I say as Gerard steps onto the playing field. He stops and stands still, fists clenched in rage, ready for another fight.

  “Go,” Rand says, stepping towards the assassin. “We cannot flee now. While I will most likely survive, you three won’t.”

  “But he’s here for you,” I say, turning towards him.

  “No,” he says, “he’s here for the Elixir. He needs me alive to take him to it. The only way to allude him now is to defeat him and disappear while he heals.”

  “Like before,” Nicole says, glancing between Rand and Gerard, the latter being at one end of the massive ball court. We’re in the middle, some two-hundred-plus feet away.

  “We a
ren’t leaving you, Rand. I’ve fought them before. I know what they want. We need to figure out something else.”

  He blows out a long, steady breath and speaks, still looking at the man hunting him, refusing to take his eyes off of him for even a second. “I have an idea,” he looks at me, “but I’m going to need your help.”

  I nod. “What do you need?”

  He turns towards me as I feel a pulsating in my brain. “I need you to trust me.”

  I don’t hear what he says as my insides are set on fire. My mind screams in agony but my voice can’t articulate it verbally. All I feel is my mouth opening and closing in silent movie-style shouts. Then, something inside of me clicks and everything quickly returns to normal. I fall to the ground, not even realizing that I was floating a foot above it. On my hands and knees, and soaked head to toe in sweat, I look up at Nicole as she brings a hand to her mouth.

  “Oh my God, Hank… Your eyes.”

  I rock back into a kneeling position and meet Rand’s likewise swirling gaze. “What did you do to me?”

  “What needed to be done,” he replies, holding out a hand. I take it and stand. “Welcome back, Guardian of An’tala.”

  I close my eyes, about to cry in anguish. I was so happy to be me again after I gave back my gifts in Enki’s Citadel. This was literally the last thing I wanted. But as I focus on the sadness, I feel something I didn’t before. There was always a feeling of loss and emptiness inside my body the last time I was made a Priest of An’tala.

  Not now, though.

  “What’s different?” I ask, knowing Rand would understand the cryptic inquiry.

  “When Thoth gave you the might of An’tala, he gave it to a mortal man with no understanding of its power. What I just did was unlock your DNA and allow the Elixir within it to flow freely. You’re still yourself, Hank,” he says, smiling, “but instead of being a living weapon like before, you’re just an extremely gifted human with an odd personality.”

  “What does that mean?” Nicole asks, stifling a smirk, stepping up next to me.

  I face her and wipe away a tear. I smile. “He gave me understanding, Nicole. He gave me knowledge. It’s what I felt when inside the Source Stone’s energy beam. My brain was open to the universe surrounding us, burning hotter and brighter than I could take. It’s why Thoth had his issues—I see that now. The human mind can’t take that kind of power without going insane or burning out.”

  “And now?” she asks.

  I close my eyes and breathe. “It’s open to the world around me and only this world. I can feel everything around us,” I look down, “including the orichalcum beneath us.” I look at Rand and see him nod slightly. “I’m like him, but on a much smaller scale.”

  Knowing what I went through mentally last time, and feeling at peace now, I ask the only question I can think of. “How have you controlled it for this long?”

  “What do you mean?” Nando asks, stepping up next to Rand.

  “The pain and emptiness… I only felt it for a few months and it felt like I was dying inside.” I meet Rand’s sorrow-filled eyes. “He’s had it coursing through his body for thousands of years.”

  “When you can’t die—” he says, his eyes watering.

  “You can never truly live,” I finish, now knowing exactly what he means. It’s truly heartbreaking what he must have gone through all these years. Scared, I ask him of me. “Am I—”

  “No, Hank, you are not immortal—close, though. I would never give you my fate. It’s too unbearable to think of someone else living as I did. I say you are what they call invulnerable.”

  “Enough!”

  We turn and witness something incredible. Gerard has launched himself into the air, arching fifty feet above the ground. As he reaches his leap’s peak, his body starts to shift and change.

  “Run!” I shout, getting Nicole and Nando moving. They take off in the opposite direction as Rand and I turn to meet our antithesis. While we are protectors, Gerard is of an opposite agenda. He wants to take life, not preserve it.

  Not on my watch, I think, feeling my body burst into flames. The green crackling fire surrounds my body, my skin and clothes unaffected. It’s a natural reaction to the incoming threat and I feel no drain on my body’s energy level or its strength. I can actually feel something within me powering it, like a small reactor or something. The Elixir, I think, imagining it flowing through my veins, in and out of my muscles and organs. It’s exactly the same thing I felt when battling Nannot within the Atlantean necropolis.

  Not meaning to, I smile at seeing the electric green fire.

  Good to see you again, my friend.

  I continue to watch as an enormous serpent falls from the sky, heading straight for Rand and me. Glancing at my partner in this fight, I grin. “Let’s do this.”

