“Why not a flashlight?” Ben held the candle in front of himself, hoping none of the wax dripped on his toes.
Daniel raised an eyebrow. “Did they have electric light when these churches were built?”
“Obviously not.”
“Daniel knows what he’s talking about; the quality of light matters,” Tenzin said softly, swinging the candle around the interior of the church. “Electric light is static. It doesn’t create the kind of shadows that candles or fires do.”
“And?” Ben was very tempted to reach for the penlight in his pocket.
“So sometimes you see things differently in fire.” Daniel lifted the candle toward the wall. “There was fabric here.”
Tenzin floated up and examined that section of wall more closely. “It covered the walls.”
“According to the guidebook I read, there were tapestries attached to the walls in this church that were taken to a museum in Addis,” Ben said.
“Museum,” Tenzin muttered. “That must make you happy.”
“It does, actually. Very happy.”
Daniel looked at Ben sideways. “How long have you two been together?”
“Ten years,” Tenzin said. “Or something like that.”
Ben shrugged. “It’s complicated.”
“You bicker like an old married couple,” Daniel said. “So I suppose you’re doing something right.”
“Thanks?” Ben’s eyes caught on something near the front of the church. He looked at the holy of holies where a curtain separated the tabot from the church. Then he looked around the interior. “Daniel, do you have a compass?”
“I don’t need one.” He frowned. “What do you want to know?”
“Which way is east?”
Daniel thought for only a second before he pointed over his shoulder.
“Are you sure?”
“It’s one of my strange quirks,” he said. “I always know what direction it is.”
“Even underground?” Tenzin asked, still floating along the ceiling of the church.
“Even in subterranean caves,” Daniel said. “So yes.” He pointed again. “That’s east.”
Ben said, “This church isn’t oriented east to west.”
“Interesting.” Tenzin floated to the floor.
“Ethiopian Orthodox churches are generally oriented along an east-west axis.” Daniel’s eyes lit up. “Unless they used to be something else.”
Thin red carpet covered the rock-hewn floor. Daniel and Ben walked to the edges of the chamber and started rolling the carpet back as Tenzin hovered over them.
“Here.” Daniel spotted the seam in the rock before Ben did. “I can feel it. There’s a passageway beneath us.”
It would have taken a pretty decent fulcrum and a long lever for humans to pry up, but Daniel popped the carved stone off like he was opening a soda can.
Ben could see the vampire’s excitement taking over.
“Do you generally need help on these treasure hunts of yours?” the man asked.
Tenzin said no at the same time that Ben answered, “Fairly often.”
“Well that’s clear as mud.” Daniel disappeared down a steep set of stone steps. “It’s open.”
Tenzin shot Ben a look as he started walking down. “You explore,” she said. “Tell me if I need to follow.”
Ben nodded. He followed Daniel to the chamber underneath the church, noting two areas of darkness where it looked like tunnels branched off.
“Tenzin not coming?”
“I asked her to keep watch in the church.” Ben knew why Tenzin was avoiding the tunnel, but Daniel didn’t have a right to her secrets. She’d already pushed herself to the limit that night, walking through the stone passageway that connected the two churches. It was rock instead of earth, but he could feel her uneasiness in his blood.
“There are storage chests down here,” Ben said. “But they look fairly modern.”
“Check them anyway.” Daniel put his hands against the stone walls, searching for hidden niches. “I’ll inspect the walls.”
Their voices bounced off the stone cavern, making the chamber feel bigger than it was. In fact, it was probably no bigger than fifteen by thirty feet.
Ben opened a storage chest, but the only thing he found were old ceremonial clothes, more rope candles, and a simple wooden cross. The next chest revealed a collection of books, but they were new, printed within the past century if he had to guess. The last chest was a collection of old ceremonial instruments and more candles.
“Nothing in the chests.”
“And no hidden niches,” Daniel said. “Let’s take the first tunnel.”
