Cibola

Chapter 14

So your friend Bones is on his way here and he’s bringing what?” Jade’s attention was fixed on the e-mail they had received from Dane’s friend, computer geek Jimmy Letson, and she was only halfway paying attention to what he’d told her.

“He says he’s found a gold disc with some kind of weird writing. He also has a bunch of pictures he took of cave paintings. He thinks you might be able to help him out.”

“Did you tell him we’re kind of busy here?” she asked, turning over another page. “Jimmy says the writing is something like Hebrew, but not quite. As if it’s an older form that grew out of something else. He’s identified a few phrases, and thinks given enough time he’ll be able to make some sense of it.”

“What do you make of the two artifacts we’ve found so far?” Dane turned the new piece over. It was almost the twin of the first one they’d found. Put together they made a quarter of a sphere. He wasn’t certain, but the writing seemed to flow across from one to the other — they seemed to be a match. “Do you think maybe there are eight of them, so it makes a sphere?”

“I don’t know,” Jade said, still focusing her attention on the papers. “There are only six symbols on the shield, which makes me think there are six pieces.”

“Six pieces, but seven cities,” Dane mused. He stroked his chin, feeling the stubble of a day’s growth. “Yucca House was quite ordinary, and not even a city. Chaco Canyon qualifies as a city, but not golden.”

“What are you getting at?”

“Just wondering what’s at the end of the rainbow.”

“Meaning?”

“I mean that obviously all seven ‘cities’ are not cities of gold or treasure. If your theory is correct, and all six locations point to a seventh, then is that where we find whatever it is Fray Marcos was hiding? And if so, what is it?”

“I wonder that myself,” Jade said. “The only legend I’ve uncovered is that of the Moorish treasure and the religious artifacts, although the idea of an eighth-century crossing of the Atlantic, followed by going halfway across America to hide something seems a bit far-fetched.”

“I’ve seen crazier. Trust me,” Dane said. “What do you…”

“Hey! It’s another e-mail from Jimmy,” Jade said. She took a moment to read the contents, printed it off, and handed it to Dane. “He’s managed to get what he thinks is a translation of the writing on the first piece.” She handed him the paper from his computer guru friend and stood back with her arms folded across her chest and watched him read.

“He’s right,” Dane said. “It doesn’t look like much. What do you make of it?”

“Nothing yet.”

A knock at the door interrupted her. Dane answered it and was surprised to see Saul standing in the doorway. He was covered in dirt, but otherwise looked no worse for the wear.

“What the hell, Saul?” Jade’s soft voice was razor sharp, and her eyes were ablaze. “You take off with my equipment, you don’t let me know where you are…” She stopped there, her hands in the air, looking as if she couldn’t decide whether to scream at him or strangle him. Finally, with an exasperated sigh, she waved him into the room and stalked out past him.

Saul watched her go before turning to Dane with a sheepish expression on his face.

“Guess I’m not on the invite list for her next soiree,” he said.

“Not likely,” Dane replied. He had no idea how to take Saul, but the guy at least seemed contrite. “She’s pretty stressed out, though. We have a translation from the artifacts we’ve found, but it doesn’t seem to mean anything.”

“You found another one?” Saul sat heavily on the corner of Jade’s bed. “And you have a translation?”

“Yeah,” Dane said. He felt a little strange telling Saul this, but he supposed there would be no harm. The translation was close to nonsense; at least, it was of no use to them being incomplete and out of context.

He handed the sheet to Saul who read it over silently, shook his head, and read it aloud.

“In the sepulchre, in the third course of stones. Under the tomb. In the chain platform. This is all of the votive offerings of the seventh treasure, the tenth is impure.” He looked at Dane, his expression unreadable. “It sounds like a treasure hunt. What could it be?”

“No idea,” Dane said, though his mind conjured possibilities, each more far-fetched than the other, that set his heart pounding. He supposed he was just a kid at heart. He loved the thought of unraveling a mystery.

“Who did the translation?” Saul was staring at the paper again, as if some secret were buried between the lines.

“A friend of mine,” Dane said. “Computer guy. He had some help.”

“And he’s certain of the translation?”

“As certain as he can be,” Dane said, feeling a touch of defensiveness rising. “He’s reliable, and very thorough.”

“No doubt,” Saul said. He gave Dane a long, measured look, and opened his mouth to speak when a loud knock drew their attention. Dane knew who it was immediately.

