Daywalker chronicles com.., p.105
Daywalker Chronicles Complete Series Boxed Set, page 105
Until next time, may you find joy in the unexpected and the strength to face the challenges that come your way, whether they come in the form of mythical beasts or adorable kittens.
Ad Aeternitatem,
Michael Anderle
PS
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GODS OF WAR
DAYWALKER CHRONICLES BOOK 6
CHAPTER ONE
The city of Alexandria rose from the swamps like an ancient ruin unearthed from its tomb, its pristine white stone gleaming under the pale light of the crescent moon.
Empty cities are creepy. Hence the name “ghost town.” In this case, though, it wasn’t a city full of ghosts. Not so far as I could tell. The city itself was a ghost, ancient history invading the modern world. Buildings all around, long since destroyed, now revived. Not as specters or apparitions, but with substance. The marble surfaces were smooth and cold to the touch.
When Ares emerged alongside a resurrected Alexander the Great, they conquered New Babylon. History repeated itself. Except this time, after replacing New Babylon, they expanded into the streets of New Orleans. The havoc in the French Quarter was chilling.
My team and I stood against them and killed Alexander the Thinks-He’s-So-Great, and Ares fled back to his newly revived Alexandria. The best I could figure was that he’d used a portal there, the one that still stood on the far side of the vacant town square under an archway shimmering in the distance.
I couldn’t go through. I wouldn’t, anyway, until I knew for sure where the portal led. Portals can take you to some nasty places. Hell, for instance. Or a hell within hell. Or the void. Maybe some place deadly, like the bottom of the ocean, or into the orbit of Uranus.
Why Uranus? Because I wanted to see if you could read that planet’s name out loud without giggling. I know I can’t.
Ennigaldi stood at my side, her dark eyes scanning the deserted streets for any signs of life. Her fingers curled around the hilt of a dagger tucked into the folds of her robes as she walked, and the soft scrape of stone under her sandals echoed through the empty alleyways.
“The city is too quiet,” she whispered. “As if we have stumbled upon a long-forgotten tomb and awakened something that should have remained undisturbed.”
I nodded and a chill traced the length of my spine. In the time I had known the Akkadian priestess, she had never been one to voice baseless worries or succumb to flights of fancy. If she sensed something amiss in this place, it was with good reason.
The only thing I knew for sure about this city was that it wasn’t right. It wasn’t supposed to be there. Given Ares’ behavior before, my guess was that it was something bad. Life-altering, world-destroying bad.
I highly doubted that the God of War was there to spoon, eat ice cream, and watch chick flicks.
We made our way through the winding streets toward the massive stone archway I had spotted in my earlier reconnaissance mission with Zoey. Glyphs and symbols were carved around its perimeter in a language neither of us could decipher. The magic woven into its construction pulsed like a living thing and strands of power wound together to form a barrier of sorts around the portal itself.
What secrets did this place hold, and what manner of magic had Ares used to raise it from the ruins of ages past?
“There.” I pointed toward the archway as it came into view. I’d shown Ennigaldi a photo of the glyphs before, but she thought if she examined it in person she might be able to figure them out. As we approached, the Akkadian priestess’ frown suggested seeing the archway in person hadn’t made much of a difference.
“Not Akkadian.” Ennigaldi traced her finger along the carvings, careful not to touch the energy coursing through the portal itself. “Not Greek, either, which is strange. Alexandria was an Egyptian city, but these aren’t like any hieroglyphs I’ve ever seen.”
I gulped. “Aliens. I really hope it isn’t aliens. I’ve had too much weird for one lifetime already.”
Ennigaldi tilted her head. “My best guess is that it’s a unique language, probably associated with one of the many kingdoms that Alexander conquered. Given the magic flowing through the arch, it might be cultic in origin. A long-dead kind of magic that I’d never encountered in my original life, and probably no one has ever since the days when this city stood proud in Egypt.”
