Jake Ransom and the Skull King's Shadow (27 page)

It meant nothing to him. He returned his attention to the round maps. His gaze swept back and forth. Seven continents formed one supercontinent. But he couldn’t quite let go of the letters below. They hovered at the corner of his eye. Eight letters in all. Eight pieces to the puzzle. Jake watched Pangaea pull together one more time, merging into one. Then the letters again.

What if…?

Jake pushed the letters together in his mind’s eye.

Something tried to form. Something that looked familiar. His brain tickled with the mystery.

Jake reached into his pocket and removed his mother’s sketchbook. He tore out a page near the back that was still blank and slipped his mother’s charcoal pencil from the book’s binding. With the page pressed to the wall, Jake scribbled the pencil across its surface to make a rubbing of the letters.

Once done, he had a copy of the letters etched on the paper. He knelt down and creased the paper between each letter, so that he could accordion them all together into one piece. Just like the continents had formed Pangaea.

With great care, he merged all the letters together until they formed a single word. Jake stared down at what he’d created.

Shock drew Jake back to his feet. The paper began to tremble in his hands. He now understood what had nagged at him to return here. In his head, he broke the letters into shapes that were more familiar.

He read it aloud. “Atlantis.”

Jake backed away from the wall. Could it be true? Could the pyramid and the knowledge displayed here trace back to Atlantis, the mythological island, where an advanced race once ruled? He struggled to recall all he knew about Atlantis. The earliest stories were written by Plato, one of the most famous Greek philosophers. He claimed to have visited Atlantis, seen its wonders. And according to his
stories, the island was violently destroyed, broken apart, and sunk into the sea.

Jake stepped back to the map. He touched the surface of Pangaea. The supercontinent
did
look like an island. Was this what Plato had seen? Had the Greek philosopher been brought here…the same as Jake and Kady? And was Plato being poetic when he said Atlantis vanished into the vastness of the seas? Maybe he had meant the civilization had vanished into the seas
of time
.

It was too much to absorb. Jake fell back. He turned, dazed, staring at the walls, picturing the crystal heart above. Was all this built by the lost civilization of Atlantis? Was it their technology that drew the other Lost Tribes back in time to Pangaea? Or were the Atlantean people the first of the Lost Tribes? Did they start all this? If so, where did they go?

Question after question filled his head.

Jake pressed his palms against his ears. He had solved one riddle only to have it shatter into a thousand other mysteries.

“Jake!”

The shout cut through the flurry in his head. He turned to Kady. She stood in the center of the inner wheel and held the pocket watch in her hands. She had popped the watchcase open, as if checking the time, but she squinted at something inside that bothered her.

Jake was glad for the distraction. He crossed over and
joined her in the inner ring. “What?” he asked.

She tilted the watchcase at an angle and pointed to the underside of the lid. Jake reached to her hands and moved the watch more fully into the light. A shape had been crisply carved into the gold surface.

Jake recognized the shape. It was an
ankh
, the Egyptian symbol for “life.” It was one of the most important symbols of ancient Egypt, carried by pharaohs during important ceremonies.

“And look at this,” Kady said. She pulled the watch closer to her. “The second hand is spinning
backward
!”

Jake had already noticed that, but he’d forgotten to tell Kady. It was a minor mystery when compared to the discovery of their father’s watch.

Jake tried to pull the watch back toward him. He wanted a closer peek at the ankh.

Kady fought him. “I don’t get it. What’s wrong with Dad’s watch? Maybe if we reset it.”

Jake, still struggling to get a better look at the Egyptian symbol, took an extra beat to hear what Kady had said.
Especially one word.

Reset
.

He was too slow. Kady already had her fingers on the watch’s stem. It was used to wind the watch—but also to adjust the
time
.

“No!” Jake warned.

For just a moment, he remembered the adage Balam had taught Marika:
Look twice and step once
. It was a bit of wisdom that urged restraint and caution.

Kady hadn’t learned it. She pulled the stem out.

Instantly a great grinding of gears sounded. It rose not from the watch, but from the golden wheels around them. The Mayan calendar wheels began turning as Jake and Kady stood in the center. The movement was slow at first, then faster and faster. The gears churned so rapidly that any misstep by Jake or Kady could cost them a foot. And the spinning grew even swifter, turning the wheels into a golden blur.

