by D. N. Carter
“Sorry for I do not wish to intrude. I shall come back tomorrow,” Attar said politely and bowed, his hands held together.
“No please…you know you are more than welcome to stay. Besides, I have questions to ask about the pyramids,” Paul said and offered Attar to sit beside Theodoric.
“Paul…I told you. No exploring in dangerous tunnels. You have other responsibilities now,” Alisha interrupted and nodded toward Arri asleep in his crib.
Tenno looked at Theodoric and raised an eyebrow as if to question what Alisha had said. He shrugged his shoulders at him.
“Ali…I came to enquire how he found his new work. I shall not speak of pyramids or matters relating to them,” Attar replied courteously.
“Sorry, I speak out of turn for I do not wish to sound rude or impolite. I just worry that this one here,” Alisha explained as she nudged Paul’s arm, “is influenced by the many tales his father and Theo have filled his head with regarding them. I just want him safe and to myself for a while.”
“That is understandable. But they are not just tales for they speak truth in what they did and saw,” Attar replied, still standing, his hands clasped as if in prayer.
“I do not question that…I just meant…,” Alisha said and felt slightly awkward. “I shall be quiet for I fear I am saying too much the wrong way.”
“A woman saying too much! Never!” Theodoric joked.
Sister Lucy shot him a look of disapproval and shook her head.
“She is right to have concerns,” Attar replied and bowed again at Alisha.
“Please dine with us…perhaps you can educate the old fool better,” Sister Lucy said loudly and walked over to the main cooking stove and began to dish out two more plates of food, glancing back at Theodoric frowning and indicating toward Alisha.
“Ali, I promise I shall do nothing stupid. I have all that I need right here,” Paul said reassuringly and held Alisha’s hand as she looked at Attar.
“I shall say no more!” Theodoric said and raised his hands as Tenno shook his head very slightly.
“Paul…I simply cannot bear to think of losing you, especially down some dangerous long lost tunnel, and for what?” Alisha asked quietly and looked at him intently.
“For what? Perhaps Attar is better qualified to answer that than I,” Paul replied.
“Wrong reply,” Sister Lucy said loudly as she approached carrying her own meal and a plate for Attar. She placed hers next to Theodoric heavily with a thud then placed Attar’s at the other end of the table. “Eat before it gets cold and then Attar can enlighten Paul why it is foolhardy and dangerous to go to such places as I know some will actively encourage him,” she said and looked at Theodoric with an exaggerated scowl.
After finishing their meals in relative silence, Paul stood up and offered to help Sister Lucy and Alisha clean up, but both turned on him immediately demanding he get out of the dining room and retire to the other large room to relax whilst they cleared up. Tenno and Attar stood to leave with Paul but when Theodoric stood up and started to follow, Sister Lucy grabbed the back of his shirt.
“No not you. You can help us,” she bellowed to him and indicated with her thumb to follow her. He feigned a pained protest but then smiled as he walked over to a large cleaning board with her. “The scouring ash and grass is over there. I need your strength to clean the grease away, my darling,” she mocked as she then pointed him toward the end of the main cooking hearth.
Alisha gently pushed Paul towards the main room adjoining the dining hall as Attar followed. She looked back at Tenno and tilted her head that he should follow Paul.
Within minutes Paul was opposite Attar, both sitting in large single chairs made from wicker and wood lattice but cushioned. Tenno eased himself down in another chair beside Paul.
“’Tis not often I get to sit upon a chair,” Attar remarked as he sank back into it.
“Nor I…could make me lazy,” Tenno stated as he felt the soft cushions attached to the wide arms of the chairs.
