Shadowhunter (Nephilim Quest Book 1) (39 page)

I began to understand his enthusiasm.
 

"I've spent the last few days translating the ancient Greek - and this book references the Nephilim as well as the Book of Watchers. This is the very book we have been trying to reach in all our travels through time. We knew there was a book that that would provide the explanation for much that we needed to know and you brought it to us!"

"Really?"

What were the odds that I would weave my way accidentally to the very place where such a book was being kept? And that I would get it, instead of the Time Walker group that was sent in search of it? And what was the impulse that made me break the glass and take the book so it would not burn? I had no idea what made me do that. Was this the Weaver breeding of the dark Nephilim in me, the work of Cain?

"We knew that there was an important book in the library, but we thought it was the Book of Angels, the one we took home. It was quite educational, certainly, and valuable too, but there was nothing new in it. The Book of Messengers is another thing entirely!"

Lilith beamed too.
 

"We believe that we finally have some knowledge about the Book of Watchers. The Book of Messengers talks about the Gates, and we think that they have to be the Gates we have found. They couldn't be anything else, really. Indeed they seem to have been the very gates the Watchers used, when they still walked among humans before their fall, after having taken human wives and fathered the Nephilim.
 
We all know the story that the Watchers were thrown into a deep cave in Tartarus to wait for the punishment that would come at the end of times. The Gates remained where they were. So it seems the Watchers reached the human world through the Gates either from the buffer zone, or used it as a path from some other place or level."

Reggie was too excited to sit still. He took a few steps, and then pushed his hands into his pockets as if to ground himself.

"The book you brought back tells us that the Book of Watchers is not just any book! It is a map! It is a map to the place where the Watchers came from. It is called the Abode of Angels in the Book of Messengers. We think the dark Nephilim want to find the ancient Abode of Angels!"

I did not know what to say, except "Why?"
 

"We do not know...
 
the fact that the captured shadow threatened that evil would follow for us when they found the Book of Watchers isn't exactly encouraging, though. Daniel has gone to find out more about that," Lilith said.

"Gone where?" I could not help my voice rising nervously.

"He has gone to the buffer zone, to the City of the Immortals, to see if he can discover more information. He suggested it himself as soon as we told him about what this little book revealed. "

"Oh..." I had to find myself a chair where I sat down heavily. "Is that safe? Will they not infect him?"

"He is not alone. He has his brother Elijah with him. They are very good at camouflaging, hiding their energies. Their plan is to try to capture an Immortal with some knowledge, and bring that one back here. They already have some indication of who this person might be, it seems.
 
The Nephilim don't spend too much time in the City of the Immortals, so if Daniel and Elijah are quick, they should be able to escape. The Immortals cannot follow them to the higher levels, and by the time the other Nephilim are alerted, the boys will be up and away, long gone."

The boys... didn't exactly sound like the word I would have used of someone who was three hundred years old. How old Daniel's brother was, I had no idea. I wondered if Lilith was putting a positive spin on their task in order not to let me know how dangerous it really was.
 

"When do you expect them back?" I rocked on the chair to keep the pain at bay.

"Any time now. They have been gone since you woke up. Five days."

I felt a band of fear squeeze around my heart. Five days in the middle of the enemy? Maybe they were dead or infected already...

"Here, have a look!"
 
Reggie gestured me to approach.

His fingers dipped into the pockets of his loose jacket and pulled out a pair of cotton gloves. With these on he carefully opened the cover of the small book on Lilith's table. I bent closer.

"This must be one of the oldest codices in the world," he explained.

"I'm sorry... you mean book?" I wasn't quite sure I understood.

"Yes, indeed, a book in book form as we know it," Reggie nodded, "It was a revolutionary invention! Consider the scrolls that people had been using for thousands of years. They could be very long and clumsy to use of course. And then someone realized that papyrus could be cut into pages that were attached to each other at one side. The earliest books, as we know them, come from the first centuries of the Christian era. And this - I have never seen an older book than this!"

