Kingdom Keepers VI(19)
“And the journal’s part of that,” Finn said.
“This journal’s important to them. This journal is why they’re on the ship in the first place.”
“We don’t know that!”
“Let’s assume it,” Philby said. “The kind of detailed planning that went into the Chernabog pickup? This thing’s on a whole new level.”
“Agreed.”
“We need the others,” Philby said, pointing to the journal. “We’re better at figuring out stuff like this when it’s all of us. The sooner we crack the code, the better chance we have of stopping them.”
AT BREAKFAST, the cafeteria-style food stations in the Cabanas restaurant teemed with hungry passengers. The Keepers’ quest for privacy put them at a corner table, where they spoke in soft voices.
“We couldn’t risk bringing the actual journal,” Philby said, “but we photocopied the important pages.”
He passed them around—the painting of the stone steps, the coin-sized designs, the line of text:
“LIFE IS BECAUSE OF THE GODS; WITH THEIR SACRIFICE THEY GAVE US LIFE…. THEY PRODUCE OUR SUSTENANCE…WHICH NOURISHES LIFE.”
“We don’t know if the OTs have solved it or not,” he said. “Regardless, we have to figure out if it means anything. Whatever’s going on with Chernabog must be connected to the journal.”
“Can I mention something bizarre?” Charlene said. No one answered, but she continued anyway. “Philby asked me to photograph the hyena Maybeck and Finn found.” She cringed. “Which, I’m happy to say, was gone by the time I got there. But anyway, I’m heading up the jogging path and I’m practically speared by a hummingbird!”
“That’s not possible,” Philby said. “They can’t survive at sea. They’re land birds.”
“But I saw it.”
“You’re sure it was a hummingbird?” Willa asked.
“One hundred percent.”
“So we have a monster that doesn’t belong on board,” Finn said. “And a species of bird that has no business being here.”
“Can we talk about this later?” Philby said, pushing back his hair impatiently. “This meeting is about the journal.”
Charlene shrugged, put off but unwilling to start a fight.
“When we work together, we’re good at this kind of thing. The Stonecutter’s Quill. ‘Under the Sea’ in AK.”
“Maybe Jess’s dream about caves has something to do with these stairs,” Willa said, nudging the drawing. “I mean, they’re stone. They look old. Maybe we should copy the actual journal and e-mail it to her.”
“Too dangerous,” Philby said. “The journal has to be locked up. We can’t risk losing it a second time.”
Willa passed the sheets to Storey Ming.
“Pictographs,” Storey said. “Not Egyptian. I’ve studied those in art class.”
“Interesting,” Philby said.
“Not really,” Maybeck quipped.
Philby ignored him, always the best tactic in the face of Maybeck’s cynicism. “Caribbean?”
“The Mayans were highly civilized,” Willa said. “They had a written language, a lot of which still hasn’t been translated.”
The others stared at her. Even Philby.
“What? I suppose none of you gets National Geographic Channel?”
“I get it,” Maybeck said, “but I don’t watch it!”
“What if we combine the Jess cave thing,” Charlene said, “with the steps and the symbols?”
“There are famous caves on Aruba,” Storey said. “One of the Dream excursions goes there.”
“Our next port of call. As in, tomorrow morning. So maybe the symbols are in one of the caves,” Finn said. “Maybe we still have time to figure this out!”
“Yeah, and maybe they lead to buried treasure, too.” A jaded Maybeck wasn’t buying any of it. But when he picked up the page with the symbols, his tone changed. “Hey, is this how they look? I mean, arranged like this?”
“Yes. As close as we could get it,” Philby said.
“Then there’s something missing. See? The blank space between the four corners? It’s like they were framing something.” The artist in Maybeck was adamant. “But whatever was there isn’t there now.”
“More interesting,” Philby said, as if about to vote on it.
“The OTs have it,” Charlene said. “Whatever it is!”
“We don’t know that,” Philby said. “Maybe they do, maybe they don’t.”
“We need to figure out what the glyphs mean,” Storey said.