“He knew he was dying,” Nathan said. “Maybe he had a change of heart. He gave me the cross. I guess the chain broke. We’re still trying to find out who Thomas really is, but we keep hitting dead ends.”
“Did he say anything else?” Jake asked.
“He said one more thing: ‘Tell her I love her and that I’m sorry.’”
Jake looked at Kendall. “Who? Kendall?”
“He died before he could say anything else. That’s why I wanted you to go home. There’s too much we don’t know. Finding the box isn’t worth it.” Nathan looked kind of sick when he said it, Jake thought.
“And you think you can handle it alone?” Kendall asked.
Had she already forgotten the coffin lid splintered into kindling and heavy iron doors being ripped from their hinges? Still, adrenaline—assuming that’s what it was—would go only so far.
“I’ll bring more men if I need them,” Nathan said.
Kendall frowned. “I thought you said Jake was the best.”
“I don’t want him here.”
“Why don’t you want him in danger? Because he’s like a brother to you?” Kendall asked, echoing what Fergus had said. “You sure as heck fight like brothers.”
Brothers, right. But he couldn’t help glancing at Nathan to see what his reaction was.
Nathan scowled. “I just have other things I need him to do.”
“Sure,” Kendall said dryly.
“I’m not leaving,” Jake said. “You can do what you like with her, but good luck. She’s as hard to get rid of as a tick.”
“I’m staying. According to him,” Kendall said glancing at the dead man, “whoever has the box still needs the key. We have to keep him from getting it.”
“Marco mentioned a key as well,” Nathan said. “He said it was for the box. Maybe it is with the monk.”
“Marco’s a strange bird,” Jake said.
“He seems confused at times,” Nathan agreed. “But if everyone’s talking about a key, we’d better find it before they do. Someone already has the bloody box.”
“Another thing to find,” Jake muttered.
“If the box does contain the spear, it might be best if the key is lost,” Kendall said.
Nathan shook his head. “It needs to be in a safe place.”
“I think Kendall’s right,” Jake said.
“We find it,” Nathan ordered, back to his old self.
“We can check the monk’s coffin,” Kendall said.
“First you might want to return this corpse’s finger.” Jake pointed to the bone stuck in her belt.
Any other girl would have screamed. He would have if he’d been a girl. Kendall just looked startled, and then restored the bone to its owner. They walked to the spot where the old monk lay. When they stepped over the fallen stone that had just missed crushing them Jake saw Nathan’s lips thin. The old monk looked the same as when they’d found him, except his hands had been dislodged by the thieves.
Jake shifted his weight, wishing they could get out of here. “Why don’t you ask him where the key is?” He turned to Nathan. “Did you know she talks to ghosts?”
“I’m not surprised.”
“It doesn’t work that way,” Kendall said.
He still hadn’t figured out how the hell it did work. She didn’t seem to know either.
Kendall stepped closer and studied the skeleton. She was quiet, and Jake wondered what she was sensing. He’d seen enough to know she wasn’t a fraud. She gently put the monk’s hands back in place. “We have to stop whoever has the box from opening it.”
Jake looked at the skeleton and swallowed. “Let me check for traps before we start digging around.”
“I don’t think there are any more,” Kendall said. “I don’t sense any danger. Not with the coffin. But if we don’t stop this man—or woman—there’s going to be trouble.”
“I’ll help you look,” Jake said, grimacing at the bones.
Kendall met his gaze. “I’ll do it.”
“Thanks,” he said gruffly.
Nathan didn’t appear to have any qualms about bones. He moved beside Kendall and the two of them searched the coffin. There was no key.
“Maybe we already have the key. If the cross opens the door to the catacombs and gives safe passage through the statues, maybe it opens the box.”
“Makes sense,” Jake said.
“The only way we’ll know is by finding the box,” Nathan said. “You found it once. Think you can find it again?”
“I can try. It would be better if I had something connected to the box.”
