Seal of Solomon (Journeyman Book 2) (21 page)

“Wonderful,” she said, dreading what was to come.

Slowly she started to shimmy down the length of the ledge, finding nothing substantial to grab hold of. The stone beneath her feet was brittle and crumbled, small chunks falling into the abyss.

Don’t look down. Don’t look down.

Another inch went by excruciatingly slow, followed by another.

What the hell were you thinking?

The door loomed closer and she continued to wobble her way along and at last, she was there. Leaping across, she barely reached the outcropping, pulling herself up onto it with all her strength. A sweltering mess, she looked back at the way she came.

“My God I hate temples,” she said entering the next area. “Lara Croft my ass.”

After a short hike down a broad passage, she entered a square room. It was very stuffy, little draught making the air difficult to take in. Laid before her on an ornate pillar of polished obsidian were seven pewter statuettes, each one a minuscule animal. She stepped up to them and made out a croaking toad, sleeping dragon, walking dromedary, coiled viper, standing ram, roaring lion, and a reared stallion. Behind that, statues of seven knights stood in full regalia while symbols glowed dimly above their heads; their hands were outstretched expectantly. Beyond those, a stone door was shut, the compass pointing right to it.

“Always with the temple puzzles,” she bemoaned while picking up the lion, its texture oddly rough like grit. Looking up, she recognized the symbols as demonic and it dawns on her that these are representations of the Hell Knights. Solomon was known to often treat with demons, so this is of no surprise. However, she admittedly knew vampires and their ways extremely well; not so much demons. Wishing that Joey was around with his normally useless mental encyclopedia of knowledge, she set down the figurine and crossed her arms, sputtering.

Scanning the symbols again, she wondered if the goal here was to place the statuettes into the awaiting hands of their corresponding statues. After all, each demon was renowned to have a prominent animal shape in their demonic form or when Solomon encountered them in human shapes, they often rode on various animals for transportation.

Picking up the toad, she slowly tested her theory with the statue in the middle – Baal. Setting the figurine into his hand, it dipped slightly and there was a faint glow from the statue’s eyes. A subtle click sounded off near the door. Looking around warily, nothing further happened. Much to her relief, she was apparently correct.

Meticulously, she placed the other figurines in the following order: dromedary to Paimon, viper to Botis, dragon to Astaroth, and ram to Asmoday. As each was placed, their eyes glowed in a different color and more clicks came from the door.

This brought her to the last two: Purson and Beleth. She picked up the stallion, spinning it around nervously in her hands as she looked between the two imposing statues several times.

Dammit!
she moaned internally.

Unfortunately, she didn’t know which symbol was which, forced to make an educated guess. She chose Purson, hovering just above his awaiting hand before dropping the horse into it. She waited, but there was no glow and no click.

Instead, the sounds of tremendous straining built up to an immense
crash
. Dust fell from the ceiling as the floor beneath her feet started to buckle. The statues then came to life, retreating to the far walls on either side the door. She felt the need to follow, forced to when the tiles under her gave way. Leaping randomly around the room to prevent herself from dying, Adrienne tried to get over to the wall.

Diving just in the nick of time, she held on to a narrow ledge beside the stone door – all that was left of the floor that had been there moments before. Pulling herself up, she noticed that the door had been cracked, feeling the fissure. It was deep, but not enough to push or pull free. Debris continued to fall, crashing against the jagged edges of the room and bouncing erratically off into the endless chasm. As the pummeling continued, the door resumed cracking. A large piece of it fell away, creating a gap big enough for her to crawl through. She wasted no time doing that.

Emerging on the other side into another hallway, she ran for her life, not wanting to find out if that floor would fall away too. As she sprinted, she took fleeting glances at the compass, following its guidance toward a third area.

“I am never visiting another ancient ruin ever again,” she said, huffing loudly as she reached the entrance. “Goddamn death traps.”

After taking a brief respite, she passed underneath the archway that had been carved directly into the solid rock and entered a room full of darkness. It was much colder inside and as her eyes adjusted, she could see that stone had been hewn into a cathedral-like hall with a sweeping dome. She walked past gigantic columns that stretched up hundreds of feet, surrounding yet another deep pit.

“Oh for goodness sake!” she exclaimed.

This one was different than the others though, a slow churning vortex rising out of it and into the tall ceiling. She noticed that there didn’t seem to be another doorway leading out of the room, which wasn’t a good sign.

Rustling came from behind her, many feet scraping their way across the rocky floor. She couldn’t see anything, but knew that she was no longer alone.

The guardians of the Seal had come and they were not happy.

That's when she saw one, passing through fleeting light of the hall through which she had entered. The shape was the size of a lion, yet mannish, cat-like in its movements across all four of its shiny, wrinkled limbs. Its paler than milk skin was opalescent in the gloom and soon it was joined by another, and another, and another. A herd was coming for her, leeching out of every crawlspace and fissure, scurrying down the columns while roaring, from everywhere.

She ran, faster than she had been able to muster before, unsure where she was supposed to go. They were coming and no matter the direction she went they were there. The only place that seemed free of the pale menace was the vortex, so she dashed over towards it with fear and uncertainty filling her mind.

Reaching the edge, Adrienne found herself trapped there against the abyss, the advancing horde of creatures getting closer and closer. She spun around and with nowhere else to go took a leap of faith, jumping right into the spinning column of wind. Upon impact she was whisked away toward the ceiling, spinning uncontrollably in the maelstrom. Her insides felt as if they were being yanked in every direction, yet also upward. It became unbearably loud and the relentless spiral made her dizzy.

