Chapter Twenty-Four
The disappointment must have shown on his face, as Baylin moved to his side, reaching around him to pick up the parchment. Her lips moved as she read and he watched her face pale before she carefully put the note back in place. At his questioning look, she let out a long exhale before she started pacing back and forth in front of him, as if trying to keep up with her thoughts.
"The relic was here. Supposedly. It's not anymore. Though if some of the history is true, then how much of it is true? Raziel, they put a timeline in the box for the historical records. Read it. In 1132, the Templar's found a second room beneath Temple Mount and took things from it. They brought them to a preceptory in France. King Phillip stole the items in 1307, some as evidence of satanic activity and occult practices so he could condemn them. Others just for the value."
"In 1400, William Sinclair bought an item from Richard II of England, a descendant of King Phillip. They didn't know the value of it, they just wanted it because it had Templar history, and sequestered it at Rosslyn Chapel in 1448 after it was fully completed."
"Now, there's nothing mentioned until 1582. Whatever it was they had went missing. They believed it was stolen by an excommunicated priest who showed up here and earned their trust before disappearing soon after. It was assumed he was trying to earn his redemption, to get back into the good graces of the church for whatever he'd been cast out for. Raziel... are we really going to ignore the possibility that we may be searching for the Holy Grail?"
He couldn't answer her. He didn't know how to. She had a point. Raziel hadn't believed anything could be at Rosslyn due to how many people had searched it top to bottom over the years. And yet, here they were, staring at clear evidence of Templar treasure in the crypt some claimed didn't exist since it hadn't been located yet.
If those legends were now fact, who knew what had actually been stolen? Where the hell did one hide the Grail that was more secure than a location that couldn't be found??? Surely this had been the most secure place for it since no one had found the crypt yet.
No one had found the Grail either, so whoever this priest was, he'd managed a near impossible feat. Somewhere in the world, another relic lay waiting. They had the pieces, but none told them where they were headed next. He wasn't getting any type of energy from any of the other rows of steel boxes, so while he was sure they had plenty of artifacts and relics, none were angelic in nature. This was a dead end.
Raking his fingers through his hair, he didn't fight it when Baylin reached for his hand, curling her fingers around his. Within moments, they were standing outside a small cottage on the Scottish Moors. The wind blew her hair in ringlets around her face and she was breathtaking, making him smile despite the loss they'd just faced.
When she sat down and patted the ground, he willingly followed, settling himself behind her so he could draw her into his lap to keep her off the ground. It was peaceful here, the sweetly scented heather in bloom, a carpet of deep purple spreading as far as you could see.
Wrapping his arms around her, he rested his chin on her shoulder, letting her presence soothe him. While he missed his angelic powers and his brothers, he was slowly realizing he didn't miss home as much as he expected. There were pangs, sure, but being with Baylin helped. She made things better, just by being herself.
He couldn't help identifying with the unnamed priest they were in the footsteps of. He too had lost everything, and went through something exceedingly dangerous in order to earn his absolution. Raziel hoped he'd succeeded. It gave him hope for his own situation as well. If the priest hadn't, Raziel didn't want to know it. He'd rather stay positive.
Staring out at the rustic scenery, he let his mind play over what they'd learned from the record keeping the Sinclair's had kept. Something struck him then, something he hadn't considered before. Perhaps they did have a clue.
"Baylin, if you were an excommunicated priest trying to earn your way back into the fold, where would you go to get your voice heard? Back then, there would be only one place that held the highest order of priests, where one who had already been deemed unworthy by those in his region could go to attempt to get a fair judgment. It was and still is the seat of the Catholic Church. If he went anywhere, he went to Rome."
He felt it in his battered soul, Rome was their next stop, where the priest had taken his pilfered treasure in order to make amends. Finding it would be a needle in a haystack situation, however. In Rome, you couldn't throw a stone without hitting a relic. This would be a test of his patience.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Going from the peaceful quiet of the Scottish Moors to the hustle and bustle of Rome was a shock to the system. Horns blared as people got frustrated waiting in traffic, dogs barked from chains in tiny side yards. Between the Metro and the local train, you could hear the tracks rattling as the high speed commuter networks carried tourists and locals alike to their destinations. It was a cacophony of sounds, sights, and smells... overwhelming to his senses.
Baylin had apparated them to a little garden square off the main roads to avoid too much notice, so they had a moment to pause and contemplate their plan of attack for this. Rome was a beautiful historical city, but that meant nearly everywhere you looked there was a building that had been standing for centuries. Beneath it lay miles of catacombs, crypts and tombs, some still unexplored or undiscovered.
It was a damn good place to stash something you didn't want found, but it meant they had no idea where to begin their search. They didn't have time to go digging around in the catacombs or wandering through the hundreds of buildings. Raziel didn't know if this mission had a time limit, but he knew his strength did. He wasn't sure how much longer he could keep the beast at bay, prevent the darkness from taking over and ruining his one chance for redemption.
