“We knew it was just a matter of time,” Kim said.
“Sure, but this is cutting it rather too close,” said Devlin.
Scarlet watched the small army of Athanatoi marching behind their leader. “They’ve regrouped as well. That’s at least a thirty-strong force.”
“We can’t fight a force like that,” Hawke said as they walked into the tunnel. “That means we have to work fast.”
They entered the gloomy tunnel and switched on their flashlights as the daylight slipped away. It looked like it had originally been a natural passage in the rock that Alexander the Great’s men had widened at significant time and expense. The chisel marks were still visible in the rock as they walked down the incline toward the end of the tunnel.
Here, deep inside the mountain they soon found what they were looking for — a cavern not much higher than the height of a man. Elaborate carvings decorated the walls and an impressive mural of the night sky stretched over the ceiling. They had never seen a mausoleum of such exquisite beauty before, but it wasn’t the star of the show.
An intricately carved marble sarcophagus dominated the center of the space and now they slowly wandered over to it, none of them really believing they had found the final resting place of King Alexander the Great.
“Bloody hell,” Hawke said as he tried to take it all in. “We actually did it.”
On top of the sarcophagus were two tiny sphinxes carved in smooth marble, facing each other as they had done for thousands of years in the darkness of the mausoleum.
Ryan instantly knew this meant they had been successful. “I’m speechless.” His voice was a whisper in the dark.
Scarlet looked at him sincerely. “It finally happened.”
“But don’t you understand the significance?” he asked.
“Sure, you’ve finally stopped speaking. That’s a miracle.”
He gave her a sarcastic look. “I mean this tomb.”
“She knows what you mean,” Lea said. “And yes, we all get the significance.”
They started their search of the tomb but found only bags of treasure — coins, statues, gems. Leaning against the base of the sarcophagus were three bronze discuses sporting inscriptions which Ryan told everyone were votive offerings to the gods, but what they were seeking was much more ancient and valuable than any of this.
“It’s time to go into the sarcophagus,” Lea said. “That’s the only place left.”
They tried to prise the lid off the sarcophagus, but it wouldn’t budge an inch. “I don’t understand,” Hawke said. “We’ve opened heavier lids than this.”
“Wait!” Ryan said. “The sword — the carvings on the sword say that it has the power to open the tomb!”
“Do your He-Man thing, Joe,” Lea said.
A muted ripple of laughter went around the tomb as Ryan handed Hawke the Sword of Fire. He held it in his hands and weighed it, got the feel of it. “Now what?”
“Well, it seems to be glowing blue already,” Ryan said.
“Fuck!” Devlin said. “Orcs!”
Scarlet rolled her eyes. “God, I really want to slap you sometimes.”
Hawke raised the sword in both hands and a deep, rumble filled the tomb and shook the ground beneath their feet. They all felt a wave of crackling static electricity swirl in the small mausoleum and leap onto the sword’s blade. The steel glowed brighter and then when enough energy had been converted from the static into a live current, a bolt of blue lightning flashed out the tip of the sword and wrapped around the sarcophagus.
The bright blue sparks and bolts leaped and flickered all over the ancient marble and they all felt the heat the electricity produced as it worked its magic on the final resting place of Alexander the Great. Deep down in their souls, they all knew they were witnessing an ancient technology. Something far deeper and more complex than any of them really understood.
And then they heard a loud cracking noise and the blue electrical bolts sucked back down into the top of the sword and instantly stopped.
The room fell dark. Hawke swore and dropped the sword. “Bugger me, that’s hot!”
“Looks like it worked though,” Lea said, approaching the sarcophagus.
The marble lid was cracked in two, with a deep fissure running down the length of it. The rest of them joined her and now they prised the lid off the ancient coffin. There, in the dark of the sarcophagus, they found the king, resting in peace exactly as his family had left him thousands of years earlier. Each of them stood in respectful silence for a few moments, almost unable to comprehend what they had achieved.
“Oh, crap,” Ryan said. “It’s another idol!”
He reached into the sarcophagus and pulled out a small golden idol, similar to the ones they had seen in Valhalla and Mexico. “It’s Chronos, without a doubt.”
“It’s the guy your aftershave was named after!” Scarlet said.
Hawke lifted an eyebrow. “I think someone already made that joke.”
Ryan handed the idol to Lea who held it with a mix of achievement and fear.
“But there are supposed to be more,” Lea said anxiously.
“I see something else,” Ryan said at last. “There’s a ring on his finger.”
He reached inside and gently took the ring, handing it to Lea. She gasped. “I’ve never seen anything like it before.”
“And there’s more,” Ryan said. He lifted a dust-covered tome from the skeletal arms of Alexander the Great with trembling hands and turned to the rest of the team. Turning its fragile pages with care, he turned to face them with a goofy smile on his face. “It’s all the research his priests and historians put together. It’s really quite astonishing. It seems he spent most of his life obsessed with searching for eight rings and eight idols.”
“I like what I’m hearing so far, mate,” Hawke said. “What else is there?”
Ryan was running his finger along the lines of faded ancient Greek script. “Tons. If my ancient Greek is good enough and it is, then he was searching for the same idols we’ve been finding on some of our missions.”
“What’s their purpose, Ry?” Lea felt her heart quicken.
Ryan’s face visibly paled as he lifted his eyes from the yellowed manuscript. As he turned to face his friends, his breathing grew faster and shallower. “He says there are eight idols in total… that he found only one — this one.” He read on. “According to this, Alexander the Great dedicated his life to finding them but only found Chronos. It says he has no idea where four of them are, but the other three are in a temple in Pavlopetri, the famous sunken city! He died before he could get to them and took their location to his grave!”
“Well, we’ve got two of them now,” Hawke said. “What else is there?”
Ryan’s hands started to tremble again. “It says these idols are the key to the gateway.”
“A gateway?” Scarlet said.
“No, the gateway.”
Lea felt goosebumps flash over her body. “The gateway? The gateway to what?”
“Yes, to what?” Kim said.
“Even I’m starting to give a shit now, Ryan,” Camacho said. “Spit it out.”
Reaper laughed and shared a high-five with Camacho.
“The gateway to somewhere called the Citadel.”
Hawke stepped closer to Ryan and the codex and looked the young man in the eyes. “I presume you can get more out of this book than the Citadel, right?”
“Oh my God!” Lea said. “Remember what Blankov said to us back in South Africa about his little gateway and the Citadel? This is what he was talking about.”
“But what does it mean?” Scarlet asked.
Ryan said, “According to this, the Citadel is what Alexander called the capital city of an ancient civilization based in what we call Sumer.”