The Sphere (The Magi Series #2) (44 page)

“I have to say hiding that darn cube so high would be enough
to keep
me
from being able to take it,” Paul said through gasps for air.

When they finally arrived at the base of the tallest tower,
they took a break.  The path to the tower was intimidating.  Leading to the
tower were hundreds more stairs, but they looked much different than the stairs
they had just climbed.  They were made of marble, and looked surprisingly
intact.  Instead of the short, steep stairs, these were very long and wide,
like the steps to a Greek temple.  When Elijah and his friends had eventually
had enough rest, they realized that the tower was indeed a sort of temple. 
Intricate patterns and animals were carved out of the stone, and statues of
people lined the top.  Elijah recognized the wind symbol, carved out in many
places, including the very top of the temple.

Just being at the very top of the temple was an experience
on its own, and Elijah understood why this was the dwelling place for people skilled
with wind.  He found it hard to keep his balance from the powerful gusts that
blew.  It swirled and changed direction at any given moment, making it hard to
keep balance.

“How do you even get inside this thing?” Paul asked as he
battled a gust of wind blowing at his face.  “Are we supposed to be looking for
some kind of trap door or something?”

“Maybe,” Elijah said.  “Look around.  Start touching and
pulling and pushing things.  That’s what they do in the movies.”

“The what?” Paul asked.

“Never mind.  Just look around.”

Elijah searched the area.  They were standing on a large
platform made of marble, cut in perfectly even slabs.  He inspected each
piece.  He even jumped on a few.  He touched every carving, pulled every
statue, even jumped
on
the statues, but there didn’t seem to be a way
inside.  Hannah, Becca, and Paul did the same, but they had no luck.  They
finally gave up and met at the center-most point of the temple top.

“There’s no way this is all there is, is there?” Paul asked.

“It might be,” Hannah said.  “This might be just some sort
of building for an altar or something to look nice for their people.  Like a
monument.”

“But it doesn’t even
do
anything,” Paul insisted. 
“It’s just a big piece of rock!”

“That’s all a monument does, genius,” Becca said.

Paul scowled at her.

“Let’s try the other building,” Elijah said.  “Maybe we can
come back here if we can’t find anything else.”

The others agreed and they descended the summit of the
tower.  The wind had died down by the time they reached the pointed building,
but it was still quite blustery.

When they walked into the building, they had to blink
several times before they could see inside.  Everything was inexplicably blue. 
Even though it was light outside and there were many windows, the halls and
rooms inside were very dark, casting rays of blue light all around.

Just like the tower, this building was made of marble.  High
arches helped transition the rooms.  Some of the stained glass windows and
marble statues and paintings were still intact inside the halls.  While the
tower was actually much smaller than it appeared from the base of the valley,
this building was much bigger than it first appeared.  Each step they took
echoed loudly throughout each of the rooms.  The hallways seemed to go on forever,
each leading to an unknown place.  It was like being inside a fancy labyrinth.

“Let’s split up and search,” Elijah suggested, knowing their
day was quickly passing by without finding so much as a clue to the whereabouts
of the sphere.

They each took a direction and headed off, disappearing into
the dark blue void.  Elijah suddenly felt very alone.  The echoing sounds from
his friends’ footsteps quickly disoriented him.  He walked slowly down the hall
and looked around for anything odd.  For some reason, he continued to be drawn
to the walls.  They seemed to be leading somewhere or saying something with the
different inscriptions and symbols carved along the surface, but then again, it
could have just been the odd lighting.  He ran his hand along the inscriptions
but nothing stood out as being more than it appeared.

Just then, he heard Hannah calling for them.

“Hey guys!  Come here and look at this!” she said.  Her
voice echoed so much that after a second, the echoes began mixing together into
a confused mesh of voices.

It took Elijah, Paul, and Becca a few minutes to find their
way back to the center of the building and then to find Hannah.  She was
standing at the end of a very long hallway lined with larger than life lion
head statues.  That was definitely more interesting than Elijah’s hall of
writing.  She faced the dead end wall which was completely overtaken by ivy and
tree roots, as were the other two walls next to it. 

