Guardians of Stone (The Relic Seekers)

by Clenney, Anita

“Then someone at the inn tried to drug me.”

  “You mean tried to drug me,” Kendall said. “It was my bottle of water. Someone must have followed us to the inn. The thieves said Thomas was on the way, that he would handle me.”

  “Thomas. Bet that’s not a coincidence.”

  “I didn’t see him at the inn.”

  “If you’re good, your target won’t see you.” Jake tilted her chin, shining the light over her face. He brushed a thumb underneath a tender spot on her cheek. “Did they do this?” His voice sounded tight.

  “No. I fell down the steps. I didn’t step back quick enough when the stone pillar moved. I guess Jill did fall first.”

  Jake ran the flashlight over the rest of her, checking her out. “Are you OK?”

  “Stiff,” she said, “but I’ll live. I’ve had worse falls.”

  “Let’s get out of here before Thomas shows up. We can’t go back that way.”

  Kendall touched her hip and winced. “I think the castle is ahead of us. These places always have secret entrances. Surely we’ll run into a dungeon or something.”

  “Are you sure you’re OK to walk?”

  “Unless you want to carry me. I’m kidding.” They started walking away from the entrance. “Why would Raphael lock us in the room?”

  “We’re trespassing. He wants your necklace. That makes two good reasons. You went into his library when he as good as told you to keep out. That’s three. If I think long enough I can probably come up with a couple more. That’s why I said, ‘Don’t go anywhere alone.’ Remember that conversation?”

  “Are you forgetting that I tried to wake you up?” Kendall asked.

  Jake moved his light closer to the wall as they walked. “How hard did you try? I feel like I’ve been hit in the face.”

  “I didn’t hit you. Tapped maybe. How did you find the secret passageway?”

  “I didn’t. I went out the window.”

  “Of the tower? My God. That’s three stories high.”

  “You can thank me later for playing Knight in Shining Armor.”

  “What are you doing?” she asked, watching him run his light over the wall.

  “I saw something.”

  She leaned closer, looking at the stone illuminated by his flashlight. “It’s the circle motif.” She stared at the mark. It looked familiar. She had a feeling she’d seen it somewhere besides on the boundary wall and the pillars. “Maybe the box is hidden here. Try pushing the mark.”

  He did, but nothing happened. “Hold on...” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a knife. He ran the blade along a crack in the mortar and a seam appeared in the wall.

  “What is it?”

  “That, Legs, is a door.” Using his knife, Jake cleared a section with an outline six feet high and three feet wide. It looked heavy and old.

  “Can you get it open?” she asked.

  “I haven’t met anything I couldn’t open yet.” Her gave her a cocky grin and pushed the motif again. Nothing. He put his shoulder to the door but it still didn’t budge.

  “Looks like you’ve lost your technique, stud.” She elbowed him aside. “Let me try.”

  “You gonna try abracadabra?” He fluttered his fingers in the air.

  “Maybe it slides open.” Kendall put her hands on the door and a force slammed into her, knocking her into Jake. He grunted and caught her in his arms. She held on to him as the images rushed through her head. Piles of bones. And underneath them, Nathan’s box. “It’s here.”

  “The box?”

  She nodded. “We have to find it fast. We’re in danger.”

  Jake examined the motif again. “It looks like there’s something inside the circle.” He scratched at it with his knife. “There’s a small hole. I think it’s a lock.”

  Kendall peered over his shoulder at the small opening he’d revealed. “Since we don’t have the key, do you think you can kick it down?”

  “I’m not Superman. That’s solid stone, probably two feet thick.” A slow smile started across his face, and his flashlight dropped to her chest.

  She crossed her arms over her breasts. “Is now really the time?”

  He grabbed the cross dangling from her neck and turned it around, pointing to the etching on the back. “Look at this. Remind you of anything?”

  “It looks similar to the motif,” she said, looking at the mark. It was faded, but she could make out a circle. “I guess that’s why it seemed familiar when I saw it on the boundary wall.”

