The Mountain Mother Cipher (The Arkana Archaeology Mystery Series Book 2)

by N. S. Wikarski

  Now that they were actually in motion, Cassie felt as if she was riding a roller coaster inside a tunnel. Her queasiness after reading the dagger hadn’t entirely subsided and bouncing along in the Jeep brought it rushing back. She fought off repeated attacks of dizziness and nausea as the vehicle trundled over rutted dirt trails in utter darkness. The headlights barely illuminated the road directly ahead of them much less the surrounding landscape. It was a good thing Fred knew where they were going. With no way to gauge their progress, Cassie lost track of time though they must have been traveling through the forest for over an hour. Just when her stomach was about to erupt in earnest, the vehicle came to a halt. Cassie breathed a shaky sigh of relief. They’d made it.

  The girl slid out of the truck and waited for the world to stop spinning. By the time it did, the others were already climbing the trail that led back to the megaliths. She scurried to catch up with the three flashlights bobbing ahead of her.

  The team paused briefly at the top of the rise above the tree line. Now that they were out of the pines, Cassie could see a huge swath of stars twinkling overhead. A sliver of moon hung low in the sky but its light was too weak to afford much help. Off to their right lay the plateau where the giant stones waited. Griffin trained his lantern on the megaliths and descended. The others followed in silence until he came to an abrupt stop in the center of the stone ring.

  “Now what?” Cassie asked, bringing up the rear.

  “Now we wait for the sun,” the Scrivener replied.

  Orienting himself toward the mountain peaks that ran off in a straight line to the east, Griffin chose a grassy patch of earth and sat down. The others followed his lead. They set their lit flashlights down on the ground so they could see each other’s faces.

  Cassie was relieved to be positioned anywhere that wasn’t moving. Her stomach relaxed. “OK, Mr. Wizard. Let’s hear it.” She looked at Griffin reproachfully. “You’ve kept us waiting long enough.”

  He chuckled. “I’m sorry to have been so cryptic but the calculations took a devil of a long time to sort out. They required my full concentration.”

  “Why are we here and why now?” Erik asked. His tone of voice suggested he was about to throttle Griffin unless the Brit provided an immediate explanation.

  “Let me begin at the beginning,” the Scrivener replied.

  “I hate it when he says that,” Cassie confided to Fred. In a louder voice, she asked, “What’s the matter? You never heard the expression ‘cut to the chase’?”

  “I have indeed heard it but in this context it would make no sense. If I were to cut to the chase, you wouldn’t understand what we were chasing.”

  “Have it your way.” The girl sighed.

  “Right then.” Griffin forged ahead. “Do you remember that interesting clue you provided to me after reading Stefan’s artifact?”

  “You mean the star amulet?” she asked uncertainly. “It was in the shape of a pentacle.”

  “Ah yes, the ubiquitous pentacle.” Griffin nodded sagely. “A bit overused in our current time, I’m afraid. I could go on about its symbolic associations ad nauseum.”

  “I’d prefer if you didn’t,” Cassie countered. “I’m still a little queasy.”

  “Sorry. It’s not the historic symbolism of the pentacle that’s important anyway. Your vision dates back to events that occurred in the sixth millennium BCE. Far earlier than the meaning which came to be associated with that shape in more recent times. Its earliest purpose was to represent a star.”

  “No surprise there!”

  “But not just any star,” Griffin cautioned. “The brightest star in the heavens. One which has been an object of veneration to peoples all around the world. I’m referring, of course, to Sirius in the constellation of Canis Major. Its name comes from the Greek word, ‘seirios’ which means ‘the scorcher.’”

  “Sirius is the dog star, right?” Erik asked.

