The Goddess Legacy

Chapter 46

Back at the hotel, Drake unlocked the room and led Allie inside. Spencer was sprawled on the bed, the overhead fan’s listless orbit doing little but stirring the tepid air.

“Rise and shine, big guy,” Drake called out, and Spencer started awake and sat up. Allie eyed him and shook her head.

“Thank God you have makeup to cover the bruising. You look like you were hit by a car.”

“Nice to see you both, too,” Spencer growled as he wiped sleep from his eyes. “You crack the code?”

“Yes and no,” Drake said.

“What does that mean?” Spencer asked.

“It means we know what the script says, but it makes no sense.” Allie gave him a short rundown.

Spencer considered the message. “Viewed through the eyes of the goddess of time, her lowest hand holds the holiest of holies, beneath which… who the hell knows. That’s priceless. And about as useful as pockets in a coffin.”

Allie shrugged. “It’s describing the mosaic. We’ve already figured out that the first bit refers to Shiva’s cave in Kashmir.”

“The Shiv Khori,” Drake said.

“Right. And the second part clearly refers to the mosaic,” Allie continued.

“Which would all be impressive if the third part wasn’t incomplete nonsense,” Spencer said.

Drake shook his head. “Somebody woke up on the wrong side of the bed.”

Spencer grunted. “Somebody sees a future in an Indian prison, playing house with twenty of my new BFFs if we don’t figure this out, and fast.”

“Let’s think about this,” Allie suggested. “The first part of the Kali statue script says ‘viewed through the eyes of the goddess of time.’ We know it’s referring to the mosaic.”

“No, we think it is, because your student friend believes she got the translation right,” Spencer fired back. “We don’t know anything for sure.”

“There’s no reason to think that part is garbled, Spencer. Don’t be negative,” Drake said. “‘Through the eyes of the goddess of time.’ Maybe… maybe it’s saying that the image of Kali contains something in the area of her eyes?”

Allie powered on her tablet and brought up the mosaic image. She zoomed in on the eyes and took a seat by the small table. Drake joined her, and Spencer reluctantly threw the sheets off and eyed the tablet over their shoulders as he donned his shirt.

“I don’t see squat,” Spencer said.

“Neither do I,” Allie agreed.

Drake nodded. “It was just a theory.”

“Here’s another one that’s not so fun to consider,” Allie said. “What if, in the original temple, there was some kind of solar guide, where when the sun shined through an aperture at a certain time of day, it then traced to other elements in the design that acted as a map? I’ve read about that sort of thing, but never seen it in person.”

“Wasn’t that one of the Indiana Jones movies — the one with the snake pit?” Drake asked. “That always gave me the creeps as a kid.”

She gave him a dirty look. “Doesn’t mean it wasn’t used in real life.”

They sat in silence, considering the ramifications of Allie’s speculation. Drake cleared his throat. “Problem being that temple was destroyed. So if you’re right, we’re beyond screwed.”

“I’m just thinking out loud,” Allie said. “But absent anything obvious about the mosaic, we’re still back at square one. Or one and a half.”

“It has a lot of detail,” Drake said. “Maybe we’re missing something. Zoom out. Could be that the eyes are looking at something? See how the pupils look a little down and to the right?”

Allie manipulated the image until the entire mosaic was displayed. “Do you see anything?”

“Not really,” Drake admitted.

“Neither do I,” Spencer said. “I’m going to the bathroom. Maybe I’ll have a breakthrough of some sort.”

Spencer left them to their inspection. Allie let her eyes rove over every inch of the image, trying to discern a pattern to any of the elements. Drake ran his fingers through his hair and then felt his two days of growth — a reminder of the inexorable passage of time since they’d been issued the ultimatum by Reynolds.

“Maybe we should go to this Shiv Khori and see if we can spot anything? We seem to have exhausted our leads here,” he suggested.

“It’s unlikely we’re going to stumble across a clue in the cave. Half a million people go every year, remember? Don’t you think one of them would have seen something by now if it was obvious?”

Drake stared at the fan circling overhead, an idea fighting its way to the surface of his consciousness, and then snapped his fingers and stared at Allie with a slightly manic look. “What if it’s not talking about the mosaic at all?”

“Of course it is, Drake. ‘In the temple devoted to the destroyer, the sacred mosaic shows the way.’ What else could it be referring to?”

Spencer emerged from the bathroom and caught the last of Allie’s question. He looked to Drake, who grinned. “The idol. It’s Kali too, isn’t it? Think about the script, taken as a whole. What if there was a bit before the area you photographed that identified a switch from the mosaic to the idol? Then it would mean something completely different. It would mean that, viewed through the eyes of the idol, the mosaic shows the way.”

Realization spread across Allie’s face. “That’s not bad. Not bad at all, Ramsey,” she said softly.

“But the idol’s back at your swami’s place, under heavy guard,” Spencer reminded them. “You mentioned that they had guns — if you’re right, how do we get the statue and look at the mosaic through its eyes, assuming it’s possible to do, which seems unlikely since you said it was made out of gold…?”

“Bring up the picture of the statue, Allie,” Drake said, his voice quiet. She switched to the dark image of the dancing goddess and zoomed in on Kali’s head.

“See anything?” she asked.

“What kind of jewels are those?” Drake asked.

Allie zoomed in closer and increased the brightness. “They look like… rubies.”

Drake sat back, thinking. Neither Allie nor Spencer spoke, allowing him to cogitate in silence. He tried to imagine the statue being used as some sort of beacon, per Allie’s theory, and then opened them and shook his head.

“What if the idol was in the temple that was destroyed? Positioned in some way so the sun shined through its jeweled eyes and hit the mosaic in strategic spots?”

Allie gasped and tapped the tablet to open her imaging software. She waited as it cycled, and her gaze drifted to Drake’s.

“No. That’s not it at all, or at least I don’t think so. It’s much easier. The rubies would make anyone looking through them see the world through a red filter.” She hesitated and tapped the photo of the idol. “What if there are tiles in the mosaic that are only distinctive when viewed through a red lens? Red glass, jewels, it wouldn’t matter.”

“Can you simulate that?” Spencer asked. “With your computer?”

“Give me a second and we’ll find out.”