The Golden Symbol (10 page)

Just then, Jacob stumbled onto solid ground. He’d made it down! He’d made it!

He decided to put thoughts of Aloren and Gallus’s approval behind him. He could think them over later.

Jacob looked around, squinting, trying to see through the murky gray and blackness. Even though he could hardly see anything else, the ghosts of the dead Shiengols were visible down here, almost as clear as daylight. They glared at him, baring their blackened teeth. Did this happen to all Shiengols after death, and if so, would it happen to him? Or was this only because they were cursed?

He hoped it was because they were cursed. And that
he’d
never be cursed.

Once Gallus had reached the base of the pit, Azuriah turned to them. His eyes were really bright in the darkness.

“We’re at the link.”

The Shiengol turned and walked toward the center of the hole. Jacob and Gallus followed until Azuriah reached what looked like a mass of black tar. Then the Shiengol stepped into it and fell, sinking quickly. A second later, he was gone.

“Azuriah!” Jacob called. Did the Shiengol mean to do that? Was he dead?

“Did he
really
just jump in?” Gallus asked.

“I think so.” Jacob bit his lip. “What do we do?”

Gallus backed up. “I’m not following.”

Jacob shook his head. He didn’t want to either.

Shiengols started approaching on either side, some grinning. Cackles filled the air.

Something hit Jacob on the side of the face. He brushed it off—it felt like a dirt clod.

The Shiengols were getting closer, brandishing poles, some tossing rocks hand to hand.

Suddenly, Azuriah popped out of the tar. He was covered with the black, oily substance, but didn’t seem to care. He started shrieking and talking to the other Shiengols, but not in English. It took Jacob a second to realize this was their language. He’d never heard it spoken before—he wasn’t sure why Azuriah had never taught him to speak, only read it.

It wasn’t at all what he’d imagined. The language sounded like a distorted version of German mixed with some softer language. Harsh, but also smooth at times.

Azuriah stopped shouting when the spirits backed away. He turned to Jacob and Gallus, wiping the gunk off his face.

“Renforth is aware of our presence. He grants us access to the link.”

Azuriah indicated with his head that Jacob and Gallus should follow him. And again, he stepped into the dark, muddy pit.

Jacob hesitated still. Even though he’d seen Azuriah return, he still had no desire to follow unless he absolutely had to. Unless there really, truly was no other way.

Jacob walked to the edge of the pit and leaned over, peering into it, trying to see the Shiengol. “Azuriah? Are you there?”

Suddenly, a hand whipped out of the mud, grabbed Jacob by the ankle, and pulled him hard. He spun around, trying to get out of the hand’s grasp, but he wasn’t fast enough. He pitched backward, landing with a splat on his back in the slimy stuff. Right as he sank, he plugged his nose and closed his eyes. And good thing—the substance coated him, clinging to him completely.

He continued sinking. But no, that wasn’t right—he was gaining speed. Falling.

Jacob cringed, trying to turn himself around so when he landed, it wasn’t on his head.

But without warning, there was solid ground beneath him. Without a bump or jostle, he was no longer moving. It was disorienting—moving, then not moving, without any sort of indication that he’d been stopped.

Jacob held still, waiting, not wanting to open his eyes. Then he heard Gallus’s voice.

“What
is
this stuff?”

Jacob wiped his eyes off the best he could, then opened them.

They were in a courtyard surrounded by columned buildings made of sparkly white stone that was so bright, it hurt to look at them.

Jacob got to his feet. He was completely covered in mud. He had never been this dirty his entire life. But he ignored that feeling, admiring the beautiful surroundings. It felt like he’d been transported to Italy. The buildings around him were majestic, grand, and all of them had pillars. Some of the columns had vines growing up them, the dark green creating a nice contrast to the bright white.

Jacob turned his attention to Azuriah and Gallus, who were doing their best to scrape the black, tar-like mud off their bodies. Jacob had already removed as much as he could from his face without a mirror. A good shower would hopefully wash the rest away.

“Why would Renforth use that pit as the entrance to his world?”

Azuriah scraped mud from his hair, looking at Jacob. “He likes to humiliate his visitors.”

Great. And Jacob thought Azuriah was rude—this was about to be a real party, he could tell.

