Ark

Chapter 42

Maddock shone his light down the broad, gently sloping stone ramp that descended into the depths of the earth. Once again he felt the familiar thrill of excitement that came on the precipice of discovery. Despite whatever perils might lie ahead, and the very real dangers that followed behind them, he was now focused on the prize. Were they about to discover the source of perhaps the greatest legend in history? He moved forward, scanning every inch of the space ahead, watching for potential pitfalls, either natural or wrought by human hands. Their footsteps echoed in the hollow stone passage, every breath they took sounded like a thunderclap in the quiet of this domain that hadn’t felt the tread of feet in perhaps thousands of years.

“Maddock?” Bones said.

“Yes?”

“I’m sick of lava tubes. Too much sameness.” Bones reached out and rapped the wall, making a hollow thump that echoed in the wide passage.

“I think you’ve said that before.”

“I know. I just wanted to make sure you hadn’t forgotten. Next time we head off on one of your… adventures, let’s keep it above ground if we can.”

Maddock stopped cold. “My adventures? It was your family’s lost stone that got this started, you know.”

“Will you two cut it out?” Dima said. “There’s something up ahead.”

Maddock turned to look. Ten paces in front of them, the passageway divided.

“Decision time,” Bones said. “Let’s check it out.”

When they reached the spot where the passage split they stopped short. Here, the floor was strewn with bones and trinkets.

“What the…” Bones began.

“I think it’s a place of sacrifice,” Dima said. “Think about it. All the years people lived here, they must have figured out how to make the altar open up.”

“If they were using it for sacrifice, it would have opened every time they spilled blood on it,” Maddock said. “Unless it requires human blood.” He didn’t pursue that line of thinking any further.

Dima nodded, chin cupped in her hand, eyes taking in the scene. “I’ll wager this is as far as they dared go, so they left offerings here to appease, I don’t know, the god of the mountain?”

“That would make sense,” Maddock agreed. “In some ways, religion is a byproduct of humankind trying to control the uncontrollable. You make a sacrifice and pray for rain for your crops, or for safety from an erupting volcano.” He glanced up as if he could still see the steaming peak of Ol Doinyo Lengai.

“Or escape from your mortality,” Bones added.

“Let’s not get too deep into theology,” Dima said. “We need to decide our next move. Did Schrader offer any hints?”

“I think he finally lost it. He just kept muttering, ‘They came two-by-two.’ Nothing else.” Maddock picked his way across the bone-strewed floor and examined the entrances to the passageways one at a time, shining his light as far down each tunnel as he could He saw nothing amiss with any of them. “What am I missing?” he whispered. He shone his light on the space above the tunnel where he stood. His eyes caught a faint irregularity in the stone.

“Bones, take a look at this.”

“Let me guess, you need a boost.”

“No, just take a look tell me what you see.”

Bones moved to Maddock’s side, rose up on his tiptoes, and squinted. “There’s something scratched here. Looks like two animals. Doves, I think.”

“Two by two,” Dima said. “And the dove is a powerful symbol, connected with water and the spirit. Plus, Noah sent a dove out to see if the flood waters had subsided. This must be it.” She took a step forward but Bones held her back.

“Hold on, chick. There’s always a catch. First, we see if there’s an image above the other passageway.”

Dima frowned, her eyes flinty, but she didn’t argue.

Bones moved to the second passageway and inspected the rock directly above it. “Two pigs. Mmm, bacon.”

“I still say we go with the doves,” Dima said. “In the Old Testament, the pig is an unclean animal.”

“You’re right,” Maddock said. “And that’s why we should avoid the doves.”

Dima and Bones turned twin looks of bemusement his way.

“Come again?” Bones said.

“Schrader said they came two-by-two, but not all animals came onto the ark in two’s, did they?”

Dima smacked herself in the forehead. “I’m an idiot.”

Bones frowned. “If you are, then I’m even worse because I still don’t get it.”

“Noah needed animals for sacrifice,” she began, “but he could only use so-called ‘clean’ animals. Remember that bit from the Book of Noah? ‘Two by two and seven by seven.’ Obviously, if he brought only two clean animals and sacrificed one…”

“A miniature extinction event,” Bones said.

“Exactly. So while Noah brought two of every animal considered unworthy of sacrifice, he brought seven of every clean animal so he could make sacrifices without eliminating his breeding stock.”

“So,” Maddock said, “the doves didn’t come two-by-two, but the pigs did.” He moved to the tunnel where Bones stood, the one marked by the unclean animals, and took a deep breath. “Here goes nothing.” Taking one last, long look inside, he took a step.

The ceiling didn’t fall, the floor didn’t collapse, and nothing shot out of the walls to impale him. I’ve watched too many Indiana Jones movies. He took another step, and then another. When he’d taken a dozen, he felt safe enough to tell Bones and Dima the way was safe. They entered as slowly as he had, Dima clutching Bones’ arm.

“You might have saved my life, you know,” she said to Bones. “If you hadn’t stopped me from walking into that tunnel, who knows what might have happened?”

“Yeah, saving hot chicks is sort of my thing. You can thank me later.”

Shaking his head, Maddock moved on into the darkness.