by David Wood
Maddock didn’t need her to point out the two men who stood at the crossing looking around. If he had not remembered what they looked like, the black-haired man’s battered face stuck out like a sore thumb.
“What are they doing here?” Bones scowled at the men. “Do you think Otto told them?”
“No way,” Jade said. “He told them about the three hares, remember? They’re probably checking out any cathedral with a three hares symbol.”
“And considering what they did at Kölner Dom, they’re probably going for the shrine. You two,” Maddock said to Jade and Angel, “get back to the car and wait for us.”
“Not a chance.” Angel shook her head. “You ain’t the boss of me.”
“Same here, Maddock,” Jade added. “Cut the chivalrous crap. You know I hate it.”
“Fine.” Maddock eyed the men who were slowly moving toward the east end of the cathedral. “You two keep out of sight and look for peacocks and anything else that might be promising, just in case we’re wrong about the shrine. Let’s go Bones.” His friend nodded and they made their way through the nave, eyes on their quarry. The men were moving faster now, presumably headed for the crypt.
The columns that supported the roof were huge and it was easy to remain out of sight as they stalked the two men. Their quarry disappeared down a flight of stairs where a sign read DIE KRYPTA. A few lines in German followed. He recognized the name Liborius and the words “please do not.” At the bottom, “Silence Please” was written in English.
Not a problem, he thought.
At the bottom of the stairs, Maddock peered around the corner, seeking the two men. What he saw took him by surprise. The crypt, Jade had told them, was one of the largest in Germany– more than one hundred feet long, but he still was not prepared for the sight. The ornate columns, arched ceiling, and tiled floor made the place look like a church beneath a church. Indeed, the space to his left appeared to be a small worship area complete with pews, a confessional, and an altar. To their right, a gated archway opened into a dark, gloomy place where the tomb of Saint Liborius lay and, directly across from them, a second set of stairs led back up into the cathedral.
The chamber in which the saint’s remains were held had a semicircular ceiling that reminded Maddock of a Quonset hut. The faint light danced off the ornate walls, casting the space in a bluish glow. A representation of the saint was carved on the lid of the stone tomb. Beyond the tomb, beneath a stylized representation of peacock feathers, an arched doorway led into a second, smaller chamber, where a low plexiglass wall guarded a golden shrine.
Maddock was surprised at the lack of security afforded to Liborius’s remains compared to that of the Shrine of the Magi, but he supposed the Three Kings were just a bit more famous. As that thought passed through his mind, the two men appeared from either side of the doorway in the back chamber. One of them took a quick look around to see if they were alone, then nodded to his companion. They vaulted the plexiglass wall and approached the golden shrine.
Bones took a step toward the tomb, but Maddock held him back.
“We have to assume we’re outgunned. Take up positions outside the door to the first chamber and we’ll jump them on the way out.”
Bones grinned. He loved a good brawl.
They moved like shadows, eyes never leaving the men in the burial chamber, who were now lifting the lid off the shrine.
“Gottverdammt!” The dark-haired man with the bruised face swore. “Es ist hier nicht!”
Maddock’s German vocabulary was sufficient to get the gist of the words– It is not here. He looked at Bones who arched an eyebrow and nodded. He’d understood too.
Inside, the men replaced the lid and clambered back over the barrier. “Das grab?” the blond man asked. His partner nodded and they moved to the tomb of Liborius. Maddock moved back from the doorway so he would not be spotted and listened until grunting and scraping told him the men were hard at work trying to remove the lid.
A sudden crash shattered the silence.
“Dummkopf!”
Maddock grinned. These two were having a bad day. He stole a glance into the chamber and saw that the blond-haired guy, apparently worried that someone had heard the noise, had drawn his gun.
His partner inspected the tomb for a long time, moving things around and muttering under his breath. Finally, he let out a long sigh. “Nichts.”
The blond man sagged visibly, pocketed his weapon, and indicated that they should replace the lid. They set to the task with angry expressions on their faces.
