*

Adira gathered everyone for a final briefing in Abrams’s room. In a small kitchen off to the side, an electric stovetop glowed red underneath a coffee pot – the major was probably running on little more than adrenaline and caffeine by now.

Matt accepted a cup and spent ten minutes telling the group what he had found, but finally stopped, and held the Book open at a block of magnificent script. He tapped the page. “Here…Alhazred called it ‘The Path to the Gated Deep’. It’s a poem of sorts.” He looked down at the text and licked dry lips. He cleared his throat and read.

“They slumber, a race far older than man’s first word,

In a city more ancient than Lemuria’s first brick.

The sleepers in the dirt, the burrowers below us all.”

Matt felt the increasingly familiar pain behind his eyes. He ignored it, and continued reading.

“We who climb down into the depths find not just caverns of wet and slime,

But carved faces beautiful in their hideousness, carrying not one visage of mortal man.”

Matt swallowed, feeling a ball of nausea roll in his gut. He blinked away tears and continued.

“Pathways spiral ever downwards to hopelessness and eternal blackness.

There, find mighty columns, towering edifices, and streets too wide for a sapiens’s feet.

A primal city long past anything the tiny human mind could comprehend.”

He groaned and screwed his eyes shut, and then placed a thumb and finger into them rubbing hard. “Headache.”

Tania grabbed his arm. “Go slowly; you’re doing great.”

Matt shook his head and blinked rapidly. “It’s strange; feels like a bad vodka hangover.” He winced again and continued.

“Gates of red granite so huge they could hold back an army. Now swung wide.

Past them the Old Ones eternally slumber – dreaming, and still reaching out to us.

And the Earth shall fall before they rise.”

“So, this thing has a base.” Adira’s voice had a satisfied edge.

“A city…underground?” Abrams pulled at his chin.

“As I said before, it could be just allegorical. I’m not sure I really undestand it. It could mean something else entirely,” Matt added still feeling lightheaded.

“I think you’ve read enough now.” Tania said, squeezing his arm.

“For today.” He agreed; the descriptive passages of the Book threw back monstrous images and a sense of hopelessness, not to mention the physical pain, which still lingered.

Tania surprised him by not pushing him on the strange language. He guessed her concern for him overrode her archeological background and her desire to understand more of the historical oddities of the Al Azif. Matt stumbled, and briefly held on to a chair back. Tania grabbed at him. “You’re freezing…and pale as a sheet.”

Matt nodded. “Just a little dizzy.” He leaned forward. “The celestial convergence of our solar system – how can we find out what part of the Earth will be closest at its absolute peak?”

Tania went back to her small computer tablet and typed furiously for a few seconds. She snorted softly and sat back. “Back home…it’s back home.” She looked up. “Sort of. It’ll be over the USA – Kentucky, to be exact.”