The Priestess

by Amethyst Gray

  The Priestess

  Amethyst Gray

  Copyright © 2020 Amethyst Gray

  All rights reserved

  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

  Amethyst Gray has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this Work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  ISBN-13: 978-1916212824

  Cover design by: Tiras Verey

  Dedicated to all those affected by, or lost as a result of, the COVID-19 Pandemic of 2020

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Forward

  Prologue

  I – Aftermath

  II – Finds

  III – Miami

  IV – Dreamtime

  V - Perfect Day

  VI - Messima

  VII – The Funeral

  VIII - The Woods

  IX – The Adventure

  X – The Return

  XI - The Voyage Home

  XII - The Priesthood

  XIII – Flight

  XIV - Anxiety

  XV - Hope

  XVI - Waiting

  XVII - Visitors

  XVIII - Morning

  XIX - Revelations

  XX – Miami

  XXI – Expedition

  XXII – Dawn

  XXIII - Rendezvous

  XXIV – Shelved

  XXV – Press

  XXVI – Life

  XXVII – Celebrations

  XXVIII – Lines

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgement

  Glossary

  Further Reading

  About The Author

  The Diana Garry Book Series

  Forward

  This book is a short story made of two intertwined destinies of very touching and soulful heroes. It is light and joyful, while profound and tragic as well.

  It comes at a fascinating time when the Earth and the Human Race are facing today very similar challenges.

  Atlantis on the one side, crystal skulls on the other. Two fascinating subjects. The legend says that the skulls were given to us by twelve races of frequent visitors from space who wanted to help in our development.

  I was told the same story from four independent sources, from three different continents. It is a deeply rooted legend or story. The first book I ever read was a famous Belgian comic strip named the Atlantis Enigma.

  At 64, my lust to know more about Atlantis is as strong as ever! If you have this book in your hand, there is a fair chance that you are one of those people who want to know, as I do, more about Atlantis. The “more” you will find here is delicious soul food— the same with the skulls. The original twelve/thirteen skulls are deep, positive and powerful beings.

  Amethyst Gray gives us some lovely insights from a time when the skulls were the very backbone of Atlantis. An unexpected threat suddenly appeared, and I will not say any more and let Amethyst tell you the rest.

  Why are stories such as Avatar, Harry Potter and Star Wars so popular? Because they are modern fairy tales with positive values which give us recipes and courage to face the uncertain and challenging times we are facing. Far beyond the rational and scientific paradigms, they speak about energies, about facing together the unknown, about “the Force being with us”, The same applies to this book and gives it delicious and precious energy.

  The reader will feel Amethyst's experience in meditation, Reiki healing and a way of being where spiritual energy is essential. Enjoy!

  Philippe Ullens

  Prologue

  Acclaimed Archaeologist Doctor Diana Garry from Bath Sulis University in South West England had made a name for herself on her recent dig at the Chateau of Chenonceau in the Loire Valley of France.

  Wanting a new challenge and a free holiday she had agreed to undertake an excavation around a partially submerged pile of rocks on the south side of South Bimini island in the Bahamas.

  The rock pile was not so far from the so-called ‘Bimini Road’ feature that some say was linked to Atlantis. Still, the road was more likely a later feature, such as a quayside, created before the water-level rose as far as it had in recent millennia around the island.

  Whatever she found, she was determined to act with integrity and let the evidence speak for itself. If it were just a pile of rocks, she’d pack up and go home early. If it were Phoenician, as she hoped, then that would be a big deal. And if it were Atlantean – well that would change the history of the world forever.

  'there was an island situated in front of the straits which are by you called the Pillars of Heracles [Gibraltar]; the island was larger than Libya and Asia put together...this island of Atlantis' Plato: Timaeus

  A slim figure in a flowing blue robe gently bathed alongside a pod of dolphins in a seawater pool under a roof of dazzling crystals. Her hands were hovering over the form of an injured man whose limp body was floating on a small raft half-submerged in the water. Her concentration focussed on a clear blue crystal skull resting on a plinth beside the pool as she chanted in an ancient language. The Priestess was determined to heal this dying man.

  I – Aftermath

  “Oh, bother!”

  Diana Garry, Doctor of Archaeology at Bath Sulis University, famously associated with finding Roman mosaic pavements in France, was feeling particularly nauseous today.

  It was now the start of her third month living on a boat.

  The beautiful Bahamas had been devastated by hurricane Dorian, so the original plans for a luxurious stay in a hotel on shore had been changed to a hastily chartered tour boat with onboard cabins and dining facilities. The alternative had been to cancel the whole dig, but as funding would be lost and the academics had already missed their chance to find alternative posts they decided to continue.

  One of the interesting aspects of the hurricane damage had been the amount of ground that had been disturbed by the waves and powerful winds. The target site was vastly different to how it had appeared in the original survey. Now impressive marble boulders and partial pillars were poking up above ground rather than requiring to be dug.

