The whispers in the room all died when he entered. Father Abraham was a daunting figure. With his mane of white hair and carefully trimmed beard, he looked like a patriarch straight from the pages of the Bible. He strode to the pulpit and rested his hands on the stand. Leaning forward, he began to speak. “My children, I called you together today to give you news of great joy.”
Whispers of speculation rippled around the hall.
“Before I do, let me remind you who you are.”
Annabeth didn’t know what the diviner meant. She looked at the women around her. They were all staring forward blankly.
“More than two hundred years ago Jedediah Proctor was granted a vision. A vision of God’s plan for the Blessed Nephilim. If we kept ourselves blameless in his sight and waited patiently for the Day of Judgment, then we would be restored to the ranks of the angels from whence we sprang.”
Annabeth could see some of the men in the front rows nodding in agreement.
“My children, you know you are God’s chosen ones. Set apart. Pure. The only bright light in a vast sea of darkness.”
“We are the chosen ones,” they echoed approvingly.
“Two hundred years ago God’s will for us was revealed.” The diviner paused to stare out at the congregation, holding his eyes locked on theirs. “But two centuries, my brethren, is a very long time.”
A hush fell over the crowd.
The diviner stepped in front of the podium and began to pace. “For two hundred years we have suffered the scorn of the Fallen in our efforts to keep ourselves sinless.”
“That’s right!” A few of the men muttered.
“Two hundred years we have watched as the world became ever more corrupt, yet we kept the faith.”
“Yes, we did,” other voices affirmed.
“You know how we have been mocked by the ungodly. Made to appear foolish in the eyes of men for what they call our outlandish beliefs. Where is the savior of the Nephilim? They laugh at us and claim he is nowhere to be found!”
“Speak, diviner!” another male voice shouted.
“It must have seemed to many of you that the Lord has forgotten his promise to us. I know how you have prayed that God would give us a sign that he still remembers our plight.”
Annabeth stirred uneasily in her seat. She couldn’t see where all this talk was leading.
“I am here to tell you, my children, that the Lord has answered your prayers!”
The congregation sat forward, their curiosity piqued. Annabeth had to crane her neck to see the diviner.
“Do not believe the whispers of the outside world, my children! They spread lies. I bear witness that the Lord has not forsaken us!” Father Abraham punched the air with his fist for emphasis. “Indeed, he has not! I have received a sign from above that the Lord is with us still.”
“A sign. A sign!” Dozens of voices chanted.
The diviner nodded and paused until the chanting died down. “Yes, my children. A sign! A sign as sure as the signs which God gave to the prophets of old. As sure as the signs He showed to our founder, Jedediah Proctor all those long years ago.”
The murmurs rose again.
He raised his hand for silence. “Last night, the Lord granted me a revelation. He sent an angel to me in a dream.”
Annabeth’s attention was caught by the woman seated next to her who was rocking forward and back in her chair with eyes shut, a secret prayer on her lips.
“The angel showed me clearly that the Lord has prepared a glorious future for the Blessed Nephilim. His works are mighty, and he is mindful of his children. Let us praise his name!”
“Praise his name! Praise his name,” they echoed, filled with the spirit of the Lord.
Annabeth watched several women fall to their knees, whispering prayers of gratitude.
“The Blessed Nephilim shall be raised high in glory above the heads of the Fallen. This mighty day will come long before the Final Judgment, my children. I have God’s word that the Nephilim are meant to lead the world through the darkness of the next millennium. In preparation for that glorious time of our ascendency, the Lord has selected my successor to carry our pure faith forward unto the next generation. Today I name him. My son Daniel is God’s own choice as scion of the Blessed Nephilim.” Father Abraham pointed to the back of the room. “Let all here present bear witness that he will ascend to the title of diviner once I have gone to glory.”
In a state of shock, Annabeth swung around in her chair to regard a rumpled man in his early thirties who had been slouching against the rear wall. Her husband Daniel was to be the scion! People stood up to get a better look at where the diviner was pointing.
