The Royal Stones of Eden (Royal Secrecies Book 1)

by Rae T. Alexander

  “As mysterious as that story sounds—it is the truth. I kept the red stone necklace but gave the blue and white stones to a friend to keep for me—that was about the same time that I left North Carolina to live in California.”—Mattie again pulled out the stone for everyone to gaze at it.

  With her permission, Tom took the red stone and necklace. He looked at every side of the ruby stone as if he expected it to do something. All that he noticed was that it had jagged edges—as if it had been cut in two in haste, in a primitive manner.

  “Mattie, what do you remember before the hospital?”—Tom looked away from the stone and then deeply into her eyes with a non-judgmental assurance. David rested his arms on the kitchen table and leaned toward her. He waited for the answer to the same question that he had always wanted to ask her but was always afraid to ask. Who are you, he thought.

  “The memory is so fuzzy—I can’t remember.”—Mattie took back the stone with a guilty look of avoidance on her face as she slipped the necklace back over her head. Tom knew that she was hiding something, but he chose not to pursue it or press Mattie about it.

  After their lunch, Tom urged them back to the bedroom. Something had caught his eye upstairs, and he had some things to disclose to both of them that would stir their imagination and leave them confounded.

  Mattie and David sat on the bed, and Tom stood and explored the inside of David’s opened suitcase. Tom stopped and focused on a vial of grey liquid. He took it out of the suitcase to examine it closely. It seemed to vibrate slightly.

  “...and ...where did you get this?”—Tom gave a rare look of suspicion to David, and David took the vial out of his hands.

  “I found it,” David partially lied. “It was at an archaeological site in Utah that I visited just before I met Mattie—before we went to Egypt.” After a look of disbelief from Tom was received, David confessed, “Ok—this old prospector gave it to me. It was at a site in southern Utah. I was hoping to find out the source of its energy and then become rich and retire.”—as David joked, an irritated Tom interrupted him.

  “Our money is more than enough for you now though, right?”—Tom stunned David with his choice of words.

  “Our money?” David asked, curious about the remark.

  “David, I must confess something right now,” Tom said. “Your projects were not financed by the government. You got your funding by the Guardians—or more specifically, by me!

  “I have title to several mines and oil wells that are generating massive income right now while we are wasting our time talking about it. You were told that story about the government by Sam because you didn’t need to know all of the details at the time. Sam was with me—with our team—and so was Haj!”

  “I wasn’t working for the government? I was working for you?” David asked, shocked from Tom’s disclosure.

  “Yes, David.”—Tom took the vial back and gazed at the liquid. “You got this liquid from a prospector, in Utah, eh?” It appeared to move on its own. The liquid jumped upwards within the pocket-sized container.

  David took a moment and tried to take it in. He had not realized that his butler had been his boss and investor. Mattie, feeling a degree of empathy, attempted to embrace him. As she put her arm around him, she saw the beginnings of a newer and more humble David.

  “That stuff is extremely cool. It jumps up and down.”—Mattie looked at Tom and exclaimed. She told him that she had seen it before, when she first met David. Mattie knew that it was the same liquid that David had poured on her belly, but she decided not to share that personal detail with Tom. “David? You were in Utah? Before Egypt? You never told me about that little adventure—not that it matters,” Mattie kidded.

  “Not a big deal—except for finding that stuff. I was just finishing my thesis in processual archaeology,” David explained.

  “Processual what?”—Mattie had a look of confusion as Tom interrupted her.

  “Um—excuse me children?”—Tom now had their attention.

  “This little fascinating bit of liquid is quite a treasure—and I am sure that the story of finding it is quite interesting—but this liquid has a story of its own that is equally fascinating,” Tom said to them. He saw their blank expressions and suddenly realized that they did not share his full knowledge about the matter. It was time to tell the story of the silver liquid. But he wondered how David had obtained something that used to be locked up, inside a secure safe in Cairo, Egypt. How did he get it, he wondered. How did a prospector obtain it in Utah? Tom had his suspicions and his own theories about it.

