Chapter 35
Sharyn initially tried to follow the efforts of Laurent and Duncan, but their arcane language and the flowing algorithmic screens defied her.
Instead, she drew the physical book closer to her.
As the two men delved deeper into its digital version on the screen, she moved forward on her own.
The next few pages showed views of jagged mountain tops.
Their sharp-edged slopes flowed with lines of cryptic text, strange symbols, and bewildering passages.
She flipped between a couple pages, trying to judge if what was drawn was the same peak, sketched at different angles.
She frowned, still unsure.
No wonder this proved to be so challenging.
Laurent had claimed some progress, even saying he knew roughly where the Second Adage’s treasure might be hidden. As the Frenchman stepped back from the computer to allow Duncan to work, Sharyn pointed at the page and challenged him.
“You said this location might be in the Alps. Why do you think that?”
Laurent turned toward her. “If you look through the rest of this section, you’ll see many mountains depicted.
We were able to compare this to peaks around the world, but we didn’t have to look far.
Several of the sketched mountains are perfect matches to those found in the Alps.
But which of the peaks—if any of them—might hold the treasure still confounds us. ”
Sharyn flipped through more pages and saw he was right. She counted at least two dozen mountains scattered through the fifty pages of this section. When she reached the end, a turn of the last page revealed the greater challenge ahead.
The Third Adage.
A cold shudder passed through her.
The title page—inscribed in Latin, like the others—was similarly illuminated, in brilliant whites, ochres, and darker inks. They ominously rendered a large skull and a scatter of bones.
Despite the disturbing imagery, Sharyn could not help but skip ahead. Laurent had said many of the Gardiens thought this final Adage might hide the key to immortality, a way to conquer death.
No wonder they believed this . . .
She opened only a few pages to see what else might be depicted in this section. She wished she had shown more caution. The sketches inside looked like something from a macabre anatomical textbook.
They showed gruesome images of bodies stripped of skin, some down to their bones.
Many disarticulated or decapitated. Yet, there remained a clinical detachment to the horrors shown within.
Again, passages and lines filled the empty spaces, along with arcane symbols that looked like measurements.
It all boiled down to an obvious conclusion, an indication of the research being recorded:
Human experimentation.
Sharyn shook her head, wondering if this book should be burned. This was a path no one should pursue. She quickly flipped back to earlier in the book, returning to the title page of the Second Adage, leaving the horrors ahead to others.
As she sat back, a rush of footsteps set her heart to pounding. She turned to the door. Gabriel appeared, followed a moment later by the panting bulk of Tristan.
The young man, breathless, skidded to a stop. “Update from below. From my mother. Gendarmerie arrived on scene, but they look to be staying at the crash site, where arguments continue. Still, Mother remains suspicious. She keeps to a nearby field, pretending to hunt rabbits with Izzy.”
“Merci, Gabriel,” Laurent said.
“But I know Mother. Without saying so, she implies you’d best not tarry here much longer.”
“Understood,” Laurent noted.
Gabriel gave a nod, turned, and set off to return to his patrol.
Laurent frowned. “We should heed Anna’s good senses. If we can’t solve this riddle soon, we will move on.”
“To where?” Sharyn asked. “The more we move, the more likely we’ll be discovered.”
Naomi groaned, as if fearing the same, but her attention was focused on her small iPad. Archie looked equally ill as he peered down at the tiny screen.
“What is it?” Sharyn asked, waving for Duncan to keep working after he looked on with concern.
“I got on TikTok,” Naomi said. “I didn’t log in to my account, but I ghosted onto my site.”
Her WitchTok page . . .
“I wanted to get a feel for the general temperature. Of how the public is taking the deaths in Exeter and the accusations against us.”
“It’s not going well,” Archie muttered.
“Even my followers have turned against me. And why would they not? When one of their own is accused of a ritualistic murder. Only a few came to my defense, declaring it a false accusation, a digital burning of a witch.”
Archie looked up from the screen. “There are also memorial messages on the site for Professor Wright. With links to the latest news out of Exeter.”
“What are they saying?” Tag asked.
“Though the professor’s body was badly burned, the coroner has confirmed his identity from medical records.”
Sharyn closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Anger at the man still burned inside her, but he did not deserve such an end.
“The police have stepped up their efforts to look for us,” Naomi added. “Expanding to include Europol and intelligence agencies across the Continent.”
“Then we must work quickly,” Laurent said. “If we are forced to leave, I have new ID papers for the lot of you.”
Sharyn felt little relief at this.
“I may have something,” Duncan blurted out, glancing to Laurent, then back to the computer.
“While you succeeded in decrypting the large section at the beginning of the Adage, I think it’s wrong to apply the same methodology to the rest. I believe the encryption of the mountain’s location is entirely different from the rest. So, I’m going to erase the prior dataset for the next pass, then apply MDA—Multiple Discriminant Analysis—and start fresh. ”
Laurent pushed him closer to the computer. “Don’t explain. Just do it.”
As they worked, Sharyn found herself bothered by what Duncan had just said. She eyed Laurent, who stood with his arms crossed, casting frequent glances toward the library door.
Sharyn raised a hand to draw the Frenchman’s attention. “Duncan said you had already decrypted a chunk of the writing, and that it had nothing to do with the location of the hidden site. If so, then what was deciphered in that first section?”
Laurent looked at her, his expression hardening, clearly reluctant to divulge this information. It must be something kept tightly guarded.
“I think we’re well beyond secrets now,” Sharyn stressed. “What did you learn?”
He unfolded his arms, giving in. “It is something we do not want the Confrérie to know. Not after having the Solomonic gold stolen from us. Though, with a traitor amongst us, such guardedness might be moot.”
“What are you holding back?”
He sighed. “The passage we deciphered. It revealed what is hidden out in those mountains, what the Second Adage was meant to protect.”
Sharyn stared aghast at him. “You know what the treasure is?”