“Do you think the library here might contain some record of their meaning?”
Ennigaldi frowned as she studied the archway. “Perhaps. Until we understand what we’re dealing with, we should stay as far away from this portal as possible. I do not like the feel of this magic. It is old and wild and may not take kindly to our meddling.”
“We have to figure out why Ares built this city and what the portal leads to,” I insisted. “Wherever it leads is probably where Ares went. Until we know where he has gone, we won’t know what he hopes to bring back with him.”
“Where did you see this library?” Ennigaldi asked.
“Follow me.” I led Ennigaldi through the empty streets. If the place had a single soul inside, if anything was going on, even if there was an enemy to fight, it wouldn’t have been half as creepy. Our footsteps echoed off the walls of the tall marble structures that surrounded us. Every building we passed, I couldn’t help but wonder if someone, or something, was inside waiting, ready to leap out at us.
When we reached the massive library, I slid open the heavy wooden doors and stepped inside. The library was pristine as if it had been sealed away from time itself.
“Look at this.” Ennigaldi ran a reverent finger down the spine of an ancient scroll. “Papyri from the reign of Phiops II.”
I shrugged. “Never heard of him.”
“From the Sixth Dynasty.” Ennigaldi pinched her chin. “Let me think. Considering the counting of years according to your society’s custom, that dates this thing to before 2200 BC. Phiops II became Pharoah at age six and ruled for ninety-four years.”
“Damn. He lived to be a hundred. I didn’t think people lived that long back in the day. You know, without modern sanitation and antibiotics.”
“You might be surprised. The ancients were not so primitive as you might think. They had knowledge that’s long been lost. This library, I believe, contains much of it. This place is a true marvel.”
I grabbed a few foliated books and tried to examine the writing for symbols that looked like those on the archway. I couldn’t read a word of anything. Ennigaldi spent more time examining the contents of the scrolls and books she found, since she could actually read the dead languages that they were written in.
Ennigaldi let out a soft gasp as she unfurled an ancient scroll across one of the reading tables. “Look here, Sienna. This symbol, the eight-pointed star within a circle. It’s on the archway surrounding the portal, is it not?”
My heart skipped. “Yes, it is. What does it mean?”
“I’m afraid I don’t know. But this scroll refers to it as a ‘gate.’ The text is fragmentary, but it seems to suggest the star symbol has something to do with opening doorways between… This word is unfamiliar to me, it has roots in Egyptian that refer to time.”
“You can’t seriously think this portal is like some kind of time machine.”
“Of course not. It’s not a machine at all!”
“Not the point. You know what I meant. The idea of time travel is…”
“Look around, Sienna. An ancient city stands in your modern world. Certainly, time travel isn’t entirely unfathomable.”
“New Babylon was forged from an Archeus crystal, based on the New Babylon that stood in the void. That wasn’t related to time travel. It wasn’t the same Babylon, exactly.”
“The magic of this place is different. An Archeus crystal has nothing to do with it. The result might appear to be similar, an ancient city reborn here in the swamps, but I assure you that what we’re dealing with here is something else entirely.”
I huffed. “And since this place replaced New Babylon, I’m guessing it’s stronger, that the magic responsible for this place is more complex.”
“Maybe, maybe not. We should assume nothing at this point. I’m not even sure my translation is correct. Without more context, I can’t say for certain.” Ennigaldi carefully rolled the scroll back up and set it aside. It was the first thing we’d come upon that gave us any clue about the portal. “I believe this library contains many clues about the portal’s nature and purpose. We must keep searching.”
“You don’t have to tell me twice.” I grabbed another armful of scrolls and books and carried them over to a table. We had to find answers before Ares or his minions discovered we were there.
After a few hours of searching, my eyes began to blur. But Ennigaldi let out a triumphant “Aha!” She waved me over to her table, where she had spread out several scrolls and a heavy leather-bound book.
