“Do all of you know where to find Polaris?”
“The north star?” Ortzi asked. “Yes, of course.” He sounded almost offended.
“I don’t,” Cassie admitted sheepishly. “Which one is it?”
“The easiest way to locate it is to find the constellation Ursa Major. You might know it as the Big Dipper. Once you’ve located it, pay attention to the four stars that constitute the bowl of the dipper. Then look at the two which are farthest away from the handle. Let your eyes follow where those stars point. In direct line with them, you’ll see another very bright star a little farther away. That’s Polaris. It’s actually part of the constellation Ursa Minor, or the Little Dipper, but it’s very difficult to spot without the help of Ursa Major.”
The Pythia hesitated a few seconds. Then gesturing excitedly at the sky, she said, “There it is! I see it.”
“Very good,” Griffin approved. “Now take the sticks and make sure you hold them together at one end so you can hinge them. Point one stick at the horizon where the ocean meets the sky. Point the end of the other stick at Polaris.”
Cassie did as instructed.
“Ignoring the knot at the very top of the stick, count the number of knots in the string to the point where it intersects the bottom stick,” he prompted.
She studied it closely. “Four knots.”
“Precisely,” Griffin agreed. “You’ve just taken a very crude measurement of latitude.”
“Latitude?” Cassie echoed. “You mean how many degrees north or south of the equator we are?”
“Yes.”
Erik took the sticks from Cassie and performed his own test. “Huh, go figure,” he murmured in surprise.
After he’d finished, he handed the stick to the Basques who each took a turn.
“But how can you tell latitude from a couple of sticks, a piece of string and a star?” Cassie asked in wonderment. “Don’t the stars move all night long?”
“They do with the exception of the pole star—currently that would be Polaris. It remains at a fixed point in the night sky. The other stars appear to whirl around it with the rotation of the earth. Ancient mariners frequently used the pole star to plot their course while on the open sea. They knew that if they maintained a constant position relative to the pole star that they were heading in a straight line, or as we might say, holding to the same latitude. In our case, so long as the string always measures four knots between the pole star and the horizon, we would know we were on course.”
“Wait, back up a minute. You said something about ‘current pole star’. What do you mean by that?” Cassie pressed him.
“Remember the earth’s wobble?” Griffin hinted.
“Oh right,” she agreed. “Because of that precession thing. It would change which star was right above the North Pole.”
“Yes, over a very long period of time. For example, around 2700 BCE, the pole star would have been Thuban in the constellation of Draco, the dragon.”
“Dragon!” Cassie exclaimed sharply.
Griffin gave her a knowing smile. “All in good time, dear girl. Let’s continue discussing Polaris for now, shall we?”
“Fine,” the Pythia replied, reining in her impatience. “Have it your way. You were saying something about pole stars and precession?”
“Quite so. By the time our Minoan friends undertook their expedition, the North Pole was moving away from Thuban and toward Polaris so it’s very likely they were already using the latter for navigation purposes.”
By this time, the Basques had finished their inspection of the horizon, conferring with one another in Euskara about Griffin’s findings.
Ortzi handed the sticks back to Griffin. “This method is very ingenious,” he said.
“It was a tool the ancient Minoans used,” Griffin replied. “I’d done extensive research a while ago about their navigational techniques. I just had no idea how to apply that knowledge until tonight.”
Cassie’s eyes narrowed as a new thought occurred to her. “The knots in the string.” She gasped as the conclusion struck her. “Four bees! You measured the length of the golden bee four times, end to end, and then you knotted the string to match that length.”
“Precisely,” Griffin beamed. “Our riddle makes more sense now, doesn’t it? ‘Set your course four bees from the dragon’s wing to the sea’.”
“I get the part about the bee,” Cassie replied, “but what’s the deal with the dragon’s wing? Does it have something to do with the other pole star in Draco?”