“Bones!” he said, swinging the door open. His friend grabbed him in a rough embrace and slapped him on the back.

“Maddock! Good to see you. How’s the latest adventure?” Before Dane could answer, a short, attractive brunette with the high cheekbones that spoke of native blood stepped up behind Bones. “This is Amanda,” he said. “I think I mentioned her to you.”

“Absolutely,” he said, shaking hands with Amanda. “Dane Maddock. Good to meet you.”

“Bones told me plenty about you on the drive here,” she said, smiling.

“Half of it’s not true and the other half’s a lie,” he replied. Remembering Saul, he turned and introduced him to Bones and Amanda. Dane had told Bones of his discomfort with Jade’s assistant, but Bones greeted Saul politely as they shook hands. Dane was about to ask about the find Bones had made in Utah when Jade re-entered the room.

“Oh, hi,” she said. Obviously her anger at Saul had distracted her. “Sorry. I’m Jade Ihara.” She offered her hand to Bones, who surprised Dane by neither hitting on her nor saying anything remotely inappropriate. He simply shook her hand and introduced himself and Amanda.

The two women shook hands politely, but eyed one another as if they were sizing each other up. After an uncomfortable pause, Jade invited them to sit.

“What’s the latest with Isaiah?” Dane asked. “How’s he doing?”

“Better. He’s in Denver staying with friends while he recoups. He wanted to go back to the dig, but it’s not his anymore, so…” Bones shrugged.

“So, where is the rancher guy you had with you?”

“Dropped him off with some relatives in Grand Junction,” Bones said, settling into a chair opposite Dane. “I think he’s going to be fine. He’s a tough old fellow.”

“That’s good,” Dane said. “So tell me about what you found in the cave.”

Bones reached into his jacket pocket and extracted something wrapped in cloth. He removed the cloth with great care, and laid the golden disc on the table. Bones had already described the disc to Dane, but seeing it was amazing.

He turned it over in his hand, narrowing his eyes the writing that spiraled around the golden circle. It was like nothing he’d ever seen before. Or was it?

Jade slid her chair against his and leaned in close. Her soft hair brushed his arm and her soft intake of breath seemed to tingle in his ear.

“Dane, she said. “The writing! Do you think it’s the same?”

She didn’t need explain what she meant by the same. It definitely looked to him to be the same writing they had found on the artifacts: a version of Hebrew. He couldn’t say for sure, but Jimmy could find out for them.

“I think they are the same,” he said. “It’s one hell of a coincidence, though. Bones finding this disc and us finding the artifacts…”

“It can’t be a coincidence,” she said. “They have to be connected somehow. We’ve got to get this translated.”

“I’ve already sent it to Jimmy,” Bones said.

“Did he tell you anything?” Jade asked, her eyes sparkling with enthusiasm.

“Yes. He told me he already had a real job, and if we keep dumping all this crap on him he was going to start charging us for it.”

Jade groaned and sank back in her chair. “I hate being stuck waiting around like this. I want something to do.”

“Bones told me you were trying to identify some symbols on an artifact.” Amanda said. ‘Perhaps a fresh set of eyes would be of some help.”

“Why not?” Jade said without much conviction. Dane wondered what had gotten her so down all of a sudden. The possibility that Bones and Amanda’s find could help them in their search had him feeling good about their prospects.

Jade brought out a high-resolution picture of the breastplate along with a set of papers. Each paper had an image from the breastplate at the top and a list of notes, thoughts and possibilities were jotted below.

“We’ve solved these two,” she explained, indicating the moon-like icon that represented Chaco Canyon and the jagged promontory that was the foot of Sleeping Ute Mountain. “We believe that each has some association with solstices or equinoxes. We’ve also found Fray Marcos’s personal symbol, a cross inside a clover, at each location. Dane noticed that the layout of the second site, Yucca House, was clover-shaped as well.”

Saul grunted in surprise and everyone turned to stare at him.

“What?” Jade asked her voice still cold with anger at her assistant.

“Well,” Saul said, hanging his head, “I guess now is as good a time as any to tell you. I figured out another of the clues.”

“Which one? Where?” Jade asked.

“This icon here,” Saul said, pointing to the image that reminded Dane of the palace of an evil sorcerer. “It’s Ship Rock. It’s not shown from the angle that most people see in photographs, but it’s definitely Ship Rock.”

