Jake Ransom and the Skull King's Shadow by James Rollins Read Free Book Online Page A

field logbook and his mother’s leather-bound sketchbook. He had wanted both books with him when he visited themuseum. He opened his father’s log and read the entry for the double-headed snake.
     
    Clearly from the intricate curling of the serpent into a figure eight, the relic must represent the Mayan belief in the eternal nature of the cosmos. From the craftsmanship, the work must represent the high Classic period. I can only imagine…
     
    Jake read onward, hearing his father’s voice in his head as he continued through the exhibit, stopping in front of each object. As he wandered, each piece brought him closer to his parents. Had his mother polished the silver jaguar over there? Had his father counted the number of circles, like tree rings, that made up the Mayan calendar wheel?
    Jake remembered lessons taught to him as a young boy…by his mother, by his father. And not just about archaeology. He remembered his mother teaching him how to tie his shoelaces.
    The rabbit dives into the lace hole and pops back out….
    He found his feet slowing. Though he was thousands of miles away from Ravensgate Manor, Jake felt a closeness, an intimacy here, like he had discovered a long-lost room in his home.
    “How long do you think we have to stay in here?” Kady finally asked with her usual ring of exaggerated impatience.
    Jake turned to the door. The commotion had died down out in the courtyard, but voices still murmured, too low to make out words. Thunder still rumbled. Unlike his sister, Jake was in no hurry to leave. A twinge of possessiveness fired through him. He didn’t want anyone else in here. It would be like someone trespassing into his heart. In fact, he barely tolerated his sister’s presence.

    He needed to see the exhibit’s centerpiece.
    Free of any glass case, it rested open on a pedestal: a two-foot-tall pyramid made of solid gold. It climbed in nine steps to a flat summit, where a dragon with outstretched wings crouched atop it. The dragon had been carved from a large chunk of jade. Its eyes, two fiery opals,seemed to stare straight into Jake’s heart.
    “Kukulkan,” he mumbled, naming the feathered dragon god of the Maya.
    Jake recognized this object, too. According to his father’s field log, the priceless relic had been found atop the lid of a limestone sarcophagus. Jake tucked away his father’s logbook and opened his mother’s sketchbook. Flipping through the sketches, he searched for the match to the pyramid.
    From halfway across the room, Kady finally spotted what he held in his hands. She stalked over to him. “Jake! What are you doing with that here?”
    She hadn’t known he had brought their parents’ books to London.
    No one did.
    Ignoring his sister, Jake found the right page. He compared the sketch of the pyramid to the original. He studied his mother’s precise pencil drawings, the eraser marks, the corrections, the tiny notes scrawled in the margins. They were pieces of his mother. And here was her inspiration.
    Jake’s sight blurred with tears, and his hands shook.
    Before he could drop the book, Kady snatched it out of his hands. “Why did you bring it here?” she scolded. “You could have lost it or had it stolen.”
    “Like you would have cared.” He moved closer to the pyramid.
    She pushed next to him and grabbed his elbow. “What do you mean by that?”
    He tugged his elbow loose and glared at her. “You didn’t even want to come here!” Jake found his voice choking and that only made him even madder. “The only reason you came was to pose for some stupid cameras!”
    Kady’s face flushed angrily. “You don’t know—”
    Jake reached and yanked the sketchbook back out of her hands. “So what if I lost Mom’s book? You haven’t looked at it for years.”
    Kady grabbed for him, but he danced back and kept out of reach.
    Jake circled to the far side of the pyramid. “Don’t you even care about Mom and Dad anymore?”
    Kady stood on her side of the pyramid.