“Why?” Anna asked.
Gray stopped and glanced back at her. “If there’s an organizational hub to this archive, it would either be at the bottom of those winding steps or positioned at the center of this sprawling archive. That makes the most sense. So, I’ve been leading us along a throughline across the library, trying to keep the same number of chambers to our right and left. Or at least, to the best of my abilities.”
“Yourbesthas served us well,” Yelagin commented. The bishop had continued a few yards onward. He pointed his staff ahead. “That chamber looks very different from the rest of the library.”
Jason hurried forward with the others. All their lights shone forward, aimed at the room where Yelagin pointed.
Ahead, an archway opened into an unusual space—one that was hard to fathom being buried this far underground.
26
May 12, 10:18A.M. MSK
Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius, Russian Federation
Gray stood at the chamber’s threshold. “What is this place?”
“It looks like a private study,” Yelagin noted. “Maybe from the seventeenth or eighteenth century.”
Both awed and dumbfounded, Gray peered at the baroque design inside.
The room’s walls were paneled and shelved in mahogany, all full of dusty leatherbound books amidst a collection of artifacts. Overhead, its flat roof was raftered and plastered. To one side, a rich tapestry hung, running from ceiling to floor, and below it, a crimson rug covered the tiles. There was even a replica of a small fireplace in a back corner. Above its mantel hung the curve of a mammoth tusk.
But what drew Gray’s eye stood in the room’s center. It was a large satinwood desk, inlaid with silver and gold filigrees. A lone glass lantern sat atop it, surrounded by a spread of papers, inked maps, small brass tools, even a book that had been left splayed open.
It was as if some researcher had stepped away and had expected to return shortly.
“What do you make of this?” Bailey asked Gray.
“This room feels like an anomaly. From a different time period than the rest. I think this was always the central hub to the library, but it looks like someone installed this chamber later. Perhaps to conduct research in a more comfortable setting.”
Anna shifted closer. “This may be Catherine the Great’s handiwork after she discovered this library. She loved to put her stamp on old Russian sites.”
“But who was working here?” Jason asked. “I can’t imagine it was the empress herself.”
Gray stepped into the room. “For now, it’sus. If we hope to learn any clues about Hyperborea, it’ll be found in this room. I’m sure of it.” He turned to the group. “But take great care.”
As the team dispersed to examine sections of the room, Gray crossed to the desk, drawing Anna with him. He stood over the spread of books and papers. Atop the tallest stack, a journal rested crookedly. Silver stenciling across its cover shone through a layer of dust.
Gray leaned down and blew across its surface, brightening the Cyrillic lettering.
He glanced over to Anna, whose eyes had grown wider.
“What does it say?” he asked her.
“It’s a name. No doubt the owner of this desk, the one who was doing research in here.”
“Who was it?”
She pointed to the Cyrillic stenciling. “Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov.”
Gray shook his head, not recognizing the name.
“He was the leading Russian scientist of his time. A genius and polymath. One who exceled across a breadth of subjects. Chemistry, physics, geology, astronomy.” She turned to him. “He was also Catherine the Great’s most valued scientific adviser, even given the title of state councillor.”
Gray considered all of this as he gazed around the space. “If Catherine wanted someone to explore this library, to search for clues to Hyperborea, I can see why she handpicked him.”
“Without a doubt. It’s also been well documented that Lomonosovshowed great interest in the Arctic, having grown up in the Arkhangelsk Oblast, not far from the White Sea. He was particularly interested in the enigma of the magnetic North Pole.”