The large open room had several chairs centred around a dark wooden low table that looked more like a travel trunk with its metal covered corners, but the centre of it was beautifully carved in ornate detail and lattice work. Nyla had placed several vases around the room with scented flowers that filled the air with a pleasant fragrance. Two large embroidered tapestries hung on opposite walls, with the northern wall mainly taken over by a large set of wooden shuttered windows. The south wall led into a small enclosed courtyard with a shallow fish pond surmounted by a small wall with stone bench areas to sit on. Alisha had already asked to have the water covered in netting to stop Arri from ever falling in. A whole collection of different swords, daggers, shields and many statuettes adorned the wall furthest from the dining hall. Paul laughed as he remembered how Alisha had raised everything in the room above the height of what Arri could possibly reach. He wondered from where all the various items and ornaments had come and what stories his father could tell him about them. Tomorrow Paul would attend Husam’s residency alone, though Tenno insisted that either he or Thomas would escort him both there and home afterwards. Paul moved in his chair as he felt something press against his thigh. He reached down and pulled out Clip clop, Arri’s little comfort horse. As he raised it Tenno immediately stood up and reached to take it from him.
“There it is. Do you know how long Ali and I looked for him,” he said and took Clip clop from him and walked back toward the dining area.
Attar smiled as Tenno walked away, Clip clop raised triumphantly in his hand.
“He is a very good man,” Attar said quietly.
“I know,” Paul whispered back. “Why am I whispering?” he asked and laughed.
“Alisha…she worries for you…no?”
“My Ali…yes she does,” Paul answered as he turned and leaned sideways to look through the kitchen and dining hall divider hatch in time to see Tenno return Clip clop. She laughed and snatched him from Tenno. “But it is nice to know she cares so much.”
“That she does. But Paul, and I may speak out of turn when I say this, you must not stop or deny your own spirit of adventure and growth. If you do, no matter how noble the sacrifice is and no matter how much you convince yourself otherwise, you will come to resent her. Slowly but surely bit by little bit. You must find a compromise balance whereby she will allow you to grow,” Attar explained quietly.
Slowly Paul turned back to face Attar. Part of him did not want to hear his words, but part of him felt excited as if he had been given a way to still engage his thirst for knowledge and exploration.
“But how do I approach her and explain that it is not danger I seek…just knowledge?”
“You will find a way…and she will likewise find a way to develop herself in directions she has not even considered yet.”
“I pray you are right for I love that woman more than life itself,” Paul remarked and sighed.
“Paul…you cannot hide from what you desire and know you will end up doing. I am not advocating you lie, but I am saying you should visit the pyramids and explore them if that is what you desire for I know it is an itch you must scratch.”
“Huh…easier said than done. And I thought you of all people would have come up with some greater or deeper and meaningful way of conveying that message than just an itch you must scratch!” Paul laughed.
“Why over complicate a fact with words that only dress up what needs to be said?” Attar asked back and nodded.
“What words?” Alisha suddenly asked as she appeared through the doors from the courtyard carrying a tray with a jug and tall blue glasses. She smiled beautifully as she looked at Paul and placed the tray on the low table. Upon the tray was a small oil lamp with the flame flickering away. “I shall light the lanthorn before Arri awakes for his last feed…now tell me, what words?” she asked again and sat down beside Paul and clasped his hand upon his knee.
“’Tis rude to ask upon a private conversation,” Paul replied, joking, and smiled
at her as she raised her eyebrows high. “We were just talking about how to address certain things in life and how to best explain them…especially to those we love the most!”
“Truly?” Alisha said and looked at Attar, suspicion written all across her face as she frowned further in an exaggerated fashion.
“Truly. We were just going to talk about pyramids,” Attar replied as Paul’s eyes widened in alarm and he shook his head very slightly to indicate no. “How they are connected to giants and people similar to Abi.”
“Really…that I must hear. Please hold that conversation until we are all done and settled for the eve. That I must hear,” Alisha repeated as she stood up, kissed Paul on the head and walked away back to the dining hall area. She flicked her hair over her shoulders as she left.
“Oh dear…she will quiz you hard this eve now,” Paul smiled.
“No matter. It will be a delight to discuss it and I know Theodoric will certainly speak upon the matter…I had to say something believable!” Attar said quietly as he grinned.
