The Prophecy of Shadows (17 page)

“Of course.” Kate snapped her fingers. “The statue of Zeus—the King of the Sky.”

“There’s a statue of Zeus in the cemetery?” I asked. That was the most random thing I’d heard all day.

“Right in the back of it,” Blake said. “It’s taller than a house. We always figured our ancestors put it there to remind us where we came from. Urban legend says it’s haunted, so middle schoolers like to sneak out to the cemetery at night to see if anything happens.”

“And does it?” I asked.

“No.” He laughed. “That’s why it’s called an urban legend.”

“Right,” I said. Urban legends: fiction. Greek mythology: fact. I would have to remember that. “Then what’s so important about the statue?”

“You’ve heard of the Seven Wonders of the World, right?” Kate asked, standing up and stretching her arms behind her back.

“Like the Great Wall of China and the Taj Mahal?”

“Those are the Seven Wonders of the
Medieval
World,” she explained. “Same idea, but it’s based off the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.”

“So …” I paused to recall the old monuments I’d learned about in school. “The Pyramid of Giza?”

Kate nodded, a small smile forming on her lips. “That’s the only one still in existence today,” she said. “One of the other Ancient Wonders is the Statue of Zeus at Olympia. There’s a replica right here in the Kinsley cemetery. Art History professors come here all the time to check it out, but the Parthenon in Nashville attracts more tourists because it’s way more famous.”

“There’s a Parthenon in Nashville?” I asked.

She nodded again. “Because of all the higher education institutions there, Nashville’s called ‘the Athens of the South,’” she said, making quote signs with her hands. “The city built it in the late 1800’s. But the Statue of Zeus here is where the idea of recreating ruined monuments in the States came from. It was built ten years before Nashville’s Parthenon.”

Danielle clanked the lid back on the jar and picked it up. “Enough with the history lesson,” she said, hugging the jar to her chest. “The statue is super close, and it’s the best thing we have to go on. So let’s check it out.”

Zeus towered over the mausoleums, rivaling the height of the nearby birch trees. He sat on top of a podium that was about seven feet tall. Carved mythological scenes decorated the sides of his throne, and his left hand held a scepter with an eagle on top. His right hand balanced what looked like an angel in his palm. His shoulder length hair and long beard resembled the image of Poseidon on the jar, but while the Sea God’s hair blew loosely in the wind, Zeus’s was symmetrical, not a strand out of place. His eyes stared forward—powerful and determined.

“That’s incredible,” I said, my lips parted in awe.

Even though Kate must have seen the statue before, her eyes were wide as she took it in. “It really is,” she said. “It’s an exact reproduction of the original. It’s made of ivory, the throne is wood with gold painted carvings, and Zeus’s hair, beard, and clothing are all made of gold. I never get bored of looking at it.”

I didn’t bother to ask how she knew all of that. Knowing Kate, she’d researched it eons ago and still remembered every detail.

“You see the goddess that Zeus is holding?” she asked, pointing to the figure in his right hand.

The goddess was what I’d originally thought was an angel. Tiny compared to Zeus, she stood proudly in his palm, her wings wide open behind her. She held one hand up in the air, pointing forward like she was preparing for battle.

I nodded for Kate to continue.

“That’s the goddess Nike,” she explained. “The goddess of victory that Darius told you about during your first day of class. Now do you see how her wings look like the swoosh?”

I walked around to look at the goddess from the side. “Sort of,” I said. “But I wouldn’t have noticed unless someone had pointed it out.”

“You guys can study the statue all you want another day,” Danielle said. “But we’re looking for something here, and we should try to figure out what it is. Maybe it’s another jar.”

“What did the clue say again?” Chris asked, scanning the statue up and down.

Danielle didn’t unroll the paper, instead reciting the clue from memory. “Travel north to the King of the Sky. He stands amongst the stones of the dead, accessible to the one who can fly high.”

“It’s not a jar this time,” Chris said. “It’s the eagle. The one at the top of Zeus’s scepter.”

