A cold, wet nose in my eye socket woke me from sleep.

  Rearing my head back as I opened my eyes, Ripper stood beside the bed, his tongue out and wagging his tail. Seeing that I was awake, he turned and headed for the door to the hotel room, which had been closed and locked but now stood wide open. He stopped just inside the doorway and looked back.

  I gently removed Rainbow’s arm from my hip, Rainbow murmuring in her sleep as she rolled over and settled in beside Cornflower, who was flat on her back as I slid off the bed. I put on my pajama trousers as I looked at them together, smiling at the new memories we had made during the previous evening. Then I put on the robe hanging from a hook on the wall. I followed Ripper out of the room, gently closing the door behind me.

  The Raven hotel, abandoned by its former owner, had reopened with Maria Sanchez in charge, and we were staying there prior to the next leg of our journey home. Ripper padded down the hall and I walked behind him, mystified as to what he wanted. We went down the stairs and he turned left towards the dining area. I continued to follow, and as we moved past the wooden tables towards the courtyard, I caught the whiff of sweet smelling cigar smoke.

  The old man sat in the moonlight on a stone bench. Dressed in the same stained clothing and simple sandals he had worn before, he sent out a stream of smoke as Ripper and I approached him. I stopped a couple paces away as he looked up. “I have come for my dog.”

  Despite my fear of the old man, I felt a pang of loss. “I understand, sir. However, I am going to miss him.” Ripper sat beside me on his haunches and I reached out to scratch his head.

  The old man smiled. “I am pleased to hear that. If it is any consolation, when your daughter is born, I plan to give him to her as a sign of my desire to see her become the first fighting queen of the Eldarion and Maya people in a Bak’tun.”

  I blinked in surprise. “She is to be a fighting queen?”

  He gave me a solemn nod. “War is coming, and not just the invasion by the French. Unless my prediction is wrong, and they seldom are, she will become the leader of the rebellion against any and all foreign invaders within the next few years.”

  “Next few years? Sir, she will still be a child.”

  A sly expression spread over his face. “Perhaps. However, your star-cells do work in mysterious ways.” His gnarled hand motioned at Ripper, discomforting me as his expression grew sharp. “I would also prefer for you to remain here and prevent the greater conflict from occurring, but I gather that will not happen.”

  I grimaced. “The… other, has made sure of it. Besides, at the meeting we had with the elders of Edzna yesterday, the Eldarions made it clear they do not want me anywhere close to the Yucatan, or even Mexico for that matter. They are afraid the Snake polity will want to use me to overwhelm the Eagle, and lead their people into war.”

  “War will happen whether they want it or not.” He puffed on his cigar as he regarded me. “I understand you worked out a compromise with your grandfather concerning the remaining gold.”

  “It remains the property of the Maya people,” I said with the conviction I felt. “However, the elders are loaning some of the best pieces to my grandfather, who in turn will loan it to the British museum. Grandfather wants to build scale models of several sites, along with reproductions of the murals Catherwood had his Artifact Camera Obscura draw out.” My face grew sad as I thought about them. “I wish they could have survived the second time, but Naamah says some fates are destined.”

  “As you have learned. What of the bones of the Camazotz?”

  I drew myself up. “My grandfather says they belong to us and I agree. We killed it.”

  “So you did,” he said, smiling at me with yellowed teeth. “Let him display the bones in the hallowed halls of his Explorer’s Club and amaze the Englishmen staring up at them. The day will come when those Englishmen wish it was only the Camazotz they had to contend with.”

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  “Sir, if you mean the star-jaguars, then they can sleep well at night. For I will not summon them.”

  “So you believe.” Sweet smelling clouds of smoke formed around his head as he regarded me. “Here is a riddle for you to consider. What do you use to fight monsters when nothing else works?”

  Before I could answer, he took the cigar from his mouth and pointed the lit end at me. “Let me give you a piece of advice, free of any price, as well as a gift. Two gifts, actually. The advice is this: never stop trying to change your fate, even if you think it is hopeless. Some things are destined to happen, regardless of what you do. However, if you fight against them until the bitter end, the event may be altered enough so that the next crisis, which your enemy believes to be inevitable as well, might not happen.”