The evening air was cool as it blew gently through the hanging net curtains drawn across the doorway into the small courtyard. The room glowed with a comforting warm yellow from the three lanthorns set upon wall mounted brackets when Theodoric coughed and cleared his throat.
“I can tell you that Abi’s mother came from an area that is part of the Tori province in Georgia, a land full of myths and legends about giants who were all nine feet tall on average. Blonde and blue eyed no less. Her father came from Sardinia, another place with identical myths, and as you know, the line is passed down through the mother…,” he explained as Alisha looked at him intently.
Tenno sat perfectly still as he listened.
“So where was she born exactly?” Tenno asked bluntly.
“Sardinia…but sadly her parents both died when she was just three years old. That is why she went to live with Kratos,” Theodoric answered. “But her true homeland, where her ancestors came from, is an area dotted by a series of forts guarding the strategic crossroad of routes leading to the western, eastern, and southern provinces of Georgia. Georgia’s flag is identical to that of England’s…as in a red cross upon a white background… but they also have many identical legends related to St George and dragons as well as being a country covered in ancient stone structures just like England. They also have many wells and springs of healing waters. Many old stories speak of ‘the valley of the giants’. Much of the ancient history of the Caucasus region remains a mystery, because of the remote locations, but as your father and I discovered, megalithic structures are found all over the region and many sites have similarities with other, better-known megalithic structures such as the ones at Stonehenge, in Malta, or Baalbek. On the slopes of the Trialeti mountain range, at an altitude of over five thousand feet, we saw cyclopean castles and menhirs dating back to the second and first millennium BC and they extended for many miles. Near the village of Tejisi we helped design and build a church where we used a sixteen foot tall menhir set into it,” Theodoric explained and paused as his mind wandered back to that time as Sister Lucy rubbed his back.
Paul looked at him and was amazed at just how far his father had travelled and how much he simply did not know about him still.
“Please, Theo…tell us all you know,” Paul asked.
“Please do,” Alisha said and held Paul’s hand.
“Then let me start by explaining that English, the language as you understand it, was not from the country you now call England. No…for it originated in the lands of the north, before its people were driven out. Many went to Britain whilst others went to Georgia. In time, people will learn of this simple truth again,” Theodoric said and sighed before continuing. “But the nation of Georgia was not unified as a kingdom until the Bagrationi dynasty of King Bagrat the Third in the ninth to tenth century, arising from a number of earlier states of the ancient kingdoms of Colchis and Iberia. ’Tis the Colchis aspect you should pay attention to for it is connected to the town in Britain with its hidden sacred past. A great mystery hidden in plain sight no less.”
“How so?” Tenno asked.
“Because Colchis in Britain became known as Camulodinum, the Roman capital of the country. It was shortened to Camulod…Sound familiar?”
“Camelot!” Paul commented.
“Exactly and even more so when you apply the Latin principle whereby you can use or interchange the D and T and we have Camulot. Plus, in the surrounding landscape, over a hundred and thirty lines of energy converge on a place named Beacon Hill. Lines that stretch out across France, through Italy and start from here in Cairo no less. Plus there are three major tumulus mounds also set that mirror the three belt stars of Orion north of Camulod, which many already now call Colchester.”
“Just like the three Giza pyramids do,” Paul interjected. Alisha looked at him and frowned.
“Yes, you are correct, Paul. The same,” Theodoric remarked and smiled.
“Then why is this not known, more widespread?” Alisha asked.
“To hide the fact. Hence why many legends and stories give details of Camelot with many confusing and conflicting accounts to deliberately conceal the truth. To protect the knowledge until mankind wakes up from his amnesia. Your fathers certainly knew this fact well,” Theodoric answered.
“Do not forget the Georgian flag also has a white Unicorn set upon a black background…,” Attar said quietly.
“Yes…and God willing if all goes to plan, the day will come when Britain will adopt the symbol of the rose as its national flower as well as the unicorn upon its banners…,” Theodoric said and shook his head.
