Brother Andrew was at his elbow, helping him to rise. “I thought I should check on you after your first dose of medicine.”
Abraham yawned and rubbed the back of his neck. “What time is it?”
“Seven o’clock in the morning, Father.”
The diviner turned to stare at the herbalist in disbelief. “I took your medicine at eleven o’clock yesterday evening. Do you mean to tell me I slept through the night?”
Brother Andrew shrugged. “I wouldn’t know. If you don’t remember waking, then I suppose you did.”
“The Lord be praised,” Abraham murmured in wonderment. He felt better rested than he had ever done in his entire life.
“And did you dream?” Brother Andrew asked nervously.
Abraham treated him to a genuine smile of pleasure. “Oh, yes. Such dreams as I have never known. Visions of a city of God. Of a world reborn.”
“You must remember that this medicine is strong,” Brother Andrew cautioned. “It can spur the imagination to create all sorts of vivid fantasies.”
Abraham scowled down at the herbalist in surprise. He ushered him out of the room. “You’re wrong,” he contradicted. “These were not fantasies. They were prophecies—a confirmation from heaven itself that I have chosen the right course.”
He unceremoniously closed the door in Brother Andrew’s face. Then he turned on his heel to prepare for the day ahead. “I have much to do before my time of glory arrives,” he told himself. “Let the world tremble. I know beyond all doubt that the Lord is on my side. If God be for the Nephilim, who can stand against us?”
Chapter 16—The Wheel Facts
Cassie stretched and gazed out the rear passenger window of the car.
“Before you even ask, ‘are we there yet,’” Griffin cautioned, “I believe we are.”
This was the second day of a two-stage journey by car. There were no direct flights from Lanzhou to their next destination of Luoyang which made a six-hundred-mile road trip the quickest way to get there. After spending the previous night in a hotel in Luoyang, they were now en route to the archaeological site of Erlitou which stood twenty-five miles outside the city.
During their trip, the landscape had changed from the mountains circling Lanzhou to green farmland. They were now traveling through the flat, fertile land along the lower reaches of the Yellow River which grew the crops that fed most of the nation.
Jun unexpectedly slowed the vehicle and pulled it over to the shoulder of the road next to what appeared to be farm acreage. Given the warmer climate of Henan, the cultivated furrows were already sending seedlings shooting toward the sun.
They all stepped out of the car and scanned the landscape. A series of plowed fields stretched in a level patchwork toward distant mountains.
“Where’s the dig site?” Cassie asked in a baffled tone.
“Here,” Jun replied matter-of-factly as he struck off across the field. “Follow me.”
The three silently complied, treading carefully in an effort not to disturb the young plants. After about five minutes, Jun stopped in front of a rammed earth retaining wall.
“Careful,” he cautioned, spreading his arms protectively to keep the rest from falling into a depression in the ground.
Cassie barely caught herself before taking a tumble. “You’d think somebody would put up a sign.”
They all paused to stare at the excavation. As archaeological sites went, it wasn’t particularly impressive. Piles of dirt were scattered around rectangular partition walls guarding a central depression which had been excavated a few feet below ground level.
“Isn’t anyone working here now?” Griffin seemed mildly surprised.
“Off and on,” Jun replied. “More off than on. The site is huge. It covers most of these surrounding fields. Objects have been found everywhere from here to the river.” He gestured toward the nearby Luo, a tributary of the Yellow River. “This dig has been active for several decades. Any artifacts discovered here were immediately sent off to museums.”
Cassie gave the excavation one more dubious glance. “Let’s see if I can get a reading from something.” She promptly crouched down beside the retaining wall and slid her fingers across its surface. Pictures flashed across her consciousness in rapid succession. She didn’t even bother to close her eyes, aware of both the intent expressions on her companions’ faces and the stream of images parading through her head.
A few seconds later, she smiled and stood up. “I got it.”
“What? Just like that?” Griffin sounded disappointed.
“I don’t know about you, but I can skip the bouts of nausea, dizziness, and pounding headaches,” she countered.
“Sorry.” His tone was mortified.
“What did you see?” Jun urged.
“Well, for starters, we’re standing right in the middle of what used to be an enclosed courtyard. I’m pretty sure this was the center of town because I got the impression that the power elites hung out here. There were three or four buildings—one-story tall with steep roofs. I could tell that one was a temple and the biggest one was a palace. But there’s a lot more.” She gestured toward the innocent-looking fields all around them. “There were peasant shacks and grain fields. And over by the river, there was some kind of metal-working operation off in an enclosure of its own. Then on the other side of the walled palace grounds was another bunch of fancy houses that belonged to the aristocrats.”
She frowned, concentrating. “The people who lived here weren’t like the ones I channeled before. Not like in Mohenjo-Daro or Dholavira. They didn’t pray to a goddess. They prayed to a human—the guy in charge. The ceremonies conducted in this courtyard were all about pleasing or placating whoever their king was. They were big on protocol and rituals. It was all very orderly and rigid and fearful.” She laughed grimly. “I didn’t like it.”
Her listeners were silent for a few seconds causing her to question her findings. “How’d I do?” she asked Jun timidly.
The trove keeper seemed taken aback by the volume of data
