The Lost Book of Wonders

by Chad Brecher

  The howls of a pack of wolves erupted from somewhere deep in the forest.

  Alex could only think of what the guide had said.

  This will all end badly.

  75

  “Martin, are you there?” Solomon spoke into the radio and released the button. Only static returned. Something’s wrong, he thought. An uneasy sensation gnawed within him as he turned to Ox and slapped the radio into his beefy chest. “Keep trying to reach him.” Solomon instinctively patted the grip of his gun within its holster. He surveyed the area.

  They had emerged from the forest into a relatively flat and open area. Up ahead he could see the Khentii mountain range tower over the pine trees. It felt good to finally emerge from the dark forest, but as he twirled around he suddenly felt exposed. Gone was the cover of the forest canopy, the deep green of the leaves, the long trunks of the trees. To make matters worse, the brutal sun beat down on them, sapping their energy. He could see members of the party appear wilted as their pace slowed through the high grass.

  Ellie’s legs felt heavy as she pushed through the grass. Her toes were blistered and bleeding from the hike. She gave Alex a sideways glance. He was looking at a copy of the Fra Mauro map that Maryanne Hunter had given them before they departed from London. He had turned to a page showing a magnified view of the bottom left corner of the map — the depiction of the Garden of Eden. She could see the circle surrounded by a ring of fire with a cherub guarding the entrance. In the center was the figure of God addressing Adam and Eve as they stood by a tree and a body of water. From this single source of water flowed the four rivers that spilled out towards a mountainous landscape. Alex looked up above the tree line and back at the paper.

  “What do you see?” Ellie asked. In the distance she could hear the faint sound of branches snapping. She twirled around and could see Solomon’s men scatter. Several of the men crouched with their guns trained at the forest behind them. Others dropped into a prone position, disappearing beneath the tall grass with their rifles drawn. Solomon dropped to one knee, pulled out his pistol, and waited. The rest of the party instinctively crouched down with tensed anticipation of the unknown. Ellie could feel her heart race as the sound emanating from the forest continued to grow louder and louder. She tried to place it. What was at first the sound of breaking branches was beginning to sound like a rumbling thunder.

  “What is that?” Alex whispered. He could see Jonas slip out his pistol.

  Suddenly a darkened form burst from the edge of the forest and madly galloped into the open area. Ox’s finger curled around the trigger as the barrel of his gun followed the unexpected form of a horse darting across the grassland.

  Solomon rose to his feet. He looked at the racing form incredulously and then turned pale as a ghost. “Hold your fire!” he screamed and began to approach the crazed beast. He looked back at his men. “Watch the forest in case it’s a diversion.” The horse had stopped and began to pace nervously back and forth, snorting and raising its legs. As Solomon approached, he could feel his throat tighten. Slung over the horse’s back was Martin’s lifeless body. Blood dripped from Martin’s neck, staining the side of the horse. Martin’s hands and legs were tied.

  Solomon found himself walking towards the horse as if in a trance, his gun trained on the creature. With a screech, the horse reared up on its hind legs and kicked out its front legs in the air. Martin’s body slid off the horse’s back and tumbled onto the ground. The horse snorted once more and began to gallop away. Solomon followed the course of the horse with his gun until it disappeared into the forest. The field was quiet once again.

  Phillip stood up and approached Solomon, who stared down at the lifeless corpse. Martin’s eyes were opened and appeared focused on the sky above.

  “My God, it’s one of your men,” Phillip said.

  Solomon dropped to his knees, bent over, and ran his hand over Martin’s eyes, closing the lids forever. He could feel rage surge through his body as he clutched his pistol even tighter.

  “It’s a warning.”

  Solomon looked around him to see who said it. He could see Alex, Ellie, Clay, and Jonas slowly rising out of the high grass. He scanned the grassland further. His eyes settled on the Mongolian guide who sat cross-legged on the ground, staring at the forest behind them.

  “It’s a warning,” the guide repeated ominously.