"Do you think your guides or spirits or whoever you speak to could guide you a bit here? Otherwise this seems hopeless. I can feel some of the energy once we're closer, but the city is large enough that I'm just not getting any feel for the relic just yet. If you can pinpoint a narrower search area, at the very least, it could help."
She nodded. "I can try, but I can't promise anything. It's more intuitive than concrete, like flashes of scenes or just seconds of visions. It's up to me to try to interpret them as best as I can. Some scenes are more vivid than others, other times it's just a gut feeling based on some blurry image I see. At the very least, even a blurry look at a building might help us be able to pick something out of a lineup. You keep any prying eyes away, and I'll park myself here in the garden and see what I can rustle up. Deal?"
As she sat, he made his way to the metal gate that encircled the greenery she'd found. Crossing his arms over his chest, he leaned against one of the posts, watching as a few people hurried by on their way to wherever they were heading. So long as no one tried to get in here, Baylin would be able to keep her connection to the spirit world as long as possible in an attempt to find them some help.
It took some time before she came up to stand next to him, lips pursed as she remained deep in thought. Waiting until her expression cleared, he gave her a questioning look. Had she seen anything that would help?
"I saw a wheel with eight spokes, and two watchtowers. A domed ceiling with colorful paintings on it. Long wooden tables, next to bookshelves stretching almost to the ceiling, and round globes of light highlighting a single sentry, waiting silently to be heard."
Raziel blinked. If that's what her visions normally seemed like, he had no idea how she managed to help get him this far. As he glanced around, he remembered seeing something long ago, something that matched her 'wheel' portion of the vision. It wasn't exactly a wheel, but looking at it from above, he supposed it could appear that way.
"The wheel and the watchtower... you're talking about Vatican City, aren't you? Looking at the pavilion from above, it looks like a wheel, with an obelisk in the center. St. Peter's Basilica has two guard towers visible from that same vantage point. But there isn't a
libr...."
He drifted off in mid-sentence. No, there wasn't a library in the basilica. However, the Vatican Secret Archives were located nearby, in the Vatican Library. If rumors were correct, they weren't just keeping books and records there. It made sense. Who else would the priest have given his relic to, but to the Vatican itself? Where else would they keep something they didn't want found?
It made their job so much harder, though. As far as he knew, no one had ever succeeded in breaking into the archives. It was believed to be all but impossible. In order to do this, they were going to have to make the impossible possible.
Without getting caught or killed in the process.
Chapter Twenty-Six
They'd found a hotel room for the night, Raziel once again manifesting money to pay. He supposed Baylin could do so as well, but it was the principle of the thing. He may currently be wearing the face of a monster, but he still had his manners. Once sequestered away from prying ears and eyes, they'd discussed every possible way they could think of to breach the sacred walls of the archives.
It so happened, Baylin was a bit of a movie buff. The woman watched so many crime and adventure movies, she should be on some government watch list somewhere. Hell, she likely was.
If it wasn't so helpful for research purposes, he'd probably be more concerned as to what her extracurricular activities actually consisted of. For now, she'd helped get him this far, so if she liked to commit unsolvable crimes on the weekends to see what would happen, he could ignore it.
"We know there are going to be guards. That's a given. They have their own police force in Vatican City and everything, so I can't see why they wouldn't use them. Since they want to keep this kept nice and secure, I'm betting there will be security cameras and some state of the art features as well. I can knock out the cameras, I think, but we're going to have to try to figure out if there are electrical grids or anything like that once we narrow down where the relic is."
"We don't want to apparate on top of one and set it off. We can bypass any retinal or biometric scans by simply going right past them. If the artifact has a pressure or weight sensor, though, we'll have to plan for that as well."
Raziel just stared. He was not proud to admit he only understood about half of that. Apparently spending most of his time somewhere other than earth had caused him to miss quite a few lessons in mortal technology. Once Baylin had explained what in the world she was talking about, she then introduced him to a new friend, Google.
Turned out, humans didn't need to use their memories anymore, as they could just use their cell phones to look anything up whenever they needed it. Once she'd gotten online, she started browsing conspiracy sites until she found some depictions of blueprints that looked promising.
Of course, there was no way to know if they were accurate, but you had to assume over the years someone who had been allowed access to the archives had leaked details somewhere. Put enough first, second, and third hand accounts together and you could come up with a feasible representation of what the interior might look like. Then some fool goes and starts putting it online, because 'secret' doesn't mean what it used to in this day and age. No matter, it worked in their favor.
