Stone of Destiny (Veil Knights Book 9)

by Rowan Casey

  “Before he became the Bishop of Winchester, he was the Abbot of Glastonbury.”

  13

  Matthias thanked the professor, watching as she glanced around again hoping to catch a glimpse of any hidden cameramen that might have been in the room.

  “Call me, anytime,” she had said as she handed him her card which confirmed her office address at the University of Winchester, then gave him a wink. “Hope you win.”

  Finding the tomb marker for Henry of Blois took a little longer than Matthias had expected. A small sign declared that the crypt was closed due to flooding, but an attendant was only too happy to help.

  “Happens fairly regularly I’m afraid, what with the rain and all that. Was it the statue you wanted to see? I can let you go down the stairs to take a look, but that’s as far as you can go I’m afraid.”

  “I was hoping to see where Henry of Blois is buried,” Matthias explained.

  “Oh, that’s not down there, sir. But I can show you where it is.” He led the way towards the altar, stopping when he reached the end of the choir. “There’s nothing that marks precisely where his tomb is, but it’s in this area.”

  The man waved a hand in the general area of a section of plain stone slabs. Matthias found himself at a loss. He had seen nothing here that would give him any link to the stone he was looking for. Had he come to the wrong place after all? Perhaps the professor had sent whoever else had been asking about the Knights Hospitallers to the right place, even if she had done it unintentionally.

  “Someone as important as that doesn’t have his final resting place marked? That sounds remarkable.”

  “This wasn’t his original place of internment. Initially he was supposed to have been buried at the church of Saint Mary the Virgin at Ivinghoe in Buckinghamshire and his remains moved here at a later date. There is a story that his heart was buried in France.”

  “Like Richard the Lionheart.”

  “Not quite. Richard had bits of him buried all over France. But I understand what you mean.”

  The man stood impatiently, glancing back towards the entrance he had left unattended for the moment. “Is there anything else I can help you with?”

  “That’s fine, thanks,” said Matthias. There didn’t seem to be anything else he could learn here, but he was no further forward than he had been when he had arrived the night before. He was missing something, he had to be, but he couldn’t see what it was. He was tempted to call Hautdesert and tell him that he had failed, but the possibility of earning a decent reward made him hold back. There had to be some other thread to follow. The professor had mentioned that she sent someone else to a place called Godsfield. Was that the man he had encountered at the pub in the Brecon Beacons? The man who had haunted his waking dream at the service station? He could certainly imagine her taking an instant dislike to him. Or was there someone else trying to find the stone? Matthias wondered if he had been playing the wrong part. Perhaps instead of being the prey who was leading the search he should change roles and become the hunter instead. Assuming that whoever the professor had given directions to was also looking for the stone, he might lead Matthias to it if it was there to be found.

  A quick search on his phone helped find a postcode for the church the professor had mentioned, and in less than ten minutes he was using the car’s navigation system to guide him to it. It took a while to work his way through the one-way system, but he was soon out of the town and heading towards his destination.

  He had no idea what to expect when he reached the church other than the possibility that he would encounter the stranger again. What he certainly had not expected to come across was a familiar van. He parked the rental car opposite and stared at the van, convinced that it was the same one, even though he had no idea what the license plate number of Rhys’s vehicle had been. The idea that he might be hunting for the stone here should not have come as that much of a surprise, and yet it was. He had been unwilling to go to London with his girlfriend and yet here he appeared to be. Matthias waited. Sooner or later, either Rhys would return to the vehicle, or someone else would. He didn’t have to wait long.

  The young man emerged from the doorway of the church, with his girlfriend just a couple of paces behind him. They were talking animatedly, and Matthias had the feeling that he was about to interrupt an argument. He could have just let them get back in the van and follow them as they drove away, but there was always the chance that they were about to head back to north Wales if they had been no more successful than he had. They were still arguing when he climbed out of the car and walked toward them.

  “Fancy seeing you here,” he said when there was a lull in their voices. In Llandudno they had only spoken to each other in English in front of him, but now they were arguing in Welsh, clearly not afraid of anyone being able to understand what they were saying. Matthias picked out one or two familiar sounding words but even the Welsh he had learned at school, long since consigned to discarded memory, would probably have been of little use. They both fell silent and turned toward him, their faces showing as much surprise as must have been on his own when he had seen the van.

  “Bryn!” Rhys said, plastering a clearly false smile on his face. The girl didn’t make as much effort and remained silent, shrinking behind her boyfriend despite being taller.

  “Surprise,” Matthias said. “Didn’t expect to find you two here. When did you arrive?”

  “This morning. We drove overnight and slept in the van. Sorry, but Aunty overheard you on the phone saying you were heading here. When I told Megan, she kept banging on about coming here and having a look for ourselves. She’s like a dog with a bone when she gets going.”

  “And yet you wouldn’t take her to London to do the same?” The question slipped out before he had even thought about it. Matthias didn’t want to antagonize the man but somehow Rhys had managed to get under his skin just by being here.

