King of the Dark Mountain Read Online Free PDF Page A

that.
    He wanted to add blueberries to his expanding garden. They wouldn’t bear for several years, so it didn’t matter that it was late for setting them out. He drove a few miles to Katie’s Garden Store. It was a little more expensive than one of the big chains but it had a broader selection of herbs, which he was also experimenting with growing. You could do a lot with herbs to improve your health and the taste of food he had found out in the past few years since taking up running and being more health conscious overall.
    While he was perusing the aisles looking at some oregano and debating whether to buy the plants or start them from seeds, a thought suddenly crossed his mind. Why hadn’t Ellie called his cell phone? Why had she rang him up on Shane’s? He set the oregano down and picked up a pot of rosemary instead. In one of his running magazines, he had read that rosemary was good for improving memory. It was also some lore you could mine from the bard as well, “rosemary’s for remembrance.”
    Well, his wasn’t as sharp as it once was, so he was going to give it a try this year. Ellie complained about being forgetful but hers seemed as sharp as ever to him. The plant would be a nice surprise for her when she got back, even if she didn’t need it. It was a beautiful specimen, with lovely tendrils falling through the openings on the side of the pot. Katie took great care of her plants, another thing that set her store apart from the big chains, which seemed to waste as many of their specimens as they sold through neglect.
    He paid Katie and carried the big pot out to the truck and started for home. As he drove, he became more and more disconsolate. Something wasn’t right; it was more than just the call to Shane’s cell phone. “This isn’t right,” he said out loud and as soon as he said it the heavy feeling lifted. He pulled into the driveway of the First Presbyterian church and turned around. He might not make it to Wind Gap by midnight but it wouldn’t be much later, if all went well. The weather was fair and the road lay ahead. “Guess you’re going to see a little bit of your native land,” he said to the rosemary bush and turned on the radio. It was already tuned to the oldie station, which was actually playing the old standard in honor of it, parsley, sage, and thyme. Well that was an interesting case of synchronicity he thought and took it for a good sign.

Chapter Three
     
     
    The three men took turns explaining to Ellie in layman’s terms what they meant by the Theta paradigm. “We were going to call it the Iota-theta paradigm but we’ve shortened it,” Ian explained during some point in the long discourse, complete with power point displays and videos of constellations, ancient ruins and local mountain peaks. During the whole time, Ellie would glance surreptitiously at Ted to see if he showed any sign of skepticism regarding any of the fantastical claims. His face remained impassive, except when it was his turn to fill her in on some aspect of the prototype, which was related to his primary branch of study.
    At somewhere near the mid-point of the long discussion, she asked, “So this is something you uncovered while studying Irish pre-history?”
    “Oh yes, yes,” said Ted, “I gave up looking in the over labored fields of history and began to pore over the marks on the ancient stones, made before we have any written records, at the most ancient sites. When I got what it was that was etched in them, I put it into novels, and you know what success I had with those.”
    “But those are just fantasy tales,” she said perplexed.
    “Dear girl, after all you’ve seen with your own eyes how can you think that still? Of course the novels are fantastical but there’s solid research behind some of even the most far out elements in all of them.”
    “It’s hard to believe what I’ve seen with my own eyes, well go on then,” she said feeling like Alice racing along underground. Ian