  “Oh, sorry—this is Cali!” Tom said as he came out of his daze. Tom pronounced it as “Kal-Lee.” Tom pointed at the silver liquid in the tube.

  The expression on the faces of David and Mattie begged for more information, so he continued.

  “Cali!” he said—still there was no response from them. “What do your legends call it? Oh yeah—Excalibur!” Tom emphasized.

  “That’s the sword of King Arthur?”—David spoke and started to laugh.

  “Yes,” Tom said, somewhat offended. “It was once forged into a long dagger, just like my—oh no!”—Tom felt his knife pouch on his belt. He was about to draw out his knife that he had used earlier on Robbie, the one he had used to force him down the hillside.

  His knife was missing. He remembered that he had last touched it when he had checked on their prisoner, Robbie, tied up in a nearby room. He recalled that he had checked in on Robbie’s condition at least two times that morning. He also remembered that Robbie had sobbed heavily and had held on to him on both occasions as if doing so released great remorse for his actions or some prior or hidden hurts or pain. That was odd behavior for Robbie. Apparently, it was all part of an act.

  “He took my knife!”—Tom saw in their expressions that they still did not understand. “He took my knife and cut his ropes! Robbie’s gone!” he yelled.

  All three of them rushed from the bedroom to Robbie’s room. They found the cut ropes on the floor. They looked at the empty chair, where Robbie had been tied up. A message of doom was etched permanently on the wooden chair.

  It simply read, “Medraut is alive!”

  Tom looked at David, who, along with Mattie, panted heavily from their mad rush into the room.

  “David, we are going to make a sword!” Tom declared. “But first, I need to finish the story of the stones, as told to me by Merlin himself! I want to explain what I meant when I said you were working for our team.” Tom continued to breathe heavily, more so than David or Mattie. He had showed his age with his sprint to find Robbie.

  Then suddenly, Tom took a small green stone and a small gold stone out of his pocket, and he tossed them to David simultaneously. David barely caught them before they landed on the floor. Mattie screamed as David and his surrounding area became immediately and totally invisible.

  “These may come in handy later, David,” Tom said, with a gleam in his eyes, and his breathing finally slowed.

  Mattie heard an invisible David ask her if she was ok, and she fainted on the floor.

  Chapter 16

  Malkuth Stones of Gan Eden

  Part Four

  In the Words of Merlin

  I arrived in the camp where I immediately saw Arthur, Joseph, Samuel, John, and Robin standing exactly where I had just left them, only a few moments before. At least, that was their claim. In fact, I would have been accused of playing a trick on them, had it not been for the peculiar clothes that I wore and my clean-shaven face. It must have seemed strange to them because they all wore leggings of some kind, and tunics. They were all bearded and smelled of unwashed genitals and armpits.

  A few servants attended the horses, no more than two, as I remember. There were two tents, and, in front of the tents, about ten or twelve paces in front of them, there was a black cauldron. A fire burned underneath, and a servant stirred something in it.

  For several minutes, maybe one or two, though I doubt they used the term minutes, I fou
nd that I could not understand a single word that the men said to me. I heard one or two words that seemed familiar, and they seemed equally puzzled at my speech.

  I confused them with my manner and my clothing. I had forgotten to change my clothes on this trip, my fifth or sixth one as I remember.

  After only a few minutes, my memory and my understanding gradually came back to me, and I was able to converse. I believe the first word that I heard, the one that jolted me out of my forgetfulness, was “wifman.”

  “Woman! Yes! I mean wifman!”—we were able to understand each other though it took me a few more seconds. “Seconds” was a term that I had learned during my trips to the future.

  “What are those words, my lord? What strange talk was that?”—Samuel spoke first.

  “Hold your tongue, Samuel! I will speak to him in private!” Arthur interjected.