  “It’s a binary star system actually which appears as one bright white light to the naked eye but, yes, it is often called the dog star. To this day, we refer to the dog days of summer without understanding the phrase’s connection to Sirius. In the northern hemisphere, the star is most prominent during the hottest months. It’s quite interesting how persistent the canine association has been. You know, of course, that the ancient Greeks and Romans referred to it as a dog. But so did the Assyrians, Chaldeans, and Akkadians. As far away as China it was referred to as a wolf. American Indian tribes viewed it variously as a dog or a coyote. The Eskimos called it ‘Moon Dog.’ Such global consistency in the symbolism of the star suggests that it became an object of reverence at the very dawn of human consciousness. Most probably the first people to migrate out of Africa carried the myth of the dog star with them.

  However, Sirius represented much more than a heavenly hound to the ancients. In some cultures, the star was associated with a specific deity and consequently it figured prominently in religious practices. The temple of Isis at Philae and the temple of Hathor at Dendera were both oriented toward the heliacal rising of the star.”

  “Back up for a minute,” Erik instructed. “What do you mean by heliacal rising?”

  “Based on the rotation of the earth and the season of the year, stars appear and disappear from the night sky. There inevitably comes a day when a star which has not been visible for some time reappears on the horizon just before sunrise. When a star’s re-emergence coincides with sunrise that is called its heliacal rising. Heliacal, of course, comes from the Greek word helios which means ‘sun.’”

  “OK, great but why is this star rising such a big deal?” Cassie glanced at the sky. Billions of stars glinted back at her, some brighter than others. Who could tell what was what up there?

  “In the case of Sirius, its first appearance at sunrise coincided with the flooding of the Nile which meant everything to the ancient Egyptians. Their crops, and hence their very lives, depended on the annual inundation of the river valley. The date also roughly coincided with the summer solstice, the longest day of the year. The Egyptians based their entire calendar system on its reappearance. Sirius held such great significance for them because they believed the essence of Isis dwelt in the star. It came to be called the ‘the soul of the lady.’”

  “The soul of the lady,” Cassie repeated. “Now where have I heard that line before?”

  “I don’t want to burst anyone’s bubble.” Erik’s voice was testy. “It’s great that they called it the soul of the lady but we’re on the trail of Minoan artifacts, not Egyptian ones.”

  Griffin gave a slight smile. “The Egyptians were not the only civilization to mark the importance of Sirius. They just happen to have left us the best documentary evidence of its worship. Other cultures also believed that the essence of a divinity resided in the star. The Sumerians explicitly associated Sirius with their principal goddess Inanna. The Minoans revered it as the home of their Potnia—their great lady. In fact, all the temples on Crete are oriented toward the heliacal rise of Sirius because that marks the first day of the Minoan calendar as well.”

  “So that’s why we’re here?” Cassie squinted off into the gloom. “To watch for Sirius on the horizon?” The sky was turning from inky black to a deep shade of grey. Fewer stars seemed to be visible now.

  The Scrivener shook his head. “Alas, if only that were true. It would be a wonderful sight to behold but the earth wobbles, you see.”

  Cassie turned helplessly to Erik. “Do you have any idea what he’s talking about now?”

  Erik snorted in exasperation. “Do I ever?”

  “I think I know,” Fred offered helpfully. “The earth spins kind of like a top. You know how when a top slows down the upper half will wobble while the bottom is still spinning on its axis.”

  Cassie and Erik both nodded uncertainly.

  Fred continued. “Well. There’s this thing called the precession of the equinoxes which means that the earth is wobbling on its axis so the constellations don’t appear in
exactly the same spot in the sky that they used to. It takes about 26,000 years for the wobble to make one complete revolution and then all the constellations line up in their original positions. What that means for Sirius is that it doesn’t rise with the sun on exactly the same date as it would have done a few millennia ago.”

  “Bravo, Fred,” Griffin said appreciatively. “Couldn’t have explained it better myself.”

  “No, you would have taken longer,” Erik muttered in a surly undertone.

  Ignoring the comment, Griffin pressed on. “So now you understand why I’ve been working frantically with my team back at the vault to find the day when Sirius would have risen at this latitude three thousand years ago. By sheer accident, we managed to arrive here at approximately the right time of year but we only have a narrow window of time to hit it exactly right. Three thousand years ago, Sirius would have risen several weeks earlier than it does now. My team had to calculate the approximate date of its heliacal rising in 1000 BCE and translate that into our own calendaring system.”

