So many things had changed in his world over the course of the past two months. He had seen more of the Fallen Lands than many of his brethren would experience in a lifetime. Though he could never tell his father this, the outside world didn’t seem to be an unpleasant sort of place at all. Not the Sodom and Gomorrah he had expected. Certainly, the women adorned themselves more. They painted their faces and wore bright clothing. Even the men wore jewelry. Golden watches and rings and necklaces. Aside from vanity, the Fallen didn’t display any obviously vicious or immoral behavior. They seemed, for the most part, friendly. Far less tense and worried than his own Nephilim brethren. Perhaps being damned carried certain advantages, he thought bitterly. There was no need to try. One who had no hope of entering the blessed kingdom could do as one pleased. For a single frightening second, he wished he was one of them. Then he smothered the thought. That idea was surely the devil’s doing.
“Look here, Brother Scion.”
Daniel snapped himself out of his reverie to see where Nikos was pointing. To the left of the cave entrance was an immense stone outcropping that had been shaped by human hands. It looked like stairs for giants. “What is this?” he asked.
“It was once an altar where offerings were made to the pagan god Zeus. See up there, on the topmost step.”
Daniel looked upward to what appeared to be a rectangular stone slab. It was large enough to be a stage much less an altar. He turned his attention back to the entrance of the cave. “You understand what we are searching for?”
“Yes, of course.” Nikos bobbed his head vehemently. “The same symbols you came to find before. I still have the photographs.” He waved the snapshots in front of Daniel’s face. “We are to look at the walls and ceiling of the cavern for these signs.”
Daniel was about to advance, but Nikos laid a restraining hand on his arm.
“Please. You must take this.” The young convert handed him a flashlight. “It will be very dark at the back of the cavern.”
The scion nodded and took the flashlight. He glanced behind them down the trail. There were no other tourists about. Nor did he see any sign of the archaeologists who were reputed to be digging here. That was good. Daniel didn’t want any curious eyes watching them. He was glad Leroy Hunt had decided to wait for them at the taverna at the bottom of the hill. He always tended to attract attention wherever he went because of his cowboy attire.
Since Nikos was a Cretan by birth, he seemed to feel it his duty to act as tour guide. “It was in this cave that the god Zeus spent his childhood. His mother the goddess Rhea gave birth to him in another cave on the island but moved him here to hide him better from his father Cronos who would have eaten him.”
“Yes, I am aware of the heathen myth,” Daniel commented. “I also know that the winged demons called Kouretes protected the infant. Whenever he cried, they would beat their shields and make enough noise to muffle the sound of his wailing. That way his father wouldn’t know he was still alive.” He had spent weeks researching the strange deities of Greece. The notion of a father devouring his own son might once have felt alien to him. It didn’t now.
“There is something I have never understood about this myth,” Nikos said. “If Zeus is called the father of the gods and all are descended from him, then how can he have a mother?”
Daniel raised his eyebrows. “I’m not sure.”
“And also, the pagans say that he was born in a cave and each year he dies in a cave. If he is an immortal god, how can he die?”
The scion shook his head. “There is a great deal about the heathen religions that makes no sense. The ancient peoples had the minds of children. They did not use reason as we do.”
Seemingly satisfied with that explanation, Nikos switched on his flashlight and moved forward.
The two men left the sunny afternoon behind and descended down a steep flight of stairs into the recesses of the Ideon Andron.
Daniel had learned much about the cave and its structure on the internet and in books. The main chamber of the cavern was approximately 150 feet wide with two horizontal chambers leading to an inner sanctum. He knew all the facts about the place, but nothing in his research had prepared him for the actual experience of entering it. He became aware of the dampness. Water dripping from the ceiling and trickling down the walls. The wooden viewing platform was slippery. Green moss grew from the stones high above his head.
From where he stood at the bottom of the central chamber, he looked up toward the cave mouth illuminated by a bright blue sky. As he stepped back a few paces, he felt a line of shadow cross his face. The darkness seemed to swallow him.
The side chambers had been blocked off because of the archaeological excavation. Since nobody was around, Daniel decided there was nothing to prevent them from investigating the inner recesses of the cave. The two men agreed to split up. Nikos would search one of the side chambers while Daniel searched the other. As the scion slipped past the gate and moved down the gallery, he could no longer hear Nikos’ footsteps echoing off in the other direction. He became