“Azuriah!” a male Shiengol called from across the courtyard. “Good to see you looking so charming.”

Azuriah rolled his eyes and took a deep breath before turning around. “Doulers. How kind of you to fetch us.”

Doulers, a blond Shiengol, put his hand on Azuriah’s shoulder in greeting, then wiped his hand off on a handkerchief. He looked at Jacob and Gallus with disdain.

“They can’t accompany you.”

“And why not?”

Doulers folded his arms, frowning. “Renforth’s rules, of course. Have you conveniently forgotten?”

“The boy is Shiengol. He comes.” Azuriah didn’t even look at Jacob or Gallus. “The man will stay here.”

Doulers nodded, and he and Azuriah walked side-by-side back the way Doulers had come.

Jacob glanced at Gallus apologetically and dashed to catch up. Walking with the gross mud stuff on him was really uncomfortable. It slid down his back and chest, leaving small puddles on the perfect white stones under his feet.

While looking down, Jacob noticed that there was dark green moss with little white flowers growing between the stones. Mom would’ve loved this place.

He couldn’t help but continue admiring his surroundings. Statues were everywhere, and he was reminded of the Greek and Roman gods. These statues were obviously Shiengols, but what was also obvious was how exaggerated they were. Some had huge, bulging muscles. Jacob had never seen a Shiengol with muscles that big, and he’d seen every living Shiengol.

Others had large, protruding eyes. Along with the too-skinny, angular bodies of the Shiengols, this made the statues very unattractive.

Jacob was glad he hadn’t inherited his uncle’s body. He looked down at his tar-coated arms and flexed them. Nope. Nothing scrawny there. He smiled to himself.

Doulers led them to a huge set of double doors inlaid with intricate carvings. Huge human guards swung the doors open, granting the visitors access, but Jacob nearly bumped into Azuriah when the Shiengol abruptly stopped even before stepping across the threshold.

Doulers looked apologetically at Azuriah. “He’s not in a pleasant mood today.”

Azuriah nodded, and Doulers turned and entered the throne room. Jacob squinted, trying to see all the way across the massive room. Renforth sat on a chair at the other end that made Keitus’s throne look puny. He held something small and black to his ear. A cell phone? No way. They couldn’t possibly have those here.

When Doulers reached him, the Shiengol king threw the object across the room. It skidded on the polished marble all the way to Jacob and Azuriah.

Jacob recognized it at once—it was a small, hand-held MP3 player. He raised his eyebrows. Where did Renforth get that? Was it possible this world had the same technologies as Earth? Jacob shook his head. No, it couldn’t be possible. Right? Maybe Renforth had picked it up from Earth while hanging out on Eklaron.

Azuriah noticed the attention Jacob gave the MP3 player. “Renforth has an affinity for technology. He had one of his human slaves steal away to Earth and bring him back souvenirs while we were dealing with Lirone.”

Jacob nodded, glad to have an explanation.

Doulers and Renforth spoke in quiet tones—too quietly for Jacob to hear. But he could read their emotions. Renforth’s were red—bright red. And Doulers’s were blue. It looked like he was trying to calm the king down.

Slowly the king’s emotion colors changed from red to pink. He wasn’t so angry anymore, but he was still irritated. He raised his hand, beckoning Azuriah and Jacob to come inside the room.

Jacob breathed a sigh of relief.

But he was too quick to relax. Almost as soon as they’d entered, guards surrounded and grabbed them, hoisting them in the air and carrying them out of the throne room. Jacob struggled until one of the guards hit his face. He felt like his cheekbone had been crushed, and for a while, he couldn’t see anything but stars.

They were carried down a long hall and thrown into a cell.

“Great, just great,” Azuriah said, picking himself off the floor.

“And I thought only the Lorkon did this sort of thing to their ‘visitors.’” Jacob gingerly patted his cheek, wondering how bruised it was. “What’s going on?”

Azuriah snorted, then peeled off his outer robe and hung it on a hook in the wall. “You might as well get comfortable. When he’s too busy, bored, frustrated, irritated, hungry, tired, or annoyed, he won’t speak with anyone. Last time I was here, it took over a week for him to release me.”

“He won’t even
listen
to us?”

Azuriah shook his head, pulling off his boots.