“Not exactly. I’ve had my staff back at the Vault researching the topic ever since we left. As luck would have it, one of the calls I received as we were driving here gave me the final piece of information I needed. Apparently, Ursa Minor, or the Little Dipper, wasn’t always viewed as a constellation in its own right. It was once merely an asterism.”
“A what?” Erik asked.
Griffin addressed his remarks to the entire group. “An asterism is an arrangement of stars which form a pattern that is part of a larger constellation. Ursa Minor is positioned in such a way that the little bear appears to be standing on the back of Draco facing toward the dragon’s tail. In ancient times, it was considered part of Draco—the dragon’s wing.”
“So Polaris, which is the tail of the little bear, or the handle of the little dipper, would have been the tip of the dragon’s wing,” Cassie summarized.
“Yes, that’s correct. The Minoans, in their riddle, were telling us to use the golden bee to calculate the distance from Polaris to the horizon which would give us our latitude. Of course, it was necessary for us to construct the same contraption which they themselves would have used to measure latitude—two hinged sticks, one half-meter in length, and a plumb line.”
“Great, we figure out the clue to find our way here after we already found our way here.” The Pythia groaned.
“Your work was not in vain.” Iker joined the conversation. “I understand now that when my ancestor said he would keep true to the dragon’s wing, he was giving you directions to the place where he would go in the New World.”
“That does narrow our search quite a bit,” the Scrivener said with relief. “We just need to find out our current latitude in degrees.”
“Already on it,” said Erik as he entered the information into his phone. After checking the read-out, he said, “Forty three degrees, twenty eight minutes north. In the eastern U.S., the biggest towns that lie close to this line of latitude would be Manchester, New Hampshire or Syracuse, New York.”
“Well, guys, it’s like Dorothy always said. There’s no place like home.” Cassie clicked her heels three times. Looking down ruefully at her feet, she added, “Damn. I forgot to pack my ruby slippers!”
Chapter 35 – Sleeper
Zachary slipped through the garden gate into the backyard of the farmhouse. He could see Faye gazing out the kitchen window as he came around the side of the house.
The screen door creaked when he opened it. She turned at the sound. “Zachary, come in. Why on earth didn’t you use the front door?”
“I knocked but nobody answered.”
“Oh, of course. I didn’t hear you and Hannah must have gone upstairs to take a nap. The poor thing is still weak after what happened.”
Zach lowered his voice. “Thanks for letting me know. It must be rough for her, losing the baby, I mean.”
“Yes, very rough.” A look of gloom crossed the old woman’s face but she offered no further details.
“So you wanted me to come over anyway?” the boy’s voice held a note of disbelief.
“Yes, I thought you might spend an hour or so. It may help to take her mind off of recent events—cheer her up.”
“I’m not exactly Chuckles The Clown,” Zach said uncertainly. “But I’ll do what I can.”
Faye paused to stare in surprise at the top of her descendant’s head. “What happened to your hair?”
Zach reddened in embarrassment. “I combed it.”
<
br /> “So that’s what it looks like when it’s been groomed,” Faye murmured. “Very becoming.”
“Jeez, Gamma, you don’t have to make a deal out of it.”
The old woman smiled perceptively. “I’ll just go and see if Hannah is up to receiving company.”
While she was gone, Zach opened the refrigerator and helped himself to an apple. Shortly, he heard the creaking sound of floorboards overhead and then the thump of footsteps on the stairs. He followed the sound into the living room.
“Hey, Hannah.” He tried to sound casual. “How’re you doing?”
The girl blinked a few times, still apparently groggy from her nap. She rubbed her eyes. “I’m better now, thank you. How are you?”
“OK, I guess.” He bit into the apple because he didn’t know what else to say.
“Your hair looks better,” she said diffidently.
Before Zach could mouth a protest about all the undue attention to his hairstyle, Faye intervened. “Why don’t the two of you sit down by the computer? Perhaps Zach can show you some things on the internet that we haven’t covered yet while I fix you both a snack.”
The two young people did as they were told and sat uneasily next to each other in front of the computer monitor.