“I recall my father did once mention King David…the Fourth. He is known as the Builder is he not?” Paul asked.
“See. You paid more attention to your father than you thought,” Theodoric laughed. “But yes, he was known as the Builder. In AD 1118–1119, having considerable amounts of free, unsettled land…a result of the withdrawal of nomads…and desperately needing manpower for his new army, King David invited some forty thousand Kipchak warriors from North Caucasus to settle in Georgia with their families. In AD 1120 the ruler of Alania recognised himself as King David’s vassal and sent thousands of Alans to Georgia, where they settled in Kartli. The Georgian Royal army also welcomed mercenaries from Germany, Italy and Scandinavia where all those westerners were defined as Franks just as here. In AD 1121, the Seljuq Sultan Mahmud declared Jihad on Georgia and sent a powerful army under one of his famous generals Ilghazi to fight the Georgians. Although significantly outnumbered, the Georgians managed to defeat the invaders at the Battle of Didgori, and in AD 1122 they took over Tbilisi, making it Georgia’s capital. Three years later the Georgians conquered Shirvan. As a result, the mostly Christian-populated Ghishi-Kabala area in western Shirvan was annexed by Georgia while the rest of an already Islamicised Shirvan became Georgia’s client-state. In the same year a large portion of Armenia was liberated by David’s troops and fell into Georgian hands as well so in AD 1124 David also became the King of Armenians, incorporating Northern Armenia into the lands of the Georgian Crown. In AD 1125 King David died, leaving Georgia with the status of a strong regional power. In Georgia, King David is called Agmashenebeli, which in English means ‘the builder’.”
“So, if the ancestors who made Georgia are connected to the English, how was their history lost?” Paul asked, bemused.
“I shall come to that. But there is far more to Georgia than most people suspect…even by those who live there now,” Theodoric answered. “You see, near Lake Paravani, in the region of Akhalkalaki, there is a megalithic fortress at an altitude of over nine thousand feet. Your father and I had some serious trouble walking up that one I can tell you,” Theodoric laughed. “But there is another site, called Gochnaris Lodovani, ‘the great rocks of Gochnari’, near the town of Manglisi in the Algeti river valley as well as another megalithic fortress located at an altitude of over nine thousand feet in the Eastern Georgian province
of Kakheti, near the village of Patara Abuli. They are all constructed using huge basalt blocks, some of them thirteen feet long. The gates are far too big for our average size, and the walls are up to thirty feet tall. There are over three thousand dolmen stones in the Western Caucasus, and more are constantly being found. These dolmens are still of an unknown origin. The dolmens of Abkhazia mainly consist of four upright stones and a capstone, some of them weighting as much as fifty tons we estimated.”
“So who built them?” Alisha asked, intrigued.
“That is what Philip and I tried to confirm,” Theodoric replied. “Just as now, people living there today cannot provide any information about the civilisation that lived there before them other than vague folk legends that claim gods or giants of the distant past made them. But it is as if the builders of the megalithic structures across the world just vanished from the face of the earth…though they left their legacy hidden for us to one day recover…”
“From where?” Alisha asked instantly.
“The codes that lead us start and end with the great pyramids…,” Theodoric replied and looked at Alisha and raised his eyebrows.
“I don’t want you going in those tunnels still,” she said, looking back at Paul.
“Tell them about Tamar,” Sister Lucy suddenly interjected, looking serious.
“Who?” Paul asked.
“Tamar. She is a young woman both of your fathers knew. She is also related to you both believe it or not,” Theodoric started to explain and looked at Sister Lucy as if for guidance.
“Please, you must tell us more then…for we both know so little of our families’ pasts,” Paul asked and held Alisha’s hand tighter.
“Well I can tell you she was made Queen Regent of Georgia, Queen of Queens in 1178 just two years past…a fact that would not have occurred but for your fathers,” Theodoric said and looked down briefly.
“And you also,” Sister Lucy interjected sternly.