The Arkana Mysteries Boxed Set

by N. S. Wikarski

As he shut the door, Joshua overheard his father’s final words.

  “So do I.”

  Chapter 34 – Hic Sunt Dracones!

  The sun had just dipped below the horizon as the Arkana team and their Basque associates set off for the nearby coastal town of Deba. Since Ochanda opted to stay behind, the five of them piled into the rented SUV. Erik drove with Ortzi acting as navigator. Cassie shared the back seat with Griffin and Iker.

  “Aren’t you going to tell us anything about what’s going on?” Cassie wheedled.

  The scrivener shook his head. “I don’t want to talk about my assumptions until I can prove them correct.”

  Since Griffin wasn’t about to enlighten them any further, Iker and Cassie made small talk to pass the time while the scrivener checked his cell phone messages. A tiny smile played about his lips as he listened to his incoming calls. “Done and done,” he murmured mysteriously.

  “You know you’re killing me here,” Cassie grumped at him.

  “Patience, dear girl. All will soon be made clear.” Griffin pocketed his phone and refused to give her any further hints.

  Thankfully, the remainder of the ride was short. Just as Iker had said, within half an hour they had reached the village.

  “We are here,” Ortzi announced. Twisting around to face Griffin, he asked, “Where would you like us to go now?”

  “Is it possible to find a section of beach that faces north over the ocean?”

  Ortzi nodded. “Yes, I believe we can do that.” In a lower voice, he gave some instructions to Erik.

  After a few turns, they managed to find the public beach and parked the car. They all got out and clustered around the scrivener, waiting for him to decide where to go.

  Griffin stood puzzling for a few moments, trying to get his bearings. “Drat! I wish I’d thought to bring a compass.”

  Erik unzipped his back pack, retrieved an object and wordlessly handed it to the scrivener.

  “Erik’s magic bag strikes again!” Cassie laughed.

  “Excellent!” Griffin exclaimed.

  The scrivener oriented his position to the north and advanced across the sand until he was standing by the water. He peered up at the sky which by now was dark. “It’s a good thing there aren’t too many electric lights here to interfere.”

  “Deba is not a large town,” Iker commented.

  “For our stargazing purposes tonight, that’s an advantage,” Griffin replied.

  The group of onlookers huddled around to observe what the scrivener was doing. After positioning himself to face north, he stared up at the night sky with great fixity. “Ah, there you are!” he murmured. Next, he took the two sticks which Ochanda had given him and the knotted twine. At the position of the first knot, he tied the twine to the top of one of the sticks. Then he tied the golden bee to the opposite end of the string, letting it act as a weight. He held the two sticks as if they were hinged together on one end and pointed one of the sticks at the horizon line. Judging from his expression, he seemed to be trying to line up the top of the other stick with something in the sky. Holding his arm steady, he looked at the top of the stick and then at the string dangling straight down from it. “One, two, three, four,” he murmured. Then he whirled on his companions with a jubilant smile. “Yes, by goddess, I was right!” He waved the sticks in front of them. “This proves it. I was right!”

  “Great,” Cassie said warily. “Wanna share with the class now?”

  “Absolutely! Everyone gather round, please.” He sounded like a grade school teacher lecturing a class of students on a field trip.

  “Do all of you know where to find Polaris?”

  “The north star?” Ortzi asked. “Yes, of course.” He sounded almost offended.

  “I don’t,” Cassie admitted sheepishly. “Which one is it?”

  “The easiest way to locate it is to find the constellation Ursa Major. You might know it as the Big Dipper. Once you’ve located it, pay attention to the four stars that constitute the bowl of the dipper. Then look at the two which are farthest away from the handle. Let your eyes follow where those stars point. In direct line with them, you’ll see another very bright star a little farther away. That’s Polaris. It’s actually part of the constellation Ursa Minor or the Little Dipper, but it’s very difficult to spot without the help of Ursa Major.”

  The pythia hesitated a few seconds. Then gesturing excitedly at the sky, she said, “There it is! I see it.”

