A black circle had appeared in the center of the whirlpool. The Viking ship pulled past them and was being drawn in.
DeAngelo’s head popped out of the hatch. He saw the black circle, the whirlpool and the rope tying them to the Viking ship. “Should we cut free or am I disturbing you two?”
“That’s where we want to go,” Sin Fen said.
“Leave the rope,” Dane ordered.
The longship was sucked into the black circle, disappearing in a flash. The rope extended out, pulling Deepflight in. Dane gripped the railing around the top of the sphere. The black circle drew closer, then they were in.
Dane felt disoriented, then blinked. The light was now coming from the sun, the air clean and fresh, with the tang of saltiness from the open ocean filling his nostrils. Deepflight was bobbing in a gentle swell, open ocean all around- except to the north and west where a dark cloud lay on the water. The longship was still tied to them, twenty meters away.
“What now?” Dane asked Sin Fen.
“We’re in the right place,” she said. She poked her head into the hatch. “DeAngelo, can you give me a sonar reading of the bottom?”
“Give me a sec,” the pilot replied.
Sin Fen dropped into the sphere, followed by Dane, which made for a tight fit inside the small enclosure.
“There,” DeAngelo pointed at one of the screens. “That’s strange,” he added.
“A hill?” Dane could see what the pilot was referring to- from a relatively level bottom, something was jutting up from the bottom, the trace clearly outlined on the screen.
“With very straight sides,” DeAngelo said. “That’s not a natural formation.”
“How deep?” Sin Fen asked.
“The bottom is real shallow- under a thousand feet,” DeAngelo checked another screen. “Hell, it’s under seven hundred feet right here and the top of that thing is only a hundred and eighty feet below us.”
“That’s it,” Sin Fen said. “We need to go there. It’s a pyramid built by the Atlanteans- their outpost for the shield. Can you rig me a breathing tube?” she asked DeAngelo.
“For what?”
“I need to be on the outside,” Sin Fen said.
“Why?” Dane asked. “We can get the shield using the submersible’s arms.”
“It doesn’t work like that,” Sin Fen said. “The entire pyramid is part of the shield. Consciousness, Dane-” she placed her hands on the side of his head. “The mind can be a powerful weapon when focused correctly.”
Dane felt a surge of emotion from Sin Fen’s mind, an avalanche that he couldn’t sort out. “I don’t understand.”
“We don’t have time to discuss this,” she said. “You’ll figure it out later.” She let go of him and turned to DeAngelo. “Can you do it?”
DeAngelo nodded.
“Rig it, then take me down to the top of the pyramid.”
Chapter 28
Ragnarok saw the darkness clearly now. It was over the ocean, approaching the wall that surrounded the moat. Tam Nok stood next to him, at the very top of the pyramid, also watching the Shadow.
“It is time,” she said.
“I see no weapon,” Ragnarok said. There was only a large slab with the contour of a person etched into its surface.
Tam Nok ignored him, pulling her pack off. She pulled out a long piece of cloth, which she draped around her neck over her shoulders. It was dark red, with faint black writing on it.
She knelt down and bowed her head. Ragnarok felt foolish towering over her, ax in hand. He stepped back, glanced at the horizon. The darkness was growing closer.
The survivors of his ship were loosely gathered around the top of the pyramid, awed by their surroundings, still stunned by recent events. Hrolf walked up to Ragnarok and spoke to him in a low, hushed voice.
“It is the same as we saw off the coast of Iceland,” he nodded toward the fog.
Ragnarok nodded.
“We will never go home,” Hrolf continued.
“We will defeat the darkness,” Ragnarok said.
Hrolf’s old face cracked into a weary smile. “My friend, I have sailed with you on many a journey. This was the strangest and the last.”
“My mother-” Ragnarok began, but the old warrior placed a hand on his shoulder.
“She is where she is. She let you go. Let her go.”
A muscle on the side of Ragnarok’s face quivered, but he realized the truth in the old man’s words.
Tam Nok suddenly stood. “Let us finish it.” She handed the staff to Ragnarok. “Here is what you must do.”
Chapter 29
Dane stared at the video screen which showed Sin Fen holding on to the top railing, a tube from one of the oxygen tanks in her mouth. Her eyes were open as they descended. He shook his head, trying to clear it. He felt drunk, at the golden moment when the alcohol gave clarity before descending into the physical depression that was the by-product of drinking. He felt like he was watching Sin Fen float outside the submersible in a dream, slowly descending into the water together. It didn’t take long to reach the top of the pyramid.
Diffuse sunlight reflected off the smooth black stone, untouched by the sea or its creatures all these years. Sin Fen turned and looked directly at the camera. She cut through the fog in Dane’s mind.
“Land on top, next to that slab,” Dane ordered, picking up the thought she directed at him.
Carefully manipulating the controls, DeAngelo brought them to a landing on the top, ten feet from a large slab. A pole with something on the top stuck up next to the slab. Dane focused the camera, recognizing the Naga carving on the tip, a representation of the real thing that he had fought in Angkor Kol Ker. He felt the power of this place, even though the shield wasn’t active.
Sin Fen was walking across the top of the pyramid to the slab, the air hose trailing behind her. She climbed onto the slab and sat on the edge, looking back at Deepflight.
Dane picked up the message she sent to him.
“We need to be closer,” he ordered DeAngelo. “Close enough so that the remote arm can reach that pole.”
“Why can’t she reach it?” DeAngelo asked, even as he gave the engines a tweek and slid the submersible closer.
Dane saw it then as Sin Fen finally allowed him to. Why she wouldn’t be able to turn the pole. What she planned on doing. This was the place the vision he had stolen from her mind had shown him. Where the woman in the vision had lain.
He moved over and slid his hand into the glove box that controlled the arm. He extended it until the mechanical fingers were stretched around the shaft of the pole. Then he slowly contracted his hand until the metal hand gripped the pole firmly. Even through the metal and plastic of the remote, he felt a jolt of power.
Only then did he look at the screen that showed Sin Fen.
Tam Nok was calm, her voice steady. “You must leave the staff here,” she told Ragnarok.
“Why?” The Viking had slid the spear end into a slit next to the slab. His large right hand rested on the snake heads carved on the other end, as Tam Nok had instructed him.
“This weapon only stops the darkness,” she said. “It does not destroy it. There will be others who will need to use it in the future when the Shadow returns. We must make their journey less difficult than ours was. It is our duty to help those who come after us.”
Ragnarok nodded. “I will leave it.”
“I am ready,” Tam Nok said. She lay down on the slab, in the form that fit her body almost perfectly.