They started with the one the earth vampire said ran under the holy of holies. Ben had no idea how he did it. Without the sky overhead, he felt completely lost. He was starting to understand Tenzin’s reluctance to be underground when Daniel came to an abrupt halt.
“There’s another set of steps.”
Ben looked around and saw the short set of steps that seemed to lead straight into rock. “Can you push it up?”
“Yes, but we have no idea what’s on the other side,” Daniel said. “Can you feel anything?”
Ben put his hands on the wall and searched for a feeling of emptiness on the other side, but the stone was thick and there was no sense of air seeping through the rocky seam.
“I can’t feel anything other than space. A lot of space.”
Daniel looked at him and raised an eyebrow. “Wish me luck. If this ends up leading into a nun’s bedroom, I will not apologize for my scream of terror.”
“Are nuns scarier than Arosh?”
Daniel began to steadily push the stone up. “I’ll have to consider that one carefully.”
Ben had been braced for anything…
Except a narrow wash between two hills with banana plants and palm trees in the distance with a clear sky overhead.
“Well,” Daniel said, kicking back some of the loose soil he’d disturbed when he lifted the stone portal. “That’s rather anticlimactic, isn’t it?”
“Should we search the other tunnel?” Ben pointed to the stairs.
“It doesn’t seem quite as scary now, does it?” Daniel grinned. “When you know it’s probably just a way the altar boys escaped when they grew tired of Sunday service.”
Ben climbed back into the tunnel. “Let’s just hope the other tunnel leads somewhere slightly more interesting.”
They made their way back to the main chamber under Bêta Merkorios. Ben popped his head up into the church to check on Tenzin. He could feel an odd sensation from her. Not exactly concern, it was curiosity tinged with impatience with just a hint of worry.
The worry made him smile. “Tenzin?”
She was leaning against a wall, staring at a burning candle. “Did you find anything?”
“A nice escape route, but nothing scroll related. There’s another tunnel, and we’re checking it now.”
She never looked away from the candle. “Okay.”
Her obvious fascination gave him pause. “Please don’t set anything on fire.”
She looked up. “Inside the church?”
Ben opened his mouth. Closed it. “Why don’t we wait to set any fires until we get back to the compound?”
She shrugged one shoulder. “If you like.”
With that less than reassuring concession, he ducked back underground.
“Let’s not take too long on this one,” Ben said. “She’s getting bored.”
“Is that dangerous?” Daniel started into the second tunnel.
“It can be.”
32
The second passage beneath Bêta Merkorios proved to be as fruitless as the first, though it did lead to another tunnel that Daniel hadn’t mapped yet. By the time they returned to the compound that night, Ben was mentally exhausted.
And Tenzin was bouncing out of her skin.
“How many more churches are in the second group?” she asked. “Three more? It was three, ri
ght?”
“We checked Amanuel and Merkorios.” Ben sank into the couch in the living room of the main house. “Daniel wants to check Abba Libanos tomorrow night. He says there are quite a few tunnels he can feel in that area that aren’t on any maps.”
Giovanni poked his head in from the kitchen. “Warning, Sadia is awake and wandering, and so apparently, is Arosh.”
Ben sat up straight. “Arosh?”
“Doug received information from someone he won’t name that Arosh and his people are approaching Lalibela.”
“For?”
Giovanni’s grim expression was the only answer Ben needed.
“So our theory isn’t as niche as we thought,” Ben muttered. “Great.”
“I’m not surprised,” Tenzin said. “Arosh isn’t an idiot.” She raised her shoulders. “A bit overconfident in his sexual prowess, but not an idiot.”
Ben stared at her. “I’m… I don’t know how to respond to that.”
She frowned. “Why do you need to respond? It wasn’t a question.”
Okay, he couldn’t argue with that.
“Just wanted to make you aware,” Giovanni said. “I’m going to try to get Sadia back to sleep. She’s escaped her room again.”
“Are you sure?” Tenzin looked ready to go hunting.
