The Crystal's Curse (2 page)

So here he was stuck in the middle of the jungle with no friends, no night life, and no girls. With no one his age around, he felt isolated and alone, tolerated without really fitting in.
It’s just not fair!

He stomped toward his tent, tripped on a large rock, and fell to one knee in the dirt. Swearing, he brushed the dirt from his hands and knee. In a fit of anger, he reached down, wrenched the rock from the ground, and threw it as hard as he could. It took a nice satisfying chunk out of a nearby tree and disturbed a flock of nesting birds.
That felt good
. He stooped down to reach for another rock when he noticed a sparkle in the mud where the large rock had lain. Gently he brushed away the dirt. An odd shaped crystal lying in the dust caught and diffused the sunlight into separate colors like a prism. Intrigued, he picked it up to examine it. It was approximately two and a half inches long, and three quarters of an inch thick, one end was pointed and the other perfectly flat. The long sides were rough and irregular. Running his fingers over the ridges, Joshua noticed uniformity that suggested carving, rather than natural formation.

One thing was certain. It didn’t belong here.

He looked up to see his mother exit the mouth of the cave, and step into the dabbled sunlight shinning through the thick canopy overhead.

“Joshua, I need you to gather up the camera equipment and help Dad photograph that new room,”

Photography, yes!
He immediately forgot his previous irritation. This was about the only part of a dig that Joshua really enjoyed. He shoved the crystal into his pocket, meaning to ask his dad about it later and gathered up the equipment.

He and his dad spent the rest of the day positioning the lighting and shooting every angle of the new room. Once they cleared the room of rubble and dirt, they would do it all again, but it was important to document it just as they found it. Josh spent that evening developing the prints while his mom and dad pored over the rubbings, trying to decipher some of the glyphs.

For the next few days, Joshua worked alongside the crew, consisting of five graduate students, four older volunteers, and ten day-laborers hired locally by Ricardo, the dig supervisor. It took several days for them to dig up and sift through over four feet of rubble piled up on the floor of what turned out to be a small eight-by-ten-foot room. Surprisingly, as the workers sifted through the rubble, they found no artifacts of any kind, not even a potshard.

As the crew finished hauling out and loading up the last of the rubble, Ricardo shook his head. “All of the walls are intact. It’s almost as if someone shoveled this rock and dirt into the room for some reason.” He followed the crew out to supervise the sifting of the last pile of dirt.

Only Sam, Maria, and Joshua remained. This was the first time they were able to see the entire room without workers and equipment. Work lights reflected off the dome shaped ceiling revealing a polished rock floor and perfectly smooth walls, seemingly carved out of solid rock, but with no apparent tool marks.

Sam ran his hand over the painted end wall. “This looks like someone took a scraper to it. Look, here where the paint remains, the colors are still brilliant. I swear it’s more like vandalism than normal deterioration.”

With the room cleared, the wall with the recess stood out as the focal point. It wasn’t an arch at all, but a large oval surrounded by two rings of glyphs. Each glyph had been carved into a separate stone set in the wall. The center oval was an indentation seven feet high, three feet wide, and three feet deep encased by a wide gold band around the edge. A gold band surrounded each of the carved glyph stones in the two outer rings as well.

Maria stood facing the niche
. She rubbed her hand over some of the carvings. “I’ve never seen anything like it. I can’t imagine why they built this. Are these metal bands around the stones gold?”

Sam nodded. “More than likely. Mayans did mine gold, but I’ve never seen them use it like this.”

Maria pointed to the individual stones in the ring closest to the oval, “These glyphs resemble some of the Mayan calendar glyphs. The stones in the outside ring look like directional glyphs, except they’re more intricate, and then these I don’t recognize at all.”

“It must have been used for some kind of ceremony,” mused Sam standing back. “But normally anything this elaborate would be inside a temple, not stuck at the back of a cave. We found no indication that there was anything special about this cave. It looked like the villagers used it for the same rituals we’ve seen before. If we hadn’t noticed the slight difference in texture and color of the wall outside here, we’d never have discovered the steps leading up to this room.”

Although Joshua had finished photographing the room, he hung out, waiting for an opening in the conversation while he packed up the lighting and camera equipment. He’d managed to control his temper the last couple of weeks by carefully planning exactly how he would reintroduce the subject of leaving now to start college. This seemed like the perfect opportunity. He had a new plan. If they wouldn’t allow him to live in a dorm, Joshua’s option A, perhaps they would allow him to live with Grandfather Carson in Boston. He would explain how he’d needed to leave now so that he could establish residency in the state. He didn’t want to wipe out his college fund by paying out of state fees. He thought it sounded reasonable and responsible. Still he knew there was one huge flaw in the plan, besides his mother‘s determination to keep him at her side. He may not be welcome there. He’d only seen his grandfather a handful of times.

He remembered him as a stern man. The few times they had gotten together had been uncomfortable and strained. His family wasn’t exactly estranged from his grandfather. The way his dad told it, he and Grandpa just never had much in common. Joseph Carson
had established a successful banking business and expected that, after his son graduated from Harvard, he would become a partner in the business. Unfortunately, Samuel had other ideas. After some angry arguments, Sam left and went to Colorado to pursue a graduate degree in archeology. Joseph couldn’t understand his son’s fascination with flitting around the world and digging in the mud and dirt of some third world country. Joshua wondered how he’d feel about putting up a grandson he hardly knew.

His mother’s voice interrupted his thoughts, “Well, it is definitely not a tomb. Even tomb robbers leave something behind. Maybe a statue stood there at one time, some forbidden god that these people worshiped in secret?”

