Disney, (The group that performed "I Can Go The Distance"), Aspirin, McDonalds, Universal Studios, Jack Henna,
Chapter 12: The Mount Held Most Dear
I awoke to a calm, cold voice gently singing "I Can Go The Distance" from the Disney musical Hercules somewhere nearby. It was the song my mother always sang to me when I was young. I gently felt around, determining I was lying on my back on a plain but soft mattress that seemed to be a full twin size. I was dry, which seemed strange. I felt no pain from the battle except for the massive headache. It felt like someone was trying to pry my head open from the inside with a dull ax.
The voice came closer and I sensed someone standing next to the bed. Someone gently pressed the corners of the rag into my head, massaging my temples like a masseuse. I reflexively flinched. The singing stopped.
"He finally stirs."
The voice was different from the one that had sung and came from past the foot of the bed. I tried to sit up and open my eyes, but the headache was too overpowering. "Don't over exert yourself," the singing voice said. The body left my bedside and returned a minute later. A cold, wet rag was gently placed along my forehead. The strong smell of my grandmother's famous blue chocolate chip cookies seemed to waft from the rag. Magic seeped into my forehead like super, super fast acting Aspirin. I managed to open my eyes.
The woman tending to my head was a tall, slender, middle aged woman. She was wearing an easy flowing, pale yellow dress that reached just past her knees. Her smile was both fake and reassuring at the same time, and her hair switched between a light, golden brown and a darker red as it flowed around her shoulders, one of which had a tattoo with of name "Zeus" on it. The tattoo appeared to have been crossed out by another tattoo that had subsequently been removed. Golden eyes pierced me from under golden brown bangs, but in a loving sort of way.
At the foot of the bed, another woman sat in a reclining chair, studying me with pale, gray eyes. I recognized Athena immediately. My grandmother appeared as a worn woman, hair just beginning to gray and her eyes alive, but shallow and shadowed. The goddess was dressed in a military style camo, with gray and blue intermixed in the style of the United States Navy camo uniforms. The outfit hung freely about her, allowing for optimal movement and freedom. But she slouched on the recliner, gently supporting her head in her right hand, observing me like I was an interesting science project. "You destroyed my book," she said simply.
"No I didn't. It's sitting comfortably in my hamm…" I stopped. The book Athena had given me from the Library of Congress had been in my hammock, and my hammock was now flooded in seawater. The book was destroyed. And then I registered that I wasn't in my hammock. I wasn't even on the Constitution. "Where am I?" I asked.
"Where is not a question that makes sense here," Hera said. The goddess of motherhood appeared to be tending to my needs right now. Well, at least she appeared to be trying to. It didn't look like she'd had much practice at it. "We are where you are. We are inside your head."
"Okay," I said slowly. "I'll bite."
"You're in a coma," Athena said. "We invited ourselves in. It's one of the few safe places left to talk; one of the few places Nash can't penetrate." She was right. Christopher Nash was now the god of shadows and darkness, and the room we were in had neither. Of course, it wasn't really a room either, more like a ball of light that we were inside.
"What happened?" I asked.
"Mines," Hera said. "Placed along the Straight of Gibraltar by Triton himself."
"But the boat protects us from godly attacks," I protested.
"That's the genius, the god didn't attack the boat," Athena said sitting up in the chair. She almost looked impressed by the merman. "Triton simply unearthed mines he had buried in the seabed and placed them in the ocean. It was coincidence that your boat hit them. The mines were man made, and Triton didn't throw them at your ship. It almost worked too. That was some show you did, even I have to admit that."
"What did I do anyway?" I asked.
"You became a human minesweeper," Athena said,
"Yeah, but how did I do that?"
"The Blessing of Hera," Hera said.
"That was your power?" I asked.
"You sound surprised," Hera said.
"Well it was flashy, powerful," I said.
"I am powerful," Hera said, her eyes flashing on the middle word. "Percy can make a hurricane, Nico can summon an army from the ground. Thalia…" She swallowed as if she was trying not to vomit. "Why would you expect your powers to be less?"
"Well, those are the children of the big three," I said. "Of course they're powerful."
"Remember, I am a child of Kronos and Rhea, same as Zeus and his brothers," Hera said. "My powers appear less than theirs. Demeter, Hestia, and I have always taken a back seat to our better known brothers. But we should not be underestimated. We are not fun when angry."
"When angry," I led.
"It was my anger you harnessed in the strait. My sibling," she gestured toward Athena, "views war from the side of a general, a participant. So do all the other Olympians. Only Hestia and I remain home, the hearth and the mother. We see war very differently. To me, war is boys returning home on shields, in wood boxes, or…or not at all. War changes people, boys and girls too young to suffer such a fate. I am the one who has to deal with that change. Mothers remember who their boys were and can compare it to what they have become; assuming they aren't just visiting a grave. I hate war. One of my powers is to turn swords into plowshares. You tapped into those feelings when you saw Kim. You used that passion to turn the weapons of war into something less dangerous in the Underworld last summer. This time you used it get them out of the way."
