THE HOUSE OF THE ANCIENTS

My grandfather said he felt better, and now rode in the front of the wagon, listening to Rainbow telling Mr. Stephens about life in the Eldarion-Maya city of Edzna, and what life for a European might be like if he had a First Union relationship with a young Eldarion.

I was troubled over these new, heretical thoughts about leaving the Old World behind as I walked ahead of the others. Stairs appeared in the green tinged light of the brass lanterns that two men in front of the column were holding, and I gave a low whistle at the sight. Rainbow stopped speaking mid-sentence. “What is it?”

I pointed straight ahead. “Take a look.”

Unlike the other sets of stairs, these were wide at the bottom as a Londinium major street like New Oxford or Regent, narrowing as they went up several stories until reaching the sunlit oval opening at the top. The column in front of us shuffled to a halt as my grandfather looked up and sighed. “I fear I cannot manage those.”

“Perhaps you will not have to,” I said as Professor Bella strode towards us with Rune beside her, the Eldarion calling out a command for the automaton horse to stop. As it did, I said, “Professor Bella, if you are planning to leave the wagon and take the horse, may my grandfather ride it up the stairs?”

She stopped a few paces away from me and shrugged. “As long as he does not fall off, I have no objection. Kerry may ride as well, if she wants.”

“I’ll walk,” Dame Kerry said, climbing down off the wagon onto her good leg, then gingerly putting weight on the other. Her broad face brightened. “Hey, it doesn’t hurt as much as it did.”

“You’re welcome,” Rainbow said in a tart voice. Dame Kerry ignored her and began limping towards the stairs.

“Jonathan,” Professor Bella said, getting my attention, “Rune has returned from his scout and reports ze building is empty. He wants to return and begin setting up a base camp, and he wants you to accompany him.” She gave me a hard stare. “He also wants me to give you a rifle.”

I recognized the offer for the trap it was, her way of getting me to begin cooperating. Yet, I felt naked without any way of defending myself. “If you do, I swear I will only help kill the Camazotz or anything else that attacks us. But this changes nothing between us.”

Professor Bella smiled. “Of course,” she purred. “Rune, get him a weapon while I begin directing ze unloading of ze wagons. Jonathan, say what you will to your companions, then go with Rune.” I nodded, and Rune strode toward the front as she directed the automaton to unhitch the metal horse, pick up the Gatling gun, and follow her. It acknowledged and she walked towards the front of the column, shouting orders as the automaton climbed down off the wagon as well.

I walked over to my grandfather and helped him down. As his feet touched the white stones, he asked, “Do you understand what she is doing?”

“War Chess piece capture,” I replied. Rainbow gave me a puzzled look, and I said, “Remember my explanation of War Chess?” She nodded. “There is a variant rule where if a black piece, for instance, disarms its opponent, the white piece has to pick up its weapon and fight for the black side.” I looked at my grandfather. “In this case, if the black queen is disarmed, this knight is turning on her between one heart’s beat and the next.”

“Do not forget that,” my grandfather said, putting his head near mine. “My world has been turned upside down,” his voice becoming quiet and sad, “and I find myself unable to know what is the right course anymore.”

Mr. Stephens laid a gentle hand on his shoulder. “Shabaka, you laid a good foundation in your grandson. Trust him to find his own way.”

My grandfather sighed. “I know I should. And yet, I find it hard to let go.”

“He will be close,” Catherwood said. “Let us get you up on this metal monster. I am itching to record what we will see.”

“Jon,” Rune called out.

He held up a repeating rifle and I raised a hand in acknowledgment. “I will see all of you soon,” I said, squeezing his shoulder. “Rainbow-” She grabbed me by the front of my shirt and kissed me soundly, sending my thoughts skittering like startled cats before letting me go. “Whew, now I’m fortified for the journey.” The others laughed as I turned and jogged up to Rune, taking the rifle and the box of shells he handed me, which I put in my tunic pocket.

I matched his pace up the stairs, but was winded by the time we reached the top. Rune grinned as he let me rest a moment before pushing on through the open mouth of the stone serpent. I blinked, my eyes adjusting to the light coming from behind low hanging clouds, as we stepped onto the weathered paving stones leading into a canopy of trees and brush. He stopped and motioned to one side. “Look and tell me what you don’t see, Ja.”

It took a few moments to realize what he meant. “There is no stelae to open or close the snake mouth.”

“There isn’t one at the bottom of the stairs, either. Evidently this opening remains open all the time.”

“Why?”

He shrugged. “Ask Ran-Li, if you want, but don’t be surprised if you either get an answer that makes no sense or your head bitten off, don’t ya know.”

