As small as the church was, its interior was magnificent. Tall, arched ceilings ran together, their reinforced beams crossing in the middle. All the masonry and the roof inside consisted of cream and tan-colored stone inscribed with darker ornate vines and runes adorning the pillars and posts. Chandeliers hung suspended from the ceilings over the aisle, covered in tan carpeting that flowed toward the shrine of saints cast in gold. Above the shrine, suspended on wooden beams between the summit of the dome and the top of the walls, was the wooden crucifix with a golden statue of Jesus Christ.
Sam nudged Purdue again, like he did on the buried train in Poland. His eyes motioned to the back of the church, where two sets of wooden, double doors formed a lobby. The floor was of stone tiling and the walls at the entrance were slightly stained from age and wear. Behind the last pew in the church, Purdue saw what Sam was aiming at — only because he knew what to look for.
The Valknut was etched professionally into the far corner of the pew’s back rest, as was another on the opposite side. It was peculiar, because none of the other pews held such inscriptions. Casually Sam and Purdue strolled to the pew, admiring and discussing the architecture of the building while Nina was taking pictures of the saints on the shrine.
“Look, under this pew there is a distinct crack line all around the width and length of the thing. And…” Purdue showed Sam with a pointing finger, “the panels under the seat surface. See that?”
Sam took a closer look. In copper, there were hooks fixed at every few inches of the length of the wooden panels.
“How do people sit here? These hooks would wreak havoc on your calves where you sat… not to mention rip ladies’ hosiery,” Sam winked and grinned.
“I suppose nobody ever sits here, because it is not a pew,” Purdue remarked.
“The back side of the same panels also have copper hooks at the same intervals as those on your side, Purdue,” Sam reported.
“Sam, that is not copper,” Purdue said. “It is pure gold, dear lad.”
Purdue called Thomas nearer. The giant had the canvas sack over his shoulder. When he entered the church Sam pointed to the hooks without saying a word.
Purdue whispered, “Look Thomas, the Tomb of Odin, my friend!”
“How do we drape the chain on the hooks without the vicar noticing?” Sam whispered. “Nina?”
Suddenly there was a tremendous clattering of ceremonial goblets and trays toward the front of the church where the vicar was working. They all jumped with fright. Nina rushed to help the vicar, but he was not paying attention to the fallen objects at all.
He stared at Thomas in awe, his jaw dropped into a static state of disbelief. From his small eyes, silvery streaks of tears shimmered and he made a strange sound, between weeping and moaning.
“Vicar?” Nina said with concern.
“Odin, the one-eyed man-god has returned to the temple,” the vicar’s quivering voice proclaimed, echoing through the empty building.
“Oh, that is just my friend, Thomas,” she smiled serenely.
“No, my dear girl. He has one eye, the other blind, a mighty and powerful being above man but below the stars,” the old man explained. “You have come to return to your grave!”
“Oh, my God, what is happening?” Purdue shrugged, amazed at the developments unfolding. Thomas looked at Purdue and then examined the hooks.
In the front of the church, Nina was holding the old vicar steady as he began to collapse, murmuring in Swedish. Occasionally she could decipher the names of the Norse gods he spoke of as his voice wavered and faded in shock.
“Hurry, Purdue. If you want to open this doorway you’d better do it now,” Sam warned.
“Thomas, the chain please, sir,” Purdue ordered.
“Purdue,” Thomas lamented the billionaire’s decision.
“We are getting back your generator for your trouble, remember?” Purdue countered.
Reluctantly, Thomas helped Sam and Purdue hang the two parts of the golden chain on the hooks. Every time a link was placed over a hook a heavy click like the bolt of a giant safe would sound. One catch after the other, the Tomb of Odin was being unlocked.
The last link was in the hands of Dave Purdue. He cast a look up at the towering SS officer of a time long ago, contemplating his action. Purdue looked down.
The last barren hook beckoned.
Chapter 33
Purdue had to know. He simply had to.
Thomas closed his eyes as the final clack sent a fearful jolt through his body. “Es wird getan.”
The vicar pulled Nina in beyond the doorway of his small office as the deep rumble started, rivaling that of an earthquake. Praying frantically next to Nina the vicar fell to his haunches in sheer terror, holding his crucifix.
“Vicar, what is happening?” she asked.
“The end of the world, child! Now the end of the world will come!” he shrieked, protecting her with his body as daylight emanated from the ground where the pew had sunk gradually into the floor. Thomas kept his eyes closed while Purdue and Sam cowered in the corner, unable to open their eyes.
Right down to the very foundations, the small church vibrated while an unearthly roar of subterranean gases and pressure were released. To their ears, in the absence of sight, it sounded like the growl of an immense demon, and when the blinding light finally dimmed slightly, Sam and Purdue looked over the edges of where the pew was.
“I don’t know what I expected, but it wasn’t that,” Sam whispered.
Inside the chasm that fell into the floor of the stone church, the light illuminated a long, gradually slanting corridor that was lined with what looked like silver mosaic. But on closer inspection, they realized that the substance inside the tiles moved like rippling water. A deep, continuous hum emanated from the bowels of the earth and emerged from the rectangular hole as the tone of a foghorn.
Nina was petrified, but she wanted to see what was happening. With her came the vicar, clutching at the small woman to protect her from anything that could injure her. Frowning, she looked into the hole and collapsed to her knees, weeping. Sam rushed to her side.
“It’s okay, it’s just a tunnel,” he said.
“No, Sam, it looks exactly like the caverns I had to crawl through to steal the generator. I’m sorry, but I’m losing it,” she sobbed.
“You won’t have to go in there again, Nina,” Thomas promised. “In fact, none of you will.”
“Wait a minute,” Purdue said, but Thomas placed a firm hand on his chest.
“I insist… that you refrain from entering Agartha. Humans will be experimented on and I assure you, they will not bend to your will or your weeping,” the enormous German cautioned.
“There was a reason the golden chain was slashed in two when the temple was destroyed and there was a reason this Christian church was built over it,” the old vicar explained. “It was not out of disrespect for heathens and their gods. God, no! We all come from this history. But it was done for the human sacrifices to end, for the location of the sacred ground of three great gods to be inaccessible to mere humans, this church was used as a barrier.”
“They will be here soon,” Thomas said. “The shift in air temperature and pressure will alert them.”
“So we will disengage their instruments,” Purdue shrugged.
“Their skins, Purdue, are their instruments. How typical of arrogant humans to regard everything in their control, to always antagonize creatures when you do not even know how they operate. This is exactly why vril is not to be wielded by you.”