Agent with a History

  *****

  “Looks clear,” Flint said under his breath.

  It was true; I couldn’t see any sign of activity around the pools. I stepped out from hiding and approached the central pool. Flint followed, looking around as if he didn’t understand something.

  He voiced his question, “I don’t understand this. You’ve got five geocentrically placed pools of water, a lot of water in the middle of nowhere to be sure. The pools have an obvious influence of human construction, but I’ve never heard mention of this place. All this water and there’s nobody here and no sign as to where so much water is coming from. The surrounding area is downright arid!”

  I just smiled, as I walked along the dusty ground that bordered one of the pools.

  He exclaimed again, “I don’t even see where animals have come to drink! Is the water poisonous?”

  “No,” I said, as I stopped.

  I squatted down and dipped my hand in the water, brought it to my mouth and drank of the crystal clear water. It was just as I had remembered it.

  “Okay, I’m convinced it’s not poison, but why are you the only one drinking it?”

  I scooped both my hands into the water and cupped them together. I rose to my feet and approached Flint with the water held in my cupped hands.

  “No one drinks of the water, because only queens and their kings may drink of it.” I held the water out to him and he looked a little stunned at the ceremonialism of my gesture.

  His head started to lower to my hands when he stopped, “Just so you know, I’m not at all for this custom of kings committing hari-kari because their ladies deemed it so.”

  I grinned, “Some customs are better left in the past, I think.”

  His head lowered and he drank the water, all of it.

  He looked up at me in surprise, “That’s the best tasting water I’ve ever had! Somebody should bottle that.”

  I couldn’t agree more. I turned back and continued on towards the central pool.

  “So, do you realize that everything about you has changed since you’ve neared these pools?” Flint asked curiously.

  I looked back in surprise, “In what way?”

  “Your walk, the way you carry your head high, and the deeper confidence with which you speak your words.”

  I nodded.

  The old Candace had taught me all that. I had soaked up her instruction like I had the love that she had showered on me.

  “She must have been very special for you to care so much,” I heard Flint say softly, which caused me to realize that there were tears on my face. I was crying again!

  “Do you feel like you're betraying her by helping me destroy the treasure?” Flint asked softly.

  “I thought I was, but now I’m not so sure. In her last words to me, she told me that when she had been young she had made a mistake that she didn’t want me to make. She told me to follow my heart, and that is just what I’m doing. I think she knew this day was coming.”

  Flint nodded.

  I turned back to the central pool. It was time for the past to go. I approached the circular central pool.

  “I hope you can hold your breath for a long time, Flint.”

  There were stones lying on the ground and I started to pry several of them up. Pulling them free revealed carved out stone handles on the undersides.

  Glancing up at Flint I said, “With the weight you’re carrying you’ll probably not need a weight. In the old days they wore so much golden jewelry that they didn’t need a weight either.”

  I held a stone in each hand, stepped into the water and kept stepping down, hyperventilating slightly. Flint, with a slight pause of hesitation, followed.

  Once he was all the way under the water he saw more clearly for himself the spiral stone staircase that we were walking down.

  Memories of my first time walking down these stairs began to flood into my mind, as I walked down into the crystal clear water. I had been so in awe of the Candace and this descent into the water had only helped to reinforce how cool she was.

  Thirty feet down, the stairs ended at a door and I pushed a series of stone panels. The door opened to a dark void of yet more water. Only queens knew the combination.

  I waited for Flint and, grasping him firmly, I made sure that he came through the door with me. We stepped down into something dark and I made him sit down.

  Nothing happened for a moment and then a series of groans sounded, as the stone weights began to depress and our barge began to move. It moved quite fast into the dark void and, as always, my lungs had begun to burn, in need of air.

  Apparently holding one's breath for a long time hadn’t been much of a problem for my ancestors, but for me it was.

  Just when I thought I would take a gulp of water and drown, the barge surged up to the surface and I opened my mouth gulping in air. Flint was doing the same.

  “I’ve been on some death defying theme park rides, but this one takes the cake!” Flint huffed out.

