by David Wood
“What’s the situation?” Isla asked. “Have the Tuatha found anything yet?”
Maddock filled them in on what he had seen and heard. Isla expressed shock and anger at Meikle’s betrayal.
“Have you heard of this Brigid person? Any idea who she is?”
Isla flinched at the name.
“You know her,” Maddock said.
“No. It’s actually a common first name.” Her eyes took on a faraway look. “You know how, sometimes, you hear a name and it reminds you of someone you’d rather not think about?”
“Jade,” Bones piped up.
“Screw you, Bones,” Maddock said.
“Brigid was a goddess and a member of the Tuatha de Danann. She was the daughter of the Dagda, the god who was closely associated with the cauldron. I grew up hearing all about her from my parents.”
“She apparently wields some serious power. She seems to think she has enough clout to actually excavate around the well, right in the middle of an important historical site. Of course, she thinks it’s a dead end. Just wants to leave no stone unturned,” Maddock concluded.
“I think I agree with her,” Isla said. “Based on the photos of the Well of the Dead, I suspected this was the wrong place.”
“That’s what we thought about Dunstaffnage until I found the underground chamber,” Grizzly said.
“Finding something and falling through a trapdoor aren’t exactly the same thing,” Bones said.
Grizzly looked like he was about to argue the point, but Maddock cut him off.
“We need to focus on our next move. Maybe there’s another Well of the Dead somewhere?”
“It’s possible,” Isla said. “Do you think Jimmy could have made a mistake?”
“Maybe, but he’s pretty good.”
“We need to get the Tuatha off our backs until we know where to go next. Any ideas on how to do that?” Bones asked.
Maddock looked around, as if the answer stood somewhere nearby. And then it hit him.
“As a matter of fact, I have the perfect idea.”
Chapter 23
Loch Ness
A loud knock at her door made Isla jump. She’d been on edge ever since they’d taken rooms at the small inn near Loch Ness. She stared balefully at the door for a full five seconds, trying to decide if she hoped it was Grizzly or the Tuatha de Dannan on the other side. Neither appealed to her right now. The knock came again.
“It’s me.”
“Coming.” She closed her laptop, stalked to the door, and flung it open.
Grizzly stood there, smiling and holding two bottles of ale.
“Thought you could use a drink,” he said.
“As a matter of fact, I could.” She accepted one of the bottles and returned to the small desk that occupied most of the space that her bed did not. She sat down and stared out the window at the dark waters of Loch Ness in the distance. She wondered how Maddock and Bones were making out. They’ll be fine, she thought.
Grizzly sat down on the corner of her bed and let out a long, dramatic sigh. “I wish they had me go,” he said. “I did stumble across the chamber at Dunstaffnage. I’m lucky like that. Maybe I could be of some help with the search.”
“Believe me, I wish you’d gone too,” Isla said through gritted teeth. She turned her back on the treasure hunter, opened her laptop, and logged back on. Once again, the photos Maddock had taken beneath Dunstaffnage filled the screen.
“I hope they don’t get lost,” Grizzly said. “That’s a long way to swim.”
“They’ll be fine. They dive for a living,” she said.
Not wanting to risk being spotted nosing around Urquhart Castle after hours, the two former Navy SEALs had begun their swim in a secluded area north of the ruins. The deep, steep-sided Loch provided the perfect cover. They’d be able to dive deep enough to go unseen, hugging the shore until they reached the castle. None of them held out much hope that the treasure chambers beneath the castle were more than a legend, but they were stuck for the moment, so any avenue was worth exploring.
Meanwhile, Maddock’s hacker friend had curtly reminded them that he did have a day job, but promised to take a second look at the cipher as soon as he had a chance.
“I wish there was something I could do to help,” Grizzly said. “You need any assistance with your cipher project?”
Isla shook her head. She was already deep in thought on how to proceed on that score, and she seriously doubted Grizzly would have anything to offer.
Maddock’s plan was clever, if they could pull it off. Jimmy had sent them the key to the cipher. At least, what he believed was the key. Isla would use it to create a false clue which she would send to Meikle, requesting help with another translation. With any luck, they would send the Tuatha off on a wild goose chase while she and her companions continued their pursuit of the real treasure.
But what would happen should they find it? Her editor was expecting a story, or series, about the hunt. That was no problem. She could submit any story she liked, one that would end in failure.
Grizzly would want to televise the whole thing. That wasn’t acceptable by any stretch. She’d have to figure something out there. But what about Maddock? Could she make him understand what the treasure meant? What had to happen next?
She let out a long sigh. She could do nothing about that right now. She returned her thoughts to the false clue.
“The message Maddock found beneath Dunstaffnage… the message you and Maddock found, that is,” she added hurriedly, “contains almost all the letters in the alphabet. There are only seven for which I don’t have symbols. Avoiding those letters, I’ve put together a new message. I’ve also made a slight alteration to the vowels. Not enough, hopefully, that it will stump Meikle, but sufficient to make it seem like we believe this to be a new code.”
“Let’s hear it,” Grizzly said.
“The worthy must brave the demon of Borthwick to claim the treasure.”
Grizzly scratched his head. “What is a Borthwick?”