Ahead, tree branches hung low over the paving stones, obscuring my view, and as I followed Rune, pushing his way through the flowering vines and broad green leaves, I said, “Back in the cavern, you told us you were ordered to betray us, even though you thought the scheme would get you killed.”

Rune stopped and glanced back at me. “Ja, and if I tell you who I take orders from, you won’t believe me.”

“Considering everything I have gone through so far, you might be surprised.”

“Ja, there is that.” Rune shrugged. “Alright. When Kerry and I fought in the Ragnarok games, before we entered the labyrinth, an old man with one eye and a raven on each shoulder came to me when I was alone, waiting for Kerry to join me. He said if I didn’t accept his help in return for pledging myself to his cause, she and I wouldn’t make it out alive.”

“Was he right?”

“Oh, ja; we would’ve died in there if he hadn’t helped us. So, when one of his ravens showed up one morning to give me my marching orders, I didn’t dare refuse, because if I did, it told me I’d be stuck in a labyrinth filled with horrors and no way to escape.”

I nodded in understanding. “I believe you. I assume Dame Kerry is trapped in the same boat as you?”

To my surprise, Rune shook his head. “Kerry's in the boat because she wants to be… and if you knew what she’s had to endure in the past, you’d understand.” Before I could come up with a reply, Rune said, “What’s done is done and I can’t change it, but I give you my word that I’ll do everything I can to get your grandfather out of this alive, no matter what.”

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Suspicion warred with sympathy in my heart. “That is… awfully kind of you.”

“I had a grandfather I was close to once, whose dying wish was to see me win the games, don’t ya know.” Rune turned back around. “Best we get a move on. He strode forward at a brisk pace, and I followed at his heels until the trees gave way to an enormous open area. We broke through into daylight once more.

I stopped and stared at the building a short distance away. It was tall as Buckingham palace and at least as long, made of white stone and crusted over with sculpted ornamentation, glyphs, and geometric designs in long rows that repeated themselves. As with the white road’s stone serpent heads, no vegetation grew out of it, not even a straggler weed. In the center of the building stood an arch with walls that went straight up, then bent at a steep angle until they met overhead. The road continued until it reached the arch.

He began walking towards it and after a moment I followed, my leather sandals slapping stone as the building loomed larger and larger, until it filled my sight. The trees were gone but the bushes and vines continued for a short distance until they died out as well a few yards from the entrance, where all vegetation vanished, leaving only bare white rock. There were no animal or bird sounds, not even the chirp of crickets.

The archway went in for several yards, the walls on either side close enough so that only one person could walk through it at a time, before ending in an open space. I could see light streaming from a window high up on the opposite wall. Rune stood aside at the opening to the archway and motioned like a butler admitting you to his master’s home. “You go first, Ja. Kerry will want to know how you reacted.” I did not care a copper farthing what she thought, but kept it to myself as I entered and walked through until reaching the other side.

I stopped a few paces from the opening and gaped in wonder. The building was one immense room, the stone ceiling so high it was lost in shadow and supported by row after row after row of carved pillars. It felt like being in a cathedral large enough for Westminster Abbey to fit comfortably inside. There were windows only on the far wall, all of them the same size and arched shape as the entrance, but so high up that their tops were part of the ceiling. Their illumination kept the right hand side of the room dimly lit, but the left hand side could be seen clear. For the last quarter of the opposite wall, all the way on the left, was open from floor to ceiling.

The enormous opening had the same arched shape as the other entrance, but was a hundred feet wide at the very least, going up that high before it bent into its arch shape. In the light coming in, I could see the columns were actually carved stelae, covered in glyphs, but also with warrior-like figures as well, carrying ornamental spears and shields.

There were murals on the far wall, too far away for me to see them with any clarity, so I walked towards them to get a better look. Rune, who seemed to be enjoying my reaction, followed, and after several minutes of walking past the pillars, we reached a place where the details could be clearly seen. I stopped and looked up.

Rays of sunlight through the upper windows illuminated the murals. They were about thirty feet tall and extended along the wall in a series of different scenes. The one in front of us depicted a man in strange, ornamental looking armor, standing in front of a bat-like creature twice as tall as he was, a staff with a blade on the end in the creature’s hands. Behind the man were more people, yet these were the size of children. Their hands seemed to be bound behind their backs. “If I remember Mr. Stephens’ book,” I said to Rune, “the size of the person had nothing to do with their actual size, but how important that person was compared to the others.”

Rune’s expression turned serious as he looked where I was pointing. “Ja, that makes sense in a way if those men were prisoners. Is that creature with the wings the Camazotz?”

It looked exactly like the one Rainbow and I had seen, but we had said nothing to the others about meeting one. So I made a helpless gesture with my hands. “What else could it be?”