Jacob looked down at what he was wearing. He didn’t really have any clothes he could remove without being partially naked in front of Azuriah, and there wasn’t any way he’d be shirtless in front of the Shiengol. That would be uncomfortable—he was sure Azuriah would make comments about his physique, and Jacob wasn’t in the mood for that. Instead, he stood in the middle of the room and worked on chipping off the mud that had already dried.

“What happens now?”

“We wait.”

“But . . . I thought Renforth knew we were coming. I thought he agreed to meet with us.”

“Yes, but he was very annoyed about it, and part of him exerting dominance means making us as uncomfortable as possible.”

Jacob’s stomach growled and Azuriah half-smiled. “Don’t worry—we won’t go hungry.”

“I’m not stressing about that—I’m worried about Akeno. He’s in the past with Onyev and I’m supposed to go get him tonight.”

“That will have to wait.”

Jacob shook his head. “You don’t understand—when you told me it would only take a day to get here and back, I took you literally. Akeno has been in the past with Onyev for three days already, with only a thirty-minute break. The pain won’t let me make it past tonight.” Jacob sat on the edge of his cot. “Would it be possible for me to go now—”

He stopped when Azuriah shook his head. “No. Renforth’s protection system would kill you for attempting to exit the world by magic. And I need you here. He won’t agree to help us unless he officially meets you.”

“But I thought he didn’t even want me to come.”

Azuriah lay on his cot. “He changed his mind. You wouldn’t know that—you probably couldn’t understand what he and Doulers were saying.”

“No, because you’re only teaching me to
read
the Shiengol language.”

Azuriah didn’t respond, even though Jacob could tell the comment irritated him. Oh, well. Deal with it. They were both irritated now.

After standing in the middle of the room for several moments longer, Jacob also lay on his cot, hating the feel of the mud on his clothing and between him and the bed. He sighed in frustration, hoping that Renforth would get cheerful really fast.

It was a boring afternoon.

Azuriah slept. Or at least, it looked like he was sleeping. The Shiengol lay perfectly still, eyes closed. He didn’t say anything for a long time.

Jacob alternated between Time-Seeing to home and the Lorkon. Dad was working with the team that would accompany him to Fornchall. Coren the blacksmith was there, outfitting people in armor. Mom was still helping Aloren and Onaly get more clothing ready. Amberly spent a lot of time playing with Kaiya, Akeno’s little sister.

The Lorkon were walking, walking. He could tell they got angrier with every step. He wished he could somehow get word to Aldo of their location.

After a while, Jacob noticed that Time-Seeing was depleting his store of magical energy. Of course it would. He felt like an idiot. Who knew how much time he’d scraped off the length of Akeno’s stay with Onyev?

Jacob rolled over and faced the wall, not wanting to draw attention to himself, thereby alerting Azuriah to his feelings of shame and frustration.

Not long after, a human woman brought food. Obviously, Renforth liked human slaves.

Jacob was surprised by the vast quantities and the high quality of the food. Why were they even being held in a cell? This food made it seem like they were esteemed guests. Maybe Renforth’s guilt wouldn’t let him treat them
that
badly.

Azuriah swung his feet over the side of the cot and motioned for Jacob to bring the food cart closer. They each piled their plates high with meat, vegetables, fruits, nuts, and cheeses. Jacob was going to eat like a king!

He dug in, finding his appetite much larger than usual, and he hoped the food would help give him more magical strength.

After taking in all he could, he lay back on the cot. Someone eventually took the cart away, but Jacob didn’t open his eyes to see who.

“Why are humans slaves here?” he asked when it was silent again.

Azuriah didn’t respond at first, and Jacob opened his eyes. The Shiengol was staring at the ceiling, a slight smile playing at the corner of his lips.

“It would make sense that you would think they are slaves,” Azuriah said. “They aren’t, really, but more like criminals paying off debts.”

He didn’t say anything else, but Jacob was still curious. He decided to go on to other things that had been on his mind. “What’s the world like? How many species live here?”

“Not many. Renforth claims otherwise, but I believe that only animals inhabited the world before the Shiengols arrived.”

“What does Renforth say?”

“That Shiengols originated here.”

Jacob thought that over. If the Shiengols didn’t come from this planet, then where
did
they come from? Definitely not Earth, but probably Eklaron.