“Heck, I could have told you that,” Bones said, rocking back in his chair and grinning. “It looks like Dracula’s castle. It’s wicked cool.”

“Bones, I e-mailed you a picture of the breastplate several days ago,” Dane said. “Why didn’t you say something?”

“I didn’t know then!” he said, still smiling. “But I saw that thing in the distance as we were driving down here, and that’s the first thing I thought of just now when Jade showed us the picture.”

Jade buried her face in her hands. For the first time, Dane noticed that her knuckles were scarred — probably from field work.

“We drove down that long stretch of highway with Ship Rock in our sights and never once did I even think about it. All I had my mind on was Yucca House and wondering where Saul had gone, and I didn’t even notice it.”

“It doesn’t matter now,” Dane said. “What’s important is we know where to find another piece of the puzzle.”

“It’s not that simple,” Saul mumbled. “When I got caught trying to get onto Sleeping Ute Mountain they took me in for questioning, but let me go after I convinced them I was just a flaky New-Ager trying to have a spiritual moment. While I was there, a photograph on the wall caught my eye. It was Ship Rock from the perspective you see on the breastplate.

“I thought about trying to climb it, but then I considered the solstice connection. I remembered that white settlers used to call it “The Needle” and wondered where the shadow of the most prominent point would fall at the various solstices. I found a library with internet access and started poking around with satellite images until I found a promising location: a formation of three hills and a butte that made a clover shape. I didn’t have any way to perform the calculations necessary to test my theory, so I figured I’d check it out.”

Everyone was silent. Even Jade was now listening attentively, her previous anger abated.

“When I got there, I found a kiva right smack in the center, hidden by scrub and yucca. The roof was gone, of course, but when I cleared away the rubble, I found that the sipapu, you know, the ceremonial hole in the center, had been sealed. Or rather, it once had been sealed. The seal with Fray Marcos’s symbol was lying broken off to the side. Anyway, there was a box like the one Maddock found at Chaco. Empty.” He shrugged as his tale came to an end. “Somebody else found it. Probably the same guys we saw before.”

Jade swore and covered her face with her hands.

“Well, at least we have two of the pieces,” Dane said.

“May I see the ones you already have?” Amanda asked.

Jade brought Amanda the pieces, and Amanda laid them on the table, pushing them together to form a quarter of a sphere.”

“You know what this looks like to me? One of those Egyptian beetles.”

Dane stared at the piece which now was looking oddly familiar to him, but he could not name the shape.

“A scarab,” Jade breathed. “Most are ornate, but this one is plain. That’s why it was not readily obvious to us what it was.”

“I see it now,” Dane said, feeling both excited and confused. “The ridges around the bottom are the legs.” He thought for a moment. “There are six symbols on the breastplate, which means that the scarab was cut into six pieces. When we find them all, we’ll have the entire message. Or at least, we’ll have five out of six pieces. If Jimmy translates it all, I’ll bet we can still make something of it.” He paused, mulling over this odd discovery. “But why would someone take a scarab — an Egyptian artifact, write some lines in Hebrew on it, cut it up, and hide it in America?”

“The legend does say that they hid treasures of religious significance,” Jade said. “And there was frequent interaction between the Hebrew kingdom and that of the Egyptians. Perhaps this scarab was a part of that treasure.”

“Weird,” Bones said. “It’s not how I imagined the cities of gold.” His face tautened. “Wait a minute…”

“What?” Dane asked.

“Dude, does this mean we’re going after another Bible treasure?”

“Whatever it is,” Jade interjected, “we need to keep up the search. We’ve already lost one of the clues. I don’t want to slow down and risk missing any of the others.”

“Do you have any ideas on the other locations?” Amanda asked, mulling over the icons.

“Nothing definitive,” Jade said. “This one,” she indicated a tower-shaped structure, “is not distinctive-looking, but it could be one of a number of structures at Mesa Verde.”

Bones whistled. “Talk about a needle in a haystack. That place is huge. How many ruins are there?”

“Oh, about six-hundred cliff dwellings and four thousand or so archaeological sites,” Jade replied. “But I’ve scoured the maps, and it’s the only likely location. Plus, I’ve used the solstice connection to narrow the search, and I have a few ideas.” She smiled. “Shall we pack?”