Chapter 22 – Of Two Minds
Annabeth sat hunched over a sewing machine, her eyes fixed in concentration. She fed the coarse grey cotton material past the needle, running a straight seam down the side of a girl’s smock. This was the tenth she would finish today. Her shoulders and neck were beginning to ache from holding them tensed in this position. She raised her head and rotated her neck muscles to ease them. There were a dozen other women in the sewing room all engaged in the same work. Annabeth looked at the clock on the wall and sighed. Two more hours before supper in the refectory and afterward a brief chance to spend some time with her daughter. A flurry of motion at the door caught her attention.
Hannah stood there, wide-eyed and breathless. She seemed to be searching for someone in particular. When her eyes met Annabeth’s, she rushed over and knelt beside her work table. “I need to talk to you, please!” Her tone was urgent.
Annabeth stared at her. “Now?” she asked in surprise.
The girl nodded vigorously. “It’s important.”
The older woman looked around at the other seamstresses who appeared to take no notice of the visitor’s presence. They were all bent over their work. The clatter of sewing machines muffled the sound of conversation.
“Can we go someplace private?”
“But…” Annabeth cast around helplessly. What if somebody noticed she was missing? People would whisper. There could be trouble. She bit her lip, hesitating on the point of refusal.
Hannah tugged urgently at her sleeve. “There’s nobody else I can talk to. Please!”
With deep misgiving, Annabeth stood up. “All right. We can go to my quarters.”
The two women left without a word to anyone. They walked through the corridor in silence until they reached Annabeth’s door.
When the older woman opened it, Hannah ran past her and threw herself face down on the bed. Without warning, the floodgates opened. “I don’t know what I’m going to do!” the girl sobbed.
Annabeth hastily shut the door but kept her distance at the opposite side of the room. She wasn’t sure what this odd behavior meant. “Hannah?” she asked cautiously. “What’s happened?”
The girl buried her face in the coverlet. Her voice was muffled. “He wants to marry me!”
Annabeth’s curiosity got the better of her. In spite of her wariness at this display of emotion, she took a few steps closer to the bed. “Who wants to marry you? You’re already married.”
“The Diviner!” wailed the girl, still crying into the bedspread.
“What?” Annabeth sank down beside Hannah, not because she wanted to offer the girl any comfort but because she was too much in shock to remain standing. “What do you mean?”
Hannah rolled over and propped herself up on her elbow. She made an attempt to wipe her tears away with the hem of her apron. “The Diviner…he…he…called me into his office. He said he had wonderful news for me.” The girl struggled to sit upright, facing Annabeth. “He kept smiling. I hate it when he smiles!” She shut her eyes and shook her head as if to dislodge the image from her brain. “He told me the Lord had given him a revelation. That I was meant to be his wife, not Daniel’s. He said he’s going to make the announcement to the congregation this evening.” The girl’s eyes welled up again and spilled over. She looked at Annabeth in desperation. “Do you think he’s right? Did God tell him to do this?”
Annabeth was taken aback. “It isn’t for us to question,” she protested. “If the Diviner said this message came from God, then we must believe him.”
“But he’s so old!” Hannah exclaimed. “How can God want me to marry an old man?”
“With age, comes wisdom.” Annabeth forced herself to smile reassuringly. “The Diviner is a very wise man. He can guide you into the kingdom. Don’t you want that? When Judgment Day comes, he can insure that you’ll be welcome among the Blessed.”
“I don’t care about Judgment Day!” she girl cried. “I care about today and maybe a little bit about tomorrow. None of this feels right to me!”
Annabeth grew nervous at the outburst and tried to quell it. “Feelings can’t be trusted. Would you set your impulses in opposition to the wisdom of the Diviner and the will of God Himself?”
Hannah looked uncertain. She remained silent.
The older woman pressed the point. “The Diviner has been placed above us to correct our behavior so we don’t stray from the path. We must be pleasing in the sight of God or He will cast us out of His kingdom. That would be terrible. Separated for all eternity from our families.”