Jake still held Kady’s hands, clutching the watch between them. As the gears whirled into oblivion, Jake felt force building under his feet.

A shout of warning formed on his lips. “Hang—”

White light blasted upward and consumed them. The brightness instantly blinded Jake. Though without sight, he sensed that he was shooting skyward; it felt like being in an elevator strapped to a rocket engine. It all lasted less than an instant.

Then it was over.

He blinked against the residual glare as thunder rumbled around him.

Thunder?

The blinding light faded into ordinary lightning.

As his vision cleared, Jake stared dumbfounded around him. Kady crouched next to him, equally frozen in shock. To all sides stood glass display cases and pedestals holding up ancient artifacts. A step away, the golden pyramid with its jade dragon rested on a stand.

They were back in the British Museum!

Back home.

Has it been all a dream?

Jake still held Kady’s hands. Their father’s pocket watch rested in her palm. The metal bands encircled their left wrists.

Before he could make sense of it, a yell made them both jump.

“No!”

Jake swung fully around. A bull of a man ran toward them. It was Morgan Drummond, their assigned corporate bodyguard. Just seconds before they’d vanished, Drummond had been rushing toward them and yelling.

Just like now.

“Get back from there!” Drummond scolded. But the man pulled up short, scratched his head, then stared around the place as if sensing something was off kilter.
But after a breath, he settled his gaze back on them. His expression was vaguely suspicious.

“What were you two doing?”

Jake slipped the gold watch from Kady’s fingers and showed it to Morgan. Before the man could get a good look, Jake dropped it into his own pocket.

“I was just checking the time,” Jake said, and secretly nudged Kady.

She jumped, then nodded vigorously, unable to speak yet.

“If you were checking the time,” Drummond said, regaining the brusque command in his voice, “then you know you’ve both had plenty of time in here alone. With the eclipse over, the museum patrons will want their turn up here.”

Jake looked to a window.
The eclipse?
If it was just ending, then no time had passed here in London at all. They’d spent more than a week in Pangaea…and returned back to the very spot where they’d started.

Both in space and time.

Drummond scanned the room, as if searching for something. His eyes remained narrowed, and he focused back on Jake and Kady. “Did you touch anything in here?”

“Of course not,” Jake said, pretending to be offended.

Kady also shook her head.

“And nothing strange happened?”

Jake frowned. “There was lightning. And thunder. The
lights went out.” He shrugged. “But it’s not like we’re scared of the dark or anything.”

Jake kept his expression bland, but he stared extra hard at the man. Jake remembered his earlier suspicions about Morgan Drummond. The bodyguard had claimed Jake and Kady were brought to London as a publicity stunt to draw media attention for the exhibit. But what if there was a darker purpose? Something more sinister? Had Drummond’s boss hoped they would open a portal to Pangaea? Was that the true reason they’d been brought here and left alone in the museum?

Drummond’s eyes shone with a growing suspicion, but a commotion by the door drew his attention around. Excited voices rang out. Men and women dressed in fine attire flowed into the room.

Drummond scowled at the newcomers. His voice grew tinged with disappointment. “I suppose it’s time I got you both back to your hotel. You have an early flight back home in the morning.”

Jake glanced to Kady. He tugged his sleeve to hide his metal wrist band. Following his example, she did the same. Jake had already told her about the symbol he’d seen on the grakyl sword and his suspicions about the Bledsworth corporation.

Even now, as Drummond turned to face the approaching crowd, a silvery flash drew Jake’s eye to the man’s steel tie tack. The small griffin with its talons bared was the
symbol for Bledsworth Sundries and Industries, Inc. And likewise for Kalverum Rex, the Skull King.

Drummond swung toward them. Another tinier flash drew Jake’s attention back to the man’s pin. Jake might have missed it if he hadn’t already been looking. The eye of the griffin sparked with a bit of dark fire. Jake had noted the eye during the limo ride across London. At the time, he’d thought it was a tiny black diamond.

But now he knew the truth.

Jake recognized the gem that made up that black eye. It was a tiny speck of
bloodstone
, the crystal forged by the dark alchemy of Kalverum Rex.