  “In other words, never give up hope.”

  “Never.” His smile became warm as he rose to his feet. “Now, the first gift is not for you but for the girl whose picture was in the locket.” He handed me a ring made out of a light brown wood, the outside carved with delicate glyphs and symbols. “As you can see, this ring is not an Aethyr Artifact but something else entirely. There is a guardian spirit who agreed to be bound to it, so he might give her, and only her, help when she needs it.” I held it up to examine the markings as he added, “It is a small spirit who is rather shy, so the help will never be great or, to be honest, always reliable. Yet it may someday save her life.”

  I slipped the wooden ring into a pocket of my robe. “I will make sure she gets this. What about the second?”

  To my surprise, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a fistful of cigars. “These are for your grandfather as my way of thanking him.” He looked down at Ripper. “Are you ready?” Ripper let out a woof that made me smile, getting to his feet and following the old man out the back entrance, both of them disappearing from my sight except for the glowing tip of his cigar. Which then vanished as well.

  “Jonathan?” I whirled around to see my grandfather, also wearing a robe, walk into the courtyard. “I thought I heard voices and came down to investigate.”

  “Ripper’s owner came back to retrieve him. However,” and I handed him the cigars, “he wanted you to have these.”

  “He did? How thoughtful.” He placed all but two of the cigars in his robe pocket, before getting out his small pocketknife and box of matches. “I always dislike smoking alone, so will you join me?”

  I was taken aback. “I… yes, of course. I would be delighted.” I held the cigars out as he clipped off the ends of both, before lighting them with the same match. The pair of us puffed on them until the ends glowed a fiery red. “Sir, I appreciate you letting Rainbow and Cornflower…”

  I hesitated in embarrassment, struggling for the right words, and he blew out smoke as he laughed. “Say goodbye to you in their own way?”

  “Yes sir. Something like that.” I took the cigar from my mouth and stared at the glowing tip. “I believe Rainbow cares for me, yet nothing like she did in my previous life. Her heart belongs to Cornflower.” I struggled to make sense of my feelings. “Part of me is ready to return to England, and yet…”

  “The other part wishes Captain Waters had kept his promise?” I nodded, and he puffed on his cigar for a moment. “I understand how you feel, but I believe in time you will see this is all for the best. Did I ever tell you the story of why I call Naamah ‘Old Spear-Tongue’?”

  I shook my head and he motioned towards the bench. “Sit with me and I will tell you the tale.” We did so and he began, “It all started when we met aboard the ship heading for India. She was berating…”

  We sat smoking together like old friends, creating new memories as the ripple of time we rode upon flowed ever onward into the future.

  With this chapter ends the first part of the chronicle.

  Should you wish to verify the accuracy of this narrative, you can do so with little effort by visiting the British Museum. The yellowed bones of the Camazotz are there, the Explorer’s Club having donated them to the museum some years ago, as well as displays outlining the expedition and its fate.

  You will, of course, get the sanitized version, gruesome as it is, with no mention of the Camazotz-Ahau or many other details presented here. Should you inquire of the Eldarion-Maya, they will, of course, deny any knowledge of the expedition… and then ask you to leave their lands and never return.

  Up to this point, the history presented here matches the history that you know. However, the next part of this long chronicle wildly diverges from what you believe to be true, with great triumphs and heartbreaking defeats contained within its pages. Events which happened, and yet, did not.

  I know that, as you read its pages, you will shake your head in disbelief, skeptical that such things could have ever taken place. I would ask you to suspend that disbelief, though I fear that you cannot. You will likely think it impossible for such monstrous creatures of the Elder Darkness to even exist, let alone affect the world of mortals, for this is the age of Science, of Reason, and you do not believe in Eldritch Horrors.

  But my dearest friend, the Eldritch Horrors will always believe in you.

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