The Prophesy: Book 2 - The Right Hand of Destiny

 

The boys divided themselves for the night. Harp, Thorsten, and Paschal stayed at the pickup site, while Enron and Sitar stayed at the Sphinx. Apart from a lion pride wanting to access the water hole that suddenly translocated in a cage at the Ark, nothing much happened.

"Do you think we could hop to Mount Sinai, tomorrow?" asked Enron.

"Sure. We might as well do some side-trips. We may not have that many occasions to come back here. But is there a reason for that mountain to fascinate you that much?"

"I do not know why, but it attracts me like a moth ever since I saw that name in the cave. There is another that fascinates me, a reference to Nazca. I have yet to figure out what these two have in common, and to find where Nazca is."

"If only we understood how the Ancients stored their data. It is not by date, that is for sure."

"I wouldn't say that. There is a segment, called the Vatican Library that seems to be organized by date, much like the libraries found in the oldest parts of Kantar. There are so many things we do not understand."

"Yes, some of the things that bother me the most are the tables of mithril. Who would ever consider building tables of that precious material, especially since it seemed to have collected that much magic?"

"I doubt the ancients knew of magic; I saw references to it but it was scoffed at, ridiculed, perceived as inexistent or impossible. I had a good laugh when one critic of that position replied that, according to the knowledge of the time, a bumblebee could not fly, but yet it did. Yet, so much of what the Ancients did seems magical in nature! How could they not know it? I have yet to understand all these disks, which shine when you expose them to light. They seem to go into the slots found beside the crystals, but why?"

"Paschal will figure it out."

***

The next forty-eight hours were spent in clearing up some of the material stored under the Sphinx and moving it to the pickup point.

"Should we collapse the room when we are done?" asked Thorsten.

"No. It may be useful, when we try to move the crystal from under the pyramid. We have to look at how the room below the pyramid is holding. If it became too irradiated, we may have to drill our way from here to the storage room," Paschal replied.

"If it is as big as the ones we have recovered, we will have some problems. Just look at how narrow the passage is."

"I know. We'll deal with that when we get to the problem. First, let's close the room and lock it. Then Enron and Sitar will go see that Mount Sinai. The flight just left Lava Flows, and that gives us twenty hours before they arrive."

How many tons do we have to clear out of here?" wondered Thorsten.

"Given how tightly it is stored, and the size of the caravan that carried the stuff, as best I can say, about one hundred thousand and five hundred tons. We'll take a break and wait for the others to arrive to continue clearing up this room. With our five dragons, we would be here next year and still not be finished! We are taking twenty tons a flight, and each flight takes four hours, for a total of three flights a day, so we barely have taken out one hundred and twenty tons. With the other dragonlings, we could multiply by ten our output to six hundred tons a day."

***

Figure 14: Mt Sinai

 

Since it was still early in the day, the boys closed the vault and left for Enron's first point of interest, Mount Sinai, some one hundred and seventy-six miles away from the pick-up point, leaving its surveillance under the watchful eyes of the dragonlings.

The terrain was very hilly, steep and showed deep crevices.

"That seems to be very desolate. The ancients seemed to have built some buildings, but all we see is piles of rubble."

"True, Sitar, but notice there is little radiation around here. I think it is time that did this, nothing else. What are we looking for, Enron?"

"Try to sense the magic field. Something is odd, don't you fee it, Harp?"

"Yes, but remember that the mountains change the pattern."

"It's the sudden change of polarity along that North-South crevice that bothers me, Harp. Let's follow it from one end to the other."

As the boys followed the axis, Thorsten noticed that there were in fact five major, almost parallel crevices. He asked the others to wait for him and took a dive to travel on an East-West axis. After doing that three times, he climbed back up and reported.

"Enron, the issue is more complex than that big crevice. There are seven polarity changes, which increase up to the middle ridge and decreasing afterwards," remarked Thorsten. "If we assign an intensity of one to the magic field outside of the mountain, we can see it increases to two, three and five times the base value, then drops back to three, two, and finally, one. What is even stranger is this: if we assign a minus to one polarity, and a plus to the other, we have +one -two +three -five +three -two +one."

"What gives?"

"Enron, the only logical explanation for that kind of steep polarity in such short distance is that it is not of natural origin," replied Harp.

"How steep?"

"It is simple to calculate. There is a maximum of a mile between the top of a plus three ridge and a minus five one. That gives a gradient of eight over a mile. The only possible explanation is that there must be something that creates ripples across the mountain in the magic field, like something shaking a carpet."

"What could it be?"

"Let's find out. Harp, logic dictates that the object is located at or under the minus five ridge; parallel to the canyons. Now, Thorsten, when you did your perpendicular survey, did you notice anything else?"

"Well, yes, since you mention it. The polarity change was what caught my attention, but I noticed that the gradient also changed. If you look at the middle ridge, it goes from minus one to minus five and drops back to minus one after we pass over that plateau, over there."

"Let me check something."

Harp took off and did a circular movement from the plateau outward until about five miles in the plain. He came back with a wide smile.

"It's as I thought, Thorsten did not go far enough. At some point the field is totally neutralized, at zero. I had to pop over across or I would have fallen to the ground. See, both the positive and negative field gradually drop in intensity and finally merge in a circular fashion, more an oblong shape, some distance off, before the normal positive polarity reasserts itself."

"We must find the cause. It may be critical to our survival!" thundered Sitar. Not that I would count on magic to win every battle, but in some tough spots, having it at our disposal has been vital to our survival."

"How come we weren't affected when we came in?"

"Good question, Thorsten. I think altitude had a role to play in this thing. We were well over ten miles high when we came in over to drop down on the mountain. We were focussed on looking at what was below us, not at measuring the magic field flux."

"Paschal's explanation stands scrutiny," Harp replied. "Let's get down to the plateau. We are less than two hundred feet above it. And let's stay within the negative field, I don't think it would be useful to focus on adjusting ourselves to the field polarity every two or three seconds."

The boys dropped and began exploring. A couple of snakes ended up in the vivarium after scaring Paschal.

"If I see another one of these black snakes, I vitrify that mountain!"

