Priscilla Sum

Part 29--The Eyes of Auraea

The mouth of the temple area just inside the wall was flanked by two huge statues of spear-wielding guards. The sun streamed down through a collapsed portion of the ceiling overhead, and as my eyes sought out the sky, I found myself looking right into the face of my mom.
Well, it was supposed to be Auraea. Same thing, at this point! The face was almost exactly the same as I always remembered it, but her hair--usually slicked back and flat-ironed to a sleek sheen--was carved as a swirling, loose mass. She looked more like a wind goddess with her chiton billowing around her body. The detail on every stray lock of hair, every fold and wrinkle of fabric, down to the toes that were roughly the size of my palm, was meticulously formed.
A brilliant light blazed from the face, and I barely heard Kayce shout "Look out!" before hands yanked on my shoulders and something went whooshing past my head. The air filled with high-pitched squeals as I ducked and covered.
"What was that?" Derrick hollered.

"Everybody okay?" asked Tony.

Kayce watched the morphing shadows clinging to the walls high above us.
"Bats," he said with a shudder.

"Ugh!" Jordyn pulled a face and shrank off to one side. "I hope none of them decide to poop on us!"

I sighed. "Well, at least it wasn't something worse!" I gave a nervous laugh and adjusted the straps of my backpack. I certainly hoped bats would be the worst thing we faced in this temple. "Come on, you guys. Let's keep going in."
"But stay close," Tony warned. "We'll be safer in a tight group, in case things spring out at us again."

We all huddled against one another and inched forward, hands on the backpack in front of us, hugging close to the pedestal supporting the statue.

Kayce and Derrick, in front of the rest of us, watched the floor for subtle cracks or indications of trip wires or uneven tiles.

Derrick pulled to a halt right alongside the statue. "Wait," he said.

I glanced around. We hadn't even made it twenty paces from the doorway. Was there a trip wire or something?

"Did anyone else hear that?" he asked.

I glanced from side to side, listening for a stray rumble or the subtle click of a booby trap releasing.

"Hear what?" Kayce asked.

Jordyn's voice came hoarse over my shoulder. "She's... watching us!"
We all looked up as carefully as we dared. Sure enough, the head on the statue had angled so the huge face loomed large, the gem-like eyes (actually, they could have been real large gemstones) fixed directly on our position.

"It's just the perspective," Tony reassured her. "We've all seen artwork that look like the eyes are following you around the room."

"The Eyes Do Not Know You...." Wasn't that what the inscription had said? Were these the eyes it referred to? What was the consequence of not being "known" by the goddess? Did it count that I was adopted by the goddess herself--or not, because none of us were of Greek descent?

Kayce sighed in the stillness and inched forward over the dusty ground. "Let's just keep moving forward--"

"Stop!" Derrick squawked, and as a whole group we stumbled backward over one another as the space in front of us disintegrated before our eyes.

I almost ate Kayce's backpack as my feet got tangled with Jordyn's ankles. Derrick was still flailing at all of us as he fought his way toward the front again. "Get back, get back, get back!"

We made it back to the front of the statue's feet just moments before the rumbling and crashing stopped. Sand, dust, and stones had fallen away to create a hole about four feet wide beside the base of the statue's pedestal.