“I like American songs.” The guide smiled amiably.
“Well, this ain’t like no song you ever heard before. In fact, it’s about somethin’ that happened right here in your own backyard.”
“Here?” Ilhami asked doubtfully.
“Yup, it happened a long time ago when you all was fightin’ the Russkies. During the Crimean War.”
“Crimean?’ The guide repeated the word carefully. “What this means?”
“It’s that little spit of land that hangs out into the north side of the Black Sea. A lot of big battles got fought there, so that’s why the war got named after it. Anyhow, this here song is called ‘Abdul The Bulbul Emir.’”
“Emir,” Ilhami repeated. “I know this word, and Abdul is man’s name.”
“That’s right,” Hunt nodded encouragingly. “So this fella Abdul is Turkish, and he gets into a tussle with this Russian dude who steps on his toe, and they end up killin’ each other.”
Ilhami’s face was puzzled. “They die because one man steps on toe of other?”
“It’s supposed to be a funny song, see, but there’s two versions of it. The clean one and the dirty one. I learned the dirty one a long time ago when I was in the army. You’re gonna love it.” Without further prelude, Hunt launched into the song.
Daniel paused in his search to listen. The mercenary’s voice was a passable baritone. The tune was catchy until Daniel actually started to realize what the song was about. After hearing the first two stanzas, he scampered as far away from his companions as possible. The lyrics were filthy. There were many slang words which Ilhami didn’t understand. Whenever the Turk seemed puzzled by a line, Hunt obligingly paused in his performance to explain its meaning in salacious detail. Even though the scion hiked to the outer boundary of the cemetery he still couldn’t get out of earshot. He tried to distract himself by inspecting a particularly interesting headstone. He pored over the single cross chiseled into the rock as if it contained the entire book of Genesis and all the prophesies of the diviners besides. Daniel remained fixated on his task until he could hear Hunt’s voice subside. By this time, Ilhami was rolling on the ground with laughter.
As Daniel came back down the hill, he saw the Turk sit up eagerly.
“Now you teach me. Is good song!”
The scion groaned inwardly. Ilhami’s morals were already questionable without Hunt corrupting him further.
Daniel interposed himself between the two men. “It’s getting late,” he suggested mildly. “Perhaps we should be moving on.”
“Whatsa matter, boy?” Hunt asked thickly. “Air gettin’ a little too blue fer you?” He shook his bottle disappointedly, realizing it was empty.
“The day will be gone soon, Mr. Hunt. We don’t want to be stranded up here after dark, do we?” Daniel turned to Ilhami. “Where should we look next?”
The Turk regarded his doubtfully. “Is all.”
Daniel squinted at him. “I’m afraid I don’t understand.”
Ilhami shrugged expressively. “Aiya Anastasia. Last place to look on mountain.”
Daniel felt the color drain from his face. “You mean there are no more?”
“Where we are is very high up mountain. No more churches above this.”
The scion slumped down on the grass and buried his head in his hands. “I just need to think for a few minutes.”
“Take yer time, boy.” Hunt leaned back against the tree trunk and dipped his cowboy hat over his eyes.
Daniel conjured a mental image of the lecture his father would give him if he returned home empty-handed. There had to be something he had overlooked. But what? He turned to the guide. “Are you quite sure there’s no place else? Think very hard.”
Ilhami screwed up his eyebrows in a look of intense concentration. After several seconds of facial contortion, he gave Daniel a sheepish smile. “Is all churches. No more here.”
Daniel rose with a heavy heart.
The guide added in a small voice, “Maybe we go to big rocks, yes?”
The scion whirled to stare down at him. “What big rocks?”
Ilhami was taken aback by his intensity. “Long time ago before sultans. Somebody put big rocks in circle.”
“You mean a stone ring of some sort? Megaliths?”
“Just big rock circle. You want we go look there?”
“Does it face east?” Daniel asked eagerly.
Ilhami nodded doubtfully. “On same side we are. Yes. Only up high. We have to drive long time.”
Daniel looked at the position of the sun overhead. “Can we get there today and still have time to drive down the mountain?”
The Turk nodded. “If we go now.”
Daniel roused the dosing Hunt with the toe of his shoe. “Then we go right now!”
Chapter 36 – Captivating Companions
The trio of relic thieves held Cassie at gunpoint while they conferred unintelligibly in Turkish about what to do with her.
The pythia took stock of her situation. Surprisingly, she didn’t feel afraid. She flashed back briefly to the moment when Sybil had first broken the news that their parents were dead. She’d been plenty scared then. A scared, confused little kid. And when Sybil herself died, Cassie felt like a slightly older but equally scared and confused kid. Then the Arkana entered her life, and everything changed. Faye and Maddie and Erik and Griffin were her people now. She thought of them and felt a grim resolve she hadn’t known she possessed. Nobody was ever going to screw with her or her people again. Not ever! She had an idea.
“Hey! Any of you guys speak English?”
They stopped chattering abruptly. The two younger men gaped at her.
“I speak little bit,” the man with the cap answered. “Where your friends?”
“They aren’t here,” she lied. “How do you know about my friends?”
The man laughed. “We see what you do. You bury something in ground. Why you bury gold like that?”
Cassie shrugged, appearing innocent. “It was a joke. A joke we were playing on some people we know.”
The man gave her a shrewd look. “We play different kind of joke. We take gold things out of ground and sell them. We not put things in ground.” He glanced
