Chapter 54—Connecting Flights
Erik rooted through Maddie’s pantry and found enough canned chili to cobble together a meal. The sun had set by the time the Arkana team finished ladling out bowls and passing around boxes of crackers. Faye had already brewed another pot of coffee. They took a brief break to eat after which Faye placed a call to Hannah. She advised the girl that she would be returning very late. She made Hannah promise to eat a healthy dinner and lock all the doors before retiring. After those mundane issues were dealt with, the group turned its collective attention once more to the subject of the relic hunt.
Clearing a space on the coffee table, Cassie presented the alabaster box and its contents. “I give you artifact number three,” she said with a flourish. Removing the lid, she reached in to grasp a shiny object that stood several inches high and slid it toward the middle of the table so Faye and Maddie could get a closer look.
The two women sat transfixed.
“Gracious me,” Faye finally said.
“I saw the pictures you sent but looking at it up close. Well, it’s...” Maddie trailed off.
“Really something,” Erik filled in helpfully.
The object in question was a statue of a cow or bull. The gender would have been impossible to tell since the statue only depicted the animal’s head and neck. It stood half a foot high and appeared to be cast out of solid gold. The horns were encased in row upon row of diamonds. A spangle of blue stones covered the neck.
“Do you think those are sapphires?” Cassie asked, referring to the blue stones.
“That’s what I commissioned for the replica,” Maddie replied.
“Is it my imagination or is each succeeding relic more costly than its predecessor?” Griffin turned the statue to study its profile.
“It sure seems that way,” Erik agreed.
“I haven’t seen the bill yet for the duplicate,” the chatelaine said. “Considering my recent meltdown, maybe that’s a good thing.”
“Just to be safe, you might not want to open your mail for a couple more days,” Erik advised.
Faye turned the statue so that she could view the back of the animal’s head and neck. The space was filled with coded glyphs. “Have you deciphered these yet, dear?’ She glanced up at Griffin.
He reached into his shirt pocket and withdrew a small notebook. “As usual, I’ve deciphered the words but not the meaning.”
“Well, let’s have it,” Maddie prompted.
The scrivener nodded. “Right then. It reads: ‘The sands behind, on an island tower she alights to drink, biding til her kindred fill the jaws of the lion.’”
They all stared at one another in perplexity.
“And I thought the last clue was cryptic.” Cassie sighed.
“And short,” Erik added. “Don’t forget short. The shorter the riddle, the more twisted it gets.”
“Can you make anything out of it at all?” Faye asked.
Griffin sighed. “Little enough at this stage. It will require further study. I’m only sure of one thing. I know where we’re to search next.”
“Why, that’s good news,” Faye said encouragingly.
“Way to go, Griff!” Erik patted him on the back.
The scrivener shrugged off the compliment. “It wasn’t difficult now that we understand a bit about the way the Minoans think.”
The others waited expectantly for him to continue.
“Yes, well, the ‘she’ in the first line obviously refers to the dove.”
“You mean our little blue dove from Africa?” Cassie registered surprise.
“The very same,” Griffin concurred. “And using her in this context is really quite clever.”
“Yes, I see,” Faye agreed. “If by some miracle thieves were to stumble on this artifact and decipher its text without any reference to what came before, they wouldn’t know what to make of the riddle.”
“I’m not sure I know what to make of the riddle, and I was there from the start,” Cassie demurred.
“It’s very simple,” Griffin continued. “The Minoans used our lapis dove as a navigational device to steer us to Napata. Now they’re doing the same to steer us to our next destination.”
“Which is where?” Erik urged, sounding slightly impatient.
Griffin wasn’t about to be rushed. He smiled serenely. “We have been given no course correction, have we?”
Erik paused to consider. “You mean like four bees, one dove, yaddy, yaddy to figure out latitude?”
“Precisely. There is no indicator in this riddle of a change in latitude.”
Cassie sat forward, studying the glyphs as if she could read the text. “So, that means the Minoans want us to follow the same latitude as our last destination.” She reached out and picked up the artifact. She shook it and then set it down on the table. “This little bull isn’t very talkative. Even when I touched it the first time, I didn’t get any hits off of it about what to do next. And I’m not getting anything now either.”
“No matter,” Griffin said. “I think we can muddle along for the time being without any supernatural help. As I was saying, the first line of the riddle tells us to continue on the course last set. I take that to mean we continue to travel eastward at a latitude of approximately nineteen degrees north.”
“Excellent!” Faye exclaimed. “How clever of you, my dear.”
The scrivener ducked his head, embarrassed by her praise. “The first land mass east of Africa would be the Arabian Peninsula but, of course, that isn’t our destination.”
Erik and Cassie exchanged suspicious glances. “It’s not?” they both asked in unison.
“No,” Griffin replied. “The riddle clearly states, ‘the sands behind.’”
“And?” Cassie nudged, waiting for more information.
“The riddle is implying we are to leave the desert behind us. The Arabian Peninsula is nothing but desert.”
“Even back in the day when the Minoans were traveling through there?” the pythia challenged.
“Even then,” Griffin answered. “Desiccation was already firmly in place by 1000 BCE.”
“OK, so where does that leave us?” Erik asked.
“In India, I should think. A latitude of nineteen degrees north would place us somewhere in the