“How do you know that?” Kate asked.

“Danielle said the jar was calling to her.” He looked at Danielle, and she nodded in affirmation. “Well, the eagle is glowing, like it has an aura. It’s faint, but it’s definitely there.”

I craned my neck up to look at the eagle at the top of Zeus’s scepter. It wasn’t glowing. But then again, I hadn’t “heard” when the jar called to Danielle either.

Kate studied the statue, her lips pursed. “How do you propose we get up there?” she said.

Chris smiled mischievously and wiggled his eyebrows. “Are you up for some fun?” he asked her.

“It depends on how you define ‘fun,’” she said. “Because if you’re implying that we climb the statue, then I’m going to have to say no. I want to get through this day alive, and falling to my death from sixty feet in the air doesn’t seem like an effective way to do that.”

“I wasn’t implying that we
climb
.” He laughed and flipped his hair out of his eyes. “I’ll swirl you up in the air like I did with the paper yesterday and you can grab the eagle. It’ll be easy.” He flicked his fingers around in a circle, blowing some leaves off the ground to demonstrate.

“Swirl me in the air?” Kate’s mouth dropped open. “I would rather climb.”

“Come on,” he pleaded. “We need to get up there somehow. And it’ll be fun.”

She crossed her arms and shook her head. “Why are you asking me?” she said. “Can’t someone else do it?”

“I’ll do it,” I offered, cursing myself a second later for volunteering. I hated heights.

“No,” Blake cut in. “You need to rest after using all that energy at the ocean. We need you at full strength in case you need to heal someone again, and you won’t be able to do that if you’re dead.” He paused, his eyes softening as if he realized how harsh that sounded. “If you even
can
die, which isn’t something we should experiment with right now. Or ever.”

“Right.” I turned away from him to look back at Chris, glad that I wouldn’t have to fly up there. “I guess that leaves Blake, Kate or Danielle.”

“Fine.” Kate huffed and held up a hand. “I’ll do it. I weigh the least, so it makes sense.”

“Awesome!” Chris beamed, rubbing his hands together. “You ready?”

“As I’ll ever be.” She sounded less than enthused. “When I get up there, I’m just supposed to grab the eagle? What if it doesn’t come off?”

“The jar was practically part of a rock,” Danielle jumped in. “But I could pull it right out.”

“Yeah.” Chris pointed his thumb in Danielle’s direction. “What she said.”

“Great.” Kate forced a smile and looked up at the towering statue. “I can do this. I’m ready.” It sounded like she was trying to convince herself more than us.

“All right.” Chris pointed to the ground near Zeus. “Stand there.”

Kate looked at me with bulging eyes, and I smiled in encouragement before she headed over to the spot. If Chris dropped her, at least I would be able to heal her. Well, if the fall didn’t kill her on impact. I didn’t know if my power extended to bringing people back from the dead. If it did … I shivered at the thought. That wasn’t something I wanted to have to find out.

“Here it goes!” Chris narrowed his eyes in concentration as he looked at Kate. He lifted his hand and held it out toward her, his palm facing forward. But he didn’t create a mini-tornado like with the paper at Blake’s house yesterday. Instead the air pushed against the bottoms of Kate’s feet, lifting her up like a hot air balloon. She gave little kicks with her legs as she rose.

“That’s good,” she said, her voice shaky. “Not too fast.”

I half-expected Chris to shoot her ten feet in the air just to be snarky, but he listened, letting her float upward until she arrived at the top of the statue. She reached forward and secured her arms around the eagle. It looked about the same size as the jar Danielle had brought up from the ocean, but standing sixty feet below, I couldn’t be sure.

Kate gave it a tug, but it stayed in place. “It’s too heavy!” she screamed. “There’s no way I can lift it.”

“Try harder!” Chris yelled back up at her. “The eagle’s what we need. I know it.”

She lost her grip after the third yank, her arms flailing back to her sides. “It won’t work.” She looked down at us and shrugged. “This is impossible.”