  I couldn’t disagree with him there. I didn’t bother telling him that, if the wrong combination of panels was punched in at the door, the barge went somewhere else entirely. More people than he knew had found the treasure over the years, but they’d fallen prey to the clever door mechanisms of the Queen’s Gate.

  My father knew of the door, but not the combination to open it. I stood up and walked the length of the barge to the stairs at the other end in complete darkness, as my feet knew the way by faith.

  My hands found the twin pedestals that marked the landing of the Queen’s Haven and I reached for levers to either side and pulled.

  There was a swish of sound and the chamber lit up in a jeweled array of color. Tunnels from the surface reflected down light that was refracted by the use of crystals into a glittering intensity of color that swept throughout the entrance of the Queens’ Haven.

  I turned my head to see Flint sitting in stunned shock at what the glittering light revealed. I well knew what he was experiencing, as I had once been in his place. It was hard to believe a place like this had ever existed in the time of the Earth.

  We were in a massive cavern, which was mostly dark and full with water, except for this end of it. Before me, across an inlaid floor of tile studded with polished gems, rose a series of steps to a platform from which massive pillars rose to bolster the ceiling of the native rock.

  Gems and crystals glittered here and there, but what caught the eye was that the steps and the pillars themselves were overlaid with gold.

  “Welcome to the Queens’ Haven.”

  Flint looked at me and I wondered, not for the first time, whether he would be able to destroy the treasure.

  He got up and walked up to me, still looking at the golden display before him and said, “Today I’m really going to hate my job!”

  He glanced at me and made a movement with his hand, “After you, my Queen. I need to get the bomb placed squarely in the middle of the treasure room.”

  I nodded, and started past the pedestal towards the golden pillars, as Flint followed.

  My eyes skipped off to the side, as I saw something floating on the dark waters. It was a scuba flipper!

  Divers! Oxygen tanks!

  Could the central pool be bypassed in order to reach this cavern?

  Evidently so, which meant someone was here!

  I stopped, as the alarm of that realization shot through me. I started to turn, to push Flint back toward the barge, when several dark figures stepped out from behind the pillars ahead of us.

  Flint jerked me abruptly behind him and started to raise his rifle to fire, even as several bullets crashed into him, knocking him back against me. He started to fall, dropping the rifle and the case, and I tried to catch him and break his fall to the ground.

  No, this couldn’t be happening!

  Oh God!

  In a panic, I turned him over on the floor. He was unconscious and pale looking, which scared me to
death. I checked for a pulse and sobbed in relief when I found one.

  His arm was bloody and I could see blood welling up fast out of his thigh through his torn pants. Was he hit elsewhere too?

  I ripped his shirt open in the front and in relief I saw he was wearing a light vest.

  Ripping the vest open I gasped as I saw more blood, but then I recovered, when I realized that the bullets hadn’t gone into him but instead had just split the skin.

  The leg wound was the worst. I had to get the bleeding stopped!

  Feeling at his leg I noticed that the bullet had gone through cleanly. I ripped part of his shirt up, made two pads and put them on each of the wounds. Then, taking the rest of his shirt, I tied it tightly around his thigh overtop the two pads. The bleeding slowed to a stop and I turned my attention to his arm.

  It was nothing more than a slight groove from where a bullet had grazed him. A shadow fell across me and I knew who it was without bothering to look up.

  My fingers were shaking as I wrapped his leg with additional material from my over shirt. I hated this! I hated the injuries that my man had suffered for me, but most of all I hated my father! His avarice and greed soaked ambition had done this!

  Oh God, please don’t let him die! I wanted everything there was to do with this man. I had been so close to everything I had ever wanted and now this!

  “Why do you waste your time with this man? You know I’m going to kill him.”

  I looked up into the eyes of my father, who even now was bringing up a massive pistol to take aim at Flint’s heart.

  I met his gaze with steady resolve and my voice didn’t quiver as I spoke, even though it felt like my insides were shaking apart.

  “If this man dies, so will you and everyone that you’ve brought with you! The treasure will be lost forever and you will have no golden legacy!”

  The pistol swiveled from Flint’s heart to my head, but I didn’t drop my gaze.