Jake looked at the grinning skull. “You could borrow a bone. What’s more connected than the dead guy who was guarding it? His ghost seems to like you.”
“I’m not sure this monk is the ghost I saw. But it can’t hurt.” She reached into the coffin and picked up a piece of rotted robe. “Let’s go to the tower where we stayed. That’s where I saw the ghost. I think he’s attached to the room. He might lead us to the key. He led me to the box.”
They decided to take the small tunnel that led to the castle in case there were more men waiting outside. Jake went first, leading the way through the narrow passage. He stepped from the column into the entryway. It was quiet, but something didn’t feel right. He glanced through one of the tall windows and saw the statues outside and the bodies lying nearby. He could tell from their unnatural positions that the men were dead. He motioned toward the window. “Careful, we’re not alone. Someone killed the men I knocked out.”
They found two more dead men near the steps with their throats slit.
Kendall made a small sound of dismay, but she followed Jake past the bodies, upstairs to the tower bedroom. She entered first, followed by Nathan. Jake stayed at the door keeping watch.
Nathan stared at the bed, which was still rumpled. “You both slept here?”
“Yeah.” Jake’s satisfaction was ruined by the expression on Nathan’s face as he studied the rest of the room. He looked like he was the one who’d seen a ghost.
“This is where Raphael put us,” Kendall said. She looked at the bed and awkwardly sat down, immediately jumping up as if she’d been scalded. She cleared her throat and walked to the desk where she’d found the hidden letter. She sat stiffly in the chair, folded her hands on her lap while Jake and Nathan watched her. A second later she jumped up again. “This isn’t working.”
“Can you try someplace else?” Jake asked. He wanted Kendall out of here.
“The bathroom,”
Nathan frowned. “You think the ghost is in the bathroom?”
“No, I have to use the bathroom.”
“Now?” Jake asked. “Hurry. We could have company any minute. If you hear us yell out, hide.”
It was damned awkward waiting for Kendall to emerge. Jake kept watch on the hallway, occasionally glancing at the garderobe door, willing her to come out, while Nathan examined the room with that same intense look on his face that Kendall got when she was trying to decipher secrets.
Nathan looked at the bed again, his eyes narrowed.
“No,” Jake said.
Nathan gave him a hard stare. “I didn’t ask.”
“Yes, you did.”
“I hired you to protect her, not sleep with her.”
“One doesn’t exclude the other.” Not exactly true. Sleeping with someone you were trying to protect was one of the worst things a guard could do, but the look on Nathan’s face was worth the lie.
“Leave her alone,” Nathan warned.
“It’s not your call.” Jake looked at the door. “What the hell can she be doing in a garderobe?”
“There’s a garderobe?” Nathan asked, his expression haunted again.
The door opened and Kendall appeared. “The secret passage,” she announced. “That’s where the ghost led me. Maybe I can find him there.” She looked at the bed as she passed, and Jake wondered if she was thinking about the bloody childbirth she’d sensed or her time there wi
th him.
She walked up to the wall beside the desk and pushed something on one of the stones. A door in the wall swung open.
So this was how she’d escaped. “Not very inviting,” Jake said, stepping inside. He supposed it depended on your idea of fun. Nathan and Kendall both had a rapt look on their faces that Jake equated with good sex.
“I bet this entire place is riddled with secret passages,” she said.
“Don’t suppose you saw any of them when you were a kid?” Jake asked.
Nathan looked like he’d swallowed a fly. “What?”
“I was here when I was a girl.” Kendall slanted her head. “You didn’t know?”
“How could I have known?”
“You have to admit it’s a strange coincidence,” Jake said. “You have her searching for a relic in a place she once visited as a child.”
Nathan frowned. “When were you here?”
“I was young. I didn’t remember any of this until Marco told me. I thought I recognized things, but I believed it must be a vision.”
“How the bloody hell do you know Marco?”