Daniel’s pale face flushed in embarrassment at the scrutiny of the entire congregation.
The diviner forged ahead. “The Lord has commanded me to give Daniel a new bride that he might ensure a firm foundation for our faith.”
Annabeth’s shock was rapidly turning to horror. A new wife! She cast a glance toward her husband to see how he was taking the news. Daniel’s flushed countenance had drained of color.
She looked back toward the pulpit to see the diviner’s eyes scanning the room for a different face. “Rise, Hannah Curtis. You are to be elevated to the rank of consecrated bride. You will be my son’s next wife.”
A pretty blond girl of about fourteen gasped and covered her mouth. She rose uncertainly at his command, looking around in dismay at the faces gawking in her direction.
“Wives. Go and greet your sister wife,” Father Abraham commanded.
Annabeth felt as if she were sleepwalking. She rose on cue with Daniel’s other two wives and scurried over to the bewildered girl. Each one kissed her on the cheek and led her to the back of the room where her husband-to-be stood.
“My children, I give you leave to offer your congratulations.”
The rest of the congregation rose and filed toward Daniel and his newly-betrothed.
Annabeth stood with her sister-wives behind the new girl. Her mind was racing. She saw all her hopes evaporating. No more than a month ago, the diviner had berated her for her lack of offspring. He had called her a disobedient wife. Not worthy of the name of consecrated bride. In terror of being cast out of the kingdom, she had pleaded with Daniel for more children. Male children. Her husband had promised her they would try to have more. He even went so far as to suggest she lie to the diviner about the state of their relations if she were questioned too closely. She had agreed, but her husband had never come to her since that day. What chance did she have now? The newest wife was always the favorite, and this pretty little girl was fourteen. Annabeth was twenty and already an old story. She bit her lip in frustration. She needed the diviner to know it wasn’t her fault. She had tried to be a good wife. Perhaps there was still a way. She would wait and watch. Perhaps God would give her the proof she needed.
Chapter 6 – Tripping
Three days after her lunch with Rhonda, Cassie Forsythe received an urgent phone call. It was Griffin. “Faye called an emergency meeting. We need you at the vault right away.”
Without hesitation, she jumped into her car and left the city behind. She drove through fields of ripening corn far beyond the last stretch of urban sprawl. Out here, progress had managed to slow its inevitable march. Farmhouses looked much as they had a hundred years earlier.
She maneuvered her car down the dirt road that led to an old schoolhouse set off by itself in a clearing in the woods. Cassie smiled to think how innocent the structure looked from the outside. The secrets it protected from an unsuspecting world. This was the Arkana’s Central Catalog, often simply called the vault. The unassuming nerve center of the entire global operation.
She parked and trotted up the now-familiar stairs to the front door and let herself into the deserted schoolroom. A room that had been abuzz with life only a month ago when she had witnessed her first assembly of the Concordance. Their decision to pursue the mysterious
relics known as the Bones of the Mother had changed her life.
She crossed the room, her footfalls echoing, and entered the vestibule at the back. Swiping her keycard, she waited for the hidden elevator. The fact that she now had a keycard of her own was a sign of trust. Why shouldn’t they trust her? She had risked her life helping them track down the first clue they needed to find the relics.
The elevator door opened. Swiping her card again, she descended to the vault below. Every time she entered this space, she was struck by the ingenuity of the design. Everything was meant to remind the occupants of the natural world above. An underground ceiling that mimicked sunlight and moonlight. A ventilation system that created gentle breezes from different directions. Waterfalls trickling at the corners of the room and, oh yes, the animals.
A Springer Spaniel came racing toward her when she exited the elevator. She bent down to rub his ears as he bounced up trying to lick her face. “Hey, buddy. How are you doing today?” Having greeted her, the dog trotted back to a desk halfway down the row where his guardian was filing some paperwork.