“I’ve already been separated from mine,” Hannah said bitterly. “What more can He do to me?”
“You mustn’t say such things!” Annabeth’s eyes grew wide with alarm. “It’s blasphemous. You’ll go to hell.”
“It feels like I’m already there,” the girl replied in a small voice.
Annabeth was too appalled by the comment to speak. The two sat quietly for several moments.
“I was told I shouldn’t talk to you anymore,” Hannah finally offered.
“Who told you that?” The older woman felt a chill of dread run down her spine.
“The Diviner.”
Panic nearly made Annabeth faint dead away. She had been seen leaving the sewing room with the girl. What if somebody reported her to Father Abraham? What if he blamed her for speaking to Hannah? It hadn’t been her idea. She hadn’t known at the time that it was forbidden.
Hannah broke into her thoughts. “He said one of the reasons for taking me away from Daniel was because my sister-wives were a bad influence. That you were spreading lies about the Scion. Father Abraham said that I was young and impressionable and you had confused my thinking.” She peered earnestly at the older woman. “No matter what he says, I know what didn’t happen on my wedding night. You said it was the same for you too.”
Annabeth jumped up and began to pace anxiously around the room. She clenched her hands into tight little balls. “I believe I was in error. Satan confounded me. He still confounds me. Sometimes I can hear his voice inside my head.” She cast a terrified look toward the girl. “He’s gotten into our minds and persuaded us to believe all sorts of things that aren’t true.”
The girl regarded her doubtfully. “How can you be so sure it was Satan?”
“The Diviner told me.” Annabeth nodded vigorously. “Oh yes. He knew and he showed me what was happening to me. I have to pray all the time now because I get strange ideas.”
“What sort of ideas?”
Annabeth laughed. Her voice held a note of hysteria. “Horrible things. Images that float through my head even though I don’t want them there. I see myself picking up a knife and stabbing the Diviner right through the heart. Other times I see myself swallowing poison. But if I really did those things I would be damned and I would never see my little girl again in heaven.” She dropped to the floor and began sobbing into her hands, rocking back and forth on her knees.
Hannah leaped off the bed and circled her arms around the weeping woman. “I don’t think that’s so crazy. Sometimes I get strange ideas too.”
Annabeth stopped crying and gawked at her in surprise. “You do?”
The girl nodded solemnly. “Sometimes I imagine I’m running away. And I run and I run until I find my mother again. And then she takes me into her arms just like she did when I was little. And I feel safe and I know I’m where I’m supposed to be.” Hannah paused. “Those ideas make me happy when I think them.” She gazed at Annabeth earnestly. “Whatever is in your mind is yours to keep. Nobody else can know what you’re thinking unless you tell them. I guess maybe that’s the only place where anybody can really be free.”
Annabeth gazed back at the girl with mixed feelings of fear and admiration. “I wish I was brave enough to want to be free,” she said. Then she frowned as another thought struck her. “But my ideas are never happy. Just awful things. That’s how I know they come from the devil and I can’t trust myself any more.”
&n
bsp; “But you trust the Diviner?” Hannah asked uncertainly.
“Oh yes! He knows what’s best for us.”
“He wasn’t there! He didn’t see how it was. But I was there and so were you. What makes the Diviner right and us wrong?”
For one mad second, Annabeth felt an impulse to rebel surging up inside her. She saw herself telling the Diviner exactly what he could do with his opinion about the state of her marriage. Then, just as quickly, the feeling passed. The devil was playing tricks with her mind again. She knew that disobedience was the first sin. Adam and Eve were cast out of paradise because of it. Lucifer was sent to the pit for disobedience and pride. Annabeth had no right to assume she knew more than the Diviner. She looked at Hannah and shook her head. “Satan has the power to make us believe anything. Even something that seems very real to us. We have to be always on our guard.” Hastily terminating the conversation, she stood up. The girl followed her lead.
