Ancient Origins: Books 4 - 6 (Ancient Origins Boxset Book 2)

by Robert Storey

  Sarah looked at her palm. Have I been under its control ever since I first touched it back at the USSB’s military laboratories? A memory came to mind of silver symbols transferring from the orb’s surface to leach into her skin and she slowed to a stop.

  ‘Sarah?’ Trish said in concern.

  Sarah turned to her friend. ‘I think Goodwin was right.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  Sarah held up her chain to examine her remaining pendant and not for the first time wished it had the same power as its larger cousin. ‘The orb altered the pendant’s surface to show a symbol.’

  ‘The Libra constellation?’ Jason said.

  Sarah nodded. ‘Yes, but why did it alter it? Goodwin said he’d seen this symbol many times before. It can’t be a coincidence. When Susan was holding the orb, she was speaking to it as if it could hear her, as if it was alive. What if … what if it activated something in the pendant so that the creature, the Pharos, could find us?’

  ‘Even if that were true,’ Trish said, ‘what would be the point?’

  Sarah looked around them. ‘This place – to bring us here.’

  Jason and Trish eyed the mist with nervous eyes.

  ‘We were so close to a way out of Sanctuary,’ Sarah said, ‘not once, but twice. On two occasions we’ve been near temples that held transportation devices, yet both times the creature was there, chasing us on, forcing us into risks, moving us away from our goal. If it wasn’t for the Pharos we’d be on the surface by now. And it could have killed us ten times over, but we’re still here.’

  Her friends didn’t say anything, but Sarah knew she was right, it felt … right. And she also knew the Pharos were as much to blame for Riley’s death as Locke. She pulled down the zipper on her decontamination suit, reached into her coverall pocket and withdrew the orb. The twelve sided object throbbed inside its protective cloth, almost as if talking about it had awoken it.

  ‘What are you doing?’ Trish said. ‘It’s dangerous.’

  Can it hear what we’re saying? Sarah wondered. She stared at the artefact’s concealed form. The idea was disturbing. But even if it can, it wouldn’t be able to understand our language. Unless, she thought, it’s learning as we speak. She gazed at the orb and felt a powerful compulsion to touch it, and an image of her holding it flashed into her mind’s eye.

  Sarah looked up at her friends. ‘We need to find out what it wants. What it does.’

  ‘It might not do anything,’ Jason said, ‘except kill or knock you unconscious.’

  The sound of a distant explosion penetrated the mist and Sarah peeled back the orb’s cloth.

  ‘Wait,’ Trish said, grabbing her wrist, ‘it could attract the lights.’

  Sarah looked at her friend. ‘Some risks are worth taking.’ She grasped the Anakim artefact and its surface grew warm.

  Chapter Fifty

  Sarah held the orb in her hands and a familiar tingle ran down her spine. The hairs on her neck bristled and the orb grew light. Sarah knew what was coming next and she gripped the artefact tighter. The metallic surface vibrated and turned smooth. Her hands shook, pain seared through her head and she cried out as she fell to her knees.

  Someone called her name, but she clung on, trying to remain conscious. The top of the orb glowed and slid back. The rest of its pentagonal sides pulsed white, and the agony increased. An Anakim face flashed before her eyes and she gasped and collapsed to the floor, her body convulsing.

  ♦

  ‘Sarah!’ Trish shook her friend’s shoulders, but there was no response.

  Jason crouched down and tried to prise the orb from her hands. ‘It’s stuck fast.’

  ‘What do we do?’ Trish said as Sarah’s body continued to twitch in spasm.

  ‘There’s nothing we can do. We wait.’

  Trish glanced around at the icy mist that surrounded them and withdrew her small pocket knife to stand guard over her friend.

