“It was a good thing you waited to tell him,” Erik explained. “That’s all I’m saying.”
“Then you’ve said enough about it. Cassie isn’t like that.”
Erik sprang out of his chair and began to prowl around the office restlessly. “How do you know what she’s like? How do any of us know? That’s just my point. Because she’s an outsider, she’s a wild card.”
Maddie tapped her long fingernails on the desk pad. “She seems pretty level-headed to me. I think she’s stronger than even she knows, and you aren’t giving her enough credit.”
“That’s where you’re wrong.” Erik swung around to face her. “You didn’t spend days outside Sybil’s apartment listening to her little sister come unglued. The kid was crying all the time. What I saw…what I heard… was just a lost little girl looking for somebody to cling to because she was scared of the dark.”
“You think Faye made a mistake to trust her?” Maddie’s question was pointed. She was daring Erik to utter the unthinkable.
He looked profoundly uncomfortable and jammed his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “I trust Faye’s judgment. I always have. But this time I don’t know. Maybe she let her feelings get in the way. She felt sorry for a stray puppy and wanted to adopt it.”
“Sit down, you’re giving me a neck ache,” Maddie commanded irritably. “It’s not as simple as you make it sound. She isn’t just a stray puppy. She’s also the new pythia.”
Erik threw himself back into his chair and leaned forward. “Based on what? One psi episode? Maybe two?”
Maddie raised an eyebrow. “You think we should have a stricter testing protocol? Maybe tie her up, throw her in a lake, and see if she floats? I mean, what the hell, Erik? Can you even hear yourself?”
“She’s just a kid,” he insisted.
“A kid with special gifts. When Sybil started having visions, nobody asked whether she should be the pythia or not.”
Erik looked down at the floor. “Sybil was different.”
“How? How different could she be?” Maddie challenged. “She was Cassie’s sister for Pete’s sake!”
“She was one of us,” the young man said quietly. “We knew where her loyalties were because it took years for her to go through training. And now, we’re stuck with her baby sister who in two weeks goes from knowing zip about us to poking her nose into every corner of the operation.”
Maddie leaned back in her chair and folded her hands across her middle. “I thought you were the one who said she should be told about what Sybil was doing. Oh, don’t give me that look. I was sitting right next to you at Faye’s kitchen table when you said it.”
Erik began to kick his chair leg irritably. “Sure, she should have been told something, but I didn’t mean everybody should line up and take a number to spill the beans to her. This is insane! What’s the rush? Why is Faye pushing everybody to explain the Arkana to her in five minutes or less?”
The operations director broke eye contact for a moment. In a nearly inaudible voice, she admitted, “I don’t know. There’s something going on behind the scenes. I can feel it, but Faye isn’t talking. For now, we have to trust that she has her reasons for giving Cassie unlimited access to the Arkana.”
Erik snorted in disgust. “By the time you’re all done giving her the grand tour, she’ll know absolutely everything about the Arkana. And we don’t have a clue what she’s going to do with that information. It’s like handing a loaded gun to a two-year-old. What if she starts blabbing stuff to people outside?”
Maddie stared at him as if he’d lost his mind. “And why would she do that?”
The young man shrugged, at a loss. “I don’t know. Maybe something sets her off, and she sours on the organization. She wants out because it’s harder than she thought it would be.”
The operations director was rapidly losing her temper. “You’re making an awful lot of assumptions about what she would or wouldn’t do!”
“And so are all of you!” Erik was nearly shouting now. “And don’t even get me started on what she’d be like out in the field. What a joke! I can just see her having a seizure the first time she picks up a tainted relic. And the one person who could have trained her on how to protect herself is dead.”
Maddie stood up, towering over Erik. She was out of patience and about to terminate the discussion. “Let’s just boil this down to what’s really bugging you. What’s the worst that can happen by letting Cassie in?”
The young man rose out of his chair and leaned over Maddie’s desk, staring her straight in the eye. “Someday… I don’t know when, but it won’t be long… that kid is going to bring the whole operation crashing down around our ears. And when that day comes, don’t expect me to say I told you so because there won’t be anybody left to tell. Maybe that’s what it will take for you to finally understand what I’m saying. She’s going to get us all killed!”
Chapter 24 – Motion Sickness
Daniel knocked hesitantly on the door of his father’s office. It was ten o’clock on Wednesday morning. This was the day and time the diviner had set for a weekly progress report. The ordeal was always embarrassing for Daniel—almost excruciating in the way it underscored his incompetence. Every week he could see the feverish anticipation in his father’s eyes when he entered the room, and every week he could see that anticipation change to cold disapproval at his lack of progress. He hoped today would be different.
“Enter,” a voice commanded from inside.
When Daniel let himself in, he saw that his father was in a meeting with two western community leaders. He felt a spiteful sense of pleasure at their crestfallen expressions. Misery loves company. Apparently, his father was no better pleased with these two than he was with his son. They scuttled from the room after murmuring a greeting in his direction. Their eyes were downcast, their shoulders hunched as if to ward off imaginary blows. The diviner had a way of exposing the hidden weaknesses of his flock. At least Daniel could see that there was nothing personal in his father’s abuse. Castigation was as natural to him as breathing.
