The Arkana Mysteries Boxed Set

by N. S. Wikarski

  Cassie gave an odd little laugh.

  The men beamed their flashlights at her.

  “I expect she’s gone mad,” Griffin murmured wryly. “A latent case of claustrophobia, no doubt.”

  The pythia rolled her eyes at the scrivener. “You know I’m not crazy. I stopped here for a reason. It’s almost like something anchored my feet to this spot.” She turned her torch to a section of wall about seven feet above the ground. “And look what I found.”

  “The lily!” Griffin cried.

  Carved into the stone above them was the familiar lily symbol.

  “The artifact must be nearby. Look around on the ground,” Griffin instructed excitedly.

  Flashlight beams bounced in every direction as the four of them scoured the walls and floor for any evidence of chisel marks or other tampering.

  After several minutes of fruitless searching, they regarded one another with dismay.

  “It’s solid stone,” Erik said.

  “The cave in Spain had a gravel floor,” Cassie added. “This is nothing but sheets of rock. The walls are too.”

  “Nothing has been scraped away,” John remarked. “Other than the lily carving, this cave appears untouched—as it must have been since the beginning of time.”

  Cassie narrowed her gaze. Pointing her flashlight at the lily symbol, she studied it. “This is new,” she remarked. “The lily is upside down. The stem is on top, and the flower is on the bottom.”

  “You’re right,” Griffin agreed with wonder in his voice. “In every other instance we’ve seen so far, the flower is upright. Logically, one would assume if the flower is pointing downward, then we’re meant to look at something on the ground. But what?”

  They mechanically searched the area underfoot one more time.

  “No dice,” Erik finally said.

  “I’ve got an idea,” the pythia said. “Erik, grab hold of me.”

  “Sure,” he agreed willingly. Then pausing, it occurred to him to ask, “Um, why?”

  “Because I need you to hoist me up, so I can reach the lily symbol. Maybe I can channel something if I touch it.”

  “Oh, right.” He belatedly understood.

  The minute his hands gripped her waist, Cassie realized what a bad idea this was. Her senses were riveted by his nearness when all her attention should have been focused on finding the relic.

  Erik grinned at her rakishly. “Best idea you’ve had all day.”

  She sternly reminded herself that she was still on the clock. Out of the corner of her eye, Cassie noticed that Griffin had turned his back, intent on studying something on the ground. Placing her hands on Erik’s shoulders to steady herself, she said, “I’m ready.”

  “Alley oop!” he hoisted her up until she could place one palm flat on the lily symbol. Then the next thing she remembered was her body going limp as it slumped over Erik’s shoulder.

  The Minoan priestess stood against the opposite wall. She was conversing with two hooded confederates. Cassie’s consciousness had lodged in a man who was positioned in very nearly the same spot as she had been before she lost consciousness. He was balancing himself on some kind of makeshift ladder. But he didn’t have a chisel or hammer in his hands, and he wasn’t sculpting the lily. He was doing something else entirely.

  Cassie jerked back into wakefulness. By now she was seated on the floor with her back propped against the cavern wall. The other three were crouched around her.

  John was staring at her with alarm. Obviously, he’d never been treated to the sight of a pythia in trance mode before. “Are you... are you alright?”

  “That was a quick trip,” Erik commented in surprise.

  “What did you see?” Griffin urged.

  Cassie chuckled wordlessly for several seconds.

  “There it is again,” the scrivener murmured. “Laughter for no reason is a sign of incipient madness.”

  “You’re a riot,” Cassie murmured, sitting up straight. “Down is up.”

  Griffin scowled at her. “You do realize that you’re not building a convincing case for your sanity.”

  “Down is up,” she repeated pointedly. “Think about it. The floor of this cave is solid rock. Anything someone tries to hide here wouldn’t be very well hidden. Chisel marks would show, not to mention that any fake covering over the artifact wouldn’t blend at all.”

  “I see your point,” the scrivener relented.

  Cassie turned her eyes upward.

