Legend of the Timekeepers (8 page)

During Lilith’s rant, her life seal attached to the thong Tau made popped out from under her gown. Etan’s eyes grew large. He roared, making Lilith jump away from Ajax-ol.

Etan bent down on one knee, bowed his shaggy head, and said, “Welcome, Timekeeper. We have been waiting a long time for your arrival.”

7

A Light in the Darkness

E
ven sitting in the brilliance of the secluded crystal cave Etan had led them to, Lilith was still in shock.
Timekeeper?
How did he know about her lifetime occupation? Better still, how did this hybrid, whom she’d never met, know what a Timekeeper was? Her father’s words streamed through her like rushing water.
Time flows through us. Through you. Keep time safe. Find Mica. Bring him home.
Her shoulders slumped, her eyes welled. So far, there had been no sign of Mica. Lilith sighed. She didn’t even know if her father was still alive.

“What is the House of Seers?” She-Aba whispered, warming her hands over a glowing orange crystal. “I have never heard of such a tradition in the Black Land.”

Tau snorted. “Girls know nothing. The Priestesses of Ra who dwell in the Temple Beautiful are seers. To be a seer in the Black Land is to know everything.”

Lilith wiped her eyes. “Not in Atlantis. To be a seer, a true seer, is to quiet the mind enough to let the silent knowledge in.”

“She-Aba would not do well in that occupation.” Tau chuckled.

“No, that’s not what I mean,” Lilith replied, toying with her snake bracelet. “My Aunt Ambeno was a seer. She told me that to see things is not the same as to know things. Knowledge comes through you, not from you.”

Tau frowned. He scratched his nose. “How is this possible?”

“Boys know nothing,” She-Aba said, poking Tau in the ribs. “Things are what they are. Until they’re not.”

“What’s that supposed to mean, fire-head?” Tau asked, rubbing his side.

“It means—” Ajax-ol said, sitting down next to Lilith with an armful of long, yellow fruit, “—that we all look at the world through our own eyes, and see what we want to see, until you change your view.” He passed a piece of long, yellow fruit to each of them.

“Mmmm, I’m hungry,” Tau said, biting into the fruit. He made a face. “Ugh! This tastes like rubbery goat dung!”

“And how do you know what that tastes like?” Lilith asked, grimacing.

Tau smirked. “She-Aba told me.”

Lilith rolled her eyes. She grabbed the piece of fruit out of Tau’s hands. “You have to peel it. See?” She pulled back the thick skin to reveal the creamy-colored fruit.

Tau stuffed it in his mouth. His eyes lit up. “Mmm, thiiss isth deliciousth!”

Ajax-ol shook his head. “Your servants don’t get out much, do they?”

“Not these ones,” Lilith replied, peeling a piece of fruit for herself.

“We are secure for tonight,” Etan announced, returning to the crystal cave. He flicked his long tail to one side, sat on a large, flat crystal behind them, and rubbed his injured leg which was bound in palm leaves.

She-Aba handed a piece of fruit to Etan. “Here, Etan, you’ll need food to help your leg heal.”

Etan’s nose twitched. His face wrinkled as if he were asked to eat goat dung. “No, thank you.” He unwrapped a wide leaf with one claw, picked up a chunk of bloody meat, and devoured it before Lilith finished peeling her fruit.

She-Aba retched. She held up a finger. “One, I’m not going to ask you where that came from.” Then she held up a second finger. “And two, I don’t feel so hungry anymore.”

“Good,” Tau said, as he snatched the fruit out of her hands.

Lilith set her fruit aside, then clasped her hands. “Etan, why did you call me a Timekeeper?”

“And why have you been waiting for her?” She-Aba added.

Wiping blood away from his broad lips, Etan flicked his tongue to clean one of his large, white fangs. He stroked his braided goatee with a paw, then smiled his knowing smile. “Your medallion possesses the spiral insignia I’ve seen scribed on the walls of the Temple of the Sun. It has been foretold by the seers that the bearer of this insignia—a Timekeeper—will come here to bring balance and keep time flowing as it should be. You are who you are. Isn’t that enough?”

No. No, it’s not.
Before Lilith could say a word, She-Aba squealed. “Ohh, please tell me who I am,” she asked handing him her round life seal.

Etan studied it. His nostrils flared. “You share the same path with Lilith, yet you have a different purpose. I see concealment, hiding things.”

She-Aba’s shoulders sagged. “So much for my dreams.”

“Dreams are always linked to your purpose,” Etan said, passing back her life seal. “You must be patient, wait for your thoughts to clear.”

“We’ll be waiting a long time for that,” Tau blurted.

“How does someone from the House of Seers not know her purpose?” Ajax-ol asked, popping the last bit of fruit into his mouth.

