the dots?”
“It’s a map?”
“More than that. This is something you should have caught.” Lourds loved being ahead of the curve on his friend.
“Why should I have caught something I plainly still do not see?”
“Because you’re the expert on Greek mythology. This isn’t a map, Adonis. It’s a constellation.”
Marias looked at the shape a moment more, then he grew more excited. “You are right.” He leaned in closer. “This is Auriga. Eight stars comprise the constellation, the brightest of which is Capella.”
“Excuse me.” Fitrat looked at both of them. “What is Auriga?”
Marias talked excitedly. “Not a what. A who. He was believed to be the hero Erichthonius of Athens. He drove out Amphictyon, who had taken the throne from Cranaus. According to the mythology, he was the chthonic son, born of the earth when Hephaestus tried to rape Athena. Hephaestus did not manage the task because Athena fought him off, but the seed of the god fell to the earth, and Erichthonius was born anyway.”
“Why would Auriga be important to Alexander?”
Marias shook his head. “That we may never know. But the wooden rollers on the coded scroll had serpents on them. Ericthonius had a son, Pandion I, whose symbol was a snake. His mark is on the statue of Athena in the Parthenon—the snake hidden behind her shield.”
“Snakes were associated with the Oracle of Delphi too.” Lourds sipped water from the canteen he carried. “She was also called Pythia, named for the monstrous serpent Python after Apollo slew her. He claimed the cave she lived in as the home for the Oracle.”
Marias checked his watch. “Even though it grows dark, my friends, we still have a couple hours to look for the other three wells if we wish to. I, for one, would like to press on.” He grimaced up at the gathering storm clouds. “Unless the rain comes and we are forced to quit.”
“Maybe we don’t have to find three wells.” Lourds considered the map.
“What are you saying?”
“Maybe we need only find the one.”
“Which one?”
“You said Capella was the brightest star?”
“Yes.”
“We haven’t yet found that star, though we have found the two that anchor it on a straight line through the heart of the constellation.” Lourds looked out at the orange markers. “Given all that we’ve found so far, you’d think we’d have located that well, too.”
Marias took in a breath. “Unless it was hidden.”
Lourds rolled up the copy of the map. “That’s what I’m thinking.”
“And you wouldn’t put the gateway to Hell in plain sight, would you?”
“I wouldn’t.”
Lourds put the map back in his backpack. Just as he was slinging it back over his shoulder, the earth quivered and he staggered slightly.
Marias noted his reaction. “Do not think anything of it. There are tremors through this area all the time.” He started off, aiming for the point between the five wells they had found.
***
The well that represented Capella wasn’t hidden. It was just grown over to the point that getting to it was difficult. Lourds and Marias hacked their way to it using machetes, then were disappointed when it was as dry and empty as the others.
They pressed on and found the next one nearby, but it, too, held nothing of interest.
Lourds hadn’t lost hope when they found the last well, the one that represented Eta Aurigae, which was supposed to have been one of the kids of the she-goat Capella or the nose of Auriga, depending on which interpretation one wanted to believe.
He shone his flashlight beam around, struck at once by the loamy smell trapped in the enclosure. But maybe that had been caused by the coming storm. This well was just as dry as all the others had been, and he was disappointed.
Marias grinned wryly. “Maybe we’ve just outthought ourselves, Thomas.” He sighed. “Maybe we’re wanting to see something so badly that our minds are playing tricks on us.”
Lourds hadn’t wanted to admit it, but he was thinking the same thing.
“No.” Captain Fitrat spoke in the calm voice of reason. “You said this place was small. Why would they then have so many wells here? There was only one that I saw on Delos Island.”
“That was a communal well. There were probably smaller ones in the past.” Lourds pushed a spiderweb aside and examined the walls more closely. His boot thumped against the solid earth. He focused his attention on the back wall. This well was different. It had been dug into the side of a hill.
“But why so many of this size?”
Marias worked on the