Chapter Twenty-Four

EMMY

I ran and checked Ven’s pulse. It was erratic, but it existed. I stood up and made my way back to Morley, trying to hide my terror.

Morley knew me too well. He could sense my feelings with a look. “You care about him, don’t you?”

I nodded, unable to speak.

“Let’s do what we have to do. Zelia's ladle appears to be on the altar, ready for the taking.”

“It can’t be that easy. If we try to walk up and take it, something’s going to try to kill us.” I didn’t want to make another mistake.

“I agree.” Morley rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

“Don’t you think the monks were using the ladle at the same time they guarded it? They were supposed to live for a long time and be almost impossible to kill. If the legends are true, it would make sense for them to be regularly drinking from the ladle.”

“Right. They would need a way to get to the ladle without killing themselves.” We walked gingerly into the room and looked around, examining the floor and walls but avoiding the area that contained the ladle.

“There’s one fact on which everyone agrees. The stories all say the Stone Goddess will destroy anyone who tries to touch the ladle.”

“The Stone Goddess.” Morley looked up at the ceiling. “Do you remember the dig we did on Tyrranus 4? There was a giant rock that fell at the end and almost killed everyone on the team. If the mechanism hadn’t rotted away, we might not be standing here today.” He looked at me expectantly.

I snapped my fingers. “The Stone Goddess is always represented as a stone wheel with the outline of a woman over it. If the wheel is an actual thing, it would be perfect for smashing intruders to smithereens.”

“Exactly.” Morley nodded. “Look at the design of the room. The wheel will fall and start rolling, crushing everything in its path. When it reaches the end, it will roll up as high as it can. Gravity will pull it back down into the room and crush anything it missed. The wheel will move back and forth like a deadly pendulum until it pulverizes everything in its path.”

“It could be set in motion if anyone touches the ladle.” I felt the familiar excitement which came from solving the riddles of the ancients. “What if there is a scale or weighing mechanism built into the altar? They wouldn’t need any further protections.”

“Why would anyone risk destroying the thing they wanted to protect?” Abel moved behind us and had a skeptical look on his face.

Morley didn’t stop looking but still took the time to answer. “A giant stone that crashed onto the ladle wouldn’t crush it. It’s essentially indestructible.”

Abel didn’t say anything else. I supposed he was satisfied with Morley’s response. Thinking about Morley’s words, I remembered the inscription on the stone wheel at the festival.

“At City Hall, for the Festival of the Stone Goddess, there was a wheel with an inscription. It said, 'The Stone Goddess leaves no survivors'.”

There was a hairline crack in the ceiling shaped like a rectangle. “There it is. Do we trigger it or try to avoid it?” Sometimes it was necessary to activate traps in a controlled way that prevented anyone from getting hurt.

“I think we should try to avoid this one.” Morley thought for a moment. “What does it mean if she doesn’t leave survivors? The extent of the danger isn’t clear. It seems like someone would survive a wheel rolling around. There must be something less obvious.”

“Be careful, Morley.” He nodded and approached the altar at a crawl. It took an agonizing five minutes for him to advance ten feet. He always checked everything imaginable. His meticulous nature and his intuition were the only reasons he was still alive. After studying the ladle and the altar, he nodded. “It’s a weight trap. You can tell by these signs...”

“I don’t think we have time for extensive explanations.”

“Right. Abel, do you have anything that can weigh the ladle without disturbing it?”

Abel nodded his head. A woman on his team pulled out a device and aimed it at the ladle, calling out the weight.

“We think the object itself is the tripwire. We need to swap it out with something with approximately the same weight. It’s a classic protection because it’s effective.” Abel’s team was already busy weighing rocks and various objects they carried.

“This device is close, but it’s a little heavier.” The woman handed a piece of gear to Morley.

“Don’t give it to me yet. Remove parts or cut off plastic until the weight comes down. We need to make sure the weights are as close as possible.” With a sigh, she took out her knife and began scraping off some of the plastic.

“Making the swap is going to be tricky.” Morley looked nervous. Tricky was an understatement. Abel eagerly began to approach the altar but we both ignored him. He wasn’t close enough to disturb us.

Slowly, Morley set the device down next to the ladle. I stood on the other side, waiting for the right time. When we were both ready, I started sliding the device toward the ladle while he pulled the ladle away.

At the back of my mind, I vaguely realized Abel was suddenly directly behind Morley, but I was concentrating on moving the thing in front of me a little bit at a time. Morley finally retrieved the ladle from its resting place as I simultaneously slid my weight into position.

As soon as Morley pulled the ladle away, Abel bumped him, reaching for the prize. After waiting for so many years, he couldn’t last a second longer. Abel’s greed triggered a series of events. Abel inadvertently pushed Morley’s hand into the weight, moving it from the correct position. I quickly pushed it back, but it was too late.

Morley and I looked up. We heard the grinding of old gears and stone against stone. I glanced at Morley. Usually, he was calm even in the most difficult circumstances, but I knew he was genuinely afraid this time. We heard the sound of something large moving inside the ceiling.

Abel wasn’t paying attention to any of it. He stared desperately at the ladle, clutching it tightly in his hands as he ran to the closest fountain.

Morley and I moved together. We each picked up one of Ven’s arms, lifting and dragging him from the room. Abel’s team had already disappeared. Ven had a massive body, and my half was hard to carry.

He groaned but didn’t wake up. When we were almost to the door, I made a decision and released him.

“Morley, there’s no point in getting Ven out of here if we have to leave the ladle behind. I’m going back to get it.”

“You’re going to take it from Abel by yourself?” Morley asked. “He’s going to kill you. Even if he doesn’t, the stone wheel will crush you.”

It felt like the room was listening to our conversation. We heard the sound of something massive rolling around in the ceiling.

“I have to get the ladle.” I was prepared to do anything to get what I wanted. “Even if we can move Ven out of here, we won’t be able to save him without it.”

I ran back to where Abel stood by the fountain, carefully dipping the ladle into the water. I held my breath, walking up behind him. Would I be able to grab it and go?

He took a deep breath and drank.

The rumbling noises that sounded so far away were getting louder. Less than a minute had passed since Abel inadvertently activated the trap, and I knew the Stone Goddess’s wheel was coming to smash us all into tiny pieces. I dived for the ladle as soon as he finished drinking, but misjudged the distance and missed badly.

Abel moved back. “You’re never going to get it.” His eyes were full of hatred.

“Please.” Despair threatened to take over my soul. “I’ll give it back. My friend needs it, just like you.”

“He’s nothing like me. For one thing, I’ve already used the ladle.”

The noise in the background grew so loud that it overwhelmed our conversation. I couldn’t hear the rest of his words. The stone wheel materialized overhead, showering red dust over our bodies as the ceiling shattered.

Abel and I both started running for the door, but it was too late for us. A piece of rock slid into place, covering the door and sealing the room.

If there had been any question about the strange shape of the chamber, it was definitively answered as the wheel crashed onto the altar, destroying it. The stone began rolling to us, gradually picking up speed.

The inscription was right. Was it possible for us to survive?