  “That would have been like trying to find a needle in a haystack. At least here there are only so many places to visit and then we can head home without feeling that we hadn’t checked everywhere.”

  “So, you think the stone might be here?”

  “Why not? This part of the country seems to have loads of the connections to the Knights Hospitallers. This would have been one of the most important places in England back in the day.”

  “This is as good a place to start looking as any,” Matthias said. He was not willing to share what he had learned so far himself, even if it was precious little, but if Rhys and his girlfriend were going to be able to save him any legwork he was more than happy to let them. “You find anything?”

  “Not really. There was a guy in there who seemed to be some kind of expert. He said that a lot of the stuff relating to the Knights was removed a long time ago. He pointed out a few things around the building that showed that the Order had been involved in the construction of the place, but not more than that. “

  “When we mentioned the Whetstone, he didn’t know what we were talking about,” Megan said tentatively.

  “I told you that we shouldn’t have just come out with it,” Rhys said, the disagreement between the two clearly still bubbling just below the surface. “He just laughed at us when we explained what it was.”

  Mathias couldn’t say that he was surprised. He could imagine how the conversation went, and now maybe they had blown his chance of getting anything worthwhile out of the trip to this place. “Did the name Henry of Blois come up?”

  “Yeah, I think so. The man seemed to think we should know who he was talking about, but it meant nothing to me. Is he important?”

  “He was, once upon a time, but he’s been dead for quite a while now. Where were you planning on going to next?”

  “The man gave us the names of a couple of buildings that we might like to take a look at, but I had the feeling that he was just humoring us.”

  Yeah, just like you’re humoring Megan, Matthias thought, but this time he was able to keep his tongue in
check. He was already wishing that he had not mentioned Henry’s name. He might have put them onto the track that he was following.

  “He wrote them down for us,” Megan said. She handed Matthias the piece of paper so he could see the list for himself. Only one of the names meant anything to him apart from the cathedral. “He said there were quite a few more places but these were the ones he could think of off the top of his head.”

  “Looks like it’s going to take a while to get around all of these, even if they’re all close by.”

  “We’ve got a few days off work,” Rhys said. “But maybe we could join forces and get through the list quicker?”

  “Why not?” Matthias said, but an idea was already starting to form. “Shall we just split the list down the middle?”

  Rhys shrugged but Megan did not seem so sure. “I’m sure we can manage on our own. We don’t need any help.” She held out her hand to accept the return of the list.

  “Your call,” Matthias said and handed it back. The fact that he had recognized the one name was enough to make him feel that he had the connection he needed. “Where are you planning on starting?”

  “Looks like it’s Megan’s call. I’ll just be driving her around so she can get this out of her system.”

  “You don’t believe it’s here then?”

  “Doesn’t matter what I believe, does it? This is Megan’s trip and I’m happy to do this one with her.” He put his arm around her to show that they were doing this together.

  He might have come here hoping that he could learn something by following them, but maybe he already had everything he needed. One of the tricks he had learned early in his career came in handy; he only needed to read the list a couple of times to be able to memorize it, just like lines for a play, for at least long enough to be able to write it down when he got back into his car. Even now he was running through it over and over in his head, trying to reinforce it, but the place that had grabbed his attention was down towards the bottom of the list, so if Rhys and Megan started from the top he would have a decent head start on them.

  “So where’s it to be then, Megan?” Rhys asked.

  She consulted the list then suggested that they visit the cathedral first. Matthias didn’t tell them that they were going to be wasting their time as he had been there already, he was just relieved that his suspicion that they would start at the top of the list was confirmed.

  “Fair enough,” Rhys nodded. “You want to tag along?”

  “I’ll catch you up later, I think I can remember the first few places on the list, just in case I miss you at the cathedral. I’ll have a quick look around while I’m here, just so that I can at least say I’ve visited.

  “No problem, see you later.” Rhys opened the passenger door to allow Megan to climb inside. “Sorry if you think my aunt was eavesdropping. She can’t help it, I’m afraid, and once she told us, I couldn’t stop Megan. She might not have been prepared to go to London on her own, but she was going to try to get here without me and I couldn’t let her do that.”

  “No problem,” Matthias said, and it was true. He was just relieved that it was Rhys and Megan who had been on his trail, not the strange character he had encountered before. He waited for the pair of them to drive away in their van then slipped back into the car. He scribbled the list he had learned onto the back of a receipt, then underlined the only name apart from the cathedral that meant anything to him. The Church of Saint Mary the Virgin, Ivinghoe. It appeared to be the farthest away, and yet it was the one place that made the most sense. The chances of the other two getting there today were pretty remote.

  14

  “Any news for me?”

  The call came in not long after he started driving towards Buckinghamshire. He was thinking about giving Hautdesert a call to let him know what he was planning, but decided against it only moments before the phone rang. It was almost as if the man could read his mind. But what did he have to tell him? Precious little. He pulled over to the side of the road to take the call.

