Jake Ransom and the Skull King's Shadow

  Kady still hung back. Her eyes were narrow with worry and suspicion. “Maybe we shouldn’t go too far.” She glanced back to the stone towers. “If there’s a way out of this Jurassic Park wannabe, maybe we should stay close to where we landed.”

  Jake barely heard her. One last structure drew his gaze. It lay beyond the strange town and rose on the right from the wild region of the valley, surrounded by forest. In fact, most of it remained hidden within the jungle. That was why Jake hadn’t spotted the structure right away.

  “We need to find some way back home,” Kady continued.

  Jake lifted his arm and pointed to the half-hidden structure. “How’s that for a place to start looking?”

  Kady studied where he pointed.

  Only the top two tiers of the pyramid rose above the jungle, enough for Jake to see the massive sculpture on top. It was a stone dragon, lit with fire by the glancing rays of the sun. The dragon crouched there, its neck stretched high, its wings unfurled wide, as if readying to take flight. Its shape was a match to the one atop the gold pyramid at the museum, the same one sketched in his mother’s book and described in his father’s log.

  Jake’s hand drifted to his khaki vest. His palm rested over the books in the inner pocket. There was no mistaking the structure out there.

  It was the same pyramid.

  Only full size!

  Amazement kept Jake rooted in place.

  “Are you coming or not?” Marika called back anxiously.

  Jake glanced to Kady. He needed her to understand. His fingers tightened over the hidden books. If the small pyramid back at the museum had somehow transported them here, surely the larger one out in the valley could hold the key to a way back home. But more than that, Jake pictured his mother and father working inside the tomb in Mexico, discovering the smaller gold pyramid in the first place.

  Had they suspected the truth? Had they died to keep its secret?

  More than a way home, the pyramid might offer an answer to that bigger mystery in Jake’s life—in both their lives.

  What had truly happened to their parents?

  A new noise intruded: a creak of wheels and a rattling jangle, along with the clip-clop of something large. Pindor scooted ahead to scout the bend in the road.

  The noises grew louder. Jake could make out a few mumbled voices. Below, Pindor lifted his spear in a sign of greeting, then backed to the side to allow room.

  Two creatures clopped into view, tethered and drawing a two-wheeled chariot. Jake swallowed in disbelief. The gray-green creatures that pulled the chariot were the size of draft horses—but they weren’t horses. Each looked to weigh a half ton, trundling on four legs.

  “Europasaurus,” Jake named them. “Pygmy dinosaurs.”

  Three men crowded the chariot: one held the reins and the two others bore spears and swords. One hopped off and crossed toward them. He was dressed like Pindor, but he also wore bronze armor and a helmet.

  “Heronidus,” Marika said. The girl crossed her arms and said sourly, “Pindor’s older brother.”

  The newcomer spoke loudly. “Father is furious, Pin! What are you doing up here by the Broken Gate?”

  “We were…I wanted to show…”

  Heronidus pointed. “By Jove, is that Father’s spear?”

  Pindor shifted the weapon behind him. He glanced up the path toward Marika for some salvation.

  Heronidus stiffened in surprise as he saw Jake and Kady. His hand dropped to his sheathed sword. He waved the second Roman soldier out of the chariot.

  “Trespassers…”

  The second soldier drew his sword.

  “Who…?” Heronidus asked boldly, having to clear his throat to achieve the right rich baritone of command. “Who are you?”

  Pindor stepped forward and planted his spear more firmly. “I think…” His voice cracked. He glanced to Jake, then down to his toes. His voice hardened to match his brother’s. “They are spies. Spies sent by the Kalverum Rex, the Skull King.”

  7

  CALYPSOS

  As the day grew hotter, the road down into the valley proved to be longer than it appeared from the Broken Gate. It was made even longer by the tense stretches of silence and suspicious glances from the two older boys in the chariot. The pair of pygmy dinosaurs tugged at their leads, as if sensing the anxiety. The driver kept hauling back on the reins, to keep pace with those on foot.

