by Summer Lee
“I know she did.” Achava folded her arms tightly across her chest. “Otherwise, she would be out here with us. Before she met the professor, she never missed an expedition.”
“She would have never married him though, would she?”
“I don’t think so. My father was the only one she married. She just had a fling with Anthea’s demonic dad.”
He nodded. “Life does have its twists and turns.”
Achava said, “I once had big dreams to help the poor. I wanted to do something that would leave a legacy, forever. But Anthea was always out to get me. That’s when she joined the Antiquarians. She never told how she came to be the newest member of an extremely exclusive group, but she did manage to let me know that it increased her supernatural powers.”
Once again, she snuggled deeper into his arms. “You know that I do love you, don’t you?”
“I know.” He clasped her chin and lifted her face to his. Looking at her uplifted face, he lowered his lips onto hers. She did not try to pull away. He held the kiss as long as he could, knowing it would be a long time before he found her in a loving mood.
“I love you more than life itself.” He placed his cheek on hers. “I always have. I always will.”
“Look up,” she said. “There must be a million stars out tonight.”
“And there is a full moon.” Sam wanted so much to take—all of her. But he knew that if he did, she would never have anything to do with him again.
Instead, he sat real still, enjoying her warmth. With her head on his chest, she said, “I can hear your heart beat.”
She lay still and said nothing else. Soon he heard a steady breathing. Achava was asleep. It could not get better than this, considering she would not marry him.
Sam lay his head back against the rock behind him and counted the stars. He barely reached one hundred when he drifted off to sleep himself.
Chapter the Twelfth
MORNING CAME. Khassima was praying again. Achava saw that Aharon was watching Khassima pray. When she stopped, he ran up to his new friend and embraced her. As an Antiquarian, Aharon had to believe somewhat in the Bible. He had seen too many artifacts that, right from the beginning, were straight from the Bible. He said to Achava that he had never really thought much about it, except for the monetary value of each item. Just to see and hold something that was centuries old, was all he needed. He confessed that he got an adrenaline high from looking for things believed to be lost or nonexistent.
“What are you doing right now, Achava?” he asked.
“I’d like to give Khassima some privacy,” she said. “Do you want to take a walk with me?”
“I would love to.” He clasped her elbow to guide her down a path.
“This is such a beautiful garden,” she said. “The flowers are rich with color—red, blue, yellow—to name a few.”
“Yes. Yes. I want to thank you for giving spiritual guidance to Khassima,” he said to Achava. “She has been helped considerably since she met you.” He narrowed his eyes. It was as if he saw one more person in the group get a new revelation.
“What about you?”
“I don’t feel that I got mine yet.”
“What do you expect?”
“I know, Achava, that you were right about understanding when we are, rather than where, but my analytical mind didn’t want to accept the fact that we are indeed in the time of Christ’s crucifixion.” He scratched his chin. “That’s what I thought being an Antiquarian was all about.”
“Do you mean your thirst for knowledge from the past consumes you?” asked Achava.
“I think so.”
“I’ve noticed that once an item is in your possession, you study it closely,” she said, “and then you research how accurate the actual item is compared to historical data.”
Aharon laughed. “Most of the time, I have found that the data was off considerably.” He looked at her and grinned. “That, my dear, has pleased me even more.”
“I can tell that you are ahead of the researchers,” said Achava. “They know about the items, but have no idea what they really are or do.”
He frowned. “Look, Anthea is entering an open tomb alone. What is she up to now?”
“Let’s go see,” Achava said, meeting up with Sam.
“What’s going on, Sam?”
“Anthea saw some movement in there, so she’s checking it out.”
“Let me know if she finds the crown of thorns,” said Aharon, grabbing Achava’s hand. “We’re taking a walk.”
Achava winked at Sam and he winked back.
As they walked past the caves, all of which contained graves, they encountered unusual odors. “Some of the bodies have only been here a few days,” Aharon said.
There were no chemicals or advancements in forensics in that time, that they had in the future, so the smells were more pungent. Achava wondered why she didn’t smell anything from the outside though.
“The stench should not have been so bad.” Studying the boxes, Achava said, “The ossuaries are used because the burial space is scarce.”
“A body is supposed to first be buried in a temporary grave,” said Aharon. “After a few years, the bones can be separated so as to fit in a small box or ossuary.”
Achava watched, as he went up to the least offensive smelling ossuary first. The box was rectangular in design and had carvings on the side. The Hebrew words appeared to be a tribute to whoever died. They were not as ornate as some of the ossuaries he had seen in real life and in pictures. These were made by people who were rich or well known. They had to construct each box on their own, so there were some sides that were uneven, as well as some pieces that were missing, due to faulty construction. The lid was flat and not rounded like some were. Still they pressed on. “The ossuaries were supposed to contain only dry bones.”
Neatly arranged bones sat within a burial chamber on shelves carved into the rock wall. Crypts holding the remains of hundreds of deceased bodies filled the different caves, some of which provided proper burials for the poor. “I could tag along if I promised not to gamble anymore.”
“Did it work?”
