The Centaur (8 page)

“I have examined the ruins atop this mountain extensively and it appears to me that the place was more a laboratory of sorts, an alchemical workshop, if you will,
rather than a place of worship. That Jethro ministered to the Midianites as a priest might have been stretching the imagination in that he most likely ministered to them as a wizard or sorcerer. Here is where the god of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob appeared to Moses in the form of the burning bush and spoke to him. He instructed Moses to do what was impossible for a mortal man. Therefore, Moses needed supernatural help to bring out the Hebrews from Egyptian servitude. As you are all aware, Moses received what he needed to defeat Pharaoh without an army by magickal means. I will not repeat that familiar story here, but none of you can deny the magickal nature of the Hebrews journey from Egypt to this place where, once again, Moses ascended the Holy Mountain to speak with God. It was here that Jehovah gave the ultimate weapon to Moses in order that his band of worshippers could, in effect, take by force the so-called Promised Land that just happened to belong to someone else.”

The Knights nodded. They knew very well this story of Exodus and the ensuing troubles encountered by the Hebrews as they fought to win what God had ‘given’ them. It had always been a point of contention for theologians to ponder why God would make a promise He would not keep. If the God of Moses could not decide whether the Hebrews, the Israelites were good enough to inherit the land, why did He make the promise in the first place and if God willed that the land of milk and honey that belonged to a number of different tribes and peoples, why did He not simply make it so, if He was the Omnipotent Creator of the Universe? Why did the Israelites have to wage bloody war against the people in the valley of the Jordan River if Jehovah had ‘given’ them the land? It made no sense unless one accepted the fact that the Holy Scriptures, in particular the Pentateuch, combined and confused the loving Creator of the Universe with the lesser god, Jehovah. The jealous god, the angry god, the vengeful and bloody god, who could destroy and crush his own worshippers like so many insects under his mighty foot. Surely this could not be one and the same with the Omniscient, Omnipotent, Ineffable Father. This heretical secret that the Knights had kept throughout the ages was one of the things that had caused so many to burn during the dark ages of men.

“Now with that said and understood, we can assume that Raguel might still be here. I had heard nothing of him in ages and ages, long before the time of Solomon. If indeed, he was here, ministering to man and producing seven daughters, he would be counted among the fallen, that is, he consorted with human women and taught sorcery to men. Further, he followed the wishes of the lesser god, who lived in this place and ministered to him as well, even to the point of helping him to procure a faithful following in the living, breathing multitude of the Hebrew nation, descendents of Jacob and Abraham. Somewhere between Abraham and Jacob and the birth of Moses, we lose sight of the Creator and take up the story of the god who created man in a feeble attempt to imitate his Father in Heaven. Here we find Jehovah or Yaldabaoth making a last attempt to bring man under his control, making promises he could not or would not keep and presenting them with a small, but inherently impossible set of laws to live by. But he served his purpose in the grand scheme of things, setting man on the path to enlightenment by giving him a reason for his suffering and a goal to work toward. Never-the-less, we cannot disallow his power, whether or not he still visits this place. Whether or not Raguel still abides in this hallowed ground, we must be cautious. Those posturings at the summit are not of natural origins as most of you may have guessed. Something or someone is up there and whoever it is, he is not pleased to see us. We must prepare ourselves to face some opposition in regard to our primary objective.” Edgard ceased speaking and frowned again at Lucio accusingly. “Du Morte picked a fine time to abandon us, Sir.”

“I tried to stop him, Your Grace.” Lucio told him evenly. “He has never paid much attention to me.”

“I would tend to disagree with you on that point, Sir,” Edgard stood up and cast a disgusted look around the circle. “But he has gone and his timing could not have been worse in my estimation. We could have used his knowledge and his skill in dealing with whatever it is we must face.”

“Surely our success or failure does not depend upon the absence or presence of one member of this council, Your Grace.” Barry objected and the others nodded their agreement. “We are not without our own measure of strength and knowledge.”

“I hope your confidence is well founded, Sir Barry.” Edgard smiled slightly at the Soneschal. “In the meantime, I suggest that we go on with things as planned. I will make another assessment of the situation atop the mountain before we proceed. Konrad? Are you prepared to give the Last Communion?”

“I am, Sir.” Konrad nodded. He had rehearsed it in his mind a thousand times and gone over it with several members of the Council.

“Simon, Levi? Are the preparations of the Tabernacle nearing completion?” He turned his attention to the Healer.

“We have prepared everything as prescribed by law, Your Grace.” Simon nodded to him.

“What of the hole, the pit?” Lavon asked the question. “I have sounded its depths and I am not pleased with the looks of it. We could find ourselves at the summit of an active geothermal vent.”

“Much like what occurred in Italy.” Lucio reminded them of the painful subject no one dared broach. “Mt. Vesuvius was not happy with us then.”

“Mt. Sinai is not a volcano, Golden Eagle,” d’Brouchart scoffed in defense.

“There is a vent there, Your Grace,” Lavon reiterated and stood his ground. “I suggest we wait a bit. See if more activity is forthcoming. These disturbances in the air above the summit could have a natural origin. If the vent is discharging gases into the atmosphere, especially, hot gases, the turbulence and storm clouds could be a result of natural processes. It is not unusual to find storms of unnatural intensity accompanying violent disturbances such as earthquakes, volcanoes and other tectonic upheavals.”

“I’m sure that is all very fascinating, Sir de Bleu, but I assure you, these clouds forebode a more sinister origin, I’m afraid.” D’Brouchart looked up at the thundering menace hanging over the mountain. “If only we had recovered the Urim and Thummin, we might have stood a better chance of success.”

((((((((((((()))))))))))))

“What does this mean?” Mark pointed to the picture of the Ark of the Covenant in the over-sized, leather-bound bible he had unceremoniously plopped on the table in front of Sophia.