“I talked to him at the hotel.”
“How did you talk to him while you were—”
“Prisoners?” Jake supplied, following Nathan down the stone steps.
Nathan’s jaw tightened. “How did you see Marco?”
Kendall ran her hand across the wall, head tilted as if listening. “He slipped into my room.”
“Cell,” Jake said.
“Sometimes I wish I’d never met you,” Nathan said to Jake.
“You’re not the only one.”
“You two bicker worse than brothers.” Kendall shook her head. “Marco remembered seeing me at the castle with my father. My father must have been here looking for relics. Apparently, Adam and I sneaked in someplace we weren’t allowed, some sacred place, and Adam took a vow. I can’t remember much about it.”
Nathan stared at Kendall. “Adam?”
“He was a friend who died when I was young. Our fathers worked together.”
“Adam was with you?” Nathan asked.
Kendall nodded. “He died not long after we left. Marco said breaking into the sacred place and taking the vow could be deadly. I wonder if that’s what killed them.”
“What kind of vow?”
“Marco didn’t really say. Fergus came and made him leave. This vow must have been a big deal though. Marco said the order wasn’t sure what to do about it. He was afraid of what would happen, so he helped my father sneak us out of the castle that night.”
“You were close to Adam?” Nathan’s voice sounded hollow in the passageway.
“He was my best friend.”
Jake still didn’t like the feeling he got when Kendall spoke of Adam. And it didn’t make him feel any better knowing that he resented a dead boy.
“There’s a door,” Kendall said. “I didn’t notice it the first time I came this way. This must open onto the third floor.”
Nathan moved to her side. “Let me go first.”
She stood back willingly, and didn’t argue as she would have with Jake. That left a bad taste in his mouth.
Nathan turned the knob and opened the door. Kendall stood so close, trying to peer around him, she practically had her head under his arm.
Nathan looked inside and cursed.
Kendall ducked around him. “Oh my!” They both disappeared through the door.
Jake followed them, feeling like a third wheel until he saw what they had seen. “Damn. I think we found King Arthur’s Round Table.” The room was large and filled with antiques and artifacts that looked like they belonged in a medieval castle. A huge round table sat in the middle of the room, with thirteen ornate chairs. There were suits of armor and weapons: spears, swords, daggers, and guns. Shelves held books and ornaments and trophies that looked valuable, even to his uneducated eye. The Spear of Destiny would fit right in here. This area looked different from the rest of the castle. It felt like there was more life here.
Nathan and Kendall were moving around the room, eyes wide. They stopped at a large mural on the wall that showed a bunch of people in water. He couldn’t tell if it was a baptism or a drowning.
He saw a glass-covered table that held a piece of paper rolled like a poster. A scroll? He lifted the top and set it aside. Carefully, he picked up the paper and began to unroll it.
“Don’t touch it,” Kendall yelped from across the room.
Jake quickly rolled it back up, and Kendall hurried toward him as if he were holding a baby over open flames. She took it from him with two fingers. “It’s a scroll,” she breathed. “Nathan, look.”
Nathan came over and the two of them stared in awe.
“Should we open it?” Nathan asked.
Jake had already opened it.
“I don’t know,” Kendall said, still holding it between two fingers. “I want to see what’s on it, but maybe we should take it back.” Her voice was quick with excitement. She was obviously torn between curiosity and concern.
“It has pictures on it,” Jake said.
Kendall and Nathan looked at him as if he were a gorilla in a playpen. “What kind of pictures?”
“Statues, swords, jewelry. A spear.”
They both stilled. “A spear.” Kendall licked her lips and looked at Nathan, who was scrubbing his hand through his hair.
“What do you think?” he asked.
“I’m afraid to expose it to the air,” Kendall said, as if someone had suggested that she wave it around like a flag. “We don’t have gloves or the right equipment.”
“What did the spear look like?” Nathan asked.
