THE PRINCESS OF ÉLEVÉ

Discovering The Tablets

Southeast Asia – Island of Sumatra, Summer, 2036

Archie stopped her digging, put her shovel down, and cocked her head. She heard only the soft murmur of a light breeze sliding down the steep cliffs. Far below she could make out the small figures of her party moving through the valley. She took off her helmet and wiped the sweat and dirt from her face. Her strawberry blonde hair tumbled down below her shoulders.

Archie was seventeen and about to enter her first year at Yale. Seventeen! Like the seventeen syllables in haiku, arranged neatly. Ah, but the best years are yet to come, she thought. It was the end of the hot Indonesian summer. Archie and a team of student archaeologists had come with their faculty adviser Andre to search this site for ancient artifacts. It was thought there'd been a very early civilization here and the artifacts would provide proof. Andre had been given permission to search an area in northwest Sumatra covering many kilometers around a huge lake. The lake was one hundred kilometers long and thirty kilometers wide, and had an island in the middle.

The war on the island of Borneo, they were told, might spread to neighboring islands, and Andre's team should expect trouble. They need not have worried, mused Archie. The trip had so far proven to be uneventful and summer was coming to an end in a few days.

Archie had climbed to the ridge high above the rest of the team where she had been digging for several minutes. The ridge was part of a ring of mountains that surrounded the lake. She knew the cliffs also dropped rapidly on the other side into the lake. She wondered if she might be at the same altitude as the lake.

The idea occurred to her that it would be so convenient to have a tunnel that went through the mountain range. She smiled to herself and thought, I should be so lucky to find such a passageway if it existed. A shiver went down her spine. She had a strange feeling she was about to find something, something very important. But what? And where?

She had been drawn to this spot by what looked like a great gray owl, but even larger. She had only seen a great gray once before, in the mountains of the Sierras, back in the States. It resembled a giant moth. As she followed this "giant moth", which circled above, her hazel eyes were drawn to this area that was different than the rest of the cliff face.

It was an indentation into the steep cliff and had a more gradual slope. Instead of the rocky surface, she noticed this area of the cliff was composed of loose ash colored dirt, but darker than the surrounding rock. It had recently been exposed, she felt, but from what? Was it from rain and wind, or maybe a recent earthquake?

The darker color narrowed to an arch and abruptly stopped. Below the arch it looked just like a doorway that had been covered with dirt and ash. She resumed her digging, and with a few more shovelfuls and a hard push, the ground gave way and she fell forward into the opening.

The smell from the opening caused her to pull back. It was stale, dry, and dusty, and suffocating. The outside air gradually replaced the lifeless and oppressive air inside. When she could breathe again, she dug a hole about two feet in diameter, and stepped in. She lost her balance and tumbled and rolled downward some twenty or twenty-five meters. She stopped at a hard rock wall.

Aside from having the breath knocked out of her, she was unhurt. She reached in her backpack for her torchlight and turned it on. Thank heavens, she thought, it wasn't broken in the fall. She moved her light around. She found her helmet, put it on, and tucked her long blonde hair inside.

She noticed that ash spread below the opening, and that she was in a tunnel rather than a cave. She moved down the passageway twenty meters and looked at the smooth rocky walls. Perhaps they'd been carved by underground rivers but there was no evidence of rivers or water nearby. I'd better let Andre know where I am, she thought, before I go any farther.