“Please tell us you didn’t call us all here just to look at
the beautiful plants,” Paul said.

“Yes, I did,” Hannah answered.  “But while it is beautiful,
that’s not the reason why I called you.  Look at it.”

Elijah looked very carefully.  He tried to see if there was
something inside the ivy that she was seeing, but he was stumped.  It looked
like just a wall covered with ivy.  Nothing more.

“Okay princess,” Paul said.  “What is it?”

“Did any of you see walls like this inside where you
looked?” Hannah asked.

“I didn’t,” Becca said.

“Me neither,” Elijah added.  Paul shook his head no.

“Isn’t it odd that these are the only walls in this entire
place covered in plants?” Hannah continued.  “I think it’s because it’s growing
from somewhere else.  Like another room underneath.  Or a room next to it.”

Elijah walked really close to the back wall and put his ear
up next to it.  Then, he pounded it with his fist with his ear still on the
wall.  It didn’t sound any different.  He tried leaning into it and putting
force into it, but nothing moved or changed.

“Move over,” Paul said.  Elijah did and watched as Paul ran
as fast as he could and hurled his body into the wall, creating a loud,
unsettling rumble that continued vibrating around the entire building for
several seconds.

“Let’s not do that again,” Becca said nervously.

Paul rubbed his shoulder where he hit and said, “Agreed.”

Becca walked up to the wall and got down on her hands and
knees.  She touched the leaves and stuck her hand into a crevice at the bottom. 
“It’s coming from below.  There’s another room or something around here.”

The four of them began to survey the small area around the
dead end wall covered in ivy.  Hannah soon broke away from the others and
searched the hallway leading to the ivy-covered wall.

“Hey, can one of you guys give me a boost?” she said after
exploring the other walls.  She was looking at one of the huge lion statues
with the head five times the size of hers.

Paul was the closest to Hannah.  He lifted her in the air
until she was able to hang onto the gaping mouth of the large cat.  Suddenly,
she hoisted herself into the mouth of the statue and slid inside, disappearing
from view.

Paul immediately jumped up and grabbed onto the open mouth
and lifted himself up like he was doing a pull up.  He peered inside the mouth,
but just as he did, Hannah poked her head back through, scaring Paul so much
that he let go and dropped to the floor.

“Aaaaaaaaah!” Paul screamed.

“There’s a passageway in here!” Hannah said excitedly.  “But
it’s really long.  Do you want me to check it out and then come back or do you guys
want to follow?”

“I’m coming,” Elijah said.  “There’s no sense staying around
here.  There’s nothing here anyway.”

“Actually,” Becca said from across the room, “I think there
is.  Look at this one here.”  Becca was looking at another one of the giant lion
heads.

“Don’t tell me there’s a passageway to every single one of
these guys,” Paul said, looking down the row of a dozen lion heads.

“It appears so,” Becca said.  “Or at least this other one
here.”

“Why would they have more than one?” Elijah asked.

“Probably because the cube is down one of these passageways
and the others are decoys,” Becca answered.

“And if we go down one of the decoys?” Paul asked.

“My guess is that either it will lead you nowhere or it will
be rigged with a bunch of traps,” Becca said.  She looked at another of the
lion heads.  “Okay, this one doesn’t have a passageway.  At least it doesn’t
look like it.”

Paul hoisted himself up again to get a closer look.  “Nope,
he said.  “It’s just a head.  No opening here.”

“So only a few of these do,” Becca explained.

“Here,” Elijah said as he jogged to another of the heads. 
“Let me help you look.”

Paul looked up at Hannah, who was still crouched inside the
giant head.  “I hope you weren’t planning on going anywhere for a while.  Just
relax inside that lion mouth for a bit.”

Hannah giggled.

“Here’s another one!” Elijah called.  He was on the opposite
side of Hannah.

“So that’s three?” Paul said.

“I found a fourth!” Becca said.

Elijah and Becca continued looking at the statues all the
way down the hall but didn’t find any more that looked like they had tunnels
inside their mouths.

“I think that’s all,” Becca said.  “There’s four.”

“Great!” Paul said.  “Now we can each go down one and the
only one who comes back alive will have the cube.”

