Legend of the Gypsy Queen Skull: The Devil's Triangle - Book 1 (10 page)

Eighth Century BC ~ Mount Olympus ~ Ancient
Greece

“I hope your journey was a good one,” the
man next to the Koi pond said with a friendly smile.

Zelia Dorian stood silently looking at him.
She was taken aback by how healthy, youthful, and oddly ordinary he
seemed. He was of average height, olive-skinned, and had medium
length, flowing white hair. The only thing peculiar about him, as
with everything in the temple, was the ethereal glow emanating from
him. His head and face were especially radiant.

“Welcome. I am Apollo, son of Zeus and
Leto,” he said almost matter-of-factly.

It was enough to shake Zelia out of her
temporary paralysis. It’s not every day one meets a god. Collapsing
down to one knee, she bowed her head.

“The Sun God,” she nervously blurted
out.

Nodding, he kindly replied, “No need child,
please,” and helped her back up to her feet.

“I’ve heard so many of the old stories of
you,” she said, relaxing some.

“I see. I hope they’re all good,” he replied
with a warm smile.

Still taken by his presence, Zelia fumbled
through her words.

“They are. Or were... Your home is
beautiful... Remarkable, actually. But where have you been? And
where are the other gods?” she asked, looking around.

Apollo nodded and surveyed the grounds as
well.

“Sadly, I’m afraid I’m the only one left.
The others departed long ago.”

Zelia was now more curious than nervous.

“Why?”

Apollo let out a heavy sigh.

“Because no one believes in us anymore, my
dear.”

Muenster, sitting on his shoulder now,
squawked and Apollo soothed him with a scratch on his back.

What he had said was true. People no longer
prayed to the gods.

“
The Age of Gods
is over. It’s man’s
time now,” he added.

Zelia closed her eyes and solemnly
nodded.

“This is why I’ve brought you here,” he said
and she perked up some.

“I’ve lived on many worlds, in many
different times, but this one is especially dear to me. I will miss
the people of Earth, but with your help my legacy will continue
on.”

“What is it you want me to do?”

“
The Age of Enlightenment
is on the
horizon. I want you to be my earthly consul to mankind.”

“I see. But I’m just a simple witch. What
could I do?”

Apollo stepped in closer and embraced her
hand.

“Come sit with me, child,” he said and led
her over to a nearby bench. His mere touch was reassuring and his
presence invigorating.

Tossing a few more grains of meal into the
pond, Apollo amusingly grinned and said, “I’ll never get over this
simple pleasure.”

Turning his attention back to her, he
continued.

“I have watched your family evolve for
hundreds of years. Though once misguided by the darkness, they
eventually chose the light, and you have been especially virtuous
and driven by your empathy for mankind. You have a pure heart, and
desire the best for people… I need someone such as you to help
guide my children through the next stage of their humanity.”

Looking into his kind eyes, Zelia was
extremely flattered but wasn’t certain she was up to the task.

“What would you like me to do, exactly?”

“You will build a temple and call it Delphi.
There you’ll serve as its oracle and your title will be Pythia,
meaning priestess, and your family will be known as the Pythian
tribe, who tend to Delphi.

You and your future kin will use your
mystical intuition to give advice to the people. You’ll also use
your Dorian magic to heal all those who seek you out. People from
all walks of life will be your audience. To help you with your
mission, I’ve constructed what is unbreakable and eternal.”

Reaching inside a nearby cedar box, Apollo
removed a clear crystalline skull from it. Handing it over to her,
she noticed it was unusually heavy and about the size of a real
human one.

“What’s this?”

“It’s a tool to help you.”

“What does it do?”

“Nothing yet. But soon it’ll be able to move
objects from one place to another and allow one to see into the
future and the past... That is, when the skull feels the Pythia
needs to.”

Zelia arched her eyebrows. She was
intrigued.

“You’ll use it to help keep harmony among my
people and among the nations. It’ll be helpful in guiding man to
his truth and excellence.”

“So how does it work?”