“Look here, the symbol appears repeatedly, often in relation to something called the ‘In-Between.’ This text refers to it as a ‘gate between times and spaces.’ And here, it says the ‘In-Between’ can only be accessed when ‘the stars align behind the gate.’”
“So it’s some kind of portal that only opens at certain times. But a portal to where, or when?”
“That remains unclear.” Ennigaldi tapped her chin. “But I believe if we keep searching, we will find the answer.”
I gathered up more scrolls, my hands trembling with anticipation. Somewhere in this library was the key to unlocking that portal’s secrets—I could feel it.
I couldn’t read a single thing from any of the scrolls, but I had the photo of the glyphs on my phone. If I saw anything that resembled any of them, I’d show Ennigaldi. I must’ve pored over dozens of books, pieces of loose-leaf parchment, and scrolls.
I’d seen so many that they were all starting to look the same. Finally, I unrolled a scroll, expecting more of the same, when I noticed a few glyphs that vaguely resembled those I was looking for.
I grabbed the scroll and rushed over to Ennigaldi, nearly tripping over my own feet in my haste.
“Look!” I unrolled the scroll and spread it in front of Ennigaldi. “No clue what any of this means, but a few of the symbols are the same.”
CHAPTER TWO
Ennigaldi traced a finger over the cracked parchment. “Yes, this is the same lettering. Ideally, it’s the same language.”
“It must be, right?”
“Not necessarily. The same letters are used for your English, I’ve discovered, as are standard in languages like French or German. Still, this is definite progress. I can’t make sense of it, though. Where did you find it?”
“Follow me.” I strode over to the shelf where I’d found it. “Right here, third shelf from the bottom.”
Ennigaldi drifted to my side, scrutinizing the scrolls crammed onto the shelves. She unrolled a few of them before placing them back on the shelves.
She plucked out another scroll, this one lighter in color, less aged than the one I found. “Ah, look. This is written in Akkadian. I can read this.”
“Does that matter? It’s a different scroll.”
“From what I’ve been able to tell, whoever organized this library placed different translations of the same texts side by side. If that holds true, I believe these two scrolls are translations of the same work. We could use them as a cipher to decode the symbols on the portal.”
My heart thudded. This was the break we needed. “How would that work?”
Ennigaldi’s eyes gleamed with excitement. “We line up corresponding passages and look for similarities. It won’t be easy. Different languages often rely on different grammatical rules, but if I find similar words repeated in the scroll I can read, I can compare it to what’s on the other one. I might eventually be able to piece together a rough translation of the scroll. With a rudimentary knowledge of the language, then, I might be able to determine what certain symbols on the portal represent.”
I grinned widely. “That’s brilliant.”
Ennigaldi shrugged. “I know. This is going to take some time.”
I followed Ennigaldi back to the table. She started examining the Akkadian scroll first.
“Does the scroll you can read mention anything about portals?” I asked. My fingers itched with impatience. The longer we took to figure this out, the more we risked Ares or something else emerging from the portal.
Ennigaldi frowned as she traced her finger down the text. “Unfortunately, no. These appear to be treatises on the corruption of youth. The scroll you found is older than anything the Greeks wrote, but perhaps they saw it as some sort of ancient wisdom related to a theme that interested them.”
“The corruption of the youth? Isn’t that what they condemned Socrates for?”
“I believe so,” Ennigaldi confirmed. “Socrates predated the fall of Babylon. I’d certainly heard of him, but Athenian philosophy wasn’t high on my list of interests.”
My shoulders slumped in disappointment. Of course it couldn’t be that easy. “Damn. You’re sure there’s nothing about portals there?”
Ennigaldi glanced up at me and sighed. “It doesn’t matter. While the scrolls themselves do not mention portals, as I explained before, if I can decipher enough of the language and script, I may be able to apply that knowledge to translate the symbols on your portal. The more I understand about the grammar and syntax, the more accurate my translations will become.”
