“Not to change the subject, Lars,” Daniel hinted. “But you were telling us about the Saami?”
“Of course,” their guide agreed affably. “The Saami tribes came from Siberia like all the gatherer-hunters in the northern lands. Their shamans practice many of the same rituals. You can think of them like your Native Americans. The Saami even live in what you call teepees.”
“Do they look like Native Americans?” the scion asked. “I mean Asiatic.”
“No, they are Caucasian—pale skin, light-colored hair, and eyes. But they were treated just as badly as your Indian tribes.”
Griffin picked up the narrative. “When the Battle-Axe Culture first arrived in Scandinavia around 3000 BCE, the glaciers had receded enough to uncover more ground in the polar region. This opened up additional grazing land for reindeer, so the Saami simply moved out of reach of the invaders. The overlords had little use for gatherer-hunters or herders. They were primarily interested in conquering tribes of farmers who could be enslaved to work the land. Consequently, the Saami kept their distance in the northernmost tier of the Norse countries as well as the Kola Peninsula of Russia.”
Lars continued. “The Saami homelands are called Lapland and span all of northern Scandinavia above the Arctic Circle. The overlords carved up that territory anyway and added it to their domains which meant the herders fell under their control. After Christianity arrived in this part of the world, the overlords became eager to make the Saami behave like everybody else. By the 1700s, the herders were forced to convert to the Lutheran religion. The drums of their shamans were seized or destroyed. The people were forbidden to live in their traditional dwellings or keep reindeer herds. They were commanded to send their children to overlord schools and even banned from speaking their native tongues.”
“I seem to recall reading that a few Saami languages are completely extinct and several more are endangered,” Griffin said.
“That is so.” Lars sighed. “The governments are not mistreating the tribes anymore, but nowadays the problem is mining and logging. Often there is a profit to be made from the lands where the Saami graze their herds.”
“Yeah, we’ve heard that story before,” Cassie noted gloomily. “From all over the planet.”
“I suppose we should be grateful that modern overlords aren’t quite as barbaric as their predecessors.” Griffin’s tone was sarcastic. “Ancient overlords would simply have slaughtered the people and taken their land.”
“There’s no need to resort to violence in this day and age,” Daniel said. “Now interlopers can accomplish the same thing with the stroke of a pen instead of a battle-axe.”
His offhand comment made both Cassie and Griffin glance at one another in surprise. Neither one chose to point out the overlord tendencies of Daniel’s own cult.
Just then, a snow-capped mountain loomed into view on the opposite side of the lake. “What’s that?” Cassie cried abruptly, pointing out the window.
“That is Ahkka Mountain,” Lars informed her. “She is also called the ‘Queen of Lapland.’ The word ‘Ahkka’ means both ‘old woman’ and ‘goddess’ in the Lule Saami language.”
“I suppose that tells me who the supreme deity of the Saami is,” Daniel said.
“Yes,” the guide agreed. “They say Grandmother Ahkka created everything. Of course, there are many other goddesses and gods in Saami belief too.”
“The Saami religion is animistic with a reverence for the spiritual energies of all life,” Griffin said. “In that respect, it’s quite similar to the philosophy of Japanese Shinto.”
“This is impossible!” Daniel broke in.
“What is?” Cassie asked.
“Look at the size of that mountain. It keeps getting bigger the closer we get.”
“Ahkka isn’t a single mountain,” Griffin told him. “I’ve done some additional research and discovered that it’s a massif with twelve peaks and ten glaciers. The range contains the eighth and ninth tallest peaks in Sweden at roughly 6,500 feet. Its highest peak also has the steepest vertical drop. The distance to the lake below is over 5,200 feet.”
Daniel turned around in his seat to stare at the scrivener. “Was that supposed to make me feel better?”
“You must not fret, Mister Daniel,” Lars said soothingly. “We will go first to Stortoppen. That is the tallest peak, and there is a special place high up where we may find what you are seeking right away.”
The scion frowned, apparently not convinced that the Queen of Lapland would reveal her secrets quite so easily.
They drove on until the van was directly in line with the mountain. With each succeeding mile, Cassie’s smile broadened.
Griffin noticed her expression. “Are you sensing something?”
“Bigtime. The Minoans were here. I’m sure of it.”
“That’s something, I suppose,” Daniel grumped.
A few minutes later, they arrived in the small village of Ritsem which was little more than a supply station for tourists.
Lars unexpectedly pulled the minivan into a gravel parking space next to the water. “We are here,” he announced happily. “Everybody out.”
They exited the van and stood contemplating their whereabouts with some confusion.
“I thought you said we were going to drive to the mountain,” the scion commented. “It’s across the lake.”
“We cannot drive to Ahkka Mountain,” Lars said. “There are no roads in Stora Sjofallet National Park.”
“What!” Cassie and Daniel both exclaimed in unison.
“Do you expect us to hike?” the pythia asked in disbelief. “It looks like it would take days to reach the top of that mountain from here.”
“Oh, yes,” Lars assented. “It would take days of walking and climbing.”
“Then how are we supposed to get there?” Daniel’s voice held a note of desperation.
Griffin turned the scion around so that he was facing a helicopter sitting on a tiny asphalt pad a short distance up the shore. “I believe Lars intends us to fly.”
Chapter 39—Artifact Retrieval on a Large Scale
Daniel and Cassie gawked at the helicopter positioned a short distance away from their vehicle. Lars had already gone ahead to speak to the pilot.
“Flying to the top of the mountain certainly makes the most sense,” the scion admitted.
The trio unloaded their gear, stocking fresh bottles of water from