  “And who are you to threaten me so? I have conquered the riddle of this place and of the treasure! It is all mine! Again I say, who are you, little half breed whelp of mine, to threaten me so?” Iya said roughly.

  I saw the finger tighten on the trigger and I knew that I was seconds away from my own death. I rose to my feet, and I stepped forward toward my father, until the muzzle of the pistol was pressed into my chest.

  Firmly, I responded with all the cold distain that I could muster for this man, with whom it shamed me to admit that I shared blood, “I am Candace! Queen of Queens and ruler over Kings! This is my domain and I alone rule here! Kill me and you die. Steal the treasure without my blessing and you’ll suffer worse than death. I am the Queen and I have spoken! Heed my words wisely!”

  I slammed my foot down and the cavern’s lighting shifted to more of a reddish haze.

  Iya blinked and looked around. He slammed his foot down too, but nothing happened.

  The muzzle of the pistol drifted away and he gave a slight nod, as his characteristic wolfish smile returned, “You are the Queen, but first and foremost you are my daughter and you will help me get all the treasure!”

  He turned and gestured at several of his men. “Come, carry the man and be quick! I want to see the rest of my treasure!”

  “You do remember, Mr. Muatombo, that this is a joint venture, do you not?” A slim man, with white skin and pale blond hair stepped forward.

  The man had a European accent that matched the men who had tried to kill us in Barcelona. The man had the cold eyes of a snake.

  There was something darker about the man than just his appearance, though. Father’s own snakish charm came out as he responded to the man.

  “But of course Heinrich, as we agreed, half the treasure will go to your bank directly and you know that I intend to heavily invest my share with you. So relax, we are this close to the find of the ages and I will share it with you as promised.”

  Yeah, right, my father had never learned the virtue of sharing anything with anyone. The slim man had a short future ahead of him, if he believed my father. The best he could look forward to was a clean shot to the back of the head, if he was lucky.

  The man called Heinrich smiled back at my father. The smile had a calculated false quality to it, which caused me to reconsider my assessment of him as a pushover.

  The man was surrounded by my father’s henchmen, who, as it was, were my half brothers and yet the man maintained his cool resolve. Despite being all alone, Heinrich appeared very much in control of the situation.

  Perhaps he wasn’t such an easy mark. I wondered if my father knew that. I doubted it as he tended to only respect people that were a threat to him physically and not individuals that he could squash out with one choking hand.

  Something else I wondered about was if father knew that this Swiss backed businessman he had partnered up with, had been trying to kill Flint and I in Barcelona?

  Not question us about the treasure, but to simply just kill us. I doubted that he’d listen even if I told him. His eyes were too full of treasure to let any sane thought through.

  Heinrich gestured to us, “You should just kill them now and be done with it. They cannot be allowed to live, to speak of what they have seen.”

  Iya’s temper flared. He wasn’t a man that could tolerate being dictated to, much less being ordered around, even if he was planning to do what was being ordered of him. He was prideful to a fault.

  “She is my daughter and I will decide her fate, not you! The man is my guest. It is hard to find a good chess player and he plays chess very well! Better than you, I think. They live, until I say otherwise!” Iya finished angrily, thumbing his chest with a fist.

  The Heinrich fellow wisely retreated, nodding deferentially before moving away. Iya may have thought he won the test of wills, but everything the slim man did seemed calculated to some, as yet unseen, endgame.

  I glanced down to see Flint’s eyes open. Two of my brothers were approaching. We didn’t have long to talk.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t protect you,” he whispered up at me.

  More tears came to my eyes. “Yes, you did! In so many ways you have, but now it’s time to let me protect you! Remember what I said about this place?”

  He nodded, “Where’s my case?”

  I glanced up in time to see one of my brothers toss the case into the water.

  Flint saw him do it too. “How deep is that water?”

  I looked at him curiously, “I don’t know exactly, but I’d say it’s pretty deep, why?”

  My brothers were getting close.

  “Because in,” he glanced at his watch, “Fifteen minutes you’re going to have a diversion worthy event, when you’ll be able to freely do whatever it is you can to destroy this place!”