  ♦

  Visions flashed before Sarah’s eyes and a spark of electricity washed over her brain like a storm. She saw strange lands and stranger peoples. A procession of Anakim priests and priestesses walked across a causeway. The flames from their torches glowed orange in the dark and flickered in the breeze. Sarah looked up through their eyes and saw the great Anakim Sphinx, glinting silver against a ring of fire. And then she was inside, looking at a bloodstained altar amidst a sea of black, and flanked by strange walls that glowed from within. Beyond this curiosity, Sarah floated towards another wall and a sculptural relief that glittered like stars in the night. It showed the heavens and the Earth, and all manner of constellations decorated its great width. Amongst these images, five objects shone like diamonds. Each was too large to be a distant star, but far too small to be the moon. A glimmer of remembrance formed before a crushing pain surged through her mind and darkness closed in.

  ♦

  Sarah opened her eyes and looked up to see Trish and Jason looking down at her.

  ‘Are you okay,’ Trish said, helping her into a sitting position.

  Sarah nodded and breathed deeply.

  ‘It’s still glowing,’ Jason said.

  Sarah looked down to see she still held the Anakim orb, which shone from its activation. There was no pain, just a tingle that tickled her palms. As they watched, the topmost pentagonal side reappeared, before tendrils of electricity flickered over its surface. The orb dulled and then its whole shape changed, its sides sliding over one another like some kind of spherical Rubik’s cube.

  ‘What’s it doing?’ Trish said.

  The orb’s sides rearranged themselves until it flattened into a saucer-sized pentagonal disc, and Jason reached out to touch it. ‘It’s like a bigger version of your pendant.’

  ‘Which helps us how?’ Trish said.

  Sarah ran her fingers over the disc’s smooth surface. ‘I think it’s trying to tell me something.’

  Trish frowned. ‘Like what?’

  ‘I don’t know. I saw images, like … like it was trying to speak to me.’

  ‘Did it tell you how to get out of here?’ Jason said.

  ‘Maybe, I—’

  A flicker of light made Sarah look up.

  Beyond the gloom, a deep growl emanated from the mist and a Pharos shimmered forth, its rows of razor-sharp teeth disappearing and reappearing through its alien glow.

  ‘Sarah, get up,’ Jason said, as he and Trish backed away.

  The beast followed their movement, ignoring Sarah as she struggled to her feet.

  Jason moved in front of Trish as the Pharos bore down on them and Sarah grasped the disc, unclipped a shackle from her harness and threw it in the vicinity of the creature’s back to distract it.

  The object bounced harmlessly from its hidden bulk and the Pharos continued backing Trish and Jason up.

  ‘Hey!’ Sarah waved her arms and aimed a kick at the creature’s trailing light. Her boot rebounded from something hard and the Pharos swung round and bared its teeth.

  Sarah backed away as it turned towards her. A strange clicking sound emanated from within and she went to move towards her friends, but the Pharos darted the same way, cutting off her escape.

  ‘Sarah!’ Trish called out.

  ‘Go,’ she said and held the flattened orb before her, ‘it won’t hurt me!’

  The beast opened its gaping maw and roared, and Sarah’s sense of security evaporated.

  She backed away as it stalked her and felt something press against her back. She’d walked into a stone column. The Pharos let out a predatory growl as it prepared to strike.

  Sarah dived right as the light surged forward and caught her with a glancing blow. She was thrown from her feet and the disc slipped from her grasp.

  ‘Sarah,’ Jason said, ‘RUN!’

  Heartbeat pounding, Sarah scrambled to her feet and sprinted into the dark.

  Chapter Fifty-One

  Sarah ran through the sphinx’s endless halls and glanced back to see the Pharos chasing her down. She
veered left and then right, but a bellow of fury told her the beast was closing fast. Her manic flight thrust her headlong into thickening mist and a column loomed before her; she dodged left and stumbled, but kept up her speed, driven on by terror.

  Careering past statues and tombs, she glanced back again. The light from the Pharos had gone and when it failed to re-materialise on a second inspection, she slowed as silent darkness surrounded her.

  No sound from the creature reached her ears and she wondered if it approached unseen. She strained her ears, listening, but all she could hear was her own breathing, which sounded muffled by the thick vapour.

  An icy chill permeated her bones and Sarah pressed a button on her helmet. ‘Trish,’ she whispered, ‘I’m okay, can you hear me … Jason?’