  “Uh...do you feel that?” Jake asked.

  “It’s humming.” A low sound resonated through the cross. “I don’t think it’s just a cross. I think it’s a key.” She slipped the cross over her head and stuck the end inside the slit. Light flashed inside the opening, spilling out of the hole. There was a click and a section of the door retracted.

  Kendall took a step back. “Did you see that?”

  “It is a damned key,” Jake said, his breath warm at her ear. Kendall studied the door, and the cross sticking out of the lock. “If it’s a key...” She turned the cross in the hole and a grinding sound echoed in the tunnel as the door began to open.

  “Damn.”

  When it was open, Kendall tried to look inside, but Jake threw out an arm stopping her. “Wait. Make sure it’s not a trap.”

  “I’m not going in. I just wanted a peek.”

  “There could be a blade waiting to decapitate us. You have a great body, but it wouldn’t look as good without your head.” When he saw that the door stayed open, he took out his knife and, holding it in front of him, eased it into the passage. Nothing happened. “It didn’t set off any alarms or traps. Try the lock again.”

  She put the cross in the lock and turned it. The door started to close. “It works.”

  But he still wasn’t satisfied. “We need to make sure the cross will open the door from the other side.”

  “You’d make a good archaeologist. How did you get to be so skeptical?”

  “You don’t want to know.”

  She probably didn’t. Still, she’d spent enough time exploring dangerous places to know they had to move cautiously. “We need something to block the door in case it doesn’t work. I don’t want to have to rescue you if you get stuck in there.”

  He gave her half a smile. “I don’t see anything here strong enough to block it. It would crush our packs. I’ll have to risk it.”

  “So you can take risks but I can’t?”

  “Give me the cross.”

  She gave him the cross and he stepped inside. He used the flashlight to find the lock, and then inserted the key. The grinding noise sounded again and the door started to move. He tossed her the light. Chivalrous.

  Just before it closed, she threw her backpack between the wall and the closing door. It hit the bag and slowed, grinding to a stop.

  “I appreciate you sacrificing your makeup for me, but I don’t think I could squeeze through this hole,” Jake said, looking at her through the six-inch crack.

  “I can pass food to you and keep you from starving to death.”

  “Let’s cross our fingers and hope you don’t have to.” He turned the cross in the keyhole and the door started to open again. “At least we know we won’t get trapped in here.”

  “Then why don’t you look more pleased?”

  “It’s not exactly my kind of place. But I think it’s yours.” He moved aside and she stepped in. The air was musty and dank. He flashed his light around the dark interior, and she saw the walls were lined with bones.

  “Catacombs,” she said, her voice breathless with awe.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  BONES. THEY WERE everywhere. Graves had been cut into the walls, some holding entire skeletons, while others had been disturbed, with pieces littering the floor.

  “This is amazing.”

  Jake grunted. “Maybe for someone who grew up poking around tombs.”

  “You don’t like catacombs?”

  “I don’t like bones. Wa
tch it. You’re about to kick a skull.”

  Kendall looked down and stopped.

  “I think the head belongs to him,” Jake said, pointing to a headless skeleton lying in one of the niches in the wall. “Maybe he’s your ghost.” He hoped a joke would ease the tightening in his throat.

  She reached down and picked up the skull, her hands cradling each side as she stared into the hollow eye sockets. Her lips thinned and she stepped toward the grave, carefully placing the head back with its body. “It’s not him.” She turned abruptly and walked away.

  He looked back at the skeleton, wondering what she had seen. She started walking and he stayed close, sharing his light. The beam revealed centuries of cobwebs and dust as they moved deeper into the catacombs. In addition to the skeletons, there were coffins against the walls and in private alcoves barred with iron doors.

  She seemed right at home here. He’d rather be locked in a morgue.

  The air grew colder as Kendall moved through the warren of tombs. She stopped suddenly and bent over.

  “Feeling claustrophobic?” He sure as hell was.

  She shook her head and pointed to a coffin in one of the alcoves. “There.”