He was so overtaken by emotion that he pressed the backs of his hand to his eyes for a while. After a deep breath he gained enough composure to continue.

"You see this book is written on papyrus. The covers are made of simple boards, which I think have been covered later with leather. All these are perishable materials - it is a wonder it has been preserved!"

I nodded.

"This is written in Greek, and it has illustrations as well!"

Delicately, as though he was touching a butterfly's wing, Reggie opened the book at a place where we could see an old drawing.

It was beautiful and clearly made in Greek style. It depicted a male figure with huge red wings. In his left hand he held a scroll, which he was opening with his right hand. There was tiny writing on the scroll.

"Now, here... look through this," Reggie's deep pockets produced a magnifying glass.

Through it I saw Greek letters I did not understand, and another drawing on the scroll. I had no idea what it was supposed to depict - it looked like a torn leaf.

"What am I looking at?" I asked.

"The drawing is a map. It appears that the artist here had an actual map in his hands, which he copied onto the scroll. We haven't yet been able to identify where it is precisely, but its most likely location is somewhere in the Mediterranean region. Our researchers are working on it on their computers as we speak."

"And the text?"

"That's the very clue to the Book of Watchers!"
 

Again Reggie had to take a moment to control his emotions. He looked at the ceiling and breathed deeply. I observed his scholarly excitement with interest. Then he returned his gaze to the book:
 

"The text says: The scroll of iyrin, the path to their abode."

"The word iyrin means "the Watchers" in our language," Lilith said, "so now we know that the Book of Watchers is a scroll, a map that leads to their place of origin."

"To...heaven?" I asked.

"We don't know. It could be a place in the buffer zone realms, it could be the place where they are now, or it could be a physical place on earth - after all according to legend they lived here with their human wives," Lilith said, "and that is what Daniel and Elijah are trying to find out."

There was a knock on the door. One of the Guardians, whose name I did not know, opened the door. His eyes were wide with shock.
 

"Come quickly. Daniel and Elijah are back! And - "

He didn't have to say anything more. The expression on his face said it all. I was out of the room ahead of everyone else.
 

CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE

51. The Prophecy

The Pythian games were held only every fourth year, and Ambrogio understood that he had been lucky to come here just now, when the games were about to commence, beginning on the seventh day of the month of Boucation, at the end of summer.
 

Six months earlier the theoroi, nine messengers chosen from among the citizens of Delphi, had left on their round of visits to every city in Greece to announce the start of the festival. During this time the heiromenia, a truce, was observed. No city could attempt to invade the sanctuary at this time, or they and their citizens would be excluded not only from entering the sanctuary, but also taking part in the games, or asking the advice of the Pythia.

The Delphi temple area was restored with great expense. The theoria, or official missions from the participating cities, arrived. They included not only leading athletes, but also the elite and officials of all the participating cities, and they gave rich offerings and animal sacrifices to the temple.

Ambrogio had only a few days to practice on his kithara. It did resemble the lyre, but had certain differences. Its sound box was of wood, and it had two horns that were attached to a horizontal tuning bar. There were seven strings. The horns were flexible, and when the strings were plucked, the horns made a wavelike sound. The instrument sang with a strong and deep voice.

Ambrogio had the instrument hanging from his shoulder on a strap, and played it with two hands, with closed eyes, to really listen to the different notes. His fingers were too clumsy, so he made a little plectrum out of a flat piece of wood.

If anything, he had always been musical. Learning to play the lyre had come naturally to him, and so he soon found confidence in this new, yet difficult instrument. He knew he could not win over the musicians who had played the kithara since childhood, so he decided that instead of trying to play a difficult tune, he would use it only to support his singing voice.
 

The song he chose was one his mother had sung to him when he was a child. It was not a lullaby. His mother had a remarkable voice and he had inherited his musical talent from her. This song was long, and had a variable melody, which took the singer from deep bass to high trills, and the intensity of the singing voice varied. He only needed to rephrase it, turning it into a song to honor Apollo.

