“So we’re looking for an altar?” Bones asked.
“Makes sense to me,” Maddock said. “I’ve kept my eyes open but haven’t seen anything.” He turned to Dima. “Any suggestions?”
“Engaruka isn’t nearly old enough to have been here during the time of Noah, but if it, or an older settlement, grew up in the wake of Noah’s arrival, it would make sense that the altar might have been central to their culture.” She glanced at a map she had found online and then took a look around. “I think the middle of town, so to speak, would be that way.” She pointed to the northeast. “Just over that hill.”
Twenty minutes later they found themselves in the midst of a cluster of low walls and stone circles. Maddock turned slowly around, taking it all in. Nothing leaped out at him. What if they were wrong and this was another false trail?
“Are either of your stones reacting at all?” Dima asked with no trace of hopefulness in her voice.
“As cold as my sex life,” Bones said.
Dima smirked. “Maybe things will turn around for you once we find the ark.” She gave him a wink.
“You hear that, Maddock? Leave no stone unturned! Andale!”
Maddock froze. “What did you say?”
“You already forgot your high school Spanish? Speedy Gonzales. Arriba! Andale! Get your big white butt in gear.”
Dima giggled and gave Bones a playful shove.
“No. Before that,” Maddock said.
“Leave no stone unturned?”
“Exactly.” Maddock turned toward what he estimated to be the very center of town. There stood the remnants of a large building. Only the foundation remained, but its former size and grandeur was clearly evident. He imagined it had once dominated this stretch of the landscape. “Look at the outline of the walls. What does it remind you of?”
Dima saw it immediately. “Six points! The Star of David!”
“What do you say we take a look underneath that big pile of rubble in the middle?”
Bones didn’t have to be told twice. He vaulted the wall, climbed up onto the pile of rocks, and began moving stones with surprising vigor considering the amount of time they’d already spent walking in the heat of the day. Maddock and Dima joined in and they fell into a rhythm, working the stones loose and tossing them aside. Little by little, they reduced the heap of stone to a small mound, but they turned up nothing of note.
Maddock was just beginning to wonder if he’d steered them onto the wrong track when Bones whooped. “Jackpot! Take a look at this.”
The sun shone down onto a smooth, black stone, so unlike the native rock of the region. They attacked the pile with a renewed sense of purpose. An hour later, they’d cleared a space around a massive, rectangular slab of black stone the size of an ox. Maddock began brushing the surface of the stone, clearing away the dust and dirt to reveal a crude, six-pointed star carved in its surface.
“I think this is it.” Reverence reduced Dima’s voice to a whisper. “What now?”
Maddock remembered the next thing Schrader had said. “Blood is the key.” He slid his belt knife free of its sheath, pricked his thumb with the tip of the blade, and let a few drops of blood dribble onto the stone right at the center of the six-pointed star.
They waited.
Nothing.
“I think you need more blood,” Bones said. “Or maybe it has to be an animal sacrifice.”
“Maybe, but…”
The ground shifted beneath Maddock’s feet and he sprang back. The altar slid to the side, revealing a gaping hole.
Bones clapped Maddock on the back. “Nice job, Maddock. I keep forgetting you aren’t as dumb as you are ugly.”
“The feeling’s mutual.” He took a deep breath, sheathed his knife, and took out his Maglite. “What do you say we find Noah’s Ark?”
Chapter 42
Maddock shone his light down the broad, gently sloping stone ramp that descended into the depths of the earth. Once again he felt the familiar thrill of excitement that came on the precipice of discovery. Despite whatever perils might lie ahead, and the very real dangers that followed behind them, he was now focused on the prize. Were they about to discover the source of perhaps the greatest legend in history? He moved forward, scanning every inch of the space ahead, watching for potential pitfalls, either natural or wrought by human hands. Their footsteps echoed in the hollow stone passage, every breath they took sounded like a thunderclap in the quiet of this domain that hadn’t felt the tread of feet in perhaps thousands of years.
“Maddock?” Bones said.
“Yes?”
“I’m sick of lava tubes. Too much sameness.” Bones reached out and rapped the wall, making a hollow thump that echoed in the wide passage.
“I think you’ve said that before.”
“I know. I just wanted to make sure you hadn’t forgotten. Next time we head off on one of your… adventures, let’s keep it above ground if we can.”
Maddock stopped cold. “My adventures? It was your family’s lost stone that got this started, you know.”
“Will you two cut it out?” Dima said. “There’s something up ahead.”
Maddock turned to look. Ten paces in front of them, the passageway divided.
“Decision time,” Bones said. “Let’s check it out.”
When they reached the spot where the passage split they stopped short. Here, the floor was strewn with bones and trinkets.
“What the…” Bones began.
“I think it’s a place of sacrifice,” Dima said. “Think about it. All the years people lived here, they must have figured out how to make the altar open up.”
“If they were using it for sacrifice, it would have opened every time they spilled blood on it,” Maddock said. “Unless it requires human blood.” He didn’t pursue that line of thinking any further.
Dima nodded, chin cupped in her hand, eyes taking in the scene. “I’ll wager this is as far as they dared go, so they left offerings here to appease, I don’t know, the god of the mountain?”
“That would make sense,” Maddock agreed. “In some ways, religion is a byproduct of humankind trying to control the uncontrollable. You make a sacrifice and pray for rain for your crops, or for safety from an erupting volcano.” He glanced up as if he could still see the steaming peak of Ol Doinyo Lengai.
“Or escape from your mortality,” Bones added.
“Let’s not get too deep into theology,” Dima said. “We need to decide our next move. Did Schrader offer any hints?”
“I think he finally lost it. He just kept muttering, ‘They came two-by-two.’ Nothing else.” Maddock picked his way across the bone-strewed floor and examined the entrances to the passageways one at a time, shining his light as far down each tunnel as he could He saw nothing amiss with any of them. “What am I missing?” he whispered. He shone his light on the space above the tunnel where he stood. His eyes caught a faint irregularity in the stone.
“Bones, take a look at this.”
“Let me guess, you need a boost.”
“No, just take a look tell me what you see.”
Bones moved to Maddock’s side, rose up on his tiptoes, and squinted. “There’s something scratched here. Looks like two animals. Doves, I think.”
“Two by two,” Dima said. “And the dove is a powerful symbol, connected with water and the spirit. Plus, Noah sent a dove out to see if the flood waters had subsided. This must be it.” She took a step forward but Bones held her back.
“Hold on, chick. There’s always a catch. First, we see if there’s an image above the other passageway.”
Dima frowned, her eyes flinty, but she didn’t argue.
Bones moved to the second passageway and inspected the rock directly above it. “Two pigs. Mmm, bacon.”
“I still say we go with the doves,” Dima said. “In the Old Testament, the pig is an unclean animal.”