The Sacred Vault_ A Novel - Andy McDermott [37]
‘They weren’t talking about the Veteres, were they?’
‘I don’t know.’ Nina gave him a slightly pained look at the mention of the long-dead race she had unearthed a year earlier. ‘But let’s not go shouting about the possibility, huh? We already had fanatics from three religions trying to kill us over it - I don’t want to add a fourth.’
‘I’ll keep it to myself,’ he assured her. ‘What did Talonor say about ’em, then?’
Nina read from the translation. ‘It says, “We were guided away from the river at latitude one north” - that’s using the Atlantean scale, obviously - “to a great temple. Though the inhabitants were not hostile, they were well prepared to defend their holy mountain . . .” He goes on about how hard it would be to mount an assault because of the terrain, so you were right - it’s a tactical report. Anyway, “The priest granted me the honour of entrance, where he showed me an image of their god - whom I recognised as the great Poseidon from the trident he held, though these men know him by a different name.” Then he wonders if these people are cousins of the Atlanteans with a common mythology - which is actually an interesting theory. I might have to look into that . . .’ She tailed off, musing over the idea.
Eddie whistled sharply and tapped the Codex. ‘One thing at a time, love.’
‘Right, sorry. Where was I? “The priest was intrigued by my thoughts. He told me the knowledge of Poseidon might contain an answer, but because the texts were kept elsewhere for protection, I would have to wait to see them. When I asked how long, the priest said it would take one day for his acolytes to reach the sacred vault, but only one hour to return. When I asked how this was possible, he smiled and told me Poseidon had many secrets.” ’
‘What, did they teleport or something?’
‘No idea.’ Nina flicked through the translation. ‘But yeah, Talonor decided to stay, and a day later they came back with some stone tablets - which were written in Vedic Sanskrit.’ She indicated the text inscribed on the orichalcum sheet. ‘This section here is a copy of part of Poseidon’s knowledge . . . wait a minute!’ She snapped her fingers as disparate elements suddenly meshed together perfectly in her mind. ‘I’m a dumbass. Why didn’t I realise it before? It’s not Poseidon at all. It’s Shiva. He’s often depicted using a trident as a weapon.’
‘Shiva?’ Eddie asked.
‘One of the Hindu gods.’
‘I know that. I meant, which one? What’s his gig?’
‘Oh, nothing much,’ said Nina. ‘Just the Destroyer of Worlds.’
He frowned. ‘So he’s a bad guy?’
‘No, not at all. Hinduism’s based around the idea of cycles, everything going through a never-ending process of birth, life, death, rebirth - even the entire universe. Shiva’s the god who ends each cycle through an act of destruction . . . but by doing that, he enables the next cycle to be created. He’s one of the most important figures in Hindu mythology. We translated it as Poseidon because Talonor was imposing his own beliefs on another culture - typical Atlantean arrogance. So when he described the priest talking about the knowledge of Poseidon, what he really meant was the knowledge of Shiva. And in Vedic Sanskrit, the word for knowledge is veda - but veda has another meaning. The Vedas are some of the oldest Hindu sacred texts, dating back to at least fifteen hundred BC - but these . . . Shiva-Vedas would be much older. And they were kept in this vault . . . the Vault of Shiva.’
Eddie turned to the next page of the Codex, on which was scribed more Vedic Sanskrit text, before it reverted to the Atlantean language. ‘What does the rest of this say?’
Nina checked another sheet. ‘It’s mostly about