From the Prologue
“She’ll fill her head with the same things she did when I
was a child,” she shook her head angrily. “I don’t want Marina to meet with
her.”
“There is
nothing more important than family—nothing. She’s your mother; how she found us
to ask for this meeting I don’t know. But if she doesn’t have much time left,
as she said, Marina deserves a chance to see her one last time.” There was no
give in his tone.
“It’s
dangerous, they told us never to have contact with anyone from the past—no
family—no friends.”
“In my life I've done bad things that
I'lll pay even more for when my time has come; but right now, in this, I will
do a good thing… the thing I believe is right for our daughter,” taking a
breath he continued. “When we met, you were thirteen and had a sparkle within
you that shined with love of all things. That's why I fell in love with you. My
life, my selfish choices, killed that light in you; another death I have on my
hands. I cannot—will not deny that special gift to our daughter. She’s all that
is left.”
Sighing as if with her last breath,
“I know… but it will be hard if she travels that path only to be disappointed.
So hard…,” she turned and went to the bedroom door and knocked, “Marina, please
come here, your father and I must talk to you.”
From Chapter 2 “Past
& Future”
It is the Sunday evening paseo, crowded with people
strolling; taking in the breeze coming off the bay that lifts the heat of the
day with a promise of a cooler night. On a bench along the Malecon sits an old
woman near the new Friendship Fountain a sculpture of three dolphins, two full
grown and a small one—happy with the joy of being together. She looks up at it
with a grin that looks remarkably young on such a careworn face. The sharp line
of her cheekbones still defined though skin crinkled with crushed paper lines
surrounded clear eyes like deep blue amethysts.
“A family:
mother, father and child; carefree as life should be,” she lowers her head to
scan the promenade right and left. She doesn’t see her yet but knows she will
come.
I don’t
know why Mom and Dad won’t come with me but I’m excited to see my grandmother,
thought Marina as she approached the dolphin fountain. That is so cool. She
stopped to look up at it, wishing she had a dolphin as pet. Not much water for
them in Scottsdale though, she giggled. I have to look for a woman wearing a
traditional k’eperina. Mom says that’s the sling cloth Peruvian women who live
out in the country, use to carry things, even babies. There she is… I think.
Marina
approached the old woman on the nearby bench with the red patterned cloth
around her neck and chest like a large sash. She turned her head to watch
Marina come closer—startling blue eyes peered at her from the seamed face—azure
marbles in the cracks of a broken sidewalk on a sunny day. Blue on green their
eyes locked as Marina stepped up to her.
“Ahuicha?”
Marina asked as her mother had told to do. “Grandmother?”
“Jisa… yes
my child. I’m your ahuicha. I have not seen you since you were six years old.
What a beautiful lady you’re becoming,” she patted the bench next to her. “Sit
and we’ll talk. I have much to tell you about life and about you. A Thing has
changed in the World and I have two special gifts for you—that may lead to an
even greater one,” she beamed at her granddaughter.
* * *
Shift in time (years
later--see the book for the complete narrative)
Early the next morning Marina stared up at the Hayu Marca’s
with a pair of high-power binoculars that brought the face of the mountains
into sharp focus. Unconsciously, with her other hand, she reached for the
golden medallion that hung around her neck and stroked it lightly between her
thumb and fingers. The orb at its center began to vibrate at her touch. Smiling
softly to herself, she lowered the binoculars and as she returned them to the
case looked at the lens—seeing her reflection. Her green eyes were decidedly
odd—all the women on her mother’s side had blue eyes except her mother and her.
Given the genetics of her ethnic background, both colors were very rare.
She’d tied her thick dark hair back
in a French braid and wore just a khaki tank top. As the wind swirled about her
it blew her braid to the side, revealing a faint olive–colored ‘S’ shaped
birthmark on her back. She turned away from the mountain to wake Mikhail. There
was much she needed to talk to him about and they must stop Esteban before he
talked to anyone else.
Walking back to camp she smelled
the coffee—even if she didn’t know the way she could have just followed her
nose the fragrance was so inviting. She needed her coffee. Badly. She saw him
kneeling next to the fire—using an oven mitt to take the coffee pot and set it
to one side where he had a small folding stool set up as a table just big
enough for two cups to sit.