“For a while,” said Aharon. “Unfortunately, I was not as strong as my brother. Itai needed to win more than anything else in life. That need eventually sealed his fate to a mortal. The choice was easy for me, since my curiosity is greater than my need to win.”
“Is that why you like to hang around with us?” she asked. “You, Aharon, took to this new group as if you were born into it.”
“You’re right,” he said. “I watched my brother being too aggressive, as he made many enemies within the organization. I decided on a different path.”
“And what path is that?”
“I, my dear, disarm people with a rapier wit and a smile.”
“In time, your methods have proven superior to your brother’s.”
“True. Itai had more enemies than one could count. As the little brother, I was the comic relief to Itai’s brutality toward his fellow Antiquarians. They only kept Itai around for two reasons. He had an amazing percentage of finding artifacts and his brother was such a joy to be around.” Aharon chuckled. “Some of them assumed that I would follow my brother, if Itai was kicked out of the group.”
“They were wrong, weren’t they?”
Aharon nodded. “I had to wait for my chance to break out of Itai’s shadow. I would have stayed had my brother been banned, but that wasn’t a chance the group was willing to take.”
“Sibling rivalry.”
“True,” said Aharon. “I didn’t bring in the numbers that Itai did, with the acquiring of artifacts. He was more even-tempered, but always came back with whatever he went after. He would return to a triumphal shout of praise by all of the members. He would then sit them down and tell them an exaggerated account of what actually occurred, just for laughs. Even when others went with him, they just smiled and let him tell his wild stories.”
“Well,” said Achava,
“he was not a threat to anyone and didn’t want to step on anyone’s toes. He was content with his station in life. Isn’t that true?”
“Ha ha. He played through each mission, as a Shakespearean actor would play to an audience, with grace, dignity, and a bit of Tom Foolery. He never took himself seriously.”
“He thought tagging along to find the Crown of Christ was going to be just like the other adventures. Except that time, he didn’t expect to find anything. He thought it would be a fun time with his new friends. Maybe they could have all gone out for coffee afterward.
“It didn’t work out that way. He didn’t realize that he had allied himself with true adventurers with above average intelligence and reasoning.”
Aharon told Achava that he was impressed with Sam Godfrey the most. For a mortal to have figured out where and how to find the fleece showing the crown of thorns was pure genius. He respected that about Sam, even though he still thought it was a wild goose chase.
“When I get back, I plan to entertain the Antiquarians with my wildest tale yet. Heh heh.”
“First, you must try your stories on Anthea, Sam, and Khassima.”
“Alright. I want to stay on top of the situation, especially if it gets worse.”
He took in a deep breath and decided to continue to play out the scenario. He wasn’t that anxious to see how it ended.
Moaning, Aharon slowly and painfully got on all fours and entered the open tomb. Achava was right behind him. There were flat stone slabs placed along one wall. There were several square alcoves along the other side of the wall. Each alcove was big enough to place a body in it. The smell of decayed flesh made Achava gag and choke continuously, until she took part of her shirt to cover her nose and mouth. She could still smell the rot, but at least she could breathe a little bit easier.
Rain began to fall outside. Aharon looked pale. Was the perfect storm of his life about to open wide for Achava to see? The hearts he broke, his broken promises and shattered dreams. She felt he was about to face it all. Had he received forgiveness through the blood of Jesus, or would he have to pay the ultimate price at the throne room of God? “Have you righted all your wrongs?” Achava asked.
“I believe so. Why?”
“This feels dangerous,” said Achava. “What are we doing now, anyhow?”
“Looking for clues of where to find the Crown of Christ. Look, there is a bone box stashed over there.”
The two searched the area for anything that might lead to a clue about the Crown of Christ. Aharon said, “If the crown still exists, it would have been hidden away by a follower of Jesus. Maybe in a box like that.”
“You just might be the only one in our group who realizes that,” she said.
“The crown might be stained with His blood, which will make it a valuable item for anyone who believes in the Savior.” Aharon took a break, sat down and leaned against a wall. “There was no way that would have been discarded. It also wouldn’t have been laid with anything of Jesus’, or anywhere near His grave.” He inhaled deeply. “That would be the first place anyone would look.”
“That may not be the case at all,” she said. “The Bible says that Jesus presented his blood on the ark of the covenant in heaven for our sins.”
“I don’t know about that,” he said.
“You know that he rose from the dead,” she said.
“Of course,” he said as he changed the subject. “My gut level tells me,” he paused as his eyes averted to the two ossuaries, “that we will find the Crown of Christ today.”
“Well then, we need to go deeper in the cave.” She looked around. “It’s not here.”
He frowned as he looked up and then proceeded forward.
She said, “There is a strange odor in the cave.”
Aharon agreed. The deeper they got into the cave, the more he complained about the stench. “I feel like getting rid of my lunch.”
“It does stink.”
With one hand, Aharon lifted the tail of his robe firmly over his nose, while still allowing himself to breathe. He used his other hand to push the top off of the first ossuary.
The intensity of the repulsive smell increased once the top was pushed about halfway off. Aharon coughed as he peered into the box. He said, “I have made a pact with myself, that if I can’t see anything from where I stand, I will not reach for and move anything else.”
