The House of Grey- Volume 4 (26 page)

“I don’t either,” said Grayson bitterly
.
“
A
nd I’m a genius. We think that there is something fundamental missing in Grandfather’s description of
it
. The only
notes we have on it are these:”

Grayson showed him a circled phrase -
Path to
P
ower
.
’
Under this an additional rather hastily scribbled note read:
‘
Skyward
—the truth lies within..
.
’
 

“The truth lies within? Within what?”

“I’ve no idea. I’ve considered every angle. Grandfather thought it meant in the Tower itself. Like it was some sort of clue or calling card.”

“
Crazy.”

“Tell me about it.”

“So why don’t you ask your grandfather for clarification on some of this stuff? Like, how did he come up with ‘Path to Power’ and what’s it referring to. It seems like a lot of this could be answered if you simply asked.”

Grayson laughed. “Great question. Grandfather isn’t exactly with us.”

Monson was about to ask the most obvious follow up but–

“He isn’t dead or anything - he is just indisposed at the moment.”

“What does that mean?”

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

Monson gestured to the journal and with mock annoyance replied, “Are you seriously saying that I wouldn’t believe you?”

Grayson chuckled again. “You’re right you’d probably believe me, but we’ll discuss it another time. It’s a long story which
has a lot to do with
what I am currently telling you.”

Monson nodded. “Fair enough.”

Monson changed gears. “
So what about the strange events you mentioned
—
what kind of stuff happened
to them in the cave
?”

“The kind that you don’t expect to come across in legitimate history books
.
” Grayson shifted tensely
.
“
T
he ethereal kind.”

“Oh
….
” said Monson
,
looking reflective
.

Grayson eyed Monson
,
and
with a small twitch of his lips he said
,
“
Y
ou don’t know what
ethereal
means
,
do you?”

“Not a clue
.
” Monson
flashed
a cheesy grin.

“Most would call what they saw or experienced supernatural.”

“As in ghosts?”

“
Unknown. T
hey weren’t very specific. What
Grandfather
did say in the record
was
that the men were having strange visions
and
hearing voices.”

“So what did he do?” 

“
Despaired, mostly. W
e know exactly what he was thinking
since
he wrote about it extensively
,
” replied Grayson
.
  “They were about to start back to the
entrance
when something renewed his conviction. He had a dream.”

“A dream
?
” Monson’s eyebrow shot up. This was getting into his territory now.

  Grayson continued. “The journ
al
details the dream in all its strange glory. Much of it is incoherent babble. Paths,
g
atekeepers and powers
,
all
connected
to
states of being that manifest as
the natural, heightened and perfected
. I would be here all day if I tried to describe everything he wrote, and to be
honest,
none of us really understand
s it
.
It’s all here though, so maybe someday.
Regardless, the dream did give him a direction
:
up. He then decided to do something drastic.”

“Drastic?” said Monson
,
now thoroughly caught up in the story. “
L
ike what? Try and blow it open?”

“
T
oo dangerous
,
though it certainly crossed his mind.  No, the dream told him to go up. So up he went.  He decided to scale it and see if that might lead to
anything.
”

“Scale it?
A
s in climb it? How was that going to help?”

Grayson flipped back to the drawing of the Tower
.

  “Th
is
doesn’t depict it very well
,
but the Tower wasn’t totally smooth and flat on its surface.” He pointed to a darken
ed
spot
about half way up the
Tower
. Monson
stared,
straining to see.
There looked to be
something there
,
just beyond the surface of the
tiles
. Grayson again
spoke up
.

“
My grandfather thought that this point right here
could be
wide enough for people to walk along and that there
might have been
some type of access to the higher points on the Tower. So he thought he’d try
.
”

“What did they find?”

“A great deal
.
”  Grayson
’
s
voice regained its enigmatic quality.  “
H
owever, things started to get progressively strange
r
. Grandfather’s record early on
, before they were even able to scale it,
indicates that his men were starting to
behave oddly
and do totally
bizarre
things. One committed suicide, another ran from the Center
into the caves and was never seen again, and two more got violently ill to the point where they couldn’t be moved.”

“That’s terrible
,
” said Monson
,
shocked. “Why didn’t they leave?”

“Because all of them, including my grandfather
,
thought the discovery was too important to leave without a complete work
-
up of what might lie there. When I was younger my dad and I use
d
to speculate on what would have happen
ed
if they had
just stopped
. This single event has dominated the path of my family for over
half a century
. It’s funny how those things sometimes happen.”

He shook his head as
if
to bring himself back to reality
,
then continued
.

“Grandfather was able to scale the Tower with the help of his remaining men and just like he
’
d
hypothesized
,
they reached
a ledge
or
landing about four feet wide. Once on the landing
,
they found a staircase hidden behind
a
large statue. This staircase took him up many floors
, eight
in all
. He
remarked that
the paintings and statutes on every
level seemed to
each
be devoted to a
different
being. He didn’t know if they were gods, demons,
ravings of a deluded mind,
or a combination of the three. He just remarked that these floors were a representation
of something greater….
”

Grayson
turned
to another page, which depicted a full
-
page drawing of
—

“
Is that what I think it is
?
”
  Monson
scrutinized the page,
not totally sure how to react to
it.

“
If you’re thinking that the drawing has an awful lot in common with a biblical angel, then you would be correct.
”

Th
is
drawing, a copy of a painting from the first level,
was
done in greater detail than the Tower
drawings.
I
t displayed a being with long
,
dark hair,
delicate
hands, and
large,
fully spread wings
, which were white except for their blue tips
.

Monson
was not
able to tell if the being was supposed to be male or female
because
its back was to
viewer
. It
did not
matter
,
however, because the artist’s
intention
was very clear
:
p
ower and grace beyond all human comprehension.

“The journal goes on
,
” continued Grayson as Monson examined the drawing. “There are six more of these
images all humanoid, each with
a
different
color theme
. All of them are located at the same place on each of the floors
.
The themes and patterns of devotion are all there.
Our angel there seems to be connected to the color blue, but
it’s clear that
each floor had
a different
being and color.”

Monson interjected
,
ignoring the color reference
.
“I thought you said there were eight?”

Grayson stared at him
,
confused
.

Monson explained. “You said there were eight levels
,
so
why are there only seven beings
?
O
r was that eighth level
spared
the worship
décor?
”

Grayson’s eyes popped in surprise. 

“You’re a sharp one
,
Grey. Has anyone ever told you that?”

Monson chuckled
,
letting out
the
building tension
.
“Yeah
,
I’ve heard that once or twice.”

Grayson smiled at Monson’s lack of modesty. “Funny you
’
d
focus on the eight
h
floor
,
as that is the exact topic of our current discussion. The eighth floor is really why we’re here. It’s the reason for everything
—
the organization, my grandfather
’
s
current predicament
, my family’s path and destiny
—
everything. Before I continue, you should know that when Grandfather arrived on the eight
h
floor he was shocked to see that it was completely trashed
,
like someone
had been
trying to
hide what was there.
”

Monson cut in again
.
“Didn’t you just say that the eighth floor was the reason for
…
”

Grayson put up a hand. “In the hopes of finding something, some idea of where this structure came from and why it was created
, and why the eighth floor was destroyed when everything else was in perfect condition,
Grandfather searched and searched and searched. Finally he caught a lucky break. He found a secret room. A secret room that he sa
id
contain
ed
the single most important discovery in the history of this world. He discovered this.”

Grayson flipped to the very last pages of the book
.
What was on the page
caused Monson to
cock the
eyebrow
.

It was a
photograph
of a
colorful mural, which depicted
crowd
s
of
perhaps
millions
of
indistinct people.