“I see your point,” the pythia conceded.
“The new world order simply engulfed and eradicated everything that came before it,” Griffin said. “The current DNA evidence seems to bear out our theory. Mitochondrial DNA, which is obtained only from the mother, shows that the vast majority of female DNA in Europe is old European while a large amount of male DNA is Kurgan.”
“Then the mothers were mainly from the conquered people, and the fathers were overlords?” Cassie asked uncertainly. “How’s that possible?”
Erik laughed sardonically. “Simple. You kill all the men in a town you conquer, and you horde the available women. In a couple of generations, your DNA signature is all over the place.”
“Ten guys on horseback could do all this?” Cassie still couldn’t wrap her mind around the possibility.
“Think of them as prehistoric Hell’s Angels,” Erik commented. “Just like the modern version, those guys could tear up a small town in a matter of hours.”
“And the rest, as they say, is history,” Griffin summed up.
The group was silent for several minutes contemplating the implications until Stefan spoke up. “But that is why we are here, is it not? To tell the story that has been lost? I know that is why I am here.”
Erik swiveled in his seat to regard the trove keeper. “Which brings us full circle. Just exactly why are you here?”
“Pokażę ci, nie?” With a gleam in his eye, Stefan reached into his duffle bag and withdrew an object wrapped in cloth. “You will see now.” He furtively looked over his shoulder toward the lobby to make sure nobody else was around and then undid the wrapping to reveal a black stone knife with an antler handle.
Cassie had never seen anything like it before. She leaned over the table to study it for a moment. “What is that thing?”
Stefan grinned at her. With an arch look he replied, “Miss Cassie, I think maybe that is for you to tell me.”
Chapter 21 – Hope in Ruins
Daniel stood on a windswept hillside and gazed off into the distance. To his left, he saw the two peaks curved inward toward one another like a pair of horns. He was back at Karfi. This time it was mid-afternoon on a bright, hot day. Not a cloud marred the endless blue of a Mediterranean summer sky. The hill sloped downward to his right. Mounds of bleached rock jutted out of the scrubby undergrowth. The tholos tombs of the Minoans.
Leroy Hunt was seated with his back resting against one of them. He had tipped his cowboy hat over his eyes and was indulging in a mid-day nap. He called it a siesta. Though he had insisted on accompanying Daniel up to the mountain refuge, he had no intention of aiding him in any other capacity than as a lackadaisical bodyguard. Daniel was on his own.
The son of the diviner had asked Nikos to remain behind. The young Cretan convert had not been part of the expedition on their last visit to Karfi and was unaware of the events that had happened there. Daniel saw no reason for involving him now. The scion wished that he, too, were as blissfully ignorant of what lay beneath the earth on this seemingly peaceful mountainside.
He cast a furtive look toward Hunt who was already snoring quietly. Scanning the area around the ruined tombs, he attempted to identify the one he needed. It was hard to tell. The last time they’d been here, it was pitch dark on a moonless night with only two flashlights to guide their way. They had depended on the lights of the strangers to lead them to their destination.
Daniel wandered around the cemetery, trying to find the right crypt. He remembered Hunt forcing the three strangers to climb inside the tomb. The ramp that led down to it had been choked with rock. Only the top half of the entrance had been open, and that was later buried completely by the earthquake that struck so unexpectedly. He remembered Hunt’s joke following the quake that Mother Nature had finished the job of killing the trio for him. At the time, Daniel had been appalled by Hunt’s callous behavior, but in retrospect he was more appalled by his own. He was the one who had stood by and allowed it to happen. Allowed three innocent people to be buried alive. It must have been a terrible way to die. He suppressed a shudder.
He skirted another tholos. Something about it looked familiar. He paused and walked back to the dromos—the ramp that led to the door of the underground crypt. It was filled with rock. The entrance was entirely blocked. He thought this might be the right one. How different everything looked in daylight. The spot itself was serene. His thoughts, unfortunately, were not.
Daniel directed a sidelong glance down the hill. Hunt was still dozing. How could he sleep so easily here, within fifty yards of the place where he had tried to commit murder? How could the man sleep at all given the things he had done in his life? No doubt, to a mercenary, it was all in the line of duty.
The scion felt a twinge as his own conscience reminded him what he, himself, had done in the line of duty. He was still carrying out his father’s orders. Still engaged in this relic hunt which was tainted with the blood of at least four people—possibly more. Daniel distracted himself from going further down that road. He circled the tomb. The dome was intact. All the others surrounding this one had begun to crumble, leaving gaps open to the sky. He was sure the tomb he was looking for had been sealed. He walked back to the front again. There it was. The upright boulder with the strange markings. A lily carved at the top followed by two lines of pictograms and a niche in the middle of the stone.
He sat down on the grass in front of the stele and unpacked the computer he had brought with him. Unlike the British man who had done the translating on that terrible night, he was not going to rely on books. Daniel had learned a great deal about computers since he began this project for his father. David, the librarian who taught him, said he was a natural at it. The scion carefully fed the pictograms into a translation program. It took a few moments for him to copy them all. Now he would see for himself what sort of clues they provided. The translation came back in a matter of seconds: “You will find the first of five you seek when the soul of the lady rises with the sun.”