  They were marched quickly through the farmlands that covered the valley floor. Jake tramped behind the chariot with Kady on one side and Marika on the other. Pindor and Heronidus followed, one with the spear, the other with his sword.

  No one was taking any chances with spies in their midst.

  Eyeing the sword and spear, Jake considered ways to escape, but where would he and Kady go? Back out into the surrounding wild jungle? They would not survive long on their own.

  And besides…

  Jake’s attention turned forward.

  Marika must have noticed his sudden focus on the dragon pyramid. Pointing, she said, “That is the great temple of Kukulkan. It protects this valley and—”

  Heronidus cut her off with a bark. “Mari! You’ll not speak to the spies.”

  “I’ll speak to whoever I want! And they’re not spies,” she said for the tenth time, as if declaring it enough would make it so. “They are newcomers.”

  Heronidus scoffed. “Newcomers? There have not been strangers to these lands in a score of lifetimes. And if they truly are newcomers, I wager it was the dark alchemies of Kalverum Rex that brought them here. To plant spies in our midst.”

  On Jake’s other side, Kady exhaled loudly with disgust. She eyed Heronidus up and down with disdain. It was a look she had perfected at school, capable of withering a freshman with a glance.

  The older boy tried to ignore her, but Jake noted he grew a little red around his tunic’s collar and shifted his sword nervously for a better grip.

  A muffle of movement drew Jake’s eye to the left. From out of the meadow, a snaking head rose. It stretched higher and higher, twenty feet into the air, then tilted over to spy on the small band of travelers on the road below.

  Jake stared upward, holding his breath. The creature’s skin was purplish, its eyes large and moist above blubbery lips. It blew a short bleat from its trumpet-shaped nose at them, then sank away and returned to its grazing.

  Kady grabbed Jake’s elbow. “What was that?”

  He shook his head, too awed speak. It looked like some type of duckbill dinosaur.

  “We call it a blow horn,” Marika said. “They’re very good at pulling plows.”

  As the dinosaur vanished, Pindor rubbed his belly. “Shouldn’t we stop to eat?”

  Heronidus scowled at his younger brother. “We’re not stopping. Not when we have prisoners with us.” He looked hard at Jake, then back to Pindor. “You’ll be lucky to get water and dry bread after Father finds out you went to the Broken Gate by yourself…and took his spear.”

  “Father doesn’t have to know about the spear, does he?” Pindor pleaded.

  Heronidus shrugged and continued down the road. “We shall see.”

  A half mile ahead spread the city of Calypsos. Built on a small hill, it rose from the valley floor. But as much as the place intrigued him, Jake’s attention was drawn beyond its borders. Deep within wild woodlands that ran up against the city walls on the right, the massive stone dragon hovered over the treetops, its wings spread wide. It seemed to be staring straight at Jake. Only the dragon was visible from this angle. The pyramid was buried in the forest.

  Jake shared a hopeful glance with Kady. Even this close, the dragon appeared an exact match to the artifact at the British Museum. The pyramid had to offer some clue as to a way home.

  Marika must have read the desire in Jake’s face. She shook her head warningly. “It is forbidden to trespass there. Only the three Magisters of Alchemy are allowed to enter and gaze upon the crystal heart of Kukulkan.”

  Jake heard the lon
ging in the girl’s voice, which further set fire to his own curiosity.

  The crystal heart of Kukulkan? What was that?

  Heronidus grunted his displeasure. “Enough, Marika. I’ve already told you. No speaking to the spies.”

  “They’re not spies!” she insisted yet again.

  Kady cleared her throat. Loudly. All eyes immediately turned to her. Even the chariot’s two pygmy dinosaurs swung their long necks in her direction.

  Jake frowned. How did she do that?

  Kady planted a fist on one hip. Her initial shock had grown into irritation. She fanned her face with her khaki hat, then waved it at the group. “I don’t understand. All you weird people. How come you all speak English?”

  Heronidus cocked his head, appraising her. “Ang-lash? It this the tongue of your land?”

  She nodded. “Of course. It’s what you’re speaking, too.”