“Did Olivia say anything to give you any idea which one of
these passages to go through?” Becca asked Elijah.

“No,” he said.  “I don’t think she would have known either.”

“How serious do you think it will be if we don’t pick the
right one?” Hannah asked.

“If they were trying to keep people from getting this at all
costs, I would imagine it would be very serious,” Elijah said.  “We have to be
extremely cautious.  I say we start with the one Hannah’s started down. 
Hopefully that’s the right one.”

Paul jumped up and climbed his way back into the head of the
lion.  He helped Elijah and Becca crawl up inside until they were all on their
hands and knees scurrying down a long, dark passageway.  Hannah led them all
down a very dirty tunnel filled with roots and mud and leaves.  Many times they
had to push clumps of dirt aside to keep going.  Paul and Elijah followed
Hannah, and Becca was at the end carrying their communal pack of supplies.

Soon, it began to get very stuffy and hot.  The air from the
passageway seemed to be sucked out little by little until it burned to breathe.

“I think we should go back,” Hannah choked.  “I’m having a
hard time breathing.”

“I agree,” Elijah said quickly.  He thought about the last
time he had an opportunity to turn his friends around.  He didn’t want another
incident where he lost a friend.  No sooner had he said that then the floor
beneath them began to shake and it suddenly gave way, sending all but Becca free-falling
to the depths below.  Elijah closed his eyes and prepared for the end, but an
ice-cold shock jolted his senses as he plunged feet first into a well filled
with water.

“Elijah?  Paul?  Hannah?” Becca called from above.  The air
was dead around them, and her voice didn’t travel as well as it had in the
hallways of the cathedral-like building.

“I’m here!” Elijah said.  He couldn’t see anything but the
blue tint from the building above.

“Hannah and I are also here,” Paul called to Becca.  “Why
don’t you join us?”

Elijah swam to the edges and felt around.  “There’s no way
up.  We’re stuck here.  I can’t grip onto anything.  Can you guys?”

“There’s nothing here to grip,” Paul said.  “It’s a solid
wall.”

“I’ve got the pack, remember?” Becca shouted.  “I can try to
pull you guys up.”  She turned and grabbed the supplies.  Becca dug inside and
pulled out all the rope she could find.  She tossed one out, but it wasn’t long
enough, so she tied two ropes together, and that was enough to reach Elijah.

“Take Hannah first,” Elijah said.  “She’s the lightest. 
Then you both can pull me and Paul up.”

Becca stood up as tall as she could for leverage, but the
ceiling was too low.  She had to duck significantly.  Hannah grasped the rope
and held on.  Becca pulled with all her might, grunting the entire way.  When
Hannah was safely back to the top ledge, Elijah told Paul to go next.  Just
then, a very loud, low groaning noise from the depths below them bellowed
throughout the well.

“What…the…heck…was that?” Paul asked.

“I don’t know but it doesn’t sound good,” Elijah said. 
“Hurry up.”

As Paul grabbed onto the rope, Elijah felt a strange
sensation beneath him.  It traveled up from his feet, against his legs, and
finally surfaced as large bubbles of air.  Then, he felt himself start to sink
slowly.

“Please hurry,” Elijah said to the girls in as polite a
voice as he could muster.  “The water’s being drained.”

“Where to?” Paul asked.

“I really would rather not find out,” Elijah said.

As Paul was slowly being pulled up out of the well, Elijah
frantically looked for something to grab onto.  He clawed at the walls, but
they were too slick.  Each second that passed, the water drained quicker and
quicker, creating a vacuum that plugged Elijah’s ears.  Elijah looked up,
hoping to see a fresh rope, but he only saw Paul halfway to the ledge where
Hannah and Becca were pulling with all their might, straining with each pull.

The lower Elijah sank, the darker it became.  Eventually, he
couldn’t see anything at all, not even the dark blue rays.  The pressure inside
his head was painful.

“Here, Elijah!  Grab on!”  He barely heard a distant voice
above.  He grabbed for a rope, but he couldn’t feel anything.  He couldn’t even
see what he was grabbing.  He could only feel himself sinking with increasing
speed.