“It’s a haunted castle southwest of Edinburgh.”
“I thought we agreed to send them to Morar,” Grizzly said. “That would be more believable since they have their own lake monster, Morag.”
“No, you wanted to send them there. There are two problems with Morag. The first is that it’s too close to Loch Ness. We want their attention focused on somewhere far away.”
“What’s the second issue?”
She rubbed her temples, trying to fend off the oncoming headache. “Morag is the problem. The strong association with a lake monster legend means there’s a chance we could end up searching there.”
“Gotcha. Sounds like you’ve got it under control.”
“I think so. The message itself is solid. It’s the image I’m going to send him that worries me.”
Grizzly stood and moved behind her chair. “Let’s see what you’ve got.”
She grimaced. Increasingly, she found the man’s presence discomfiting. Perhaps it was the contrast to Maddock, whom she found a steadying presence. And then there was Bones, who could be a pain in his own way, but he seemed to be reliable, and Maddock trusted him utterly.
“It’s my photo manipulation I’m worried about. I’m going to tell Meikle we found a cave near the well and that this was carved on a stone there. The problem is the quality of some of Maddock’s photos.” She clicked on one of the photographs. “See how the flash partially obscures this symbol? I think it’s a combination of the moisture and the shape of the stone. If I plug this bit in, it’s going to look wrong.”
“I took a few pics with my phone. Maybe some of mine are better.” A few seconds later, Grizzly handed her his phone. Sure enough, he had a crystal clear image of the problematic section.
“This is perfect,” she said. “I’ll just…” Her voice trailed off as she realized what she was looking at.
“Something wrong?”
“It’s the photo you took,” she said. “There are mo
re symbols here.” She grinned. “Jimmy didn’t have the entire clue.”
Chapter 24
Loch Ness
The murky waters of Loch Ness seemed to close in around Maddock as he swam in the darkness. The peat particles that filled the loch limited visibility to a few feet in front of him. It reminded him uncomfortably of clouds of silt that could blind a diver inside a sunken ship or underwater cavern. He’d long been aware of the challenges inherent in diving in the loch, but experiencing it firsthand was something else entirely. Now, as he propelled himself through the murky depths, he could easily understand how a creature could go undiscovered within these waters.
He swam along, his headlamp fighting a losing battle against the darkness that enveloped them. Something shot past them, a large silvery fish, a salmon perhaps. He didn’t startle easy, but this strange place had him unnerved. Visions of the tooth he’d recovered from the U-boat kept flashing through his mind. What if the legends were true? What if they were swimming into the creature’s den?
He and Bones hugged the steep, rocky side of the loch and relied on GPS to track their movements. When they’d reached the area below Urquhart Castle, he signaled to Bones, and they began their search.
Careful to shield their lamps, they began just below the surface of the lake, and quickly worked their way down. Maddock swam back and forth, his eyes searching the shadows, looking for anything that might indicate a passageway leading beneath the castle.
Fifteen minutes later, their search hadn’t turned up anything. Bones gave a shake of his head and turned his thumb down. He hated thorough searches. If luck didn’t lead him to the prize in short order, he grew impatient and annoying, though he stuck to the task until the end.
Maddock checked his dive watch and held up ten fingers. If they didn’t find anything within ten minutes, they’d give it up. Bones nodded and they continued their search.
As they swam, Maddock found his thoughts drifting. If this dive proved fruitless, what would they do next? Call it quits? No, he couldn’t do that. He wasn’t one to give up on a treasure hunt, and he couldn’t let Isla down. She’d confided in him how important this treasure hunt was to her. Her family… Stop thinking about Isla, he chided himself.
He didn’t think about the beautiful journalist for long. As he swam into a dark crevasse, a serpentine head suddenly filled his vision. Dark, jagged teeth gleamed in the light of his headlamp.
Maddock immediately changed directions. He drew his knife and slashed at the creature, and felt his blade strike something solid—harder than flesh.
He froze, his heart pounding double-time, and took a long look at the monster’s head that loomed before him.
It was a carving about the size of a football. Silt and peat clung to it, obscuring the eyes and nostrils, but the toothy jaws shone in the lamplight. He reached out, still a little creeped out, and brushed it clean.
The years had robbed it of some of its fine detail, but it was still a remarkable piece. What was it doing down here? It hadn’t simply been tossed into the water. Instead, it was affixed to a sheer rock wall a good twenty meters below the surface. It had to have been put here for a reason.
He took hold of it and pulled.
Nothing.
He tried again. Same result. He considered the problem for a few seconds.
Maybe it’s a doorknob.
He tried turning it clockwise, but it held fast. One possibility remained. This time he turned it to the left.
Little by little, it moved a quarter turn and then stuck. Maddock heard a dull clacking sound, but nothing happened. He tried again to turn the sea serpent’s head, but it wouldn’t budge. It was time to get some added muscle.
He swam out of the crevasse, got Bones’ attention, and guided him back to the serpent head. He made a quick rotating motion with his hands to show his friend what he had in mind. They set to work and this time, the serpent’s head turned a full circle. Gears ground somewhere in the darkness, and then the rock wall before them slowly swung backward, revealing a wide, natural passageway running straight back in the direction of the castle. Wide enough, Maddock thought, for a prehistoric sea creature to swim through.