“Do you want to know what this reminds me of,” said Achava. “There is a saying in Chile’s parched Atacama Desert, where corpses have been left exposed by looters. The saying is, ‘You die here, you dry here.’”
“That goes without saying.” He laughed. “Look over there. Open coffins are everywhere, the bodies inside still shod.”
That was a fair statement. At least he was looking. He drew her attention to a body of what appeared to be a young woman. Or what was left of her.
They quickly moved back away from that one.
Achava turned and looked at the next coffin with her brows raised. As she got closer to it, she noticed that the smell wasn’t as bad. She wasn’t sure if she had a bad or good feeling as she approached it.
Without realizing it, Aharon had let his robe drop from covering his face. “I can’t breathe.” Aharon clasped her arm and said, “My heart is racing. I don’t feel so good.”
“You need to get some fresh air, and then come back in later.”
“What about you?”
“I’ll keep looking.”
“If you stay, I stay.”
Achava used her free hand to repeat the action of the first coffin. She slid the lid off slowly, expecting the same pungent odor to permeate her senses. She was happily disappointed. The box had dry bones.
There wasn’t nearly as bad a smell with the next one. In fact, she was sure that the only reason she smelled anything bad was because her nostrils still retained the scent from the previous experience. “It depends how long the bodies have been here,” she said, “on how bad they smell.”
Going to the next cave, Aharon lifted a corner of the lid off of a bone box in a small cave and dropped it again. His eyes widened and his mouth dropped open. “Look, I found something,” he shouted.
“Aharon. We must use our inside voice.”
“Something is in here, but I don’t know what. It is too tight to see.”
The fact that there was a burial box, with no body in it, was a surprise to say the least. It wasn’t completely empty though.
There was a bundle of something wrapped up in a scarf of sorts. Achava said, “Look at the light blue fabric. That’s different.”
Aharon stopped for a moment and stared at it.
What can it be? Achava wondered to herself. Perhaps the crown of thorns.
It was obviously something of some importance, for it to be placed where a body should have gone. Achava was quite curious. What happened to the body that was supposed to be in there?
Achava thought long and hard about what they should do next. The fact that they both were frozen to the spot with confusion made it clear that they were in danger. A strange feeling came over her. Her life was about to be turned upside down. She felt it in her bones. “Don’t touch it,” she said.
Indeed, Achava was about to enter a world where magic and evil collided with goodness and righteousness. The power lurked just beneath her skin, where all her past choices were stored. Or was it in the box?
She immediately raised her face upward, as memories and visions bombarded her mind. Memories that were not her own and visions of things she had never seen before. Visions of people dressed in robes following behind a man. Not just a man. It was Jesus? The visions in her head jumped from scene to scene, like a badly edited movie. The more she tried to concentrate on each image, the faster they traveled through her mind and away from her.
She closed her eyes tightly, as she tried to focus on the pictures flooding her mind. She felt pain, betrayal, fear, more pain, and then ultimately, peace. She fell back against the wall to the alcov
e, trembling. “Oh my Lord, God, have mercy on us,” she whimpered, as she collapsed. “Am I dying?”
Chapter the Thirteenth
SAM WAS THE ONLY ONE NOT EXPLORING A TOMB. He was standing idle when he heard Aharon shout as loud as he could, “I found something!”
Achava was the first one on the scene, with Sam right behind her. She stood by Aharon, who was still yelling. “Shh. We have no idea who is wandering around this area. You could have alerted Roman guards, or even someone worse.”
Aharon looked puzzled. “Who could be worse than the Roman guards. Unless maybe King Herod or Pontius Pilate.”
Sam ran up to him. “Show us what you’ve found.”
Aharon pointed to the ossuary. “There’s… something in there! It is not a body.”
Sam lifted a corner of the lid and looked but could not see anything. “We need to open the lid more and look deeper inside.”
When Anthea and Khassima ran up, Achava held them back. She looked seriously at the two ladies. “ I need to ask you two to please act as our lookout team, while Sam and I go in to help Aharon.”
“Why do you get to go in?” Anthea said, sarcastically. “Maybe I’m more qualified to be in there than you are!”
“I understand why she picked us to stand guard,” Khassima interjected. “You are the strongest among us, Anthea, and I know your Soul Merge and extra abilities aren’t working for you here.”
Sam said, “It may be the Crown of Christ. How could any one of us hide such an item, if it is in there? It is too much for one person to be responsible for. If that is what Aharon has found, we will all take part in rescuing it.”
Anthea folded her arms in front of her, as she gave Sam a dirty look in disgust. “I take it, Sam, you will be in charge of the crown when we find it. Will you be staying out here to oversee its rescue as well?”
Sam let out a noticeable disgruntled sigh. “Not by choice, of course. I have asthma and I don’t even want to test my reaction in those dusty old tombs.”
“Everyone understand your duties now?” Achava said, nodding to Khassima. She held out her hand, motioning to Aharon that she was ready to go back inside the cave. “You can go first.”