“I’m not a seer, my aunt was,” Lilith said, squeezing her hands harder. She looked up at Etan. “Tell me, Etan, how does one keep time? That seems an impossible task.”

Etan began rubbing his huge paws back and forth, back and forth. Then he stopped and brought them out and in, farther apart then closer together. “Do what I do. Feel the flow as you bring your hands closer together and farther away. It is nothing, yet it is everything. This is time. You cannot see it, but you can feel it push and pass through you.”

Lilith copied Etan, vigorously rubbing her hands, then moving them in and out. Her hands tingled as she drew them closer then pushed away. Strange, she could feel something there between her palms, but didn’t know what to do with it. Lilith stopped, grasped her hands again, and shrugged. “If that is what you call time, then what do I do with it? I still can’t keep it.”

“Ultimately, the answer—” Etan pointed a sharp claw at Lilith “—lies within you, waiting to be found.”

Lilith unclasped her hands and waved them in the air. “Stop with riddles!”

“Oh, Etan’s very good at riddles and puzzles, Lilith,” Ajax-ol said, tossing the peel of his fruit aside. “I believe it’s his way of torturing us poor humans.”

Lilith sat still.
Good at riddles?
She lunged for She-Aba’s satchel and pulled out her father’s record keeper. Scanning the pages until she found Tau’s entry, Lilith passed it to Etan. “Prove you’re good and solve this riddle.”

Etan’s mane bristled. His paws engulfed the record keeper, and he buried his olive eyes in it. “I…don’t know.”

Lilith frowned. “But, I thought you were good at riddles?”

“Only when I can understand what is written, Lilith. This is not legible.”

Tau, who was still stuffing his face with the yellow fruit, stopped. His cheeks were popped out, food dribbled out of his mouth. He tried to speak but gagged instead.

She-Aba giggled. “I’m getting to like this fruit more and more.”

“It’s the language of the Black Land’s people, Etan, you’re probably not familiar with it. Allow me,” Lilith said, taking the record keeper from Etan. “
Greedy and wicked these people have become, ignoring to follow the Law of One. Return to the City of the Golden Gates, the One who must banish evil, by the end of the first major quake
.”

Tau finally spit out the remnants in his mouth. “How hard is it to understand our language?”

Lilith eyed him. “You were the first to make fun of how I pronounced some of your words. What do you think?”

Tau looked away sheepishly. She-Aba laughed. “I believe you’ve just been squashed, bug-boy.”

“So what do you make of the riddle, Etan?”Ajax-ol asked, wiping his hands across his linen tunic.

Etan stroked his goatee. “It is not clear yet. I understand the first part, about how Atlanteans are moving away from their true nature by shunning the teachings of the Law of One to follow Belial’s immoral path. But, the second part is veiled.”

The ground shook with angered fervor. Some crystals hanging above broke apart and spiraled to the floor, splintering on impact. The walls cracked, creating a fissure that looked like a slithering snake. Lilith swallowed hard. The same terrible emotions she had had before her world was torn apart surged through her body. She hugged herself just as the earth quit its rumblings.

Lilith’s skin prickled, her mind cleared.
The riddle is a task given by the Children of the Law of One.
Her eyes widened.

“We need to get to the City of the Golden Gates,” she said, feeling her heart grow warm. “That’s what the riddle in the record keeper suggests, so that’s where we’re going. Maybe Mica had planned this all along, maybe that’s why we’re here, to bring Mica back with us.”

“I agree. Anywhere is better than here,” She-Aba said, surveying the cave’s ceiling.

Ajax-ol guffawed. “Get into the City of the Golden Gates? But, I thought you were in exile? You’ll never make it past the guards.”

“Actually…I was exiled from the Black Land, not Atlantis.”

Ajax-ol frowned. “I thought you said you dwelled in the City of the Golden Gates? And how does anyone get exiled from the Black Land? Usually one is exiled to the Black Land.”

Lilith sighed. “My family used to dwell in the City of the Golden Gates. We moved to the Black Land out of…necessity.”

Tau grunted. “For Ra’s sake, Lilith, tell him the truth. Tell him the Children of the Law of One pulled us through the arch!”

Etan jerked. “Arch! What arch?”

“The seventh Arch of Atlantis,” She-Aba said. “What arch do you think she’s talking about?”

Etan’s eyes became slits as he crept toward She-Aba. “Liar! All seven Arches of Atlantis are kept inside the Temple of Poseidon!” He roared. “It is only the Keeper of the Arches who is allowed to contact the Children of the Law of One!”

If Tau hadn’t already made things messy enough for them, then She-Aba’s comment threw muck in their faces. Lilith tossed the record keeper to Tau, then jumped in front of She-Aba and held out her hands. “It’s true, Etan, so let her be. My father was the Keeper of the Arches, and now, he only has the seventh arch in his charge.”

