Legend of the Timekeepers (13 page)

“Yeah, you don’t want to do something to us that you’ll regret,” She-Aba said, wagging a finger.

Belial’s upper lip quivered. “I already regret not beheading you in the courtyard.”

Tau snorted. “You make me proud that I’m from the Black Land.” He pounded his chest, making his Babel shake. “You call us savages, but you’re the real savage!”

Belial bowed. “Thank you for volunteering to be the first sacrifice.” He pointed to the closest lifeless soldier. “Take him to the second tier and chain him to the sacrificial pillar.”

Lilith’s mouth went dry. She quickly scanned the temple. Sickly smells of strong incense almost made her gag. Strange, pungent flowers hung from the walls, drooping and silently pleading for water. Huge, potted plants with leaves that fanned out as wide as Elie’s body were placed strategically in front of each of the temple columns. A tall, shimmering quartz crystal cluster, the likes Lilith had never seen before, was set in the middle of the compound on a pedestal of orichalcum, gold, and silver.
Where is he, where is he
, her mind buzzed, her eyes darted around. A movement from behind a golden statue of Elem, the reigning king of Atlantis, caught her off guard. She squinted and then smirked.

“The prophecy,” Lilith said loudly. She put a finger on each temple. “It flows through me, speaks to me. This is not good. I see darkness, fire, and destruction here.”

“What are you playing at, Lilith?” Zurumu asked through clenched teeth.

“Mica—the one who came before us—cannot be trusted. He wears a life seal imprinted with serpents and spirals. He is the one you should be afraid of. He brought you that satchel at a great price to Atlantis.”

“Do not listen to her, Zurumu!” Mica shouted, coming out from behind King Elem’s statue. “She doesn’t know I do this to save Atlantis, not destroy it.”

Mica’s pale green attire looked rumpled. Lilith spotted the crystal trident he had taken from the keystone in the seventh Arch of Atlantis stuffed in his sash, next to his snake charming flute. His face looked haggard, his sun-hued hair disheveled, but his green eyes were alert.

Lilith’s stomach churned, her skin prickled. She balled her fists as tight as she could and stamped her foot. “You…you coward! Why would you use your cobra against my father? He’s done nothing to you! He could be dead because of you!”

Mica held up his hands. “All will be well, I assure you, Lilith. I sacrifice much so that Atlantis will thrive.”

“And now Tau’s about to be sacrificed! Y-You’re nothing but a backstabbing, poisonous serqet!” Lilith seethed.

“Hey, you just pronounced serqet properly,” She-Aba said.

“Yes,” Tau said, nodding. “Lilith’s not an Atcha anymore, she’s one of us.”

Tears welled in Lilith’s eyes. “I’d…I’d rather be from the Black Land than from Atlantis. There’s too much darkness here.”

“Lilith, you must understand.” Mica walked closer to her. “If I fix things, then maybe we could be more than just friends…someday.”

“F-Fix things?” Lilith roughly wiped her eyes. “You can’t fix things! Our history is written, our history is done! To do so would go against the law of circular motion!”

Mica shrugged. “Laws can change.”

“Not sacred laws, Mica,” Shu-Tu spoke up. “Those laws separate cosmos from chaos.”

“I…I trusted you! You were my friend!” Tau yelled, lunging at Mica. One of Belial’s soldiers reached out and grabbed Tau by the throat. The soldier raised him off the ground. Tau’s legs flailed like a fish on a hook.

“Enough of this childish banter!” Belial roared. “Take this insignificant bug to the second tier, now!”

A sudden rumble shook the compound. Statues teetered, then stilled. “You anger Poseidon, Belial,” Shu-Tu warned, pointing at him. “You go against one of the most important of the sacred laws. Nothing must be done to harm the children, for eternal life comes through the children.”

Belial’s face darkened. “These sacred laws need rewriting, Shu-Tu. They are outdated and of no use to me.” He turned to Bus-Lu. “Escort the seers to the second tier so they can witness firsthand what I think about not harming the children!”

“No, wait!” Mica yelled. “This…this wasn’t supposed to happen. Istulo promised me—”

“Istulo?” Lilith cut in. “What does she have to do with this?”

“Istulo assigned this important task to me,” Mica replied, raking his hair.

“But, Istulo told us you wanted revenge and would do whatever it took to change your future,” Lilith said.

Mica’s face hardened. “No. That wasn’t her plan.”

“You mean this was all planned by Istulo?” She-Aba asked, rocking back and forth on her feet, as if her shoes were suddenly uncomfortable. “You being here? Us being here?”