“Good morning,” he beamed up at
her, handing over a steaming cup; getting his and then settling back on his
haunches clearly savoring the scent and flavor of the morning.
“Mikhail, I told you why I wanted
to come here and about my grandmother’s diary my mother chose to ignore.”
He looked more serious now, “Yes… I
understand this region is where your mother’s family came from and it’s a
beautiful place too. But I believe in science… in facts. Not mysticism and
tales handed down through the years.”
“Mikhail, it’s more than just that
though—I felt drawn to something as a child—something that seemed always close
but that I couldn’t quite grasp or understand. I didn’t know what it was until
I met my grandmother on a trip to Puerto Vallarta. My mother did not want that
meeting but grandmother demanded it and my father made it happen. He sensed
somehow that something was happening to me—a change taking place or trying to.
I was like a pot of boiling water with a lid clamped down—a lot of pressure
with no place for it to go. And I knew it just wasn’t ‘growing up’ like my
mother told me. I think he knew that too.
I’ve never shown this to you—to
anyone. No one knows of it except my grandmother.” Unbuttoning the top two
buttons of her blouse she drew out an odd shaped symbol, gold colored with a
ball of crystal in its center.
“Hey… that’s the same shape as…”
“The carving in the middle of that
‘doorway’ we found yesterday,” she finished for him. “It’s a chakana; my
grandmother gave it to me along with the diary,” she passed it over to him.
“It’s heavy, is it…?”
“Real gold, yes. That alone makes
it worth several thousand dollars. The crystal I have no idea about but have
never seen anything like it at rock shops and gemologists. According to my
grandmother and the diary it dates back to around the year 1230AD to Manco
Capac’s rule as son of the sun god Inti. As a true antiquity it may be
priceless.
The diary says the medallion is
actually two keys: the first to open the way to Pacaritambo through a mountain
to a huge hidden cavern believed by historians to have been flooded by Lake
Titicaca near here. In that cavern are the ruins of Paititi a lost city that
most believe never existed. I think the doorway sensed I had the medallion—and
caused me to pass out when I brought it close but didn’t insert it where it’s
supposed to go—kind of like an overload, I guess.”
“And the second?”
“In the heart of the medallion,
within the crystal, is embedded the spirit and power of Urcuchillay, the Animal
Guardian—the Incan god that protects all animals on the earth. I’ve always had
an affinity for animals… you know that about me. The power within the crystal,
when activated, is supposed to trigger the ability to communicate with and
command animals—and more importantly—to learn from them.”
“Well, what do you want to do?”
“I want to go back up there, insert
the medallion and see what happens,” she paused, “But we need to figure out how
to deal with Esteban. If he sees the medallion or something happening with the
doorway—he could get greedy or decide that two ‘Americans’ don’t need something
of such significance to his culture.”
“Right and we can’t let him get his
archaeologist friend involved, at least not yet.”
“That makes it even more
complicated,” Marina tapped her chin. “Esteban prides himself on his American
education and being a ‘Florida Gator’… he’s proud he started a business that
supports his family but he’s also proud of his heritage and knows a lot about
the culture and history of his people. If something happens I don’t know where
this all will go but we’d need someone with his capabilities and background to
help us.”
“Getting him involved in some way
that he benefits is the only way I see to make it work,” he agreed.
“Let’s go talk to him and make him
an offer he can’t refuse then,” she grinned at him. “I’ll bring my
grandmother’s diary but maybe I shouldn’t show him the medallion just yet.”
“That, I think, is a very good
idea.”
* * *
Esteban had set his
tent up a little ways away from theirs, whether out of respect for their
privacy or a need for his. As they approached he was coming out of his tent.
“Smelled the coffee… that’s better
than an alarm clock out here. How do you feel Ms. Toledo, are you okay?”
“I’m fine Esteban and please,
please call me Marina.” He nodded, “Are you two ready to head back to town? I
can’t wait to talk to my friend about what we found.”