  Solomon sprung to his feet and slipped his pistol back in his holder. He approached the guide whose back remained facing him. “Is this the work of the Darkhad? Well, they’ll have to bring more than this. I’ve seen a lot worse…I’ve done a lot worse myself…so…get your ass up and guide us up that hill.”

  The guide was unfazed. He continued to sit cross-legged, gazing at the woods. “I’m not going any further. You’re on your own.”

  Solomon made a fist as he stood over the guide. “Jimmie, I’m not asking you. I’m telling you that you are going to get off your ass and take us up that hill or I’m going to put a bullet in…”

  The guide’s movement was as unexpected as it was quick. Alex watched as the man twirled around and reached up, grabbing Solomon’s gun from his holster. Momentarily stunned by the guide’s quickness, Solomon pulled out a second pistol from his waistband and pointed it at the guide. Solomon’s men instantly responded by leveling their weapons in the air and surrounding Jimmie.

  The guide stood up and began to back away from Solomon.

  “Jimmie, don’t do anything stupid,” Solomon commanded as he directed his gun at the man’s chest.

  The guide shook his head sadly. “You just don’t understand…do you? You don’t understand a single thing.” In a completely fluid motion, the man lifted the gun, pressed it against the side of his head, and pulled the trigger.

  Alex jumped at the deafening sound of the gunshot. He could see the man’s body drop to the ground like it was made of lead. Solomon looked down at the body with a look of confusion, nudging the man’s torso with the tip of his boot.

  Ox lowered his rifle and stood over the dead man’s body. All he could say was, “Did that just happen?”

  Solomon glared at Phillip. “Well, I hope your golden boy can lead us the rest of the way…and quickly.”

  Alex could feel his heart race.

  76

  “Where do we go from here?” asked Phillip as he paced behind Alex.

  Alex stared up at the bald ridge of Burkhan Khaldun. It seemed strangely unimpressive, a mere rolling heap of earth composing only a portion of the Khentii mountain range. A small amount of snow covered the ridge, even in the Mongolian spring. It was not to say it lacked beauty — the green and beige was lost partially in the mist, seamlessly blending with the expansive blue sky above it. It was, however, somehow anticlimactic, an anti-Everest. He found it hard to believe they were in the antechamber of Eden.

  He looked down again at the copy of the Fra Mauro’s map. It did not make sense. Marco Polo went through all this trouble hiding the location of the Garden and all they were left with was Mongolia…and Burkhan Khaldun. Could not he have been more specific? After all, he said in the secret Fourth Book that he ‘approached the gates of the garden and saw the flaming sword of the cherubs.’

  Where was this? There has to be a final clue, Alex thought. He ran his fingers through his hair with frustration. I can’t do this, he thought, feeling the stress diffuse through his body. He peered at Ellie beside him and tried to muster a reassuring smile. It’s too much responsibility.

  Ellie pointed at the blown-up image of the Garden of Eden from the Fra Mauro. “You seem to be focused on this picture. What is it?”

  “I don’t know. I really don’t.”

  “You feel it in your gut that it’s important, don’t you?”

  Alex nodded.

  “Well, then it probably is,” she said and looked over his shoulder again at the image. “What does the writing say above the image?”

  Alex looked at small writing meticulously written in several lines over th
e image of the Garden of Eden. “It’s a short discourse on the existence of the Garden of Eden. It discusses different views that were commonly cited during the medieval period such as from the works of St. Augustine and Albertus Magnus. I’ve read through it a million times and it doesn’t seem too informative.”

  “Let’s start from the beginning. What does it say?” Ellie asked.

  Alex placed his finger beneath the top line of Italian text. “It says…first there’s the title of the discourse… ‘The Location of the Earthly Paradise.’ It goes on to say… ‘The Paradise of Delights does not only have a spiritual meaning; it is also a real…’” Alex paused.

  “What is it?” Ellie asked, wide-eyed.

  “…it is also a real place on the earth…” Alex finished and brought his hands together as if in prayer. “It can’t be.” He smiled broadly.

  “What can’t be?” Ellie sprung to her feet.

