They retrieved their duffels and followed the left corridor. It traced the ambulatory in the cathedral above, curving to the right until they reached a row of tombs that ended with:

 

Guillaume de Baffie

Episcopus Autem Clermont

AD 1095

 

“Here we are,” Darwin said, standing over a circular metal grate in an alcove to the right of De Baffie’s tomb. They dropped the duffels and packs, and Darwin dug out a small pry bar.

​

“What was here before the church?” Eyrún asked. “I mean, they can’t have found this by accident when building the cathedral.”

​

“That’s why I wanted that scroll from Ian. Agrippa describes an altar built by the Gauls, the Roman term for the Celtic people in northern Europa. He wrote they built it near a cave so they could come up from below ground for added effect.”

​

“So, the Romans bolted onto the Celts’ religious practices and, centuries later, the pagan altar becomes a cathedral,” she said, tying a rope around the handles of one duffel as Darwin began descending iron rungs. 

​

“Probably, but most all of the history from that time was written centuries later.” His voice faded as he went lower. Eyrún leaned over the opening as he reached the bottom. The shaft, about twice Darwin’s height, was bricked with the same basalt as the cathedral.

​

“Ready,” she called down and lowered the first of three bags. Then she moved down the ladder.

​

They stood close in a lava tube, its smooth walls in black and gray with rust sections. Much like water erosion in a channel, knee-high striations in the walls marked the most recent lava flows. Its floor was churned as if someone splattered concrete about and let it dry.

​

“It’s the upper layer of a braided maze, but it was the first time I was ever in one, and I almost got lost. Here, look at this,” he said, pointing to the wall near the shaft.

​

“That’s… an Aquila…” She trailed off, putting a hand to a symbol. Cut lines joined seven points chiseled into the rock to form a bird-like shape. Three close points formed a beak and head joined by a line to the lower four points connected in an upside-down triangle. Agrippa’s team had adapted the Aquila symbol from an eagle atop the staff carried by Roman legions.

​

“Remember when I got so emotional in Iceland?" asked Darwin. “I'd only seen the Aquila in Agrippa’s scrolls. To have found one here under the cathedral, and another weeks later in Iceland, was amazing.”

​

“I thought you were a wuss. But, even having seen it in Iceland, this is… I dunno. It’s still hard to think the Romans found this.”

​

He laughed. “You sound like me now.”