Etan stopped. He shook his massive head as if he didn’t hear Lilith correctly. “How…how is this possible?”

The answer hit Lilith as if hundreds of white crawlers were stinging her.
Time. It flows freely, all around us, like the air.
She wasn’t supposed to keep time as if it were a thing to store in a box. She was supposed to preserve and protect time, keep it safe, as her father had told her before they were pulled through the archway. She was supposed to make sure time flowed through her, through everyone, naturally, like breathing in, and breathing out.

“It’s possible because time flows through us, Etan,” Lilith replied, feeling joy flood her belly. “If you believe what is scribed on the walls of the Temple of the Sun, then you would
know
I’m telling the truth. You would
know
that the Children of the Law of One brought us here to bring back balance. Isn’t that enough?”

Etan’s olive eyes softened. “If you are here, then Atlantis is truly in trouble.”

Lilith nodded. She wouldn’t tell them everything. She couldn’t.

“How much trouble?” Ajax-ol asked.

“Let’s just say, if you have any dreams, you’d better start following them,” She-Aba replied.

“I do…have dreams,” Ajax-ol said. “I want to build great structures that will last forever.” Then his shoulders sagged. “Unfortunately, my dreams are not aligned with my father’s plans for me.”

Tau grunted, while he stuffed the record keeper inside his leather pouch. “I know what you mean. My father wants me to work on our farm.”

“Has something happened that could change our future?” Etan asked, inclining his head.

“Yes,” Lilith replied. “Mica, the boy I trusted, tricked me, attacked my father, and entered the seventh Arch of Atlantis uninvited while it was opened to this time. He has come here for a reason, but we don’t know why. Our only clue is what Tau scribed in the record keeper.”

Etan stroked his goatee. “Then we must do what the Children of the Law of One bid. We must take you to the City of the Golden Gates.”

Ajax-ol stiffened. “We? Are you forgetting about your task, Etan? About keeping me safe from the Sons of Belial?”

“The Law of One takes precedence over any task a human gives me,” Etan replied.

She-Aba scratched her chin. “I wonder when the first major quake will begin.”

A vicious tremor sent shockwaves through Lilith’s body and brought her to her knees. A long, pointed crystal hanging over She-Aba’s head broke away and plunged down toward her. Lilith screamed as Ajax-ol pulled She-Aba away in time. The pair rolled across the cave floor over one another until She-Aba ended on top of him.

“She-Aba! Are you hurt?” Lilith yelled, standing up.

Tau rolled his eyes. “Does she look hurt?”

She-Aba’s body was pressed up against Ajax-ol like she was a pearl and he was the oyster. She let out a happy sigh just as Ajax-ol awkwardly patted her back. She-Aba propped herself up on her elbows and stared into his face. Her eyes widened. She ran her fingers through his untamed hair. She glanced at Etan, then back down at Ajax-ol, who was now frowning.

“That’s it!” she squealed, then snuggled back into Ajax-ol.

“What’s it?” Ajax-ol asked, pushing her off.

Giggling, she rolled to her knees. “I know how to keep you safe! The image just popped into my head.”

Tau groaned. “Now she’s talking crazy and seeing things.”

“No, listen. All I need is for Etan to find the carcass of one of those razor-tooth kitties and skin it for its front claws.”

Tau snorted. “They’re called razor-tooth cats, fire-head!”

She-Aba waved Tau off. “I’ll need its tail too if I am to transform Ajax-ol into a human-lion hybrid like Etan.” She patted her satchel. “The rest I can do with what’s in here.”

“You’re going to change Ajax-ol’s appearance so that he looks like Etan?” Lilith asked. She grinned. “It’s a perfect idea! That must be what Istulo meant when she said your life plan indicated illusion and deception, and what Etan said about concealment and hiding things. You are truly an artist with cloth and appearance.”

She-Aba beamed. “At least I still get to dress up people.”

“Who is Istulo?” Ajax-ol asked, standing up.

“She’s the high priestess of the Temple Beautiful in the Black Land,” She-Aba replied.

“The Temple Beautiful? It sounds so magnificent,” Ajax-ol said dreamily. “I would love to be able to see it someday.”

“That’s nothing compared to the Great Pyramid!” Tau said, picking up a piece of squashed fruit. “And the Guardian of the Sands is almost completed and ready to be unveiled.” He sniffed the fruit, shrugged, and peeled it.

Etan sighed. “Very well, I will find what you’ve asked for, She-Aba. It is a sound plan.” He picked up a crystal shard that resembled a dagger and tested its sharpness.

“But you’re forgetting one thing.” Lilith clasped her hands. “There’s still the problem of finding the One who must banish evil.”

Before Etan stepped into the darkness of the forest, he turned and said, “Sometimes we need to trust enough to know that if we follow the scent, the prey will eventually show.”