People of the Tower (Ark Chronicles 4) by Vaughn Heppner

hidden knowledge.” He licked his lips, looking about before he bent nearer. “Using it, I could have predicted my failure versus Noah. The foray was doomed from the beginning.”
    Ham found it difficult to concentrate . “That’s nonsense,” he said.
    “ Listen,” hissed Kush. “We’ve cracked the code.” His eyes shone. “I’ve cracked it. The marvel is that none of the old ones ever did. Makes you wonder. In fact, I suspect they knew all along but selfishly kept it to themselves.”
    Ham glared drunkenly at his boy.
    Kush blinked owlishly, stroking his wine-stained beard . Drunkenness had stolen the harshness from his features, leaving him looking ocular and profound.
    “What do you see?” Kush said, pointing at the crescent moon.
    “ The night sky.”
    “ Right. Stars, planets and other heavenly bodies.”
    “ So?” Ham asked, drooling because of numb lips.
    “ So ? he says. Listen. That isn’t really what you see.”
    Ham squinted up at the stars.
    “ The heavens are filled with outlines of men, women, animals, monsters and other objects. Each of the outlines holds a set number of stars.”
    “ Ah,” Ham said. “You mean the constellations.”
    “ Yes. Forty-eight star groups, forty-eight figures and forty-eight constellations.”
    Ham continued squinting . He knew the legends, had been fed on them since he first started talking. In the heavens, the sky, the Sun took twelve equal steps throughout the year, changing the positions of the nighttime star-groupings. This zoad or walk or going by steps, like a ladder, had been named the Zodiac. Each month a different group of stars came into prominence, hence the twelve signs. It began with Virgo the Virgin and showed the figure of a prostrate young woman, with an ear of wheat in one hand and a branch in the other. The fourth sign was Scorpio the Scorpion: the figure of a gigantic, noxious and deadly insect with its tail and sting uplifted in anger, as if striking. The last, the twelfth sign was Leo the Lion: the figure of a great lion, leaping forth to rend, with its paws over the writhing body of Hydra, the Serpent, which was in the act of fleeing.
    Each of the major signs had three decans . The decans of Sagittarius the Bowman for instance were Lyra, an eagle holding the lyre, as in triumphant gladness; Ara the Altar, with consuming fire, burning downward; and Draco the Dragon, the old Serpent, winding himself about the pole in horrid contortions. The decans of Aries the Ram were Cassiopeia, the woman enthroned; Cetus the Sea-Monster, closely and strongly bound by the Lamb; and Peruses, an armed and mighty man with winged feet, who carried away in triumph the cut-off head of a monster full of writhing serpents.
    After Adam and Eve ’s terrible fall from grace, Jehovah gave them special revelation. The Serpent and its seed would war throughout the ages and lose against the woman and her seed. This knowledge, Jehovah wished everyone to know. What Adam learned, and what he observed in the heavens, he passed on to Seth and he in turn taught his descendant Enoch. Long lives allowed them to study the night sky at leisure, and living at the same time for hundreds of years, they pooled their knowledge, observations and revelations. They invented the Zodiac as a primeval and constant source of the great story of man’s coming Redeemer.
    Even drunk to the point of idiocy, Ham could recite the Zodiac and what the various decans meant. Three “Books” made up the story. Each book contained four chapters. Thus, Book One was The Redeemer Promised. Its chapters were Virgo, Libra, Scorpio and Sagittarius. Each decan along with the main sign meant that four points made up each chapter. Book Two was The Redeemer’s People, made up of chapters Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces and Aries. The last book was Redemption Completed, the chapters Taurus, Gemini, Cancer and Leo.
    In essence, the story foretold a coming Savior who would be bruised but victorious, defeating