Priscilla Sum

Part 21--Cracking The Code

I didn't realize how long we'd actually been underground until we reached the surface. The sun was already nearing the horizon, and the shadows were growing longer and deeper by the minute.

"Okay, students!" Professor Silver assumed the role of instructor as soon as we passed by the tunnel entrance. The staff had a folding table set up for us off to the side. "We only have a couple hours till dinnertime, so use it wisely."

Drea handed each of us a print-out of the inscription, as well as a digital tablet we could share if we needed a closer look. "The tablet is also equipped with reference materials, if you need it," she said, showing us the location on the tablet menu.

Jordyn's eyes lit up as she accepted the tablet first. "Okay! If nobody minds, I'm just going to--heh-heh..." She chuckled sheepishly as we all watched her open a Basic Greek lexicon.

Kayce snorted. "Seriously?" he muttered.

Jordyn assumed a defensive stance. "What's the problem? I figure if we're supposed to be finding Greek words in all this jumble, I need to learn how Greek spelling conventions work!"

I laughed. "Let her do what she needs to, Kayce," I said. "I'm pretty sure she's the only one of us who didn't major in a subject that required a course in Remedial Greek."

"Hail Geology!" Jordyn crowed.

Kayce wagged his head and bent over the inscription, circling letters and connecting them with lines till it made quite the kaleidoscopic design on the page. "Well," he mused. "I found the letters for Trikymios and ilios, so there's definitely something about the storm god and the sun."I started copying his method, finding words of my own. "But then again, I can pick out letters that spell Fourtouna, and also Vasilias, which means king. Does that mean Fourtouna was a city-state with its own ruler?"

Kayce shrugged, running his fingers through his hair again as he puzzled over the strange inscription. "Who knows? I just wish we knew of some kind of system these people had for writing out their messages--it probably didn't feel like a code to those who knew how to read it!"

Tony had been silent for a while, working away at his copy. He picked up the tablet and scrolled through the menu, scrolling through page after page of historical references and science journal articles. There was a lot about Ancient Greek culture at large, but not very much specifically relevant to Fourtouna, nor the peculiar practice of worshipping a Microtheon.

"You know what would be really handy?" He placed the tablet back in the middle of the table and resumed studying his copy of the inscription. "I think what we really need is a book that just deals with Fourtouna and its customs and culture."

Kayce bobbed his head, swapping for a pen of a different color as his inscription copy became more and more indecipherable due to all the markings on it. "You said it! Too bad such a book doesn't exist."

My heart began thumping at triple speed. I immediately thought of the book I'd brought, back in my duffel kept securely under my cot in the tent. This was the second time Tony had said something to make me feel like he knew about it--but how was that even possible? And where was this inordinate shame coming from? Sure, I had a reference book and I brought it... So why did I have to feel bad about that?

You know why, the small voice in my head reminded me. It's because if anybody were to read that book, they would figure out your parents' secret, and their connection to this island... and they would ask you too many questions about it, and you're afraid to face the notion that they might actually be gods...

I distracted myself by doodling over the blank space in the margins of my inscription copy. My eyes slipped over to Tony's paper.

He had most of the letters circled, and he was already writing down an entire phrase in Greek! "Vasiliás ton trikymíon, koitáxte ton ílio..." "Wait," I muttered, leaning in closer. "what are you..." I got too busy reading what he was writing to even finish my own question. The circles on his page fell in a repeating pattern--every third letter!