Abraham regarded his son grimly. Daniel wasn’t even to be treated to that fleeting look of anticipation this week. “I expect you have nothing new to report,” the diviner said sourly.
“Then you’d be wrong,” the young man thought to himself though he didn’t dare say the words out loud. Instead, he adopted a mild demeanor. “Actually, I do have some news, sir.”
The old man’s head snapped to attention. “Then sit down and tell me.”
Daniel felt somewhat disinclined to slouch today. He strode purposefully across the room and sat in the visitor’s chair in front of his father’s massive desk. The chair was low. It did not allow level eye contact with the diviner. A person would be forced to gaze upward to carry on a conversation. The young man speculated that this was no accident. He sat up straight and tried to look directly into his father’s face.
“I believe I’ve translated one of the lines on the key,” he announced matter-of-factly.
There it was. That look of intense fascination. He was to receive his father’s favor after all.
“Have you, indeed!” Abraham exclaimed. He sprang out of his chair and began to pace, his hands clasped behind his back. “Tell me everything.”
“It’s written in a language that hasn’t been spoken for three thousand years.”
“Excellent, excellent!” The old man could barely contain the jubilation in his voice. He stopped pacing and came to stand next to Daniel’s chair. “I suspected that might be the case. What does the message say?”
Daniel was forced to tilt his head upward. So much for level eye contact. “The text is rather cryptic. I don’t understand what it means. It reads: ‘To find the Bones of the Mother.’”
At these words, Abraham unaccountably fell to his knees beside the desk. “Thank you, Lord! Thank you!” He clasped his hands and bowed his head.
Daniel could see his father
’s lips moving in a silent prayer of gratitude. He didn’t know what to do—whether he should join him in prayer or look away and allow the old man a moment of privacy to commune with God. Before he could decide on a course of action, Metcalf sprang back to his feet.
“Observe, Daniel. We see the hand of God in this.” He was pacing again, talking to himself more than to his son. “The righteous are meant to prevail. It is a sign. In hoc signo vinces! This is the Lord’s doing.”
Daniel turned around in his chair to follow the diviner’s erratic movements. “Do you understand what the message means, Father?”
“Yes, yes I do.” Abraham paused to glance at his son, a triumphant smile on his face. “Among other things, it means the antiquities dealer who put me on the trail of the artifact wasn’t lying about it. He said it had to do with the Bones of the Mother.”
“And what exactly are the Bones of the Mother, sir?”
“Something very important to the future of the Blessed Nephilim.” The old man measured his words carefully. “That is all I will say for now.”
Daniel was beginning to feel a sense of foreboding. “If the message says the key will lead to the Bones, then that means you will have to send someone in search of them.”
Abraham nodded vigorously. “Quite right. Quite right!”
The young man’s apprehension grew more intense. Given his father’s volatile emotional state, he didn’t want to upset him further. He tried to keep his voice subdued and calm. “Sir, the language of the key is from a time before the gospels. From a time even before the Old Testament was set down. It is a pagan language, and the key will surely lead to heathen relics.”
The old man gave his son an odd look as if he couldn’t fathom the objection. “Yes, they are heathen relics. What of it?”
Daniel swallowed hard. He didn’t know how to make his next words sound inoffensive. “Father, are you sure that such a mission is part of God’s plan for the angelic bloodline? From the days of Jedediah Proctor, our very first diviner, we were instructed to live blameless lives and wait for the Second Coming. We were to keep ourselves pure from the contamination of the Fallen Lands. For fear of pollution, no member of the Nephilim has ever dwelt among the Fallen. Yet you would be sending someone directly into their world for what could be an extended period of time.”
“Who is the diviner here, you or I!” Abraham thundered. “The Lord speaks to me, not you, and He has told me what must be done. Are you questioning my authority?”
Daniel’s eyes fell. “No, sir. Your direction must be followed in all things.” Even as he said the words, he knew he was lying. For the first time in his life, he doubted the divine origin of his father’s instruction. He even doubted Abraham’s sanity. The thought was frightening. It made him almost dizzy with panic that the person in whom he placed absolute faith might be wrong. Concealing as best he could the turmoil that was churning inside of him, he asked quietly, “Who do you plan to send in search of these relics?”
Again, the old man gave him an incredulous look. “Why you, of course.”
“I?” Daniel gasped. “Surely there must be someone else. I’m hardly qualified—”
“You are supremely qualified,” the old man cut in. “You have learned how to read this ancient language.”
The young man could barely contain his panic now. “But Father, I… I am a scholar. I understand books. I do not understand the world.”
In an almost benevolent tone, the old man said, “Fear not, my boy. You won’t be sent off into the Fallen Lands alone. There is a worldly man in my employ. He performs special tasks for me, and I will send him to protect you.”
Daniel’s concern was hardly alleviated by the thought of a stranger, and a worldly one at that, accompanying him on this mysterious search. “In all likelihood, these Bones are to be found in the place where this language was last spoken.”