Annabeth opened the door. She tried to give her visitor some final reassurance. Placing her hand on the girl’s arm, she advised, “You must do as the Diviner says. He won’t lead you astray. Don’t try to speak to me again if he says you mustn’t.”
Hannah gave a dispirited nod and left.
Annabeth leaned her head against the door, her mind racing to process a whole new set of possibilities. From her own perspective, Hannah’s reassignment was far from bad news. She considered the implications. Perhaps she still had a chance to rekindle Daniel’s affections. If she produced a second child, she would be elevated to the rank of Principal Wife. Then the Diviner might look more favorably on her. She could hold her head up in the community as a person of consequence. She dared to give a little smile. Maybe this was a sign that God hadn’t abandoned her after all.
Chapter 23 – Relative Proximity
“I don’t see how you can sit there so calmly and sip your tea!” Maddie protested. She had taken up a position on Faye’s parlor sofa, with one arm slung over the camelsback while rotating a cigarette lighter between her fingers.
Faye raised a quizzical eyebrow. “I don’t think it’s time to hit the panic button just yet. There’s a great deal we still don’t know.”
“Fine,” sighed the Operations Director, tossing the lighter on the coffee table and folding her arms across her chest. “Let me recap what we do know. Somehow, some way, against all odds, the Nephilim have managed to dig up the critical missing line of the riddle and are ready to move on to Turkey.”
“When did we get the information on this?”
Maddie consulted her watch. “About an hour ago. I figured this needed a face-to-face with you so I didn’t call first.”
Faye nodded. “Of course, dear. I understand. You’re distressed.”
The red-haired woman let out a short bark of a laugh. “The fact that the bad guys are zeroing in on the right mountain doesn’t distress me nearly as much as the way you’re taking the news.”
Faye allowed herself a brief smile. “What do you suggest I do?”
Maddie stood up and began to pace. “Something. Anything! We need to move fast on this. Call out reinforcements. Get our team out of the country.”
The Memory Guardian set down her tea cup. Her eyes swung back and forth like a pendulum as she tracked her visitor’s movements across the parlor rug. She allowed Maddie to tire herself out before speaking again. “I’m an old, old woman so you’ll have to indulge me, dear. Give me all the facts and don’t leave out any details.”
Maddie stopped short and whirled to face her hostess. “Fine!” She flounced back down on the sofa. “I got a call from one of our operatives who had been keeping tabs on Leroy Hunt. Apparently he and this Daniel character are trying to line up a Nephilim contact in Istanbul.”
“What on earth would have made them want to retrace their steps to Karfi in the first place?” Faye mused.
“There was another call earlier in the week between Abraham Metcalf and Hunt. He told the old man that the boy had a hunch they were missing something. We didn’t know exactly what that meant, until now.”
“Indeed,” Faye said. “A Nephilim who trusts his instincts is a rarity.”
“One who trusts his instincts and totes around a computer is more than rare, he’s dangerous,” Maddie countered.
Faye reached toward the teapot on the table between them. Maddie declined a refill but the old woman poured herself another cup. “I wonder how the Fallen Lands will affect him,” she speculated.
“Huh?”
“Think about the way that Nephilim children are raised. No contact with the outside world. Minimal education unless it pertains to their scripture. And now we have this young man who is not only given the freedom to travel, but unlimited access to computers and the internet. He’s being exposed to all sorts of people and ideas that the rest of his cult will never know about. I’m sure it’s going to change him in profound ways.”
“Yeah, that’s great,” Maddie replied dismissively. “His quality of life really isn’t the issue now.”
“On the contrary, it may be the central issue.” Faye raised her teacup to her lips and took a sip. “I suspect the more he learns of the outer world, the harder it will be for him to unquestioningly accept the dogma of the Nephilim. Harder still for him to accept his father’s ruthless obsession to possess the Bones Of The Mother.”
Maddie paused to consider the idea. “Maybe so,” she relented. “But how he changes over time isn’t my main concern. Right now I’m worried about how fast he’s figuring out the clues to the artifacts.”
