Cassie noted that the water must be pumped from behind the sheets of rock somehow so that it fell into trenches at the base of the walls before being pumped back upward.
“You can adjust the flow of the water and the ceiling light too,” Maddie added.
Cassie glanced up. Like the ceiling in the main room of the vault, this one had been engineered to mimic natural daylight and open sky, clouds and all. When Maddie picked up a remote control and aimed it at the ceiling, the overhead sky grew dark, and the moon and stars appeared.
“That is freaking awesome!” Cassie stood gaping upward while Maddie continued the tour.
“Sybil said the crystals and flowing water boosted her ability to channel info from the artifacts she touched—something about negative ions. I breezed out when she was trying to explain it to me—some pythia thing about vibrations. Maybe you understand it.”
“Not sure I do,” Cassie murmured, still gawking at the ceiling, “but it really is amazing.”
Maddie gently steered the pythia to face the back of the room. “And over here is Faye’s contribution to the design. She said it would help you.”
The two came to stand in front of a thin slab of black stone supported by pillars on either end. It was a desk of some kind because a chair was parked behind it.
Cassie ran her hand over the dark polished surface and instantly felt a stabilizing sensation. “I know what this is!” she exclaimed excitedly. “It’s the same as the necklace Faye gave me. See?” She held up a black stone pendant. “The desk must be made of obsidian. Faye called it a ‘grounding stone.’ It’s supposed to help keep me from getting psychically messed up when I touch a tainted artifact.”
“Hmmm,” Maddie said. “Grounding, huh? Never heard of that before. Still, it’s a nice-looking desk. Very post-modern. Maybe I’ll get one like it for myself.”
Cassie ran both hands across the desk, savoring the feeling of steadiness it gave her. “I love it,” she said simply.
Maddie shook her head, amused. “It must be a pythia thing.”
Abruptly the pythia turned and asked, “But what am I supposed to do here?”
“What all pythias do when they aren’t globe-trotting and dodging fanatical cults who want to kill them—authenticating relics. Quite a backlog has been piling up ever since you started.”
“But why didn’t you tell me this was here?”
The operations director looked at the floor, seemingly uncomfortable with the question. “At first, Faye and I worried that it was too soon to show you this. I mean, right after your sister’s death, this might have triggered a lot of bad associations for you, so we thought we’d wait until you had a little training first. And then all hell broke loose, and the relic hunt started. You haven’t been around much since. No time to retrieve priceless artifacts and hold down a desk job too.”
“It looks like I’ll have a little down time now,” Cassie offered.
“Not as much as you might imagine,” a voice called out. Griffin was standing in the open doorway with Erik close behind.
“What?” both women asked at once.
“He thinks he’s figured out part of the riddle,” Erik offered as the two visitors advanced into the center of the room.
“Guys, isn’t this fantastic?” Cassie asked, still entranced with her new work space.
“Yeah, it is a pretty cool office,” Erik conceded, “but you might not get to enjoy it for long.”
“So, what’s up?” Maddie asked, folding her arms and leaning against Cassie’s obsidian desk.
Griffin tapped a large book he was holding. “I believe I’ve solved at least one part of our relic riddle.”
“That’s great,” Cassie said with relief. “I was beginning to worry.”
“We all were,” Maddie muttered.
“It’s the line which says, ‘Let Eurus fill the sails for twelve days.’”
“Well, we know what part of that means already,” Erik said. “We’re going to have to travel by ship somewhere for twelve days.”
“Correct,” the scrivener averred. “But the word which interests me most in that line is ‘Eurus.’”
“So, what does it mean already?” Cassie asked eagerly.
“It’s a reference to wind.”
“Wind?” the pythia repeated. “That isn’t a big surprise. I mean wind would have to fill sails, right?”
“Yes, but it’s a particular type of wind,” Griffin continued. He laid the volume flat on the desk and opened it to a page marked with a post-it sticker. The others clustered around to take a look. “See here.” He pointed to an illustration of several different figures with cheeks puffed out, blowing air in various directions. “In Greek mythology, the four cardinal directions were associated with the wind gods or anemoi. Each one had a specific set of characteristics and a name. The cold north wind which blew during the winter was Boreas, the light west wind of spring and summer was Zephyrus, the south wind which brought summer storms was Notus, and the east wind which had no seasonal association at all was Eurus.”
“Why would the riddle refer to Greek wind names?” Maddie wondered.
“That’s a fair question,” Griffin conceded, “and part of the reason I didn’t recognize the allusion at once. These gods are part of overlord mythology, but I suspect their existence predates the Greeks. Mycenean culture may well have used the same pantheon of wind gods as did the Greeks and later the Romans. Since Linear B is a Mycenean script, it would make sense to refer to Mycenean divinities in this context.”
“So, we’re supposed to sail east from somewhere for twelve days?” Erik asked doubtfully.
“Quite the reverse,” Griffin said, putting the book down. “If Eurus is filling the sails, then he’s pushing the ship westward.”
“What’s the season when the prevailing wind in the Mediterranean is from the east?” Maddie asked.
“There isn’t one,” Griffin said flatly.
“What?” The operations director sounded puzzled and slightly irritated.
“In this instance, I believe we’re dealing with a metaphorical wind.”
“Never heard of one of those before,” Erik mumbled under his breath.
Griffin hadn’t heard him