  But Diana wasn’t enjoying that part at the moment anyway. She was trying to keep her food down in the heavy swell. Thankfully she could spend much of the day ashore with her team digging and recording on-site. Many of her team members were from the Atlantic University of Miami. As ever they were very green young undergraduates on their first trip away from home. But they were generally keen and slightly bemused by such seemingly western cultural features such as Doric columns in a Caribbean setting. The differing pronunciation by her North American colleagues always amused her. She was sure that ‘Caribbean’ only contained 2 ‘b’s.

  Some local game fishermen had alerted the archaeological community to these ‘Ancient Greek’ remains just offshore a year or so earlier. These had been taken as tall tales by most people. But an anonymous entrepreneur – rumoured to be Edward Dusk – had offered to fund a dig to prove or disprove an old-world presence in the new-world by examining the remains. That same entrepreneur had requested Diana’s involvement after reading about her exploits at the chateau of Chenonceau in the Loire Valley of France.

  On the face of it, the chance to dig in the Bahamas to dismiss a ludicrous assertion that the Greeks had visited there had seemed like an easy assignment for a fantastic holiday that she could never afford. But some of the dating e
vidence sent away for testing had sparked some controversy by coming back matching the late Bronze age. The style of the columns also appeared more Phoenician than ancient Greek or Roman. It was an enigma.

  Her father had sparked more controversy by telling the press locally in the UK that she had gone to dig on the site of Atlantis. Good old Pop. The local government antiquities department had almost pulled their permission to dig over that. But Diana had been quick to allay their fears by demonstrating that the evidence was from the old world not from a sunken city. At least in the layer she was currently digging.

  Stanislav Havel, her assistant once again, had gone over to the Lebanese coast to examine the hypothesis that the finds they had made in South Bimini were Phoenician. Diana was missing him already.

  “Oh Stan, I hope you get the permits to examine the remains near Tyre quickly.” She said under her breath.

  II – Finds

  “Doctor Garry, Doctor Garry, we found something. It looks metallic Miss.”

  The unmistakable southern drawl of Jerry, one of the mature students from New Orleans who had been seconded to the team from the Atlantic University of Miami, awoke Diana from her thoughts of Stan in the Lebanon.

  “Hi there, Jerry. We have yet to find anything metallic on site. Are you sure it's not a piece of shell or pottery glaze?”

  “No, Miss. It’s definitely metallic. Marla reckons it must have been included in the building in some tarred sackcloth. The brittle cloth just peeled off a piece to expose it to us. It even looks like gold or brass. Come look-see.”

  Diana sighed. She put down her coffee mug and picked up her makeup brush set and manicure accessories. None of it was for the vanity. The tools were ideal for carefully exposing delicate finds. So far, nothing had required them as it had been masonry. But, potential cloth with its carbon dating possibilities and worked metal was possible primary and secondary dating evidence.

  Diana quietly but briskly followed the elegant blonde to the find site. Jerry was a big fan of Marilyn Monroe and was wearing a sun top that was inspired by her heroine.

  “Here Miss. I have kept the tar cloth to one side. Is that an eye?”

  Sure enough, the metallic item did appear to have an eye peeking out. She laid a ruler next to the find and took a couple of shots of the discovery using her digital SLR camera with GPS. Recording finds in situ was part of the job.

  Diana handed Jerry a makeup brush while she set to work with her cuticle trimmer to brush away centuries of debris from the object.

  Quite rapidly, the artefact was exposed to both of the archaeologists.

  “Well, Jerry, that is incredible.”

  Jerry nodded. Diana took another couple of photographs of the object. It appeared very strongly to be a small statuette of a deity of some kind made in a type of brass. The dating of the wrapping and a small sample together with spectroscopy should say what type.

  “Miss Diana, I mean Doctor, it looks kinda like Poseidon. It has a fishy gill head and the stump where a trident might have gone. I saw one in a museum once. I think it was Greek or Phoenician. I forget which.”

  “You might be right, Jerry. When we get it back to the boat, we can whisk it to the lab. Is it loose now?”

  “I think so. If you want I can put it in the finds box and take it. I was about to go off for lunch.”

  “OK. I will call it through to Sta. I mean Dean. He can run the tests and use the satellite link to check it against known similar artefacts. “

  “Yes, ma'am. I just love this dig!”

  Diana knew this was a significant find. But what did it prove? Pre-Columbus contact between the ancient world and the new world? For sure. But who and why? Father Crespi had claimed a similar link nearly half a century before. But his treasures were seemingly lost. They had no confirmed source and were sometimes of dubious quality. We would never know for sure about them. But this was undisturbed under ancient ruins for centuries. This find might settle the question. But such a leap away from the standard textbooks needed to be good. So any checks had to be thorough.

  Diana returned to her tepid coffee cup in the incident tent at the edge of the beach to continue her paperwork and avoid lunchtime without Stan.

  It was around 3 pm that Dean excitedly called her up on the team walkie-talkie.

  “Diana. I mean Doctor Garry. You will never guess what? The statuette. It’s old. Too old really. “

  “Calm down, Dean. How old?”