As an afterthought, Zach called out, “Gamma, don’t forget I’m a vegan.”
Hannah peered at him. “What’s a vegan?”
Zach did a double-take. He’d temporarily forgotten just how out of the loop she was. “It’s somebody who doesn’t eat anything with a face.”
“You mean you’re not a cannibal?” Her eyes widened in shock.
He couldn’t help laughing. “That’s one way of looking at it but mostly it means somebody who doesn’t eat animals, or birds, or fish, or insects. Also no eggs or things made with milk.”
“Why not?” Hannah was clearly baffled by the concept.
“Because the human digestive system isn’t built to handle that stuff. We’re primates—plant eaters. Not to mention it’s a horrible thing to do to animals.” He could feel himself getting preachy. “Don’t get me started on factory farm gestation crates or battery cages or clubbing veal calves to death to keep the dairy industry going or I just might lose it completely.”
“Lose it?”
He waved his hand. “Never mind. No reason to go there right now.” He tried to smile brightly. “How about we surf the net?” She was about to open her mouth to ask a question but he pre-empted her. “Before you even ask, that expression means to look up information on the internet. Gamma’s showed you the net, right?”
She nodded uncertainly. “Yes, we looked up different topics on something called a Google.”
Zach cracked his knuckles and limbered up his fingers before placing them on the keyboard. “Prepare to be amazed. It’s time to check out some videos. There are places you can watch home movies that people make and then they post them on the web. Some of them are lame but some of them are good. It’s a great way to get a feel for what people are like out there in the cyber-real world.” He paused for a moment then smiled mischievously. “I bet this is something you’ll like.” He opened YouTube and typed a few keystrokes. A site popped up with videos of cats in amusing poses tagged with funny captions.
At first Hannah smiled. Then she laughed out loud as the images kept changing. Then, without warning, tears began running down her cheeks.
“Hey, hey, don’t cry.” Zach patted her shoulder awkwardly. “They’re funny, see. They’re supposed to make you laugh.”
Hannah put her face in her hands and sobbed uncontrollably.
“Gamma!” Zach bawled at the top of his lungs.
He heard a plate clatter to the floor in the kitchen and his ancestor rushed into the room. She took one look at the situation and stared at him accusingly. “What on earth did you do to her?”
“Me!” he exclaimed with injured innocence. “I was showing her a video of some LOL cats and she freaked.”
Faye sat down in the chair on the other side of Hannah. The girl buried her head in the old woman’s shoulder and continued to sob.
“There, there, dear. Everything is alright.” Faye patted her back and smoothed her hair. “LOL cats?” she asked pointedly.
“They’re funny,” Zach protested. “She was laughing at first and then...” he spread his hands out expressively. “This started. I swear she must be some kind of sleeper agent and LOL cats are her trigger.”
“And her lethal power is crying uncontrollably at the sight of felines?” Faye retorted archly.
“Don’t ask me!”
“It’s not his fault,” Hannah sniffed and shifted her position to sit up straight. “Please don’t be angry with him. It’s just one of the cats in the movie...” her eyes welled up again.
“Oh, I see,” Faye said knowingly. “You once had a cat that looked like it, didn’t you?”
The girl seemed to nod and shake her head simultaneously. “Yes, I had a black and white cat called Sparkle when I was little but that’s not why I’m crying.” She dashed the tears away. “When I was still at the compound in Missouri, an order came down from the Diviner that no one was allowed to have pets. He said they were tools of the devil meant to distract us from our prayers. My father was the archwarden in charge of the compound where we lived, and he tried to get the animals away safely. But...” she paused to wipe away more tears. “The Diviner must not have trusted that my father would carry out his wishes. He sent some men of his own with guns. They collected all the pets and shot them in the middle of the square. Sparkle was still a kitten when she died.”
“Oh, my dear,” Faye wrapped her arms around the girl. “How terrible to have to witness that.”