"It's already vitrified. Notice the nature of the material it's made up of. It is magmatic extrusion."

"Cut my fun, Sitar!"

"Cut it out! I think I've found where the peak of the intensity is. Let's explore in circles from that point. Look for anything that might seem out of place for a mountain. Be careful, there seems to be a lot of cliffs around here."

"Apart from all the junks the Ancients left, Harp?"

"Yes, Thorsten."

The boys began exploring on foot, the howl of the wind creating an eerie feeling of immense solitude. Scorpions, snakes, and insects of a wide variety were disturbed by their passage. An occasional raven could be seen flying off in the distance, protesting the disturbance. As the sun reached the zenith, the boys, tired, took to the air and climbed to a hundred feet above the peak.

"Hey, look at that shiny spot there!" exclaimed Thorsten, pointing at a location just left of the summit.

The boys dropped into a hole and found a dusty, but highly polished surface, located some a hundred feet below the summit.

"Clean up time. Get the dust out, and let's see what this will reveal," Paschal suggested.

The dust was not that thick, and the boys removed it using the magic field. From a distance, it gave the impression the mountain was smoking, like a volcano.

"This is a trap door!" Sitar exclaimed, as the dust finally cleared. "Look at the hinges, and there, inside the dome is a wheel that will unlock the mechanism. We only need to move it properly."

"Let's proceed. I am curious!"

"Hold it, Thorsten! I must examine the mechanism, to see if it is not booby-trapped!" exclaimed Harp, as the young dwarf was preparing to grab the wheel and rotate it.

After a few seconds of careful examination, Harp turned to the others.

"Well, I was right. This thing seems to bring two parts in contact and the person holding the wheel would be shocked to death. Counterweights would then rotate the wheel back to its original position. It is not the wheel that must be used to unlock the door, but the drawings on the centre of it. Let's clean it further until we have removed the crust of dirt."

After some more cleaning, a gold disk appeared, encircled by eight rings. On each ring were inserted disks of varying colours, some presenting smaller disks nearby.

Figure 15: The Solar System Before the Flood

 

"More cleanup, Harp. We need to be very careful. This seems to be rather complex and fragile. I wonder why it was not protected from the elements?"

"I wish I knew."

The cleanup painstakingly resumed, and great care was taken to remove every particle of dust. Once the process was completed, the question of what was displayed was discussed.

"This is something related to astronomy, I would wager," suggested Enron. "I have seen a representation of the solar system and that looks much like one."

"I agree with Enron. However, what do we do with that?" replied Sitar.

"Move it? Like the planets do."

"Thorsten is right. I think the key is in moving the planets, represented by the eight disks, into specific positions, but which position?" wondered Paschal.

"Let's move them and try, using magic, to see what changes," proposed Harp.

The mechanism was difficult to move, and it became apparent that there was more dust than the boys had originally anticipated. After making each planet move through a whole orbit around the 'Sun' and cleaning up as the dust surfaced, they were ready to proceed with the next step of the experiment. Careful examination revealed an underlying mechanism, sealed from the surface dust, that rotated a rod as a 'planet' moved along the orbit.

"Hey, I think I understand. Notice the rods are too short to touch each other except when the planets are at their perihelion."

"Good point, Thorsten, but I wonder how many rotations a planet must do for two to both be at their perihelion on the same side of the sun at the same time?"

"A lot, but I doubt they wanted it to be that impossible to open. Let's assume they wanted to easily solve the issue. We live on the third planet, the dark blue one, there. And the perihelion is here, matching winter solstice." Harp moved the blue disk into position. "Now, the morning star, Venusia, is absent, but on the other hand there is that disk that seems to be moving in a very eccentric orbit, crossing all the others. Its perihelion is below the fastest moving planet we now call Mercury. Let's move it to its position. Now Mercury. See? All three rods now touch each other and the errant planet's rod even touches the 'Sun'."

"It's interesting that Venusia is missing. This means the entire system predates the Flood."

"That went without saying, Sitar. Look at the Earth analogue. It has two moons." And, indeed, the Earth was shown with two tiny slivers of metal orbiting it.

"Ok, move that red one, Mars, in place."

"Aren't you in a rush, today, Thorsten!"

"No, I'm feeling the heat, that's what, Sitar. Don't forget I lived in a cave for most of my life."

"Now, there is a serious gap between Mars and Jupiter, but if we align the three biggest piece of junk that seems to populate the space There, it's filled. The rest seems to be dust. Now, Uranus, and finally Neptune."

"Hold it, Harp!" exclaimed Sitar. "Let's verify there isn't another trap before closing the circuit!"

Another careful verification revealed no further trap, and the boys watched Harp move the last planet into place. The contact created an electrical arc that joined the outer ring and the 'Sun', and, deep below, a rumble was heard.

"Damn, we are going down!"

"Another elevator shaft! I hate elevators! They always get stuck!" exclaimed Sitar, remembering some of his past as an Ancient.

The shaft dropped some one thousand feet down, right to the floor of the surrounding plain. It revealed a dark, very dry cave, and right in the middle, sat an oblong object presenting two fallen angels before the fall.

"Don't get close to it. It's loaded with unregulated magic, like a badly isolated capacitor," exclaimed Harp. "It's resting on these two wooden beam that act as isolator. If anyone of us touches it, we will act as conductors, and literally explode."

"It's not of our making. Look at the primitive means of displacing it! Two rods of wood must have been used, because we still see some of it left on the floor or in the hoops." Paschal exclaimed. "It's like it was made to be carried by men, not even animals."

"I wonder what it is?" asked Thorsten.

"From my readings of the Bible," began Harp, "I think this is the Ark of the Covenant. Humans under the Elohim's directives built it. They didn't give much care to the protection of the poor sods that had to carry it all over the place. I think they wanted to impress them more than anything."

"What do we do with it?"

"Thorsten, it's been here for a while. Moving it is dangerous, to say the least. We certainly have no reason to move it. So it stays here. Let's have a look around, there might be other things of interest." With that, Harp grabbed Thorsten's hand and pulled him away.

Sitar and Enron walked around the circular room and found other objects, including what was left of an impressive bronze sword, some cups, and other impediments of liturgy, including four sets of gold clothes.