“Let’s go.” Maddock mouthed the words to Bones, who nodded. No sense in picking a fight if the bad guys were on their way out. Before they could head up the stairs, though, he heard the lid slam into place and footsteps echoed in the crypt. He ducked into a nearby alcove, hoping Bones had hidden too, rather than let his usual fight response take over. He breathed a quick sigh of relief as the men passed his hiding place without so much as a sideways glance, and mounted the stairs up into the cathedral. His relief was short-lived, however, for it suddenly occurred to him that Jade and Angel were alone and unarmed in the cathedral. He had told them to keep out of sight, but this was Jade and Angel. With a grimace, he slipped from his hiding place and followed.
Chapter 11
“I’m beginning to think this is a dead end.” Angel looked down at the English language brochure, searching for any clue they might have missed.
“It can’t be.” Jade stood with her hands on her hips, scowling at the big stained glass window in the cathedral’s east wall as if it was somehow at fault. “The connection is too perfect. The hares, the peacock, this has to be it.”
“We’ve looked at every peacock in this place and found nothing.” Angel wasn’t sure why Jade got under her skin so badly. She was actually pretty cool–quick-witted and not too girly. She supposed it was worry over Bones and Maddock that had her on edge. “I think we should check on those two.”
“They’re fine.” Worry painted Jade’s face, but she shook her head. “Whatever you might think of your brother, neither of them are dumb, and they’ve been through plenty of dangerous situations before. They won’t let themselves get into serious trouble.”
“You’re sure about that?”
“I have to be. If the bad guys didn’t kill us, Maddock would. He knows what he’s doing. Let’s just keep looking.” Jade turned about slowly. “Anywhere we haven’t looked?”
“How about this Trinity Chapel? The hares are a Trinitarian symbol and there were three Magi.” She shrugged.
“Sounds good,” Jade agree. “Let’s do it.”
There was not much to the chapel. Its most prominent feature was a gilded relief of Liborius himself, set in a niche between a window and a pillar. The saint held a staff in his left hand and a book, presumably the Bible, in his right.
“What are the three things on top of the Bible?” Angel cocked her head to the left. “Rocks?”
“Rocks, stones. They symbolize healing. He’s the patron saint against gallstones.”
Angel guffawed. “No, seriously.”
“I’m not kidding. Think about how bad it must have been to have gallstones back in the Middle Ages.”
Angel took a closer look at the odd sight. A saint of gallstones! It sounded like some ridiculous crap Bones would make up. She ran her fingers across the stones and, as they passed over the center stone, she felt something. She frowned and leaned in close. There was a faint shape there! Heart pounding, she beckoned for Jade.
“Check this out!”
“What is it?” Jade’s eyes popped when she saw what Angel was pointing at. “The three hares! It’s faint, but definitely there.” She grinned at Angel. “Want to do the honors?”
Angel put two fingers on the stone and pressed down. It resisted at first, but when she put all her strength into it, it slid back into the wall. The Liborius relief swung forward, revealing a small alcove containing a stone box. It was small, but not too small to hold a
skull– even a crowned one. More nervous than she’d ever been before one of her fights, Angel removed the box and held it out for Jade to see. The three hares were engraved in the top.
“This has got to be it.” Jade’s low voice trembled with excitement. “You found the second skull!”
“We thank you for that.” The voice startled them, and they whirled about to see the two men who, two nights before, had accosted Angel, standing with guns trained on them. “Now give us the box.” The blond man grinned at her and held out a hand.
“I see your friend isn’t smiling.” Angel glanced at the dark-haired man’s battered face. “Tell you what. I’ll fight you for it. Hell, I’ll fight both of you. Put away your guns and take me on like men.”
“Let’s kill them, Niklas,” the dark-haired man said, ignoring her. Gun trained on Jade, he moved closer to her. “I’ll start with this one. I think I’ll shoot her in the gut. Make sure she dies slowly and painfully.”
Jade stared at him, wide-eyed, not daring to move.