“I guess that’s possible,” answered Sam. “A forbidden religion would explain why the statue is gone and the absence of any other religious relics. It would also explain why someone sealed up the room and destroyed the painting. We’ll need to do some research to see if there’s some myth or legend unique to this region that would shed some light on this.” Sam stepped up and stood inside the recess to examine it more closely. He ran his hands over the sides and back wall.

“Maria, come look. There are three small holes in the shape of a triangle on this back wall. What do you make of these?” He stepped down from the niche so she could step in.

Poking her fingers in the holes she said, “They’re not round or square holes like you’d expect if they secured something to the wall. It feels more like carved ridges.” Stepping out of the niche, Maria sighed, “It seems like the more we find, the less we know.”

Curious, Joshua stepped up inside the recess to see the holes for himself. Suddenly, he remembered the crystal he
’d been carrying in his pocket. He pulled it out, examining the size and shape.
It looks like a perfect fit
.

Holding it by the flat end, he inserted it into one of the holes. A loud buzz rent the air. Each of the metal bands surrounding the carvings glowed. A flash of searing white light blinded Sam and Maria. When they could see again, Joshua was gone.

Chapter Two

“Joshua!” Maria screamed, looking around the room. The sound echoed off the walls. The niche where he’d stood only moments ago now empty.

Maria looked at Sam. “Where did he go? Did you see him leave?”

Sam shook his head. “I’ll check outside.” He ran for the mouth of the cave and looked around. When he didn’t see Joshua, he shouted for Ricardo, giving him instructions to search the area. When he returned, he found Maria standing in the middle of the room. Tears streaked down her face, leaving tiny rivulets in the dirt and sweat.

“Did you find him?” she cried.

Shaking his head, he took her in his arms. “Ricardo said he didn’t see him come out. He’ll check to see if his things are still in the tent and then organize a search party.”

She said, “I checked the recess . . .”

“You what!” Sam shouted at her, stepping back and gripping her shoulders. “Don’t you realize how dangerous that was? What if you disappeared too? We don’t know what we’re dealing with here.” Sam looked down at his hands. His fingers were digging into her skin. Fresh tears welled up in her eyes. He immediately released her, walked a few steps away, and took a deep breath.

She came up behind him and put her hand on his shoulder, “I’m sorry, Sam. I didn’t think, but it was just like before, solid rock. You and I both stood in the recess earlier and nothing happened. What are we going to do?”

Ricardo came in looking grim. “We searched the area. No one’s seen him. His things are still here. We went as far back down the trail toward the nearest village as we could. We didn’t see any trace of him or anyone else. I had to bring everyone back, because it’s getting dark. First thing tomorrow, I and some of the locals will go to the village and ask around.” He laid a callused hand on Sam’s shoulder. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what else we can do tonight.”

Maria looked frantic, her eyes wide with terror. “We can’t wait until tomorrow. We have to find him.”

Sam rubbed his hand over his face. “Maria, you know what the jungle is like in the dark. Chances are, even with flashlights, we won’t find him. Besides I don’t think he’s out there.”

Ricardo looked confused. “Where else could he be?”

Sam told Ricardo about finding the strange holes and Joshua stepping into the recess, the loud noise, the glowing gold rings, and how Joshua had seemed to disappear from the recess in a blinding flash of light. “Maria, what exactly do you remember?”

She took a breath and closed her eyes, a crease furrowing her brow. “I saw Josh step into it, but I wasn’t watching him. I was standing back here staring at the glyphs trying to figure them out.” She opened her eyes. “The next thing I remember is the noise and the light.”

Sam looked around the room. “I saw him, but I was thinking about the strange holes. He examined them just as we did. Then I think he reached into his pocket for something. That’s when the thing lit up.”

After a moment, Ricardo asked, “What do you think happened? Do you have any theories?”

Sam shook his head. “None that make any sense. If we weren’t knocked out for a period of time, which seems unlikely since we were both still standing when our eyes adjusted, then Joshua was there one minute and gone the next. The recess had something to do with it. The most logical explanation is that the recess is a doorway of some kind used by priests to make it seem like they had supernatural powers. Trigger a noise and flash of light that blinds everyone, step through the door and seem to disappear, except the entire room seems to be solid rock.” He scratched his face. “I guess we really do need to examine that recess more closely, but
carefully.
Let’s go get some tools so we can do it from a distance.”

When they returned, they had a hammer taped to the end of a shovel handle, a crowbar, and a magnifying glass. Sam tapped the entire wall with the hammer but couldn’t hear anything that sounded hollow. He poked the crowbar in all the corners and into each of the strange holes. Still, nothing happened. They did discover that they could depress each of the glyph stones about an inch but even that didn’t produce the sound or the light again. Finally, Sam stepped into the niche and examined every inch with the magnifying glass.

Maria held her breath the whole time, but again nothing happened.

Sam stood back. “No door, no opening, nothing. I can’t even see anything that would trigger a flash of light. My only hope now is that the glyphs will give us some clue about how the thing works.”

Ricardo raised one eyebrow. He took a breath as if to say something and then let it out after glancing at Maria.

Sam caught the look and the meaning behind it. “Maybe if we get some rest, things will make more sense in the morning.”

Maria straightened her shoulders. “You can rest if you want to. I’m going to go look for my son.”

Sam put out a hand to stop her. “Maria, be reasonable. He’s not a baby. He’s seventeen and he’s lived in the jungle most of his life. I don’t think he’s in any real danger.”

She shook off his hand. “What if we
were
unconscious for a while and he was kidnapped?

Sam sighed. “Why just Josh, and how did the kidnappers trigger the sound and the light that incapacitated us? Even if he was. . .” He held up his hand when she gasped. “Which I think is high
ly unlikely, what exactly do you plan to do about it tonight?”

She glared at him, the muscles in her jaw tightening. “I’m taking the Jeep and searching the road between here and town.”