"These people were damn small!" commented Sitar, "Oh! Sorry, Thorsten!"

"They sure seemed to fit my people's size, or suffered from serious malnutrition," replied, magnanimous, the dwarf prince.

Paschal sat down and kept looking at the strange object. Finally, he couldn't hold it anymore. He materialised a gold rod measuring twelve feet in length, and about six inches in diameter.

"Guys! Look at the walls! I am about to ground that thing! We need to know if there is anything inside! Do not forget to isolate your magic core."

The others quickly moved away and Paschal used magic to move the rod over the Ark. Then he disengaged his magic and the rod fell from the ceiling. The moment it touched the Ark and connected it to the ground, a white-hot electrical arc flashed, accompanied by a thunderous sound that resonated in the cave, fusing the rod to both the ground and the Ark itself.

"Harp? Do you think it is safe now?" asked Sitar as the ringing in his ears persisted for a few minutes.

All the boys turned around and looked expectantly at Harp.

"Definitely, Sitar. The magic field has recovered its normal shape. And that capacitor has emptied its negative load."

The boys moved to the container and opened the cover. Inside were two slates of glazed rocks, with writings done by a very narrow beam of light. Next to them were two books, representing one an apple tree, and another a solar system.

"Well, these two slates are the Ten Commandments. The other two, if I can hazard an educated guess from their covers, are the Book of Life and the Book of Knowledge. They are probably the originals, the unaltered ones."

"That's right, Enron. And look inside. It is made of gold, again. I think this is indeed a giant capacitor, with gold collecting a charge on the outside, an opposite charge on the inside, and the very dry wood acting as insulator. Even the gold Elohim we see on top probably collected magic in vast quantity from the very dry air. That is the basic design for a capacitor. By moving it through space the thing would collect stray magic and load itself. I suspect that the bearers wore these suits to prevent the magic from killing them because it would have tried any way to escape, and a humid electrolyte, like a life form, is a very efficient way to discharge a capacitor progressively. Anything not properly insulated would have burst into flames: bushes, snakes, rodents, scorpions name it. It must have been impressive. Just imagine the constant roar of a ball of lightning between these two gold lightning rods!" Paschal kept moving around the Ark as he described how he thought things would have happened. "This is how a religion is born, my brothers: by applying science to impress those that are ignorant."

"Well, now that it's safe, we can move it?"

"No, Thorsten, it is safe because it is grounded. The moment it gets disconnected from the Earth, it will begin loading a negative charge again, and in short order will be as dangerous as ever. It stays. What we can and should do is recover the slates and the books. I doubt any Elohim will be coming back any time soon to claim them."

"Anyway, Thorsten, if ever you decide to get rid of the ex-lord exchequer, tell him you left a gold rod twelve feet long by six inches diameter behind. He'll probably get gold fever and try to swim across Atlanticus to reach this place! And if he ever manages to reach this place, climb down, and get it out of here, he will have some serious problems with the accumulating charge! I do not give him a day before he roasts!"

"Sitar, you are terrible! Let's do as Paschal suggested, and move what is movable out of here to our pick up point. It's nearing vespers, and the dragonlings must be growing hungry."

Everyone followed Harp, carrying some of the material found in the cave. The only things left behind were the Ark and the sword. The normalization of the magic field allowed for direct teleportation to the pick up point, and the dragonlings were fed for the night. Patrols were set up, just in case some adventurous magic-resistant animal might breach the ward.

As they were eating their own supper, Thorsten raised a question that had been bugging him for a while.

"Does anyone know why the only book that was not altered is the Book of Genesis?"

"I have my suspicion. I think the Elohim thought we could not figure it out, and saw no reason to alter it. After all the genetic code is very complex. Many Ancients believed to the end there was only one code, but for me it does not make sense."

"Coming from you, Harp, why am I not surprised?" replied Thorsten, grabbing his head.

"Can you elaborate?"

"Sure, Paschal, but get a glass of cold water! Let's see. Each nucleotide is composed of base pairs; each amino acid is coded using three base pairs; each protein segment is coded by a string of these amino acids. Now, consider we had numbers for each base pair, 1, 2, 3 and 4. You can imagine a protein as being coded 1 2 3 2 3 1 3 2 1 1 4 4 3 2 4 1 1 2 3 1 3 3 Does everyone follow?"

"So far " replied Thorsten.

"Now if a start code is '1 2 3' notice that the sixth and seventh amino acids could key for the start of another protein 1 2 3 1 3 3 And nothing stops the same chain of amino acids to code for a third chain along the way."

"I get that."

"There is more. Look at the third amino acid. It can be read either 3 2 1 from left to right, or 1 2 3, from right to left. Nothing stops the reading from being done in reverse. In fact, a single chain of amino acids could code for a minimum of six proteins. And there is no guarantee that the '1 2 3' triplet is a stop code, it may well be copied and incorporated into a protein. For instance, we may well have 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 finished by 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4, coding for similar, but slightly different proteins."

"Let's talk about something else. I feel like puking!" Thorsten replied.

"I thought you loved encryption."

"I love it, but your book of prophecies gave me an indigestion."

"I have been wondering why there were so few black dragons?" asked Sitar. 'Their ferocity and ability at fighting should have given them an advantage."

"I think the issue is that they were solitary, too ferocious to form lasting bonded pairs, and the females were alone in raising the young. Social behaviour presents survival advantages the black dragons forfeited. Imagine a female feeding three egglings. It may not have been possible to feed all adequately. And who knows how the newly hatched dragonlings might have acted toward each other. It is not uncommon in birds for siblings to compete, or even eat an unhatched egg to cut competition off. And very little is known about mating. Add to this that they did not have established territory, and had to constantly compete with the other more sociable dragons, and you have a bleak picture of their chances at first surviving to sexual maturity, second, find a mate, and third find an adequate mating site not already occupied by a bonded pair. The number of adequate nesting places must be very limited for the three other species to have pooled their eggs together, notwithstanding the Covenant." Enron took a sip of water, and continued. "It may well be the black female would not have found a mate. Remember, Harp, the fight you had at the old College of magic? That was a male black dragon."

