The Secret of the Codex

by Melissa Frey

  Holun leaned forward. “They were miserable, but they seemed to be stuck with the powers that made them crazy. Until they figured out one thing: they couldn’t destroy the book, but they could separate it.”

  Holun crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair as Kayla finished translating. When she was done, the Four sat for a minute, trying to let it all sink in.

  Kayla was the first one to speak. “Into four pieces.” It wasn’t a question.

  Holun smiled and nodded once, switching back to English. “Yes. And you find three.”

  Holun was almost grinning now.

  He watched as the four Americans slowly realized the repercussions of what he was saying. This journey they’d been on would probably be more life-changing than they had ever imagined. He sat quietly so they could digest the information.

  It took a few minutes for someone to speak. Grady was first. “So Na-um was trying to stop us from getting all four books . . . so we couldn’t reunite them?”

  “Yes.”

  “And . . . if we get all four books together, they become this . . . Codex?”

  “Yes.”

  “And the Codex . . .”

  Justin interjected. “I told you we’d be getting powers!”

  Mandy hit his arm, but laughed anyway.

  Holun chuckled along with her. “Yes.”

  But Kayla seemed to have another concern. “But, Holun, if we get these powers, won’t we go crazy too? Like the Old Ones?”

  Holun gazed over at her, brows furrowing. “I no think so. Old Ones evil—not like all you. The Power no corrupt them; they corrupt Power.”

  Kayla nodded, then had another thought. “So if this is your family, Holun, why are you helping us?”

  Holun had only just discovered the answer for himself, and nodded at Kayla to translate. “Na-um killed innocent people to stop you. He called it Destiny.” The last word was in English, and Holun made a face as he spit it out. He continued in K’iche as Kayla translated. “Holun says we would not have found the first three books if it wasn’t our Destiny.” Kayla drew in a deep breath before translating the rest. “And he says it’s his Destiny to help us.”

  Kayla could see he was telling the truth. Or, at the very least, he was telling what he believed was the truth. And she knew, in that instant, that they could trust him.

  “So, Holun,” Kayla began, “what is Na-um planning?”

  Holun’s shoulders slumped a little before answering, Kayla translating. “He says he doesn’t know the specifics, but he knows it’s big. Na-um has a large army—all of the men in the Clan—and they will all fight. Soon. He doesn’t know when, but he does know where.” Holun was tapping a finger to his temple.

  “Where?” Mandy asked.

  “Where four book is,” Holun answered in English with a shrug of his shoulders, as though the answer was obvious.

  Grady, Mandy, and Justin instinctively looked to Kayla. Up to now, Kayla had given them all the answers.

  Holun gazed around the group before turning to Kayla. “Kayla, you see what going happen, yes?”

  She nodded. “Yes, I have visions.”

  “Visions.” Holun tried the word, then turned to the rest of the group. “I no think she help now. I come help you because I see her vision.”

  Kayla felt her jaw drop. “What do you mean?”

  Holun flashed an endearing half-smile in Kayla’s direction, speaking in K’iche so he would be understood. “I saw your vision. It wasn’t like it normally is, so I knew it didn’t come from me.” He looked Kayla directly in the eye. “Are they always so painful?”

  Kayla squeezed Grady’s hand a little tighter under the table as she dropped her eyes from Holun’s piercing gaze. She was glad Grady didn’t speak the language, and she wasn’t about to translate that. She quickly moved on. “Holun, how would you see my vision? You see visions, too?”

  Holun nodded, then continued as Kayla translated for the group. “Holun sees visions, too, but they’re not like mine. His aren’t fast, or painful.” Kayla dropped her gaze for a split second. “He just closes his eyes and sees them. The visions come when he thinks about them. My vision wasn’t the same; that’s how he knew it wasn’t his.”

  Grady chimed in. “Holun, are the others like you? Can they see visions, too?”

  “No.” Holun answered in English, shaking his head. “But have other power.”

