When he returned home, Horace had to answer a few questions from his parents. His mom was growing weary of his constant excuses of being at the movies, and now coming home later than expected did not help things. As a result, she promised a long weekend of chores. He took his punishment quietly and headed upstairs to his room.
Shadow was perched back on the window ledge. Horace closed his door and walked over to his desk. He opened the top drawer and saw the leather-bound journal. He had completely forgotten to tell Herman about the book! Now he pulled it out and looked at it closely. There had to be something special to the book; he could feel it in his fingertips. The Dodge brothers told him to look at the book in the light of the beetle, but what did that mean?
He pulled his beetle from his pocket and set it next to the book. The beetle began to glow green. Maybe his grandfather had encrypted the text so only a Keeper could see. But how would that work?
As before, Horace slipped the end of the beetle into the lock, and with a loud click, it opened. The front cover flipped to the side, surprising Horace and causing him to jump back. It was as if a wind had blown through the window, knocking the book open.
Horace placed the glowing beetle back down and stared at the open book before him. Something was different this time. Where before there had been a blank opening page, now he thought he could see the faint outline of letters. They were forming one after the other as if being written by an invisible hand. He rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn’t seeing things, then he picked up the book and stared at it closely. The page now seemed blank. He lowered the book, placing it once again next to the glowing beetle. The page suddenly came to life. The letters were only visible in the light of the beetle!
He could now see not just letters, but complete words and sentences. They were written in his grandfather’s hand.
Horace began to read.
The Order traces back many centuries and spans from one end of the globe to the other. The members have come from many walks of life, many different families, and have been blessed with many unique talents. These men and women sacrificed their lives to fulfill an ancient prophecy.
Horace leaned over the text with growing excitement. It was all here, the whole history of the Order.
He returned to the book and began skimming through the pages and randomly stopping.
As the centuries passed and the Eighteenth Dynasty came to a close, the pharaohs of Egypt lost their rule over the land and people. The Keepers made the decision to move the Benben Stone out of the old temples and to the vaults at the library of Alexandria.
However, with the Roman occupation in the late third century and the rise of several power-hungry emperors, the safety of the Benben Stone could no longer be guaranteed.
In secret, while the city of Alexandria burned, the Benben Stone was moved across the Mediterranean to the mountains of Southern France. It wasn’t until many years later, in the thirteenth century, that the Benben Stone resurfaced once again. One great cathedral, Chartres, was meant to serve as a new home for this treasure. However, when the French king discovered the stone was in his midst, he desperately sought it.
In the 1700s, under the guise of an exploratory mission, a group of Knights Templar, accompanied by Antoine Cadillac, brought the Benben Stone to the New World. After many months exploring the shores of the Great Lakes, the knights found a home for the stone in a small eastern settlement called Fort Pontchartrain. This fort eventually became the great city of Detroit.
Horace couldn’t believe what he was reading. It was a larger explanation of all the images he’d seen in the Benben Stone. His grandfather had written everything down. Had he seen the images too? He looked over at the beetle, which was still glowing strong, then turned back to the pages.
Detroit grew into a hub of cultural prosperity and technological innovation. Members of the Order financially supported many of the city’s great buildings, including the art museum, the main branch of the public library, the opera house, and the Scarab Club. However, the booming success of the auto industry in the 1920s, which helped fuel a renaissance of the city, also put the secrets of the Order at risk. What had once been a quiet outpost on a newly formed country’s frontier had transformed into the economic and industrial epicenter of a burgeoning superpower. Detroit was now drawing the attention and interest of the whole world.
While the Headquarters of the Order remained at the Scarab Club in Detroit, the tiny town of Niles soon became a second home for many of its more important members. However, the Order made the decision to hide its greatest secret in a treasury within Detroit’s oldest cemetery. That secret was a lost prophecy that dated back millennia.
Horace flipped to the final page of the book. He had almost forgotten what the Dodge brothers had given him back in the treasury. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the torn page.
He placed the piece of paper into the book. It perfectly aligned with the rest of the page. It’s the missing piece to an old puzzle, Horace thought. He was about to grab some tape, when the beetle began to glow even brighter. Horace picked up the beetle, setting it on the page where the two halves met. A single beam of light shot out and began to weave along the torn edges. Like a needle sewing a seam, the light from the beetle fused the two pieces together right before his eyes.
Looking closely, Horace couldn’t even see where the two pieces had once been separated. Now he began to read the text that had been missing for so long.
The ancient gateway to the stars is located along the banks of a great river that flows as the border of two lands. When the gateway is opened, it will offer a path to return the stone back from where it once came.
Horace sat back stunned. He couldn’t believe he’d actually put together the pieces of the prophecy. Despite the hundreds of thoughts that ran through his mind, he was suddenly overwhelmed and exhausted.
He closed the leather journal, locked it with the scarab beetle, and slipped it back into the drawer. He’d solved enough riddles for one day.
After turning off the light, Horace slipped into the comfort of his sheets. The minute his head hit the soft down of his pillow he immediately fell asleep. But in his sleep a hauntingly familiar dream greeted him.
Horace was back in the graveyard of Silverbrook. But unlike his previous visits, the gravestones were all gone. In their places stood people, dozens of people. Each one nodded at him as he made his way deeper into the cemetery.
One man tipped his hat, a woman smiled gently, and someone else bowed deeply.
As Horace walked the gravel path toward the Beeson Crypt at the back, he saw the now-recognizable figures of the young Dodge brothers.
John spoke. “You’ve done it, Horace. You found the treasury and you’ve discovered the prophecy. Now all that is left for you to do is to open a great gateway.”
“A portal?” Horace asked.
“Not like the previous portals that you have discovered. Those took the Keepers to the past. This one will open up a connection to the future,” answered John.
Horace Dodge now stepped forward. “You have read the lost prophecy, and now you are the one who must fulfill it.”
He pointed out beyond Horace’s shoulder. Horace turned around and saw the faces of the people in the graveyard. Standing at the front of the crowd was his grandfather. Horace began to cry.
“We are all here to support you on your mission, Horace. You are never alone.” His grandfather pointed back toward the tomb.
Turning around, Horace watched as the Dodge brothers opened the doors of the Beeson Crypt. From where he stood, Horace could see the dark smooth surface of the Benben Stone as it sat on its altar.
A chill ran up his spine.
“The time has come. The stone must be returned whence it came,” Horace Dodge proclaimed. “It is no longer safe here.”
“But where is this portal?” asked Horace.
This time the answer came from his grandfather, who now stood directly behind him. “Detroit.”