Mars the Divine (Empire of Time Series) by John Argo

Page 28.

"He found an artifact down there, which he showed Timony, whom Fate compelled him to meet. Timony was on a quest of his own, and started pursuing this dangerous course. Timony thought he could restore his family. I made him promise never to tell you about your true background. Now here's the part you don't know. Timony was smarter than all of us, and he might have made a good king one day, although the deck is totally stacked against the Eastgardens. Timony came to me with information and a scheme to restore the family, and I sent him, at his request to the highest authority in the land."

"Which was the old Popess," I said in surprise.

"Yes. She understood there was a plot against her, involving the Balessos and probably some elements of the Upholder clan, so she gave Timony the most valuable artifact the church possesses."

"Which was?"

"A key. Something she did not want the Balesso faction of either Temple or Palace to ever have. Something so powerful it can change the face of Mars forever, and something dangerous in the hands of people like Balesso. She shared with Timony a truth that is generally only passed down among the Popesses or the occasional Popes."

"So she kept it from the current Popess?" I asked. "Wouldn't that cause an uproar?"

My grandfather made a wry face. "Only if they knew about it."

"You mean—?"

"Yes, only you and I know." He reached into his breast pocket and removed an object wrapped in silk. He opened the wrapping before me on the table, and I saw there a coin-like object much like Sam's, only in better condition. "It's very old," he said. "Try not to touch it with your skin, but with the silk."

I gasped. "She was holding that the night she died."

"Yes. The Popess always carries this at ceremonies. The Temple possesses a few copies, but they know one is missing. The Balesso Popess and her people are looking very hard for this thing. It's only a matter of time before they get to me."

I didn't touch it at all, but turned it this way and that with a pencil tip. On one side was that same map of Mars, with—I counted carefully—six points. I noted: "The sixth point has a shadow on one side. That must be the seventh, hidden point." I turned it over. There he was again, that man with the wig, but this was a far better copy of the object than Sam's. The back contained an array of tiny square cutouts overlaid on the wig-man's features. "I'll bet these conform to the points on the front," I said.

"They appear to," he said. "Holy City experts have been looking at that for centuries. They have never been allowed to write or speak about it, but it has been examined and then always returned to the private altar of the current Holiness."

"And now I am holding it?" I asked incredulously.

"She came to me the day before she died. She did not dare summon me, for fear of tipping the Balesso faction off. She delivered it to me for safe keeping as a Holy Abbot. She didn't know whom to trust, and I was her best bet, being a family member besides."

"Then she already knew something when she saw my warning in the sand." I remembered her touch on my forehead.

He acknowledged with the faintest flicker of the eyelids.

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