In a state of shock, Annabeth swung around in her chair to regard a rumpled man in his early thirties who had been slouching against the rear wall. Her husband Daniel was to be the scion! People stood up to get a better look at where the diviner was pointing.
Daniel’s pale face flushed in embarrassment at the scrutiny of the entire congregation.
The diviner forged ahead. “The Lord has commanded me to give Daniel a new bride that he might ensure a firm foundation for our faith.”
Annabeth’s shock was rapidly turning to horror. A new wife! She cast a glance toward her husband to see how he was taking the news. Daniel’s flushed countenance had drained of color.
She looked back toward the pulpit to see the diviner’s eyes scanning the room for a different face. “Rise, Hannah Curtis. You are to be elevated to the rank of consecrated bride. You will be my son’s next wife.”
A pretty blond girl of about fourteen gasped and covered her mouth. She rose uncertainly at his command, looking around in dismay at the faces gawking in her direction.
“Wives. Go and greet your sister wife,” Father Abraham commanded.
Annabeth felt as if she were sleepwalking. She rose on cue with Daniel’s other two wives and scurried over to the bewildered girl. Each one kissed her on the cheek and led her to the back of the room where her husband-to-be stood.
“My children, I give you leave to offer your congratulations.”
The rest of the congregation rose and filed toward Daniel and his newly-betrothed.
Annabeth stood with her sister-wives behind the new girl. Her mind was racing. She saw all her hopes evaporating. No more than a month ago, the diviner had berated her for her lack of offspring. He had called her a disobedient wife. Not worthy of the name of consecrated bride. In terror of being cast out of the kingdom, she had pleaded with Daniel for more children. Male children. Her husband had promised her they would try to have more. He even went so far as to suggest she lie to the diviner about the state of their relations if she were questioned too closely. She had agreed, but her husband had never come to her since that day. What chance did she have now? The newest wife was always the favorite, and this pretty little girl was fourteen. Annabeth was twenty and already an old story. She bit her lip in frustration. She needed the diviner to know it wasn’t her fault. She had tried to be a good wife. Perhaps there was still a way. She would wait and watch. Perhaps God would give her the proof she needed.
Chapter 6 – Tripping
Three days after her lunch with Rhonda, Cassie Forsythe received an urgent phone call. It was Griffin. “Faye called an emergency meeting. We need you at the vault right away.”
Without hesitation, she jumped into her car and left the city behind. She drove through fields of ripening corn far beyond the last stretch of urban sprawl. Out here, progress had managed to slow its inevitable march. Farmhouses looked much as they had a hundred years earlier.
She maneuvered her car down the dirt road that led to an old schoolhouse set off by itself in a clearing in the woods. Cassie smiled to think how innocent the structure looked from the outside. The secrets it protected from an unsuspecting world. This was the Arkana’s Central Catalog, often simply called the vault. The unassuming nerve center of the entire global operation.
She parked and trotted up the now-familiar stairs to the front door and let herself into the deserted schoolroom. A room that had been abuzz with life only a month ago when she had witnessed her first assembly of the Concordance. Their decision to pursue the mysterious relics known as the Bones of the Mother had changed her life.
She crossed the room, her footfalls echoing, and entered the vestibule at the back. Swiping her keycard, she waited for the hidden elevator. The fact that she now had a keycard of her own was a sign of trust. Why shouldn’t they trust her? She had risked her life helping them track down the first clue they needed to find the relics.
The elevator door opened. Swiping her card again, she descended to the vault below. Every time she entered this space, she was struck by the ingenuity of the design. Everything was meant to remind the occupants of the natural world above. An underground ceiling that mimicked sunlight and moonlight. A ventilation system that created gentle breezes from different directions. Waterfalls trickling at the corners of the room and, oh yes, the animals.
A Springer Spaniel came racing toward her when she exited the elevator. She bent down to rub his ears as he bounced up trying to lick her face. “Hey, buddy. How are you doing today?” Having greeted her, the dog trotted back to a desk halfway down the row where his guardian was filing some paperwork.
Cats slept on desks or curled in chairs. Birds squawked from cages. The occasional iguana crawled across the top of a computer monitor. It was the most exotic office space Cassie had ever seen—one where flora and fauna were welcome. Without asking for directions, she made her way to a door marked “Scrivener’s Office.” She knocked briefly and then let herself in.
“Griffin, how’s it going?” she asked.
A lanky young man with curly brown hair swung around from the book case where he’d been examining the spines of several volumes. “Oh hullo, Cassie.” He spoke with a precise British accent. “Did you happen to see Faye on your way in?”
He was referring to their elderly leader.
“No, isn’t she here yet?”
He shrugged. “Not yet. Would you mind awfully going back topside and collecting Maddie? We’ll be meeting in Faye’s office on the second floor.”
“Faye has an office in the vault?” Cassie registered surprise. She was accustomed to the memory guardian conducting her business from the comfort of