Chris scrunched his eyebrows. “Are you sure?”

Kate gave the eagle another unsuccessful tug. “Yes.” She placed her hands on her hips, which looked funny while she was floating in the air. “Can you please let me down now?”

“Fine.” He lowered his hands, his brows furrowed as he controlled the air holding Kate up. She floated to the ground and landed as lightly as a feather.

She jogged towards us, pushing her hair behind her ears. “Sorry,” she apologized to Chris. “I tried. I just wasn’t strong enough. That thing wasn’t budging.”

“I don’t understand what went wrong,” he said, studying the eagle perched on the top of Zeus’s scepter. “I
know
that’s the key to whatever comes next.”

“You should try getting it,” Danielle suggested, pointing at Chris. “Maybe it’s not working for Kate because it’s
your
clue to uncover. My jar came out just fine.”

“You mean the object only comes loose for the person it’s meant for?” Chris scratched his head. “Like there’s some sort of spell on it?”

“It’s just an idea,” she said. “You should try to fly yourself up there. Worst comes to worst, it doesn’t work.”

“Or I fall and crack my head open,” he muttered.

Kate jerked her head to look at him, her mouth open in a circle of disbelief. “You lifted me up there with no problem,” she said. “Why do you think you can’t do the same for yourself?”

“It just seems impossible.” He glanced at the statue again, doubt crossing over his eyes. “But I’ll try.”

Kate’s lips curved into a small smile. “Good.”

“If you fall, you always have Nicole to fix you up,” Danielle said with a snicker.

“Exactly.” I ignored Danielle’s attitude and smiled at Chris. “You’ll be fine. You’re stronger than you think. And I can heal you if you need it.”

“All right.” He walked to the statue to stand below the scepter, took a deep breath, and closed his eyes. “It’s not working!” he said. But then he opened his fists so his palms pointed towards his feet, and he started to rise—faster than Kate had when he’d lifted her. The wind blew his hair in all directions. When he reached the halfway point, he soared upward until he was level with the eagle. “Look at that!” he shouted, lifting his arms in the air and pointing his toes towards the ground. “I’m Superman!”

He
did
look like he was flying, except it was more like he was standing on a puff of air, his legs wobbling as he tried to stay balanced. He wrapped his hands around the eagle just like Kate had and lifted it off the scepter. He didn’t have to strain at all.

He laughed and looked down at Kate. “You had trouble doing
that
?” he said, raising the eagle over his head like a trophy. “I must be stronger than I thought!”

“Or Danielle was right and the eagle would only come off for you,” Kate muttered, rolling her eyes. I couldn’t help but laugh.

Chris floated down to the ground and ran toward us. “I got it!” he said again, his arms wrapped around the eagle.

“What do we do with it now?” I asked.

He lowered it to the ground, the muscles in his arms tightening as he placed it down. The eagle was the same height as the jar—it nearly reached my knee—its wings spread out like it was about to take flight. Each feather was meticulously carved to the point where they could have been real, and its eyes were hard and determined, like Zeus’s.

Chris kneeled down to study it, craning his head to look at it from different angles. “There’s a line right here,” he said, pointing to a thin crack that formed a complete circle around the eagle’s neck. “Maybe its head is a lid, like Danielle’s jar.”

He reached forward to lift it off, but Danielle shoved her hand in front of his, stopping him. “Let Kate try,” she said, her eyes hard as she looked at Chris.

He kept his hand poised above the eagle. “Why?” he asked.

“Because then we’ll see if only
you
can open it, just like only
you
could lift it off the statue.” She annunciated each word, like Chris was too stupid to understand. “If Kate can’t get it open—or any of us, for that matter—then we know that the only person who can open each object is whoever is ‘supposed’ to.”

While I didn’t want to say it out loud, Danielle did have a good point.

The four of us took turns attempting to get the head off the eagle, each with no success. I saw the line that looked like a lid, but it might as well have been welded shut. That thing was
not
budging.