  “But if we’re not gonna see the soul of the lady rise with the sun, then why are we here?” Cassie was confused.

  “Because Sirius won’t point us to the artifact we seek. The sun will. The angle of the sunrise needs to be the same as it would have been for the Minoans when Sirius rose at dawn.”

  “So you think the sun’s going to cast a shadow across these stones some way that will show us where the artifact is buried?” Erik asked.

  Griffin nodded hopefully. “That is my theory, yes.”

  “Guess we’ll know pretty soon if you’re right.” Erik pointed toward the east. “Look’s like it’s almost show time.”

  They all focused their attention on the eastern mountain range. The sky was vaguely beginning to glow. Cassie pulled her jacket more closely around her shoulders. Even though it was mid-summer, the pre-dawn temperature on the mountainside was chilly and the ground was soaked with dew.

  No one spoke. It was as if they’d all been turned to stone. They seemed to fuse with their surroundings. The standing stones and the seated humans all waiting for something. But what?

  Then it appeared. The first weak rays of sunlight shot over the horizon and began creeping toward them. The mountain peaks in the distance took on a rosy glow. The light seemed to crawl in slow motion, sliding up the side of Gargarus to the plateau.

  At the eastern end of the circle two megaliths stood close to one another. The giant stones on either side had cracked and begun to lean at odd angles. The sun cast oblique shadows around the other megaliths but shot straight through the center of the two pillars. The light advanced forward into the circle. The Arkana team scattered. They took up positions on the perimeter to allow the rays to move unimpeded. Across the grass, across the gravel, until the light illuminated a small boulder toward the rear of the circle that measured about three feet high. The rock was completely undistinguished. No one had noticed it during their previous search. It contained no markings. It stood in a pile of rubble with smaller rocks strewn all around its base. The sun lingered on it persistently.

  Cassie felt herself being pulled to the spot. She ran forward. Without knowing what she was doing, she began shoving aside the smaller stones piled at the base of the rock. Her efforts revealed a square flagstone recessed level with the ground. On its face was carved a lily.

  “Guys! It’s here,” she called urgently. “I found it!”

  The men scrambled to join her.

  “Wait a minute,” she cautioned. “I want to try something.” The girl stepped onto the carved stone and stood facing the sunrise.

  It was an eerie sensation. She felt her consciousness split. Part of her was Cassie, standing on a flat stone watching the sun come up. Another part of her was an old woman wrapped in a shawl and surrounded by four companions. She was standing in exactly the same spot where Cassie stood and she, too, was watching the sun rise. But it was earlier in her time. Cassie felt as if time had rewound itself by three thousand years plus half an hour because the sun hadn’t reached the horizon yet. The distant mountains were dimly backlit by the still hidden sun but the sky was light enough that all of the stars had disappeared. All but one. A glimmering white dot could be seen just above the peaks. It hung suspended for perhaps ten minutes, glowing fainter and fainter as the sun’s upper rays broke the horizon. When the first beams shot through the pillars and made their way to the boulder at her feet, the star disappeared completely against the brightening day.

  “Wow!” the girl exhaled. “You’re right Griffin. That really was something to see.”

  “You had a vision? But you didn’t fall down.”

  Cassie laughed. “I guess I’m getting the hang of this Pythia business. Besides, I only fall down when I come across something awful. This vision was really, really nice. I saw Sirius.”

  “You mean you actually witnessed its heliacal rise?” He sounded flabbergasted.

  The girl nodded. “Yeah, I saw what it must have looked like to them when they planted the artifact here.” She looked at each of her companions in turn. “And it is here. I’m one hundred and seven per cent sure that I’m standing right on it.” She smiled. “And for the first time, I actually felt like I was connected to them.”

  “Them?” Erik repeated.

  “The Minoans. There were five of them. The ones who buried the relic here.”

  “Did they give you a message?” Fred asked hopefully.