"Yes, and I cannot figure out why I could harm it with magic. For a reason I cannot yet fathom, the dragon became sensitive to magic when the black mages materialised it, and they were surprised. They thought he would destroy me in a single bite."

"I think that pulling it across the wall unravelled the dragon's magic core. You cannot be insensitive to magic without using magic to do so. I think the dragons use theirs intuitively for that sole purpose."

"Thorsten's analysis makes sense, Harp. Crossing a ward unprepared would do that."

"I agree. I remember the black dragon seemed enraged. Getting caught off-guard in a badly controlled space fold, and hitting an unexpected ward would have hurt terribly. It did not have time to counter anything and found itself face to face with me. It assumed, wrongly, I was the cause of the misery and attacked without further thinking. Why would it, anyway? I was a human, food, and it was invulnerable. It must have been as surprised as the black mages when I managed to harm it."

"But this doesn't explain why Thorsten succeeded with the female."

"I have been thinking a lot about this, Enron. It was not magic that Thorsten used, well not the usual magic. I couldn't feel magic being used. Thorsten used an emotion. Love. His intense love for me. Combined with his rage, his fear for me, it triggered a fusion of magic and emotions the likes of which I had never seen before. I always thought emotions could trigger magic, but I had never seen it at work so explicitly. Gabriel had no power; he simply used Thorsten's innate emotions. He fed on it too, but mostly helped Thorsten focus. He could not have done anything without Thorsten; he was as much a prisoner of Thorsten's body as Lucifer was prisoner of the dragon's body. I figure Lucifer could not access the dragon's magic core, because the black dragon's mind is mostly instinct and very little thinking. To control magic intentionally, you need to be aware of its existence and grasp at least a modicum of its nature. From this analysis, I think the black dragons were the first, and the most primitive of the four species. They were essentially reactive animals, responding to stimuli without much planning; but the next ones, probably the green dragons, if size is any indication of progression, gained a better understanding and could communicate. Then came the red dragons and finally the gold dragons, which seem to have the most versatile minds of all."

"What will happen with the dragons we now are in contact with, Harp?"

"Thorsten, I think that those that bounded with us are the next step in their evolution. Somehow, according to the Book of Life, some time in the future, they will gain from us the knowledge required to intentionally manipulate magic rather than handle it solely on an instinctual basis."

"I feel sad for the adults. They are the last of their species."

"Do not feel that way, Paschal. Yes they are the last of their species without magical ability, but they will survive in the genes of their children. All of us know better! We have the Consciences to verify this, if only because we are able to access the Memory. They have a lot to gain from us, more than magic, an access to the Collective Conscience we are building."

"I wonder what metamorphism really means and when it will manifest itself."

"As best I can understand, Sitar, metamorphism is a capacity to change shape. As to when that capacity will be mastered, I would say at the onset of sexual maturation, dragon adolescence. That shouldn't be too far away. We'll know because when the dragons do start this process, they will have a growth spurt, like just about every species, and they will become bottomless pits for food."

"I don't feel like I've begun adolescence," commented Enron, "Yet dad says I'm a bottomless pit for food!"

"Aren't we all? We use magic and it consumes energy. Samson doesn't know what bottomless pit really means until he sees us, or for that matter, the dragons, reach adolescence!"

***

Figure 16: Elvin Kingdom's Northern Mountains (painting on canvas)

 

The dragon flight began an hour before the sun was up, and dawn found the huge V shaped formation beginning to climb above the snow-covered summits that enclosed the Elvin kingdom. In the lead was the Gold King, and strapped on his shoulder blades, King Harold. Behind him was his first-born, carrying Ian, and right beside him was Harold's bounded dragonling. Another adult carried Samson, and a few wolves of the royal guard were strapped on another adult's back. An adult had taken Silver Moon on a belly pouch. A dozen adult dragons also carried elves, two on a side. The rest were free of charge to maximize the return load. A single fairy was accompanying them, sitting behind Samson. The lightweight fairy was in fact tied to the Elvin king. The fairy worried stiff Samson would lean on the seat's back and crush him, but sitting in the front was even scarier!

The weather, that had been relatively fair until they reached the mountain, took a turn for the worse as they got caught in shifting winds, downdrafts and updrafts that made the dragons change altitude by as much as ten thousand feet in seconds. Ears popped and snow blinded them. The dragonlings could not climb much higher than twenty thousand feet, because their wingspan was yet insufficient for their body mass. The flying was so rough some Elves puked everything they had in their stomach right overboard.

The first leg of the trip would be around five thousand two hundred miles, and take a little over seventeen hours probably more if the weather was bad all the way at a heading of fifty-five degrees fifty-six minutes and twenty-four seconds. The flight plan called for them to leave continental America cross the Northumberland Strait to reach Prince Edward Island, fly over the Gulf of St-Laurence, fly over the sandy Iles de la Madeleine (Magdalena Islands) continue across the Gulf to reach Newfoundland Island. Newfoundland would be crossed over its longest axis before the flight engaged the longest overwater part, the crossing of Atlanticus. If all went as planned, the first traces of Eurasia would be the British Islands on their left, and their first true contact would be at the southern entrance of the Channel, as they began their flight over what once was France. Their next big obstacle would be the range of mountains separating France from Italy, the Alps. Then came the rather easy flight over Northern Italy, a short over-flight of the Liguria Sea, then the crossing of the Italian Boot lengthwise to exit at the sole of the boot and begin the crossing of the Ionian Sea. Then would come an over-flight of the Greek islands, and finally the merger of the flight with those coming from Africa under the leadership of Harp.

Harp left the collect point for the Kilimanjaro just as the flight led by Harold crossed the western shores of Newfoundland Island, three hours a half after take off. He had ahead of him a two thousand mile flight to reach the volcano, and a return trip to Crete of two thousand and two hundred miles. The weather, dry over the collect point, gradually became wetter, and, as Harp progressed and neared the Equator, he was caught in a series of thunderstorms that made flying difficult for him and his dragonling. Even with a magic shield, sudden downdrafts would throw them down thousands of feet then push them way above the normal twenty thousand feet flight envelope of his dragonling.