“Have you gotten any recent updates from our own intrepid crew?”
Maddie sighed deeply. “As of this afternoon, they still hadn’t found anything. They searched some calendar stones on Ida but so far no Bones. For some reason Stefan Kasprzyk showed up and now he wants Cassie to tell him about an artifact he can’t identify. The last thing they need is to get sidetracked now!” She paused to stare at the Memory Guardian in exasperation. “Oh come on! Don’t tell me you aren’t worried. We’re cutting the timing pretty close, don’t you think?”
Faye smiled placidly. “Stefan has appeared with an obscure artifact that requires the assistance of the Pythia? Hmmm. I wonder what this can mean.”
“It means they’re gonna lose valuable time talking to him when they should be out searching the mountain instead!” Maddie flared. “And pretty soon the Nephilim will be breathing down their necks. If Hunt hasn’t already figured out our guys aren’t dead, he’s about to.”
Faye didn’t appear to have heard the comment. “The Kurgan trove-keeper feels impelled to seek out the Pythia at this most inopportune moment.”
Maddie was too nonplussed by her leader’s meandering thought process to speak for several seconds. She stared open-mouthed at the old woman. “Just what are you driving at?”
“Synchronicity. Odd coincidences that, in hindsight, seem to dovetail.” She held a plate of lemon squares toward Maddie. “Are you sure I can’t offer you one?”
The Operations Director waved the plate away irritably. “You picked a hell of a time to wax philosophical,” she muttered.
Just then a knock was heard at the front door. It was actually more an insistent hammering following by an impatient jiggle of the doorknob.
“Are you expecting anybody?” Maddie sprang off the couch.
Faye shook her head, perplexed. “Please answer it, dear.”
Maddie flung open the door to reveal a wiry teenage boy. He tilted his head to look up at the Amazon glaring down at him. His hair was blackish brown, spiked out with enough hair gel to make him resemble a porcupine. He wore a faded tee shirt and ripped jeans. A threadbare camo backpack hung off one arm. He gave Maddie a cursory glance and said “Hey” before sliding past her.
Dropping his backpack on the parlor rug, he threw himself unceremoniously on the couch. “How’s it going, Gamma,” he offered.
For the first time during the evening’s conversation, Faye actually registered shock.
“Zachary?” she asked uncertainly. “What on earth are you doing here?”
The boy sighed and rolled his eyes. “I can’t stand it anymore. They’re driving me nuts. You gotta let me crash here for a couple of days.”
Maddie remained standing by the door, witnessing the exchange. “Who is this kid? Why’s he calling you Gamma?” she finally asked.
The other two turned to her in surprise, apparently having forgotten her presence.
“Oh, I’m sorry dear. You don’t know many of my relatives, do you? This is Zachary. Gamma is his special name for me. He started calling me that when he was two and still couldn’t say grandma. Though technically I’m not his grandmother. He’s my great-great-great…oh bother, I can’t remember how many greats come before grandson but he’s—”
“Run away from home,” the boy cut in. “Lemon squares. Excellent! You guys gonna finish these?”
Chapter 24 – Twinkle, Twinkle
The Arkana team sat around a circular table eyeing the dagger in their midst as if it were a poisonous snake. No one made a move to touch it. It was very late in the evening. After a meal in the hotel dining room and a hurried telephone conversation to give Maddie a progress report, the group had adjourned to Stefan’s suite. They wisely concluded that Cassie’s telemetric abilities shouldn’t be on display in the public areas of the hotel.
“I suppose we ought to begin,” Griffin offered uncertainly.
“Can you tell me anything at all about this knife?” Cassie asked the trove-keeper.
He shrugged helplessly. “Only that it is out of place where I found it. Such a dagger does not belong in a Kurgan burial mound. I know nothing more than that.”
The Mountain Mother Cipher (The Arkana Archaeology Mystery Series Book 2) Page 14