“Only me,” Mica replied, shaking his head. “I was to deliver the satchel to a high priestess Istulo had once revered named Zurumu in the Temple of Poseidon and then return home through the seventh Arch of Atlantis. That’s why I took the crystal trident. Istulo promised me a different life if I accepted this task. My parents would survive. I wouldn’t be alone.”

“Y-You w-were n-n-never a-a-alone, m-monkey-b-butt!” Tau seethed, holding onto the undead soldier’s hand, while dangling in mid-air. “I-I w-was y-your fr-friend! M-My f-f-family w-was y-your f-f-family!”

Lilith clasped her hands together. “So what’s in the satchel that you think is more important than my father’s or Tau’s life?”

Mica stared at the polished tile floor. “A book. Istulo calls it the Book of Mysteries. She says it is the knowledge of all that is.”

She-Aba gasped. “But…but I thought the Book of Mysteries was just a rumor floating around the temples and market places. Most of the high-ranking officials say that too much power exists in that book, and no one should possess it.”

“Do you know what you’ve done, Mica?” Lilith asked, shaking her head. “You’ve changed everything! You’ve disrupted the natural laws by bringing imbalance here! I…I hate you!”

“How touching,” Belial said sneering. “However, we have a sacrifice to get to.”

“No, take me instead,” Mica said, standing in front of the undead soldier holding Tau. “I submit myself.”

Another tremor shook the ground. Belial looked up past the open compound and into the sky. Lilith gazed up too. Behind the Temple of Poseidon loomed Mount Atlas, the active volcano providing both creation and destruction throughout Atlantis’s history. Dark plumes of smoke billowed from its open mouth, followed by sickly green gases.

Belial nodded. “Very well. You’ll go first. The mouthy one will go second.”

“That wasn’t the bargain!” Mica balled his fists. “Take me and let him go!”

Belial twisted to face Mica. His glimmering black robe spiraled around his thin legs. “I. Don’t. Bargain. Captains of Atlantis, bring the children to the second tier. The volcano gods will have atonement! And I will have peace!”

Zurumu started to back away, her hand covering the satchel. Belial twirled and grabbed her wrist. “Not so fast, you have an obligation to fulfill.”

“I…I was going to prepare for my marriage vows,” Zurumu replied.

Belial waved his hand. “You look beautiful as you are. What you’re wearing will do.” Then he sneered. “Besides, the groom won’t be able to see what you are wearing anyway.”

Zurumu curtly nodded. “If that is your wish, Belial.”

“I have another.” Belial let go of her wrist and held out his hand. Orichalcum rings with dark crystals adorned his fingers. “Give me the Book of Mysteries.”

She raised her dimpled chin. “It…it was given to me, as a gift.”

Lilith unclasped her hands. Her nostrils flared. The burning incense was dissipating enough for her to catch a whiff of Zurumu’s strong perfume. It was overpowering to the point of sickening. Zurumu gripped the strap on the satchel so tight her knuckles turned white. Cautiously, Zurumu stepped back, opened the satchel, and pulled out a pressed papyrus book as thick as Lilith’s stacked fists, bound with coiled strips of orichalcum. The front cover glittered with gems and stones and pearls. The title was written in Atlantean geometric symbols from ancient times.

Suddenly, a strong wind picked up, blowing the potted plants around. A rumble lasting only a breath escaped from the earth. A line of thick white smoke snaked into the tiled compound, dispersing like fingers. Lilith looked down as the smoke blanketed her feet, giving a feeling of protection. Then the smoke swirled around her legs, going up and around her body. Lilith’s nose wrinkled. The smoke smelled surprisingly fresh, like it had a life, a spirit. And it seemed more animated than Belial’s necromantic soldiers.

“What’s the meaning of this?” Belial growled, glaring at the ground around him.

“Smoke from the ferry you commanded to be set on fire,” Shu-Tu said. Then she smiled. “It is white. An auspicious sign.”

As the smoke spiraled up Lilith’s body, a sense of calmness vanquished her foreboding feelings. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and welcomed this new presence into her mind.
Lilith, use the power of all things, dance the dance of spirals.
Startled, Lilith opened her eyes. “Etan?” she muttered.

Ajax-ol jerked. “Etan?” He stood, rubbing the back of his head. “B-But that’s impossible. He died…in my arms.”

“Nothing is impossible, Ajax-ol,” Rhea said, standing in a spiral of smoke. “Etan whispers from behind the veil.”

“He whispered to you too?” Lilith asked. “What did he say?”

Rhea smiled. “Sing. He wants me to sing.”

“Then you shouldn’t disappoint him,” Lilith said, grinning.