Meanwhile Sitar and Thorsten left for the Pyramids, to check on the possibility of entering the Cheops one using the passage designed to reach the lower chamber. A severe deception awaited them. The passage was filled with highly radioactive sand and it had contaminated the inside of the pyramid. The Ancients had so insisted on getting in, the thick layer of sandstone who would have protected its insides from the blast of the Atom God could not fulfil its office.

"No use crying on broken eggs," decided Sitar. "We will build a passage from the cave found under the Sphinx. It is barely a third of a mile, most of it through sandstone. Let's see. The crystal chamber is directly below the pyramid's apex. It is also aligned to the North wall, some six hundred feet below the lower floor of the lower accessible room, the so-called Incomplete Chamber. We left the lower room apparently incomplete to mislead robbers. Putting a layer of sandstones blocks above the vitrified floor and making it look unfinished was easy. I still do not figure out why the Ancients thought this was a royal tomb. How mad must they have been finding an empty granite sarcophagus after all that work!"

"You put a lot of work into misleading them. Why did you ever put it so deep?"

"It worked, did it not? They never found the crystal. Thorsten, the nature of the soil changes below two hundred feet, and it becomes porous. The Nile's hydrostatic pressure fills in every crack and cranny. We put it below a thick layer of lava that prevented any seepage. We had to vitrify the limestone, and pump out the water to proceed with the digging. We had to install caissons to keep the water from flooding us and pumping it out continuously. We vitrified multiple layers of sandstone blocks we quarried from the quarry and then melted the whole structure again to fuse the different blocks together. That way, the entire layer of limestone was crossed and we reached the lava flats below. The rest was a piece of cake. We built a slanted path another hundred feet below, placed the inactive and uncharged crystal in place, connected it with the base of the pyramid using four pillars of a complex alloy of iron, chromium and nickel encasing a conductor of silver and copper, sealed things up, and dispersed. Time would do the work for us."

"I like it when you use the expression 'a piece of cake' when referring to cutting hard lava," Thorsten replied with a smirk. "And I would have thought sandstone, which is made of compressed sand, would have been as porous as limestone."

"You are right. But in this structure, the limestone is found slightly above the level of the Nile, which has dug its way through the sandstone and is now eating away at the underlying limestone. It is the principle of the communicating vases. The water table rises somewhat above the Nile by capillarity, but not that much, maybe thirty feet give or take a few, and the Nile had been digging into the soft limestone for long enough to see its bed well below the top of the limestone layer. Add all those years since the Flood, which gave a damn boost to the Nile's teeth, and you end up with a much-lowered water table. It may not have reached the lava layer, I think, but who knows. Anyway, it did not need to reach it for water to infiltrate the limestone over a wide distance."

"You mentioned connecting the crystal to the pyramid's base?"

"Oh, that. We used a special alloy of copper and silver to link the two; however we noticed it would corrode rapidly during our tests in Atlantis. That is why the connectors you and Harp have been cleaning up in Thebes are so thoroughly protected. Just imagine how corrosive the climate was in Atlantis while we were being continuously sprayed by salt water on the western coast by the waterfall running over the Wall of Atlantis! Yes we got rich with the salt, but it had a price! So we decided to enclose the rods in an iron, chromium and nickel alloy. I think we went overboard because the climate was already very dry here, and a simple filling with oil would have sufficed, but we were paranoid, and though the flooding would literally drown this place. I think I heard a certain King Solomon got rich from mining the silver mines we left behind. Had he known how much we took out before his time and where it was, he would have conquered Egypt!"

"What do you mean?"

"Do the maths, Thorsten. Each pillar is three feet in diameter, and the protective steel is barely a thin coating. If my memory serves me right, there is a hundred feet between the pyramid's base and the floor of the lower room. Add to that the three hundred feet to reach the lava layer, and another one hundred feet to the chamber, and then the chamber itself, with the rods extending to the tip of the crystal, some five feet below. A grand total of five hundred and five feet of a silver-copper alloy, copper making twenty-four percent of the alloy, the rest being silver."

"The cross-section is twenty-eight point twenty-seven square feet. Multiplying that by five hundred and five feet, we have a volume of fourteen thousand two hundred and seventy-eight cubic feet, give or take half a cubic foot. That gives ten thousand eight hundred and fifty-one cubic feet of silver! Now, silver weights six point zero two nine ounces per cubic inch. And there are one thousand seven hundred and twenty-eight cubic inches in a cubic foot." After some counting on his fingers, Thorsten came back with the answer. "That means there is a grand total of eighteen million seven hundred and fifty thousand five hundred and twenty-eight cubic inches of silver in there, for a weight of one hundred and thirteen million forty-six thousand and nine hundred and thirty-three ounces of silver! That is approximately three thousand and two hundred and five tonnes of silver! That's many kings' ransom, Sitar! And the copper is valuable too! And let's not forget the chromium and the nickel, which, even if they are only in a thin layer, can add up to a considerable weight! Sitar, these rods are priceless!"

As Thorsten did the calculations on his fingers and in his head, Sitar's eyes were growing bigger and bigger! He just could not believe what he was seeing!

"Sitar, I wonder if the same principle was applied elsewhere? How many tonnes of silver are lying under the Temple of the Sun, the Pyramid of the Moon, under Stonehenge? You guys seem to discard these like mere left-over!"

"Well, they are. They served their purpose, Thorsten. After all you can't eat silver, unless you want to get sick! What would we be doing with all that silver? It's not that we need it anyway. If we need some, we create it, that's all. Why carry raw silver around? Now, fine silverware is another story. It is art. But burden us with raw silver? I don't see why we should. I don't give you a week using your new magical powers to come to our conclusion, Thorsten. Value is in rarity, difficulty to find, access or create. When you can flood a river in gold, gold stops being valuable. Look at what Harp brought back from the Inca's temple: finely chiselled gold, fine arts. Some exceptional raw stones which he will probably cut to perfection to get their beauty out. Not because he attaches monetary value to the gems, but because he values the beauty itself. I am sure you are a great stonecutter, Thorsten. You certainly understand the principle I am stating here, and can see in a raw stone the beauty it hides, that it can be shaped into. Consider some granite. If there is a common stone, that is one! But given proper shape and polish it gains value. Look at wood: fragile, but once sculpted, polished and oiled, it becomes priceless because it takes a rich life of its own. Even a bow, which is an instrument of death, can have value: how carefully was it crafted? How well is it balanced? Look at your axe. Yes it is mithril with a gold pattern, which gives it value, but its true value is elsewhere, Thorsten. It is in its fine balance, the quality of the workmanship. That you can use it well adds to the value as a weapon, but there is more than that, is there not? You have found you value it because it is part of who you are."

