City of Gold (11 page)

The room was filled with hundreds of human skeletons.

24

The Den of a Killer

HOLLOW SOCKETS AND FLESHLESS FACES shared their silent agony. Cody was petrified under the accusing glare of the deceased. Tiny insects scurried over the bones, weaving in and out of the crevices. The carcasses were in many sizes; both adult and children. Cody felt sick.

Rusted spear blades and fragmented arrow shafts were lodged between the exposed ribs of many. Fear seized Cody as realization hit—
These people didn’t just die; they were murdered.

He paced backward; he needed to leave—and fast. Taking another step he collided against something solid. Two stout arms wrapped around him, muffling his shout, and dragging him to the ground.

Eva was fully alert the moment she woke. She winced as a sharp sting pinched in her chest.
Oh, please, not again.
Her back arched as her body convulsed in pain. She was helpless, paralyzed by the violent jolts pulsing through her. Then, as unexpectedly as it had begun, the throbbing ceased.

Trembling and weak, she managed to open the window and inhale the outdoor air. The seizure had been worse than usual.
The Book Keeper is in danger
. Suddenly her legs gave out and she collapsed to the floor, unable to move. She gazed up through the window.
Cody, wherever you are, may the power of the Orb watch over you.

Cody skidded across the ground, briefly freeing himself from his captor. His hand fell into a pile of bones. Steadying himself with his arms, his reach found a detached
humerus
. Grasping it, Cody twirled and batted his attacker square in the jaw, sending the man reeling to the wall. Cody wound up for another swing. “Who are you!? What do you want from me? Why did you lead me here?!”

“You ask a lot of bloody questions,” replied a scratchy voice.

Cody paused. “Randilin?”

The ugly dwarf stepped into the light and swatted the bone from Cody’s hand. “You bet your zit-infested, oversized nose it is. If you ever hit me like that again I’ll use your own scrawny bones to make dust outta ya.”

“Wait just a second…
you
attacked
me!
I thought you were…someone else. What are you even doing in this horrible place? You shouldn’t be here.”

“Neither should you,” said a third voice. Cody and Randilin turned to the cave’s mouth where Dace, Tiana, Xerx, and Chazic had appeared. “I know not what made either of you come here, but now you must leave—that’s an order.”

Cody scampered to join the group, more than eager to comply and leave the haunting den. As he did, a shining piece of metal caught his eye. He knelt and retrieved it, shoving it quickly into his pocket.

Tiana examined two skeletons lying side-by-side. She released a soft gasp and backed away. “These bodies…they all seem to be female. What happened here? What could commit such evil?”

Cody grabbed her hand. “We should leave.”

As he turned to go he realized Randilin hadn’t budged.

Dace’s fingers wrapped around his sword’s hilt. “I gave you an order.”

Randilin’s eyes glazed over as though in a trance. He motioned indifferently to the skeletons littering the room. “I can’t leave…I…
owe
it to them to stay,” his voice dissipated into a distant mumble as though he were speaking to an invisible audience.

Cody shivered. “Randilin…what are you saying? Why do you owe them?”

The dwarf’s face went stone cold. “Because I’m the man who killed them.”

25

The Prophecy

THE FLICKERING MASS OF TORCHLIGHT marched steadily toward the mountains; the golden warriors were on the move. Cody glanced at Randilin who walked alone, his eyes as lifeless as the cave’s decomposed skeletons. Cody knew the dwarf’s past was blemished; but a mass murderer? Another question floated repeatedly in Cody’s mind:
Why?

“The enemy will be upon us in thirty minutes. We must move quickly,” ordered Dace. “Chazic, retrieve Tryin from his watch. The rest of you, follow me to camp and…”

“Wait!” Cody cried, halting at the mouth of another tunnel.

“We can’t afford to linger,” urged Dace, but Cody brushed him off. “Look at these markings!” Faint engravings marked both sides of a narrow entrance. Even from close range, the identical inscriptions were nearly invisible. Each one displayed three equal rectangles positioned as an upside down arrow, surrounded by a runic sun.

“The same as Chazic’s tattoo!” Cody observed.

The Enforcer’s eyebrows raised, but he merely shrugged. “Curious indeed; but my past is less valuable than the success of our mission. Dace is correct, we must be swift.”

Cody slapped his forehead in disbelief. “How can you say that?! It can’t be coincidental. Chazic’s tattoo; the CROSS agent’s message; the eyelid-less stranger. I think I was meant to discover this!”

“What are you talking about? CROSS agent? Stranger?” questioned Dace sternly. It was too late. Cody had already disappeared into the cave, swallowed by its tenebrous shroud.

The room was wallpapered by row-on-row of rustic shelves; each one exhibiting a corpus of stone tablets. The only other adornments in the small hovel were a brittle table and a broken wooden chair. And, acting as the room’s centerpiece—a dead body.

The elderly man’s skin was ghostly and a trail of dried blood streaked across his forehead. Yet, somehow he appeared peaceful.