  He considered asking how she knew, but didn’t bother.

  “We need to open it,” she said.

  That was what he figured she’d say. The lock on the door was old and rusty. Jake set down his pack and took out a small bolt cutter. He cut through the lock and pushed on the door. It creaked opened, doing nothing to settle his nerves. He didn’t like this, and it wasn’t just because of the bones. They stepped inside and he felt the floor give. A scraping noise was all the warning they got.

  Kendall yelled, “Look out!” at the same time Jake tackled her, knocking them clear as a stone crashed from the ceiling, landing where they had stood seconds before. They lay sprawled on the floor, him on top of her, not exactly what he’d had in mind when he wanted to get her underneath him.

  He got up and helped Kendall to her feet. “Holy moly, that was close,” she said, brushing herself off. The fallen stone was the size of a tire. Big enough to have crushed their skulls.

  “Our first booby trap. Don’t move until I make sure it’s safe.” Jake pointed his flashlight at the ceiling to see where the stone had come from. There was a large ledge above them. “The floor in front of the coffin must have been the trigger that tilted the ledge, releasing the stone.”

  “I wonder how long that’s been waiting for some unsuspecting thief.”

  “Not long enough,” Jake muttered. He picked up his pack and threw it in front of the coffin. Nothing. “I think it’s OK, but let me go first.” He climbed over the deadly rock and checked the area to make sure there wasn’t a second trap. “Stay there until I open the coffin, just in case we missed one.”

  “We should draw straws,” Kendall said. And the damned thing was that she was serious.

  “I’ll test it,” Jake said. “If a rock hits me in the head, you can rescue me or bury me. If a rock hits you in the head, I’m dead anyway.”

  “Nathan’s not that harsh,” Kendall said.

  She didn’t know the Nathan he knew. But she was smart enough to know that one of them needed to stay clear until they were sure the coffin didn’t have another trap. Two dead relic hunters wouldn’t do anyone any good.

  She didn’t join him until after he opened the lid. There was nothing left of the body but bones swathed in a dark robe. They moved closer, standing side by side, the only two creatures breathing in this place of death. At least on two legs, he thought, as something squeaked past his boot.

  “Is this it?” he asked, looking at the empty sockets and mocking grin. All skeletons looked the same. Like they were laughing at death.

  The monk’s hands were crossed over his abdomen. Time had eased its grip on the bones. One white finger protruded from the sleeve of his robe.

  Kendall nodded but didn’t speak. Her hands hovered over the monk. “It’s here,” she said.

  Jake heard a tiny noise behind them and pulled out his gun. He had a knot in his gut now that definitely wasn’t caused by bones. “Hurry.” Whoever attacked her would eventually come back.

  Kendall gently pulled back the sleeve of the robe. Underneath the monk’s hands, hidden in the folds of his robe, was a box like the one in Nathan’s drawing. She’d found it.

  “You ever play the lottery?”

  “A few times,” she said. “That’s not how my gift works.”

  He put his gun back and opened his pack, pulling out a shirt to wrap the box in. When he reached for it, Kendall grabbed his hand.

  “No. Something’s wrong.”

  “’Course it is. We’re disturbing the dead.” Jake reached for the box again and heard a click behind them.

  “Don’t touch that.”

  He spun, reaching for his gun, and a beam of light hit him in the eyes, blinding him.

  “Touch the gun, Jake, and she dies,” a voice said.

  He eased his hand away from the gun, surprised. The man knew his name. He must be Thomas. When the light lowered, Jake saw three men dressed in monk’s robes, their faces covered by hoods. They were all armed. He could probably take them, but he couldn’t risk Kendall getting caught in the cross fire. He would have to get her to safety first.

  One of the thieves pointed his gun at Kendall’s chest. “Drop your flashlight and gun and move away from her. Play the hero, and I’ll have to kill her.” It was the one who’d called him Jake.

  “Now, move away from the coffin. Over there, outside the alcove.”

  Jake kept Kendall behind him as they moved. “When I give the word, find someplace to hide,” he whispered.

