If they said it was time to go …
An hour later, moonlight still bathed the stone serpent wrapped atop the great Temple of Kukulkan. Jake stood with his sister on the top step of the pyramid, alone with Mer’uuk.
Bach’uuk had followed them through the Sacred Woods and stood a lonely vigil at the foot of the steps. Jake had already said his good-byes to his Ur friend, but he hadn’t had time to rouse Pindor or Marika. The moon had been too near to setting. Jake and Kady barely had time to dress.
And what could I have said anyway?
Jake had a hard enough time with Bach’uuk, hugging him tightly, leaving his friend with damp eyes. Jake made a promise he hoped he could keep.
We’ll see each other again.
“Take my hand,” Mer’uuk ordered.
Jake gripped the man’s fingers, then took Kady’s. They needed a Magister to lead them through the barrier that sealed this temple’s heart. As they passed over the threshold, Jake felt the telltale tingle wash over him.
Once through, Mer’uuk remained at the doorway, leaning on his staff. “From here, your path must be your own.”
Jake nodded. He knew what he must do. Last time, it had been an accident; now it would be on purpose.
“C’mon,” he told Kady.
In silence, lost in their own thoughts, they headed down the tunnel and through the chamber that held the crystal heart of Kukulkan. Jake didn’t stop, barely noting the giant sphere turning overhead, twin to the one in Ankh Tawy. He led the way down another tunnel to a room below.
Inside the smaller chamber, circled by maps of Pangaea, a golden mechanism spread across the floor. It looked like a cross between a Mayan calendar wheel and the inner works of some great clock. Jake stepped through a pair of giant gold wheels, one inside the other, intertwined by toothed notches like gears.
As he reached the center, Jake stopped and stared around, sensing something important, something that had been nagging at him since he first saw the Skull King’s pteranodon outside the pyramid.
Kady joined him and must have read his expression. “What?”
As he stood a moment longer, Jake continued to work a puzzle in his head, a riddle as tricky as any posed by a Sphinx. And like those brainteasers from that Greek myth, Jake’s puzzle also centered on time and involved a Sphinx.
“The Skull King’s mount,” Jake started, and turned to Kady. “I’ve been racking my brain trying to think how that monster could be frozen in the distant past.”
“And made into an omelet by your friend a week ago,” Kady added, crinkling her nose at that thought.
“Kalverum Rex rode that same pteranodon when he attacked us in the valley of Calypsos,” Jake explained. “For it to have been frozen in Ankh Tawny, he must have traveled into the past after we’d stopped him in Calypsos. Defeated, he went to Ankh Tawy looking for a new weapon, possibly drawn by something Mom was doing. That’s the only order of events that makes sense.”
Jake again heard his mother’s words.
A great war is coming, spreading across time.
“But Mom stopped him there,” Kady said, pride sparking in her voice.
Jake nodded. “The Skull King escaped, but his mount got frozen back in time. If I’m right, if Kalverum Rex came to Ankh Tawny because of Mom, I think that means she must still be alive, still a few steps ahead of him. Which means Mom and Dad could be anywhere, any time.”
“So how do we find them?”
Jake lifted the pocket watch. “First we go home.”
Kady’s expression turned reluctant. As she glanced back to the doorway, her heart was easy to read. They’d found their mother in this world, and now they were leaving.
Jake reached and took her hand. “Mom and Dad are out there. Lost in time. But I can feel them. Not out there, but here.”
He squeezed her fingers.
In turn, her hand tightened on his.
“We’ll find them, Kady. Wherever Mom and Dad are, we’ll be just as close to them at Ravensgate as we will be here in Pangaea.”
Her eyes met his. She took a deep, shuddering breath and nodded again, more determined this time.
With his free hand, Jake took out his father’s pocket watch. He’d recovered it from the folds of Kree’s abandoned robes. He hoped this method would still get them home again. He seated a fingernail under the watch’s stem. It was used to wind the watch—but also to reset the time.
The important word being reset.
He searched his sister’s face for any last regret.
She sighed in frustration. “Oh, do it already!”
He did.
With a flick of his fingernail, the stem popped out, and the massive gears around them began to turn—slowly at first, then faster and faster, becoming a golden blur.
Jake’s hand clenched Kady’s as force built beneath their feet, growing exponentially.
“Hang on!”
Then the world exploded and blasted them skyward in a blaze of light. The room shattered away—and an instant later, they landed in a new one.
For a moment, Jake kept hold of Kady to keep his balance. She did the same with him.
“I’ll never get used to that,” she said. Finding her footing, she shook free of Jake and looked around.
They were back in New York City, back at the American Museum of Natural History, standing inside the reconstructed Egyptian tomb. Around them, artifacts glowed in glass cases. Anubis frowned at them with his jackal-shaped head. In the center, a dreadful mummy still lay sprawled atop a table, with its clawed hands and leathery, dry wings.
Jake had enough of grakyl—mummified or not.
“Let’s get out of here,” he said.
“That’s the smartest thing you’ve said in a long time.”
Together they rushed the tomb’s door, wrestling a bit to get through.
Outside, they ran hard into Morgan Drummond. He spilled a paper cup full of water, splashing it over his suit. “Watch where you’re going!” he said sourly, slapping water from his tie. He fixed Kady with a baleful eye. “For someone who just fainted, young lady, you look awfully spry now.”
Jake and Kady shared a look. Just like before, no time had passed here. When Kady had pretended to faint earlier, Morgan had been headed to the drinking fountain to fetch a glass of water.
“Must be my strong constitution,” Kady answered, and hurried past.
Morgan frowned at Jake. Jake just shrugged and followed his sister toward the door. They collected Uncle Edward along the way.
Their uncle looked confused. “Are we heading out already?”