"I had forgotten about last summer," I said. "I had tried to change the Sword of Hades into a foam baseball bat. It didn't work. But why Kim? Airiana was hurt too. Why have I cared so much for Kim?"
"You are not powerful enough to effect that weapon," Hera said. "Even I may not be that strong. But enough of that, I think you get the idea. As for Kim, you are attracted to her, simple as that."
"But I'm dating Airiana. I can't be attracted to another."
Athena chuckled. "No, my son," Hera said. "Unfortunately no marriage works like that. You were in a honeymoon period, but that was broken when you fought. Attraction, however, does not imply action. Fidelity can be chosen. But you don't get an easier time simply because you are my child."
"Why didn't you correct me?" I asked.
"Because it was fun to watch you," she said. "Young love is inspiring. But more on that if we meet again. Athena and I must finish our purpose here. My magic works fast. We don't have much time left."
"You must understand your importance," Athena said, gathering herself and rising from the recliner. I had almost forgotten she was even here. "Olympus will fall, the gods thrown into the depths of Tartarus. If the world as we know it is to be saved, you demigods will need to retake Olympus from the new rulers."
"I'm not going to let Olympus fall," I said. I was getting tired of the doom and gloom.
"Do not make promises you cannot keep, Winston," Athena said. "This prophecy could not have been misread. Olympus will fall."
"We cannot take Olympus with out you," I said.
"There is a way for us to return, but it must be set up in advance. My siblings are too blinded by their own power to believe they can be overthrown. I fear none have taken the necessary steps. You will not be able to rely on our help. You and your friends will be alone."
"But you can set it up," I told her. I turned to Hera and said, "You too."
Hera shook her head. "I must remain with my family. I will stay in Tartarus."
"But you are on the right track my child," Athena said. "You will need immortal help. Do your best to find it, in any way possible." I started to respond, but she held up her hand. "We cannot dare to tell you more of our plan. Go, your friends will need your help if you are to survive what waits in the Fertile Crescent."
I awoke on my back on Kim's matrass in the girl's room: the Captain's Quarters. A ghost was sitting at the desk across the room with his back to me, scribbling something on a piece of parchment. When he heard me struggle, he turned around.
It was Roberts. He smiled. "The jedi awa-"
"How's Kim?" I interrupted. He appeared taken aback, but recomposed himself quickly.
"Kim will survive," he said, motioning to a blanket that was gently rising and falling. "She lost a lot of blood, but I've got some tricks up my sleeve still."
"I thought you were a captain, not a doctor."
"Son of Hermes," he said, shrugging. "I'm not the ship's only doctor, but I am the best. She's regained color, but I'd like her to get some more rest. I would have liked you to get some more too."
"I don't need rest," I said, knowing it was true.
"Yes, I can sense that," he said. "I also sense you will need her when we get to Israel. Ready or not, I'm going to have to wake Kim Santos in Tel Aviv."
"How long till we get there?" I asked.
Roberts looked up as if he was pondering the question. "At our current speed, with the detour around Alexandria that I ordered, a little less than a day."
"That soon?" I asked, stunned. "How fast are we going?"
Roberts smiled. "Only about 15 knots. You've been in a coma for a week." Then he turned and went back to writing.
"I'll take a McFlurry please." Kim was still trying to get her bearings after being awoke from her long coma. She still looked a little pale to me, so we were catching our breath at a McDonalds just off the beach. I hadn't expected McDonalds in Israel, but there was one, complete with a Hebrew sign and Golden Arches.
The Constitution was docked inside an ancient Roman water break. The swimmers on the beach had paid the ship no attention. Airiana had wanted to shadow travel to the beach in order to avoid alerting anyone by jumping from the ship, but I decided it was too dangerous. During the short trip I had remembered my dream from two weeks ago. According to that, both Christopher Nash and Michael Yew were waiting to attack us in Israel. By waiting until after sunset we were giving Nash, the god, more power. But Airiana could fight that. And we were also robbing Yew of his power. It was a gamble we felt we had to take.
When we'd finished our hamburgers (cheeseburgers were not on the menu), we stepped out onto the seaside boulevard. Kim sighed, "Now, how are we supposed to get to Jerusalem?" Just then, a white taxicab pulled to a stop where we were standing and the doors opened.