  His hand gripped my arm tightly, “You must destroy this place, even if it means we go up with it! So many will die if you don’t!”

  My hand squeezed over his on my arm and I whispered back, “I swear it on my love for you.”

  My brothers were beside us and one of them was Marshawn.

  “Help me get him up, Marshawn, and then I’ll take him from there.”

  He looked at me dubiously, but with his characteristic easy grin he complied with my wishes.

  “Way to go, backing the old man down like that, sis! I didn’t think anyone could do it,” Marshawn said.

  I met his eyes boldly, “I didn’t back him down. He still intends to kill us. All I did was buy us some time and if you’re as smart as I think you are Marshawn, you’ll do the same.”

  He gave me a curious look as he helped Flint up to his feet. Flint’s arm came around my shoulders, but I could tell he was trying to not put too much of his weight on me.

  “Stop being a fool and put your weight on me! I’m strong!” I said.

  His face was whitish and I knew he was in pain, but he smiled anyway, “Yes, there’s no doubting that. You’re strong in more ways than one.”

/>   He settled more of his weight on me and together we started out across the floor towards the golden pillars through which Iya and Heinrich were already disappearing.

  “What are you planning?” he whispered, when we had gained a little distance on our guards.

  “Just trust me.”

  He chuckled, “How the tables have turned.”

  He groaned, as we started up the stairs and he had to lift his leg up. I cringed with every step that he took. Was it always like this, that you felt the pain of the one you loved?

  We made our way through the row of golden columns to the large cavern beyond. The artfully crafted treasures of centuries were piled high throughout the room.

  Gems of unimaginable proportions and quality were everywhere, but it was the gold, that caught and glistened in the crystal refracted light, that took the breath away. It was everywhere.

  “It would seem your ancestors managed to pile a few things away over the years,” Flint muttered sardonically.

  “This place wasn’t always so littered with stuff. It was created by one of the first Candace’s as a sort of haven away from the public’s eye. Much later, when the empire was starting to fade, most of the treasures you see were brought here for safe keeping.”

  “A very interesting tale, detective Tauranto, but as amazing as this treasure room is, where is the rest of the treasure?” Heinrich asked.

  I stopped our progress through the room. “What?” I asked dumbly.

  I looked around me, was the man blind or just insane? There was an incalculable treasure of antiquity to be found all around him and he was asking for more.

  “I must applaud your acting skills, but while this treasure is indeed marvelous it cannot be the sum and total of the treasure rumored about over the years. Where is the gold, or should I better put it, where’s the unrefined raw gold? That is what I’m most interested in.”

  This man wasn’t going to take no for an answer, even if it was the truth. I glanced around again and, in the process, caught a glimpse of Flint’s watch. I had just over eight minutes. An idea crystallized in my brain spurred on by the little man’s greediness.

  “Very well, I’ll take you to the rest of the treasure if you promise that my friend and I can go free and live comfortably for the rest of our lives.”

  “But of course! It is the least that I could offer. You have my word.”

  I hoped my face didn’t show the skepticism I had at the reality of the unfaithfulness of his words.

  “Sheba’s throne will reveal the treasure,” I said softly.

  Heinrich actually looked excited, in a sort of sick, psychotic way, as I started heading on through the treasure room to an overlooked pillared doorway at the far end of it.

  I caught a glimpse of my father’s face. He looked puzzled, good! I hoped he stayed that way.

  “Do you think you could put on a little speed?” I whispered to Flint.

  “Will do,” Flint said through gritted teeth.

  We made the doorway and walked on through. I kept tugging Flint onward and off to the side of the royal throne room, as everyone else pretty much came to a stop and stared in wonder at the royal dais situated on the other end of the room. Even Flint seemed sucked in by the fascination of gazing at it and the image that dominated the wall beyond the throne.

  Flint looked surprised, when I leaned him up against the pillar of a side doorway. He glanced at the doorway; it was the only one on this side of the royal chamber room. The other side had five doorways. His eyes met mine in sudden knowledge that this was the place I had told him of.

  “Remember?” I asked.