Cats slept on desks or curled in chairs. Birds squawked from cages. The occasional iguana crawled across the top of a computer monitor. It was the most exotic office space Cassie had ever seen—one where flora and fauna were welcome. Without asking for directions, she made her way to a door marked “Scrivener’s Office.” She knocked briefly and then let herself in.
“Griffin, how’s it going?” she asked.
A lanky young man with curly brown hair swung around from the book case where he’d been examining the spines of several volumes. “Oh hullo, Cassie.” He spoke with a precise British accent. “Did you happen to see Faye on your way in?”
He was referring to their elderly leader.
“No, isn’t she here yet?”
He shrugged. “Not yet. Would you mind awfully going back topside and collecting Maddie? We’ll be meeting in Faye’s office on the second floor.”
“Faye has an office in the vault?” Cassie registered surprise. She was accustomed to the memory guardian conducting her business from the comfort of her suburban farmhouse.
Griffin glanced up briefly from the volume he was perusing. “Yes, it’s the closed door at the far end of the second floor. She rarely uses it.”
Cassie nodded. “OK, then. See you upstairs in a bit.”
***
Fifteen minutes later the key members of the Arkana were assembled in Faye’s office waiting for Griffin.
The space was cozy, as Cassie imagined it would be if it belonged to Faye. A lacquered chinoiserie desk sat in the front window which overlooked the lawn. There were antique bookcases lining the walls, and one corner of the room was reserved for guests. A leather sofa and loveseats were arranged in a horseshoe around a coffee table set with a silver tea service. Cassie wasn’t sure who had bustled up to brew tea, but Faye was already playing hostess and handing out cups of the steaming beverage.
Maddie refused the refreshment. She sat with her arms folded, clearly in a grumpy mood. “You’d think Griffin could be on time.”
“What’s the matter? Did we pry you out of the chimney too soon?” teased Erik.
He was referring to the bell tower that Maddie had commandeered as a smoking lounge.
“How’d you guess?” Maddie asked, chewing on the end of an unlit cigarette in an effort to calm herself down.
“Let’s just wait a few more minutes for him before I begin,” Faye said. She sat perched demurely on the edge of the couch, sipping her tea. The quintessential grandmother in her flowered dress and cardigan, a little pillbox hat balanced on her head.
Cassie was secretly amused by Faye’s appearance. Like the schoolhouse itself, she was far less bland than she seemed to be.
At that moment, Griffin came skidding through the door, a pile of papers under his arm, and breathlessly took a seat next to Erik. “Very sorry I’m late,” he offered apologetically.
“You ought to be,” muttered Maddie.
“I’m sure you’re all wondering what this is about.” Faye handed Griffin a cup of tea. She looked mildly distressed as she gazed from one quizzical face to another. “I’m afraid we must speed up our timeframe a bit.”
Her listeners still appeared confused, so she elaborated. “Ever since you returned from Crete, I’ve taken the precaution of keeping close tabs on our adversaries.”
Eric raised his eyebrows in surprise. “I don’t see how you managed that. I couldn’t sneeze within twenty feet of the Nephilim compound without somebody seeing me.”
“Quite right.” The memory guardian nodded. “Fortunately, there is a weak link in their chain mail. Mr. Hunt is not of the brotherhood.”
Griffin sat forward intently. “Of course. He doesn’t live with them. Not difficult to set someone to keep watch of his whereabouts.”
“Or to monitor his communications.” Faye smiled sweetly.
Cassie laughed to herself. Harmless little granny. Yeah, right.
The old woman’s smile faded. “Unfortunately, I just received some disturbing news this morning. The Nephilim are mobilizing once more. We intercepted a message between Mr. Hunt and Abraham Metcalf. Apparently, Mr. Hunt has been instructed to prepare for another trip to Crete.”
“When?” they all cried at once.
“I gather the departure could be any time now.”
“How’s that possible?” Maddie barked. “I thought you all were convinced they weren’t going to move on the relic for months.” She turned to stare at Erik. “Didn’t you tell me they couldn’t find their way out of a paper bag without help?”
