“So, you’ve no idea where the Minoans left this.” Griffin appeared nonplussed.
A cloud of gloom settled over the little party.
Dee seemed unaffected by the dampened spirits of the trio. “Why the glum faces?” She stared pointedly at Cassie. “You can read the artifact, can’t you?”
“Oh, yeah. I forgot,” the pythia said sheepishly.
Her teammates traded concerned looks.
“Cassie, do you think that’s wise?” Griffin objected. “You don’t know what sort of history this object has picked up since the Minoans carved it.”
“Remember what happened in Turkey?” Erik hinted darkly.
“Guys, it’ll be alright. I already have a hunch that there’s no bad juju attached to it.” She held her hand out toward Dee. “Lay it on me,” she said simply.
The trove keeper complied.
The rock vanished from her hands. She was standing on a hill next to an abandoned city. It looked strangely familiar, like Mohenjo-Daro, only this wasn’t Mohenjo-Daro. She could tell that the surrounding landscape was different—mainly scrubby green bushes and scorched grass just beyond the city walls. As she gazed farther in the distance, she saw what looked like snow on the open plain encircling the town. It didn’t feel cold enough for snow. In fact, it felt downright sweltering. A strong wind was blowing in her direction. When the breeze hit her face, she could taste salt clinging to her lips. So, it wasn’t snow out there on the flats. It was salt. An entire desert of salt? She knew she wasn’t in Utah.
She turned away from the horizon to study the building to her right. All she could see was a featureless partition wall with an archway allowing access to the interior. Cassie felt an unaccountable urge to go inside. She stepped into a dim corridor only faintly illuminated by the sun outdoors. Wandering through a maze of small rooms and dead-end corridors, she became more disoriented the farther she traveled from the entrance. After stumbling along in near-total darkness, she turned a corner and saw a glow emanating from a doorway on her left.
Cassie followed the light and found herself inside a circular chamber topped by a flat roof made of wooden planks. She flashed back to the stupa-capped citadel at Mohenjo-Daro. Since all the IVC cities followed the same design, this must be a citadel tower too. As her eyes adjusted to the dim torchlight, she understood why she’d been drawn here. The Minoans stood clustered together watching their carver sculpt the lily emblem onto a stone embedded in the ground. It was one of a series of large rocks that had been laid end-to-end in a line that bisected the dirt floor of the circular room. Cassie noted that the sculptor had chosen to carve the lily on the middle stone in the line. At that moment, her eyes met those of the Minoan priestess. The old woman smiled gently at her and nodded.
The pythia blinked several times as she came out of her trance. The others were watching her intently, waiting to learn what she had discovered.
“First the good news,” she said. “I think I found the tower in the riddle.”
Griffin and Erik both relaxed visibly.
“Brilliant!” Griffin exclaimed. “A destination at last!”
Cassie continued. “The bad news is that it wasn’t an island tower like the riddle said. The town was out in the middle of nowhere, and I couldn’t see any landmarks. I don’t know where the heck I was.”
“Just describe what you saw,” Dee urged. “Maybe I’ll recognize the spot.”
Cassie sighed and dredged her memory for any relevant facts. “Well, for starters I know it was an IVC town because it reminded me of Mohenjo-Daro. I know it wasn’t Mohenjo-Daro though. Completely different landscape. I saw the Minoans. They were carving the lily onto a stone set into the floor of a tower. I’m guessing that it was an observatory—a circular room, not very high. The roof was less than seven feet above the ground.”
“The observatory had a roof?” Griffin asked in surprise.
“A flat roof made of planks of wood and there was a single hole drilled close to one edge. The design reminded me of a manhole cover, but I actually don’t know what the IVC people used it for.”
“Nor do I,” Griffin murmured, his mind clearly turning over possibilities.
“But the strangest thing I saw was outside of the city. At first, I thought I could see snow on the ground.”
“Snow!” her teammates exclaimed.
“Yeah. Freaky, right? The ground was covered with patches of white powder. But then I realized it was salt. I was looking at some kind of salt desert.”
“Salt?” Dee snapped to attention. “You said you saw a salt desert?”
Cassie nodded uncertainly.
The trove keeper leaped up and dashed to the computer on her desk. She started typing furiously. After a few seconds, she paused, waiting for search results. “Hah!” she exclaimed. “Just as I thought.” She beckoned the trio excitedly. “Everybody, come over and take a look at this.”
They clustered around her monitor. Dee tapped the screen for emphasis. “Cassie, is this what you saw?”
“That’s it!” The pythia felt elated. “That’s it exactly.”
Erik read the photo caption. “Great Rann Of Kutch.”
“It’s a salt marsh in the Thar Desert in Gujarat,” Dee said.
“Isn’t Gujarat near where the sunken city was found?” Cassie asked.
“Yes, the Gulf of Khambhat is right off the coast of Gujarat,” Griffin agreed. “Northwest corner of India. As it happens, the spot is very close to Karachi which we just left this morning. I don’t see how that helps us though. The riddle specifically mentioned an island tower. Cassie may have located the tower in question, but it’s hardly built on an island.”
“Oh, but it is,” Dee replied mysteriously. She looked like the proverbial cat who’d swallowed the canary. The trove keeper swiveled her chair around to face the Arkana team. “The Great