Her vision darkened, fading to black as she lost consciousness…

… awaking with a gasp. Had it been a dream?

Coughing, she kicked up dust and sucked it into her lungs only to cough some more. Pushing herself up off the ground, she stood and looked around for the monsters. She was still a little dazed but could not see nor hear a thing.

In fact, she was in a small room no larger than a kitchen, the only thing present being a set of massive, circular doors ahead of her. Upon its golden surface, the symbol of Solomon Seal forty-three lay engraved on one half while seal thirty-one was emblazoned upon the other. She stepped toward it, nearly tripping on the embossed floor. Looking down, she saw that she was standing upon the great sigil of Solomon himself.

She had made it.

JOEY WOKE HIMSELF
up far too early that morning aboard the
Odyssey
. He kept his eyes shut, though he knew the sun would be peeking over the horizon soon, sending its blazing light straight in through his window. Unfortunately, the curtains hadn't been drawn closed, so getting up was unavoidable either way.

Suddenly he flung himself up and into the bathroom, remembering what day it was as he took a leak. It had been three days since they had finally convinced the entirety of the Council to summon Journeymen to the headquarters building in New York. Fenran still didn't seem all too convinced of the need, which was not surprising, but was forced to capitulate soon after a combination of Gage’s speech, the threat of more paperwork from Marcus, and Om’s death stare – which would now haunt Joey for a few weeks. Regardless of how they got there, today was the first day of the Grand Assembly and Joey could barely contain himself.

He had hardly brushed his teeth and put so little product in his hair that it looked a fright as he chucked on the first pair of non-smelly jeans and a lightweight checkered button up that barely fit over his arms. One departing glance in the mirror as he fixed the misaligned buttons told him that he really needed to change again, but those thoughts lasted all of two seconds before he was out the door in just his socks, returning a few minutes later to throw on a pair of boots.

Joey emerged through the portal from 50th abuzz with excitement. Before him, the entrance hall had been transformed into a
wonderment of supernatural beings and humans from around the globe, all roaming the great space together. The place had been busy before, but that now paled in comparison, brimming with all sorts of splendor and conversation.

He might have let out the smallest of squeals when he saw a collection of garden gnomes talking shop, walking by no more than five feet from him and roughly the same distance down. He did so again when he noticed floating tanks off near the balcony containing merpeople, and again when several pixies, flowing hair and dresses of the same color, flew by and out toward the floating signs hanging in front of him.

It was all so incredible and due to his child like wonder, he now needed to pee again.

He looked up to the floating billboard. Great, there was way too much material crammed in on the huge white signs; all he needed to know was where the toilets were. Well, the ones for humans. After reading through what was an impossibly extensive list of breakout sessions and talks – set up like a conference or expo – he recalled the bathrooms were somewhere off to the left. So without delay, he set off in that direction, all the while trying to wrap his head around how all those events could fit into this building, even with warding.

He surveyed the walls for additional signage – the little pictogram of a man would have been perfect about five minutes ago – but was unable to see much behind all the newly set up stalls and their colorful banners. He passed by a few that struck interest and wished he could stop to browse, yet the urgent issue at hand was a priority. As he continued, he noticed a definite increase in the number of Felidaen’s guards casually scanning the crowds, lie detection runes affixed to the gloves of others, and in one case tucked off in a security office, administering of truth serums.

Spotting Joey staring in at them from the promenade, one of the guards waved his hand and the window became opaque.

Joey continued his search and finally, through a gap between a witchcraft stall full of exotic ingredients and a tech stall replete with advanced gadgets, he saw his destination shining like a holy beacon and promptly entered to relieve himself.

He exited minutes later, feeling much better, taking the time to peruse the technology stall to see if anything caught his eye. Nothing on the tables immediately did, but something just off of it drew his attention.

Marcus was coming up to him, looking fresh that morning. His beard and hair were neatly trimmed and his typical silver piercings had been changed out with new ones. Joey could smell his cologne as he settled beside him.

“Morning J,” said Marcus, half smiling. “You look fantastic.”

Joey wondered if Marcus was being facetious, knowing damn well he didn't do much at all to get ready that morning before coming over. “You mean that?” he asked doubtfully.

“Duh,” Marcus said, fully smiling. His teeth were gleaming. “I wouldn't have said it if I didn't mean it.”

“Good,” Joey replied, also with a smile. “So how long have you been here at the Assembly? This is amazing!”

“For about an hour, maybe hour and a half,” he replied. “I’m thinking of going to the panel on defensive spell casting. I'm not a mage, but I find the topic fascinating and Nathaniel Cole is going to be there doing demonstrations. You want to come with me? I promise this topic blows the others going on at the same time out of the water.”

That would be good a place to start as any; Joey wasn't about to read through those ostentatious signs again. Plus, he wouldn’t be in bad company, so agreed to go.

“Alrighty then,” Marcus replied, tempted to hold Joey’s hand. He inched it towards him, but refrained at the last second, thinking that he was being too bold. “Come on, this way.”

They both set off through the maze of stalls. It felt like they were in some foreign marketplace with all the sights, sounds and smells they passed by. Yet no, they were in New York City, inside of a skyscraper, towering above Central Park. This world they lived in was fascinating and Joey continued to be amazed, even though he lived it daily.

They soon rounded a corner leading into to a café area, beyond which a hallway parted in three different directions. There, a familiar fellow made his way over to them through the crowd, Marcus again smiling away.