As the four approached the center of town, Cassie let out an unexpected laugh. Pointing to her left, she said, “I guess we won’t need to ask directions to Shaman Rock.”
Two immense stones shaped like jagged shark’s teeth jutted upward at a height of at least a hundred feet. The formation appeared to be surrounded by water except for a narrow dirt causeway that connected it to Olkhon Island like an umbilical cord.
“That is Shaman Rock,” Olga confirmed. “It is one of the most famous sights of Lake Baikal.”
The curious landmark had attracted the attention of several tourists who were already clambering over its surface and snapping pictures. One venturesome teenager had climbed to the top, cell phone in hand, recording the view from the summit. Though Shaman Rock wasn’t particularly high, he crowed with as much triumph as if he’d just scaled Mount Everest.
Cassie’s heart sank on approach. During every previous stage of their quest, she’d always been able to tell if the Minoans had been nearby. Either her psychic powers were misfiring or... She censored the thought, unwilling to consider the alternative.
Olga led them across the causeway to the base of the rock. “The cave is in the middle, between the two stones. You cannot see it from this side. We will have to climb there.”
Daniel, Griffin, and Olga all began their ascent with Cassie bringing up the rear.
As the pythia grabbed hold of an outcropping to hoist herself up, a surge of electricity shot through her arm and sent her flying backwards into the air.
She was falling through space. The beach around her dissolved into darkness but the darkness was alive with bizarre shapes. Some were recognizable as humans or animals but other forms melted together into outlandish creatures that never existed in nature. Beasts resembling gargoyles flapped their leathery wings. Bears with glowing red eyes lunged at her. Disembodied skulls spoke. Distorted human shadows whirled in a mad dance against cave walls. Her ears swam with a roar of sounds to match the chaotic images rising before her eyes. Birds screeched, wolves howled, horses screamed, people chanted. She thought her head would burst from the pressure of it all. One voice asserted itself above the rest. “Cassie! Cassie! Can you hear me?” It was Griffin. She followed the sound back to consciousness.
The pythia blinked several times. She found herself sprawled on the sand at the base of the rock. Three faces were peering down at her anxiously.
“She is awake,” Olga reported to the others.
“Thank goddess!” Griffin helped her sit upright.
Cassie clutched her head.
“Should we go for help?” the scrivener demanded urgently. “Is there anything we can do?”
“No, just give me a minute,” the pythia replied, rubbing her temples.
The trio regarded her in tense silence, waiting for an explanation.
“I should have seen that coming,” she admitted dolefully.
“Wh... Wh... What was that about?” the scion quavered. “Nothing like this happened to you in Japan.” Daniel stared at her as if she were a ticking time bomb.
“Every place has its own quirks,” Cassie explained. “Remember when we were in Australia and I didn’t want to touch any of the rock paintings on Injalak Hill?”
The scion nodded. “Yes, you said something about too many lives in the paintings, too much static. You thought you might become disoriented.”
The pythia contemplated the stone landmark wryly. “This was more than static. Shaman Rock is one big honking tainted artifact all by itself. The second I touched it, I knew I was in trouble, but it was already too late. Everything came rushing toward me at once. It was like switching on a radio, but instead of getting one station, I got a thousand stations all transmitting on the same frequency. And it wasn’t just the shamans who were flying through the airwaves at me. I got all the weird stuff they conjured during their trances—things from their own imaginations or whatever freaky alternate dimensions they visited. I sensed things that don’t exist in this reality—skin-walkers, demons, animal spirit guides, talking corpses. Not to mention astral projection and blood sacrifices and dancing and chanting and drumming. All of it happening at once.” She groaned and rubbed her eyes. “I’ve never done drugs, but I think a bad acid trip might feel exactly like this.”
The pythia hesitated before adding apologetically, “Guys, I’m sorry, but I can’t climb Shaman Rock.”
“But how will we search it without you?” Olga seemed nonplussed.
“Someone should stay here to make sure you’re alright,” Griffin said.
“I’m fine,” Cassie insisted. “You all go on ahead and scope out the cave the old fashioned way—with your eyeballs. I’ll wait on the beach.” She rose shakily and retreated across the causeway. Selecting a spot several yards away, she sat down on the gravel-strewn shore and gave her teammates an encouraging thumbs-up.
The others returned to their climb, disappearing into a crevice between the two rocks. About fifteen minutes later, they reemerged, clambered back down, and walked over to join her.
“No lily symbol in the cave,” Daniel reported, crouching next to Cassie. “It wasn’t very big, so it didn’t take long to search. Nothing that looked like a niche where an artifact might have been hidden either.”
“I didn’t think so.” The pythia cupped her chin in her hands.
Griffin sat down to Cassie’s left and studied her with concern. “Still having trouble shaking off your vision?”
“That’s not it.” The pythia raised her head and gave him a dispirited glance. “There’s nothing here for us.”
“Are you sure?” Olga demanded urgently. “This is a place of magic. There must be something.”
“Oh, there’s magic alright.