  “Very good,” Griffin approved. “Now take the sticks and make sure you hold them together at one end so you can hinge them. Point one stick at the horizon where the ocean meets the sky. Point the end of the other stick at Polaris.”

  Cassie did as instructed.

  “Ignoring the knot at the very top of the stick, count the number of knots in the string to the point where it intersects the bottom stick,” he prompted.

  She studied it closely. “Four knots.”

  “Precisely,” Griffin agreed. “You’ve just taken a very crude measurement of latitude.”

  “Latitude?” Cassie echoed. “You mean how many degrees north or south of the equator we are?”

  “Yes.”

  Erik took the sticks from Cassie and performed his own test. “Huh, go figure,” he murmured in surprise.

  After he’d finished, he handed the stick to the Basques who each took a turn.

  “But how can you tell latitude from a couple of sticks, a piece of string and a star?” Cassie asked in wonderment. “Don’t the stars move all night long?”

  “They do with the exception of the pole star—currently that would be Polaris. It remains at a fixed point in the night sky. The other stars appear to whirl around it with the rotation of the earth. Ancient mariners frequently used the pole star to plot their course while on the open sea. They knew that if they maintained a constant position relative to the pole star that they were heading in a straight line, or as we might say, holding to the same latitude. In our case, so long as the string always measures four knots between the pole star and the horizon, we would know we were on course.”

  “Wait, back up a minute. You said something about ‘current pole star.’ What do you mean by that?” Cassie pressed him.

  “Remember the earth’s wobble?” Griffin hinted.

  “Oh right,” she agreed. “Because of that precession thing. It would change which star was right above the North Pole.”

  “Yes, over a very long period of time. For example, around 2700 BCE, the pole star would have been Thuban in the constellation of Draco, the dragon.”

  “Dragon!” Cassie exclaimed sharply.

  Griffin gave her a knowing smile. “All in good time, dear girl. Let’s continue discussing Polaris for now, shall we?”

  “Fine,” the pythia replied, reining in her impatience. “Have it your way. You were saying something about pole stars and precession?”

  “Quite so. By the time our Minoan friends undertook their expedition, the North Pole was moving away from Thuban and toward Polaris, so it’s very likely they were already using the latter for navigation purposes.”

  By this time, the Basques had finished their inspection of the horizon, conferring with one another in Euskara about Griffin’s findings.

  Ortzi handed the sticks back to Griffin. “This method is very ingenious,” he said.

  “It was a tool the ancient Minoans used,” Griffin replied. “I’d done extensive research a while ago about their navigational techniques. I just had no idea how to apply that knowledge until tonight.”

  Cassie’s eyes narrowed as a new thought occurred to her. “The knots in the string.” She gasped as the conclusion struck her. “Four bees! You measured the length of the golden bee four times, end to end, and then you knotted the string to match that length.”

  “Precisely,” Griffin beamed. “Our riddle makes more sense now, doesn’t it? ‘Set your course four bees from the dragon’s wing to the sea.’”

/>   “I get the part about the bee,” Cassie replied, “but what’s the deal with the dragon’s wing? Does it have something to do with the other pole star in Draco?”

  “Not exactly. I’ve had my staff back at the vault researching the topic ever since we left. As luck would have it, one of the calls I received as we were driving here gave me the final piece of information I needed. Apparently, Ursa Minor, or the Little Dipper, wasn’t always viewed as a constellation in its own right. It was once merely an asterism.”

  “A what?” Erik asked.

  Griffin addressed his remarks to the entire group. “An asterism is an arrangement of stars which form a pattern that is part of a larger constellation. Ursa Minor is positioned in such a way that the little bear appears to be standing on the back of Draco facing toward the dragon’s tail. In ancient times, it was considered part of Draco—the dragon’s wing.”

  “So Polaris, which is the tail of the little bear, or the handle of the little dipper, would have been the tip of the dragon’s wing,” Cassie summarized.