  Following her gaze, the scrivener glanced at the roof of the cave. “Oh, I see!”

  “Took you long enough,” she joked, clambering to her feet. “In my vision, I saw one of the Minoans hiding something above our heads. I think they carved the lily symbol downwards as a coded way of telling us that things are upside down here. Not where we’re used to finding them.”

  “You mean in the ground,” Erik commented.

  “Right. Down-facing lily means don’t look down. Look up. Griffin, give me a boost,” she commanded unexpectedly.

  “Why him and not me?” Erik asked, sounding offended.

  “Because he’s the tallest of the four of us. I don’t think I can reach the ceiling if you hoist me up there.”

  “So, let him boost me up. I’m taller than you,” the paladin insisted.

  “But you aren’t lighter,” Cassie countered. “I might have to be up there a while.”

  “She’s quite right,” Griffin agreed. He seemed oddly pleased that she’d chosen him. “Where would you like to start?”

  Cassie paused to consider. “In my vision, the Minoan was standing on a ladder about here.” She stepped a foot to the left of the lily symbol and looked up. “I can’t tell anything from this distance. John, could you point a flashlight at the ceiling once I get up there?”

  “Yes, of course,” their guide hastened to agree.

  Erik picked up his torch as well.

  The two men stood to the side while Griffin positioned himself with his back to the wall. He locked his fingers together to create a foothold for Cassie.

  “Here we go,” she said.

  The scrivener boosted her up high enough, so she could plant one knee on his shoulder while he held her other foot cupped between his hands. She leaned against the wall for support.

  At this height, her face was about a foot below the ceiling of the cave with the beams of two flashlights revealing every nook and cranny of its surface.

  “I can’t tell,” she said uncertainly. “It all looks so natural.” She paused. “Hold on.” She noticed a stone whose edges seemed to be sealed or coated with hardened mud. It was exactly the same shade of brown as the cave ceiling, so it blended seamlessly when seen from the ground. However, from this vantage point, the stone seemed to be mortared into place.

  Glancing down briefly, she asked, “Griffin, you holding up OK?”

  “Very well, thank you for asking,” he said through gritted teeth.

  She knew that her knee must be digging into his collarbone, so she tried to hurry her inspection.

  “I hope this isn’t glued in too tight,” she murmured. She gave the rock a strong shove with both hands. To her amazement, it cracked loose. The grout sealing its edges crumbled to dust and fell to the ground. Cassie was able to push the stone upward several inches and then slide it to the side. She concluded that it must be thin and flat on top, almost like a manhole cover, even though from below it appeared round and bulky.

  “Guys, can you move those lights closer?” she called out.

  Erik and John complied and illuminated the interior of the cavity which the stone had hidden. The cavern ceiling had been hollowed out about a foot above its natural height. In addition, a square niche had been carved in one side of the hidden compartment.

  Cassie felt around in the man-made recess and her fingers immediately locked onto a small covered box. “Pay dirt!” she exclaimed triumphantly. “Somebody grab this.”

  The box
was small enough that she was able to pull it out with one hand. Erik reached up to take the container.

  Griffin lowered her to the ground.

  “Thanks, I couldn’t have done it without you,” she told him.

  “I may hire myself out as a human ladder when we get back home,” he quipped, flexing his fingers to get the circulation going again. “Now let’s see what the Minoans left us.”

  They all bent down to watch as Erik laid the alabaster container gently on the ground and lifted its cover.

  “Oh, my!” John gasped.

  “That about sums it up,” Cassie agreed.

  Chapter 41—Cache Out

  The truck cut across the flat desert landscape. There was no road—not even any tire tracks to guide the driver. It didn’t matter. He knew exactly where he was going. The sun’s last rays were retreating over the horizon. He wanted to get to the spot before dark. Burying things in the desert at night was easy. Finding those things after dark was far harder. His eyes scanned the landscape. He locked onto a low rise of hills in the distance. That was his marker. It shouldn’t be much farther now.