“Sharp and pointy.” They both gaped at him, and he couldn’t help grin. “It was metal, with bands wound around the tip. That’s all I saw before it was yanked out of my hands.”
“I didn’t yank it out of your hands. I’m not that careless.” She sighed and put it back on the table before replacing the glass.
“Someone’s coming,” Jake said. He hurried to the door, which was still open, and looked out. No one. He motioned for Nathan and Kendall to stay out of sight, and then he closed the door leaving just a crack. The voices were male. They were arguing. And they seemed to be coming from the wall.
They all glanced around the room, trying to identify the source. “I think it’s coming from the mural,” Kendall said as the voices grew louder.
Jake told Kendall and Nathan to get behind him. Neither of them did. He leveled his gun at the mural, and the wall slid open. Fergus and Marco stepped out.
“Bloody hell,” Nathan said.
“I told you it was here,” Marco said.
Fergus looked like he’d been dragged through a bush backward. His suit jacket was torn, hair disheveled, and his face had some dark substance on it that Jake hoped was motor oil.
“What are you doing here?” Nathan asked.
Fergus straightened his shoulders and brushed off the lapels of his ruined jacket. “We came to help.”
“Bloody hell,” Nathan said again.
“We came to make sure you didn’t die,” Marco said.
“We were worried,” Fergus said. “I know how you abhor weapons. We were afraid you weren’t prepared.” He opened his jacket and pulled out a gun, waving it around the room in a way that indicated his unfamiliarity with weapons.
“How did you get here so fast?” Jake asked, shifting to stay clear of the barrel.
“We drove,” Fergus said, putting the gun away. “There’s a road to the castle.”
“A road?” Kendall said.
“That would have been nice to know,” Jake said.
“I brought Marco since he knows all the secret entrances.”
“Most of them,” Marco said.
“Did you bring guards?” Nathan asked.
“No. They were...occupied.”
“Occupied?” Nathan asked, frowning.
“There was an incident at the hotel,” Fergus said.
<
br /> “An explosion,” Marco said.
Nathan’s eyebrows rose. “Explosion?”
“It appears to have been a bomb,” Fergus said. “It was set in the parking garage near the entrance to your personal rooms. The hotel management and security guards are taking care of things there.”
“Was anyone hurt?” Nathan asked.
“No,” Fergus said. “Marco warned us before it happened. Everyone had already been evacuated.”
“How did you know there would be an explosion?” Nathan asked, his eyes narrowed with suspicion.
Jake didn’t blame him. A little too much coincidence if you asked him.
“I know things,” Marco said with a gentle smile. “Kendall is ill.”
Jake turned. Kendall was leaning against a shelf, her face colorless. He and Nathan rushed to her side.
“We have to hurry,” she said. “He’s here.”
“Who?” Jake asked.
“The man who stole the box.”
“Do you know who he is?” Nathan asked.
She shook her head. “But he’s going to the chapel,” Kendall said. “Holy ground.”
“How can he open the box without the key?” Jake asked.
“Keys?” Marco said. “It takes three crosses to open the box.”
So the cross was the key. Kendall was right. Again.
“I know a shortcut,” Marco said. “Follow me.”
They did. Into the mural. Jake had to duck to get inside, and he heard a thump and muttered curses from Nathan as he entered the narrow passage.
“Why must it be opened on holy ground?” Fergus asked, his voice muffled in the tight space.
Marco shuffled ahead of them, looking uncertain about his choice of route. “It wouldn’t be pleasant otherwise. The spear doesn’t like to be disturbed.”
The passageway came to a fork and Marco stopped. “This way. I think. Or was it...” He scratched his beard. “No, this way.” He took off without looking to see whether they followed, muttering to himself all the while. They descended one more set of steps. Marco walked up to a wall, pushed something, and a door opened to a garage large enough for a fleet of cars.
Guardians of Stone (The Relic Seekers) Page 24