  “Yes, that’s correct. The Minoans, in their riddle, were telling us to use the golden bee to calculate the distance from Polaris to the horizon which would give us our latitude. Of course, it was necessary for us to construct the same contraption which they themselves would have used to measure latitude—two hinged sticks, one half-meter in length, and a plumb line.”

  “Great, we figure out the clue to find our way here after we already found our way here.” The pythia groaned.

  “Your work was not in vain.” Iker joined the conversation. “I understand now that when my ancestor said he would keep true to the dragon’s wing, he was giving you directions to the place where he would go in the New World.”

  “That does narrow our search quite a bit,” the scrivener said with relief. “We just need to find out our current latitude in degrees.”

  “Already on it,” said Erik as he entered the information into his phone. After checking the read-out, he said, “Forty-three degrees, twenty-eight minutes north. In the eastern U.S., the biggest towns that lie close to this line of latitude would be Manchester, New Hampshire or Syracuse, New York.”

  “Well, guys, it’s like Dorothy always said. There’s no place like home.” Cassie clicked her heels three times. Looking down ruefully at her feet, she added, “Damn. I forgot to pack my ruby slippers!”

  Chapter 35 – Sleeper

  Zachary slipped through the garden gate into the backyard of the farmhouse. He could see Faye gazing out the kitchen window as he came around the side of the house.

  The screen door creaked when he opened it. She turned at the sound. “Zachary, come in. Why on earth didn’t you use the front door?”

  “I knocked, but nobody answered.”

  “Oh, of course. I didn’t hear you and Hannah must have gone upstairs to take a nap. The poor thing is still weak after what happened.”

  Zach lowered his voice. “Thanks for letting me know. It must be rough for her, losing the baby, I mean.”

  “Yes, very rough.” A look of gloom crossed the old woman’s face, but she offered no further details.

  “So you wanted me to come over anyway?” the boy’s voice held a note of disbelief.

  “Yes, I thought you might spend an hour or so. It may help to take her mind off of recent events—cheer her up.”

  “I’m not exactly Chuckles the Clown,” Zach said uncertainly. “But I’ll do what I can.”

  Faye paused to stare in surprise at the top of her descendant’s head. “What happened to your hair?”

  Zach reddened in embarrassment. “I combed it.”

  “So that’s what it looks like when it’s been groomed,” Faye murmured. “Very becoming.”

  “Jeez, Gamma, you don’t have to make a deal out of it.”

  The old woman smiled perceptively. “I’ll just go and see if Hannah is up to receiving company.”

  While she was gone, Zach opened the refrigerator and helped himself to an apple. Shortly, he heard the creaking sound of floorboards overhead and then the thump of footsteps on the stairs. He followed the sound into the living room.

  “Hey, Hannah.” He tried to sound casual. “How’re you doing?”

  The girl blinked a few times, still apparently groggy from her nap. She rubbed her eyes. “I’m better now, thank you. How are you?”

  “OK, I guess.” He bit into the apple because he didn’t know what else to say.

  “Your hair looks better,” she said diffidently.

  Before Zach could mouth a protest about all the undue attention to his hairstyle, Faye intervened. “Why don’t the two of you sit down by the computer? Perhaps Zach can show you some things on the internet that we haven’t covered yet while I fix you both a snack.”

  The two young people did as they were told and sat uneasily next to each other in front of the computer monitor.

  As an afterthought, Zach called out, “Gamma, don’t forget I’m a vegan.”

  Hannah peered at him. “What’s a vegan?”

  Zach did a double-take. He’d temporarily forgotten just how out of the loop she was. “It’s somebody who doesn’t eat anything with a face.”

  “You mean you’re not a cannibal?” Her eyes widened in shock.

  He couldn’t help laughing. “That’s one way of looking at it, but mostly it means somebody who doesn’t eat animals, or birds, or fish, or insects. Also, no eggs or things made with milk.”

  “Why not?” Hannah was clearly baffled by the concept.

