The Source - Michael Cordy [88]
'So I have to bring Lauren here?'
She smiled. 'No. There's another way.' She pointed behind her to the dark opening whence the stream came. 'Come, I'll show you.'
She took his hand and led him into the forbidden caves.
52
As Ross followed Sister Chantal along the stream to the forbidden caves trepidation must have shown on his face.
'The antechamber's harmless,' she said. 'The forbidden, dangerous part lies beyond.'
The first thing he noticed was a faint smell: a musky, damp, mustard-seed aroma – like the aftermath of sex. The space was high and deep. The cave floor rose in steps as he entered, culminating in a high ledge, behind which an ascending tunnel disappeared into the heart of the surrounding rock. The stream that fed the lake flowed down the tunnel to a small waterfall, which dropped from the ledge, forming two pools, then eddied into the garden. Inside the tunnel, alongside the rushing stream, there was a path wide enough for two men. When Ross looked closely he saw that it was made up of glittering crystals. In fact, the whole tunnel was encrusted with them.
He could see all this from the entrance because the interior of the antechamber was bathed in an ethereal glow, which emanated from deep within the tunnel, amplified by the crystals and the stream. The path emitted its own glittering phosphorescence, presenting an irresistible temptation to enter the tunnel and discover the source of the strange light. A potentially deadly temptation, Ross remembered, from a passage in Lauren's translation of the Voynich:
Though the conquistadors could not communicate directly with the Eves, the scholar priest understood that it was forbidden to enter their cave. For many days they rested after their gruelling journey and enjoyed the beautiful garden. But soon, like all idle men, they grew curious and greedy, wondering what could be in the cave. It must be valuable, they reasoned. Gold.
The scholar priest counselled them to obey their hosts but the captain was a proud man who obeyed only his king. That night the conquistadors ventured into the cave. They found the Eves bathing in pools, filled by water flowing from a vaulted tunnel in the raised back of the cave. As well as water, light issued from deep within the tunnel bathing everything in a golden glow. Alongside the rushing stream, a path climbed and twisted into the rock. It appeared to be encrusted with diamonds, which sparkled in the light. Convinced that its source must be a vast treasure trove, the conquistadors were drawn to it like moths to a flame.
When they approached, the Eves emitted a high-pitched wailing and blocked their path. The scholar priest begged the men not to enter. But they pushed him and the Eves aside and began their ascent. The scholar priest watched each of them disappear into the tunnel and for many minutes nothing happened.
Then the screaming started.
And the stream turned red with their blood.
Twenty-one men entered the tunnel, all the surviving members of the original troop. Not one came down. Every conquistador died. The scholar priest understood then that the Eves had not been protecting whatever was in the tunnel from their greed but the conquistadors from whatever was in the tunnel. After witnessing the horrors of that night, he concluded that only man could turn Heaven into Hell.
The tunnel of blood also featured in the last pages of Falcon's notebook: the translation of the Voynich's astrological section that Lauren had not yet unravelled. According to this section, Falcon later went up the tunnel himself and discovered 'el origen' – the source, what Torino called the 'radix'. Ross took the damaged notebook from his backpack and studied the relevant pages, but apart from a typically cryptic reference to something called El Árbol de la Vida y de la Muerte, the Tree of Life and Death, they told him little. He pulled out his compass and watched the needle rotate furiously, then point up the tunnel.
'What's up there?' he asked.
'I don't know. Only Father Orlando lived to see el origen.'
'But in his notebook