Heirs to a Nothing Throne

Chapter 20

And so we did. The next day, Theta and I left the palace together to poke around the town. As we forced open the doors to the palace, I put to voice some of yesterday's observations.

"Well... these people didn't write in English, and likely didn't speak it either, obviously. And it's not as if we can translate it. We'll just have to infer what we can about how they lived. It's not as if we can go to the library and read up on them. Hey, do you know what a library is, actually?"

She shrugged. "No idea. I recognize the word, though."

"Uh... it's just, like, a building full of books and information. Where you go to read and learn about the world. Or, just read fictional stories."

She nodded. "I can read, although there hasn't been much to practice on. Stories, though, I've always loved. Only way mother could tell us about the outside world. I always wanted to go out and learn from experience instead, though, and live through the stories." She shook the faraway look from her eyes.

"Well, we know some things," she continued. "They made everything out of stone. They had an education system. And they were probably wiped out by something, although we don't know if it was a natural disaster or an attack."

"Well, I told you about the hole in the school. What could have caused something like that?"

She made a face. "Fine, fine. Let's not start with what happened to them, then. Let's just investigate their culture. Even if we can't read words, we can still see any pictures, right? They've got to have at least some."

"Perhaps we should check the school, then. If they wrote down their learning material, then maybe there will be illustrations."

"Sounds like a great place to start."

I led her down several roads to where I had found the school, only getting lost once. She inspected the strange writing on the sign beside the gate.

"You're right, it's not any language I've seen," she agreed, looking to me.

"Seen a lot, have you? On this one island."

"My mother. Let's go in, take a look at the classrooms." We walked into the school and entered the first door we saw. The classroom inside looked identical to every other.

"I'll check around the floor," Theta said. "You check the teacher's desk."

The desk was in fairly good condition compared to everything else. A small compartment was set into the bottom. I felt around inside and pulled out a single flat, opaque sheet of rock. It was about the size of a normal piece of printer paper and incredibly light. Markings covered nearly every inch of the tablet, worthless to me since they were in the same script as the sign. Reaching in again, my fingers bumped against a few other stones. I revealed them to be thin black rocks, about as thick and long as a marker.

I tested out writing with these stones, scraping the end across the back of one of the tablets. Sure enough, it worked just as a piece of chalk, leaving my name printed on the back. Holy... my handwriting is awful. I guess because I haven't used it in so long. Curiously, no matter how much I wrote, the chalk never seemed to get smaller.

Finally, two items on the floor under the desk caught my eye. One was a small stone knife that had writing going down the side. The other was another tablet. This one, however, depicted a detailed, colorful illustration. A family sat atop a hill on its surface, a setting sun in the background. There was what I assumed to be a mother and a father, both middle-aged, and a daughter who couldn't have been more than fifteen. The father had a slightly balding crop of brown hair, whereas the wife's hair shone in many colors. The hues changed as one rotated the picture, shifting around elegantly as light reflected off it differently. She was very beautiful. The daughter had her father's hair, unfortunately, but had her mother's charming smile. The family's simple brown clothes couldn't diminish the happiness in their expressions.

Turning it over, I found writing on the back; at the top, there was a paragraph or so, and at the bottom, just two short words. I pocketed the picture and joined Theta at the door.

"Well?" I asked. "Did you find anything interesting?"

She shook her head. "Almost everything was smashed to pieces. I did, however, find this." She set a small metal box on the floor, and I kneeled down to examine it beside her. She broke the lock with a stone and lifted the lid off.

Inside was a small necklace, a row of sparkling white crystals hanging from a gold chain. Underneath was a ring, also white, with a wavy pattern.

"I wonder who these belonged to? They're fantastically preserved," she said, trying on the necklace. It fit over her head and settled loosely into place below her neck. She offered me the ring, which I accepted and put on my right hand.

I looked from the ring to her necklace and felt a little thrilled. "It looks nice."

"Yeah, it makes the rest of you look dirtier by contrast."

Laughing, I said, "No, no, the necklace. It looks good on you."

"Oh," She blushed a little. "Thanks, thank you. What about you? Did you find anything?"

"This was the only interesting thing." I showed her the picture.

She looked at it, her eyes wide. "It's beautiful," she exclaimed, examining it. "This artist was very skilled."

"Yeah, isn't it something? Our first indication of what these people were like."

We checked the next classroom, but the floor seemed too unsteady to walk on—neither of us felt like testing it. The one after that, however, was in better shape. Many of the desks were still upright and had tablets laying on them. I picked one up. It was filled about halfway with writing, but at the end, it broke off suddenly. I noticed that one of the students had begun to doodle on the side of his paper. I guess kids are kids.

Like much of the architecture, the script used across all of the tablets we found was very geometric, with easily recognizable patterns. It was mostly short lines and dots. I couldn't find anything to indicate sentences or paragraphs, though, or anything I could parallel to any language I knew.

Theta and I reconvened outside. She leaned against the wall as I opened my mouth to speak. Nothing came out before the stone beneath her palm gave way, and she pushed a large piece of the wall out of its place, falling forward with it. I could see the whole wall and ceiling shift, and I grabbed her hand, both of us moving away to the other side as that part of the building gave way. The tremendous sound echoed through the halls, and we now had a clear view of the day open for us.

I looked at her, astonished. "You were almost crushed."

"I was almost crushed," she replied, somehow not as horrified as I was. We looked at each other for a second more before something else caught our attention. My eyes flew upward, where I saw cracks forming in the wall behind us. Thump. More cracks appeared. Theta and I stepped back, drawing our weapons.

Whatever was on the other side hit the wall once more, knocking bits of dust and rock free.

"It'll get through with the next hit," I muttered, fear tying a knot in my stomach.

Theta looked at me and gave a smile. "Best of luck," she said, and then turned her eyes back to the wall.

"Thanks, you too," I said. "We'll likely need it."

The wall shattered, spraying pieces everywhere. One football-sized chunk flew past my head, and another slightly bigger broke in front of Theta's feet. Something leaped in through the hole and unleashed a guttural, high-pitched shriek.

I felt my heart start pumping even faster, a bead of sweat running down my face.

I barely breathed out, "Oh, no. Not you again."