Figure 17: Thorsten's Axe

 

***

The crossing of Atlanticus by the Dragon Flight was not smooth, by a far call. The thermal updrafts caused by the Gulf Stream, over which most of the trip occurred, created severe turbulences. Just about everyone was airsick and emptied bowels from both end during the trip. Once Eurasia appeared below, things did improve somewhat, but the crossing of the Alps loomed ahead, and if the over-flight of the Appalachian range was any indication, another nightmare was coming up. It became apparent that a cleanup and some restorative were in order for all, including the dragons. The stop was decided as a lake, known on Ancients' maps as Lac de Grand Maison, came into view on their right. It was encircled by a thick carpet of conifers, and relatively free of ice. A quick low flight by Samson revealed no radiation nearby and no orcs either. The cold weather kept the crocodiles, if there was any, in deep lethargy if not downright hibernation.

Everyone stripped and washed their clothes and themselves in a heated pool of water. The dragons were unsaddled and they took off for a bit of frolicking in the Puy du Dôme Volcano, whose lava lake had been left behind an hour earlier. The four-hour stop was well received by everyone, and gave the dragons a two-hour warm-up!

Meanwhile Harp and his dragonling were caught is a cascade of violent equatorial storms. As they reached the Kilimanjaro, Harp decided to give his dragonling a well-deserved rest. It would let the last missing African dragons time to join the African Flight on the return trip. Letting his dragonling join the adults in a lava bath in the very active volcano, Harp explored the lower flanks of the mountain and teleported a wide variety of samples for the Ark and Eden projects to the Elvin Kingdom. The weather was not improving any as a westerly wind blew and brought huge clouds against the volcano's flanks, creating impressive thunderstorms as the air rose to try and get over the monstrous mountain. What worried Harp on the return trip was that the wind system. It would be head winds all the way to Crete and the dragonling could not climb high enough to use the convection winds of the higher atmosphere that would be prevailing until he reached the vicinity of the tropic of Cancer. Then it would be the Corriolis winds that would be a pain.

The flight from North America resumed four hours later and soon reached the crest separating France and Italy, at thirteen thousand feet. The dragonlings had to fly at their maximum height of twenty thousand feet, barely seven thousand feet above the peaks. The passage over the Alps was not easy. Luckily, no one had eaten or the passage would have been a repeat of the traumatic experience over the Gulf Stream. Occasionally, the dragonlings dropped to within fifty feet of the mountaintops, or had to navigate between them. The beautiful scenery was lost on the unfortunate passengers, who held to the seats for dear life.

Harp took the lead of the African Flight to Crete on his dragonling. It was even worse then he had anticipated. At whatever altitude they tried to fly, they met thunderclouds and were sandwiched between layers of thick, black, dark clouds. The thunderbolts crisscrossed the dark sky as they jumped from layer to layer, or illuminated the insides of the clouds in impressive sheets. Terrible updrafts would bring them to forty thousand feet than they would find themselves in downdrafts that threatened to throw them on the ground. Convection currents were terrible both on Harp and on the dragons. The passage through the different layers exposed them to rain, freezing rain, wind-blown sleet, hail bigger than baseballs, snow and ice. Sheet of ice formed on the dragons' bodies, making flying an even more difficult task. At some point, one of the green dragons was slammed down on a baobab that stuck out of the canopy. The poor baobab split in half from treetop to the roots. Just as the dragon climbed up from the collision, a series of thunderbolts travelled along its skin to hit the poor baobab and set it on fire. The metallic skin of the dragon protected it from any damage.

Once out of the Equatorial region, Harp's misery was not over: As he engaged his flight over the now much dryer climate found over the Tropic of Cancer, he got caught in a sandstorm. Luckily, he had spotted the simoon before it hit him in full force and enclosed himself and his dragonling in a magic force field. Yet the sand collided violently with the field, creating Elmo's fire all around him. The other dragons were also showing impressive static electrical loads that showed themselves by fiery balls leaving their wingtips at each down-stroke and smashing down on the earth below.

Meanwhile the other flight crossed Italy lengthwise, and began the leg over the Mediterranean leading to Crete. The flight dropped gradually in altitude to five thousand feet, and flew around the occasional cloud formation they met. Everyone had had enough roller-coaster rides to last them a lifetime. Greece was over-flown with ease and the dragons began dropping gradually to one thousand feet, gliding gracefully in the calm of a superb Mediterranean evening.

As they closed in on Crete's peak, at one thousand seven hundred feet, they began circling the volcano and look for a proper landing. Harp would be late to the meeting, as he had been held back by the winds. As the evening sky turned deep purple, he came out from the southeast sky. His flight group joined the North-American flight for a well-deserved rest. The dragons took the time to take a warming bath in the lava while the royals showered in a hot pool found at its bottom, each telling of its ordeal during the flight. The royals then fed the dragons for the night, giving each an average of ten tons of magically created meat. The leftovers were thrown in the sea, much to the joy of crabs and other sea garbage collectors. The last leg of the flight was delayed until morning. A quick survey of Crete showed few animals worth mentioning, which were promptly teleported to the Ark for safekeeping. The beaches did supply an ample reaping of succulent seafood that completed the Royal's military diet. The starry sky was a beautiful sight for all, something they had not seen for years due to the terrible weather in the Elvin Kingdom. Everyone took a warm spot on the upper cliff overlooking the setting sun. On the northern horizon, barely discernable, were some of the Greek Islands.

