“And she’ll drink literally anything,” Ryan said. “So that’s really saying something.”
“So it’s ornamental?” Kamala asked.
After a long, tense silence, Ryan laughed. “No, but thank you, Aesop!”
“Mate?”
“It’s similar to the Crow and Pitcher.” He lowered his kit bag to the floor and approached the marble altar. “One of Aesop’s fables. A thirsty crow finds a pitcher of water in the woods but the water level is too low for it to reach with its beak.” He turned to face his friends with a smug smile on his face. “Yet he still got his drink. How?”
Scarlet rolled her eyes. “Oh goody — a test.”
“He can’t tip the pitcher over or the water will go on the ground, right?” Lexi said.
“Congratulations,” said Ryan. “You’re officially not more stupid than a crow.”
She raised her middle finger and held it up to his face. “Decipher this, propellerhead.”
He ignored her. “Besides, the pitcher was stuck to the ground.”
“You never said that!”
“All right, settle down everyone.” Hawke inched closer to the altar and studied the pile of rocks and the stone pool. “Don’t you want to hear the answer?”
The squabbling stopped and all eyes turned to him.
“You know?” Scarlet said.
“I’m not just a pretty face.”
“Get on with it, Joe,” Lea said.
Hawke made no reply but turned and lifted one of the large pebbles into the pool. He repeated the process until all the rocks were inside the pool and the water level had risen to the top. Then it began flowing through the overflow slit.
Lea folded her arms. “Smartass.”
Before he replied, a low, dry grinding noise emanated from the wall behind the altar.
Reaper leaned his head down inside the hole. “What’s going on down there?”
“We might be getting somewhere, Reap,” Scarlet called back up.
“Looks like something’s definitely happening,” Lexi said.
“The altar’s moving!” Lea said.
Hawke took a step back and shone his flashlight at its base. “You’re right — it’s moving down into the floor!”
Seconds later the altar was flush with the floor, but it continued to descend below ground level, creating a smooth stone shaft on one side of which was a rectangular hole.
“An archway!” Hawke said.
The altar came to a stop six feet below the floor they were standing on and Lexi shone her flashlight inside the archway. “Orpheus certainly took his personal security seriously.”
Without saying a word, Hawke jumped down inside the shaft and turned his own flashlight into the darkness behind the arch. “There’s another long tunnel, and I think I see a sarcophagus at the end of it in some kind of chamber.”
He moved inside the burial chamber and the others quickly dropped down into the shaft and followed him. All of them were anxious to make their search before Kashala and his mercs made an appearance. It was a confined, enclosed space and an aggressive fire fight with heavily armed mercenaries was not the recommended course of action
When they reached the end of the tunnel they emerged into a magnificent tomb, surrounded on all four sided by rows of columns and high, stone arches. In the center of it all was the sarcophagus Hawke had partially seen from the other end. Dark, cold, and surrounded by another pool of water.
“It’s the sarcophagus, all right,” Ryan said.
Lexi laughed. “You think?”
Kamala shuddered. “Creepy.”
“No time to be creeped out,” Lea said. “We need to get the lid off.”
Working together, they prised the heavy marble lid away from the main body of the sarcophagus and lowered it to the floor in a cloud of dust. Peering cautiously inside, Hawke was first to speak. “It’s him.”
“Oh my God!” Kamala looked away, her heart pounding in her chest. “This is too much.”
Lexi gave her a sympathetic look. “This is what we do, cookie pops.”
Kamala took a step back. “Cookie pops?”
Lexi gave an innocent shrug. “I give people nicknames. I’ve been looking for one for you since we met.”
Kamala’s face was stony. “Keep looking.”
“Wait, this is the map,” Ryan said, reaching down inside. “It’s in a codex. Written by Orpheus himself after his journey to the Underworld and back!”
“Let me see!” Lexi snatched the codex from his hands and shone her flashlight onto it.
“Give that back!”
Scarlet pushed into the throng. “Children, children! Give it to mummy.”
Swiping it from Lexi’s hands, she now shone her flashlight onto the codex and started to open its pages. Staring blankly at dozens of rows of faded, inky symbols she pursed her lips and held it back out so Ryan could take it back.
“Thanks,” he said sarcastically.
“Turns out my ancient Greek isn’t so hot today.”
Lexi sighed. “Mine neither.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Ryan said. “We all have our skills. You’re really good at hitting things.”
Lexi scowled at him. “You wanna test that out?”
“Wait.” Scarlet took out her phone and started snapping pictures of the dusty pages. “We’ve been here before, and this time I want a backup copy of this thing.”
When she had finished, Ryan took the codex back, laid it out flat on the floor and shone his flashlight over it as he started to turn its ancient, papyrus pages. “It’s in the same style as the symbols on the lyre,” he muttered. “This has the hand of Orpheus written all over it. It’s definitely in his style.”
“Well, duh,” Zeke said. “We just pulled the damn thing out of his tomb!”
“Sarcophagus.” Ryan corrected him without looking up from the text. “We’re standing in the tomb.”
“Whatever you say, chief. Anyone who can read that stuff has my undying respect. Just looks like a bird with inky feet has run all over the page to me.”
“Me too,” Kamala said.
Lexi raised her hand in agreement.
“Good,” Ryan sighed. “Now we’ve established that I’m the only one who can read it, maybe we can move on to the next step — shutting up and giving me some peace and quiet.”
Scarlet smirked and gave him a wink. “You’re a rude twat but I can’t help but like you.”
“Why thanks,” he said. “Now, can I study this in peace? If we want to find out how Orpheus reached the Underworld, then it’s going to take some time.”
A profound silence descended on the small team and Ryan worked through the codex as fast as he could. Deep underground, they had just made one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of all time. After a few minutes, and in the stone-cold silence, Lea’s Irish accent brought everyone back to life. “So where is the Underworld? What does he say?”
“Yeah,” Scarlet said. “Where the hell is Hell?”
“Did we not just cover this?” Ryan waved the codex in front of them and they all saw yet more pale black marks drawn on the papyrus. Line after line of incomprehensible glyphs and symbols even more complex than those at the start. “Oh, wait,” his voice dripping with sarcasm. “Let me just look for the big red cross.”
“All right boy,” Scarlet said. “We know the drill. You need some quiet genius time to decipher it, but we have to get of here in a hurry before…”
“Too late,” Reaper’s face appeared in the archway at the end of the tunnel. “I just got a message on the comms. It’s the Blood Crew. They got past Jack and Kamala on the surface and they’re on their way down right now.”
“Are they all right?” Lea said.
“Reaper nodded. “They’re fine. They’re going to follow them down into the tunnel so we can get them in a pincer movement. It’s the only way we stand a chance against so many.”