  12

  The Great Ballcourt, Chichen Itza, Yucatan

  Gerard’s new form lands in front of us—all eighty-plus feet of him. It’s really impressive from a fanboy aspect if I can be honest. But from a realistic viewpoint…it’s freaking nuts! Unlike his prior jaguar form, he’s not blood red. Instead, Gerard has taken the form of something I know all too well, someone I learned about the last time I was in the Yucatan.

  “Xiuhcoatl,” I say aloud, recalling my knowledge on the subject.

  The Xiuhcoatl I knew was an Aztecan prince living in Teotihuacan during its fall. Xiuhcoatl was, in reality, a weapon wielded by the deity, Huitzilopochtli—the god of war, the sun, and…human sacrifice. Strangely enough, Huitzilopochtli was revered by the Aztecs and not always feared like most other civilizations’ warring gods were. He’s, in fact, seen as a hero in some of the stories.

  In ancient Aztecan art, the war god is always seen brandishing a bluish-green snake as his weapon of choice. While technically translating to “turquoise serpent,” Xiuhcoatl also loosely means “fire serpent” and they’re found prominently throughout all the major Mesoamerican cultures.

  And then the massive snake-guy starts breathing fire.

  Okay, then, I think, blocking the searing heat with my own flames, so ‘technically’ he ‘is’ a fire serpent and it’s not just a clever description.

  A year ago, this would have shocked and frightened me. Now, I just wait for the heat to die down and watch as the enormous snake’s eyes look me over. I’ve never seen a real snake look confused before, they don’t have the ability to show such emotion, but this one does, and it’s quite satisfying.

  “Whooo are youuu?” the Gerard-snake asks, verbally hissing his words.

  I release my fire and step forward. “I’m Hank and I’d appreciate it if you didn’t destroy anything here. I really despise all the paperwork that comes along with knocking down ancient ruins and what-have-you.”

  “Youuu wield the firesss?” Gerard asks, swaying back and forth like a cobra, fangs bared.

  “Yep,” I say, engulfing my hands, “It was a gift from Thoth.”

  “Thothhh? But hhhow?”

  Before I can answer, Rand attacks and leaps onto Gerard’s back, likewise morphing into something inhuman. I can’t help but smile as I dodge Gerard’s thrashing body, watching Rand transform into one of the most popular gods in the Yucatan region.

  “Kukulkan…”

  The feathered serpent is as large as Gerard and quickly begins to wrap itself around the latter’s body, choking him as it squeezes. Kukulkan’s—Rand’s—golden eyes are easily seen from my vantage as they swirl and strobe with pure energy and unlimited power. Gerard’s does the same but in a silver-chrome kind of color.

  The other Elixir?

  Not sure what I can do to help, I just gawk as Rand’s emerald green body finishes changing and then begins to sprout two massive wings, both red in color. Twin rows of likewise red feathers pop up and race down his back as his full form is revealed.

  Fire sprays wildly as Gerard freaks out from the sneak attack. Rand used Gerard’s interest in me to get the upper hand on the assassin. Suddenly feeling awf
ully meek, I take a few large steps back and witness Rand’s next move.

  He plunges his long fangs into Gerard’s neck, just behind his flailing head, sinking them in deep. I’m not exactly sure what Rand can do since they’re both immortal, though.

  I guess I’m about to find out…

  I cover my eyes as Rand’s eyes brighten and flash like miniature atomic bombs, lighting up the dusky sky like it's noon in the desert. Screeching fills my ears as Gerard’s open mouth rises to the sky. Whatever Rand is doing, it’s having a serious impact on the brawl.

  Gerard rolls right, taking Rand’s entangled body with him. They both smash into the wall to my left, knocking loose a handful of irreplaceable stones.

  Ugh, come on guys… Paperwork…

  Then, they roll away and head for the other wall, getting me moving as well. But instead of fleeing to a safer distance, I launch myself inbetween the two eighty-foot monsters and the ruin.

  Ablaze, I hold out my hands and burn hotter, watching as my hands and forearms turn white. Next, I push forward, directing the heat blast at the turquoise snake’s abdomen.

  The energy shoots out and connects, choking off Gerard’s screams. His body quivers slightly and starts to change, shrinking back down to size. But halfway through his downsizing, he rears up and recovers, shaking Rand loose as he does. My teammate goes sailing into the right-hand wall and almost immediately shrinks back down into his human form, crumpling to the ground. Gerard turns to face me. I catch a series of groans from Rand as I lock onto the serpent’s silver eyes. The only time I take my attention away from them is to check on Rand, seeing him as he tries to get back to his feet.

  With the stomach wound healed, Gerard is back to full strength. And he’s pissed.

  Nope.

  I leap away from his open maw and land twenty-six feet higher, atop one of the ball court’s platform-topped walls. But I’m hardly out of trouble. Gerard lifts his massive body off the ground and stands again like a cobra, looking down at me from forty feet up.