  Arthur then led me away to engage in conversation as the others looked on and remained intensely focused on my clothing. Between the two of us, my memory returned, and we discussed the specifics of what had happened just before I left on my fantastic journey.

  ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

  I remembered first that Robin ran with all speed to King Arthur and the others. I was several paces behind him. I followed Robin, away from Medraut’s camp, but I walked at my own stride. By the time I reached King Arthur, Robin’s conversation had already begun.

  I heard Arthur argue with Robin—when I finally heard what they were saying. Robin told him that in one of the tents beyond the cauldron resided a woman. She lay supinely on a cot and was most ill. It was, he claimed, none other than the missing queen, Queen Guinevere. In the other tent, he said, was his beloved Marian. Both of the women suffered from a fatal disease that had no cure, except for a promised cure held by the mysterious man. Robin claimed that he was offered the cure for Marian in exchange for wearing a ring, with a black stone. He said that Arthur was to go to the tent immediately.

  Robin explained that the ring would command his eventual allegiance to Medraut and that it drew out all fear and hatred from within his soul and mind. That was supposed to be a secret between Robin and the man. However, as a side effect of wearing the ring, all fear, including that fear of not disclosing that secret, and the consequences of doing so, had disappeared from Robin’s mind completely. He spoke freely to Arthur and the others.

  I continued to remember more of these events.

  After I had heard Robin say that the ring should not be removed, I determined to remove it as soon as possible. The man had threatened Robin with the consequence of any removal of the ring, an action that he said would cause the seed of eternal revenge to flood into his soul. But I had a plan, and I knew the cure. I also recalled that I decided to wait to remove the ring until later. My plan was intentional because the effect of the ring’s removal would be seen only once. I wanted a genuine reaction from Medraut when I did the deed. Yes, the memories of those events became most clear in several more minutes as my body acclimated to the dank air of the foul night in the forest.

  Arthur argued with Robin. Arthur thought it extremely unlikely that the beautiful queen, killed by a dagger that pierced her heart, was still actually alive. However, no one could argue this one indisputable fact. We slept in a time long ago, and then we awoke in a strange land and time, a time in the future. If that event could happen to us, I thought, perhaps it could happen to the queen.

  I tried to convince Arthur that we had truly passed through time by way of transference. It was a technique commonly branded by the Guardians as an illegal passage if performed when there was no threat to the safety of one’s life, and no peril befalling the stones. Nonetheless, we were successful. Though not premeditated, we were still participants of an illegal act.

  I explained to the king a brief history of the island that occurred during our five or six-hundred-year absence while I watched his mood change, and his regal spirit lower. I explained that the once proud and territorial kings that we once knew were gone.

  I said it in a manner that I thought he would understand. I spoke to him of a menace that came from the Franks in the south. I told him that these invaders, called Normans, married the Saxons, their bloodlines mingled, and their progeny gained cultural, political, and military advantage.

  Even the fighting had changed, I explained. Arthur’s men often rode to battle, dismounted, and then fought on foot. The Normans often fought while still on their horses. Everything was different.

  I gave details that I thought clearly substantiated that our experience was not just a dream, but that it was a sobering reality. We had traveled to a land that was far different from the one we used to know. I explained to the king that even the language and religion had changed for many. The leaders spoke in French. They often demanded a conversion to Christianity and a forced allegiance to a pope, a man who reigned in an empire of religious influence over vast areas.

  I convinced the king, as I enumerated the many examples of historical facts that I had learned, that it was probable that we were indeed in a different place and time. I argued again that if it was truly possible that we had traveled through space and time, it was also possible for Guinevere to be alive and inside a tent not far from us, just as Robin had said.