Not answering she said instead,
“You said something yesterday about your grandmother telling you stories… and I
listened to you. My grandmother told me stories too—you see my ancestry also
goes back to this area on my mother’s side. My grandmother left me a diary that
has been in my family for many years and it’s a recounting of stories,
instructions and family history going back even further, for centuries
actually.”
She showed him the diary, its
weathered leather cover badly scuffed and marred with pages of different types
of paper—some of them looked like tanned hide.
At Esteban’s puzzled, ‘where is
this going’ look, “What I’m saying is that from reading this diary, I knew
approximately where the path was that would lead to the ‘doorway’… and there’s
much more about what the ‘doorway’ is and other things that are supposed to be
disclosed when it’s opened.”
“Ms. Toled… I mean, Marina, this is
fantastic … we must get my friend to go with us!”
“That’s part of what we want to
talk to you about,” Mikhail interjected. “Marina believes she knows how to open
the ‘doorway’. We need to check this out first and see what happens before
bringing in others.”
“Okay, it’s probably best to make
sure that it’s really still there… my people talk of many strange things
happening in these mountains. Let’s go check it out—after I get my coffee! His
smile was infectious… they all grinned at each other.
* * *
The three made the climb again, this time knowing where they
were going and why. They came to the ‘doorway’ and Marina pulled the medallion
from her shirt.
Mikhail grabbed her forearm before
she could place it, “Are you sure you want to do this… you don’t know what’s
going to happen to you?”
“I was born to do this, I have to
do this,” quickly she set the medallion in place but Mikhail hadn’t removed his
hand. This time there was no flying sensation for Marina—no out of body
feeling. They looked at each other and sensed rather than felt a vibration and
shift in perception. A vision of what was beyond the stone, inside and through
it to a place long hidden that would not, could not be found—the way not opened
until the right one was born.
And Marina was not the one!
The last thing she felt was a
whisper of a voice saying ‘through you she will come.’
Crying out and falling to her knees
Marina dislodged the medallion and everything quieted. Mikhail knelt—cradling
her head against his chest as she heaved with deep wracking tears that only
come at the loss of what’s most dear to you.
“I was so sure I was the one—the
one to regain the heritage and legacy my mother’s line lost,” she sobbed. “I’m
not!”
“Shhh baby, it’s okay, everything
will be okay… didn’t you hear her?”
“Hear her, her who?”
“The voice—the woman’s voice at the
end that whispered to us.”
“You’re right—I did hear a voice…
you heard it too?”
“Yes. Marina, I felt and heard it
all. You know I came with you on this trip because I love you and want to be
with you in all that we do. I believe you now. Together we’ll have a daughter
that will be the one.”
As he stood he raised her, “Marina,
will you marry me?”
“How could I refuse?”
Esteban stood to one side, an
observer but not an outsider. Almost in shock, he stepped up to them, looked at
the medallion in Marina’s hand and unbuttoned his shirt to mid-chest, parting
it to show what was there.
“My grandmother, who I loved more than
anything or anyone, asked that I have this placed on my chest when I turned
thirteen.”
Tattooed on his chest was the
medallion.
* * *
Shift in time (years
later--see the book for the complete narrative)
From the Shadows
In the distance, flashes of lightning played across the sky
and the first few giant sized drops of rain splashed across the ground,
indicating more and harder rain was on its way. Gusts of wind picked up bits of
dried grass, scrub brush, and dry earth and whipped them around in tornado-like
swirls.
A lone figure and a large shambling
shape, hard to make out against the darkness of the trail and the dim light
from a grey day, stepped into the valley. They had come from the part of the
cavern where the SDO, basin and habitats were located. The small figure popped
open an umbrella, which immediately struggled to keep from turning inside out
in the wind.
“I wish Dad would let me explore
the other trails that branch off from the valley but my GPS tracker would get
me in trouble for sure if I tried that without permission.”
Sara patted her huge companion,
Abby. “This is the only one big enough for you anyway.” A wet grey trunk lifted
and draped itself across her shoulders, the tip reaching up to tug at her ear.
“That tickles, Abby,” Sara laughed. “Let’s go check out The Well,” sensing her hesitate, “Don’t worry I’ll be careful.”