Daniel frowned in perplexity. The message was identical to what the British man had decrypted. Perhaps the third line would be different. He reached into his computer case and drew out the granite key. Once he fitted it correctly into the niche in the stele, another line of pictograms was revealed. He copied these into his software and hit the command button. The result gave him no consolation. The output read, “At the home of the Mountain Mother.”
He sat back on his heels to consider. The results were identical in every particular to the information he already possessed. “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.”
Daniel rubbed his eyes. They were very tired from trying to see around corners. He blinked a few times and then something caught his attention. He stared at the base of the stele. It was almost imperceptible, but there was a tiny gap between the stone that rested at the bottom of the boulder and the standing rock itself. Almost as if it had been moved recently. He couldn’t be sure if the ground around the stone had been disturbed or not. There had been too many people moving about that night and yet…
He crawled toward the stele on all fours. Keeping his face low to the ground, he examined the edges of the flat stone that rested in front of it. The seam of dirt that should have been piled up against the stele was missing. Someone had indeed moved this rock. Daniel began to formulate a theory.
He jumped up eagerly and circled the perimeter of the tomb again, searching. He shifted his attention briefly toward Hunt to make sure he was still sleeping. Halfway around the back of the dome, he thought he saw something. Crouching down he examined some cracks in the structure. Missing mortar. Rocks that might have been fitted back into place. His heart felt lighter than it had for months. A loose pile of brush had been stacked against the dome around this spot. Why? How did it get here? He began to smile to himself. They were alive. Somehow, they had managed to escape.
The
smile froze on his lips as a far more disturbing thought occurred to him. If they had moved the flat stone in front of the stele after their escape, that meant they were still hunting for the relics too. In all likelihood, they were several steps ahead of him by now.
He raced back to the front of the tomb. “Mr. Hunt!” he shouted.
Leroy snorted and sat up. “Huh?” He tipped his hat to the back of his forehead, looking around in confusion.
“Mr. Hunt! I need your help!”
Hunt sprang to his feet. Reaching for his shoulder holster, he ran up the hill toward Daniel. “What you hollerin’ about, boy?”
“Come here, please,” the young man said excitedly. “I believe I’ve found something.”
Relaxing his grip on the gun, Leroy sank down on the ground beside the diviner’s son.
Daniel had already begun tugging at a corner of the flat rock in front of the stele. “Help me,” he grunted with the effort. “I need to move this rock aside.”
“Well, why didn’t you just say so instead of scarin’ a body half to death.” Leroy wrapped his meaty paws around the other side of the stone and, with one jerk, slid it away from the base of the boulder.
“There! There it is!” Daniel pointed excitedly at the dirt-filled markings etched into the front of the rock.
“Well, I’ll be.” Hunt scratched his head in surprise. “Don’t that beat all!”
Daniel barely heard him. He was busy copying the pictograms from the stone into his computer. He pressed the Translate button, and when the results appeared, his face lit up with a smile. “Ah ha,” he said with satisfaction.
Hunt positioned himself behind Daniel, so he could read the output on the screen. “’Where flows the River Skamandros’? What the hell is that? Skamandros. Sounds like a disease if you ask me.”
“Let’s find out.” Daniel opened another piece of software and began searching for references to the term. He read the data out loud. “Skamandros. Ancient name of the River Karamenderes which flows from Kazdagi (formerly Mount Ida) in Turkey.”
The implications of the geography lesson weren’t lost on even someone as obtuse as Leroy Hunt. “Oh, hell no!” he exclaimed. “You mean we been lookin’ for this doodad in the wrong damn country?” He regarded Daniel with amazement.
The scion matter-of-factly began packing up his computer. “Apparently so. I’ll contact my father immediately and let him know we’re moving our search to Turkey.” When he rose to go, Daniel deliberately steered Hunt away from the back of the tomb. He didn’t want his bodyguard to notice anything out of the ordinary. The fact that the three strangers were probably still alive wasn’t something Daniel intended to share with the mercenary, or with the diviner for that matter. If they were still engaged in the relic quest, then so be it. If they were destined to retrieve the artifacts first, then that would be for God, and not his father, to decide.
Chapter 22 – Of Two Minds
Annabeth sat hunched over a sewing machine, her eyes fixed in concentration. She fed the coarse grey cotton material past the needle, running a straight seam down the side of a girl’s smock. This was the tenth she would finish today. Her shoulders and neck were beginning to ache from holding them tensed in this position. She raised her head and rotated her neck muscles to ease them. There were a dozen other women in the sewing room all engaged in the same work. Annabeth looked at the clock on the wall and sighed. Two more hours before supper in the refectory and afterward a brief chance to spend some time with her daughter. A flurry of motion at the door caught her attention.
Hannah stood there, wide-eyed and breathless. She seemed to be searching for someone in particular. When her eyes met Annabeth’s, she rushed over and knelt beside her work table. “I need to talk to you, please!” Her tone was urgent.
Annabeth stared at her. “Now?” she asked in surprise.
The girl nodded vigorously. “It’s important.”
