The Mask of Destiny (25 page)

The man took Gerald to a corner of the tower and pointed to a carving of a bearded man flying through the sky and carrying a pot with smoke wafting from it.

‘Skiron,' the cleaner said. He pointed in the direction the bearded man faced. ‘Hot winds. Yes?'

Gerald nodded slowly. ‘The hot winds come in from this way?' he said. ‘And Skiron is some god or other who blows them in?'

The cleaner smiled and gave Gerald the thumbs up. ‘Skiron,' he nodded. ‘Hot air.'

‘You got that much right,' Ruby said. The man smiled again and went back to his sweeping.

Gerald flopped down onto a block of marble and stared up at the bearded figure on the wall. A mythical figure who blew in the summer winds. Terrific. Was this where his search had been leading? A dusty corner of some Athens tourist attraction, among the weeds and stray cats?

Ruby sat next to Gerald. ‘Maybe there's something hidden around here,' she said. ‘Some other clue.'

Gerald kicked out at the stones at his feet, sending a spray across the path and startling a kitten that had been stalking something in the grass.

‘I give up,' he said, almost to himself.

Ruby didn't look up from her shoes. ‘You don't mean that.'

‘All this running about on some stupid thousand-year-old treasure hunt. We don't even know what we're looking for. It's ridiculous.'

‘But what about Charlotte and the murder of Mason Green?' Ruby said. ‘The police still think you did it.'

‘Maybe. But they have to prove their case. What evidence have they got?'

‘Your DNA on the murder weapon, for a start!' Ruby was almost shouting at him. ‘Or had you forgotten that?'

Gerald opened his mouth but, before he could say a word, a sharp shove on his chest sent him sprawling backwards off the marble block into the weeds. Startled, he looked up to find Sam standing over him, and the face of Skiron staring down over Sam's shoulder.

‘What did you do that for?' Gerald said.

Sam glowered at him, his face beet red in the heat. ‘Because I'm sick of you changing your mind all the time. You're all over the shop. One minute you're gung-ho and all guns blazing. Then it's some sook-fest: “Oh it's all too hard. I just want to crawl under a rock and have a good cry.” Well boo-hoo, mate. Make your mind up.'

Gerald raised himself on his elbows from among the weeds. ‘You're not so relaxed today, then,' he said.

‘Well, give us a break,' Sam said. ‘You're like that guy in the Shakespeare play, the one who's got murders going on all around him and can't decide what to do.'

‘Hamlet,' Ruby said.

‘Who?' Sam asked.

Ruby looked at her brother and shook her head. ‘You really did come out of the oven a half hour too early,' she said. ‘So what's it going to be, Gerald? Do we keep looking or are you going home to face the music?'

Gerald felt the twins' eyes boring into him. What was he supposed to say? His only way out of a murder trial was to find Charlotte. But what hope did he have of doing that? And besides, wasn't that a job for the police? Or private detectives? Couldn't he just throw some money at it and make the problem go away? Wasn't that the billionaire thing to do?

‘Let's go home,' he mumbled. ‘I'll sort everything out from there.'

Sam threw up his hands in disgust and stalked off.

Ruby leaned over and squeezed Gerald's arm. ‘Are you sure?' She gave him a soft smile. ‘Because I'm happy to keep searching with you.'

Gerald screwed up his eyes. He was so tired.

‘Let's find our way home,' he said. ‘Do you still have that map?' Ruby was about to protest but bit her lip. She dug into her backpack and found the map she'd picked up at the bus station. As she handed it over, Gerald noticed an ornate compass face on the cover.

His hand froze in mid-air. The design looked awfully familiar.

‘Hey, Sam,' he called out.

Sam was kicking around in the grass at the base of the tower. ‘Yeah, whaddyawant?' he grumbled back.

‘You remember that compass design—the one on the floor of the tower at the Vatican?'

‘Yeah. What about it?'

‘How many sides did it have?'

Sam thought for a second. ‘Eight.'

‘And each point corresponded to a direction on the compass, right?'

‘Right.'

‘How many sides does the tower here have?'

‘Um…eight?'

‘So, geography boy, what direction do you think our mate Skiron is facing?'

Sam craned his neck. ‘Judging by where the sun is now, I'd say that he's looking to the north-west. What are you thinking?'

Gerald took the map from Ruby and flattened it on the ground. ‘I don't know,' he said. ‘But let's have a look.'

Ruby and Sam crouched opposite him. ‘Okay,' Gerald stabbed at a point on the map with his index finger, ‘here we are in Athens. If we go north-west, the way Skiron's looking, what do we find?' His finger traced a line out from the city.