  “No, it wasn’t like that. They weren’t talking to me. I was just standing with them. I got a sense that this was a sacred ritual for them. They had all taken some kind of vow to see this through. To hide all the artifacts until the time came for somebody to find them.” She looked down at the stone beneath her feet. “I hope you guys packed shovels. We’re gonna have to dig for it.”

  “I loaded some equipment in the Jeep,” Fred answered readily. “I’ll get the tools.”

  “I’ll help you,” Erik offered.

  The two of them loped across the plateau and climbed the rise, animated by the thought that victory was so near.

  Griffin stayed with Cassie. “I almost envy you your gift.”

  She laughed ruefully. “Bet you wouldn’t have said that two days ago when I was tossing my cookies after that artifact of Stefan’s.”

  The Scrivener shrugged. “I imagine it was worth the price to be able to witness what you’ve just seen.”

  “It was pretty cool,” she admitted. “I’ve lived all over the U.S. but always in cities. You never get to really see the night sky when you live in a city. Out here…” she trailed off, contemplating the mountains in the distance. “Out here, it’s easy to understand why people used to think the stars were holy.”

  Griffin positioned himself beside her so he could gaze across the same vista. “When I was a boy back home in England, I spent my summers in the lake district with my grandparents. They had a cottage in a small village near Windermere. In the evenings, after it grew dark, I would lie on the grass and look up at the Milky Way. I’ve heard people say how cold and distant the stars are. How they make one feel small and insignificant. But it wasn’t like that at all for me. There were moments when I almost felt as if I could breathe them in. Drink them in. I would find myself getting lost in them.”

  Cassie stared up at the Scrivener. “You?” she asked incredulously.

  He shook himself out of his reverie and returned her glance. “Why do you find that so strange?”

  The girl shrugged. “I guess I’ve always thought of you as somebody who likes facts and statistics. But what you just said. It sounded almost…” She struggled to find the right word.

  “Mystical?”

  “Yeah, I guess that’s it. Mystical.”

  “All of us who’ve joined the Arkana have a bit of the mystic about us.” He looked over his shoulder. The other two were approaching. “Even tough-as-nails Erik.”

  “Not sure I buy that,” Cassie remarked skeptically.

  “Neverth
eless, it’s true,” Griffin replied softly. “We’ve none of us lost our sense of wonder. Only someone who’s come face to face with the numinous can say that.”

  Erik and Fred were now within earshot.

  “Everyone grab a shovel,” Erik instructed.

  By now the sun was high enough to illuminate the task at hand.

  “So you think it’s right under the lily rock, Cass?” Erik glanced at her for confirmation.

  She stepped aside and nodded. “Positive. We’ll have to be careful not to disturb the ground too much. If those Nephilim guys show up any time soon, we don’t want this looking like a construction site.”

  “Understood,” Erik agreed.

  They all worked carefully to displace as little dirt as possible in moving the stone. Once they lifted it out of place they were surprised to discover that it fitted like a lid over an underground storage box. Inside the box was a covered urn made of polished alabaster. And inside the urn was the object they had traveled five thousand miles to find.

  “Wow!” Cassie exclaimed in admiration. “Will you get a load of that!”

  Her teammates stared in amazement at the object for several moments.

  “This has been buried here for three thousand years. Waiting,” Griffin observed. “Waiting for us to bring it back into the light.”

  Erik snapped them all out of their collective trance. “Let’s hustle people. We need to cover our tracks and get this intel to Faye and Maddie ASAP!”

  Chapter 28 – Duty Call

  Faye woke out of a deep sleep to hear a sharp banging coming from downstairs. Disoriented, she looked at her alarm clock. It was five a.m. Zachary came skidding into her room.

  “Gamma, who’s that?” he asked, his voice filled with panic. “Is it my parents? Because you promised I could stay the whole week and I’ve only been here two days.” He rushed to the bed and stood over her with accusation in his eyes. “Tell me you didn’t narc on me. I trusted you!”

  “Calm down, Zachary. It can’t possibly be your parents. They agreed to your visit. It’s probably one of my associates.”