“You will be the first keeper bonded to the
skull. Then, later in life, it’ll let you know when it’s time to
mentor your eldest daughter to become its caretaker. She in turn
will be bonded to the skull and carry on your work. She’ll keep the
same tradition with her firstborn daughter, and so on.”

Zelia nodded her head as Apollo continued to
explain how to activate the skull and how to focus her mind to use
it.

~*~

Together they practiced these skills over
and over again. After she had absorbed as much as she could, he
explained that Corvus would show her where to build the temple, and
that he’d be her constant companion now.

“He’ll be there to serve you and the
skull.”

“Who is Corvus?”

“Why he’s my oldest friend,” Apollo said,
looking to his shoulder. “I think you call him Muenster Cheese
now.”

“So that’s his name,” Zelia said as Muenster
squawked and flapped his wings and Apollo chuckled.

“He seems to like his new name.”

“So just how did you two get to know each
other, anyway?”

“Oh, we go back a long time. Corvus was once
a brave hoplite soldier, and a veteran of many battle
campaigns.

He was also a deeply loyal and devoted
follower of mine.

Then, one day when he was mortally wounded
in battle, in his last dying breath he cried out for me, and I came
to his rescue. Though his human body died long ago, his soul now
inhabits this creature.”

“I see,” she said, reaching over to stroke
his feathery back.

~*~

Apollo and Zelia went on to walk around the
inside of the temple and talked until late into the evening. He
explained how he would help her and what he expected from her. Then
about midnight they returned to the courtyard.

Looking around one last time, Apollo then
said to her, “Be brave child. I will always be with you… You
ready?”

Nodding her head, they exchanged pleasant
smiles, and he handed the crystal skull over to her. Holding it up
near her heart, Apollo set his own hands on top of it and began
chanting in a tongue she was unfamiliar with. She suspected it was
a celestial language that only the gods spoke.

Before long he began to emanate with light,
and grew brighter by the moment.

Soon, she could no longer discern between
the light and his human form at all, as his presence was shining as
brightly as the sun. Squinting, she saw his life force now floating
in front of her in the form of a brilliant sphere of light. Quickly
becoming overwhelmed, she shunned away, when in a flash, the energy
ball skyrocketed up to the heavens where it reached the edge of
space. There, it spider-webbed across the sky in a dramatic burst
of lightning bolts, followed by a deafening shockwave that shook
the very walls of the temple.

Then, without warning, at the explosion’s
epicenter, an intense beam of white light blasted down from the sky
and slammed into the skull itself.

“Ahhhhhh!” Zelia screamed out as the skull
violently shook in her hands, seemingly charging to life with the
column of light.

Frozen in place with her eyes tightly
squeezed shut, she could hardly hold onto the relic when suddenly
the beam plunged down and disappeared inside the skull. Popping one
eye open, she looked around and noticed everything had fallen
eerily silent. Even the heavenly music once filling the temple had
abruptly ceased. It was so quiet one could hear a pin drop.

Hesitantly blinking her eyes, she slowly
regained her bearings and peered down into the skull to see a soft
luminescent light glowing inside it.

“Amazing,” she mumbled to herself and sat
down on the bench.

Just then, Muenster’s body shook and
quivered as he transformed back into his feline embodiment and
hopped up next to her.

“’Twas a day my little friend,” she said,
stroking his head as he purred and draped his tail over her
knee.

~*~

“Hmmm, what now?” she asked herself, when
the crackling sounds of crumbling marble echoed across the
courtyard. Nearby, a distressed Greek column buckled and broke in
two and came crashing to the ground. Startled, they both jumped up
to their feet and paws, respectively.

“Oh my goodness!” she said aloud as Muenster
crouched beside her.

Looking around wide-eyed, she saw that the
temple’s translucent glow was beginning to flicker and fade.
Nearby, another huge column buckled and tumbled over as a new
tremor shook the temple grounds. Even the once-placid pond was now
rippling with trembling waves as the strength of the quake began to
grow.

~*~

Hurriedly running into the temple’s main
corridor, the roof overhead began to cave in all around them.

