She waited until they were moving again to ask him why.
Pierce glanced back, his headlamp revealing dozens of writhing shapes. “Snakes.”
‘Why did it have to be snakes?’
They resembled diamondback rattlesnakes, minus the rattle. Most were two or three feet long, a couple — the fastest — were even bigger. All had a distinctive tiger-stripe pattern of black and gold scales and arrow-shaped heads, a feature common to the type of venomous snakes known as pit vipers. Pierce recalled the Nehushtan sculpture on the mountain above them. Maybe the story was only figurative, but the ‘fiery serpents’ mentioned in the Bible — Palestinian vipers — were a very real problem in the region.
The snakes were not moving very fast. In fact, even at a regular walking pace, Pierce and Fiona were already pulling away from the swarm, but unlike most wild animals, including snakes, which preferred to keep humans at a distance and attacked only when approached, these vipers were still coming, and appeared to be pissed off.
“That explosion must have cracked open their warrens and dumped them down here,” Pierce said, as they reached the domed chamber at the end of the passage.
“They’re between us and the exit,” Fiona said.
“Yeah.”
“We’re stuck down here. In a snake pit.”
“Yeah.”
“Got any ideas?”
“I’m working on it.” Pierce ran to the center of the room and stared up at the opening. “We’ve got to get up there.”
“It’s too high.”
“I’ll boost you up.”
Pierce bent over and laced his fingers together to form a step, but Fiona just stared at him. “Who’s going to boost you?”
“I’ll figure something out.” He glanced at the mouth of the tunnel, and his light revealed one of the vipers slithering out into the open. It was not alone. The creatures were still on the warpath. Pierce shook his joined hands. “Go!”
As Fiona stepped on his hands, he lifted her up, shoving her toward the opening. Even with the boost, her fingers just grazed the edge.
“On my shoulders,” Pierce grunted, keeping his eyes on the advancing snakes. “Hurry.”
Fiona planted one foot on his shoulder and stepped up. She wasn’t all that heavy, but her full weight pressing down on his collar bone nearly drove him to his knees. He gritted his teeth against the unexpected pain, and then, just like that, the pressure was gone. He looked up and saw her legs dangling down as she wormed herself up onto a concealed ledge.
There was no time to savor the minor victory. A snake, as long as Fiona was tall, was almost within striking distance. He danced back a few steps, even as more of the vipers slithered out of the passage.
He slid out of his backpack and swung it at the closest snake. Instead of retreating, it struck at the pack, sinking its fangs into the nylon. As the pack continued through the arc of the swing, Pierce could feel the sudden change. The pack was a good ten pounds heavier and shaking. The snake was still attached, its fangs snagged in the fabric. He heaved it away and quickly regretted it.
Now he had nothing with which to fend off the rest of the swarm.
FORTY-FOUR
Fiona kicked her legs and wriggled the rest of the way onto the ledge. From below, it had not been visible, but now she could see that it was the bottom landing of a narrow, spiral staircase that corkscrewed around the shaft.
As soon as she was up, she squirmed around so she could see the chamber below. Pierce was gone, driven away from the center by the advancing vipers. “Uncle George!”
“Fi. You’ve got to find a way out.” Pierce’s voice was faint, muffled by distance and the acoustics of the chamber. “Tell Cintia to contact Erik. You’ve got to find the Ark. And save Gus.”
She beat her fists against the stone landing, feeling helpless. There was no loose earth with which to form a golem, and she couldn’t think of any other way in which her limited ability with the Mother Tongue might be useful.
What she needed was a ladder or some rope.
Stairs, she thought. They had to lead somewhere, and maybe at the top, she would find something…anything…that might help Pierce escape the snake pit.
She scrambled to her feet and started ascending, bounding up three steps at a time until the burning in her legs slowed her to single steps. She kept going, refusing to stop for breath, circling around the stairwell again and again, until she started to feel dizzy. Even then she did not stop until, with no warning whatsoever, the stairs ended at a balcony that almost ringed the vertical shaft.
The surrounding walls were smooth, save for a protruding square of rock, about two feet on each side, framing a carved Templar cross, on the opposite side of the balcony. There seemed to be no reason for it to be there, so Fiona figured it was either the release mechanism for a secret door or a booby trap.
One hardly seemed worse than the other, so she ran to it and slammed both her fists against it.
The balcony lurched beneath her, then knocked her down.
“Damn it,” she muttered, and thought, Booby trap.
But then the floor stopped moving, and she saw that the stone block with the cross was now a good eight feet higher than it had been, and positioned right above an arched doorway leading out of the shaft.
Without pausing to consider what new perils might await her on the other side, Fiona charged through the door and found herself in another round, vaulted chamber. The walls were adorned with painted frescoes. The scenes were reminiscent of stained glass windows in a cathedral or Byzantine icons, though she didn’t give the artwork more than a cursory glance. At the opposite end, there was a block of carved stone, about waist high and twice as long, and behind that, several long tapestries covering the wall — black on top, white on the bottom, with red Templar crosses in the center.
The room was a chapel, a secret underground church that probably dated back to the crusades. It was no doubt built by the men who had discovered, and removed, the Ark of the Covenant.
No ladders, but the tapestries gave her an idea. Each was long enough to reach down to the floor of the snake pit.
She ran down the length of the chamber, circled the altar, and grabbed one of the enormous woven panels. She half-expected it to crumble to dust in her hands, but the dry environment of the sealed chapel had preserved the tapestry well. It tore free of the hooks from which it was suspended, but its unexpected weight bore her to the ground. She struggled to get her arms under it, but the woven fabric was so heavy, she could only lift one end.
The removal of the tapestry revealed another doorway, leading out of the apse and perhaps to another stairwell or secret passage. It probably led all the way to the surface, a hidden entrance somewhere on Mount Nebo, but Fiona paid no attention to the possible exit. Instead, she pulled the heavy tapestry behind her, heading for the door back to the staircase.
The woven curtain snagged on the rough floor, pulling her off balance once more. The utter futility of what she was trying to do crashed down on her like a wave. If she could not even lift the tapestry, how would she ever be able to hold it in place while Pierce climbed up? Was he even still alive?
She fell to her knees, sobbing.
“Fi!”
Pierce was standing in the doorway, breathing hard but smiling. She shoved the tapestry away, bounded across the intervening distance, and threw her arms around him.
“You made it! How?”
“The stairs came down. I thought you did that.”
Fiona realized that she actually had. The mechanism outside the chapel had done more than just reveal the hidden entrance. It had lowered the entire stairwell down eight feet to the floor of the lower chamber. She had saved Pierce without even realizing it.