  “No. Here we speak All-World. As you are doing now.”

  Kady touched her fingers to her lips, looking concerned.

  “All-World?” Jake asked.

  “It is a gift of the temple gods,” Heronidus said, and pointed his sword toward the pyramid, violating his own order not to talk to them.

  Marika explained in more detail. “The same shield that rises from Kukulkan and protects our valley also grants a common tongue to all the Lost Tribes. So one neighbor can understand another. To unite all in peace and harmony.”

  Jake stared toward the stone dragon. It sounded like some universal translator.

  “But we have not forgotten our own tribe’s language,” Heronidus said, and puffed out his breastplate. “It can be spoken, but it takes concentration.”

  Demonstrating this, Heronidus spat out something in Latin, aimed at Pindor. It sounded like an insult.

  Pindor blushed, while Marika bristled. She must have understood the Latin. “Pindor is not a coward! He’s a thousand times braver than you!”

  This only earned a dismissive chuckle from Heronidus.

  The Mayan girl pointed back the way they’d come. “I’ll have you know that we were not just at the Broken Gate. Pindor and I went outside them.”

  Pindor stiffened. “Mari!”

  “We went off into the jungles to snatch an egg of a thunder lizard!”

  Heronidus’s eyes grew huge as he turned his full attention back upon his younger brother. “You went beyond the Broken Gate?”

  “Heron…” Pindor blustered for a bit, searching for words. “I had to try…because…”

  Heronidus cut away any further explanation with a swipe of his sword. “When Father hears about this, you’ll be locked up in your room until the next full moon. And rightfully so!”

  Pindor gave Marika a sad shake of his head.

  Marika winced and mouthed, I’m sorry.

  Marched even faster, they quickly reached the gate to the city. The walls climbed two stories tall. The heavy iron gate stood open.

  Heronidus ran forward and spoke to a guard leaning on a spear. Jake could not make out what was said, but Heronidus pointed an arm toward him and Kady.

  The guard leaned out. His eyes grew huge upon seeing the strangers. He finally nodded, stepped back, and waved. A moment later, two huge beasts stamped into view.

  Jake recognized the species.

  Othneilia.

  Standing on two legs, each beast bore a rider in light armor, burnished and shining in the sun. One rider leaned from his saddle and spoke to Heronidus, who nodded and came running back.

  “Let’s go!” he ordered, his face flushed with the excitement of it all.

  With the monstrous escort, the group headed through the gate and into the city proper. Jake didn’t know what to expect, but Calypsos proved as chaotic as it was colorful.

  Inside, the streets were paved with cobblestones, and the homes stacked close together. A woman in an apron leaned out a second-story window and called down to a thin man dragging a wagon. “I’ll take two bloodmelons and one pail of mushberries! But they better be ripe this time, Emmul!”

  “Ripe and mushy as they come!”

  Jake had expected the place to smell bad with so many people and animals in one place, but the city was crisscrossed with flowing canals, along with raised aqueducts and roadside drains. It was amazing engineering. Even the main street formed a spiraling corkscrew that wound around and around. It led toward the crown of the hill where a stone castle, flanked by two towers, waited behind tall walls.

  “Kalakryss,” Heronidus said, naming the place. “Home of the Council of Elders.”

  It was plainly their destination.

  As they continued, Jake stared down alleys and narrow avenues. Everywhere he looked he spotted bits of other cultures from every continent and age: a Native American sweat lodge, a Sumerian temple, a large wooden Buddha. In one square stood the slender Egyptian obelisk carved with hieroglyphics.

  Marika must have noted the wonder in his eyes. “The tribes are many. We number over two score.”

  “How did you all get here?” he asked.

  It was a question that had plagued Jake through the march. The weight of the coin around his neck grew heavier the more he pondered the miracle of their own arrival. There had to be some sort of portal. The coins must have acted like keys. But that could not be the only path here, not with all these people.

  Marika shook her head. “We don’t know. Centuries ago, the Lost Tribes were drawn to this savage world, pulled from their own homelands. We all arrived within a few generations of each other and made our homes here in this valley. Where Kukulkan protects us.”