  “Like what?” Grady leaned in.

  Kayla translated again. “No one can see visions like Holun can, but they can all run very fast. They can hear, see, and smell from very far away, like an animal.” Kayla was smiling at Holun sniffing the air. “Some of the Clan—one of them being Na-um—can talk over long distances, in their heads. Like telepathy, I think.” Holun was poking his temple.

  “Telepathy?” Mandy asked.

  Kayla looked at Holun, who tried the word in English, then shrugged, switching back to K’iche. “He said Na-um just talks out loud but hears the response in his head. He thinks it might just be the leaders, to help them in battle.” Holun sighed before she was done and frowned.

  Kayla fell quiet as she tried to absorb this new information. With all they had just learned, surely they could find a way to defeat Na-um and his Clan.

  Then the next logical step occurred to her in the next second. “So, Holun, do you know where the fourth book is?”

  Holun’s whole countenance changed as he grinned, his smile widening as though he was keeping a secret he couldn’t wait to tell. “Yes.”

  CHAPTER 40

  Guide

  According to Holun, they should reach their location in only a few hours. It wasn’t soon enough for Mandy, who had already checked her watch twice since Grady’d started driving. Only twelve minutes, are you kidding me?

  Mandy rubbed her temples and let her eyes fall closed. Holun, who was supposed to be sitting next to her in the backseat, was currently on the edge of his seat, halfway between Grady and Kayla in the front. He hadn’t stopped talking since they’d gotten in the vehicle. She stole a glance at Kayla in the passenger seat and couldn’t help but smile at the expression on her face, just a little. She recognized the glazed over, slightly wider-than-normal eyes and the heavy but silent sighs.

  Mandy glanced over at Justin, who was staring out the window at the dense foliage rushing past them. Her heart yearned for him, pleaded with her to reach out for him, but she hesitated, her hand twitching slightly on the seat between them before she stopped herself. Why didn’t she think she could?

  It was almost as if she needed permission. It was stupid, insane even, but she couldn’t shake the feeling. Something had come between them.

  Maybe it’s because of what happened earlier, she reasoned. Maybe the sudden absence of that close connection just shook us up, and that’s what I’m reacting to.

  She kind of hoped it was true. At least then she would have a reason, an explanation as to why things with Justin were just so . . . weird.

  But as much as she wanted to believe nothing had changed, she couldn’t shake the unsettling feeling that something had changed, and drastically. As much as Grady and Kayla had grown closer—as was evidenced by the way Kayla was now gazing at Grady despite Holun’s incessant prattling between them and the way Grady was absentmindedly stroking her hand with his thumb as he held it—she and Justin had grown farther apart.

  And she hated it.

  Justin watched the trees fly by the window and sighed. For some reason, he’d been in a foul mood since the five of them had piled into this rattling, jarring, no-shock-absorbers excuse for a vehicle. His eyes narrowed without thinking. He really wished they could be done with this already.

  This “journey”—or whatever Kayla wanted to call it—had cost him the most. His mother and now father were both innocent victims of these vicious mercenaries. Then, without even consulting him, Kayla and Grady had agreed to harbor one of their enemies. What’s worse: they trusted him! Justin couldn’t believe it. He still thought that thi
s kid—so seemingly innocent—was a spy sent to bring them down.

  He drew in a deep breath. No, he didn’t really believe that. But he sometimes hoped he did. That would make it easy. He just wanted—needed—someone to pay for what had happened. He needed these mercenaries, whoever they were, to pay for the murders of his parents. And if he ever found Jackie . . .

  He leaned forward, elbows resting on his knees. He cupped his face in his hands, trying to block out both the kid’s jabbering and the jarring of the vehicle so he could think.

  He didn’t like feeling this way. He hated that his parents were gone. He hated that someone had taken them from him, and much too soon. And he hated how intensely he wished that the men who had killed them would die. He almost hated that the most.