  “Because the human digestive system isn’t built to handle that stuff. We’re primates—plant eaters. Not to mention it’s a horrible thing to do to animals.” He could feel himself getting preachy. “Don’t get me started on factory farm gestation crates or battery cages or clubbing veal calves to death to keep the dairy industry going because I just might lose it completely.”

  “Lose it?”

  He waved his hand. “Never mind. No reason to go there right now.” He tried to smile brightly. “How about we surf the net?” She was about to open her mouth to ask a question, but he preempted her. “Before you even ask, that expression means to look up information on the internet. Gamma’s showed you the net, right?”

  She nodded uncertainly. “Yes, we looked up different topics on something called a Google.”

  Zach cracked his knuckles and limbered up his fingers before placing them on the keyboard. “Prepare to be amazed. It’s time to check out some videos. There are places you can watch home movies that people make and then they post them on the web. Some of them are lame, but some of them are good. It’s a great way to get a feel for what people are like out there in the cyber-real world.” He paused for a moment then smiled mischievously. “I bet this is something you’ll like.” He opened YouTube and typed a few keystrokes. A site popped up with videos of cats in amusing poses tagged with funny captions.

  At first, Hannah smiled. Then she laughed out loud as the images kept changing. Then, without warning, tears began running down her cheeks.

  “Hey, hey, don’t cry.” Zach patted her shoulder awkwardly. “They’re funny, see. They’re supposed to make you laugh.”

  Hannah put her face in her hands and sobbed uncontrollably.

  “Gamma!” Zach bawled at the top of his lungs.

  He heard a plate clatter to the floor in the kitchen, and his ancestor rushed into the room. She took one look at the situation and stared at him accusingly. “What on earth did you do to her?”

  “Me!” he exclaimed with injured innocence. “I was showing her a video of some LOL cats, and she freaked.”

  Faye sat down in the chair on the other side of Hannah. The girl buried her head in the old woman’s shoulder and continued to sob.

  “There, there, dear. Everything is alright.” Faye patted her back and smoothed her hair. “LOL cats?” she asked pointedly.

  “They’re funny,” Zach protested. “She was laughing at first
and then...” he spread his hands out expressively. “This started. I swear she must be some kind of sleeper agent and LOL cats are her trigger.”

  “And her lethal power is crying uncontrollably at the sight of felines?” Faye retorted archly.

  “Don’t ask me!”

  “It’s not his fault,” Hannah sniffed and shifted her position to sit up straight. “Please don’t be angry with him. It’s just one of the cats in the movie...” her eyes welled up again.

  “Oh, I see,” Faye said knowingly. “You once had a cat that looked like it, didn’t you?”

  The girl seemed to nod and shake her head simultaneously. “Yes, I had a black and white cat called Sparkle when I was little, but that’s not why I’m crying.” She dashed the tears away. “When I was still at the compound in Missouri, an order came down from the diviner that no one was allowed to have pets. He said they were tools of the devil meant to distract us from our prayers. My father was the archwarden in charge of the compound where we lived, and he tried to get the animals away safely. But...” she paused to wipe away more tears. “The diviner must not have trusted that my father would carry out his wishes. He sent some men of his own with guns. They collected all the pets and shot them in the middle of the square. Sparkle was still a kitten when she died.”

  “Oh, my dear,” Faye wrapped her arms around the girl. “How terrible to have to witness that.”

  At first, Zach sat utterly still. He felt as if the breath had been knocked out of him. The image that Hannah had conjured was too horrific for his animal-loving nature to stand. Rage shot through his veins. “What kind of a sick freak is gonna slaughter innocent pets like that! You give me ten minutes in a locked room with that son of a—”

  “Language, Zach,” his ancestor reprimanded him sharply.

  “But Gamma, this is insane! It’s evil, and she needs to know that!” His tone became more insistent. “It’s bad enough that one crazy idiot orders them to be killed. But then a whole bunch of other gun-toting crazies carry out his orders. Not one of them stops long enough to think it might be wrong! You make sure she knows that the people she comes from are evil! Nobody with a conscience could do something like that!”