  A crackle of static washed through her helmet’s speakers before a faint voice replied.

  ‘Sarah,’ Trish said, her voice sounding distorted, ‘where are you?’

  She was about to reply before a rough hand clamped over her mouth and she was dragged back into the dark.

  She tried to speak, but whoever held her tightened their grip.

  ‘Shhh,’ a voice whispered in her ear, ‘they’re close.’

  Sarah recognised who it was and she turned her head to see Richard Goodwin staring over her shoulder into the darkness. She followed his gaze and her visor adjusted to show a massive plaza shrouded in thinning wisps of mist. At its furthest edge, Susan moved in a shuffling walk towards a steep slope.

  Goodwin let go of Sarah’s mouth and pointed to the right, where the shimmering form of a Pharos glided across the ground. Every so often the two unlikely companions stopped and moved closer together, before carrying on their slow procession.

  ‘Locke called it a Pharos,’ Sarah said, keeping her voice hushed.

  Goodwin gave a nod.

  She frowned. ‘What are they doing?’

  ‘I don’t know, but I know where they’re going.’ Goodwin moved back behind the column and Sarah followed.

  ‘I need to find my friends,’ she said.

  He gestured behind her. ‘I think they’ve found you.’

  She turned to see Trish and Jason approach out of the mist.

  Sarah moved towards them and put a finger to her lips to signal for quiet.

  ‘We thought we’d lost you,’ Trish said while Goodwin returned to his vantage point to spy on the Pharos.

  Jason held up the orb-turned-disc and passed it to her. ‘So much for the light not wanting to hurt us.’

  ‘We’re still alive, aren’t we?’ she said, tucking the artefact into her coveralls.

  ‘For now.’ Trish reached out and touched a jagged gash on Sarah’s chest. ‘But we have to get out of here, our luck’s running out.’

  Sarah looked down at the bleeding wound. The Pharos had got closer than she’d thought. She felt her neck and face where a host of other lacerations had resulted from her close shave with the creature. She hadn’t felt any of them; not even the deep cut on her palm dealt by Locke’s knife back outside the sphinx. ‘Susan’s close,’ she said, ignoring the pain that belatedly kicked in.

  Jason pointed behind her. ‘Where’s he going?’

  Sarah turned to see Goodwin disappear into the mist. She swore and waved them on. ‘Let’s go, we can’t afford to lose him again.’

  The three friends pursued Goodwin across the plaza, Sarah leading, Trish following and Jason bringing up the rear.

  Further ahead, the shimmering light of the Pharos disappeared from view and they slowed their approach.

  Goodwin, oblivious to their presence, reached the slope, crept up it and vanished into a dense bank of fog.

  Sarah grasped Trish’s hand, who repeated the process with Jason and, linked together, the three friends inched forward, fearing what was ahead as much as what lay behind.

  Sarah’s visor fuzzed as she entered the freezing cloud. The vapour clung to her like an apparition and blocked out all vision. If she’d put a hand in front of her face she wouldn’t have been able to see it. She felt Trish tighten her grip.

  Seconds later the way ahead cleared a little and Sarah saw Goodwin crouched down in a shallow trough next to a towering wall encrusted with ice. A hundred feet away the light from the Pharos shone through slow, swirling mists. If it had spotted them it didn’t show it, and Susan was nowhere to be seen.

  Sarah dropped down onto one knee behind Goodwin. She glanced left to see a deep alcove sunk into the wall. The tall, coffin-like aperture looked like a gateway to another world as its deep interior was wreathed in an icy miasma. Two hundred feet on their right, and in mirror image to the one next to them, another frost-encrusted wall could just be glimpsed soaring into the dark. Between them and it, a massive silver statue towered over them. Half shrouded in cloud, the figure sat upon a golden throne and Sarah felt her gaze drawn upwards to its beautiful, feminine face. It reminded her of a larger version of the Ageless King she’d seen in Sanctuary’s military vaults. Either side of it, two massive sculptures of Anakim sphinxes lurked in the dark, their forms exact replicas of the monument in which they now found themselves trapped.