“His body hasn’t begun decomposition,” observed a voice from behind. Dace knelt by the man. “He died no more than four days ago. A metal pellet was projected into his…”

“A bullet. Upper-Earth weaponry,” Randilin declared, joining them in the chamber. Dace frowned. “Impossible. El Dorado has no such weapons.”

Randilin ignored him. His face had gone completely blank. “Impossible indeed…” his voice trailed off. “
The Thirteenth?
It
can’t
be.” All eyes narrowed on Randilin.

Cody motioned to the body, “You
know
this man?”

“Maybe he killed
him
, too,” Xerx coughed, but Randilin wasn’t listening. The dwarf knelt and pulled the dead man into his arms. “
The Thirteenth
,” he mumbled to himself.

“Guys, come look at this,” called Tiana. She swiped her finger across the surface of the table, cutting through the thick layer of dust. “There was something here.” She pointed at a box-shaped outline in the dust.

“Perhaps it’s what the killer was after?” Cody suggested. “What about these stone tablets?” He grabbed two from the nearest shelf. Although similar, both were seemingly written in different, unknown dialects. Cody’s head tilted—there was something familiar about the engravings.

He sighed and tossed the tablets aside. Chazic’s hand launched out and caught the tablets before they dropped. “The Prophecy.” At his unexpected words, everyone became silent.

“You can read them?” Cody asked, voicing his surprise. “What language is it?”

Chazic’s eyes glazed over. “It is every language—the long forgotten and the not yet developed. One tablet for every language, every language for one prophecy—
The
Prophecy.”

“How do you…” Cody stammered, but the Enforcer stopped him. “I don’t know why I said that. It’s as though I’m reciting a script I’ve never read. Just like I know the inscription without reading it:

The Power of Full Divinity,

Rests EnCoded Within Earthly Trinity.

Where Sacrifice of the Pure Angel Who Fell,

Is the Way to Retrieve the Pearl Within the Shell.

With Humble Heart and Golden Key,

The Universe’s Most Powerful Force Is Revealed to Thee.

Cody mouthed the final words as Chazic concluded. He felt the weight of Dunstan’s tablet in his backpack. “I’m getting a little freaked out…what does it mean?”

Chazic looked around the room confused, as though waking from hypnosis.

“I don’t know…only that it is so.”

Dace lowered his gaze to the floor. “Perhaps it’s time someone revealed his secrets.” Randilin was still holding the man, muttering quietly.

Suddenly the blare of a horn sounded in the air. Dace instinctively fingered his sword. “Tat’s horn! We must go!”

This time nobody resisted. Drawing their weapons, they dashed out of the cave.

Golden warriors were streaming over the dune and draining down toward The Company. In the camp’s center, Tat had readied his bow and Wolfrick and Sheets stood back-to-back bracing for impact.

“Quick! Down the mountain! Retreat!” Dace shouted, billowing down the slope before skidding to a rapid stop. A mob of soldiers blocked the route down. “Break through the lines!”

Cody’s ears buzzed with a high-pitched whistling noise. He glanced up just in time to see the swarm of arrows raining down on him. His joints locked up. He squeezed his eyes and flinched.

“Get outta the way, you idiot!” Before Cody could brace himself, Xerx’s shoulder rammed against his ribs. Cody’s neck whiplashed as his back slammed onto the rocky surface and skidded across the ground. He felt Xerx’s firm grasp as they spiraled out of control toward the ledge.

Cody clawed at the ground as his momentum hurled him forward toward the steep cliff. Cody could see the base of the mountain miles below them. He grasped Xerx in a bear hug and screamed.

Then, with a final thump, they went flying over the edge of the mountain.

26

A Passionate Heart-to-Heart

CODY FELT AS THOUGH he’d been bulldozed by a fully-loaded dogsled; every square inch of his body hollered out in pain. He rapid-blinked several times to wipe away his dizziness. A smoking trail of dust traced his path down the steep mountain slope.

A low groan sounded beside him. Xerx pushed himself into a sitting position, his light hair powdered gray. Cody narrowed his eyes. “You just shoved me off a mountain!” He grimaced again as the sharp pain throbbed.

Xerx struggled dizzily to his feet. “
What I did
was save your life.”

Cody chewed on his bottom lip, barely managing to force out, “Thanks.”

Xerx shrugged indifferently. “Don’t bother. You deserved every one of those arrows…I just didn’t want any harm to come to the Book.”

Cody’s face flushed. “Oh, so
you’re
the Keeper of the Book now? Last I checked it was
my
responsibility—not yours.”

Xerx clenched his hands into tight fists. “Last I checked you were doing a royally-awful job of it. It wasn’t me who allowed El Dorado to defile our beloved King’s funeral and force honest men to sacrifice their lives just to fuel a selfish rescue mission. It wasn’t
me
who allowed Master Stalkton to be disfigured or be led along like a naïve fool by Prince Foz. Was that everything? I apologize, it’s getting hard to keep track….”

“And you would have done better?” sneered Cody, now standing face-to-face with Xerx. “After a hundred years of training, Master Stalkton tossed you aside like yesterday’s trash. It took me
one
day to surpass your pitiful lifetime of work. You’re nothing but an unwanted nuisance.”