Dourado

CHAPTER 23

Dane, Bones, Kaylin, and Meriwether crept along the pathway that led down into Petra. The full moon cast odd shadows among the tombs and dark recesses in the walls. In the places where the pathway narrowed significantly, the darkness was almost complete.

“What do you think we’re going to find?” Bones whispered, looking around.

“Hopefully, a doorway of some sort,” Dane answered in a hushed voice. He was not certain what they would discover, but he had a strong suspicion. “The carving in the center,” he began.

“The one you believe represents Goliath?” Kaylin asked.

“Right. You notice he’s facing forward, but the others are all facing sideways. Well, there’s another difference.” He paused, waiting to see if anyone was thinking along the same lines. “His shield is different, as well. It’s much smaller, perfectly round, and held at the very center of his body.”

“You’re right,” Bones said after a moment. “I didn’t really think about it at the time, but it does look…wrong.”

Dane held up a hand to silence everyone as they approached the dig site. Though the discovery had initially caused a bit of a stir, it had quickly become business as usual in an area rife with history. Only one person, an archaeology student from Tel Aviv, minded the site. The term “minded” was used loosely, Dane thought, as the young man was apparently asleep in his tent, a good fifty yards away.

They crept closer to the site, moving cautiously so as not to disturb the sleeping scientist. They cautiously made their way around the ceremonial well, gaping black in the darkness, and walked to the center of the wall.

Dane knelt in front of the center figure of the carving, produced a small flashlight, and shone its tight beam on the carved shield. After a brief inspection, he put the flashlight between his teeth, stood, and grasped the shield with both hands. Meriwether and Kaylin added their flashlight beams to his. His heart pounded. He hoped this would work.

He gave the shield a great twist to the right, grunting with the effort. Nothing happened. He took a breath and tried again, with the same result.

“What do you think?” Bones whispered.

Dane did not answer. He was thankful that the darkness kept the others from seeing the redness in his face. He had been so certain. What if…

He grasped the shield again, and this time twisted counterclockwise. The stone held fast. He threw every ounce of his strength into the effort, until he could feel the veins in his head bulging. He was about to give up when he felt the stone give. Slowly, inch by inch, the shield rotated. It spun a full quarter turn to the left before grinding to a firm halt. Dane let out the breath he had held, and then pulled. The shield came free in his hands. His eyes widened with excitement when he saw what lay in the center of the carving.

Where the shield had hung in the middle of the warrior’s chest was what could only be described as a giant keyhole. It was a large, iron circle, with a vertical slot slicing through the center. It appeared to Dane to be rust-free, and in good condition, protected by the dry climate. The others pushed forward to examine it more closely.

“How do we open it?” Kaylin whispered, running a long, slender finger around the edge.

Dane paused, taking a moment to gently lay the stone shield on the ground. Perhaps he should be nervous, but having been correct about the shield, he was even more confident in his hypothesis. He removed the scabbard and slid the sword free.

“Ahh,” Bones intoned, understanding now evident in his voice. Dane shone his light along the length of the blade, examining it carefully. He then turned the light onto the keyhole and inspected it. Satisfied, he took the sword’s hilt in both hands, and leveled it at the keyhole. He rotated it so that the serrated edge faced up, and before doubts could arise, he thrust it forward.

The sword slid home with a scarcely audible hiss. Kaylin gasped as the blade disappeared into the slot. Dane pushed it in until it stopped about ten inches short of the hilt. He let go of the hilt and grasped either side of the cross guard. He first tried turning it counterclockwise, as he had done the shield, but the sword held fast. He then twisted it clockwise. Nothing. He gave it another twist, and felt something give. Slowly, the sword turned in the keyhole, rotating a half-turn. It halted with a metallic clank, followed by the sound of something behind the wall snapping into place. In the silence of the night, the noise sounded like a thunderclap. All four of them jerked their heads toward the darkened tent, but saw no evidence of anyone stirring. Suddenly, Dane felt the sword being pulled from his grip.

He turned to see the carving of Goliath recede into the wall, revealing inky blackness on either side. Instinctively, he had tightened his grip on the sword when he first felt the tug, and he was pulled off-balance, stumbling toward the dark opening. He loosed his grip on the cross-guard, and felt someone grab his belt, steadying him.

“That was graceful,” Dane said, looking back at Bones, who had caught him. “Are we ready to go in?” he asked the group. They all nodded in affirmation. In the dim flashlight glow, he could see that each of them wore the same look: a mix of wonder and excitement.

“You do the honors,” Bones said, motioning for Dane to lead them into the inky blackness behind the wall.

He stepped through the narrow space between the receded carving and the wall. He played his light around in front of him, involuntarily sucking in his breath at what he saw.

“What is it?” Bones whispered, concern in his voice. “Are you all right?”

“Get in here,” Dane said. The others were quickly at his side, shining their lights in front of them.

The cavern was enormous. From the wall behind them, the ceiling swept upward at a sharp angle, peaking about fifty feet above their head. Dane played his light down the wall, revealing a stone well, the twin of the one outside, and five huge, lidless stone coffins fanned out along the wall behind the well. He took a step forward, and then remembered the sword. He turned to see that Bones had already removed it from the keyhole. Accepting the blade from his friend, he returned it to the scabbard.

Meriwether scrutinized the back of the door.