“Calm yourself Ulrich,” his partner said. “If they give us the box, no one need get hurt.”
Angel could see the lie in Niklas’ eyes. “First, you back away from my friend. Let her leave. Then I’ll give you the skull.”
“Angel, no!” Jade protested.
“Quiet!” Niklas snapped. “If we shoot you now, we will take the skull and still be away before anyone notifies die Polizei. I would prefer to leave here quietly, but it is not necessary.” He tightened his grip on his gun.
Angel saw him swallow hard. She had a feeling the guy wasn’t really a killer, but he was still dangerous.
“Fine.” She kept her face blank, though her heart was pounding with fear and excitement in equal measure. “Here you go.”
She heaved the stone box in his direction. After years of training with a medicine ball, the weight of the box was nothing. She didn’t throw it at Niklas but tossed it over his head.
As the men turned their heads to follow the flight of the box, and Niklas moved to catch it, Bones, who had crept up behind Niklas, drove his fist into the man’s face, sending him crumpling to the floor. Ulrich whirled about, pistol upraised, but Maddock stepped out from behind a pillar and cracked him across the back of the head with a candelabra.
“Nice job delaying them while we got into position.” Maddock wiped the candelabra with his shirttail and dropped it the ground.
“We weren’t delaying for you,” Angel said. “We were just delaying. I didn’t even see you until Bones popped out from between those pews and motioned for me to throw the box.”
“We’re SEALs.” Bones retrieved the stone box and held it up for inspection. “All part of the training.”
“You did a lot of in-church camouflage work in the service?” Jade kissed Maddock on the cheek, which sparked an unexpected flare of jealousy in Angel. What the hell? Maddock was like a brother to her. She supposed she’d feel protective of Bones if he ever got serious with someone.
“These guys will be coming to any minute.” Maddock scooped up Ulrich’s pistol and tucked it in his inside jacket pocket. “Let’s get out of here.”
Bones grabbed the other dropped weapon, and the four of them headed for the exit. Angel paused long enough to give Niklas and Ulrich each a kick in the groin.
“Two down,” she said to herself and chuckled. Skulls or bad guys? It fit either way.
Chapter 12
“There’s something weird about these skulls.” Maddock had been examining stones set in the matching crowns on the two skulls and the odd phenomenon of the internal lights continued. “The lights are still here and they’re getting brighter.”
Bones glanced over from the driver’s seat. “They haven’t seen the light in who knows how long. Maybe they’re absorbing the light.”
“Maybe, but they get brighter when they’re closer together.”
“Let’s see,” Jade said from the back seat.
Maddock held the skulls up and slowly moved them apart, then together again. Sure enough, the light dimmed as they moved away from each other and glowed brighter as they came back together. Maddock pursed his lips. “There’s something else, though. You know how we noticed the light looked sort of like an arrow? Well, they both look like that and, get this, no matter how you turn them, the arrow always points in the exact same direction.” He demonstrated, first with one skull, then with two held side-by-side.
“Are they like compasses?” Angel asked.
“They seem to work that way, but which way are they pointing?”
“Bethlehem.” Bones’ expression was serious. “Maybe the star the Wise Men followed wasn’t literal.”
“I swear I’ve heard a legend of a compass stone,” Jade mused.
“The Vikings supposedly had one.” Maddock had always enjoyed reading about early sailors and expeditions, and the Vikings had been among his favorites. “They called it a sunstone because it pointed the way to the sun on a cloudy day.”
“But these stones aren’t pointing toward the sun.” Bones took another quick glance at the skulls. “Looks like they’re pointing south to me. My vote is either Bethlehem or a reverse compass pointing to the South Pole.”
“Or we’re reading them backward and they’re just plain old compasses. That would be the simplest explanation.” Jade took one of the skulls from Maddock so she and Angel could have a closer look.
“Yeah, but simplest isn’t funnest,” Bones griped.
“Funnest? Bones, do you even know what you sound like?” Angel sounded exasperated, but her amused smile told a different story.
“I sound like a guy who doesn’t have a stick up his butt.”
