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Ness of Brodgar
Orkney Islands, Scotland

Ness of Brodgar’s earliest structures were erected in 3300 BC. Built of carved and painted stone, they were too finely wrought to be a domestic settlement. In 2003, the then-underground complex was accidentally discovered when a farmer plowed up a slab of it. Archeologists began digging. To date, five massive buildings had been uncovered, surrounded by a wall 5 meters wide and estimated to be 100 meters long, though much remained to be dug up.

On top of the uniquely decorative stonework, archeologists had uncovered spatulas, spoons, pottery, and hundreds of animal bones. The accepted theory was that Ness of Brodgar had been a religious complex.

Bode yelled all of this to Salem as she ran across the land bridge, the wind provoking the waves. Freshwater on one side and sea water on the other licked and sucked at her, drowning her socks and shoes. She did not slow down or she would succumb to the fear.

It helped that she could see Bode and hear Charlie charging behind her.

“It’s in the shed, over there!”

Salem’s breath dragged at her lungs, but she pushed through. Leaning against the shed, she took stock of the massive dig site. What she could see consisted of stone-lined holes in the ground, most the size of three-room houses, some covered in tarp.

Bode unlatched the shed’s door and gestured for Salem and Charlie to enter ahead of him. Salem happily agreed. She’d been standing in the wind for so long that it took her a moment to knock its conch-shell echo out of her ears.

Bode stepped in and flicked on a light. An anemic yellow illuminated the room. The shed was no larger than ten feet by ten feet. Labeled bins ringed the walls. It smelled of dirt floor and the sea. A large, tarp-covered object dominated the center.

Bode removed the covering to reveal the Flower Stone.

“It was discovered in 2013, covering an empty crypt. They haven’t figured out whose museum it’ll end up in yet, so it lives here for now. It’s the largest complete Neolithic piece of art yet discovered.” He pointed at the designs, turning on his flashlight to better illuminate them. “The back of it is carved with the same pattern as the front. That identical design has been found here on smaller slabs, etched into some of the walls and buildings, but none of them look as much like a flower as these. At least that’s what they tell me. I don’t see it, unless maybe they’re thinking tulips?”

Charlie stepped forward, cocking his head. “I don’t see a flower, either. It’s more of a repeated chevron pattern.” He stepped aside. “What do you think, Salem?”

She counted thirteen triangles on the face of it. Some were rough isosceles triangles, shaped like a V with a wide top. Others were double triangles, more diamond-shaped with an inner chamber replicating the outer shape. All of them were covered in cross-hatching. It was plain to her as the hair on her head what the patterns represented. Yonic, Vida would call them. The sacred feminine. If Bel were here, she’d say the stone looked like a map to Cooter City, Iowa.

How could she say that out loud? Charlie had laughed at her at Stonehenge when she’d shared her theory about the clamshell of birth control pills. It had not been mean-spirited, but neither had it been supportive. Being mocked for this observation would bury her.

She asked a question to stall. “This pattern is replicated all around this area?”

Bode nodded, studying the stone.

Charlie wasn’t so easily distracted. “What is it, Salem? What do you see?”

Lotsa vaginas, Charlie. You?

But no words came. Now both Bode and Charlie were staring at her. Her mortification and self-doubt grew. If they couldn’t see what she saw, it was probably because it wasn’t really there.

A fierce gust of wind slammed the door closed. Its breath scared up the spicy odor of the sachet at her belt. She was overcome by a punch of grief as she envisioned Mercy somewhere dark, alone.

Remember the water, the flowers, and the power of women.

What she thought she saw on the stone wasn’t just a hunch, she told herself. It was a code—a different kind than she’d ever seen before, but a cipher nonetheless. She had nothing else to go on, nothing to lose by looking for what this rock meant to point her toward.

Still, her knees trembled and her cheeks burned. She dropped her eyes and sucked in a shaky breath. “Bode, is there anything around here, anything near water, that reminds you of … a woman’s genitals?”

She cringed at his bark of laughter, squeezed her eyes shut. Her shoulders slid up toward her ears, trying to shield her ears from the ridicule.

“Oh, I’m so sorry!” He stepped toward her but stopped short of touching her. “I thought you were making fun of me.”

Shock made her stare at him straight on. “Making fun of you?”

“You really don’t know?” His eyes were wide. “Man, have I got something to show you.”