The older woman looked around at the other seamstresses who appeared to take no notice of the visitor’s presence. They were all bent over their work. The clatter of sewing machines muffled the sound of conversation.
“Can we go someplace private?”
“But…” Annabeth cast around helplessly. What if somebody noticed she was missing? People would whisper. There could be trouble. She bit her lip, hesitating on the point of refusal.
Hannah tugged urgently at her sleeve. “There’s nobody else I can talk to. Please!”
With deep misgiving, Annabeth stood up. “All right. We can go to my quarters.”
The two women left without a word to anyone. They walked through the corridor in silence until they reached Annabeth’s door.
When the older woman opened it, Hannah ran past her and threw herself face down on the bed. Without warning, the floodgates opened. “I don’t know what I’m going to do!” the girl sobbed.
Annabeth hastily shut the door but kept her distance at the opposite side of the room. She wasn’t sure what this odd behavior meant. “Hannah?” she asked cautiously. “What’s happened?”
The girl buried her face in the coverlet. Her voice was muffled. “He wants to marry me!”
Annabeth’s curiosity got the better of her. In spite of her wariness at this display of emotion, she took a few steps closer to the bed. “Who wants to marry you? You’re already married.”
“The diviner!” wailed the girl, still crying into the bedspread.
“What?” Annabeth sank down beside Hannah, not because she wanted to offer the girl any comfort but because she was too much in shock to remain standing. “What do you mean?”
Hannah rolled over and propped herself up on her elbow. She made an attempt to wipe her tears away with the hem of her apron. “The diviner… he… he… called me into his office. He said he had wonderful news for me.” The girl struggled to sit upright, facing Annabeth. “He kept smiling. I hate it when he smiles!” She shut her eyes and shook her head as if to dislodge the image from her brain. “He told me the Lord had given him a revelation. That I was meant to be his wife, not Daniel’s. He said he’s going to make the announcement to the congregation this evening.” The girl’s eyes welled up again and spilled over. She looked at Annabeth in desperation. “Do you think he’s right? Did God tell him to do this?”
Annabeth was taken aback. “It isn’t for us to question,” she protested. “If the diviner said this message came from God, then we must believe him.”
“But he’s so old!” Hannah exclaimed. “How can God want me to marry an old man?”
“With age, comes wisdom.” Annabeth forced herself to smile reassuringly. “The diviner is a very wise man. He can guide you into the kingdom. Don’t you want that? When Judgment Day comes, he can insure that you’ll be welcome among the Blessed.”
“I don’t care about Judgment Day!” she girl cried. “I care about today and maybe a little bit about tomorrow. None of this feels right to me!”
Annabeth grew nervous at the outburst and tried to quell it. “Feelings can’t be trusted. Would you set your impulses in opposition to the wisdom of the diviner and the will of God himself?”
Hannah looked uncertain. She remained silent.
The older woman pressed the point. “The diviner has been placed above us to correct our behavior, so we don’t stray from the path. We must be pleasing in the sight of God, or He will cast us out of His kingdom. That would be terrible. Separated for all eternity from our families.”
“I’ve already been separated from mine,” Hannah said bitterly. “What more can He do to me?”
“You mustn’t say such things!” Annabeth’s eyes grew wide with alarm. “It’s blasphemous. You’ll go to hell.”
“It feels like I’m already there,” the girl replied in a small voice.
Annabeth was too appalled by the comment to speak. The two sat quietly for several moments.
“I was told I shouldn’t talk to you anymore,” Hannah finally offered.
<
br /> “Who told you that?” The older woman felt a chill of dread run down her spine.
“The diviner.”
Panic nearly made Annabeth faint dead away. She had been seen leaving the sewing room with the girl. What if somebody reported her to Father Abraham? What if he blamed her for speaking to Hannah? It hadn’t been her idea. She hadn’t known at the time that it was forbidden.
Hannah broke into her thoughts. “He said one of the reasons for taking me away from Daniel was because my sister-wives were a bad influence. That you were spreading lies about the scion. Father Abraham said that I was young and impressionable, and you had confused my thinking.” She peered earnestly at the older woman. “No matter what he says, I know what didn’t happen on my wedding night. You said it was the same for you too.”
Annabeth jumped up and began to pace anxiously around the room. She clenched her hands into tight little balls. “I believe I was in error. Satan confounded me. He still confounds me. Sometimes I can hear his voice inside my head.” She cast a terrified look toward the girl. “He’s gotten into our minds and persuaded us to believe all sorts of things that aren’t true.”
The girl regarded her doubtfully. “How can you be so sure it was Satan?”
“The diviner told me.” Annabeth nodded vigorously. “Oh yes. He knew, and he showed me what was happening to me. I have to pray all the time now because I get strange ideas.”
“What sort of ideas?”
Annabeth laughed. Her voice held a note of hysteria. “Horrible things. Images that float through my head even though I don’t want them there. I see myself picking up a knife and stabbing the diviner right through the heart. Other times I see myself swallowing poison. But if I really did those things I would be damned, and I would never see my little girl again in heaven.” She dropped to the floor and began sobbing into her hands, rocking back and forth on her knees.
The Arkana Mysteries Boxed Set Page 40