He never saw the golden-haired goddess, while he practiced. He felt a shiver of fear, when he heard, that a musician had been found dead in the valley where the spectators of the games had set up their camps, his throat cut, but no blood anywhere on the ground around him. Because he still was wearing his jewelry, it was decided no one had broken the heiromenia, and a wild animal had attacked the man. If Ambrogio suspected where his own kithara came from, he did not dare to voice his suspicions even to himself.

The games began. The first two days were religious. On the first day a great number of animals was sacrificed in the temple, and their meat was eaten. Then a holy play was enacted, to show how Apollo killed the horrible Python snake that harassed human kind. The god threw the body of the snake into the chasm over which Pythia now sat, and the fumes caused by its decomposition made her go into trance and predict the future.
 

The next day people feasted on the sacrificed animals. People from different city-states got to know each other. Ambrogio also got his share of the delicious meat, and ate to his heart's content.

Then the third day of the Games came, the day of the music competition. The singers gathered in the Theatre, and performed their songs, one after the other. They had travelled from far to participate in
 
the games, protected by the Holy Delphic Peace. There was a competition for playing the autos, the flute. And then there was the singing contest in which the singer accompanied himself on the kithara.

When Ambrogio's turn came, he closed his eyes, and sang like never before, playing the kithara only as far as he had become familiar with it. He was not as good a kithara player as the other singers, but his voice beat them all. He had never sung so well.

He won. He was crowned with the laurel wreath, which was sought and cut by the same actor, a young boy, who had played Apollo slaying the great Python in the holy play. Suddenly Ambrogio was lauded by all.
 

The athletic contests were in turn on the fourth day. There were foot races, like the hoplitodromoi -
 
running a race in full armor - boxing and wrestling and the pentathlon. On the fifth day he watched the horse races.
 

When it was time for Pythia to give oracles again, Ambrogio was told he would be one of those allowed to approach her. The sacrificed goat's entrails showed the Pythia would be safe. She had already fasted, and on the seventh day of the month she bathed at dawn. This she did in the very same ravine where Amrogio had met with the goddess, situated between the Phaedriade cliffs, the shining ones. The spring where she bathed was sacred, located where Apollo had killed the Python - the Castalian spring, near the statues of Gaia and Themis. She then drank the holy waters of the Kassotis near the temple – and now Ambrogio also heard it was the place where a naiad, a water nymph with magical powers, was said to live. He understood it was she he had met.

Pythia then returned to the temple with her retinue. She burned an offering to Apollo - barley meal and laurel leaves, and spoke words of worship. Priests sprinkled cold water on a flawless goat, which shuddered as a sign that Apollo was willing to answer questions. The goat was then sacrificed outside the temple so all could see the day was favorable, and Pythia would prophesize.
 

A priest sprinkled the temple floor with holy water. Ambrogio, having purified himself with the water of the springs of Delphi, stood in awe at the temple entrance and read the words written there. "Know thyself" and "Nothing in excess". A big letter E was carved there too, but he did not know what it meant and did not dare to ask.

Ambrosia had bought the required pelanos, the sacrificial cake you could only buy from the Delphians. Inside the temple he was required to make another sacrifice, a goat again, on the inner hearth of the temple, accompanied by a Delphic citizen, who had been chosen as his proxenos - the local representative. Anyone who was not Delphic, had to have a proxenos to enter.

The Pythia then descended the steps into the place where her tripod seat was placed – the adyton, the inaccessible place. She was the only woman allowed to enter here. She held laurel leaves, and a dish in which holy water of the Kassotis spring formed a mirror. Near her was the omphalos, the navel of the world in the form of a decorated stone. Two golden eagles were on both sides of it, to remind them of how Zeus had sent two eagles to flight from both ends of the world. Where they met, was the center of the world, and this is where the omphalos was placed. The stone was covered by a carved, thick net on its surface, the agrenon. Two statues of Apollo filled the place - one wooden, the other golden. Apollo's sacred armor and lyre filled the rest of the space, leaving only a small amount of room for the Pythia.