Stones of Fire

13

‘… the story of the Ark of the Covenant is an operatic drama played out on the stage of the biblical Holy Land,’ Cædmon continued in answer to Edie Miller’s question.

‘Operatic? Don’t you think you’re laying it on a bit thick?’

‘Not in the least. As you undoubtedly know, the Ark of the Covenant, or aron habrit in Hebrew, was an ornate chest roughly four feet long, two and a half feet wide, and two and half feet high —’ as he spoke Cædmon spanned his hands first in one direction, then another, approximating the proportions in mid-air ‘— inlaid with hammered gold. But what you may not know is that the Ark of the Covenant was constructed exactly like an Egyptian bark.’

‘Like the gold boxes I saw last year at the King Tut exhibit, right?’

‘Right down to the gold rim on the lid and the winged figures which adorned the top cover. Furthermore, the Egyptian bark and the Ark of the Covenant both had the same purpose: that being to contain their respective deities.’

Her brow furrowed. ‘But I thought the Ark of the Covenant was a container for the Ten Commandments. Are you saying that the Ark of the Covenant was some kind of magical God-in-the-box, like in that movie Raiders of the Lost Ark?’

Cædmon chuckled, amused by the question. ‘Just as the sacred Egyptian bark contained the might and majesty of Aten, so the Ark of the Covenant contained the power and glory of Yahweh. And, once contained, the only way to control all that cosmic power was for the high priest to shield himself with the Stones of Fire.’

Raising her steaming cup to her lips, his companion took several moments to digest what he’d just said. As she did, Cædmon surveyed the throng. Nothing appeared out of the ordinary, his eyes taking in a man pushing a wheelchair-bound octogenarian, a cleaner pushing a yellow bucket and a harried mother pushing a pram. Briefly he noticed two youths, one fuchsia-haired, the other tiger-striped, locked in a passionate embrace in front of the massive glass wall that fronted the waterfall.

‘Okay, we know what happened to the breastplate: it was confiscated by Nebuchadnezzar, hidden in Babylon and recently rediscovered and smuggled out of Iraq,’ Edie said, drawing his attention back to the matter in hand. ‘But what happened to the Ark of the Covenant?’

Ah, a woman after my own heart.

‘At some point after the construction of Solomon’s famous temple, the Ark of the Covenant disappears from the pages of the Bible. Whether captured, destroyed or hidden, its current whereabouts are unknown.’

She folded her arms across her chest. ‘Yeah, well, I seem to recall you saying the same thing about the Stones of Fire, but the breastplate managed to mysteriously turn up. And because of it, you and I are now in serious danger.’

Out of the corner of his eye, Cædmon noticed that the cleaner pushing the yellow bucket had suddenly turned in their direction.

Odd that the man was wearing military-style boots.

The man was also a muscular behemoth. ‘He was big. Really, really big. Steroid big.’

Recalling Edie’s earlier description of Padgham’s killer, Cædmon felt a prickling sensation on the back of his neck.

‘I am beginning to concur with your assessment,’ he murmured, his eyes still trained on the giant. The man removed his right hand from the mop handle and reached behind his back.

In that instant Cædmon saw the flash of a silver ring.

In the next instant he caught the dark flash of…

He squinted, the object coming into focus.

Bloody hell! The man had a gun!