“In that case, let’s get to work.” I rolled up my sleeves, ready to dig in. “Anything I can do to help?”
“Not really. Look for more scrolls like the one you found. The more I have, the more likely I’ll be able to make sense of the language.”
I sighed and stood. “I’ll head back and search the shelves. Call me if you have any breakthroughs.”
“I will,” Ennigaldi promised, already engrossed in the scroll. “Try looking in the same area where you found this one.”
With a nod, I hurried back to the same shelf. I made my way through the dimly lit stacks, using my phone light to examine what I found.
Over the next hour, I found two more scrolls and some similar scrolls on the same shelves in Akkadian and grabbed those as well. I gathered up all the scrolls I found and headed back to Ennigaldi. She looked up as I approached, eyes bright.
“Any luck?” I asked.
“Some. The language appears to be a dialect of Akkadian, related to Sumerian. I’ve started piecing together some of the grammar and syntax. We may be able to begin translating the portal symbols soon.”
“That’s great news.” I set the scrolls on the table. “I found a few more that look similar. Will these help?”
Ennigaldi’s eyes lit up as she unrolled the first new scroll. “Yes, these contain some of the same language. Excellent work, Sienna!”
I nodded. “With all of these, you’ll crack the code in no time.”
Ennigaldi rolled her eyes. “It’s still a painstaking process. You’re right, though. This will certainly expedite my efforts. It will also better ensure my translations are accurate.”
“Let’s hope so.”
I peered at the portal photos again, a chill running down my spine. “I’m not sure it’s safe to stay here too long. Whatever we might learn about the portal eventually, we need to prepare for the worst now.”
Ennigaldi glanced up, her expression grim. “You’re right. We must take every precaution possible to defend against Ares. Let’s gather the scrolls and photos and head back to the schoolhouse immediately. I have plenty here to keep me occupied for a while. Besides, this stool is uncomfortable. Those Greeks had incredible architecture, but their furniture left a lot to be desired.”
Ennigaldi and I started rolling up the scrolls we’d gathered, placing them back in the tubes they were stored in.
Once we had everything in hand, we headed back out the door and onto the streets of Alexandria.
I glanced back at the portal. The color of the magic flowing through it had shifted. It now radiated a red glow. “Something’s changing.”
“We have no idea what that means. It may mean nothing at all.”
Ennigaldi was wrong. A blast of energy shot out of the portal. When it faded, a man stood in its place. He was tall and muscular, with short-cropped hair and a beard. He wore a bronze breastplate and greaves, and a red cloak was draped over his shoulders. In his hands, he held a spear and a shield.
The figure looked around, his eyes taking in the strange new world he had found himself in. He was clearly a warrior, and he was clearly out of his element.
I clenched my fists and unsheathed my sword. Ennigaldi grabbed my arm. “Don’t fight him. We must leave.”
“Come on! I can take him. He looks like a pansy.”
“He’s Spartan! You don’t want to get tangled up with him.”
“I can use my brooch. I’ll disappear. He won’t know what hit him.”
Ennigaldi shook her head. “And if you attack him, who knows what will come out next? We might be flooded with a whole legion. We also don’t know the power that vivifies him. He may be more than he appears. Until we know what we’re facing, we should not engage.”
I sighed. “All right. Fine. But for the record, I’d totally kick his ass.”
Ennigaldi grinned. “Sure you would.”
CHAPTER THREE
I drove Ennigaldi back to the schoolhouse. A freaking Spartan? I didn’t know much. Their reputation, millennia later, was that they were the original badasses. But maybe that was because I’d seen 300.
Whatever the Spartan’s arrival meant, he was the first of what would likely be many. Was he a ghost, or flesh-and-blood? Was he inhabiting a golem’s body, or had he actually been sent through time to our world? If so, he was in for a real rude awakening. Spears and shields weren’t all that scary in a world with guns, missiles, and bombs. His armor wouldn’t do much to protect him, either.