“Dema is searching outside even though the guards say she didn’t leave via any doors. I know she’s around; I can smell her somewhere in the house.”
Tenzin relaxed and Ben allowed his mind to wander.
Arosh in Lalibela.
Saba allowing Arosh in Lalibela.
Saba knew they were already here. Did that mean she was confident they would find the scroll before Arosh? Had they missed it in their search? Were they completely delusional and mistaken that Saba wanted Tenzin and Ben to have it at all?
Ben still had questions swirling in his mind when he felt a small hand on his shoulder. He turned, not surprised that Sadia had managed to sneak up on him. She had on what Ben referred to as her “grumpy pixie face.” She was tired and cranky, but still so cute he had trouble taking her seriously. “What’s up, buttercup?”
Sadia didn’t answer, but she walked around the couch and wordlessly crawled up into his lap. “What’s a buttercup?” She rested her cheek on Ben’s chest. “I’m tired.”
“So why aren’t you in bed?”
She shrugged but didn’t say anything.
Tenzin sat across the room, watching the small girl with an indulgent expression while she balanced effortlessly on the back of an armchair. “You should be asleep, little one.”
“I’m not tired though.” Her voice held the hint of a proper whine building up.
Tenzin narrowed her eyes. “But you just said—”
“That’s okay.” Ben put a hand on Sadia’s head, pressed her closer to his chest, and wordlessly shook his head at Tenzin. “Why don’t you just rest here, Sadia?”
Her voice was garbled. “Don’t have to sleep?”
“Noooo.” Ben stroked a hand over the braids Beatrice had put in Sadia’s hair before she went to bed. “You don’t have to sleep; just rest your eyes a little bit.”
“Okay.” She took a deep breath and relaxed into Ben’s chest. “Your heartbeat is funny now. Like Baba’s.”
Ben’s heart probably beat even less than Giovanni’s. He wasn’t surprised Sadia had noticed. “Oh yeah?”
“But Tenzin’s heart doesn’t beat at all.” Sadia yawned. “She’s the quietest one.”
He looked at Tenzin, and a smile touched his lips. “Her heart beats sometimes.”
“Nu-uh, never.” The little girl rubbed her eyes. “Where were you guys tonight?”
“Looking at the churches.”
Tenzin watched the little girl with unhidden affection. “We are looking for a lost scroll.”
Sadia snuggled closer into Ben. “Like Baba.”
Tenzin nodded a little. “Something like Baba, yes.”
Her eyes were drooping. “My mama and baba find lost books. And my brother finds lost paintings.”
Ben shifted her a little bit as she began to droop more. “Yeah, that’s a pretty good summary.”
“Except Ben and I try to avoid paintings,” Tenzin said softly. “Especially after the incident in New York.”
“Can we not?” Ben asked. “Maybe can we just drop that whole—?”
“Paintings are crim-niminal.” Sadia interrupted Ben with a broad yawn. “They’re kind of make-believe because paintings are just…” She paused to yawn again. “Canvas and oil and pictment.”
“Pigment,” Tenzin murmured.
“Yeah, pigment.” She looked up at Ben through hooded eyes. “Paintings aren’t worth your time.”
“Really?” Ben shot a look at Tenzin. “Where on earth did you hear that, Sadia?”
Tenzin’s eyes went wide. “What? She clearly has good instincts about the intrinsic worth of specific artistic mediums.”
“She came up with all that herself?” Ben asked. “Really?”
“Benny?” Sadia’s eyes were completely closed. “I liked the angel churches. Well, they aren’t churches really, but I liked the paintings in them. If paintings aren’t expensive, can you get big angel ones like that for my room?”
Ben’s brain locked on his sister’s sleepy statement. “What do you mean, the angel churches aren’t churches?”
She groaned a little and squirmed in his lap. “Just… they aren’t.”
Tenzin leaned forward. “What do you mean by that, Sadia? Did someone tell you that those churches aren’t churches?”