“It’s actually a very simple mechanism,” he said with surprise. “It’s counterweighted and set in a track. Whoever forged the sword didn’t make this.” He sounded disappointed and more than a bit puzzled.

Kaylin moved ahead of the others to inspect the well. She shone her flashlight down into the blackness. Dane joined her, and peered down into the depths of the hole. Far below, he could see the glint of their beams on water. He heard a faint gurgle.

“An underground river,” Kaylin whispered, “and look!” She focused her light at water level. Dane could barely make out an archway on either side of the well shaft. “It’s more than just a ceremonial well. There’s something down there. A tunnel?” she mused.

“I don’t know,” Dane said. “But this must be how Rienzi got into the tomb without having the sword to unlock it.”

“How did he climb up?” Kaylin asked, frowning.

Bones stepped up to the opposite side of the well and squinted down.

“Ha! I thought so. Turn off your flashlights.” Dane, Kaylin, and Meriwether extinguished their lights, leaving the depths of the well illuminated only by the light of Bone’s flashlight, which he held above his shoulder, pointing down at an odd angle.

“If you look at it in just the right way,” he explained, “you can see handholds carved up one side. I’ll bet the well outside is the same.”

Dane tilted his head and moved to his right until, as if by magic, a series of small, oval shadows appeared on the wall. “So whoever made this place sealed it up, and climbed out through the wells.”

“But what’s beyond here?” Kaylin asked.

“Why do you think there’s anything else to see?” Meriwether asked, placing his meaty hands on the rim of the well and leaning forward. “Perhaps this is all there is.”

“The tunnel goes both directions,” Kaylin explained. “I think if we were to climb down and follow the river, we’d find more.”

“Why don’t we take a look at what’s in here, first?” Dane suggested, turning to face the coffins. He walked to the coffin on the right, and shone his light down inside.

The coffin contained a large, humanlike skeleton. The man must have been nine feet tall, with a broad chest and shoulders. The bones were intact, but appeared to Dane to be brittle. Behind Dane, Bones whistled softly. The man had been buried in full Bronze Age armor. His arms were crossed over his chest, and his sword lay behind him. Though all that remained of him was a hollow shell, he seemed to exude power.

“This one in the center has no head,” Meriwether said.

Dane and the others hurried to the Admiral’s side. The skeleton was the twin of the one they had just inspected, or at least from the shoulders down, he thought.

“I guess we’ve found our friend Goliath,” Dane said. He gripped the edge of the open stone coffin and silently gazed upon the remains of the legendary warrior. He realized, after a few moments, that he was holding his breath. Goliath! Even when they had recovered the sword, he had not truly believed that it was Goliath’s weapon. It was a remarkable and mysterious artifact, to be sure, but to be proof that a biblical tale was factual? The idea had been hard for him to swallow.

He had never been a religious man. After Melissa died, he gave up on any notion of a loving god looking down on creation. But now, looking down upon the remains of the unfortunate half of the children’s bible story, he wondered what it all meant.

Beside him, Kaylin fell to her knees and crossed herself, like a good Catholic. Bones and Meriwether knelt down on either side of her, the full impact of what they were seeing evident in their faces.

“It’s true,” Kaylin whispered, tears running freely down her cheeks. “We did it. I wish Dad could be here.”

“He’s here,” Meriwether whispered, putting his arm around Kaylin’s shoulder, and giving her a grandfatherly hug. She laid her head against him and continued to gaze in disbelief at Goliath.

Dane did not say anything. They had proved that Goliath was a historical figure, but that was all. It did not prove anything about God, or life after death, or anything else. He was not selfish enough to say so, not when Kaylin needed to believe it. He stood in silence, and tried not to imagine that Melissa was looking over his shoulder.

“It’s not enough,” Bones suddenly said, raising his head to look at the others.

“What?” Meriwether asked, fixing him with a quizzical glance.

“This doesn’t answer everything. There’s got to be more somewhere.”

Dane nodded. He understood exactly what Bones was saying. He was feeling the same lack of…completeness was the only word he could think of to describe it.

“We know that this is Goliath’s sword,” Dane said. “We know how Rienzi got it. But it doesn’t explain the sword itself: how it was made, what the writing signifies.”

“Not to mention,” Bones added, “why the writing on it pointed to this location.”

“Because Goliath and his brothers are buried here,” Kaylin said, a look of bewilderment painted upon her face.

“No,” Dane said. He turned the conundrum over in his mind as he spoke. “According to the bible, David took Goliath’s sword after he slew him. The priests kept it for a while, and then David took it for himself when he needed a sword. Obviously, the Philistines recovered it some time later. Which means…”

“Which means that either the writing was etched into the sword long after Goliath was dead,” Meriwether interrupted, his face aglow with understanding, “which is unlikely, considering none of our tools could do a thing to it, or it was etched into the blade when the sword was forged.”

“Meaning that the coordinates for this location point to something else,” Dane said. By the time he had finished saying it, he was certain. There was more to be discovered.

“You’re right,” Kaylin said. “Why would you put directions to a gravesite on the sword, and then bury the sword in that same grave?” She stood and put her hands on her hips, looking around. “So what now?”

“I don’t know about you three, but right now, I’d like to find a way out of here,” Bones said. “We’ve got company,” he whispered.