  After a period of deep reflection on the presented facts, Arthur decided to gather against Medraut and to fight him. But he wondered how he would respond to the witch that he once called a queen when he finally would look upon her royal presence. After all, she had taken matters into her own hand and sought to prolong life, and she had engaged an evil sorcerer to achieve this goal. But by the time she realized that her involvement was evil and wrong, it was too late. Medraut had used her for his own purposes. He kidnapped her and employed her in a most vile experiment, for purposes known only to Medraut. Was he supposed to feel affection and sorrow for the woman who disobeyed his law, ignored tradition, and broke his heart?

  What happened next at the camp of Medraut was so intense, and the events so quickly unfolded, that everyone was in distress for days afterward, in an attempt to process what truly had happened. They arrived under the cover of darkness at the camp. Arthur assumed command and barked his orders.

  “Surround the camp, and Samuel take the rear position! Ready your spear, at my command!”—Arthur was finally in a position of command again. It was hundreds of years overdue. He sent Samuel to the rear, and he posted John on the left of the camp. Robin was on the right, near the tent where Marian lay. Joseph Habib was instructed to stay back in a retreated position while Arthur and I advanced in the center toward Medraut. The other servants of Arthur’s camp who tended the horses were terrified and on the verge of mutiny. They stayed behind at Arthur’s camp.

  It was our second approach to Medraut’s camp, and it was Robin’s third. Our first approach had ended with Robin running out of the camp with the news concerning the queen. On this second approach, we advanced again in stealth, still by foot, and under the perceived cover of night, but Medraut did not step out to meet us this time. The only thing seen was the light of the cauldron’s fire and the lights of the candles that glowed against the canvasses of both tents. All of the men crouched down on the ground. They hid behind small thin weeds that provided no cover by any definition. Everyone waited for a signal from the king.

  I looked at Robin on the far right of the camp, and I praised myself for not taking off his ring that had encapsulated his fear so well—perhaps too well. Finally, I saw Arthur’s arm raise toward Robin. It was a signal for him to go into the tent. I thought the move a brave one, but I was confident that Robin would proceed without fear. The rest of us waited and knelt on the cleared misty moor.

  What happened next was the most shocking event of the night. Some of the details were relayed later to me by Samuel. From the rear of the camp he heard everything more clearly.

  Robin this time ran toward the tent on the right, with little or no regard to the advantage of a cautious line of attack. And in a few moments,
the whole camp heard two blood-curdling screams that pierced our bones.

  Robin rushed into the tent because he heard the distinct voice of Marian screaming. Robin refused to tolerate the thought of the violation of Maid Marian. The thought of her defilement urged him forward. It was the voice of rejection that he heard—she screamed the word, “No!”

  When Robin entered, he saw Medraut lying naked on top of her. Marian’s body was also naked, but it was a healed body with no evidence of any disease or plague. Marian kept objecting to Medraut’s forceful advances, and Robin raised his bow. As he drew the bow to launch his arrow, Medraut twisted his burning eyes toward Robin, a distraction that weakened the evil one’s hold on Marian. She pushed Medraut off her body, and then she screamed again as she stood up. She saw that Medraut was about to wave his hand against Robin. The scream startled even Medraut as he turned toward her—Robin’s arrow barely missed him.

  Samuel, behind the tent, and without the direction of the king, threw his poisonous spear toward a rising shadow that appeared against the tent, just after Marian’s second scream. Maybe it was a reflex, or maybe it was fear. No one but Samuel knew for sure why he threw his spear so suddenly toward the shadow.

  By the end of the second scream, everyone had reached the tent on the right. The scene was one of revulsion, and everyone, including Medraut, was briefly frozen. Marian stood naked in the tent, with a deviant Medraut to the right of her. Robin collapsed in shock in front of her, and we all saw the tragedy. Marian grasped the metal object that protruded from her chest with both hands. Her glossy eyes stared straight ahead. Samuel’s spear had pierced her back and spine, and its bloody tip extended from her chest. Bits of bloody stringy flesh dangled to the ground. Marian fell face forward, on the grassy floor of the tent.