  “Yes, but I’m not going to be able to run.”

  “I have a plan.”

  Marshawn was still gazing distractedly at the glory of Sheba’s throne and the massive golden image of an earthly woman’s beautiful face set off against a background setting of precious stones.

  He was surprised, when I abruptly caught him by the throat and dragged him closer.

  “What’s it gonna be Marshawn, pawn or something more?”

  “What?” he asked surprised.

  “To put it in my father’s vernacular; I’m the Queen and thus the most powerful piece on the board. In father’s way of thinking you're nothing but a disposable pawn, Marshawn. I think you could be something more than that, a bishop or rook perhaps. A chess piece that has more control over its own future Marshawn.”

  “You forget who moves the pieces, dear sister.”

  I shook my head and pointed to Flint, “Not anymore.”

  Marshawn glanced at Flint and then back at me and tentatively asked, “What’s my move?”

  “A bishop or a rook, while powerful can only move in two directions and thus they are vulnerable.” I pointed to the group still gawking over the throne room and then to the darkened doorway.

  “A Queen can cover you from every angle, however.”

  Marshawn glanced nervously at Flint, guessing that his purpose was to help him, “How long?”

  “Seventeen seconds,” responded Flint.

  Marshawn nodded, “Okay.”

  I let go and moved off towards the group. I moved through them, until my back was to them, as I mentally ticked down the seconds. I reached zero, but nothing happened. What had gone wrong?

  “Well, what are we waiting for?” Iya thundered out.

  “Perhaps your daughter can answer that. Tell me dear, have you been waiting for a bang?” Heinrich asked with a nasty smile, as he held up a device that I guessed was Flint’s bomb, the timer had been stopped.

  “What’s going on here?” Iya bellowed.

  “Oh, everything is quite under control Mr. Muatombo, although I have to say that your services will no longer be required.”

  Heinrich clapped his hands sharply and thirty or more heavily armed men poured into the room, with guns trained on Iya and his sons.

  “We had a deal, Heinrich! Don’t think that I haven’t taken precautions against something such as this from happening,” Iya bit out, stone faced, as he was relieved of his pistol.

  Heinrich just shook his head. “You actually think yourself intelligent Iya, don’t you? You’re nothing but a mindless brute. Not that I mind, our organization has been making good use of individuals like you to do the dirty work for a long time. You’ve been nothing but a pawn in our game all along.”

  Iya, completely incensed, started for Heinrich, but Heinrich just smiled, “Unless you’ve discovered a way to walk through bullets, I wouldn’t if I were you. You’re too much of an arrogant fool to even put a vest on like our smart friend over there in the corner. Now there Iya, is a smart man, as is the whole organization behind him. Discovering the treasure is the crowning achievement of my career, but capturing him is no small accomplishment either.”

  Iya looked confused, “You’re not a banker?”

  Heinrich threw back his head and laughed unpleasantly. “Flint, tell him. Educate the mindless Jewish brute, if you can.”

  “I’m not Jewish!” growled Iya.

  “Oh yes you are! Their blood runs thick within your veins!”

  Something seemed to dawn within Iya’s eyes, as he glanced at Flint.

  “Yeah, that’s right Iya; you hopped into bed with a bunch of Nazis this time, bum move on your part,” Flint said, in response to the unasked question in Iya’s eyes.

  Heinrich looked displeasingly at Flint, “I don’t care for your vernacular much, Flint! I’ll see you suffer for that comment especially. We do not associate in any way with filthy Jews!”

  “You collaborate with them to steal their own gold don’t you?” Flint responded evenly.

  Heinrich smiled and shrugged, “I have to admit the legitimacy of that point, I suppose. I take comfort in the fact that all this stolen wealth will single handedly usher in the dawning of a new Reich. This time we will succeed, not only in our conquest of any and all that oppose us, but also in the complete anni
hilation of your filthy kind!” he finished, fairly spitting out the last few words at Iya, with caustic venom lacing his tone, even as hatred shown from his eyes.

  Iya had regained control and his face was a mask as he asked, “If you feel so strongly against me, then why am I still alive?”