She had been studying a book on mid-wife practices in the privacy of her room, when he had burst through the door in what had become a regularly
expected practice
. They did not share rooms. He insisted it was not proper. She would have a baby in less than nine months, and he acted as if they were living in Victorian England. She didn’t understand it any more than she understood anything else about him, but he never failed to treat her with tender affection at every turn and assured her daily that he loved her more than anything in the world. It just didn’t make sense!

“What?” she asked tiredly and closed her own book. She was worried about the delivery. There were no doctors and though Mark also assured her that Simon the Healer would assist her when the time came, she had an queasy feeling that they may never see any of the Templars again in this lifetime. Nicole had told them all quite bluntly what her other father and the rest of them intended to do. Destroy the Ark. The thought made her shudder and now here was Mark with a picture of the relic. Several priests were shown carrying the Ark into battle. Rays of some sort were shooting out of the partially opened lid, and the enemy soldiers were retreating in terror. Another priest, taller than his companions led the procession, dressed in the full raiment of the ancient Hebrew tradition prescribed in Exodus. On his chest was the be-jeweled breastplate with the twelve precious and semi-precious stones representing the twelve tribes of Israel. He held a staff in one hand and a strange looking device in the other. Sophia had never seen this illustration before. The Bible was very old, most likely priceless.

“This.” Mark tapped the odd thing in the lead priest’s hand.

“I don’t know.” Sophia frowned. “It looks like a pair of glasses.” She leaned closer and then giggled. “Maybe he was near-sighted.”

“Near-sighted?” Mark squinted at the picture.

“That was a joke. I meant maybe he needed glasses… you know… glasses. Spectacles.” She made rings with her fingers and demonstrated glasses.

“Ahhh.” Mark nodded and then frowned at her. “That is very close to blasphemy, Sophia. You must not laugh at the
Holy Scriptures
.”

“For God’s sake, Mark.” Sophia sighed and stood up, stretching her back and yawning.

Running the big house was not easy. There was a lot of work and she had been unable to get Nicole to do her fair share. Mark tried very hard, but he was no handy man around the house. Bari was coming along, but he was grumpy and complained all the time. Nicole was cheerful, but useless. The soldiers were the most helpful members of the unwieldy with the heavier chores and Captain Galipoli was an angel, providing everything he could for her convenience. “I didn’t mean any harm.”

“Good.” Mark sat down on the foot of her bed, his legs dangling over the heavy wooden footboard. “Now look at this.” He tapped the picture again. “Have you ever seen this thing before?” he asked excitedly.

“No, I can’t say that I have,” she pulled her sweater over her head and sat down again, wearing only a thin tee shirt and jeans. The room was stuffy, but would become cold before morning. “You want to take a bath?” she asked him hopefully. The only time she could ever get near him anymore was in the bath. Baths and especially baths with scented water seemed to have a strange effect on him.

“Nope. Not dirty.” He pulled out the front of his own shirt to show her the proof of his statement.

“You don’t have to be dirty to take a bath.”

“I think maybe this thing is important to the Ark.” He said after a moment. “This man is holding it up like it’s important, don’t you think?” he showed her picture again, thumping on the page.

“Yeah, I guess so. It must be important or it wouldn’t be in the Bible.”

“That’s what I thought too.”  He flipped through the pages until he found another spot he had marked with a piece of paper. “I found the description of everything the priests have to wear to handle the ark and I understand everything except one. The
Urim and Thummin
. Exodus 28, verse 30: ‘
And thou shalt put on the breastplate of judgment the Urim and the Thummin; and they shall be upon Aaron's heart, when he goeth in before the Lord: and Aaron shall bear the judgment of the children of Israel upon his heart before the Lord continually
’. Bari had something that he wore upon his heart continually, but I took it from him and now I can wear when I want to. I don’t think it’s the Urim and Thummin because it is only one thing and it’s a spear.”

“What?” Sophia frowned at him. She had no idea what he was talking about. “Look, Mark, I don’t think you need to worry about the Ark. You heard what Nicole said. They are going to destroy it.”

“I know.” He nodded and looked disturbed. “I looked into another book in the library, and I found something about Urim and Thummin.”

“Oh?” Sophia took off her socks. She could not wait much longer or the bathroom would be cold and the water that received its heat from the solar panels on the roof, would begin to lose its heat as well.

“Yes. Urim is the luminous speculum, which is engraved with the Divine Name of God. It was the same name that was used to create the world. And Thummin is the non-luminous part of the speculum, that contained another name of God. A shorter name. If you put the two together, you get the Urim and Thummin. I looked up speculum and it means looking glass. Like your word spectacles. The dictionary of occult terminology described Urim and Thummin as two Cherubim… that’s angels who signify light and perfection and are supposed to be like crystal balls used to determine the will of God, but…” he held up one hand in warning “it is also said that they used to belong to Tiamat, goddess of Chaos.”

“That’s very interesting. A crystal ball that tells you what God wants. How convenient. Too bad we don’t have such a thing.”

Mark slid off the bed and helped her take off her tee shirt. She stood shaking her head at him as he picked up the book and frowned at the picture.

“You sure you don’t want to take a bath with me, Mark?” she tried once more.

“You go ahead. I’ll take one tomorrow.” She watched as he left her bedroom with his nose buried in the old book. It was hopeless. She shook her head sadly and looked down at her bare breasts. She was not bad to look and she had done everything short of taking him down forcefully to no avail. He was still very much like a child in many ways.

((((((((((((()))))))))))))

“Where did you get this?” Huber held up the sparkling skull in the harsh light of the laboratory.

“In the excitement of the battle, one of the enemy commanders must have dropped it. I found it in the mud.”  It wasn’t exactly a lie. More like speculation.