She didn’t know what to think about that. Should she feel remorse or compassion for him, despite the fact that he’d appeared to be a dishonest little man? She supposed she should, yet she felt nothing. So she changed the subject.
“How can you be so certain the dagger we found was not the dove?” she asked.
“I told you, wrong era. It was crafted far too late to have come out of Atlantis or anything near that time period. And the engraving on the blade gave another clue,” he said plainly.
“Yes, you mentioned that last night, but I saw no such thing.”
“The great army is commanded as the ten were done,” he said.
“Great army. That could refer to the armies of the Great War.”
“You’ve mentioned the Great War before. Tell me about it,” he said.
“Atlantis invaded many countries, destroying most of them. The military abused the elixir, making them nearly undefeatable. That’s when the guardians and their families fled. They took the elixir, and eventually the army weakened. Poseidon punished them for their greed, and he commanded the ocean to swallow the island,” she said.
“No one was punished, Sabine. It was merely an earthquake or volcano that destroyed the island,” Max said.
“That is not what my people believe. The elixir was a gift to us, and we did not obey, therefore we received retribution.”
“A biblical plague,” he said.
“If you want to view it in such terms,” she said.
“Well, soldiers from the Great War is a good theory. What I focused on was the ‘as the ten were done.’ I believe it refers to the Ten Commandments.”
“Thou shall not commit murder,” she said. “Tell that to the Chosen One.”
“I don’t believe it’s referring to any one of the commandments in particular, but rather to how they were presented to the people,” Max said.
“From a mountaintop?” she asked.
“No, on stone tablets. I think our next quest is to locate a specific tablet.”
She thought on it a moment. “The Rosetta Stone,” she suggested, then shook her head. “What good will a tablet do us?”
“Another clue?” he suggested.
“At this rate we could chase after clues for the next one hundred years,” she said.
“Consider this an adventure, Sabine.”
“Perhaps we do not have time for an adventure. There are lives at stake,” she said. Hers included.
“Indeed there are. Not only the remaining guardian, but the rest of our military leaders, who protect the rest of us.” He nodded. “Yes, there is much at stake.”
“Why do you care so much?” she asked, unable to hide her curiosity.
“My club,” he said without missing a beat. “It is not our intention or prime purpose to guard the crown, but Solomon’s has on occasion been given the opportunity to protect our monarch and our great country.”
She didn’t believe that for a second, but Max always had an answer for everything. “So you do it for patriotism?”
“And perhaps for other, more personal reasons.” He shrugged. “I cannot help but be intrigued by anything related to Atlantis. You included.”
Her heartbeat faltered. She watched his clear blue eyes and the amusement, intelligence, and passion they held.
He’d found their map. Phinneas had once had a vision about that very thing, “a great one.” Max would not be satisfied with that one artifact forever, though.
“But if given the opportunity to find proof,” she said. “You would do it?”