Comparing a few different example blueprints, they took the items that were similar from each, as those would likely be the areas that came from first hand accounts. Utilizing those and the known geography of the area, they were able to guesstimate a rough layout size-wise. Rumors stated at least 53 miles of shelving, with potentially 35,000 volumes in the 'selective' category alone... meaning, the secret archives no one had access to.
With the geographic and topographical maps, they were able to figure out the main library, where scholars and journalists were allowed access, had to be rectangular in shape, longer than it was wide. This would be the bulk of the estimated 53 miles. Once you got past the Tiber valley floodplain, the area could be widened into a larger footprint underground.
The plan was to apparate into the more accessible archives, as they'd naturally have a little less security. Once they'd gotten their bearings, they'd figure out where the entrance to the secret archives actually was. Baylin would use her demonic gifts to disable any electrical security before getting them into the archives themselves. Once inside, they'd have to work fast to locate the relic, grab it, and get out before security figured out something was amiss.
As a plan, there were a lot of holes. Plenty of areas where everything could go wrong. Yet Raziel couldn't come up with anything better, and it wasn't for lack of trying. In the end, this was the only feasible plan they had. Leaving without the relic wasn't an option.
Not if it was as powerful as Raziel thought it was. If they were chasing the Grail, then it stood to reason eventually someone else could follow the same trail they did. While it'd been safe this long, with renewed interest in the Archives, they couldn't pin their hopes on it remaining so for the future.
Settling in, they called for room service to fuel up while waiting for night to fall. Going in daylight would be too risky, but security would be eased somewhat once the doors were closed, as most people didn't actually attempt to break into the library itself.
They'd use it as a safer entrance point.
Sitting around waiting was the absolute worst part. Neither had very much patience, which was amplified when they knew they were so close to what they needed.
Almost as soon as the sun set, they were out on the streets. Knowing Baylin would be utilizing her demonic powers often tonight, Raziel made the executive decision that they'd be walking to the Library. Sources said the entrance to the archives themselves, made separate years ago, was through the Porta di S. Anna via di Porta Angelica.
Finding the library wasn't all that difficult, as they had a website with their information listed for scholars and had begun digitizing some of the records. Once there, going through the arch to reach the side entrance to the Archives left them in a rather barren side street. There wasn't much to draw attention to it, which Raziel supposed was likely the point.
Glancing around to make absolutely sure no one was paying too much attention to them, Baylin took his hand and closed her eyes. Within seconds, he found himself standing in a large open room, bookshelves lined along both walls, two levels worth.
Dark mahogany tables stretched across the space between, the only light available being cast from old-fashioned lead glass globes. They could hear a guard making his rounds somewhere up ahead in a corridor, but couldn't see him.
This was the semi-private area of the Archives, where those with permission could come and request some of the records for viewing. Permission was tough to get, but not impossible, so these were slightly more lax on security than anywhere else would be.
Watching Baylin, he saw her glancing up at the corners, checking for security cameras. When she found them, she'd close her eyes, nose wrinkling slightly before the red lights on them went out. He sincerely hoped they didn't have active guards watching the cameras. If they weren't already caught, they would be as soon as someone noticed cameras shutting off one by one and came to investigate why.
Raziel figured the entrance to the secret archives would be somewhere further down, likely towards the far back. The longer people had to go, the less likely it was anyone who accidentally wandered in would find their way to it.
To save time, Baylin was apparating them every hundred feet or so, allowing them time to kill any security cameras, evade wandering guards, and check that they were still in the regular archives and hadn't gotten into administrative offices or anything too far ahead of themselves.
It was almost impossible to judge. It became a blur of shelves and tables, doors and glowing globes. Every once in awhile they'd pass an alcove with a religious statue, for variation.
He'd begun to lose hope when he felt a tinge of awareness, something like electricity zipping over his skin. It was stronger than what the other relics had caused, which was interesting. Either it was incredibly close, or this rel
ic was far more powerful than they were. "Wait, Baylin. Go back."
Without question, she immediately had them back where they'd just been, checking to make sure the security cameras were still off. Glancing around, he saw three doors. All looked exactly the same, the dark mahogany wood carried on from the long tables, the brass hardware. They were carefully constructed to show not a single difference. Yet he knew one lead to their destination, the others led elsewhere.
Taking a few steps toward the first, he backtracked as the sensation on his skin faded. Moving towards the second, the same thing happened. It was only at the third that the pull became stronger, almost beckoning him forward. A call of awareness, a tugging urging him to take those last few steps to reach his heart's desire.
Looking to Baylin with a questioning expression, she gave him an almost imperceptible nod. She could get them through the door. They just didn't know what pitfalls or security measures would be waiting beyond it.
She kept them just inside, to avoid setting off anything located a few feet past the door where people would be sure to step. Once there, they remained as still as possible as she began unraveling any electrical security she could find.
Ashes of Eden Page 10
