The opening was dark, so wherever it went no longer saw daylight. His mind returned to 2005, when he first met Billie Swan. She had been searching an ancient temple — what did she call it? The Temple of Illumination. She said that one of her fellow archeologists had turned on her, trying to kill her, and she had been forced to shoot him. She never said why the man had turned on her.
“Don’t worry about it,” Sam said. He stopped searching the body and forgot about Mioli’s folly in an instant. He removed a golden chain from around the dead man’s neck. It was long enough that the pendant at the end of it would hang below his nipple line. At the end of the chain was a golden crucifix. At its center, where the two parts of the cross joined, a pendant made from a solid piece of red garnet was expertly crafted into the shape of a horse and rider. In the rider’s right hand was a broadsword.
Sam took the pendant and placed it over the first of the four indentations in front of the skull shaped alcove. It was close, but didn’t quite fit. Sam swore. He was certain that he’d found a purpose for everything.
“Try the next one,” Mioli suggested.
“Okay.” Sam placed it in the second obsidian indentation. The small alcove swallowed the stone. Sucking it in as though the garnet belonged there, imbedded in the obsidian. It was an identical match. “It fits!”
“That’s great, but where are the rest of the pieces — and what are they supposed to do?”
“May I see that?” Wallis asked.
“Sure,” Sam said. He reached for the stone pendant, but withdrew his hand the instant he touched it. He shook his hand, nursing the pain.
Wallis looked at Sam. “What happened?”
“It burned me!”
“Ah, guys…” Mioli said, staring at the pendant, “It’s now glowing.”
Sam and Wallis turned to stare at the red garnet pendant, which now glowed brightly like the sun. Sam placed his right hand in his leather abseiling glove and carefully pulled the stone free of the small recess. It didn’t come willingly, as though the obsidian was trying to hang onto it. He threw it onto the cold ground.
All three of them watched it until the red glow faded.
Wallis stepped forward and tentatively picked it up. He studied the carving for a moment and then handed it back to him. “I suggest you store this somewhere for safekeeping.”
Sam took it, not quite sure he wanted the damned stone. “You have any idea what it means?”
Wallis spoke with a warm, even voice. “When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, ‘Come and see!’ Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make men slay each other. To him was given a large sword.”
Sam nodded. “Okay. Well, I’m going to head back to the surface to see how Tom’s progressing, because this hasn’t led me to anything.”
“Sam, I think Wallis is talking about the Book of Revelation.”
“Really?”
“Afraid so,” Wallis confirmed.
“What about it?”
Wallis placed his hand on Sam’s shoulder and said, “Tell me, how much do you know about the Four Horsemen?”
Chapter Thirty-Five
Sam placed the heavy gold chain around his neck and tucked the pendant into his jacket. There was no way to know for certain how it worked, but it was obvious that the pendant formed one of four keys used to activate something — but what he had no idea.
He took another photo of the strange alcove and then glanced at Wallis. “All right. I’ve seen enough down here. Let’s go. I want to take some samples of the paintings to radiocarbon date.”
“You can carbon date the paint?” Mioli asked.
“Not all of it,” Sam said. “The red ochre comes from iron oxide in the earth and the whites come from lime. Neither of those will tell us when the drawing was completed. But the dark paints are most likely derived from charcoal — and we can get a reading date off that easily enough. We don’t need much of a sample.”
Wallis gestured with the flashlight at the dead body and the skull-shaped alcove. “What about those?”
Sam nodded. “The dead guy looks to me like he fell from a climbing accident. As for the strange alcove and its Four Horsemen recesses… well, you can fill me in with anything I don’t already know about the Biblical reference as we walk.”
“Okay.” Wallis concentrated on climbing the steep section of the lava tube and then began to tell what he knew about the Four Horsemen. “There were Seven Seals in the Book of Revelation that secured the book or scroll that St. John of Patmos saw in his Revelation of Jesus Christ. The opening of the seals of the apocalyptic document occurs in Revelation and marks the Second Coming. In John's vision, the only one worthy to open the scroll is referred to as both the Lion of Judah and the Lamb having Seven Horns and Seven Eyes.”
“Go on,” Sam said, although this much he’d heard before.
“As you know, the seven seals were said to contain secret information known only to God until the Lamb or Lion was found worthy to open the scroll.”
“And the first four seals opened released the Four Horsemen, Conquest, War, Famine and Death?” Sam asked.
“Yes,” Wallis confirmed. “As you know, each had their own purpose. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are described by John of Patmos in his Book of Revelation, the last book of the New Testament. The chapter tells of a book or scroll, in God’s right hand that is sealed with seven seals”. The Lamb of God, or Lion of Judah — most commonly thought to be Jesus Christ — opens the first four of the seven seals, which summons forth four beings that ride out on white, red, black, and pale horses. Although some interpretations differ, in most accounts, the four riders are seen as symbolizing Conquest, War, Famine, and Death, respectively. The Christian apocalyptic vision is that the Four Horsemen are to set a divine apocalypse upon the world as harbingers of the Last Judgment.”
“So do you think the four keys lead to an apocalypse?” Sam asked.
“I have no idea what to think. The point is quite moot at this stage given we only have one of the four keys so far and no idea where the skull is.”
They continued walking in silence as Sam wondered how everything was connected. His mind returned to the strange man inside Derinkuyu who claimed to be Famine — and the fateful words the man had said — My name is Famine, and my time is coming. He also thought about Billie Swan. She had told him that Gregory the Illuminator had climbed Mount Ararat to make an offering to God at the end of the third century. What he found up there had caused King Tiradates III to lock him up in the dungeon of Khor Virap.
He paused and looked at Wallis. “When was the story of the Four Horsemen first noted?”
“In Revelation.”
“No. Not where — during what time period?”
“Oh, I believe it was during the end of the third century.” Wallis thought about it for a moment. “Or, possibly the early fourth.”
Sam felt his heart race as he saw the connection. “Do you know anything about Gregory the Illuminator and Khor Virap?”
“I read that he was locked in a dungeon for a number of years for preaching Christianity while his Pagan king ruled. Years later, his king became sick and only Gregory could heal him. Afterwards, the king converted, and Christianity took its first foothold in the region. Funny you should mention that now, though.”