Mer’uuk waved for the five of them to line up. After a bit of shuffling, the Elder started at the end farthest from Jake. He reached out and took Pindor’s left arm and bared his wrist. Then Mer’uuk lifted high a single bangle of silvery metal so all could see.
“From the night sky, this metal fell in a blaze of fire,” the Ur Elder intoned. “It holds a rare and potent alchemy—one of binding. To bring you all together as one.”
Stepping forward, Mer’uuk snapped the bracelet around Pindor’s wrist, then moved down the line to Bach’uuk. Another band was fastened around the Neanderthal boy’s wrist.
Marika stood next to Jake. She watched as Mer’uuk snapped a third bracelet around Kady’s left wrist. The bands all appeared identical. A moment later, Marika fiddled with the band around her wrist.
“Must be forged out of lodestone,” she whispered.
Lodestone was an old-fashioned word for “magnet.” Jake guessed the bands were probably made out of magnetite, which had natural magnetic properties.
Jake held out his arm and slipped up his sleeve. Mer’uuk pulled out a fifth band. It was open and hinged. The Elder dropped it over Jake’s wrist and snapped it closed.
“So completes the binding,” Mer’uuk finished. “You are now one.”
Jake studied his band. He turned the bracelet around his wrist and frowned. He could find no hinge, not even a seam where the two halves had snapped together. It was perfectly smooth, as if forged new around his wrist. Jake lifted his arm and squinted harder. He could find no breaks in the band’s perfect surface, but he did discover something else. Strange letters had been inscribed very faintly along the outer edge of the band. Jake recognized the script. It was the same language that appeared throughout the pyramid.
Bewildered, Jake lowered his arm and looked up. Mer’uuk still stood before him and wore a ghost of a smile.
The wizened Elder leaned closer to Jake and spoke softly in his ear. “To know the truth, you must stop living in the short time.”
With those cryptic words, he straightened and thumped his way back to his seat on the bench.
As they waited, Jake stared down the row. The five of them all wore matching bands. You are now one, Mer’uuk had said. What did that mean, that last whispered comment? To know the truth, you must stop living in the short time.
Tiberius finally spoke. “Are there any last requests before we adjourn for the day?”
The question was directed at his fellow Elders, but Jake stepped forward and lifted a hand. The Ur Elder’s words continued to echo in his head. Especially the word time. It reminded Jake of the weight of his father’s gold watch in his pocket. And where he’d found it: within the gears of the giant Mayan calendar as it slowly ticked away the days.
Everything—all the mysteries of this place—seemed to boil down to one concept.
Time.
Tiberius nodded to Jake. “You wish to speak, Jacob Ransom?”
“I would ask a favor. If I could.”
Tiberius motioned for him to continue.
“I would like to visit the pyramid once more,” Jake said. “To return to where I found my father’s watch.”
Kady joined him. “As would I.”
The two of them had already talked about it. Kady wanted to see the chamber for herself, and Jake sensed there was a clue that had escaped him during his earlier rush through the pyramid.
Tiberius frowned at the two of them. “While I appreciate all you’ve done for Calypsos, to trespass within the temple remains forbidden. Especially now. But I will leave it to the Magisters to decide.”
Balam lifted a hand. “On a point of order, only Magisters are allowed within the great temple. That is clear and should remain firm.”
Jake felt hope slipping away.
“However,” Balam continued, “there is nothing to say that the Magisters need only number three. I put it to the vote of the Council that we grant to these two, for the status of one day, the title of Junior Magisters. By a show of hands?”
Six arms lifted into the air.
Balam rapped a fist on the table and offered Jake a secret wink. “So it has been approved.”
Two hours later, Jake and Kady stood at the top of the pyramid. Overhead, the stone dragon continued its silent vigil. A step ahead of them, Balam had both palms raised against the invisible shield that sealed the round opening.
“It remains strong,” Balam said with a sigh of relief.
Even from where Jake stood, he could feel it. A force, like a wind, tried to push against him. He shifted his pack higher on his shoulder, anxious to get inside again.
“First, we’ll have to all hold hands,” Balam said. “So I can usher you both through.”
Kady gripped the man’s hand, then held hers out for Jake to grab. But instead Jake turned away.
Marika, Pindor, and Bach’uuk waited on the step below. They weren’t going to be allowed back inside, but his friends had come anyway. They knew how important this was for Jake.
He jumped down and gripped Pindor’s forearm in Roman fashion. “Thanks for coming,” he said. “If it wasn’t for you—for all of you—I don’t know where I’d be.”
Pindor blushed a deep red. Compliments had been rare for his friend, but Jake suspected Pindor would have to get used to them from here on.
Jake shook Bach’uuk’s arm in the same fashion, but when he tried to shake Marika’s hand, she brushed his arm aside and hugged him instead.
“We’ll be waiting for you out here,” she said into his ear.
Her breath tickled his neck. Jake’s face heated up, and probably turned as red as Pindor’s. “We might be in there a while,” he mumbled as he stepped back.
“We’ll still be here,” Pindor said. He glanced at the other two, who both nodded.
Jake smiled, knowing it was crooked and goofy but it was real. He’d never had friends like these. Only at this moment did he recognize what had been missing in his life. For the past three years, he had been so focused on following in his parents’ footsteps that he’d forgotten that such a road was best walked with friends at your side. But like Pindor with compliments, Jake suspected he would just have to get used to it.
“Are you coming?” Kady asked with a long, exasperated sigh.
Jake hopped up, waved to his friends, and took his sister’s hand. With Balam leading, they stepped across the threshold. Again, a wave of tingling swept over him and the hairs all over his body danced. Then they were through and heading down into the pyramid.