“Go back! Go back!” Zelia yelled at
Muenster, who was right on her heels as she sprinted back out to
the open grounds.

“That was a close one,” she said in an
exasperated voice, when without warning, the grass lawn near them
split wide open.

“Ahhhhhh!” Zelia shrieked as the widening
fissure ran straight through the courtyard and into the pond, where
it swallowed up all its water.

We’re trapped!

Still holding onto the skull, her heart was
racing a mile a minute, when she looked down and saw it was
vigorously pulsating with light.

Of course
, she thought.

Holding the skull up close to her heart, she
began to chant its song like Apollo had taught her. But she was
getting distracted by all the forum statues beginning to tumble to
the ground all around them.

“Focus, Zelia... Focus,” she said sternly to
herself.

Squeezing her eyes shut, she took a deep
breath, and started singing the skull’s song once again. This time
the crystalline relic glowed and pulsed in harmony with every note
she sang, as she imagined both she and Muenster at the bottom of
Mt. Olympus.

Growing brighter by the moment, a thick fog
quickly rolled in around them, as lightning boomed overhead.

A few seconds passed before a startling
blast of pure energy shot out of the skull, forming a sphere of
encircling lightning bolts, right in front of them.

“Oh my!” Zelia said, lifting her forearm up,
shielding her eyes from the blindingly brilliant light.

Just then, the energy ball sucked both of
them in, transforming their bodies into countless, tiny particles
of light.

It came none too soon, when another quake
ripped open the fissure even further.

This time though, the ancient temple shook
so violently it caved in on itself and slid into the abyss
below.

In a way it was a poetic ending to
The
Age of the Gods
.

~*~

Down at the base of Mount Olympus, the same
eerie fog rolled in, enveloping a large fir tree as the energy
sphere appeared above it. Whirling around, spinning ever faster,
the portal opened up and spat out Zelia and Muenster.

“Oh nooooo!” Zelia cried out as they both
came crashing down through the tree’s many branches, eventually
splashing down into the stream below.

Resurfacing, Muenster yowled and paddled
over to a half-submerged log and clawed his way up on top of it.
Breaking up through the water’s surface nearby, Zelia coughed out a
mouthful of water and wiped her eyes.

“Not exactly what I planned.”

Realizing she no longer had the skull, she
began to frantically look around for it.

“Oh no, where are you?” she said in a
troubled voice, and then spotted it tumbling along the creek’s
rocky bottom.

Diving headfirst into the murky water, she
saw its fading luminescent light and grabbed it just as its glow
extinguished.

Resurfacing, she gasped for air and waded
over to a muddy bank, where she collapsed. Catching her breath, she
looked up at the fantastic lightning storm raging at the top of
Mount Olympus.

“Last encore of the gods,” she mumbled to
herself.

Muenster, having once again morphed into a
crow, swooped in and landed on top of the skull. Looking at Zelia,
he squawked and shook the water from his tail feathers.

“Me too,” she replied with a tired smile as
a light briefly flickered inside the skull but then faded away.

Summer ~ Present Day ~ Bismarck Home

From across the room, Heinz tossed another
green feeder pellet at his fish tank, and yet again missed it.
Smacking into the glass, his fish snapped at the pellet before it
fell to the carpet, where it joined the rest of the orphans.

At first glance, the young teen’s bedroom
would make any hoarder envious. In every direction there were
books, disemboweled computers, science experiments gone wrong and
piles of empty soda cans and dirty clothes. Next to his desk stood
a 50-gallon aquarium that housed Igor, his prized Tiger Oscar.

Frowning, Heinz was bummed out that he
couldn’t get his tank shot down as Igor circled, like a shark,
awaiting another pellet. At the bottom of his tank laid a graveyard
of past meals, including goldfish skeletons, mossy French fries and
an array of moldy gummy bears. They sat strewn amongst a labyrinth
of gothic castles, a volcano and a bubbling treasure chest with a
jiggling skeleton sitting on it.

Reaching into his green pellet bag again, he
heard the family’s electric garage door open. It was Paul returning
from the library.