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“That’s Greek to me, Silano.”
“Latin. Do they not teach the classics on the frontier, Monsieur Gage?”
“On the frontier, the classics make good fire starter.”
“The translation of this document, which I found in my travels, explains why I was anxious to make your reacquaintance:”
“We must go to a special place within the City of Ghosts,” Silano said, “and call down the flames of the storm, the lightning, just as your mentor Franklin did in Philadelphia. Call it to the seraphim, and see which part they point to.”
“The part of what?”
“A building or cave, I’m guessing. It will become apparent if this works.”
“The desert drinks from a snail shell?” t h e
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“From the thunderstorm’s rain. A reference to a sacred drinking vessel, I suspect.”
Or something else, I thought to myself. “And the flowers and faith?”
“My theory is that is a reference to the Templars themselves and the Order of the Rose and Cross, or Rosicrucians. Theories of the origin of the Rosy Cross vary, but one is that the Alexandrian sage Ormus was converted to Christianity by the disciple Mark in 46 a .d.
and fused its teachings with that of ancient Egypt, creating a Gnostic creed, or belief in knowledge.” He looked hard at me to make sure I’d make the connection with the Book of Thoth. “Movements fade in and out of history, but the symbol of the cross and the rose is a very old one, symbolizing death and life, or despair and hope. The Resurrection, if you will.”
“And male and female,” Astiza added, “the phallic cross and the yonic flower.”
“Flower and faith symbolize the character required of those who would find the secret,” Silano said.
“A woman?”
“Perhaps, which is one reason we have a woman along.” I decided to keep my own suspicions to myself. “So you want to draw lightning down to my seraphim and see what happens?”
“In the place prescribed by the documents we’ve found, yes.” I considered. “What you’re talking about is a lightning rod, or rather two, since we have two seraphim. We need metal to bring the energy down to the ground, I think.”
“Which is why our tent poles are metal, to mount your angels on.
I’ve been planning this for months. You need our help to find the city, and we need your help to find the hiding place within it.”
“And then what? We cut the book in half?”
“No,” Silano said. “We don’t need Solomon to resolve our rivalry.
We use it together, for mankind’s good, just as the ancients did.”
“Together!”
“Why not, when we have the power to do unlimited good? If the world’s true form is gossamer, it can be spun and shifted. That’s what 2 0 0
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this book apparently tells us how to do. And when all things are possible, stones can be shifted, lives lengthened, enemies reconciled, and wounds healed.” His eyes gleamed.
I looked at his hip. “Made young again.”
“Exactly, and in charge of a world finally run on reason.”
“Bonaparte’s reason?”
Silano glanced at Najac. “I am loyal to the government that commissioned me. And yet politicians and generals only understand so much. It is scholars who will rule the future, Ethan. The old world was the plaything of princes