The taxi agreed to take us to the Old City of Jerusalem, which the driver said was the closest he could get to the Temple Mount. The driver was a short man, who appeared young. He had groomed black hair, which seemed to glow in the moonlight, and a pointed nose. I could barely make out his brown eyes because he was squinting as if the moonlight was too bright for him. As we drove out of Tel Aviv and into the rural countryside, he turned up a radio station playing oldies from the early part of the millennium and raised the middle divider.
I sat in the middle of the back seat, with Airiana on my right and Kim on my left. "Anyone know anything that can help us when we actually get there?" I asked. Neither spoke.
"It's quiet," Kim said. She had turned to gaze out the window at the grain. The entire highway seemed lined in wheat. At least, it looked like wheat to me.
"Too quiet," I agreed. "I figured they'd be waiting for us as soon as we got off the ship."
"Oh, they're out there," Airiana said, gazing out the other window. "I can feel him out there, watching. Waiting."
As soon as Jerusalem came into view, I could tell why David had chosen it for his capital. The city could be seen from halfway across the country, sprawling across the front of the short mountain range in front of us. Jerusalem can't sneak up on you, and you can't sneak up on Jerusalem. The city itself, much like Tel Aviv, was modern and would not look out of place anywhere in the Untied States. Unlike Tel Aviv, it was eerily quiet on this Friday night.
The taxi slowed to a halt outside a ten-foot wall. We paid for the ride and got out. The wall extended for two blocks in either direction. Directly in front of us was an ornate gate in the wall. The wide sidewalk led to a long flight of stairs extending from the gate in a semi-circle up to street level. From the top of the stairs I could see a gradual decline in technology and modern building, culminating in the walls that looked straight out of the Middle Ages. I also noticed that there were more people active the older the buildings got.
We climbed down the stairs and entered the gate. My senses were on high alert, sensing a threat at every turn. I could see that Kim and Airiana were experiencing the same thing, as if the shadows were all containing monsters laughing at us. Which may have not been far from the truth. A shopkeeper welcomed us to the Damascus Gate, but we ignored him. The gate was a haunting, eerie feeling. It extended into the wall about a hundred feet and then turned a sharp left. The path then opened up into a set from Universal Studios.
The street extended toward what I thought was the middle of the city (I was already turned around thanks to the gate and I couldn't see any identifying landmarks over the shops). Hundreds of people still shopped in the shops that were open on either side of the one-and-a-half-car-wide street. Half the shops had closed. The shadows extended across the entire width of the street as the sun was half set on the walls.
"What now?" I asked.
Kim walked up to one of the open shops. "Excuse me," she said. "We're looking for the Temple?"
The man inside the shop, a twenty three year old young Arab man was wearing blue jeans and a loose tan shirt that nonetheless covered his entire chest and arms. His face crunched in disgust for a split second before he regrouped and smiled. Any human would have missed it. But we were demigods. "I will show you. Come, come." He said something in Arabic to whoever was inside and then motioned for us to follow him.
I quickly got lost as the man led us through twists, turns, alleys, and boulevards. The man inquired as to where we were from, what we did for a living, where our parents were, in other words basic small talk. We gave half answers or just plain lied when necessary. Eventually we found ourselves on a ledge overlooking the courtyard next to the Western Wall. We had arrived.
The sight took our breath away, and the young man joined us as we leaned on the small railing guarding the edge of the landing. The wall rose 20 feet high and 40ish feet wide on the far side, with a small shrine on the massive platform on top.
"What's that?" I asked our guide.
"The Haram al-Sharif, the First Mosque there on the right and a Muslim Shrine called the Dome of the Rock in the middle. Over there," he said, pointing to the right, "is what we call the First Mosque. We believe the Prophet Mohammad, blessings and peace be upon him, traveled here on his trip to heaven. Under that Dome is a rock with the footprint of Mohammad on it as he rose."
"A rock?" Airiana asked. "It's not all flat?"
"No, that is the only place it is not flat. It is the most holy place; it is the mountain of God."
"Thank you," I said.
"Payment," he said, holding out his hand.
"I don't have anything to pay you," I said, confused.
"I help you, you help me. That's how we do it," he said simply.
"Here," Kim said, placing a Drachma in his hand. "Solid gold. Should be enough for your great help."
"It is good," he said. "Enjoy your stay." He disappeared down the stairs and back toward his shop.
"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Airiana asked. "That mountain is where we need to go."
"It's not on the top of that rock," I said, leaning against the rail again. "Someone would have seen and discovered it by now. It's gotta be below the rock, in the mountain."
"How do we get under it?" Kim asked.
"We start by heading for that courtyard," I said.
The courtyard was protected by metal detectors, but we were able to get through the same way we did at the Navy base back in Boston. We asked a guard how to get under the mount and he tried to arrest us. A lot of skillful use of the mist managed to avoid a scene, but we learned it's illegal to dig under the mount. That would complicate things.