  His parents had always taught him that revenge got him nowhere. That taking revenge on someone who wronged him was not only wrong in itself, but it didn’t provide the release it promised. It only caused more pain. Ignoring their advice now would dishonor who they were, and all that they’d taught him.

  So, though he couldn’t help what he was feeling, he could control what he did about it. And he decided, in that moment, that he would not exact revenge. He would only kill in self-defense, and then only if absolutely necessary. He was better than that. He wouldn’t allow himself to become the very thing he hated. If not for himself, for . . .

  He stole a glance at Mandy, who was staring straight ahead at the back of Grady’s seat. He wished that he could talk to her, be close to her again. They had been so close—mere hours ago—but now . . . it seemed like something had come between them. A wide chasm that kept them miles apart.

  He needed her. She was the reasonable one. She could’ve talked him out of this much more quickly than he had. She was the real reason he chose forgiveness instead of revenge, compassion instead of hate.

  If only she knew that.

  The trip did actually only take a few hours, though to Kayla, Holun’s chattering—which had only recently started to wane—made it seem much longer. When they parked the car—a safe distance away from where they were headed, according to Holun—the sun had been overhead for about an hour. Kayla checked her watch to confirm; one o’clock on the dot. She smiled as she reached for the door handle.

  Kayla half-jumped out of the SUV, landing silently in the soft grass. She reached back into the vehicle to open the glove box and retrieve a map before flicking the door shut and moving to the hood.

  As Mandy came around the other side of the car with sandwiches for everyone and started handing them out, Kayla spread the map out on the hood. When Mandy was done, she leaned against the SUV next to Kayla, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear as she peered over at the map Kayla was perusing and bit off a corner of her sandwich. “Any idea where we are?”

  Kayla nodded but didn’t look up. “Yes. See here,” she jabbed at a point in the middle of the forest, “this is roughly where we started.” Lamanai was clearly marked on the map, and Kayla was pointing to its eastern edge. “Then we traveled mostly south.” Kayla traced her finger along the route they’d just taken, stopping at an obscure location in the middle of the forest about a hundred miles south of Lamanai, according to the map’s legend. “And this is approximately where we are.”

  Mandy leaned over to peruse the map more carefully, so Kayla straightened and stretched her back, then opened her sandwich and took a bite. Grady and Justin, who had already inhaled their sandwiches, were now quietly and carefully pulling the supplies from the back of the vehicle. Holun had actually fallen asleep just before they stopped and was still lying in the backseat of the SUV. Kayla eyed his sleeping form. She couldn’t talk herself into waking him up. When he was sleeping, he wasn’t talking. Thankfully.

  Grady walked around the vehicle to hand Kayla her pack. She hefted it onto her back with a little difficulty, as it was loaded down with hiking gear, rations, and various other supplies that would last her about a week in the forest. She hoped she would at least be back to the dig by then, if not home in her bed. Surely this trip was coming to an end. If they were about to fight their “final battle” wouldn’t that mean they were finished? That they’d done everything they were destined to do? She was just tired of all this. Her body—and mind—was exhausted. She didn’t think she’d last much longer.

  She caught Grady staring at her. Kayla tried to smile reassuringly, but he didn’t seem to be buying it. Even when he couldn’t read her mind, he could read her.

  She mouthed an “I’m fine” in his direction before turning to Justin, who was now approaching them with the rest of the gear. They quickly strapped on their packs, checked and double-checked their gear, and made sure everything was in working order.

  Then Kayla remembered the boy in their car, and glanced toward the backseat.

  Grady came up beside her and put a gentle hand on her elbow. “Kayla, can I talk to you?”

  Kayla nodded, and let him lead her a couple of feet away from the SUV and the sleeping boy. When they stopped, Grady spoke in a whisper. “He can’t come with us; it’s much too dangerous.”

  Kayla caught Grady’s gaze and matched his hushed tone. “But we can’t just leave him here. He’ll wake up scared. He’ll be alone. Isn’t that just as dangerous?”