  “Perhaps because I wish to relish watching you suffer, as the treasure you have spent your whole life coveting, is taken away piece by piece. Now for a man like you, that will be torture. There is also the matter of your wealth. You are a very wealthy man in your own right and, even with this fabulous treasure we, just like you, can never have enough money to satisfy us. Once we have all your wealth we’ll let you die, painfully that is. A man of your size will take some time to starve away I would imagine. Now, while this is all amusing it’s distracting me from my main goal!”

  Heinrich wheeled around to face me.

  “You will show me the gold now and, as a favor, I’ll let you have a bullet between the eyes and thus let you avoid having to witness your lover’s torture, as well as experience your own.”

  The depth of this man’s darkness was beyond anything I had ever encountered. The cold look of his eyes left me chilled and I turned away toward the distant throne, determined to end this monster’s reign, before it ever got started.

  The cold grasp of his hand on my arm stopped me and I glanced back into his snake eyes.

  “Do you take me for a fool, make believe Queen? Tell us where it is and my men will go and attest to your honesty, while you stay here.”

  I coolly gestured toward the throne. “The gold chambers lie beyond the throne, but only a Candace may go near the throne. Any others attempting it will find their way into an early grave.”

  “We’ll see about that. You, you and you go check out her story.”

  Three of the armed men stepped over the gold link chain that divided the room and started out across the large, square, marble slab floor.

  A slab flipped vertical on one of the men and the man’s cries faded, as he fell headlong down into an uncharted dark void below the floor. The other two men, paralyzed in fear, stood where they were. Heinrich practically screamed, “Well, go on!”

  The farthest man took a step and the tile held for a moment and then abruptly flipped. The man tried to catch himself, but fell through as his head banged on a floor slab.

  He fell unconscious into the depths below the floor. The last man, with a panicked cry, ran back toward us and, on his third step, a floor slab he’d already walked on before unexpectedly flipped and he fell.

  He tried grabbing onto the slick marble, but it was too slippery and with one last horror stricken glance at us, he fell screaming into the abyss.

  Heinrich turned to me and backhanded me across the face. “Why didn’t you tell me the floor was rigged?”

  “Because I was hoping you would be fool enough to step out on it!” I fired back.

  “Only a Candace may approach the throne of Sheba!” I reiterated.

  He pulled a pistol and pressed the muzzle to my temple. He was furious, any angrier and he’d be frothing at the mouth. He moved the pistol away to take aim on Flint.

  “Can the floor be fixed?” he asked.

  “Yes, it can, but only from the other side.”

  “Then go fix it and if you betray me again, your lover will pay the penalty most severely!”

  I turned from him, as he let my arm go, and approached the dividing chain. I picked up the golden chain and jerked hard on the left side wall anchor. The entire grid of marble floor tiles flipped and stood on end. I jerked hard on the right wall anchor. Nothing happened for a moment, but then the sound of rushing air flooded into the chamber, from where it was being captured by the use of funnels located on the African plain above.

  The sound increased to a blaring roar. An air gate flipped and the air was dispersed through different flute like channels throughout the room. A lilting mysterious melody of musical notes began to play. The melody was an old one.

  It was said that Solomon himself had composed it for the Queen of Sheba. Its name was simply ‘The Queen’s Dance’ and I had hoped to never have to dance it for real.

  The old Candace had never let me attempt it for real, but she had laid out a pattern on the floor and had made me practice it over and over.

  I was grateful for that repetition now, as I listened for the key lilting high notes, as the fluted melody filled the cavern with an ancient rhythm. What I was about to attempt was by no means easy.

  Several Candace’s had plunged to their deaths in the quest for Sheba’s throne and seen for themselves what lay below the floor.

  I stepped out, “Lisa!”

  I heard Flint call out desperately, but I didn’t look back. All my concentration was on what I had to do. As my foot fell downward the floor slab flipped flat and held my weight. I swung away in a twirl. Two more slabs flipped flat and caught me in my sideways spin.

