The Nostradamus File

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

"We have to ride horses?" Lamont said.

"Where's your sense of adventure? No vehicles allowed. See the signs?" Nick pointed. "We can walk, or we can rent a horse. This looks like a good time for my hat."

"What hat?" Selena said.

Nick pulled out a crumpled brown felt hat and put it on. He tugged on the brim.

"You have got to be kidding," she said.

They stood outside the visitor center near the Siq, a narrow canyon that formed the entrance to Petra. They'd paid their fees and been provided with a mandatory guide. His name, he told them in passable English, was Ahmed.

Ahmed was short and dark, weathered from the sun. He grinned, flashing a metal tooth. "Horse better. You are friend of Indiana Jones, yes?"

"Yes. Okay, horses. Saddle up."

They took the horses at a walk though the narrow passage. The bottom of the Siq was deep in shadow. Higher up, the sun found the walls and turned them into glowing rose. The stone was alive with color, polished by millennia of sun and wind and water, marked with infinite striations of light and dark.

"This is really something," Ronnie said.

"Wait till you see the city," Selena said. "We're going to come out in front of what's called the Treasury. That's where they filmed the movie."

"When were you here?" Nick asked.

"My uncle brought me here when I was seventeen." Something passed over her face and was gone. "A lifetime ago."

Twenty minutes later they emerged from the Siq. The walls opened out and they were looking at the building called the Treasury.

"Wow," Lamont said.

The tomb was hewn from the rock of the canyon wall. The facade was a hundred and fifty feet high, carved with figures and faces. Six graceful columns with floral capstones rose to an elaborate, carved pediment. A wide flight of steps led to a porch cut into the mountain and the open entrance into the tomb. The interior of the tomb was in darkness. Above the pediment, the facade climbed up the side of the canyon and into the sun. Four more columns were topped by triangular pediments, placed to the sides of a central round tower capped with scalloped edges. Everything radiated a vibrant rose color in the sunlight.

"It's a big city," Selena said. "There are a lot of fancy tombs. But this one is special."

They dismounted.

Ahmed pointed at a group of donkeys tied nearby. "Horses no good, here. You ride or walk?"

"Walk," Nick said. "Ahmed, where is Jabal al-Madhbaḥ?"

"It is in front of you." The guide gestured at the tomb and the mountain above. "Very holy mountain."

"Can we walk to the top?"

"Yes, many steps. I show you."

They followed him to where the steps began.

"We'd like to go alone," Nick said. He slipped a 50 dinar note into Ahmed's hand, about $35.00 US.

Ahmed looked at the steps and the note disappeared into the folds of his gown.

"You must be very careful," he said. "Do not touch the altars."

"We'll be careful. Wait here for us."

Nick led the way. The steps were steep, cut from the rock wall. They were sweating by the time they reached the summit. Dozens of flat stone altars covered the top of the mountain.

"Gives me the creeps," Lamont said. "They must have done sacrifices here."

"Animals, not people," Selena said.

"Still gives me the creeps."

"Look for a cross and dome," Nick said. He took off his hat and wiped sweat away. "Isn't that what Nostradamus said?"

"It would be cut into the rock." Selena touched one of the altars. "It could be hard to see, worn by weather."

For an hour they examined the altars. They found nothing.

"There's nothing here," Ronnie said. "Just old rock."

"All right. We'll go back down and cool off."

Ahmed waited at the bottom of the steps. They walked over to the porch of the Treasury and sat on the top steps in the shade.

"You have enjoyed the view?" the guide said.

"Yeah, it was great." Lamont sat down with his back against a column.

"There's something else we should see," Selena said. Ahmed looked expectant. "There's a crusader castle here."

"Oh yes, two castles," Ahmed said.

"Two?"

"One very high on Jebal al Habis. You can only go so far. One smaller, very nice."

"A small castle," Nick said. He thought of the quatrain.

"Show us the small one, Ahmed."

"We must walk through the city," he said. "Perhaps you would like something to drink? There is a stand not far away. My uncle runs it."

They bought cans of soda at the stand and walked past more of the impressive carved tombs. The castle was set off from the main part of the city, in a barren area. Ahmed guided them over rocky ground until they came to the building. It wasn't really a castle. It was an outpost of the larger Crusader ruin on top of the mountain.

Ahmed gave them the history. The fort had been built in the twelfth century and manned by fewer than a dozen men. Turkish soldiers had disguised themselves as villagers and surprised the Crusader knights as they came out of the chapel. All had been put to the sword. Ahmed seemed to take particular delight as he described the ambush and slaughter.

The fort was in good shape, considering. The walls still stood. The roof was gone. They climbed over rubble and entered what had been the chapel.

Selena stepped around the fallen stones. She came to a stop and stood looking at one of the walls. Nick joined her. Carved on the wall was a faint cross. Next to it was a faded, dome-like shape.

"The cross and the dome," she said. "That's a Templar cross. Those are Templar symbols."

"The Knights Templar?"

"The dome was a symbol for the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, or possibly the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. It was used on the Templar seal, along with two knights riding on one horse."

"Why only one horse?"

"It was a symbol of poverty."

Ronnie and Lamont came over. They heard what Selena said.

"The Templars weren't poor," Ronnie said. "They had lands, money, gold. Everyone knows that."

"They didn't start out that way." Selena peered at the wall.

"No one ever found their treasure, though," Lamont said.

"There's something else here," she said. "You can just make it out." She still had some soda in the can. Now she splashed it on the wall. Letters appeared under the cross, so faint that no one would likely notice them.

"It's French."

"What does it mean?"

"The house of five trees."

"Five trees, again."

"We were wrong," she said. "The quatrain wasn't about the mountain where Moses got the Commandments. It was about this fort and this inscription. Nostradamus is pointing us at the Templars. We need to get back to the hotel and my computer."

"What have Templars got to do with the Ark?" Ronnie asked.

"They occupied Jerusalem during the Crusades. The Dome of the Rock was their headquarters. There are legends that the Ark was hidden in a secret chamber under the Temple Mount, and that the Templars took it with them when Jerusalem fell."

"The Templars." Nick shook his head. "Now it's the Templars as well as the Ark. Why is nothing ever simple?"

"Where's Ahmed?" Ronnie said.

"Probably taking a leak," Lamont said. "Here he comes." The guide came out from behind some rocks. He was putting a cell phone away.

"You wish to see the other castle?" Ahmed said.

"No. We're done."

"Then there is a shorter way to the visitor center."

Nick's ear began itching.