Page 125 (1/2)

“Depends on whether he’s right or wrong There’s nohe’s obsessed with Xerxes and Delphi His version of the invasion didn’t make him any friends in the academic world”

Through years of painstaking research Bucklin had come to an outlandish conclusion: that Xerxes’ raid of Delphi had beento Bucklin, in the weeks leading up to the invasion the keepers of the Siphnian Treasury devised a sche no place would be safe froold and cast it into a pair of Karyatids When the coluypsum plaster and put in place of the real columns that stood astride the treasury’s entrance

For reasons unknown the Persian raiding party did not fall for the ruse On Xerxes’ orders, a detachment of two hundred specially trained troops called I to head north out of Greece before swinging east through Macedonia and Thrace and returning to the Achaemenid Dynasty capital of Persepolis, where Xerxes planned to melt down the Karyatids and have them cast into a massive throne, a memorial to his triumph over the Greeks that would sit in hi

s Hall of a Hundred Columns for eternity

Unbeknownst to the Immortals, word of their desecration of Delphi reached Sparta less than a day after the Persian raiding party left A phratra of Spartan soldiers, roughly twenty-seven in all, gave chase, intending not only to recover the Karyatids, but also to avenge the brothers they’d lost at the Battle of Thermopylae

They caught up to the Immortals in present-day Albania and cut off their easterly escape route For three weeks the Spartans hounded the Iro, then Bos nia and Croatia, before finally cornering the them ten to one the I party was all but destroyed Of the original two hundred that had left Greece a month before only thirty survived, these spared to serve as porters for the Karyatids

The Spartan commander decided not to return ho their country The columns had becoed to die rather than let the how far the Persian invasion would advance, the Spartans headed north out of Slovenia, intending to find a place to hide the colu theain, save a lone soldier who stu to his exhaustion and the ravages of exposure, he claimed that the rest of his comrades had perished and the Karyatids had been lost with them Their location died with him

“So that’s the last puzzle piece,” Remi said “Or one of the last, that is How Bondaruk and Bucklin found each other we may never know, but it’s clear Bondaruk believes the story He thinks Napoleon’s Lost Cellar is a treasure acy he’s trying to recover Remember what else Kholkov said in Marseille about Bondaruk’stio’ ”

Sam nodded slowly “The bastard wants to et aith it, Reical artifacts, those Karyatids are priceless”

“Beyond priceless It all fits: After the Battles of Plataea and Mycale, Xerxes abruptly hands over control of the ar the Karyatids are on their way Most accounts have hira the Hall of a Hundred Columns”

“Where Bucklin claiuess where Bondaruk plans to put his throne”

“The Persian playground in the basement of his estate,” Remi replied “It’s sad, if you think about it Xerxes died waiting for a prize that was never co to the Greeks—and Napoleon died waiting for his son to follow the riddles and recover the same prize”

“We ht as well keep the streak alive,” Sam said

“What do you mean?”

“Wehis hands on the Karyatids He’ll be in good company”