Ben’s mind flew to a mental picture of the twin churches carved into the side of a small cliff. They were in the mazelike second grouping of Lalibela churches, accessible only by a wooden footbridge that connected to an open cavern that led to another tunnel.
Sadia was beginning to doze.
“Sadia?” Ben squeezed her a little. “What do you mean that they aren’t churches?”
She groaned a little and opened her eyes. “I told the guide that they didn’t look like churches to me, and he said I was right. He thought I was a dumb little kid though.”
Tenzin floated over to sit next to Ben, which woke Sadia up. “Tell me why you don’t think they’re churches.”
“I don’t know. They’re just not shaped like the other churches. And they’re way high up! Why would they make a church that normal people can’t get to? It’s like they wanted to keep people away from the church and make it hard, and that doesn’t make sense. All the other churches have lots of stairs and lots of people.”
Tenzin didn’t take her eyes away from Sadia. “Is there anything else about them that you think is different?”
“Yeah, because where the curtain part is was different in the angel churches too.”
Ben suspected she was talking about the curtain that separated the church interior from the “holy of holies” where the tabot was kept.
“What else?” Ben asked.
Sadia blinked her eyes and sat up straighter, suddenly aware of her audience. “Well, they have a door between them, and that’s different. Because it’s not just for the boys like some churches.”
There were some rooms in Lalibela churches reserved for monks to pray, and female visitors didn’t go into them, but Ben knew Bêta Rafael wasn’t like that even though it connected to Bêta Gabriel via a carved doorway.
“And… and they’re, like, way high up.” Sadia raised both arms. “But then where you get the water is allllll the way on the bottom. At Saint George Church, it was really high, but it was carved all the way inside. But not the angel churches. It was like the people who made them didn’t finish them.” Sadia shrugged broadly. “Maybe they forgot or something.”
Or maybe his baby sister was completely right.
Maybe the “angel churches” weren’t churches at all.
Isolated.
Elevated.
Inaccessible with a protected water supply.
Ben lo
oked at Tenzin. “Get Giovanni.”
She reached out. “I’d rather hold Sadia.”
“I realize that, but I’m not waking her up because you don’t want to chance walking in on Giovanni making out with Beatrice.”
She made a face. “Every time they’re in the same room. Like rabbits.”
Ben couldn’t stop the smile. “You’re pretty insatiable yourself, Tiny. Remember nightfall?”
“That time when we were completely alone and not flinging ourselves at each other in front of other people?” Her expression said she was not impressed. Tenzin was highly affectionate, but she was not demonstrative in front of other people.
In fact, if Ben had to guess, half their business associates had no idea they were romantically involved.
Need to change that.
Once they were mated, that would change. Once they were mated, she would smell of his amnis and he would carry hers. No one would mistake their connection once that happened.
“Can you just get Giovanni please?”
Tenzin disappeared and returned shortly with Ben’s uncle.
“Ah.” Giovanni smiled. “I figured the two of you would be able to get her back to sleep.”
“What?” Ben looked down at a limp Sadia. “Oh right. Gio, what’s the deal with Bêta Gabriel?”
Giovanni leaned against the doorjamb and put on what Ben referred to as his professor face. “What are you asking?”
“Sadia says they’re not churches.”
“That’s a popular belief,” Giovanni said. “Many scholars are convinced that the churches of Gabriel and Rafael were originally part of a palace complex or had some nonsacred purpose.”
“But they were carved by King Lalibela?”
Giovanni shrugged. “We don’t know. Not really. That’s the popular belief, and he speaks of them in his hagiography but doesn’t speak of building them. At least not in what I’ve studied so far. They could have already existed.”
“What does he say about them?”
Giovanni frowned. “I can’t remember exactly, but there was something about outsiders not disturbing the church. So he did refer to them as churches.”
“What does that mean?” Tenzin asked. “To not disturb the church? Who would disturb the church?”
The Bone Scroll: An Elemental Legacy Novel Page 24