Cassie and Erik both nodded uncertainly.
Fred continued. “Well. There’s this thing called the precession of the equinoxes which means that the earth is wobbling on its axis, so the constellations don’t appear in exactly the same spot in the sky that they used to. It takes about 26,000 years for the wobble to make one complete revolution and then all the constellations line up in their original positions. What that means for Sirius is that it doesn’t rise with the sun on exactly the same date as it would have done a few millennia ago.”
“Bravo, Fred,” Griffin said appreciatively. “Couldn’t have explained it better myself.”
“No, you would have taken longer,” Erik muttered in a surly undertone.
Ignoring the comment, Griffin pressed on. “So now you understand why I’ve been working frantically with my team back at the vault to find the day when Sirius would have risen at this latitude three thousand years ago. By sheer accident, we managed to arrive here at approximately the right time of year, but we only have a narrow window of time to hit it exactly right. Three thousand years ago, Sirius would have risen several weeks earlier than it does now. My team had to calculate the approximate date of its heliacal rising in 1000 BCE and translate that into our own calendaring system.”
“But if we’re not gonna see the soul of the lady rise with the sun, then why are we here?” Cassie was confused.
“Because Sirius won’t point us to the artifact we seek. The sun will. The angle of the sunrise needs to be the same as it would have been for the Minoans when Sirius rose at dawn.”
“You think the sun’s going to cast a shadow across these stones some way that will show us where the artifact is buried?” Erik asked.
Griffin nodded hopefully. “That is my theory, yes.”
“Guess we’ll know pretty soon if you’re right.” Erik pointed toward the east. “Look’s like it’s almost show time.”
They all focused their attention on the eastern mountain range. The sky was vaguely beginning to glow. Cassie pulled her jacket more closely around her shoulders. Even though it was mid-summer, the pre-dawn temperature on the mountainside was chilly, and the ground was soaked with dew.
No one spoke. It was as if they’d all been turned to stone. They seemed to fuse with their surroundings. The standing stones and the seated humans all waiting for something. But what?
Then it appeared. The first weak rays of sunlight shot over the horizon and began creeping toward them. The mountain peaks in the distance took on a rosy glow. The light seemed to crawl in slow motion, sliding up the side of Gargarus to the plateau.
At the eastern end of the circle, two megaliths stood close to one another. The giant stones on either side had cracked and begun to lean at odd angles. The sun cast oblique shadows around the other megaliths but shot straight through the center of the two pillars. The light advanced forward into the circle. The Arkana team scattered. They took up positions on the perimeter to allow the rays to move unimpeded. Across the grass, across the gravel, until the light illuminated a small boulder toward the rear of the circle that measured about three feet high. The rock was completely undistinguished. No one had noticed it during their previous search. It contained no markings. It stood in a pile of rubble with smaller rocks strewn all around its base. The sun lingered on it persistently.
Cassie felt herself being pulled to the spot. She ran forward. Without knowing what she was doing, she began shoving aside the smaller stones piled at the base of the rock. Her efforts revealed a square flagstone recessed level with the ground. On its face was carved a lily.
“Guys! It’s here,” she called urgently. “I found it!”
The men scrambled to join her.
“Wait a minute,” she cautioned. “I want to try something.” The pythia stepped onto the carved stone and stood facing the sunrise.
It was an eerie sensation. She felt her consciousness split. Part of her was Cassie, standing on a flat stone watching the sun come up. Another part of her was an old woman wrapped in a shawl and surrounded by four companions. She was standing in exactly the same spot where Cassie stood and she, too, was watching the sun rise. But it was earlier in her time. Cassie felt as if time had rewound itself by three thousand years plus half an hour because the sun hadn’t reached the horizon yet. The distant mountains were dimly backlit by the still hidden sun, but the sky was light enough that all of the stars had disappeared. All but one. A glimmering white dot could be seen just above the peaks. It hung suspended for perhaps ten minutes, glowing fainter and fainter as the sun’s upper rays broke the horizon. When the first beams shot through the pillars and made their way to the boulder at her feet, the star disappeared completely against the brightening day.
“Wow!” the pythia exhaled. “You’re right Griffin. That really was something to see.”
“You had a vision? But you didn’t fall down.”
Cassie laughed. “I guess I’m getting the hang of this pythia business. Besides, I only fall down when I come across something awful. This vision was really, really nice. I saw Sirius.”
“You mean you actually witnessed its heliacal rise?” He sounded flabbergasted.
The pythia nodded. “Yeah, I saw what it must have looked like to them when they planted the artifact here.” She looked at each of her companions in turn. “And it is here. I’m one hundred and seven per cent sure that I’m standing right on it.” She smiled. “And for the first time, I actually felt like I was connected to them.”
“Them?” Erik repeated.
“The Minoans. There were five of them. The ones who buried the
