Jared checked another archway. ‘This one’s empty too,’ he announced, disappointed.
‘It’s a big find, though. Even if there isn’t anything else here, I think this is definitely one of the stations of the Exodus. That’ll keep the archaeologists busy — and the theologians arguing.’ Nina returned to the left-hand tunnel and cautiously entered it, taking off her sunglasses and shining her light around the walls and ceiling. Faded paintings were revealed on the stone, images of people and animals framed by elaborate patterns. ‘These are a lot like the ones in the catacombs.’
‘No traps?’ Eddie asked, joining her.
‘Not yet. But look, the tunnel slants upwards.’ The beam fell upon a steeply sloping floor.
‘Great,’ said Jared gloomily. ‘It really is like the Spring of Immortality.’
‘I don’t think there’ll be any killer statues or giant crabs,’ said Nina as she started up the passage. ‘But let’s be careful, huh?’
They proceeded deeper into the mountain. The tunnel’s walls had been smoothed by both hand and time, giving the undulating passage an unsettlingly organic feeling. Its colour changed as they climbed through different strata. Stubs of side passages occasionally branched off, copper deposits having been grubbed from the rock, though more often than not the valuable metal had been left in situ. Eddie paused to rub one of the seams. ‘Wonder why they stopped mining it?’
‘Out of reverence, I’d imagine,’ said Nina, examining a wall painting. Unlike those at the entrance, which showed general scenes of the Israelites’ lives, this was clearly religious in nature: robed figures standing with their heads bowed before a tent in the desert. ‘This tunnel seems to be going somewhere important — maybe a temple. Once it was established, mining was probably considered disrespectful.’
Jared peered at the image as Nina moved away. ‘What is it?’ Eddie asked.
‘The tent… I think it’s the Tabernacle. The shrine to God that the Israelites carried with them,’ he explained, seeing the Yorkshireman’s quizzical look.
‘The Tabernacle of the Covenant,’ said Nina. ‘Where they kept the Ark.’
‘What, like the lost Ark?’ Eddie asked. ‘As in, Raiders of the?’
‘That’s right. The actual one.’
‘Wow. If you found that, it might finally make you more famous than Indiana Jones.’
‘I’ve had more than enough of being famous, thanks!’ she said firmly.
They continued upwards. ‘It’s getting damp,’ Nina observed before long. In places, the walls had a faint sheen, some of the painted scenes smeared by water and mould.
Eddie sniffed. ‘Something smells a bit dodgy.’
‘It might be these.’ She played her light over something low on the wall. A small patch of bulbous white mushrooms was growing on the glistening stone. ‘Fungi.’
‘Yeah, I know I am.’
‘What? Oh God,’ she added with rolled eyes as she got the pun. Eddie chuckled. ‘There are more up ahead.’
The walls were indeed home to other colonies of the fungal growths. They were so pale in colour that they almost seemed to glow in the reflected light. But Jared was already looking past them. ‘Hey, I can see something.’ He moved to investigate.
Eddie and Nina followed. ‘Okay, we found where the smell’s coming from,’ the Englishman announced, wrinkling his nose.
A vertical shaft thirty feet in diameter opened out before them, dropping into darkness below. The walls were home to more mushrooms, the largest bigger than a clenched fist. A faint light came from what Nina at first thought were small holes in the ragged ceiling high above, before closer inspection revealed that the milky glow was actually being refracted through veins of some type of translucent crystal.
But the most arresting feature was man-made.
A narrow bridge of blackened wood led across the chasm to an archway flush with the wall on the far side, the opening barricaded by a heavy door. A now-familiar symbol was marked upon it: the menorah of the twenty-four Elders. Beside the entrance, a large nook had been carved from the rock, numerous small objects sitting within. ‘Careful,’ Nina warned. ‘That doesn’t look safe.’
Eddie moved to get a look at the crossing’s supports. ‘No kidding.’
He retreated so Nina could see. The near end of the rickety bridge was supported by what she could only think of as a hinge; the whole thing seemed designed to plunge intruders into the pit below.
She dropped a loose stone over the edge. A faint splash echoed back up the shaft after a couple of seconds. ‘It must be a cenote,’ she mused. ‘There’s a reservoir at the bottom; it might even join up with the sinkhole outside. And this’ — she waved her hand at the bridge — ‘is a trap to tip people into it.’
‘I’ll go back and get some rope,’ said Eddie.
‘No, wait a minute. Look at that.’ She shone her flashlight at the nook. Set into its back was a piece of glinting metaclass="underline" a bronze slab almost a foot wide and several inches deep. There was a slit in the rock beneath it, through which a rod protruded to support the shelf. ‘We’ve seen something like that before, in the Atlantean temple in Brazil. It’s a weighing scale.’
‘To weigh what?’ asked Jared.
‘Those.’ She shifted the beam to pick out the objects below the scale: stones of various sizes. ‘There’s more text by the door. It’s some sort of test; a puzzle. It probably tells you what you have to do to get in.’
‘Which you’ve got to cross the bridge to read,’ Eddie said dubiously.
‘Yeah, that’s kinda worrying. But I don’t think it automatically throws everybody who tries to cross down the shaft. It’s more likely that it only catches people who fail the test. The people who knew the answer, the ones who built this place, could come and go as they wanted.’
Jared conducted his own examination of the bridge. ‘That may have been true when they built it. But look at it! It’s falling apart. If it really was made by the Israelites, then it’s over three thousand years old.’
‘It might not be as old as you think,’ Nina countered. ‘The people who hid the angels, the Elders, did so a long time after the Exodus. John of Patmos discovered their writings in the Library of Pergamon, and that wasn’t founded until around 350 BC.’
Eddie made a sarcastic sound. ‘Oh, so it’s only over two thousand years old. That makes it completely safe.’
‘The site may have still been used for a long time after that, though.’
‘Or it might not. Seriously, don’t even think about crossing it until we get some ropes.’
‘I’ll go back for them,’ said Jared. ‘Wait here for me.’
‘Don’t bloody worry, we’re not going anywhere!’ the Englishman told him. Jared smiled and headed back down the tunnel.
Nina watched him go, then moved to the bridge. ‘Oi,’ said Eddie.
‘What?’
‘You’re thinking about putting a foot on it, aren’t you? Just to test your theory.’
‘No I wasn’t,’ she said, not entirely convincingly.
He shook his head. ‘I dunno. You say you’re done with all this stuff, but give you half a chance and you’re back climbing cliffs to reach ancient temples. Even when you’re pregnant.’