Beyond Eden by Sharon Linnea & B. K. Sherer

Author:Sharon Linnea & B. K. Sherer [Linnea, Sharon & Sherer, B. K.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Adventure, Action, Fiction, Thrillers, War & Military
ISBN: 9781933608037
Publisher: Arundel Publishing
Published: 2011-05-01T10:41:34+00:00

February 26, 2006, 10:43 a.m.

Monastery of St. John

Chora, Patmos

* * *

They padded quietly down the old stone passage. It was dry and cool. Every now and then they passed another bracket on the dark stone wall, but none of them contained torches. They came to one sharp turn and then another. It seemed they were walking in the dark for a very long time. When another tunnel branched off to the right, Geri started to turn down it, but Brother Timothy put his hand on her arm and guided her straight ahead, to what looked like a dead end. As they got closer, the torchlight revealed the outline of a door in the rock. Geri remembered that the whole monastery had been built to be purposely labyrinthine.

The monk produced a large old-fashioned iron key and inserted it into a lock she hadn’t noticed, even when looking at the door.

It swung open. He stepped inside the room and flipped on a light switch. Seeing her surprise, he laughed. “This room is just below the museum. Fortunately, they ran electricity down. I still don’t have a computer hookup, as in the upstairs library, but the light is very handy.”

He stepped back, allowing her to enter. She gave a small gasp of delight.

Before her was an ancient library. A large wooden table groaned under stacks of papers and manuscripts; old dark wood shelves lined the walls. On one wall, the manuscripts were boxed and neatly labeled. On the wall across, they still burst forth from piles, wooden boxes, and metal chests.

“You can see how Brother Stefanos, the librarian, needs help,” said Brother Timothy. “It will take decades to sort through everything that is here.”

Geri nodded wordlessly.

“Come over. There are some things I want you to see. But first, if you don’t mind—” He pulled a couple of disposable gloves from a large box and took two for himself. “We don’t want to get any oils on the parchments,” he said.

She put them on and stepped over in front of where he stood.

On the polished wooden table sat a small stack of long parchments. Geri saw they were floor plans of the monastery. “These are some of the papers that Arsenios Skinouris drafted for Father Christodoulos, many centuries ago.”

Geri looked at them as Brother Timothy brought each to the top of the stack before her. In fact, they showed the current layout of the monastery: refectory, kitchen, church, chapel, walkways, and courtyards. On the second level were the monks’ cells and offices and the large public library.

Then he brought out the sketch of the tunnels they were now in. Instead of small notations, labels, and measurements, in the laundry room was a verse in the same handwriting as the rest of the notations. The words were in Greek, but Brother Timothy translated as she read:

Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they will have the right to drink from the river of life and may enter the city by the gates.

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