Part 21
I didn't realize how long we'd actually been underground until we reached the surface. The sun was already nearing the horizon, and the shadows were growing longer and deeper by the minute.
"Okay, students!" Professor Silver assumed the role of instructor as soon as we passed by the tunnel entrance. The staff had a folding table set up for us off to the side. "We only have a couple hours till dinnertime, so use it wisely."
Drea handed each of us a print-out of the inscription, as well as a digital tablet we could share if we needed a closer look. "The tablet is also equipped with reference materials, if you need it," she said, showing us the location on the tablet menu.
Jordyn's eyes lit up as she accepted the tablet first. "Okay! If nobody minds, I'm just going to--heh-heh..." She chuckled sheepishly as we all watched her open a Basic Greek lexicon.
Kayce snorted. "Seriously?" he muttered.
Jordyn assumed a defensive stance. "What's the problem? I figure if we're supposed to be finding Greek words in all this jumble, I need to learn how Greek spelling conventions work!"
I laughed. "Let her do what she needs to, Kayce," I said. "I'm pretty sure she's the only one of us who didn't major in a subject that required a course in Remedial Greek."
"Hail Geology!" Jordyn crowed.
Kayce wagged his head and bent over the inscription, circling letters and connecting them with lines till it made quite the kaleidoscopic design on the page. "Well," he mused. "I found the letters for Trikymios and ilios, so there's definitely something about the storm god and the sun."
I started copying his method, finding words of my own. "But then again, I can pick out letters that spell Fourtouna, and also Vasilias, which means king.Does that mean Fourtouna was a city-state with its own ruler?"
Kayce shrugged, running his fingers through his hair again as he puzzled over the strange inscription. "Who knows? I just wish we knew of some kind of system these people had for writing out their messages--it probably didn't feel like a code to those who knew how to read it!"
Tony had been silent for a while, working away at his copy. He picked up the tablet and scrolled through the menu, scrolling through page after page of historical references and science journal articles. There was a lot about Ancient Greek culture at large, but not very much specifically relevant to Fourtouna, nor the peculiar practice of worshipping a Microtheon.
"You know what would be really handy?" He placed the tablet back in the middle of the table and resumed studying his copy of the inscription. "I think what we really need is a book that just deals with Fourtouna and its customs and culture."
Kayce bobbed his head, swapping for a pen of a different color as his inscription copy became more and more indecipherable due to all the markings on it. "You said it! Too bad such a book doesn't exist."
My heart began thumping at triple speed. I immediately thought of the book I'd brought, back in my duffel kept securely under my cot in the tent. This was the second time Tony had said something to make me feel like he knew about it--but how was that even possible? And where was this inordinate shame coming from? Sure, I had a reference book and I brought it... So why did I have to feel bad about that?
You know why, the small voice in my head reminded me. It's because if anybody were to read that book, they would figure out your parents' secret, and their connection to this island... and they would ask you too many questions about it, and you're afraid to face the notion that they might actually be gods...
I distracted myself by doodling over the blank space in the margins of my inscription copy. My eyes slipped over to Tony's paper.
He had most of the letters circled, and he was already writing down an entire phrase in Greek! "Vasiliás ton trikymíon, koitáxte ton ílio..." "Wait," I muttered, leaning in closer. "what are you..." I got too busy reading what he was writing to even finish my own question. The circles on his page fell in a repeating pattern--every third letter!
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| Can you figure out the inscription? |
Palirroia! The tide! I kept counting every third letter, going back up to the top of the inscription every time I reached the end. It worked!
I felt Kayce lean over my other shoulder and mutter something, as he frantically flipped his over-marked paper to the blank side and began copying down the letters I marked in the correct order, dividing them up into words as he found them. "Oh dang!" He exclaimed as he watched the thing unfold. "I think we've cracked it!"
Jordyn squinted at the three of us: Tony, who hadn't looked up at all since he started writing stuff down; me, the one who was still just writing down random letters as they came up; and Kayce, who had skipped going over the inscription altogether, and was supplying translation for each word as I wrote down the letters, listing out their English meanings to try and piece together what the inscription might actually say.
"What do you mean, you cracked it?" she smirked. "You mean Tony cracked it. But how did you figure it out so fast?"
She obviously meant to address Tony, but he was still wrapped up in writing stuff down, totally oblivious to the conversation happening right next to him. I glanced over to prod him--and noticed once again the faint rim of gold around his irises!
