garment also.” And then she touched the final row of glyphs. “My son, bring me that which hooks the sky and also the hooked tooth.”
That was it, that was the riddle. She stayed frozen, panting now.
“That which hooks the sky,” she whispered. “Also the hooked tooth.”
She shook her head. No, that’s not what it means. Other dialects popped in and out of her vision as she closed her eyes. Not a hook. Not a tooth. As one sound-alike word suddenly aligned with another, she jerked her head up.
“My son,” she breathed. “Bring me the deer and the gopher.”
She leaned heavily against the glyphs, breathing hard and felt Brent’s arm around her shoulders.
“Jesse,” he was saying. “Can you hear me?” She blinked as the swirling glyphs stopped. “Jesse,” he said, again.
“I hear you,” she whispered between breaths. “I hear you.”
“Sometimes you scare me, Jesse, you really do. I don’t know where you go when you’re reading but it’s very far away.”
She slowly shook her head and wiped sweat from her forehead.
“I’m right here,” she said, finally looking at him. He was kneeling next to her, propping her up, and his face was scowling. “I’m right here,” she repeated smiling. “Just in another time.”
Then she remembered the steps they’d come up. She started to get up and Brett helped her.
“The deer and the gopher,” she said. “We passed them.”
As he supported her around the waist, he helped her descend and she glanced back at the riser that was second from the top.
“There,” she said, pointing.
They both turned to look at it.
Like the scene of the Red King grasping the vines of plumerias, this was also a complex foliage scene of the jungle. At the far left was a deer amidst a set of brambles and at the right, a stylized but large-toothed gopher in a tree.
“But look,” Brett said, pointing. “Those could be hooks.”
He was pointing at the third riser, below the one with the deer and gopher. Exactly underneath the two stones that she had identified, were V-shaped forms that might have represented archaic hooks. They looked like they were made of sharp, tapered sticks that were bound together at the bottom of the V-shape with twine.
“That’s the false interpretation,” Jesse said. “That’s the wrong one that gets the prospective king killed.”
“Right,” said Brett, returning his attention to the blocks with the deer and gopher carvings. “I don’t see any levers. Maybe that’s a good thing.” He paused and looked from one to the other and then back again. “But they are separate blocks of stone, separate steps. If you were coming up the center of the staircase, there’d be no way you’d step on them both. In fact, it’ll be a stretch for me to step on them both simultaneously.” He looked up and down the staircase. “But I’ll bet that’s what you’re supposed to do. They’re steps, after all.” He looked at her. “But I said I’d check with you first.”
“I think you’re right,” Jesse said, looking at the steps. “I don’t see any reason not to do it.”
But he didn’t move. Instead, he looked up at the building.
“I don’t know where the safest place is going to be for you,” he said.
She took a step closer to him.
“I think right by your side,” she said, putting her arms around him.
“I think I have to agree,” he said. “If something happens, I want you where I can reach you.”
She nodded.
“Ready when you are,” she said.
He looked at each of the steps but left an arm around her waist.
“Let’s go up to that step,” he said. “But don’t stand on the block with the deer.”
They stepped up together, in the center.
“All right,” he said, hugging her close to his side. “Here we go.”
He firmly planted one boot on the block with the gopher and then kicked his other foot out, placing it on the stone with the deer. It hadn’t been as far as they’d thought and he settled into a wide stance but easily doable.
The sound of stone grinding on stone began immediately.
• • • • •
Brett tensed and hugged Jesse to his side but he kept his feet in place. The grinding sound was coming from inside the building at the top of the pyramid. As they watched, a stone slab in the floor began to descend. After what seemed like an eternity, the loud grinding finally stopped and the slab was no longer visible.
Jesse started up the steps.
“No,” Brett said, holding her firm. “Let me go first.”
Slowly,