Girl and elephant, an incongruous
pair, they worked their way through a rock strewn area that hadn’t been
traveled enough to create a path but a few more times with Abby surely would.
As the rain lifted they came to a low crumbling wall whose intact stones still
fit together; you couldn’t fit a knife blade between them. The odd thing was
that the rocks fallen from the wall uniformly were on the outside, away from
the base of the wall—as if they’d been blown there from something from within
the walls boundary. The wall framed a square slab of polished stone, easily 40
feet by 4o feet, eroded by wind and water and maybe even countless feet. The
slab of red porphyry was fine grained and glinted with crystals embedded
throughout. When the sunlight hit it right, she could watch little sparkle
angels dance in the swirls of dust that lifted from it. Not today though the
slab was wet and rain slick.
In the center of the slab was an
opening, five feet in diameter. She called it, The Well but her Mom and Dad didn’t think that was its
purpose—neither did Esteban and he knew a lot of the legends and stories that
had never been written down about this place.
Stepping to the edge, closer than
she ever had before, despite what she’d promised Abby, Sara looked into the
darkness. A squeal from Abby attempted to call her away from the edge, “I know…
but I’m going to be careful.” She knelt and leaned over to look closer inside,
“I see something like handholds carved into the rock.” At that moment a spear
of bright sunlight broke through the clouds; shafting down onto the slab and
into the hole. Sara saw something glinting, not at the bottom but on a ledge
about twenty feet below. Shifting her weight forward to get a better look, with
a crack, suddenly the lip of the slab that rimmed the hole broke and Sara
pitched forward into the darkness.
Abby trumpeted in alarm and crashed
through the low wall onto the slab and up to the opening, the lip cracking and
splintering further, threatening to give way under the weight of the elephant.
In the hole, Sara had twisted as
she fell and caught a rock projecting from beneath the rough lining of the opening.
Dangling and slightly swaying six feet down, fingers slipping from the wet
stone, Sara saw Abby’s trunk snaking down to her and grabbed it just as what
she was holding onto snapped off. With more of the slab breaking and falling
into the well, Abby backed away, dragging Sara to lift her over the wall and
set her down on the other side.
Shaking, Sara gasped, “Abby, let’s not tell
Mom and Dad about this just yet, okay? I saw something that looked like eyes
down there shining up at me from the shadows.”
Abby
looked at her with a ‘what-am-I-going-to-do-with-you’ kind of look and shook
her head.
“I know,
but the diary says that sometimes we have to go into the shadows to understand
the light,” retorted Sara.
* * *
‘Sometimes when I’m up here it almost feels like there’s a
wind coming but Dad says this part of the cavern, where the SDO was built, just
wasn’t situated to get draughts from the rift valley…’
“Abby, don’t stir so much. I’m
trying to type,” Sara called down to her from the elevated perch used to toss
hay into Abby’s Pen (her favorite spot when visiting her). Abby liked to
scratch her sides on the thick support posts and a full-grown elephant sure
could shake things.
‘Mom says the diary talks about
tunnels and passages that link up to other caverns and islands on Lake
Titicaca. Some even branch into Bolivia. She only lets me study parts of the
diary she’s copied into sections so I can focus on what she calls ‘basic
training.’ She says she’s taking the parts to create a kind of a course to
follow.’
‘I hope that Dad will let me go
exploring with Esteban when he gets back in a couple of months. He’s great to
go with and I think he knows more about the cavern than anyone—except what’s in
great-grandma’s diary. There are hand-drawn maps in it that show places Mom
says they haven’t identified where they are yet. There’s just not anything
they’ve seen that matches up to them. Of course they think only about 25% of
the cavern has been explored so who knows what’s out there. There are places in
the rift valley that look like rocks or a landslide has sealed off part of it.
There are walls and even some buildings that just stop at a pile of rock. Mom
and Esteban plan to dig through or go over it to find out what’s on the other
side but we just haven’t had time to do it yet. They’re concerned about it
being dangerous—and I think Mom is kind of worried about what’s on the other
side.’
‘I know that what I saw yesterday
in The Well sure scared me for a minute—I’m glad Abby was there or I might have
found out, the hard way, what was at the bottom. And what about those eyes?’