  He slowed the engine. He couldn’t be sure. Yes, this was it. The truck came to a full stop. The driver got out. Nobody was around. He didn’t expect there would be. His two companions crawled out of the vehicle’s canvas-covered back. They all stood around waiting for the light to fade completely. It didn’t take long. The sun sank like a stone at this time of year.

  There was going to be a moon tonight. A full moon. Just enough light to work by and no need for lanterns. They waited for the moon to rise a little higher—another half hour. Then, without a word, the two men reached into the back of the truck for shovels. They didn’t ask for instructions about what to do. They walked straight to the place where they had buried the box and went to work.

  The driver leaned against the side of his truck. He lit up a cigarette and blew leisurely smoke rings into the air while his partners commenced to dig. One foot down. Two feet down. Then three. Then four. At a depth of five feet, the driver could hear a shovel hitting something solid—the wooden top of the crate. He smiled to himself. Everything had gone exactly as planned. He’d been patient. He’d waited until nobody was looking in his direction. The people who watched for such things had forgotten about this cache. By now they were off chasing another shipment somewhere else.

  The two diggers were ready to disinter the heavy object from its grave. They grabbed the ends of the buried coils of rope which still encircled the crate and heaved themselves out of the hole. Then each one took a section of rope and pulled. They struggled with their cargo for several minutes, looking like contestants in a game of tug of war against an unseen opponent. Eventually, they succeeded in dragging the object to the surface.

  The two diggers then rested for a few moments, breathing heavily.

  The driver didn’t allow them much of a break.

  “We need to get going,” he said curtly.

  His men threaded a carrying pole under the knotted cords of rope that bound the crate and carried the object to the back of the truck. Straining, they tilted the box upward and shoved it inside. Before climbing in after it, one of the diggers asked the driver, “So, who’s the buyer?”

  “Somebody new. A friend of a friend. It took me a while to find him.” The driver ground out his cigarette in the sand, then buried the residue. “He’s willing to pay twice the going rate.”

  “Where’s the drop?” the other digger asked.

  “The usual place,” the driver said, moving toward the cab.

  “When?” the two diggers called to him in unison.

  He turned, one foot on the running board. “Tonight.”

  Chapter 42—Light at the End of the Tunnel

  “Did you bring it?” Erik asked in a low voice.

  “Yes, for the umpteenth time,” Cassie whispered back. “I’ve got it stashed in my backpack.”

  The Arkana team was making its way cautiously up the northern slope of Jebel Barkal. It was long after sunset. The trio decided to wait until darkness concealed their trek up the mountain to place the duplicate artifact in the ceiling of the cave.

  “We’re fortunate there’s a full moon tonight,” Griffin observed. “At least we won’t need torches. Lights might attract attention.”

  “Oww.” Cassie stumbled over a rock. “Then again, maybe one flashlight would be a good idea. This path isn’t exactly level.”

  “Just go slow,” Erik counseled. “Griffin is right. Lights are a bad idea if we can avoid them. At least until we’re inside the cave.”

  “Even with a full moon, I don’t know how easy it’ll be for us to find our way to the rendezvous point afterward,” the pythia said.

  “John said he would keep an eye out for us,” Erik replied. “I don’t think there’ll be three other people wandering around the Nubian pyramids in the dark.”

  “I still don’t see why we couldn’t have gone back to the hotel after we finish up here,” Cassie said. “All this cloak and dagger business of escaping in the middle of the night is weird.”

  “Best to be cautious, toots,” Erik countered. “Maddie’s latest intel is that Daniel, Hunt and an Arab Nephilim flew into Khartoum a couple of days ago. Want to guess what their next destination will be?”

  “We also need to consider the possibility that we don’t have the most current information on their whereabouts,” Griffin added. “Given the time we’ve been away in Khartoum ourselves waiting for the artifact to be duplicated, and arranging transport out of the country for the real one, they might already have begun to search Jebel Barkal.”