  This wasn’t a game of hop scotch; if I didn’t bend my torso, and arch the rest of my body in the sinuousness of the dance, just right, my timing would be thrown off and I would be either too late or too soon to reach a tile and thus plunge to my own death.

  The dance across the shifting floor first took me to the left and then back to the right, until I was tantalizingly close to the other side and the overwhelming instinct was to just lunge for it, but I didn’t. To have done that would have been fatal.

  The music played on and I continued to dance, as my bare feet landed on each tile securely. I was almost two seconds off in my timing and I fought down the fear that was welling up in me, as I focused hard on correcting the time difference.

  The dance brought me back towards where I had started. I caught a glimpse of my spectator’s faces and I saw that they were completely spellbound, as they watched me. This dance had enthralled ancient court halls and enticed the amorous affections of one king in particular.

  Sheba had taken her special dance a step further in the design of her private throne room. This floor’s mechanism of revolving stone weights and complex load splitters, all perfectly timed to the beats of a melody, was more complex than any Rubix Cube could ever hope to be. The design had been yet one more gift from her lover king to the north.

  Sheba had decided that if future Queens were worthy enough to be called Candace and wished the honor of sitting on her throne, then they would have to dance like her too.

  I was headed for the central stair on the other side and I felt the thrill of triumph course through my veins, even as a drop of sweat burned into my eye.

  Perhaps the scariest part of the dance was about to happen. I wheeled to face the group on a spin and then I pushed off, as I somersaulted over backwards. My hand caught me in a head stand on a tile several feet away and, in a controlled motion, my shoulders, then my back, connected with recently flipped tiles as I rolled up to my feet and stepped onto the threshold before the stairs of the throne.

  The music stopped and every floor tile flipped open. My eyes lifted to the throne high above me and I started up the stairs, which only Queens had ever walked upon.

  There were two pedestals to either side of the throne and I reached out for what they each held, the royal scepter and the Queens’ crown. It was my crown now by right. I placed the elegantly jeweled creation on my head and sat down on the throne of Sheba.

  I truly was Candace now and I felt like it, too. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Marshawn tugging a reluctant Flint away from the pillar I had leaned him up against and down the hall I had indicated earlier.

  To keep the spell bound attention of the rest; I inserted the scepter into a slot on the throne and twisted.

  The floor tiles flipped flat and I beckoned to the group at large to approach. They seemed to break out of their stunned amazement and came to their senses, but they didn’t notice Marshawn or Flint’s absence, as they had been standing away from the group.

  They sent my father and half broth
ers across the floor first, as security for Heinrich’s men to see if the floor would hold, if they only knew how my finger itched to send my own family plummeting into the depths.

  I had to take them all out though. Heinrich quickly darted across the floor and started to climb the stairs up to me. His eyes were full of the avarice of his greed and his insane thirst for power.

  He took aim on my head with his pistol and chuckled, as if from some private joke. He was going to kill me.

  “Aren’t you going to verify the existence of your treasure?” I asked, cocking an eyebrow upward.

  Remembrance flickered in his eyes and he glanced at the darkened doorway behind me. His eyes shined with a fiery intensity of yearning, as he licked his lips, while staring at the open doorway beyond the throne.

  I shook my head, “Admittedly, I don’t know my Bible as well as I should, but I have to admit my recent experiences in life have only illustrated the truth to be found in 1st Timothy 6:10. Are you familiar with the verse, Heinrich?”

  He gazed at me in sheer hatred.

  “I guess not then. For your benefit, I’ll refresh your memory, it goes something like this, ‘The love of money is the root of all evil.’ Remember now, Heinrich? There’s nothing wrong with possessing such a treasure, as lies beyond that door, but you’ve let it consume you.”

  “Shut up! Shut up I say!” screamed Heinrich. He pointed the gun at me again, as I sat on my throne.

  “Tsk, tsk, on the verge of your greatest achievement and your afraid to go any further. Are you out of your league Heinrich? Doesn’t sound very superior of you now does it?”

  “Enough!” Heinrich said, truly incensed now.

  “Watch her, while I verify the treasure!” he said, as he stormed past me toward the open doorway.