  “I can’t believe I didn’t think of it earlier. You’re amazing.”

  Alex waited as the rest of the group began to gather around him. Both Phillip and Clay looked at him with excited anticipation.

  “Where is it?” asked Phillip.

  Alex grabbed Ellie’s hand and directed it at the bald ridge of Burkhan Khaldun. He held up the image of the Garden of Eden from the Fra Mauro map in his other hand. “Bianco painted Burkhan Khaldun onto the map. The location was never hidden. It was always in front of our eyes.” He released Ellie’s hand and pointed up at the ridge. “Burkhan Khaldun is relatively free of significant vegetation, especially trees. But look at the western edge of it.”

  Clay looked intensely at the ridge ahead and squinted.

  “Now look at the picture from the map.” Alex ran his finger across the mountainous area outside of Eden. He counted four trees that were placed on the barren mountain depicted on the map. “I need a knife.”

  Alex looked at Phillip with impatience. The man slid his hand into his pocket and handed over his blade. He watched as Alex folded it open and placed the tip of the blade against each tree. He poked holes through the paper at the location of each of the four trees and held the paper up once again.

  “My God,” Phillip gasped as the four trees in the distance filled the holes perfectly.

  Alex pulled his body back from the paper while holding it up and found the location of the entrance to the Garden of Eden where a cherub stood holding aloft a burning sword. “That would make the entrance to the Garden right about…” He brought the tip against the paper once again and pushed it through with a pop. The hole revealed a relatively prosaic outcropping of stone in the distance. “…here.”

  The group stood dumbfounded as they stared up at Burkhan Khaldun.

  “And another thing…based on this picture from the map, I think the tomb of Genghis Khan and the Garden of Eden for that matter are underground. I guess the world did change quite a bit since creation.”

  The group looked up at the edge of Burkhan Khaldun in awe as Alex folded the paper, flipped the knife shut, and slid both into the pocket of his pants.

  77

  Clay paused for a moment to catch his breath. He could see that the outcropping was not much further. Jonas slung his arm around his shoulder and assisted him up the increasingly steep slope. Clay tried to pick up the pace as the rest of the group neared the outcropping ahead. When he finally arrived on the barren area, he slumped down and looked upon the vast green of the Mongolian heartland below them. His jacket flapped loudly in the cold breeze, which vigorously blew across the Khenti mountain range. His face felt numb, his lips frozen.

  Solomon surveyed the area. They were standing on a flat area approximately halfway up Burkhan Khaldun, along the western slope. The ground was covered with yellowed grass and prickly weeds.

  “I’m not sure what I was expecting, but this isn’t it,” Solomon announced and took a long drink of water.

  Ellie paced around the outcropping as she channeled her knowledge of numerous previous archeological digs. She had worked with the philosophy that if it was easy to see, then it would have been discovered long ago. Ellie squatted onto the heels of her boots and attempted to shield her face from the biting wind. The tip of her nose was red and wet and she wiped at it with her windbreaker. She reached down and dug her fingernails into the soil, coming away with a handful of light brown dirt. She shuffled the soil in her hand like a pair of dice before tossing it away. As the wind caught the grains of dirt, out of the corner of her eye, she detected a gray structure slightly protruding out of the ground. She rose to her feet and looked around her to see if anybody else had seen it. She found the rest of the crew content to take a breather. Ellie approached the gray structure and kneeled in front of it.

  The stone was light gray and triangular in configuration, like the top of an obelisk. There were no markings on it, just the pits and crevices wrought by the harsh weather. She ran her hand across the rough surface and drove her fingers into the soil beside it. Ellie began to pull away chunks of hard soil, revealing more and more of the stone structure. Blood began to drip from around her cuticles and she hesitated a moment, afraid of damaging the edges of where her skin graft was sewn into her native skin.

  “What is it?” asked Alex as he bent down beside her.

  “Help me expose the base of this stone,” she requested.

  Alex began to dig along the edges of the stone until it was freed up. He stopped upon discovering that the pyramidal stone rested upon another layer of gray stones.