  “That’s true,” Erik agreed. “They could already be in the area, and Karima is a pretty small town which increases the odds that we’re going to bump into them. No, this plan is better. We stash the fake and get out of here as fast as we can.”

  Cassie didn’t argue the point any further. She had to admit their reasoning was sound even though the idea of several more hours of car travel wasn’t appealing. They’d driven straight from Khartoum that afternoon as soon as the false relic was ready. Then they’d waited several hours before beginning their climb to hide the artifact. After that, they were to meet John near the pyramids. He would drive them back to Khartoum where they intended to catch the first plane out of the country. Hopefully, all these things would happen before the Nephilim managed to stumble across the right cave on Jebel Barkal.

  “No matter how we plan these things, it always ends up too close for comfort,” the pythia observed. “I don’t even like being in the same country with those guys much less the same town. Maybe next trip we’ll get more lead time.”

  “Dream on.” Erik chuckled. “Murphy’s Law dictates that nothing ever goes as planned and the Nephilim are always three steps ahead of where we want them to be.”

  Oh dear,” Griffin exclaimed. “I just thought of something.”

  “I hate it when he says that,” Cassie confided to Erik.

  “What is it?” the paladin asked.

  “We forgot about sealing the stone afterward. There’s no time to mix mortar and apply it to the ceiling of the cave.”

  “We don’t need to,” Cassie retorted.

  “Huh?” Erik peered at her in the dark.

  “Why not?” Griffin objected.

  “Guys, we want to leave a trail of breadcrumbs. They need to notice a rock that’s a little different from the others. Otherwise, they might miss it completely.”

  “You don’t think they’ll become suspicious?” the scrivener persisted.

  “I think they’ll assume nobody else ever uses that cave. Hiding something in the ceiling is pretty secure since most people wouldn’t look up when they’re searching for something. I don’t think it’ll raise a red flag with them.”

  “Very well,” Griffin assented. “I hope you’re right. It isn’t as if we can do anything about the situation now anyway.”

  “It’ll
be fine,” Cassie said reassuringly. Looking up the dim trail ahead, she asked, “Shouldn’t we be there by now?”

  Erik walked a little ways ahead, running his hand along the stone wall in search of the slight fold of rock that signaled the entrance to the cave. “It’s here,” he said in a low voice.

  He slipped quietly through the narrow gap.

  Cassie was about to follow. “Damn!” she swore under her breath. “I’ve got a pebble in my boot that feels like a boulder. Griffin, you go ahead,” she instructed. “I’ll be right behind you guys.”

  The Brit nodded and slid through the entrance.

  Cassie sat down on the trail and emptied her boot. While she was seated, she decided to tighten her laces and managed to snap one in the process. “Double damn!” she muttered. It took a few more minutes to tie a knot in the broken lace. She stood and dusted off her pants legs before slipping into the cave.

  She reached into her backpack and retrieved her flashlight. As she was about to flip the switch, she heard voices up ahead—loud voices which she didn’t recognize. Instead of turning on the light, she groped her way through the dark, guiding herself by touching the cavern wall. She crept onward noiselessly. The shouting continued. Although she didn’t understand the language, she assumed it was Arabic.

  She could see a glow ahead. Fortunately, the cave didn’t run in a straight line. It twisted and turned which allowed her to hide just outside the range of the lantern light and observe.

  She crouched down low to the ground and peeked around a curve in the wall. What she saw made her stifle a gasp. There were four men grouped together. They all wore turbans. One wore a jellabiya. He was seated on a large wooden crate. The three other men were dressed in desert camo gear, and two of them were pointing rifles at Erik and Griffin. Her teammates were kneeling on the cave floor with their hands in the air.

  The man dressed in camo who wasn’t pointing a gun was clearly in charge. He kept yelling questions at the captives. Erik apparently knew a little Arabic because he said something back. His answer upset the man in charge who slapped him hard across the face, knocking him off balance. Then the leader grabbed several strands of rope which were lying next to the crate. He shouted some more orders and threw the rope toward one of the gunmen.