The Minoan Cipher

CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

The castle perched on a hill overlooking the wind-swept plains of the sparsely-populated central region of the Iberian Peninsula was known as, Castillo de Cuernos, or Castle of the Horns. The guidebooks said that the name was derived from the cattle farms that once surrounded the castle. Most of the grazing land had been turned over to olive and grape cultivation, but the farmland hadn’t been tilled for decades; all that was left in the sere soil were blackened vines and twisted tree trunks.

A river ran past the castle, and in the heyday of agricultural production, boats transported goods from the fields and vineyards to market along the winding waterway. Workers lived in a bustling village built on the bank of the river, but the settlement had long ago been abandoned.

The figure in black stood on the east tower of Castillo de Cuernos, eyes fixed on a star-like pinpoint of light that rapidly grew in brightness. The pulsating sound of air being thrashed echoed across the plains and the star materialized into a helicopter that came in low over the parapets. The rotor air-wash blew back the hood to reveal the marble white features of Lily Porter. Circling the castle once, the helicopter hovered, then dropped into the courtyard. By then, Lily was in an elevator on her way to the base of the tower. She stepped out into the courtyard and strode through the cloud of dust that the rotors had kicked up. The fuselage door opened, a ladder flipped out and two Priors maneuvered a stretcher through the opening.

Kalliste lay on the stretcher, her body covered with a blanket and tied down with nylon straps. The restraints were necessary because she was starting to come out of the deep sleep induced by the powerful drugs injected into her bloodstream. Lily gazed down at Kalliste, awe-struck at her beauty. She had truly earned her name: the fair one. But Lily’s appraisal was the cold assessment of a farmer admiring the perfect features on an animal before sending it off to slaughter.

Locked within that still body was the dangerous DNA going back to King Minos.

The sacrifice that had been delayed for thousands of years would at last be accomplished. Kalliste would be the end of the Minos line. The Mother Goddess would have more blood than she could drink, and as a reward would bestow unimaginable blessings on the Way of the Axe.

She leaned close to Kalliste’s ear. “Don’t be afraid,” she whispered. “It’s me, your friend Lily.”

Kalliste’s eyes remained closed, but her lips parted slightly.

“Your friend Hawkins wants to come to you. Tell me where he is.”

Kalliste scrunched her eyelids tight but made no reply. Lily leaned over and placed her hand on Kalliste’s shoulder.

“Tell me, Kalliste. Tell me where Hawkins is.”

The lips remained silent.

Lily shook Kalliste’s shoulder, but to no avail. She felt her phone vibrating in her robe pocket. She recognized the number on the caller ID. It belonged to the nurse at the Paris sanitarium where the High Priestess was being treated. She ordered the stretcher-bearers to go on.

“This had better be important,” she said into the phone.

She heard a sob, followed by the whispered words, “She’s gone.”

Lily needed no more detail to know what happened. The Head Priestess had died. Lily knew after her last visit that this day would come, but the announcement was still a shock.

“When?”

“Minutes ago. In her sleep. The monitors flat-lined. It was too late to bring her back. What should I do?”

“Have you talked to anyone else?”

“Only you.”

With icy calm, Lily said, “Prepare the body immediately for transport. Alert the security detail to be ready. I’ll be in Paris tonight to escort the High Priestess home.”

As she clicked off, grief washed over Lily, but not for long. With the death of the crone, Lily would become the new High Priestess. Her word would be law. She looked down at Kalliste and said to the Prior holding the front of the stretcher, “How much longer will she sleep?”

“Several hours. Longer, if we inject more drugs, but that could be dangerous.”

“Take her to the Maze. Keep her unconscious until I get back, but she must not come to any harm.”

She watched the Priors carry the stretcher toward the shrine entrance and considered the moves she would make after she had been made High Priestess. She had quietly watched Salazar gather together his private army. She knew of his conversations with the corporate managers. He had been subtle, hinting that change was needed, but she wasn’t fooled. Salazar wanted to take over the Auroch corporate empire.

When the first High Priestess had arrived on Spanish shores, she had needed the help of the local inhabitants to consolidate her hold. The Salazars had lent their services as thugs for hire, and the relationship had worked for centuries. The Salazar family became the public face of the mining company that evolved into Auroch. But behind the curtains, the Maze pulled the strings.

Lily would deal with Salazar at the Gathering, when her spirit would merge with all those who came before her, going back to the first High Priestess. But the loss of the translation device worried her. As long as the machine was out of her control, the possibility existed that someone would figure out how to use it to translate Linear A.

This must never happen. That rule had been drilled into her head since she was a girl, then later as a promising young priestess. For thousands of years those who followed the Way of the Axe had communicated in the ancient script, secure in the knowledge that its secrets were safe from prying eyes. The script bound them together, shielding from public view the horrifying theology of blood that had allowed them to expand their wealth and influence. Anyone who came close to decoding the script was dealt with in the same way — sudden death, made to look accidental. The practice had worked. Until now. Until Kalliste and her friend Hawkins interfered.

She needed to find Hawkins and the device. She had sensed that he and Kalliste were close when she met him in the Cadiz hotel. Kalliste would be the perfect bait to lure him to the Maze. Lily would have to be careful, though. Hawkins had shown that he was no fool.

She gazed at the Tripartite Shrine for a moment, absorbing the power of the Mother Goddess that seemed to flow from the three-towered building that housed the entrance to the Maze. Then she climbed into the helicopter, barked an order to the pilot, and started off on the first leg of her trip to bring the body of the High Priestess back home to rest with the others.