***

Matins had barely passed that the most terrible explosion they had ever heard suddenly awoke the dragons and the royals. Barely ninety miles away, the snowy volcanic peak they had seen in the distance had blown up, projecting in the air well over five hundred cubic miles of rocks. The throat of the volcano, blown to fine dust, exposed its magmatic chamber to the icy waters of the Mediterranean, and water engulfed itself in the narrow but deep hole to be instantly vaporised and explode with tremendous force. The Santorin had been dormant for thousands of years, growing slowly and adding foot by foot to its altitude, its solidified magma cork keeping the pressure on the magmatic chamber. The sea got sucked into the void left by the explosive magma and the shores of the nearest islands suddenly were dry. A few megalodons and millions of fishes suddenly were exposed on the seabed. The strong winds blowing from the south pushed the ash plume toward Naxos, Paros, Antiparos, and Ios, blanketing the Greek islands right to the mainland with two hundred feet of red-hot ash. Then the sea came back to the shores it had deserted in huge thee hundred foot waves, colliding with each other. Atlanticus marched in through the Strait of Gibraltar, tearing a new trench along the way. The western shores of Corsica, Sardinia, and Sicily were devoured by the sudden influx of water through the narrows separating Africa and Eurasia. Malta vanished completely from the surface of the Earth. The marching waters of Atlanticus collided with the waters of the Tyrrhenian Sea, the Liguria Sea, the Aegean Sea, the Adriatic Sea, the Ionian Sea, the Marmara Sea, the Antalya and Cyprus Basins collided with the waters from Atlanticus about thirty miles west of Crete, creating a giant wave that washed the shores of Italy, Greece, and North Africa. The Royals had retreated on the summit of Crete just in time as the wave came back to hit the island and devour the cliffs they had been camping on. Nothing was left of the area they had vacated only minutes earlier. They found themselves encircled by a sea in fury, and could see lava bombs fall some miles away in the sea separating Crete from Santorin. The Nile delta had not been spared, and was torn to shreds by waves that travelled upriver right to the feet of the Pyramids! As the seawater retired, tearing the river bed out, a new fall was created slightly downriver from the complex. The rest of the night was spent in nervous expectative of what morning would reveal.

***

As soon as the sun was up, the merged dragon flight took off toward the meeting place. The extent of the damage was apparent everywhere. Trees floated all over the sea, and the geography had changed considerably. Whole new islands had been born out of ash, while others had been torn out of existence by the sea. A huge plume of pumice could be seen moving off Santorin northward. The Nile delta had been washed out right to the Giseh plateau. The Pyramids now overlooked the Mediterranean Sea.

Applause and a lot of relief greeted the arrival of the dragons to the collect site. The rest of the day was set aside to plan the next step, considering the conditions they had met on their trip. After looking at a globe, it was decided to fly to the North Pole and then south to Lava Flows. There would be no high mountain range to cross; the Arctic Ocean was frozen solid, and therefore unlikely to create updrafts. The inconvenience was a longer trip. What nailed it was the fact they could stay clear of the Santorin, or, for that matter, most volcanoes. The Gold would leave with the first group of five dragons, and mark the way for the others to follow. Each flight would comprise five adults. As each adult could carry at least fifty tons, each 'wing' would be carrying two hundred and fifty tons of material. Paschal estimated the total mass at around one hundred thousand and five hundred tons of material to carry. The dragonlings would stay with the boys on site to continue unloading the vault. Paschal estimated there would be nineteen days of work required to carry all the material from the vault to the pickup site, for fifty-seven flights composed of three wings each.

Each adult dragon wing would leave at four-hour interval, giving the royals the time to pack the material for the long thirteen-hour flight that lay ahead. The flight speed once loaded was limited to six hundred miles per hour, but on the empty return trip would be left to the discretion of the wing leader. Four hours were added to take into account weather, and another four to unload once they had reached Lava Flows. That meant a full flight would take twenty-four hours, to which was added the need to feed the dragons and give them a rest period. Consultation with the dragon leadership led to the decision: each wing would get a twelve-hour rest before they began the return trip, stuffed with food to supply the required energy. The gold dragons set the pace of the return trip at seven hundred miles per hour for another twelve hour. If all went well, each wing would be expected back for loading after forty-eight hours. These plans established, a green dragon left ahead of the flight to mark the path. The dragonlings quickly followed the boys to the vault and brought back enough material to load to capacity the first wing while the adults fed themselves up in preparation for their long flight. By compline, the green dragon reported that he had reached Lava Flows and was waiting on the return flight to come back for his pickup. By then the first flight had taken off five hours earlier, fully loaded, and the second wing was four hours behind, on schedule. The dragonlings continued to fly in and out of the pickup point, bringing in enough stuff to let the adults be loaded on a continuous basis. By matins, the last flight of the day left for the Elvin kingdom. During the night, another shift of dragonlings continued carrying material to the pickup point, and by morning another six hundred tons was ready to be airlifted. The night shift was replaced by the day shift, and things continued at an astronomical rate to be carried out of the vault.

"Are you aware, Paschal, that we grossly underestimated the speed at which things would go?" noted Thorsten. "Our estimates called for six hundred tons per twenty-four hours; if things continue, it's more like one thousand five hundred tons per twenty-four hours. I had estimated we could keep in the air at most two wings of adult at the same time. The rate is more like fourteen wings in the air, on take-off or on landing."

"I noticed, Thorsten, what does that give for an output?"

"Let's see, we have seventy adults, seventy-five dragonlings. The dragonlings, rotating in eight-hour shifts, can supply about one thousand five hundred tons to the collect point per twenty-four hours, which evenly matches the transit load offered by the seventy adults. These take something like fifty-six hours round trip, rest, and loading time included. We have fourteen adult wings available and fifteen juvenile wings. Since the juveniles travel a lot less, they manage to do two flights per eight-hour shift and they spend the rest taking a break, feeding, and playing. If things continue unhindered, we should be done in sixty-seven days."

"How did you spread the load for adults?"

"I calculated they travel at six hundred miles per hour loaded, and seven hundred empty. The travel time to cover the seven thousand seven hundred and forty miles one way trip via the pole takes slightly less than thirteen hours loaded, and slightly more than eleven empty; add the load-unload time at four hours at each end, for an added eight hours; then give each a twelve hour rest and feed time at each end. The total is sixty hours per cycle."

