“But my father forbids it. The Blessed Nephilim are not to partake of any strong drink—not coffee or tea and especially not alcohol.”
“Just exactly what do you think will happen if you drink a glass of ale?” the librarian asked.
“It’s Satan’s tool to ensnare sinners. It will surely lead me to hell.”
“Uh huh.” Chris maintained a deadpan expression. “And you know this how?”
“My father said...” Daniel caught himself. He noticed his friend’s arch look and realized how ridiculous he sounded.
“Your father has such a wide experience of the world, he couldn’t possibly be wrong about the effects of ale,” Chris murmured tongue-in-cheek. “Why it’s an absolute orgy in this place, isn’t it?”
Daniel looked sheepishly at the other diners, nearly all of whom had a glass of amber liquid next to their plates. No one was rolling on the floor and frothing at the mouth.
Chris sighed and peered at him earnestly. “Don’t you think you should find out for yourself?”
“That’s exactly what the snake must have told Eve in the Garden Of Eden,” Daniel muttered darkly.
“I don’t know about you, but I’d take the gift of knowledge over dogma any day of the week, no matter what the consequences.” The librarian shot him a mischievous, dazzling smile.
Daniel had to admit that Chris’s light-hearted remark held a grain of truth. Wasn’t the gift of knowledge the very reason why he’d started coming to the library in the first place?
When the waiter appeared, they hurriedly chose from the menu. In addition to pulled pork sandwiches, Daniel ordered a pale ale, and Chris selected something called “stout.”
While they were waiting for their food to arrive, Chris leaned over the table. Lowering his voice, he said, “I don’t mean to rush you, but you’ve been back for almost two months, and you haven’t said anything about the next riddle you have to solve.”
Daniel sighed. “I know. I’ll have to tackle it this week before my father gets impatient.”
“Then let’s get started,” the librarian urged, his eyes twinkling. “Helping you solve that last clue was the highpoint of my year.”
“Very well,” Daniel agreed. He reached into the portfolio he always carried with him. Aside from copious notes about the subjects he’d been studying, it also contained photos of the relic he’d retrieved in Africa. A statue of the head and neck of a golden bull. Its horns were encrusted with diamonds. Sapphires, scattered at random, decorated the beast’s neck. Minoan glyphs were inscribed on its back.
He handed the photos to Chris who devoured them with his eyes. “Holy carats, Batman! How big is this thing?”
“Several inches tall.”
“If that’s solid gold and those are real diamonds and sapphires, then this is worth...” Chris trailed off speechless.
“A fortune,” Daniel concluded. “You aren’t even considering the antiquity of the piece. It’s at least three thousand years old.”
“Three thousand—”
At that moment their order arrived. Chris handed the photos back to Daniel and said to the waiter, “Just a minute.” He took the glass of stout and gulped it down without pausing to draw breath. “Bring me another one.”
The waiter nodded, grinning, and departed with the empty glass.
Daniel observed his friend’s reaction with bafflement.
“How can you sit there looking so matter-of-fact?” Chris challenged. “Most people live an entire lifetime without laying eyes on something as spectacular as this.”
Daniel shrugged. “I suppose I’ve been on this quest for so long that it all seems ordinary to me now.”
“So what’s the riddle?” the librarian prompted, picking up his sandwich.
Daniel took a few bites of his own before turning to his notes. “I had a little trouble with the translation, but I think this is what it says: ‘The stones behind, on an island tower she alights to drink, biding til her kindred fill the jaws of the lion.’”
The waiter returned with Chris’s second glass of stout. Before taking a sip, the librarian frowned at Daniel’s still-full glass of ale. “Will you at least try it?”
The scion hesitantly complied. He barely moistened his lips at first. “Hmmm.” He tried a larger sip the second time. He could feel a warm sensation spreading through his head and chest. “The taste is a little bitter,” he observed.
“Anything would be bitter compared to lemonade,” Chris retorted, finishing half his sandwich. “Try another sip.”
Daniel took a large gulp of the light golden liquid and then waited a few moments to observe the effects.
“Well, your head didn’t burst into flames,” the librarian commented acerbically.
“I feel...” Daniel paused, grasping for the right word. He stared at Chris is blank surprise. “I feel calmer.”
“Uh huh,” his friend agreed. “That’s the point. It’s supposed to mellow you out. So long as you don’t go overboard, it’s a nice feeling, isn’t it?”
“Yes, it is.” Daniel eyed the glass of ale with newfound respect. He then turned his attention to the rest of his meal.
By now, Chris had finished and pushed his plate to the side. He returned to pondering the riddle. “On an island tower she alights to drink,” he murmured half to himself. “I assume that’s a reference to the dove from the last riddle?”
Daniel nodded, his mouth full of food. Swallowing, he said, “Yes, I agree. The dove continues to fly until she arrives at a tower on an island.”
“What about ‘the stones behind’?”
The scion wiped his mouth with a napkin and looked furtively around to see if anybody was listening to their conversation. Satisfied, he leaned forward and spoke in a soft tone. “There were pyramids in Sudan right around the spot where we located the last artifact. I think the riddle is directing us to turn our backs on the stone pyramids and continue eastward on the same course.”
“So that would mean the same latitude traveling east from the place you found the bull?”
“Yes.” Daniel took a few more sips of ale. “I haven’t studied the geography of the region, so I’m not sure what the terrain east of Napata is like.”
Chris scowled in concentration. “The reference to an island tower has got to mean