  He stepped into the darkened doorway. With an audible click, a stone in the floor depressed beneath his foot and he stopped.

  “Should have had me go on before you Heinrich, bum move on your part this time,” I said savagely from my seated position on the throne.

  “What?” he asked sickly, only moments before thousands upon thousands of gallons of water pounded out of the open doorway and from the holes in the ceiling all along the length of the throne room.

  I sat on the throne, as the water sheeted out around it and gushed down the steps carrying away Heinrich’s henchmen. A stone slab door slammed downward into the entrance of the treasure room that we had come through earlier.

  The treasure room was also flooding with water, beyond the stone slab. I saw nothing of Heinrich or my father, in the turbulent pool that was rapidly rising before me. Those still able to make their way ran down the open doorways on the left that water was draining out through.

  Out of the corner of my eye I caught sight of two men slogging through the water pouring out of the single doorway on the right. It was my father and Rocco. They were going to get away!

  I couldn’t allow that!

  I continued to sit, as the water rose to the top of the steps and then it stopped. I turned the scepter in its slot and the floor reopened and drained the water, with its protesting human debris into the great void below. I was left alone in the dripping wet throne room.

  There was a crumbling sound and a shuddering of the surrounding walls as the treasure room, beyond the stone slab, collapsed and fell into the void below, over which it had been precariously supported for centuries.

  All that remained was this throne room and the rooms that lay behind the throne; not much to be a Queen over.

  I walked back down the golden stairs and replaced my crown and scepter, from where I had taken them off the two pedestals. My rule as Queen was over, because I had found something better in life than the ancient secrets of this place.

  Perhaps one of my daughters would want to be a Candace someday. I kind of hoped not, as the role had seldom been a happy one through the years. Even Sheba had died, separated, alone and away from the great fling of her life.

  I wasn’t going to be like that. I was going to follow my heart instead. I climbed the stairs and went through the darkened doorway, not giving the ornate throne and the figure head above a second look. Solomon had said it best in two reflections, “All is vanity" and "there is nothing new under the sun.”

  The hall I walked in grew lighter again and I passed by the rooms to either side of the hall. They weren’t filled with gold, but with treasure of a different kind, none the less.

  At the end of the hall I pressed several stones and the private chambers of the Candace opened up before me.

  The elegant linens of the bed and the colorful murals of the walls held no fascination for me today, as they had for countless hours when I was younger.

  An elegant burial casket dominated the room and I went to it, reflecting on the one time wisdom of its occupant.

  She had known that I was the last to rule here and that I would finish the job of protecting the treasure forever.

  “Thank you old friend, for everything,” I whispered, as I ran my hand over the carved outward features of the Candace’s sarcophagus, which was overlaid with gold.

  It showed her as she had been in her youth, not as the old, crippled and weary woman that had taught me everything I had needed to know and so much more.

  She had given me a break from the harshness of my life up until then and the tools to become free of it as well.

  I pressed a golden seamed ridge on the sarcophagus and a shallow tray slid out from the side. I picked up the necklace, which glowed up at me from the tray and I put it on. This, I would take with me.

  The necklace consisted of several shimmering blue stones that were unadorned and not faceted. They seemed to glow from within and I did not doubt that they were the rarest element to be found on Earth and for a good reason, too. They had not originated here, but had fallen as part of a meteorite long ago into the desert, the Candace had told me.

  The stones had several unique properties, one of which I intended to exploit. I stripped off my clothes, until I was naked.

  I went to a chest and pulled out the embroidered linen garments of a Queen and put them on. I pulled my hair back and snapped a golden loop into it.

  I put on the jewelry and even the makeup of a Queen. I glanced in the mirror and was pleased with what I saw. I looked the part that I had already been living.

  Nervously I turned toward the corner of the room and the shelves that were there. I walked closer and saw her lying there on the shelf, faithful to her master even long after her passing.

  “Hello Za’esha. I’m really hoping that you remember me. Remember those big fat mice I used to feed you?”

  The large, female, black Mamba’s head rose up regally, as she regarded me. I let her study me for a moment, with her beady eyes and flickering tongue, before I reached out my hand to her.