  As she looked back down, something caught her eye. Two bodies had been laid out in offering before the god-like silver statue. Their static forms peeked out through the mist laden ground, and the sight of one of the two made her feel dizzy with grief. Riley lay in unmoving death beside his friend and teammate, the late Jefferson Church. Both men had been arranged in the shape of a star and Sarah felt all reason leave her. She stood up, meaning to go to him, but Trish grasped her arm and pulled her back down.

  ‘Sarah,’ Trish said, her expression full of sympathy, ‘you can’t help him now.’

  Sarah stared at the lifeless form before Goodwin whispered something to her.

  She looked back in a daze to see him pointing beyond to where the Pharos lurked. ‘Your way out of Sanctuary is through there,’ he said.

  He crawled forward and Sarah, her mind in turmoil, glanced back at Riley before following.

  ‘What’s he doing?’ Jason said.

  After ten more feet Goodwin stopped at a second alcove in the wall, and Trish leant past Sarah and touched his shoulder. ‘We need Susan, she has the pendant.’

  He looked startled by the news, nodded, and then turned to face the wall. He ran his hand over the frost to uncover a transparent surface beneath. Where the first alcove had been deep, this one was shallow, as if it had been back-filled.

  With care, Goodwin stood up and wiped away more of the icy coating. After the shock of seeing Riley, Sarah felt her attention returning and she kept her eye on the Pharos in case it decided to move. When it failed to do so, she looked up to see a figure inside the crystalline structure. It was a woman. This must be Rebecca, she thought, the person Goodwin said he wanted to free.

  Goodwin placed a hand against the crystal and Sarah was shocked as the woman’s eyes moved inside her solid prison. At least she thought they’d moved. Goodwin meanwhile slid his hand over the surface as if looking for some way to release Rebecca from her bonds.

  Sarah could see another person trapped inside the transparent wall behind the first. Much like the woman, the man looked to have been frozen mid-pose. On a hunch, Sarah pressed her ear to the cold surface. Concentrating, she could hear the steady rhythm of the woman’s heartbeat and as she listened a second beat could be heard, fainter and erratic, but it was there.

  ‘They’re alive,’ Sarah said.

  Goodwin crouched back down beside her. ‘No – only Rebecca.’

  Sarah shook her head. ‘I heard two heartbeats.’

  Goodwin gave her a sharp look before pressing his ear to the wall. His eyes widened as he heard what she had.

  ‘It’s impossible,’ he whispered, ‘Joseph died.’ He looked up at the man and his expression turned to astonishment. ‘His wounds are healing.’

  Sarah saw gunshot holes riddled the man’s clothing. Within these, the flesh was red and laced with blood vessels,
but the wounds were shallow, not deep penetrations like a bullet would make.

  Sarah gazed into the wall, counting the number of bullets that must have torn into the man’s chest. ‘You saw him shot?’ Sarah said.

  Goodwin didn’t reply.

  Sarah yanked him round. ‘Did you see him get shot?’ she said, her eyes intense.

  He stared at her through his transparent helmet and gave a nod.

  Sarah looked back into the wall before the ground trembled and a glow of light blossomed into being alongside the Pharos.

  ‘Susan,’ Goodwin said, turning.

  The ground shook and the Pharos moved towards them.

  Trish grasped Sarah’s arm. The creature let out a shriek and sped past them into swirling mists, and they breathed a collective sigh of relief.

  Meanwhile the ethereal light shone brighter to reveal Susan’s shadowy outline next to an altar much like Sarah had seen in her vision.

  Sarah turned her attention back to the wall which now glowed from within, and looked past Goodwin to see more alcoves lining its crystalline structure at regular intervals.

  ‘Can you get them out?’ she said.

  Goodwin gave her a look of despair. ‘I don’t know, I think the altar controls it somehow.’

  Sarah looked back towards the light. ‘And Susan controls the altar.’

  She took one more look at the alcove and then ran towards Riley.