“Yes, yes.” Abraham nodded in agreement. “That is very likely.”
“B… but, that’s halfway around the world!” Daniel blurted out.
The old man’s voice held a hint of warning. “Daniel, what is the greatest of all sins?”
The young man sighed and looked down at the floor. “Disobedience, sir.”
“I hope I’m not detecting a wicked obstinacy in you.”
“No, sir.”
Abraham came to stand next to his son’s chair once more. “God has charged me with a great responsibility. I am the servant of the Lord just as you are my servant. We are all links in the great Chain of Being. It will be your task to find me these Bones, wherever they may be hidden.”
Daniel said nothing. He was too appalled to speak. The grim irony of the situation didn’t escape him. He had originally been keenly interested to go to the library in the city and learn about the internet from the handsome young librarian. It was an innocent little adventure not far from home, and he had relished it. At the time, it had been his father who was alarmed at his interest in the outer world. His father who had cautioned him about the dangers of the Fallen Lands. And now it was his father who was pushing him directly toward those dangers to seek out a pagan abomination. Whether his father was divinely inspired or simply gone mad was beyond his power to discern, but he feared that his own soul hung in the balance.
Abraham took his son’s long silence as a sign of consent. He continued. “You will proceed to translate the other symbols on the key. Hopefully, they will give us more information regarding the location of the relics I seek. You will come to me again only when you have deciphered the rest of the code. Then we will prepare for your journey.”
Daniel felt as if he had just received a death sentence. “Yes sir,” he said meekly. “I will do as you command.”
Chapter 25 – Pythia Practice
It had been a few weeks since Cassie last visited Faye’s house. The old woman had instructed her to come by to round out her training, whatever that was supposed to mean. The girl reflected that it might have been a century since their last meeting considering how much her life had changed in less than a month. Faye looked ancient as ever when she opened the door. She was wearing what Cassie took to be her uniform—an overly bright floral house dress.
Since it was raining when the girl arrived, chatting in the garden was out of the question. Faye asked her to have a seat in the parlor while the old woman went toward the back of the house to retrieve something.
Cassie sat down on the sofa. Like everything else in Faye’s house, it gave the impression of great age although the velvet fabric wasn’t worn, and the camelback upholstery didn’t sag. The girl looked at the coffee table in front of her. There were three objects sitting on it—a clay pot, a stone cat, and a little carved statue. She had just reached out a hand toward the statue when she heard Faye’s voice emerging from the dining room. “Don’t touch those just yet, dear. We’ll go through them one by one.”
The old woman reentered the parlor balancing a tray of tea and cookies. She placed it on the table in front of Cassie. “I thought you’d like a snack. After all, it’s a long drive out here from the city.”
The girl transferred her attention from the relics to the food. She sipped and nibbled for a few moments in silence while Faye settled into the purple armchair across from her and poured herself a cup of tea.
The old woman regarded her visitor with bright blue eyes. “How has your introduction to the Arkana been going?”
Cassie shrugged. “Even though I’m going into information overload, some of it has been great. During my last session with Griffin, he told me that women were responsible for a whole bunch of inventions that men like to take credit for. Things like clothing, agriculture, domesticated animals, weaving, pottery, calendars, and writing.”
“He’s absolutely right,” Faye said. “We’ve amassed collections of artifacts that prove those assertions.”
“Even though I ended up with a brain cramp at the end of that day, those facts were fun to learn.” She h
esitated. “My training with other people didn’t go as well.”
“Oh?” Faye seemed concerned.
“That Erik is a real piece of work.”
“Erik?” the old woman echoed in surprise.
“He’s a total jerk. He was so rude to me that I walked out of our training session. I went to Maddie instead.”
“I see,” Faye said. Those two little words suggested volumes about what she inferred and understood. “Don’t let his behavior trouble you. I believe he’ll work through his ‘issues’ as you young people would say.”
Cassie put her cup down on the table. “Actually, what he said didn’t bother me half as much as something Maddie said.”
“Oh?”
“She was telling me about the Nephilim and how they’ve interfered with some of your expeditions before and…” She paused.
Faye continued to sip her tea without comment.
“I’ve had a few days to put the pieces together.” The girl gazed intently at Faye. “They killed my parents, didn’t they?”
The old woman reached across the coffee table to squeeze Cassie’s hand. “I’m so sorry you had to find out that way, my dear. Maddie didn’t join the Arkana until sometime after it happened. She never knew your parents and probably didn’t realize what she was revealing.”
“Why didn’t you tell me yourself?”
Faye darted her a worried glance. “I thought you already had enough tragedy to deal with after Sybil’s death. I was waiting for a more opportune time to explain the rest.”
Cassie stared off into space. “It’s funny, but I can hardly remember them at all. My mom had dark, shoulder length hair. And my dad’s hair was thinning on top. When I was a kid, I used to have a bird collection. Little figurines. Some were carved wood, or blown glass, or porcelain. They would always bring me a new one whenever they came back from a trip.”
The Arkana Mysteries Boxed Set Page 13