  Grady shook his head. “No. We can’t ask him to do this.”

  Kayla drew a breath. “He offered to do this, Grady. He came to us, remember?”

  Grady was silent for a moment. Then: “Holun is much too young. Why would Na-um bring a kid into this?” Kayla sensed the question was rhetorical, so she stayed quiet. “These mercenaries are evil, and they undoubtedly must be stopped. Holun can help us—he seems to want to help us—but . . .”

  “Grady.” Kayla interrupted him. “He needs to do this. He believes this is his destiny—he said as much—so who are we to stop it?” Grady bit his lip, so she continued. “When the time comes, we will do everything we can to protect him, to keep him out of danger. But for now—and this is really the biggest reason he should come with us—we need his help.”

  Grady paused momentarily before nodding. Kayla offered a half-smile, then turned back to the car to awaken their small and unwitting guide.

  She hoped he wouldn’t start babbling again.

  After a few long hours of arduous hiking in excruciating heat, they came to a break in the trees, which revealed to Grady that they were actually a lot higher up than he’d thought. Through the opening in the trees, Grady could see for miles. It was beautiful.

  Grady heard a “There!” from behind him. He stopped, grateful for the interruption. Hopefully whatever Holun was indicating was close.

  He turned slowly to assess the rest of the group. They looked just as exhausted as he felt. He dropped to a nearby log and looked over at Holun as Kayla took a seat next to him.

  Their small guide, who stood pointing off toward an unknown location in the distance, didn’t seem tired at all. Perhaps that was because he wasn’t carrying any gear.

  He felt Kayla smiling beside him, and, for a moment, he wondered if she’d read his thoughts. He sighed. He really missed that.

  So he turned to the matter at hand. “What do you see, Holun?”

  “There! Where last book.” Holun was grinning ear to ear, and nearly bouncing up and down.

  Grady wiped his forehead with a sweat-soaked rag as he heard someone come up from his right. He didn’t even bother to look to see who it was; he was just too tired. He figured he’d find out soon enough. “Where, Holun?” Mandy came into Grady’s line of vision as she spoke and placed her hand on Holun’s shoulder, the epitome of patience.

  “The mountain!” Holun was so ecstatic that Grady couldn’t help but smile.

  But his smile faded as soon as he looked at where Holun was pointing. “That mountain? It’s still miles away!” He wasn’t much for complaining, but it’d been a long few days. Who was he kidding—it’d been a long summer.

  Kayla folded the map she’d been scanning
and shoved it into the side pocket of her backpack before patting his knee dramatically. “Only one and a half. You’ll make it.”

  Grady wrinkled his nose at her as he shook his head. Her answering smile was sweet. Sickeningly sweet.

  He looked down at his watch. Three fifteen. He supposed he had a few more hours in him. After all, did he really have a choice?

  After a relatively short hike to the mountain’s base, Holun led them up the mountain a short way, then started heading back down in another direction. Kayla wondered what he was doing, but thought it best not to question him. If he was telling the truth, he was leading them to the right place. No . . . not if. He was telling the truth. She had to trust that. Her heart already trusted him—she just wished her head would catch up.

  But a lifetime of trust issues didn’t fix themselves overnight.

  She gazed up at the light blue sky scattered with wispy, translucent clouds. The sun would be setting in a few hours, and they would be completely at the mercy of Holun. As if they weren’t now.

  About twenty minutes of downhill hiking later, Kayla saw a break in the trees up ahead. From the distance they had already traveled, and the fact that the ground beneath their feet had leveled out, she estimated that they were probably back at the base of the mountain, just in a different place. What was going on? Where was he taking them?

  Once they reached the opening, Kayla began to understand. The clearing now in front of them was nearly a mile across, and about half as deep. In the middle of the clearing, a large collection of boulders stood in a haphazard formation. This all feels eerily familiar . . . Kayla thought as she moved toward the edge of the trees.