They emerged from the rock canyons at last among tall grasses and miniature rock pillars where they were rewarded with a panorama of the countryside.
“I had no idea we’d climbed this high!” Daniel exclaimed.
“Bird’s eye view,” Cassie agreed.
Alma led them to a flat shelf of rock where they could all sit down and enjoy the scene below them. To their left, more hills sloped away toward the horizon. To their right, a green floodplain with patches of exposed red dirt stretched endlessly. Almost directly below them, the small town of Gunbalanya appeared hazy in the afternoon light, perched on the edge of a blue billabong.
Griffin took the granite key from Daniel. Turning to Cassie, he asked, “Are you ready?”
“As I’ll ever be,” the pythia replied. They had planned this strategy in advance. She held out her hand, took the stone cylinder and closed her eyes. She could feel Alma and Daniel watching her face intently. Scowling, as if to concentrate on some inner vision, she paused a few seconds for effect. Then she raised the cylinder and pointed off toward the horizon. Mimicking a trance state, she murmured, “Across another sea—a cold sea. That’s where they went. Not here. Never here.” She opened her eyes and sighed. “Sorry, guys. Our lead turned out to be a red herring.”
“A cold sea,” Alma echoed. “It’s possible they went further south.”
“No,” Cassie said half-to-herself. “It was north.”
The scout shook her head “It wouldn’t be cold that way. You’d be heading toward the equator.”
Cassie shut her eyes again. “Past the equator. I feel the distance between the Minoans and Injalak Hill is huge. Many seas from here, as they might say.”
Daniel scratched his head. “If we were to travel directly north of here, we’d arrive in the north Pacific.”
Cassie nodded vaguely. “That might be it. I’m not sure. We’ll have to check our archives again for more clues.” She handed the granite key back to Daniel.
Alma noted the lengthening shadows. “It’s getting late. We’ll have to leave now if we want to reach Darwin before dark.”
“Cahill’s Crossing isn’t the sort of place where I’d like to spend the night.” Cassie shivered at the thought.
“Right then,” the scout said. “Down we go.” She rose and selected a different trail than the one that had brought them to the crest.
Daniel followed close on the guide’s heels.
Cassie and Griffin hung back for a few moments.
“Do you think they believed us?” Griffin whispered.
“It doesn’t matter,” Cassie murmured as she hoisted her backpack to her shoulders. “This trip bought us time. Let’s hope it was enough to give the team at the vault a decent head start. If not...” she trailed off apprehensively. “I really don’t want to think about the alternative.”
Chapter 10—Celestial Sex Trafficker
Hannah nestled into her one-and-only comfy chair and reveled in the luxury of having something to read once more. Ever since her abduction by the Nephilim, non-religious books had been denied her. Reading Fallen texts was an occupation meant only for scholars, archwardens, and the diviner. No doubt, Father Abraham feared that exposure to unorthodox ideas might cause people to start thinking for themselves. The girl chuckled grimly—little chance of that happening here.
Shortly after her incarceration, Hannah had grown fretful and fidgety with nothing to occupy her mind. She begged Daniel to bring her a book. It didn’t matter what the topic was, so long as it wasn’t a sermon. She assumed he would smuggle her a single title but instead he brought her an ebook reader loaded with over two hundred volumes. The scion had gotten a list of her school subjects from Zachary and, with the help of his librarian friend Chris, had improvised a reading list for her. He’d also included a hefty fiction selection for fun. Even though the ebook reader had internet capability, Daniel warned her not to use the connection since the device might be traceable. No matter, there were enough books already downloaded to last her six months. With any luck, she’d be freed from the compound long before she ran out of subjects to explore.
Her eventual liberty now seemed assured. Daniel told her of the meeting between the Nephilim and the Arkana. Wonder of wonders, Father Abraham had agreed to let his enemies take her back temporarily as a hostage in exchange for the artifact they were all chasing. She smiled at the word “temporarily.” Once she was back in the outer world, the diviner would never catch her again.
Now that the scion was in contact with her friends outside, she asked him to bring her news about Granny Faye and Zach. She was relieved to learn that Zach had escaped unharmed but devastated that Granny Faye was in a coma. At least her guardian was still alive, and there was hope she might recover once the swelling from her head injury had subsided.
A knock on the door interrupted the girl’s reverie.
“Sister Hannah.”
She jumped to her feet and hurriedly stuffed the ebook reader behind a spare blanket in her closet.
Another knock. “I’m coming in.” The voice brooked no refusal. A key turned, the door opened, and Mother Rachel entered.
Hannah tensed. The diviner’s principal wife was nearly as daunting as Father Abraham himself. She was very tall and generally used her height advantage to look down her nose, both physically and morally, at everybody else.
The matron closed the door behind her and wheeled around to scrutinize Hannah. “Hello, Sister Hannah. You appear quite fit for a sick person.”
The girl made no reply. Instead, she assumed a blank facial expression.
Mother Rachel circled her, noting every aspect of her appearance. While Hannah had been forced to don the gray smock and white apron of a consecrated bride, her hair was too short to braid and wrap around her head in the prescribed manner. She still looked like one of the Fallen. In contrast, Mother Rachel’s braided hair formed a towering iron-gray beehive. She’d probably never cut it
