“As I was saying,” Dr. Raphael said, gesturing to the half-empty shelves and the assistants wrapping and packing the books into boxes scattered throughout the Athenaeum, “our time has grown short. Soon all of our resources will be packed up and stored in secure locations throughout the countryside. Of course it is the only way-we are protecting ourselves from the contingencies of the future. But the move comes at the worst possible time. Our work cannot be postponed during the war. There is no question that we have to make a decision now.”
His voice was grave as he continued.
“I don’t believe our defenses will fail-there is every indication that we are ready for whatever battles lie ahead-but we must prepare for the worst. If we wait any longer, we face being surrounded.”
“Look at the map, Professor,” said a council member named Vladimir, a young scholar sent to Paris from the underground Angelological Academy in Leningrad, of whom I knew only by reputation. Boyish and handsome, he had pale blue eyes and a lithe build. The quiet, certain manner with which he conducted himself gave him the presence of an older man, although he could not have been more than nineteen years old. “It seems we are surrounded already,” he said.
“There is a marked difference between the machinations of the Axis powers and our enemies,” Dr. Lévi-Franche said. “Earthly danger is nothing in comparison to that of our spiritual enemies.”
“We must be ready to defy both,” said Vladimir.
“Exactly,” Dr. Seraphina said. “And to do this we must increase our efforts to find and destroy the lyre.”
Dr. Seraphina’s assertion was met with silence. The council members were not quite certain how to react to such a bold statement.
“You know my feelings about this,” Dr. Raphael said. “Sending a team to the mountains is our best hope.”
The nun’s veil cast a shadow over her features as she looked about the table at the council. “The area Dr. Raphael proposes is far too large for anyone-including our teams-to cover without exact coordinates. The precise location of the gorge must be mapped before such an expedition takes place.”
“With the right resources,” Dr. Seraphina said, “nothing is impossible. We have been given generous assistance from our American benefactress.”
“And the equipment supplied by the Curie family estate will be more than adequate,” Dr. Raphael added.
“Let’s look at the realities at hand, shall we?” said Dr. Lévi-Franche, clearly skeptical of the project. “How large is the area we are discussing?”
“Thrace was part of the eastern Roman Empire, later to be called Byzantium, whose territory consisted of land from present-day Turkey, Greece, and Bulgaria,” Dr. Raphael said. “The tenth century was a time of great territorial changes for the Thracians, but from the Venerable Clematis’s account of his expedition we can narrow our search somewhat. We know Clematis was born in the city of Smolyan at the heart of the Rhodope mountain chain of Bulgaria. Clematis wrote that he had traveled to the land of his birth during his expedition. Thus, we can narrow the area to northern Thrace.”
“This, as my colleague so correctly pointed out, is an immense area,” Dr. Lévi-Franche said. “Do you suppose that we can explore a fraction of this terrain without being detected? Even with vast resources and a thousand agents, it would take years, perhaps decades, to scratch the surface, let alone go underground. We do not have the funding or the manpower for such an endeavor.”
“There will be no shortage of volunteers for the mission,” Vladimir said.
“It is important to remember,” Dr. Seraphina said, “that the danger the war poses is not merely the destruction of our texts and the physical structures of our school. We stand to lose much more if the details of the cavern, and the treasure hidden there, are made public.”
“Perhaps,” the nun said. “But our enemies are watching the mountains at every moment.”
“It is true,” said Vladimir, whose field of study was ethereal musicology. “And that is precisely why we must go after it now.”
“Why now?” Dr. Lévi-Franche countered, lowering his voice. “We have hunted down and protected lesser celestial instruments while leaving the most dangerous one at large. Why not wait until the threat of war has passed?”
Dr. Seraphina said, “The Nazis have positioned teams throughout the area. They adore antiquities-especially those of mythological significance to their regime-and the Nephilim will use this opportunity to gain a powerful tool.”
“The lyre’s powers are notorious,” Vladimir said. “Of all the celestial instruments, it is the one that might be used to disastrous ends. It may be that its destructive force is more insidious than anything the Nazis might do. But then again, the instrument is too precious to leave. You know as well as I that the Nephilim have always coveted the lyre.”
“But it is obvious,” Dr. Lévi-Franche said, growing perturbed, “that the Nephilim will follow our party on whatever recovery effort we make. If we have the miraculous luck of finding the lyre, we have no idea what happens to those who possess it. It may not be safe. And even worse, it could be taken from us. Any effort we make may simply assist our enemies. We would then be responsible for the horrors that the lyre’s music could bring.”
“Perhaps,” the nun said, stiffening in her chair, “it is not as powerful as you believe. No one has ever seen the instrument. Much of the terror it has caused arises from pagan legends. There is every possibility that the evil the lyre can inflict is merely the stuff of legend.”
As the angelologists considered this, Dr. Raphael said, “And so we are faced with the choice to act or to do nothing.”
“Reckless action is worse than wise restraint,” Dr. Lévi-Franche said, and I could not help but dislike the smugness of his response, so much in contrast to my professors’ earnest attempts at persuasion.
“In our case,” Dr. Raphael said, growing more and more agitated, “inaction is the more reckless course. Our passivity will have terrible consequences.”
“That is exactly why we must act now,” Vladimir said. “It is up to us to find and protect the lyre.”
“If I may interrupt,” Dr. Seraphina said gently. “I would like to make a proposal.” Walking to where Gabriella and I sat and drawing the attention of the council members upon us, Dr. Seraphina continued, “Many of you are acquainted with them already, but for those of you who are not, I would like to present two of our brightest young angelologists. Gabriella and Celestine have been working with me to put order to our holdings during the transition. They have been busy at work cataloging texts and transcribing notes. I have found their work to be very useful. In fact, it is the attention that they have brought to the minutiae of our collection and the information they have carefully extracted from our historical papers that has given Dr. Raphael and me an idea of how to proceed at this very important juncture.”
“As many of you are aware,” Dr. Raphael said, “in addition to our duties here at the academy, Dr. Seraphina and I have been working on a number of private projects, including trying to bring more precision to the location of the cavern. In the process we have accumulated a plethora of addenda and field notes previously overlooked.”
I glanced at Gabriella, hoping to find some sort of commiseration in our position, but she only turned away, supercilious as ever. Suddenly I wondered if she understood the details of what the council members were discussing. There was the chance that she had been given inside information while I had been excluded. Dr. Seraphina had never spoken to me of a lyre, nor the need to keep it from our enemies. That Gabriella had been taken into her confidence filled me with jealousy.