At first, Zach sat utterly still. He felt as if the breath had been knocked out of him. The image that Hannah had conjured was too horrific for his animal-loving nature to stand. Rage shot through his veins. “What kind of a sick freak is gonna slaughter innocent pets like that! You give me ten minutes in a locked room with that son of a—”
“Language, Zach,” his ancestor reprimanded him sharply.
“But Gamma, this is insane! It’s evil and she needs to know that!” His tone became more insistent. “It’s bad enough that one crazy idiot orders them to be killed. But then a whole bunch of other gun-toting crazies carry out his orders. Not one of them stops long enough to think it might be wrong! You make sure she knows that the people she comes from are evil! Nobody with a conscience could do something like that!”
Hannah sat up again, wiping her eyes with the sleeve of her blouse. “It wasn’t just the kitten I was crying about. First I lost her, then my father was taken away, and my mother was reassigned to another man. And now the baby is gone. Everything and everybody I ever loved is gone. They’ve all been taken away from me, just as quick as that.” She snapped her fingers. “No warning.” She stood up hastily. “I’m sorry. I need to be alone for a while. Maybe I better lie down again and sleep some more.” Abruptly, she bolted from the table and pelted up the stairs. The slamming of her bedroom door echoed down the hall.
Zach and Faye stared at one another in silence for a few moments.
“That might have gone better,” the old woman said ruefully.
“Jeez! She’s like a Raggedy Ann time bomb!” Zach muttered. “What else is gonna surface?”
“I don’t know, dear.” Faye sighed. “She may be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. It’s impossible to guess what might upset her or when. If this is too much for you—”
“I didn’t say that.” He cut her off. “If she is a human time bomb, then we’ve just gotta figure out how to defuse her, that’s all.”
“A delicate operation requiring patience,” Faye observed pointedly.
Zach rose to leave. “There’s nothing we can do about it today. Like she said, she wants to be left alone. I should go anyhow. I feel a sudden urge to get home and hug Ralph.”
“Ralph?”
He retreated down the hall
toward the back door. “My dog.”
Chapter 36 – The X Factor
“I think Erik is going to have better luck than we will,” Cassie said to Griffin as they walked through the rental car parking lot to pick up their vehicle. The Arkana team had decided to split up to cover more territory. After landing in New York, Erik had gone to New Hampshire to interview the Algonquin trove-keeper. Cassie and Griffin had flown to Syracuse, New York, the heartland of the Iroquois tribe. The Pythia and the Scrivener were planning to rendezvous with the trove-keeper at an archaeological dig several miles outside of town.
Cassie walked over to the driver’s side of the vehicle and unlocked the car.
“You’re going to drive?” Griffin asked incredulously.
She stared at him over the roof of the car. “Why not? You’d just drive on the wrong side of the road.”
“I’ve been living in this country long enough to adjust to local customs,” the Scrivener said in an offended tone.
“I’ve seen you drive. You’re like a little old blue-haired lady who can’t see over the steering wheel. And that’s even when you’re on the right side of the road.” The Pythia ended the discussion by sliding into the driver’s seat.
Griffin sighed and climbed into the passenger seat. “I’m cautious, that’s all.”
Cassie started the engine and maneuvered the car out of the terminal. “Back to what I was saying before. I think Erik has a better shot with the New Hampshire tribes. After all, you said yourself that the name ‘Iroquois’ is based on a Basque word that means ‘people killers’. The fishermen got that description of the Iroquois from the Algonquins. Why would the lost Basque sentinel want to get chummy with the enemy of his friends?”
“Your point is well-taken in that Basque fishermen were friendlier with the Algonquins than with the Iroquois at first,” Griffin replied, checking their GPS readout. “But that state of affairs changed over time. Basque trade goods eventually found their way into Iroquois hands. For example, copper kettles of Basque manufacture have turned up from precisely the time period our lost sentinel would have made his journey to the New World.”
The Dragon's Wing Enigma (The Arkana Archaeology Mystery Series Book 3) Page 20