The Minoan Cipher

CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX

Kalliste was living the dream of every archaeologist who’d scraped dirt off a piece of ancient pottery. She had stepped through a time warp, traveled thousands of years into the past and was seeing the Labyrinth not as a pile of reassembled stones that only hinted at its grandeur, but as it actually was.

She would feel better if the dream had not turned into a nightmare. As Lily led her through the network of passageways and rooms, the Daemons padded behind them. She tried to pretend that the living griffins were simply very large canines. But the massive heads and cruel jaws, the skull-like faces and powerful haunches, were not likely to bring them “Best in Show” at Westminster.

She touched the medallion hanging from her neck.

Lily noticed the gesture. “You have nothing to worry about as long as you’re wearing the pendant.”

“Your pets still make me nervous. Do they need to follow so closely?”

Lily said something in a strange language. The hell hounds bounded off like spaniels chasing a rabbit and disappeared through a darkened doorway.

“What language were you speaking?” Kalliste said.

“A form of ancient Minoan. I told the puppies to resume their patrol duties. Well, what do you think of the Labyrinth?”

“I’m stunned at its sophistication. Who built it?”

“The first High Priestess and her followers. They wanted something greater than Knossos to please the Mother Goddess and to serve as the administrative center of a growing empire.”

“It sounds like an old English Priory, where religious and secular interests merged.”

“That’s exactly what Knossos was until the king went against the High Priestess, who conveyed the word of the Mother Goddess, and had to be disposed of.”

Detecting a tightness in Lily’s voice, Kalliste changed the subject. “Why is it here in Spain, so far from Crete?”

“The volcanic disaster had ruined the island. There were famines and civil wars. The High Priestess wanted to preserve the old ways. And for centuries, the dancers risked their lives on the bull court.”

“You no longer do the bull dancing ritual?”

“It became difficult to maintain a herd of bulls as in the old days. We chose certain rituals to continue and the People of the Axe prospered.”

“The People. Is that what you call yourself?”

“We who follow the Mother Goddess have called ourselves many things over the ten thousand years of our existence.”

“I thought that worship of the Mother Goddess had vanished, except for a cult or sect here and there.”

“You’ve seen too many episodes of Hidden History, Kalliste. We’re not a bunch of crazies beating drums and chanting meaningless mumblings. Our rituals are based in the natural world. We will continue to reap bounty from the earth as long as we make the Mother Goddess happy.”

“You make it sound as if she is no longer happy.”

“We have seen the signs of her anger. Mortals who ignore the demands of the Mother Goddess do so at their own peril.”

“Mortals like Professor Vedrakis?”

“The professor would have deciphered our sacred script. Our prime protocol is that Linear A cannot ever be translated by an outsider. The penalty is death. This has been going on a long time with others who got too near, like Ventris.”

“He died in an accident.”

“Did he? Well, we did our job well with that one. Robsham, too, going off that cliff. Bad drivers, these scholars. Don’t look so horrified, Kalliste. You bear responsibility for Vedrakis. His death could have been avoided if you and Hawkins had not pursued diving on the ship and recovered the translating device.”

The chirp of a telephone was like a gunshot in the quiet precincts of the dead. Lily reached into the folds of her skirt and pulled out a phone. She glanced at the screen and a smile came to her saturnine face.

“It seems we had visitors.”

She showed Kalliste the photo of the man sitting in the cockpit of a helicopter. He had a smile on his face and was waving.

“It’s Matt!”

“Your friend must miss you. It would be rude not to invite him to visit the Maze and meet its guardian.”

“Guardian? What are you talking about?”

Lily responded with a lilting laugh. “I’m surprised that you wouldn’t know. The Minotaur lives here. Now, I have a request to make of you.”

Kalliste was convinced more than ever that Lily was insane, but if she wanted to survive she would have to play along.

“Of course. Tell me what you want me to do.”

“I want to take a photograph to send to Mr. Hawkins.”

“Why would you do that?”

“Hawkins has our property — the translator — and I want him to return it.”

Kalliste’s face flushed in anger. Lily was using her as bait. But she sensed an opportunity. She glanced around at her surroundings and moved a few steps so she was directly in front of the doorway to the apartment under the double axe-head lintel. She crossed her arms.

Lily gave a sharp whistle. The two hell hounds shot out of the shadows. She spoke to them again in the strange language. The command must have overridden the signal from the medallion, because they growled and moved toward Kalliste from both sides.

Lily used her phone to take a picture of Kalliste being menaced by the giant animals, then she called them off with another command.

Kalliste was still trembling when she said, “Are you through?”

“For now.” She called off the hounds and showed Kalliste the photo on her cell phone. “This should get your friend’s attention.”