"Is this the best or worse scenario?"

"Neither. We have juveniles in training at the nest that can be added as they finish their flight training and bonding. But I think we should keep them in reserve. The Gold also tells me there are adults that could be added, another two wings. But I prefer keeping them in reserve, much like the dragonlings in training."

"How many juveniles?"

"Two complete wings and some spares when the last dragonlings hatch."

"I thought they would hatch three at a time? That would have taken thirty months, yet it's much faster!"

"Remember our own maturing process, Paschal. Remember how Nestor and Ferriday were left speechless by our magic capacity. Maybe something similar is at play."

"Harp has a point, but there is another thing that may be at play. Synchronous hatching, which is the fact that in birds, eggs laid slightly off tend to hatch the same day or very close to each other," suggested Enron. "The first three hatched on schedule, but then it was four, five, six, nine. Even the Gold King was baffled."

"And we may have played a role in this too," added Sitar. "We have been able to keep up with the needs of the dragonlings without any problem. That has probably helped in mysterious ways the entire process. We can supply unlimited food, and are available as surrogate parents in sufficient numbers to allow all egglings to hatch and prosper."

"What I wonder is how far off is the onset of puberty in the dragonlings? If history repeats itself, the dragonlings should be very close to it, even if the king says it is still a year away. Look at the gold dragonling. We treat him as a baby, but he is almost as big as his dad. And he hasn't had a growth spurt yet!"

"Thorsten's right. It seems everything is rushing forward at an ever-faster rate. Even I have begun changing. It should not have begun for seventy-five years still at the earliest. That would give me a human age of eleven, and I would be considered a very early bloomer for an elf!"

"What kind of change are you talking about, Enron?"

Enron dropped his pants right there in front of Harp and showed him his first pubic hair, a silky red one. "There! I have begun puberty already, way too early!"

"Cool! I hope I'll be an early bloomer too!"

"Enjoy childhood, Harp. It doesn't last forever, even if you think otherwise!"

"Sitar's right, Harp. And you should know from wolf and equine memory how short that is!" Paschal added. "Anyway, you will be experiencing puberty over and over as each of us undertakes it. That goes for all of us, all considered. We have become too close to ever consider isolating ourselves from each other's conscience even during those critical moments. Thorsten, you will be part of this process, and I think we will be living the dragonling's puberty as well."

"What about Timor?"

"Have you noticed how even he has changed? He has not yet begun puberty, but I think it will be a huge step for the Troll species when he does. He has not yet begun telepathic communications, but somehow, I feel it's possible for him too. Remember the Book of Life: it said we could bind together all animals that have a herding capacity. That would definitely include the Trolls."

"Enron's right. I do remember that part. But then, that means we could include the orcs?"

"Why not? If they are amenable to understanding that not everyone is food, I would give the small tropical forest species its chance."

"I'll have to consider this carefully, Enron. However hard I try, I cannot forget seeing my mother eaten alive by orcs," replied Harp, with a nod from Sitar.

"Let's get back to work. Thorsten, to ground traffic control. Harp, you have traffic control long range from here to North Pole; Sitar, you have traffic control long-range, from North Pole to Elvin kingdom. Paschal, you have ground control traffic at the vault. I'll be handling the air traffic above the vault and here, and the traffic between the vault and here. Notify all dragons that approach is from the east, at five thousand feet, heading two seven zero Left. All departure are two seven zero Right and to climb to five thousand before veering to zero."

"Agreed, Enron. All northbound traffic will be at fifteen thousand, and all southbound at twenty thousand on my leg," replied Harp.

"I'll maintain the same height and traffic pattern on mine," replied Sitar.

"Mom offered to control air traffic at the kingdom, and Dunbar to handle ground control there."

"I wonder how they will succeed. We still have not managed telepathic communications with the dragons. At least we have learned baby talk while raising our dragonlings."

"You forget she has Ian, Sitar."

"Oh. Yes, I forgot the baby-talk poet, Paschal!"

"It's funny how this reminds me of a game I loved when I was an Ancient. The title was Air Traffic Controller. It had scenarios, such as rush hour at O'Hare, which reminds me of where we are, but also one I particularly liked: Air Bridge to Berlin, which is similar to what we are doing."

"It's probably why you took the dispatching of the task so easily, Enron," replied Harp.

"Enron, take notice I have a flight ready to depart for the vault awaiting authorisation," interrupted Thorsten.

"OK. Alignment on two seven zero Right, departure three-minute interval between dragonling, then climb to five thousand, change heading three thee two degrees, climb to fifteen thousand and regroup. Notify five minutes to Sphinx."

As the dragonlings took off one after the other, a group of adults lumbered toward the take-off runway, waiting for their turn.

"Enron, long range flight number double zero seven is awaiting authorisation for takeoff."

"OK, hold. There are two dragonlings yet to lift off."

Ten minutes later the adults received their instructions from Enron:

"Alignment on two seven zero Right, departure interval six minutes, climb to five thousand, veer to zero, transfer to Harp."

The huge dragons began to take their run for take off, each waiting the requisite six minutes between take-off. As each reached the five thousand mark, Harp gave the directives:

"Continue heading zero, climb to fifteen thousand, and regroup over the Gulf of Suez. Notify five minutes to North Pole."

This pattern repeated itself hour after hour, as each wing took off or landed. The greatest airlift of modern history was underway and would last for as long as necessary. The ballet of dragons and dragonlings over the collect point was dazzling, as each veered to either land or take off, with very little interval between each. The big dragons were given priority on landing but the dragonlings would be given priority on take-off because the giant dragons created turbulence that made flying difficult for the dragonlings. Visibility was poor because of the cloud of dust each ground movement caused. At night, the runways were lit by lava pits kept glowing by magic, the left side green and the right side red by the addition of minerals to the composition of the molten rock. Taxiing runways were also kept lighted, and the loading and transfer docks were always busy. The dragonlings had their own unloading docks and the material got translocated from their spot to the loading dock of the adults. Each load was carefully regrouped into marked areas so the adults would not be overburdened by mistake.