Chapter One

In a small yet luxurious stateroom, Jonas Knight completed reading the ancient, fragile scroll under his dim desk light. He carefully rolled the parchment and placed it back into a protective leather pouch. There was no one else in the room as he rose to his feet steadying his balance as the ship steamed into the last remnants of a choppy sea from the fierce storm which had lasted most of the day. On the edges of the horizon, the sky was beginning to clear, and the hope was for calm seas at night.

Jonas walked over to a sink, poured water into it from a pitcher and washed his face. He looked up into the mirror and spoke softly to his reflection, "Can this be true? Am I about to find what I have been searching for my whole life?" The scroll was written in an ancient language only he and a handful of other historians and linguists could read. The story it told had aroused his interest to the point that he was ready to spare no expense to find the mysterious cave the scroll's writer described. Suddenly, he became queasy and needed sea air, so he left his room for the deck above.

As he made his way out into the open air, the ocean liner was cutting through the water, leaving behind a foamy wake. The evening was calm, as hoped for, with a few clouds scattered amid many stars. The moon was absent, making the night especially dark, but out in the distance, the lights of another large ship could be seen as it was making its run across the Atlantic to Europe. Jonas Knight leaned against the railing of the upper deck smoking a cigar while enjoying the sea spray as the wind blew across the bow of the ship. Cigar smoke mixed with th

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