Erik shrugged. “Guess it was a paper bag with a map printed inside.”
“Oh, but this is terrible.” Griffin ran his fingers through his hair—an unconscious gesture whenever he was perturbed about something.
Faye noted the reaction to her announcement. “I see you all understand our dilemma. I’m afraid you’ll have to leave for Turkey much sooner than anticipated.”
“But how can we?” Cassie asked. “Last time I checked, Griffin still couldn’t make heads or tails of that clue we discovered in Crete. The one that’s supposed to lead us to the first relic. How does it go again?”
“You will find the first of five you seek, when the soul of the lady rises with the sun, at the home of the Mountain Mother, where flows the River Skamandros.” Erik rattled off the lines in a sing-song voice. “That little ditty has been running through my head for weeks now, and it still doesn’t make any sense.”
“Well, we do know a few things,” countered Faye. “We know that the artifact is somewhere on Mount Ida and since the Nephilim are missing the critical fourth line of the riddle, they will be searching Mount Ida in Crete rather than Mount Ida in Turkey.”
Griffin appeared panic-stricken. “Yes, but I remain utterly baffled by the second line. ‘When the soul of the lady rises with the sun.’ What does that mean? I’ve searched every reference book I can think of. There is simply no context in which the ancient Minoans used the expression ‘soul of the lady.’”
“Despite your hesitation, we must act and soon,” Faye said softly. “I’m open to all suggestions.”
Griffin glanced at her sheepishly. “Under the circumstances, our only hope is for Cassie to touch things.”
Erik swiveled in his seat to stare at the scrivener as if he’d lost his mind. “That’s your idea of a plan? You expect us to go stumbling up and down a mountain while the kid trips over rocks and gets a vision?”
“I’m not a kid,” Cassie corrected him, trying to sound dignified. Although Erik had become far less hostile to her presence as a member of the Arkana since Crete, he could still be thoughtlessly insulting. For someone who was only in his mid-twenties, he considered himself the wise old man of the team.
“Sorry, toots!” He gave her a half-smile, knowing that this new name would irritate her even more.
“My name isn’t toots,
either,” she retorted in an injured tone. “I’m the pythia. Try to remember that! If it wasn’t for me tripping over rocks in Crete, we wouldn’t have any intel at all about where the first relic is hidden.”
“That’s true,” Erik said more seriously, “but the area we were searching around Karfi was a fraction of the size of Kaz Daglari.”
“Kaz what?”
“Daglari. It means Goose Mountain in Turkish. That’s the modern name for Mount Ida which, by the way, isn’t a single mountain. It’s actually a mountain range. That’s a whole lot of tripping for one pair of size eight sneakers to handle.”
“Six and a half,” Cassie protested. “I don’t have floppy clown feet!”
“My dears,” Faye chuckled. “Calm yourselves. Have some cookies. They’re homemade.” She held out a plate of sugar cookies. The two combatants helped themselves and began crunching loudly.
Faye gave her full attention to Griffin. “I do believe Erik’s point is well-taken. We will need to focus the search in a specific direction if Cassie’s talents are to be used effectively.”
“There are a few ways we could narrow the field,” Griffin answered. “I expect we’re looking for an ancient ruin. That would be the most likely place the Minoans might have hidden the relic.”
“Good luck with that idea,” Erik snorted. “You should know better than anybody that Mount Ida is riddled with ruins. They’re scattered all over the countryside.”
“I beg your pardon. Will you be contributing anything to this discussion other than disparaging remarks?” Griffin drew himself up. “I wasn’t proposing we go there without a plan.”
Maddie sighed and shifted her position causing the couch to squeak under her ample weight.
“Then what are you proposing?” Erik challenged.
“We should start with the Anatolian trove keeper, obviously. Find out if he can recall any sites that bear unidentified marks that might match our translation key.”
“Anatolian?” Cassie asked. She still wasn’t up to speed on all the Arkana terminology.
The Arkana Mysteries Boxed Set Page 29