"Explore as you wish, we have tickets for the tunnels tour in 40 minutes," a man said to my left. He was older and wore a pure kacki outfit like he was a Jack Henna wannabe. A group of about 10 younger people dispersed around him.
"Excuse me," I said, walking up to the man. His gray beard opened into a smile as I approached.
"Yes?" he said.
"I thought it was illegal to dig here. How are there tunnels?" I asked.
"Oh they aren't under the Temple," he said. "These tunnels run along the edge and come out on the far side."
I looked briefly at Airiana before replying. She smiled knowingly. "Where are these tunnels?" I asked.
"There, past the washrooms," he said, pointing to the edge of the courtyard.
"Have you seen them?" Airiana asked. Kim was getting some water from a vendor.
"Oh yes," he said. "I've been all over this country several times. They are worth the visit for sure."
"I don't know if I've heard of you," I said.
"Oh, my name is John, that's all you need to know," he said.
"We'll join you on your tour," I said, throwing in some charmspeak for the first time.
"Of course!" he said. "The more the merrier!"
The tour began in a room that talked about the history of the mount, which had been buried in rubble during the many destructions of the city. The houses and shops we had traveled past on our way in were actually on pile of old cities. The courtyard had been dug out and then these tunnels had been dug along the western side of the site. However, due to the laws against digging under the mount, they hadn't been able to survey inside the mount.
"What do they think might be under there?" I asked.
"No one knows," the guide said. "Some think the arc or other special artifacts from the Second Temple Era were placed there, others suggest it's nothing but the stones you see on the walls." After a brief silence he continued our tour.
The tunnels almost looked like caves. They were a light brown in color, damp with small eroded channels forming on the walls. It wasn't wide enough to walk side-by-side, but we weren't cramped by any stretch of the imagination. We walked along metal walkways, barely able to touch the curved, cave-like walls to our left. We were unable to touch much of the straight wall to our right.
Eventually we stopped on a large steel landing near what appeared to be an archway in the wall, though it had been completely filled with stones. It was the second such arch we had passed, I'm not sure why we stopped here.
"Everyone get in please," the guide said, motioning us in. We had enough experience to form up without talking, with me in the back by the wall and the girls taking the front corners. "These archways puzzled the diggers," the guide stated. "We think they once were doors to tunnels under the Temple mount, probably installed when King Herod enlarged the site. We don't know when or why they were sealed. But it has fueled the treasure speculation ever since its discovery. This particular door is near the center of the wall, so anything behind it probably leads under the Dome of the Rock. More reason we'll never get to look."
After the group asked a couple of questions, the guide led the group further north along the wall. "John," I said softly, thick with charmspeak. The older gentleman stopped and turned around. "What do you think about this door?"
"I think it's just a filled archway, extra support for the weight," John said, forgetting about his group now. I nodded to Kim and she moved south to stop the next tour group.
"Alex, we're in Chris's kingdom down here," Airiana said.
"It's yours too," I said dismissively. "Besides, Chris won't attack yet. I've got a feeling he wants us to get a little farther."
"If you say so," Airiana said.
"John?" I asked. He was walking up to the archway with a puzzled look on his face.
"No one gets to look this closely," he said almost wistfully. The giddy smile on his face was contagious. He took off his jacket, and stole a look down both tunnels to make sure no one was watching. Gently he took his jacket to the arch and began to dust off along the edge. No one interrupted him.
"Interesting," John said after a while. Airiana and I glanced at each other, but didn't speak. "There appears to be writing on it. Yes, it's definitely writing. Ancient Hebrew."
"Can you read it?" I asked. I sensed the charmspeak was no longer necessary.
"It's an ancient dialect, from the Hellenistic Era. I can try," he said.
"Hellenistic?"
"The era when the Greeks invaded Israel about 300 B.C.E. During the time of Alexander the Great."
At the word Greek, Airiana's eyes lit up.
John began to speak, no almost sing, as he ran his finger along the words. Slowly he moved along the edge of the arch, to almost seven feet up. As soon as he finished a blinding white light cut down the center of the stones in the archway. Once my eyes adjusted, I was able to watch it expand until if filled the entire archway. John was backing up in amazement. Kim walked up just as the light completed the job of filling the archway. "Figured that was the sign I should come back," she said.
As soon as the light had appeared it vanished and cast us into darkness. Light appeared in golden greek letters and a hallway was cast in a golden glow. It extended through the archway like it was meant to be there and curved off to the left a few feet in. It looked just like the gate in the city walls.
"What do you think?" Kim asked me.
"What did you say?" I asked John.
"It roughly translates to God is better than Zeus," John said.
"I think we're in the right place," I said.