  “I’m clutching at straws, or at least that’s what it feels like, but I guess if one myth has an element of truth then there’s no reason why the same couldn’t be said about another.”

  “It sounds like you’re developing what we might call an open mind, Mister Matthias.”

  “I’m not sure I’d go that far.”

  “So are you going to tell me what your thinking is?”

  “I’ve come across a name. It may be nothing, but it set something tingling at the back of my head.” It was only when he said it out loud that he realized that was exactly what had happened. It was just the way he felt when he read a good script for the first time. It was one of the things that had been missing when he had been in the States, there had been no tingle in anything he was offered.

  “Are you going to share?”

  “I might be completely wrong and just wasting even more time.”

  “I doubt that very much. I have every faith in your judgment. You will know if you are on the right trail. This is your quest, not mine. So, are you going to share this name with me?”

  “Henry of Blois. Have you heard of him? He was the Bishop of Winchester.”

  “And where are you heading now?” Matthias caught the momentary pause before the man spoke.

  “There some kind of connection to a place calling Ivinghoe. He was supposed to have been buried in a church there before being moved to the cathedral in Winchester.”

  “At least you’re not planning on a trip to France.”

  “You’ve heard of him then?”

  “His name has come up in the past, but not in connection with the treasure you are looking for.”

  “You want to tell me why you were interested in him if it’s not about this? It might be relevant”

  “It might, but there’s a strong possibility that it will only serve as a distraction.”

  “What about this church that I’m going to take a look at? Has that come up in your research too? If there’s one thing I hate, it’s the idea of you holding stuff back from me.”

  “And yet when we show you the truth, you don’t believe it. I am having to work in your version of reality Mister Matthias and I’ve heard nothing from you that makes me think that you are ready to accept it. It is better if we just allow you to follow your own line of inquiry, but I cannot stress enough that the level of urgency is increasing. Grimm needs you to find the Whetstone, but it’s even more important that you get to it before anyone else does. It’s important that you let me know if you feel that you are being followed. You would let me know if you anyone else was looking, wouldn’t you?”

  “What would you do if there was anyone else on the same trail?”

  “Is there?”

  “No,” he lied. “But if I thought there was?”

  “I would arrange for them to be taken care of.”

  “Taken care of? What do you mean by that?”

  “Probably better if you don’t ask that kind of question.”

  For the briefest of moments he thought about telling Hautdesert about Rhys and Megan, but they were harmless. He hated the idea of them getting caught up in anything when they were no more than treasure seekers who were stumbling around in the dark even more than he was. Besides, if it hadn’t been for them he might not have been able to pick up this trail. The encounter in the Brecon Beacons on the other hand was a different matter. At first he had been convinced that this had been a trick set up by Hautdesert, or more likely Grimm, but now he was not so sure.

  “There was someone,” he said, taking the plunge. “On my drive up to Llandudno, there was a weird guy in the pub I stopped at.”

  “There are weird guys everywhere. What was special about this one?”

  “He knew my name,” he said, though the moment the words left his lips he started to doubt himself. The man in his dream had known his name, but of course he would. It was a dream.

  “You’re a famous man, Mister Matthias, at least in
your own country.”

  Matthias snorted. “I think you overestimate the reach of the theater. I’ve been away for a while. Besides he didn’t just know my name, he told me to go home.”

  “Why take so long to tell me about this encounter? I get the feeling that you are not taking the risk seriously.”

  “Well, after the pantomime that your boss laid on to convince us that the sky was falling in, or whatever his message was, I’ve taken it with a pinch of salt. It wouldn’t surprise me if you set the encounter up just to turn the screw a little more.”

  “Do you really think so little of us that you believe we would try to trick you when you are doing important work for us?”

  “Isn’t that exactly what you do? Misdirect people to get the greatest effect? I thought that was an illusionist’s stock in trade.”

  Matthias heard the sigh on the other end of the call.

  “Have you seen this man since then?”

  Matthias almost told him that he had seen him again at the service station, but stopped himself just in time. The dream seemed so real to him that it had become a memory almost indistinguishable from reality.

  “No sign of him, but I keep getting the feeling that he could appear at any minute.”

  “I wish I could say that it’s nothing to worry about, but I suspect that might not be the case. Remain vigilant and call me when you have visited your destination. I have a feeling that this will not be your journey’s end. I may have more information for you by then, but I need to obtain confirmation of my suspicions.”

  “You sure you don’t want to share? I seem to giving, but not receiving.”

  “As I said, it would only serve as a distraction.”

  A distraction. If the man had shared his suspicions he might have done the same in return. He knew that his idea was bordering on the ridiculous, but no more ridiculous than the idea of the Whetstone itself. He couldn’t help wondering if they both had the same train of the thought but neither was prepared to admit it.