  Jake stared between Marika and Pindor. How could tribes from so many different eras of human history arrive in this place at relatively the same time? If what Marika said was true, the Tribes hadn’t just been pulled from their homelands, but also from their time lines.

  “There are rumors of other towns like Calypsos,” Marika continued. “In other valleys far out in the jungle. But here we live as best we can, in peace and cooperation with each other and the land. Or at least we used to….”

  Jake heard a trace of worry behind her last words. He could guess the root of it. “The Skull King you mentioned? Who is—”

  “You two shouldn’t be talking!” Pindor urged, stepping between them. “We’re all in enough trouble already.”

  Heronidus glared back. “Hurry up!”

  Marika sighed, but she obeyed.

  With his mind awhirl, Jake continued through the town. Lost Tribes. Jake had heard of matching tales throughout history, of villages that suddenly disappeared, of Roman legions that vanished without a trace, of entire civilizations that were simply swallowed up by time.

  Was this where they all ended up?

  He sensed there was much more to learn.

  “Ugh!” Kady danced a step away from Jake’s side. She scraped vigorously at the bottom of her left boot on one of the cobblestones.

  Jake glanced over a shoulder and saw her boot print in a pile of dark, earthy-looking material along the edge of the street. Only it wasn’t earth. The ripe smell made that clear. Dinosaur dropping.

  Jake tried not to smile—especially after she came back to his side, her face pale and slightly green.

  “We don’t belong here,” she said. “We have to get home.”

  “We’ll get home,” Jake assured her with more certainty than he felt.

  Kady took a deep breath and nodded.

  “It just might take some time to figure out a way,” Jake added under his breath.

  He looked around at the mix of cultures here, his worry growing. A new worry took root. If these people—after so many centuries—hadn’t figured out a way to open a portal back home, how could he hope to do so on his own? He kept this fear to himself and reached over to take Kady’s hand.

  She squeezed back.

  Until then, at least they had each other.

  By now, their parade had begun to draw more and more eyes. People pointed, and children ran up and tugged a
t Jake’s backpack and plucked curiously at Kady’s clothes. Heronidus or one of the mounted guards continually waved them off.

  An Egyptian girl, no older than five, with a shaved head and painted eyes, ignored Heronidus and rushed forward to Kady. She held up a flower with crimson petals. “You’re pretty.”

  Kady accepted both the gift and the compliment. “Thank you.”

  Jake noted a ring of relief in his sister’s voice at the simple act of welcome. Kady let go of Jake’s palm and clutched the flower with both hands. A ghost of a smile played over her lips. With this small gesture, maybe Kady now had something to grasp onto, something from which she could gain her bearings.

  Was this how Calypsos’s community had first been founded?

  By a simple welcome from one to another.

  Jake watched at they rounded the next curve in the road. Directly ahead rose the castle of Kalakryss. He noted guards walking the walls. He wondered what sort of welcome they could expect.

  He glanced to Marika.

  Her face was pinched with worry.

  Not a good sign.

  8

  STRANGERS IN A STRANGE LAND

  With a spear at his back, Jake marched into the castle’s open courtyard. In the center, under a tree the size of a giant redwood, more soldiers lounged and laughed. To the left, backed against the castle wall, rose a set of stone stables and wooden corrals.

  A soft chuffing noise came from their escorts’ mounts, sensing home and food nearby. The Othneilia threw their heads a bit, but the soldiers in the saddles tapped the beasts’ flanks with small sticks like batons, guiding them and calling out in soothing voices. Elephant riders in India controlled their mounts in the same manner.

  As they passed through the gate, a group of soldiers approached. They came from exercise fields on the opposite side of the courtyard, where practice skirmishes with swords and spears were under way. Two-story barracks lined the fields. A tall man wearing a helmet that sprouted a crimson plume led the soldiers.

  “The Saddleback Guard,” Marika whispered at Jake’s side. “Heronidus is in training to join their ranks.”