As usual, Bones didn’t hesitate. He surged ahead like a torpedo, leaving Maddock to play catch-up.
It would serve you right if I held back and let the monster make you his midnight snack, Maddock thought. Then again, Bones would probably be an entree, and Maddock the main course.
The channel ran about fifty meters straight back, terminating in a large underground cavern. Maddock and Bones broke the surface to see two stone doors, each as large as the one through which they’d passed minutes before, standing open. They climbed out of the water and moved in for a closer look. The air was dank but breathable.
Rusted iron bars, as thick as Maddock’s wrist, ran vertically through a broad slit in the door on the left. Broken chains lay strewn about, rust pitting the black links.
“Look at the bar on this thing.” He pointed to the thick metal shaft, held in place by iron bands. “You slide that sucker into the wall and that door’s not coming open easily.”
“It was definitely built to keep something in,” Maddock said.
Bones grimaced. “Like there’s any doubt what that was.”
Cautiously, they peered inside to see another large cavern, this one with a deep pool in the middle. At the far end lay a huge, recessed overhang, the floor worn smooth. The remains of fish, seals, and a few humans lay scattered about.
“I think we’ve found the curse,” Maddock said, “and it wasn’t a virus.”
“Looks like it’s been empty for a long time,” Bones said. “Doesn’t bode well for the legend of the treasure, does it?”
“Let’s take a look and see.”
The second door was a solid block. It had no bar on the front—only a large keyed lock. The space beyond it was small, scarcely large enough for Maddock and Bones to stand side by side. Shelves carved from the bedrock lined the walls. All were bare.
“I don’t see any sign of the Tuatha,” Bones said. “No symbols, nothing.”
“And these shelves weren’t made for a sword or spear,” Maddock agreed. “Maybe the stone or cauldron, if they’re small enough, but I’m with you. I don’t think it’s Tuatha.”
“But still, monsters and treasure,” Bones said.
“Neither of which are here anymore. So unless you have an idea of what happened to them…” Maddock lapsed into silence as his eyes fell on a series of carvings on the back of the vault door. “What the hell are these?”
He and Bones shone their light on a pyramidal shape—but this pyramid was not formed from blocks.
“Are those severed heads?” Bones asked.
“Seven of them. I wonder what that means.”
Chapter 25
Loch Ness
Isla’s heart leaped when she peered out the window and saw Maddock and Bones coming down the road. She wanted to run down and meet them, but something told her to keep private things private. Even at this late hour, no telling who might be listening. She couldn’t wait to see the look on Maddock’s face when she told him what she’d found.
The soft knock came a minute later, and she opened the door to see the two treasure hunters, their hair still damp from the swim, standing in the hallway.
“We saw your light on,” Maddock whispered. “Is it all right if we come in?”
“It’s not that late,” she said, then glanced at her bedside clock. One o’clock in the morning. “Well, it’s not that late where you’re from.” She opened the door to let the two men in. “You can sit if you like.”
Bones shook his head. “We’ve got wetsuits on under our clothes. I hope the chick at the front desk didn’t think I’d wet my pants.”
“She looked half-asleep to me,” Maddock said, then turned to Isla. “Did you get the message off to Meikle?”
“I did. I believe I managed to make a fairly convincing forgery.” At least, she ho
ped she’d succeeded.
“Think he bought it?”
She nodded. “He said he’d look into it right away. He didn’t sound as if he suspected anything.”
“Hopefully, that’s the Tuatha off our tails for a while,” Bones said.
“How was your dive?” she asked.
She listened, eyes wide, as the two men recounted their discovery of the sea serpent carving, the hidden door, and the chambers far beneath Urquhart Castle.
“Incredible. So there was some truth to the legend after all?”
Maddock nodded. “Except there was no pestilence. Only a monster, or monsters. At least, that’s the way it looked to us.”
“That’s fascinating,” she said.
“Problem is, it doesn’t bring us any closer to the Tuatha treasure,” Bones said. “Unless a bunch of severed heads are a clue.”
The words jolted Isla all the way down to her toes. She blinked in surprise. “What did you say?”
“Severed heads. The treasure vault was empty, but someone carved seven heads on the inside of the door. We don’t know for sure if it means anything, but as graffiti goes, it’s kind of weird.”
“And you’re certain there were seven heads?” Her heart raced as she hurried to the desk and turned on her computer.
“What’s going on?” Maddock said.
“There was a problem with a couple of the photographs you sent to Jimmy. The flash obscured some of the symbols.”
“I told you, Maddock,” Bones said. “You need to take that photography class with me.”
“Taking photos of nude women for your friend’s adult website is not a photography class. It’s just creepy.”
“I’d say getting engaged turned you into a bore, but you were always a dud,” Bones replied.
Isla felt a pang of jealousy when she heard the word “engaged.” Grow up, she told herself. You barely know the man. She opened the file containing the photographs Maddock had taken beneath Dunstaffnage, and showed them the obscured areas. Then she navigated to the photos Grizzly had taken.