Rune gave me a dry laugh. “In this place, anything.” I nodded, and we wandered down towards next panel, this one extending for a long distance towards the great archway. The support columns we passed were even more impressive up close, carved in the same style depicting both Eldarion males and human men wearing elaborate clothing and outlandish headdresses, the men with spears in their hands while the Eldarions had webs coming out from theirs. Several of the carvings were female, not as elaborately dressed as the males but also with weapons and just as prominently displayed. On either side of the figures were rows of carved glyphs.

We reached the long panel and looked up. In this one, four creatures, like haggard old men with beards, but also with fangs and wicked looking claws, stood on our right while facing a parade of creatures that extended off to our left: a serpent with wings, a jaguar hunched over and standing upright on its hind legs, a bird-like creature with sharp teeth extending from its beak, and many more.

As we moved farther to our left, the creatures became twice the size of the first: a frog-like thing with sharp teeth and claws, another winged serpent, but this one with four legs, and several others equally bizarre.

At the end of the long panel, just before we reached the massive archway, was a final creature. This one was much larger than the others, depicting a vaguely man-like figure with large wings and an octopus on its head, or perhaps its head was an octopus. I could not tell, and the designs made me uneasy enough that I decided to remain where I was and not inspect it any closer. Glancing back at the four figures, I noticed at the bottom of the mural was a hunched over, rabbit-like figure with long ears, sitting cross-legged at a writing table with a stylus in its hand. Its eyes were looking straight forward as if the creature was recording everything it saw.

Rune looked as troubled as I felt, and without a word we turned away from the mural and walked into the sunlight streaming through the massive archway. Near the opening was a stone lined pit with old ashes in the center, and a large stack of dried firewood off to one side. Surrounding it were dozens of stone benches the size of a rich man’s bed.

Several of Professor Bella’s men were poking around the benches, and while Rune moved to the stone pit, grabbed a branch, and began stirring through the ashes, echoes of Bella’s voice giving orders and the sounds of men entering the structure began from the smaller archway. I left them all to their own devices and walked over to the massive opening in the wall. The floor rose to meet the wide, stone threshold, and as I stepped upon it, I looked out.

My breath caught in my throat. From the sill of the enormous doorway, the rocky ground fell away at a sharp angle, which would have been treacherous to navigate, save for the set of stone steps leading down to a sinkhole in the limestone rock. The great pit seemed large enough to swallow Old Town, Londinium’s central hub. For all its size, though, the hole was relatively shallow and shallower on my side, giving me a vantage point.

The right hand side was taken up almost entirely by a pool of water, glistening blue-green in the morning sun, while the left hand side was open until it reached a structure as large as the one we were standing in, built into the far rock wall. The building stuck out about halfway across the space. I was too far away to see details, but it had another enormous opening that looked as large as this one, framed like the head of a giant bat. The curved inner rock wall on either side of the building was honeycombed with holes. For a time, I stood on the threshold of the archway, mesmerized by the sight.

“Jonathan.” Bella’s voice startled me, and I looked back at her as she joined me on the sill of the archway. “You are not to wander away without…” Her voice trailed off as she stared at the massive sinkhole. Then she shook herself as if throwing off a glamour. “Well, that is certainly a view one does not see everyday.”

“Do you still feel a sense of wonder?” I blurted out before considering my words. She gave me a sharp look, and I braced myself for the expected rebuke.

Instead, her expression became thoughtful. “Yes, I still possess emotions… well, not emotions like I did before.” Her gaze returned to the massive sinkhole laid out before us. “When I was turned into what I am by an Arachni, on ze expedition in Africa, I was a creature without a will of my own.

“It served ze interests of my mistress to have an intelligent servant, so she returned my intellect at once, and I would still be doing her bidding had she not been killed. With her death my own strong will returned, and while ze other servants gave into their hunger and became ravening beasts, soon hunted down and destroyed, I mastered mine and blended into human society.”

“Until you were caught.”

Professor Bella made a gesture which seemed to say, ‘such is life’. “I thought my life, as it is, was over, as ze French government uses ze guillotine and not hanging as ze method of execution. But then an Englishman of all people, a professor like I am, came to my cell and gave me ze chance to begin again as a member of his group.”

“What was his name?”

Her expression turned sly. “He told me not to reveal anything about himself, but to let him explain all when ze two of you finally meet.” She looked up at the sun sinking behind the mountains beyond Zotz-Na. “Much as I want to explore ze structures of this site, I will content myself to having Catherwood record this vista, and ze murals, tonight. In ze morning, we shall explore Zotz-Na. In ze morning.”

With the sun warm on my back, I followed her deeper into the building’s shadowed darkness.

Archaeologists, who have examined Catherwood’s drawings of the murals, believe they are part of a long-dead mythology and nothing more.

Woe to the world if it ever learns the real truth…