My only hope was that neither Jordyn nor Kayce had noticed yet. I spoke quickly, drawing their attention away from him till hopefully the weird glow faded. "Guys, just think about what we saw all through the temple area! Everything came in threes, right? Even the map at the very start was arranged in triangles, and there were at least two other gods affiliated with Trikymios that we saw--which makes three gods. Frankly, I'm just surprised that none of the professionals thought of it before we did!"
In my anxiety, I didn't even realized I'd been gesticulating while I spoke, until my hand connected with Tony's shoulder. He blinked and finally looked up at the rest of us, his eyes their natural brown color. "Hmm? What?"
He already had the complete translation written on his paper, and the light was fading from the sky. I lifted it, waving it like a victory flag.
"Professor Silver! It's done! We figured it out!"
Our chaperone walked over to us from watching some workers unearth another way-marker. He read Tony's work and just about choked. "You did it? Already?" He wagged his head. "Wow--this is amazing! Good work, everybody!"
Drea approached, looking significantly more composed than she'd been down in the tunnels. "The ATV is back. Who's ready for a ride back to camp to get some dinner?"
Jordyn's hand shot up. "I am!" She answered.
We all piled onto the vehicle, Professor Silver taking the seat up front, while Kayce and Jordyn sat in the second row, which left Tony and I on the back end.
I watched Tony, as the distance between ourselves and the ancient village lengthened. He looked around the forest with great interest. It was only our second day here, yet it still hadn't fully sank in that we were actually here at such an exotic location, digging for the potential of buried treasure.
There was that business of the glowing eyes that still haunted me a little.
"Hey," I murmured softly, reaching over to put a hand on his knee. "Are you okay?"
He turned his head quickly, and his eyes focused on me with an intensity that almost made me afraid to hold his gaze. "Huh? I'm fine," he delivered his answer in terse, rapid tones. "I've never been better!" He tried to laugh and lean back a little to show how relaxed he was, but it felt a little forced, like there was more on his mind than he wanted to let on.
I sighed; what was his deal? "So... you're really not going to talk about it?"
Tony quirked an eyebrow at me, and in that moment, it felt like talking to the same old Tony I knew back when we were both freshmen and he wasn't visibly dying and then miraculously coming back to life before my eyes, and there wasn't this bizarre trip into an all-but-deserted island in the middle of the Mediterranean. "Talk about what?"
I tried to imply the obvious by nodding toward the amulet on his wrist and moving my gaze up to his face. "You know... The eye thing."
He smirked and repeated my words in a mocking tone. "Oh... *The eye thing... Like I know what that means. Come on, Pris, what do you mean? What eye thing?" He closed his eyes and rubbed them, as if I'd been alluding to his smeared makeup or something. He opened, and blinked, and asked, "Did I get it?"
I rolled my eyes. "Forget it... Just..." I debated bringing up the other thing that was bothering me, as the ATV pulled into the main campsite. The savory smell of dinner filled the air, and I knew it would only be a matter of time till we couldn't talk without being overheard--but I had to know. Before I could quite decide how best to bring it up, my mouth blurted, "How did you know about the book?" I mean, that's what he'd been hinting at this whole time, wasn't it?
Tony climbed off the parked vehicle and turned back with a confused tilt of his head. “What book?”
“The book about Fourtouna that I brought, from my mom—“
The words died in my mouth as I realized he hadn’t been making a crack about me when he mentioned a book or knowing specifics about the Microtheon and Fourtouna... He hadn’t known about it when he brought it up, and I had told him myself, just now!
“Why would your mom have a book about Fourtouna?”
I caught the golden rim around his eyes again. What did it mean? “Not Fourtouna exactly, of course,” I tried to be all casual about it. “But she had one book that I thought might mention it, I guess because of an installation at the museum of Greek religious artifacts. Just something I brought it along in case it had anything useful... but FRED might have everything we need already...” I realized I was babbling nervously and tried to giggle and pass it off like I wasn't completely mortified at the topic.
Tony smiled, and folded his fingers in between mine as we sauntered toward the dinner line. “Still... I think I’d like to see this book of yours, if you brought it all this way.”
The hairs on the back of my neck prickled, and I glanced over my shoulder. Herrin, with his steely glare and all-black fatigues, stared right at me from the shadows at the edge of camp, his thick arms resting on the butt of his rifle slung across his chest. If anybody looked like they were in cahoots with a demon, it was this man.
I leaned in close to Tony and whispered, “Okay, but not here. Later.” I pasted on a casual smile, but on the inside, I wanted nothing more than to be away from here, secret treasures or not.
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