Maddock had to laugh. Bones and Angel were definitely the brother and sister he never had and wasn’t completely sure he wanted, but they were fun.
“All right, let’s put the skulls away. We’re there.”
The Catholic University of Eichstatt-Ingolstadt was the only Catholic university in the German-speaking world. Its history dated back to a sixteenth-century seminary, and some digging had produced the name of one of their faculty members, August Adler, as an expert on local Magi lore. They hoped he might be able to provide them with some clues that weren’t easily found through an internet search.
“Call me crazy,” Angel said, looking out the window, “but even with this crazy mystery, this place sort of puts me in the Christmas spirit.”
Indeed, the snow-covered forests and mountains of Bavaria were some of the most beautiful Maddock had seen. It almost made him want to forsake the search and settle down in a warm pub in front of a cheery fire and let the holiday spirit wash over him. Almost.
“I know this isn’t the Christmas trip you guys signed up for.” Jade bit her lip.
“Nope, this is better.” Bones looked as happy as he ever had. Though he loved a relaxing good time as much as the next guy, like Maddock, he was happiest when on the trail of something lost, be it a shipwreck or an artifact.
“I’m cool with it,” Angel added. “I’m starting to see why you guys let yourselves get hooked up in these sorts of things. I feel so... alive.”
“Facing death does that to you,” Maddock said, admiring the campus, now almost empty with students on holiday. “It makes you appreciate the little things.” Out of the corner of his eye he caught Jade gazing at him with a strange expression on her face. There would be plenty of time later to figure out what was on her mind. Right now, they had an appointment to keep.
August Adler was a short, stocky man with wavy white hair and a bushy salt and pepper mustache. He reminded Maddock of Mark Twain, if Twain were an aging German professor of theology. He ushered them into his office, where dark wooden shelves sagged under the weight of books stacked double.
“I understand you are all archaeologists?” He settled into his chair and placed his folded hands on his cluttered desk.
“Three of us are,” Jade said, not adding that Maddock and Bones were marine archaeologists.
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“Odd man out.” Angel waved. “I’m just along for the ride.”
“Very good.” August nodded. “Tell me how I can be of help.”
“We are interested in legends surrounding the Magi.”
Adler frowned. His bushy eyebrows looked like two aging caterpillars performing calisthenics. “I assume you have heard about the theft of the bones from the Shrine of the Magi from Kölner Dom.” A note of suspicion rang in his words.
“We did.” Jade nodded gravely and the others followed suit. “That was terrible.”
“What is your interest in the Magi?”
“It’s really for me. I’m researching the connection between the Three Wise Men and the three hares symbol.”
“Aha!” Adler relaxed visibly and leaned back in his chair. “A very interesting subject, but only to me. I assume you have read my paper on the subject.”
“I just learned that the paper existed, which is how we found you. Since we were in the area, I couldn’t miss the opportunity to meet you, though I would love to read your paper.” Jade flashed her smile, just warm enough to melt a man’s heart like butter.
“I will give you a copy before you leave.” Adler took a deep breath and looked up at the ceiling, collecting his thoughts. “The connections between the hares and the Magi are speculative. The hare has long been associated with mythology and imagery of the divine. It symbolizes fertility, renewal, and new birth. The rabbit was adopted as a symbol of Easter due to its connection with a pagan fertility goddess of the same name whose festival was celebrated in the spring. The three hares are a pagan symbol, though the church adopted it, like so many other pagan symbols, as an emblem of the Trinity. Like the Magi, the origins of the symbol are unknown, but they have been found across Europe and the Far East.”
“The Magi came from the east,” Maddock commented.
“So it is believed.” Adler nodded and went on. “Little is known about the Magi and, to be honest, scholars take little interest in them compared to other figures in the Bible. They appear only in a single gospel. Consequently, many consider them to be a fabrication inserted by the author in order to make the Nativity story better fit Old Testament prophecy. For that reason, a scholar is left to gather rumors and legends about them, nothing more.”