Lilith started swaying and moving the moment Rhea’s enchanting voice resounded. The pitch, intensity, and timbre of her voice pierced through Lilith’s skin and pulsed throughout her body at an alarming rate. As the tempo changed up, so did Lilith’s actions. Joyous, blissful energy flooded her insides. Lilith imagined being in the center of a spiral, as she moved in and out, holding out her arms wide, then pulling them in, like a flower blooming one moment, then closing its petals the next. The white smoke imitated her actions swirling around her, then moving outward to She-Aba, then Tau, then Mica, and returning to her.
Power in, power out, power in, power out,
she thought. This feeling was delicious to her, and with each rotation she gained more awareness.

The undead soldier holding Tau shuddered and dropped him. Cringing in distress, all of Belial’s soldiers covered their ears and dropped to their knees. The snakes bound on their arms hissed and slithered back and forth, attacking the air and then themselves. The soldier’s leathery skin rippled and rolled like waves in a storm in response to the musical tones until their bodies started breaking apart like land during the throes of an earthquake. Flies and gnats spewed out their mouths, noses, and ears, until all the soldiers transformed into a pile of dust on the tiles.

“Sons of Belial!” Belial screeched. “I command you to kill the singer and the dancer!”

Armed Black Priests charged from both sides of the temple, storming the compound. Some had orichalcum spears while others had golden swords or bejeweled daggers. Lilith continued with her spiral dance, the smoke circling around her, in and out, in and out. She visualized herself as part of the sun, of the stars, and beyond, then returned here as part of the earth, of her body, and all of nature.

Suddenly, all the potted plants in the compound responded to the spiral energy Lilith was generating by swaying their huge leaves back and forth, tripping many of the priests, and slowing them down. Rhea continued singing, reaching heights in her voice such as Lilith had never heard before. The gigantic crystal cluster in the middle of the temple’s compound started to gyrate and vibrate to Rhea’s unique pitch. In that moment, Rhea opened her arms wide, took a deep breath, and threw her head back. Lilith frowned. She didn’t hear anything.

The crystal cluster shattered, sending out shards toward the assaulting Black Priests. Screams ripped through the temple, many of the priests crumbled to the floor, blinded by the sharp pieces. Other priests were not so lucky with large crystals sticking out of their chests. A flying crystal fragment came close to hitting Lilith before it exploded into a light mist. Two crystal shards whizzed toward Tau and Mica, both shards evaporating within a few strides of the boys. She-Aba covered her head and ducked only to get sprinkled with a fine spray. Before Ajax-ol and Rhea were pelted by soaring sharp crystals, the shards vibrated and burst into a fine drizzle. Shu-Tu and the seers stood calmly while crystal pieces vaporized all around them. Even Belial, Bus-Lu, and Zurumu escaped the fate of the Black Priests as crystals dissolved in mid-air before reaching them. Lilith felt her body slowing down, her mind swimming in the flow, and her heart beating in a different, stronger way. Her face slick with sweat, she stumbled. Mica caught her before she fell. Their eyes locked, and he squeezed her arm gently.

The smoke dissipated, furling like newborn ferns as it changed to gauzy, then glassy, until the air was clear around them. Belial snarled. “What manner of magic is this?”

“Not magic, Belial,” Shu-Tu replied. “Power. Personal power.”

Rhea screamed, breaking the bond between Lilith and Mica. Bus-Lu laughed wickedly, Ajax-ol’s staff pressed into Rhea’s neck to silence her beautiful voice. He dragged Rhea toward the steps of the temple’s second tier, kicked away crystal pieces that littered his path, and maneuvered around the dead bodies of fallen priests. “Belial, you will have your sacrifice!”

“Nooo!” Ajax-ol yelled, picking up an orichalcum spear next to a pile of dust. He raced after Bus-Lu.

Zurumu laughed. “I told you not to trust Lilith, Belial. But you didn’t listen. You never listen to your most loyal followers.” She cracked open the Book of Mysteries. “And now, it’s time that you listen to me.”

“I don’t like the way this is going,” She-Aba muttered.

Tau nodded. “For once we’re in agreement.”

Belial glared at the red-headed high priestess. “You dare to defy me, Zurumu?”

“It’s time for a change of command, Belial,” she said with an air of confidence. “And I nominate myself.”

Zurumu dipped into the satchel and pulled out a ceramic vial. She tore off the wax seal with her teeth and drank what was in it in one gulp. Pitching the vial at Belial’s feet, she smirked, gazed down into the book Mica had delivered to her, and began to recite from it.

“What kind of language is that?” She-Aba asked, backing away to stand next to Lilith and Mica.

“I…I don’t know, I’ve never heard that dialect before,” Lilith said. “Can’t you or Tau understand what she’s saying through your Babel necklaces?”