Ruby and Sam saw it at the same instant. They chorused a cry of recognition.

‘What is it?' Gerald asked.

‘Can't you see it?' Ruby said. ‘Right there!' She pointed to a place name, spelled out in Greek letters.

Gerald shook his head. ‘What do you mean?'

Ruby clicked her tongue, then spun the map around so that it was upside down for Gerald. ‘There,' she said. ‘Now do you see?'

Gerald stared at the map. The Greek place name had transformed into a series of shapes. A ten, a circle with a line through it, a Y, an arrow and a triangle.

‘Look at that,' Gerald whispered. ‘The symbols on the envelope that Geraldine left for me. The ones Lucius carved in the cave under the abbey.'

He spun the map right side round again.

‘Greek letters. They're Greek letters, not some stupid code. And we've been looking at them upside down.'

Not

But

‘But why would Lucius carve them upside down?' Ruby said.

‘He didn't,' Gerald said, getting excited now. ‘He was lying on his back. So when he scratched them onto the rock it was right side up to him. We were the ones looking at it the wrong way around. He was leaving us directions.'

‘To where?' Ruby said.

Gerald looked again at the map, his hands shaking. There was an English translation under the Greek name. ‘To Delphi. It's Delphi in Greek.'

Ruby looked at the point on the map. ‘To the north-west of Athens,' she said. ‘Skiron points the way.'

‘I'll bet you anything that's where Quintus and his sons were going all those years ago, on that mission for the emperor,' Gerald said. ‘And where Charlotte is going now.'

Gerald looked at his two friends. The fire was back in his eyes.

‘So we're not going home now?' Sam asked.

Gerald grinned like a madman. ‘Are you kidding?' He slapped Sam hard across the shoulders. ‘Going home is for wimps.'

Chapter 18

R
uby flicked on the reading light above her head. She settled into her seat on the coach and opened the travel guide that she had bought at the bus station in Athens.

‘Right,' she said. ‘Let's see where we're going.'

The suffocating urban jungle of Athens had quickly opened up to an expanse of farmland and parched fields. The bus sped north across the plains towards a mountain range just visible in the hazy distance.

Inside the air-conditioned coach, Sam gave his sister a dubious look. ‘You don't seriously think you're going to find the answer to this mystery in there,' he said.

Ruby didn't look up from the book. ‘I find all information is useful,' she said. ‘It's called having a clue. Maybe you should try it.'

Gerald could sense a Sam-and-Ruby blow-up brewing. He had no desire to see one erupt in the close confines of the bus. There were only a few people on board but it was probably wise to keep a low profile.

‘It can't hurt knowing something about the place,' Gerald said. ‘It's not like we know what to look for when we get there.'

Sam ignored the peep of triumph that came from behind Ruby's book. ‘I would have thought you'd be interested to know that Greece is the most seismically active country in Europe,' she said.

‘Really?' Sam said.

‘Yes. And that Delphi was once the spiritual capital of the ancient world. For over a thousand years it was considered the most powerful city on earth.'

‘Never heard of it,' Sam said.

Ruby continued to flick through the pages. ‘A temple to the sun god Apollo was the centrepiece of the ancient city, and over its history Delphi became home to—oh my gosh!'

‘What?' Gerald said.

Ruby's eyed were fixed to the page. ‘Delphi became home to one of the richest treasures ever assembled on earth. Gold, diamonds, jewellery…' Ruby lifted her head and stared at Gerald. ‘That's what Mason Green was after.'

Sam screwed up his face. ‘What? Some buried treasure? He was already a billionaire. Why would he want any more?'

‘Not just any treasure,' Ruby said. ‘It says that around the main temple different countries set up buildings to house all the money they sent there.'

‘Like banks, you mean?' Gerald said.

‘Exactly. Dozens of them. All stacked to the ceiling. In all the digging the archaeologists have done there, no trace has ever been found of any of the treasure.'

‘So what are you saying?' Sam said.

‘Think about it. That amount of gold and diamonds. It would be worth more than a fortune today. It would have made Green the richest man alive.'

Gerald rocked back in his seat. He had a vivid memory of a conversation with Sir Mason Green, outside the Rattigan Club in London.

Greed is a dangerous master, Gerald. If it takes hold,
it can make people do shocking things…

‘That's got to be it,' he said. ‘Green wanted to be the wealthiest man in the world. His niece found out about it and greed got to her. She killed him and now she's after the treasure for herself.'

Ruby snapped the book shut. ‘Good. If she's after the lost gold of Delphi, then that's where we'll find her.'