  “Hey, I think we found something here!” Ellie announced.

  Within seconds, the group rushed behind them

  “There are stones beneath the ground. From the pattern, I would bet that this is not a natural phenomenon.” Ellie looked up at Phillip, then Clay. “Someone or some people placed these stones here…and buried them.”

  Solomon looked at Phillip, who eagerly nodded. Solomon swung around and addressed his men. “O.K., don’t just stand there gawking. Grab your shovels and start digging!” he barked.

  The men removed foldable shovels from their backpacks, that were typically used to dig foxholes or fill sandbags, and drove the tips of the shovels deep into the firm soil. They feverishly tore away at the earth, revealing more and more stones placed in ever increasing square-shaped layers. Not before long they had found the furthest edges of the stones. The stones were stacked upon each other, forming a pyramidal shaped pile.

  “It looks like an ovoo,” Ellie said. “It’s a cairn — a stack of rocks that were placed to denote an important location, sometimes a burial site or a place of religious significance. It has different meaning for different cultures. I believe the Mongolians used them in shamanistic services to worship the sky, the mountains, or the forests. Some New-Age people place them in areas that possess special metaphysical properties, like a vortex. But ovoos are supposed to be above the surface to be seen. I’ve never heard of an ovoo that is buried. It’s weird.”

  The bigger question is what does it mark?” Phillip asked.

  “Or what’s beneath it,” Alex added.

  “Yes…beneath it,” Clay echoed.

  “We need to move these stones,” Phillip commanded. Solomon motioned to his men who began to remove stones from the pile and toss them aside. As stone after stone was pulled from the cairn, the men found themselves in an ever-expanding pit surrounded by earthen walls. They continued to lift up the stones, passing them to the surface like a water brigade at a fire. Finally, the men arrived at a single large slab of stone in the shape of a square. Several of the men hopped down into the pit and gripped the edges of the stone. With loud grunts they were able to lift it, revealing a final dirt layer beneath it. In the center was a hole, and blackness beyond it.

  Phillip peered over the edge into the pit and could see the men standing curiously beside the hole.

  One of the men wiped sweat from his brow, looked up, and said, “We found something at the bottom.”

  “I’ll say,” Phillip replied with a s
mile. That’s an understatement. “Let’s see what’s in this rabbit hole.” He glanced at Solomon. “Grab some lights — I think we found the entrance.”

  78

  Solomon squatted by the edge of the hole and directed the beam of the flashlight into it. The light penetrated a short distance and then was swallowed by the darkness.

  “What do you see?” asked Phillip as he leaned over Solomon’s shoulder in an attempt to get a better vantage point.

  “Not too much,” Solomon mumbled under his breath. He mustered up some saliva, spat into the hole, and listened. After several seconds, he could hear a muffled splat return. Solomon reached into his jacket pocket, withdrew a clear plastic stick, and bent it until it made a snapping noise. After shaking it vigorously, the stick glowed neon green. Solomon tossed it into the hole and watched as it dropped into the blackness and rattled to a stop. Below him, he could see the stick resting on the ground of a passageway, surrounded by a small green halo.

  He looked back up at the figures gathered around him and tapped the end of the flashlight against the palm of his hand.

  “There’s a bit of a drop…not too far.” He glanced up at Pieter. “Grab some rope and secure your end. We’re going to have to climb down.”

  Solomon stood up and brushed the dirt from his pants. “Here’s the plan. We are going down into this pit. But first things first…I’m leading this operation.” He turned and looked Phillip in the eye. “No disrespect, Sir…you’ve been very generous…but as long as those savages are running around carving up my men, I’m calling the shots. Understood?”

  Phillip gave a wry smile. “We are all in your capable hands, Commander.”

  Solomon flicked on the flashlight and shined it at Jonas, Alex, Ellie, and Clay. “You’re coming with us, and don’t get any creative ideas. Our dear patron may want to keep you around a little bit longer, but I’m not so convinced that you are of any further use to us.”