‘Sometimes I feel a little scared when I study
and practice—the animals sense that and I think it makes them twitchy too. They
can tell if I’m upset. Mom says the diary teaches how to control that though
and I’ll learn to get better as I get older.’
A grey trunk came creeping over the
edge of the platform under the bottom rail. Touching Sara’s left shoe gently,
it pulled her shoelace until it was untied. Moving to the right foot, Abby was
just tugging its lace when a shadow flew over them, so low they felt the beat
of wings—a quick brush of air and then it climbed away. Standing to see better,
Sara knew the large fast moving bird headed to the batch of ferns built into
the superstructure was Anastasia. She called out, “Don’t just buzz us… stop and
visit next time.”
Glancing back down she saw Abby,
whose trunk was still on the platform, watching her; eyes peeking between the
two bottom rails. “I know you untied my shoes again—don’t think I didn’t
notice. Geez… I have to watch you and Loogie all the time,” she grinned at her
as she sat back down and re-tied her shoes then picked up her tablet seeing a
pop-up window reminder.
‘Well, have to get to my room and
take care of some chores—why Dad makes me help with laundry I don’t know but it
sure does stack up. Gotta go for now. Signing off!’
Shift in time (later in the story--see the
book for the complete narrative)
From chapter 22
“Cornered”
Reaching the ground side-maintenance area, Sara led Marina
to ladder. She could hear Abby calling from her pen, a bleating trumpet she
knew meant she was one upset elephant—the gunfire and the power outage shutting
down her lighting had her starting to rage.
The rungs of the ladder were
slippery and Julie’s shoes kept sliding off nearly causing her to fall. She
kicked them off to get a better grip with her bare feet.
“Here it is,” Sara called from just
above her. “There’s a little platform here and from the access panel it’s down
the hall a ways to my room,” she told Julie as she released the catches on the
panel. Slipping through the opening as fast as they could they crossed an open
area that had passageways branching off. Taking the one on the right Sara
sprinted to her room with Julie not far behind her.
“What is it you need here?” Julie
demanded. “We have to get away from this building!”
Sara was busy opening a wall safe,
reached in and drew out something that flashed gold and white… “I needed to get
this… my mother’s medallion.”
Looking like it was the worst
possible joke, “What? Why in the world do you need that,” questioned Julie.
“For the animals, they’re going to
help us,” Sara replied… “You have to trust me.”
* * *
Alicia McKnight maneuvered herself along one of the lower
catwalks. She’d watched Leon plunge into the lake and had fought the urge to
make sure he was alright. She could see several guards appear to the far left
as they walked the perimeter of the lake, looking for his body.
She slowly brought her weapon up into
position. From this spot she could see nearly the entire SDO, only the back
side of the waterfall wasn’t a clear shot for her. She knew eventually she
would get a shot; she just didn’t know at who it would be. Hopefully it
wouldn’t be too late to make a difference.
* * *
Two men slowly picked their way towards the lake; they were
looking for Falcon or his body, their weapons at the ready. The shoreline was
lined with cattails, lily pads and duckweed. Water birds scattered as they got
closer; squawking and trumpeting as they took wing and fluttered across the
lake.
“Do you see him?” one of the men
asked his partner.
“No I don’t. Maybe he sank to the
bottom?”
They began moving off to circle to
their right, following the shoreline. From above on the balcony in front of the
control room, someone called down to them.
“Have you found the body yet?”
“Not yet!” said the lead man as he
looked at his partner and shook his head. “So much for being quiet.”
Falcon floated to the surface in
the swirling eddies of the waterfall where it poured into the lake. He was
hurt, possibly a broken rib or two. The approaching men were talking softly
amongst themselves and he couldn’t make out what they were saying. Just then
someone shouted at them from above. He was going to try to pull himself up
behind the waterfall to see if he could somehow get the drop on them. Slowly he
used his left arm to swim in their direction using the eddying water to mask
his progress.