  “Give me your necklace,” the thief demanded, reaching for it.

  Kendall clutched her cross. “Why?”

  “You know why. Give it to me now.”

  Kendall took off the necklace and handed it to the man. The thief lifted it to examine it, and the beam from his light fell on his face. Jake was sure he’d seen the man before. Thomas? He didn’t have a beard, but Thomas’s could have been fake.

  Jake was waiting for them to go for the box. Once they were distracted he’d make his move.

  The thief stuck the cross in a leather bag and one of the others reached for the box, dislodging the corpse’s hands. Jake started to move when a whirring noise filled the catacombs. Kendall shoved him out of the way as a barrage of rocks shot over the coffin like cannonballs. Flashlight beams danced around the catacombs like strobe lights on a disco floor. Judging by the yelps of pain, a few of the stones must have hit their mark. Kendall had warned Jake just in time.

  When the assault stopped, Jake pushed Kendall aside. “Now.”

  Before the thieves could retrieve their fallen flashlights, he dropped to the floor, kicking the legs of the man who was still standing. One of the others grabbed his flashlight but Jake kicked it out of his hand, and then added a kick to the man’s ribs. He grunted and Jake hurried to the spot where he’d pushed Kendall. A shot rang out before he could get to her and she screamed. Was she hurt?

  “Bitch! She bit me.”

  He had two choices: kill the thieves now, or take advantage of the darkness and get Kendall to safety. Only one of the men posed a real threat—the one who knew him. Jake decided to play it safe and get Kendall out of harm’s way. He found her by scent and grabbed her.

  “It’s me,” he whispered. He pulled her into the small space behind a nearby coffin. “Don’t make a sound.” He lay down in front of her, shielding her as the men cursed and scrambled for their flashlights.

  “Where’d they go?” the first thief asked, shining his light close to their hiding place.

  “Who cares? Let’s get out of here. I’m bleeding. One of those damned rocks nearly took off my ear.”

  “But we’re supposed to—”

  “He’ll never know.”

  “Then take their flashlights and gun. Let the catacombs kill them.”

  Ther
e was a rush of feet and the lights disappeared, leaving the night cold and still. Jake lay there a second longer until he was sure they were gone.

  “Stay here. I’m going after them. I’ll come back for you when it’s safe.”

  “You’re not leaving me here.”

  He didn’t blame her. He’d risk getting shot rather than stay in here with all these bones.

  “Besides, you can’t go after them alone,” Kendall said. “That’s three against one.”

  He wasn’t worried about the odds. He just needed her out of the way.

  “If you leave me here, I’ll follow you,” she added, and he knew she would.

  He climbed out of the hiding place and then helped her out. “Then be quiet and come on. We have to hurry before they get away.”

  “I can’t see anything,” Kendall said.

  “I think there’s another light in my pack. I put it down when we found the box.” Jake stooped and fumbled in the darkness, trying to hurry before the men got away with the key. If they didn’t get it back, he and Kendall would become two more sets of bones for the tomb’s collection. He found his second flashlight in an inside pocket. He turned it on and the light flashed over Kendall. She looked like she’d been rolling on the floor. “Let’s go. We have to move fast.”

  “What are we going to do when we catch them?”

  “I’m going to sneak up on them.”

  He was disgusted that he’d let them get the drop on him, all because he was worried about Kendall and a bunch of dried bones. This was the last time he was going on a job with a woman. If Nathan didn’t understand, he’d just have to send Jake back.

  He reached the closed door to the catacombs but they were too late.

  “We’re trapped.” Kendall moved up beside him, studying the door. “Do you think you can open it with your knife?”

  “I doubt it.” He tried his knife and some other tools from his pack, but nothing worked.

  “Maybe Raphael will discover us missing and come looking for us,” Kendall said.

  “I don’t think we want him to find us here.”

  Kendall hugged her arms. “If we don’t report in, I guess Nathan will start searching for us eventually. He must know where the castle is located by now.”