  “The sample says around 4,500 years old. I rechecked it four times.”

  “Wow. I wasn’t expecting that. Can we send samples to Miami and London to be sure?”

  “Of course. I also got spectroscopy on the metal. It is brass or possibly orichalcum.”

  “Excuse me. What?”

  “Orichalcum. It was found off of Italy in a sunken Greek ship a few years ago. Our sample matches the ingots the team found there within 1% of constituents. And the statue itself is similar to those found in the Mediterranean around the Bronze Age. “

  “Amazing. That is exciting news. Thanks, Dean. I will report this to base.”

  “Yes, Ma’am".

  Diana turned on her laptop to search ‘orichalcum’. It was widely mentioned in ancient times but also linked by Plato in his ‘Critias’ work that recalls Atlantis. Poseidon, the deity that could be the subject of the statuette was also linked to Atlantis. The Island she was excavating on was also in the Atlantic Ocean ‘beyond the pillars of Heracles', as Plato had stated – I.e. beyond Gibraltar. Thankfully, she was way beyond Gibraltar, and the date of 4,500 years of age did not match up with the ten or eleven thousand years also mentioned by Plato.

  “Coincidence. I am not going back down Alice’s rabbit hole again. This find is probably proof of an ancient trading outpost from a Mediterranean power. Nothing more.” She muttered to herself.

  She decided to call up Stan despite the late hour to see if he had any reassurances for her. She tried calling him, but it just went to voice mail. Both he and she were out of coverage areas, so it wasn’t a surprise. She just wanted to hear his voice before she reported this to Miami.

  III – Miami

  The Archaeological director at the Atlantic University of Miami, Professor Chuck Morris, was very traditional in his thinking. The approach by the anonymous benefactor had come at a critical time for his department’s resources, but searching for proof of Atlantis hadn’t been what he would have chosen. Two years from retirement he wanted no-nonsense messing up his pension pot.

  It was with that thinking which had caused him to approach the University of Bath Sulis to engage Doctor Diana Garry. She had accomplished great things in France and avoided unnecessary negative publicity for her quite controversial findings. She also had an outspoken maverick father that she somehow managed to keep in check, so seemed ideal for Mr Dusk's poisoned chalice – if indeed he was the anonymous benefactor. Though with a separate expedition team recruited to investigate Antarctica for hidden technologies by the same benefactor it seemed likely. In an off the record interview that Chuck had been given access to it would seem that this particular billionaire was convinced that Nikola Tesla had previously either lived in Atlantis or had ‘channelled‘ his inventions from there. It didn’t matter if that was the case or not as it was the man's belief that triggered these projects. Hopefully just like himself as a respected archaeologist Doctor Garry could be relied upon to avoid sensationalism.

  So the phone call from Diana Garry notifying him of the latest find wasn’t quite the news that he wanted. But thankfully they both agreed that the early bronze age finds required further rigorous analysis before any conclusions were made public.

  “Good girl.“ Something to report back to the benefactor to keep the funds coming in, but not enough to blow open the legend of Atlantis. More likely Greek or Phoenician.

  As a young man at a well-known institution, he had assisted his lead archaeologist in destroying giant skeletons found in Native American mound burial sites. The pre
sence of such remains was an inconvenience to the various theories of the origin of man. He still felt a tinge of guilt at what he had done. But at the time he had believed it was for the greater good. Now he wasn’t so sure. It seemed like it was just destroying primary evidence to defend an outdated dogma. Now he was part of that dogma he could see how the status quo kept itself in place. But he was also now happy to push the boundaries a little. He could live with an old-world trading post on his doorstep. It might even satisfy the nut jobs who hailed the Bimini pavement as proof of Atlantis. Well, maybe it was just an old Greek or Phoenician port. He never liked Columbus Day anyway.

  IV – Dreamtime

  The excitement of the day over it was time to pack up her belongings and jump on the speedboat to the ship. The old boat was comfortable enough and had scuba facilities. According to Diana’s sources, this was one of Jacques Cousteau’s old Calypso ships from the 1970s, Now renamed as the Nostradamus and registered in Panama.

  The gangway wasn’t fantastic, but Diana had yet to slip into the water – even in rough weather. Today there was a slight swell, and the waves were raising the rear of the tender up and down while the Nostradamus pitched and yawed back and forth. But with a careful leap, Diana crossed onto the gangway and climbed the stairs onto the deck. One of the deckhands was having a smoke as she made her way along the planking towards the stern where the archaeologists were staying. The only other Brit on board, Rupert, was taking pictures of the sunset as she reached the door to the cabins. He was a personable individual, a little bit shy, but a whizz with the geophysics equipment. It had been he who had recalibrated the machine to deal with the water-soaked sand below the dig site. It had hampered further investigation since the transmitter and receiver units were somewhat old and unsuited to the environment. Still, Rupert had made the best of it and produced useful plots of possible wall structures below the collapsed columns.