* * *
Stepping quietly to the ground, Sara took something out of
her back pocket and slipped it over her head, Julie saw it was gold with a
round white crystal in the center. Sara’s eyes glowed with swirls of light as
she began the invocation,
“Oh crystal orb perfect and clear
Show me your secrets—I have no fear
In your mysterious depths and
colors I look
For all animal’s spirits that lives
in each nook
In sunlight and shadow where all
dwell
There are the truths—you know so
well..."
Julie felt something move in the
air—like a breeze pushing through that swirled into a flash of light that
expanded from the crystal orb in the center of Sara’s medallion. That arc of
light flew out over the water of the lake spiraling to end where Leon lay.
* * *
Alicia could see the two men had
leveled their rifles at someone in the grass and were barking orders at him. It
had to be Julie’s FBI friend Agent Falcon; she drew a bead on the first one but
needed him to turn so she didn’t have to go for a head shot—she wanted to hit
him in the chest.
Suddenly what looked like a wet
pink torpedo came up out of the water and shot a spray of liquid hitting the
man right in the face. The men turned to bring their rifles around and that
gave Alicia the profile she needed. She squeezed the trigger once, taking out
the first, shifted, pressed the trigger again, taking out the second. She could
see Falcon looking around in amazement then he hit the ground. In the
background the pink torpedo came out of the water and she could see it was a
dolphin. I’ll be… she thought, never seen a fuchsia Flipper before.
* * *
Sara and Julie knelt beside Leon where he lay in the tall
grass. Julie splashed a little of the cool water from the waterfall on his
face. His eyes flickered open and he sat up. The effort was immediately met by
a sharp stabbing pain from his broken ribs.
“Don’t try that again without our
help,” said Julie.
“Don’t worry, I won’t,” replied
Leon, through clenched teeth. “What was that pink thing?”
“That was Loogie,” Sara said proudly.
“I saw him near you in the water; he’s kind of nosey and was probably curious
what you were doing in his lake.”
“His lake?”
“Yeah, pretty much. You wouldn’t
believe how fast he is and how far he can spit—it’s terribly funny to watch him
nail someone not expecting it. So I called to him to help you.”
Not knowing what to say to that,
Leon looked at Julie blankly.
“How are your legs?” she asked,
looking around.
“Shaky. But if you’re asking can I
make it, the answer is yes,” he said with determination.
“Good, then let’s get the heck out of here.
Sara, give me a hand,” said Julie, gesturing for Sara to help her get Leon to
his feet.
“Where are your shoes?” Leon asked
looking at Julie’s feet. “Pink nail polish?”
“Shut up. Haven’t you ever seen a
girl’s toes before?”
Sara wasn’t paying attention; she
could feel Abby’s heart racing, she could sense but not hear Anastasia’s
scream, high above. She knew Loogie was watching them from forty feet out in
the lake. Vivaldi was coiled in her tree but edgy, just like she got before
hunting. And she knew that part of her—part of the light that came from the orb
had continued beyond the lake into the far parts of the cavern and rift valley
that she’d never been to. Something was awakening out there… and in her.
Sara jumped, coming out of her
daze, as Julie placed her hand on her shoulder and pulled her back to the
situation at hand.
“Sara, help me get Leon on his
feet,” said Julie, sternly. Sara blinked and then realizing where she was put
her shoulder under Leon’s right arm. Together she and Julie got him up.
“So – uh, so its Leon now is it?”
he said gasping.
“Yeah, it’s Leon. Unless of course
you want to be called dipstick for getting yourself nearly killed,” she said as
they cleared the edge of the basin to get onto the concrete walkway of Level 1.
“No Le – Leon is fine,” he said,
between stabs of pain.
“Good, now let’s move it.” She
picked up the pace. There was an access tunnel about fifty yards ahead; the
signage above it read ‘Vivaldi’ with an arrow to the left and ‘Hatchery’ with
an arrow pointing deeper into the tunnel.
“Sara, which do you think is the
safest place to hide?” asked Julie.
Without hesitation Sara answered,
“Vivaldi’s pen.” In a shambling run they headed for the giant snake’s
enclosure.
![The Forbidden Journals | Book One [Draft Opening]](http://adducentinc.com/wp-content/uploads/The-Forbidden-Journals-Book-One-by-Dennis-Lowery.jpg)
