by V M Jones
“Aye, Father,” replied Dr. McNamara with a smile. “You don’t have to worry about them.”
The priest felt relieved and put his hand back down to his side. He was fascinated that he could see his breath in the chilled air.
Even though the orbs were part of a paranormal phenomenon, they brought some comfort to Dr. Ryan, Dr. McNamara, and now Father O’Brian. At least it meant they were safe for the moment.
“Father, could you upright a couple of the tables and place them a little less than two meters apart?” asked Dr. Ryan as he started to lift the pole off his shoulder.
He did as requested allowing the pole bearers to place each end on the tables.
“See if you can find three more swords and put them with the others,” he instructed pointing to the leather pouch.
The priest looked around the room until he found more of the distinctive swords. As he picked up each one he thought about the battle that had taken place so many centuries before.
“Are the other rooms scattered with remains like these two have been?” he asked as he looked at the remains on the floor.
“Unfortunately they are. It was a tough battle for Prince Nuallan but he saved many of his friends and countryman. He also kept King Dubhshlaine and Faelan from completing their plans. It was all at a great cost,” said Dr. McNamara solemnly.
“And now it’s up to us to do the same,” added Dr. Ryan with a determined look on his face.
The priest finished collecting the swords and placed them in the long leather pouch.
Dr. McNamara and Dr. Ryan proceeded to collect three more shields that were scattered around the room. They carefully attached the rope loop on each shield handle to place them on the pole. Dr. McNamara held one end of the pole as Dr. Ryan carefully placed each of the other three shields onto it.
They had anticipated having an encounter with the orange and red lights by now. Since nothing had happened it made them more edgy.
“Eight should be plenty,” said Dr. Ryan as he re-counted the shields on the pole.
"I agree. The sooner we get out of here the better,” added Dr. McNamara feeling uneasy.
As they picked up the pole they both noticed how heavy it had become with the added shields.
“I should have been lifting weights before this job. I wasn’t expecting this much of a work out,” said Dr. McNamara with a grin.
“We can put the pole down and pick it up a few more times if you like,” said Dr. Ryan with a smile.
“I think I’ll pass,” his friend said waving his hand.
They made their way to the end of the room with the swaying shields clanging louder than before because of the extra shields. They strained a little under the weight but were anxious to get back to the top. Father O’Brian had replaced the leather pouch over his shoulder and followed the other two.
As they moved into the supply room, a piece of stone fell from the wall and hit the ground. Father O’Brian instinctively pushed the button on his pulse device. A green light rippled from the device and across the room with the usual low bass noise that accompanied it. Dr. McNamara and Dr. Ryan dropped their ends of the pole with a loud clang and dropped to the ground. They looked up to see Father O’Brian standing with his hand on the pulse device with a terrified look on his face. Dr. McNamara looked over at the stone on the floor and realized what had happened.
“It was only a stone that fell from the wall,” he sighed.
“Sorry about that. I guess I’m just too nervous,” said the priest sheepishly.
“That’s alright,” replied Dr. Ryan as he brushed himself off. “However, I’m afraid that you just gave away our position. Let’s leave now.”
Father O’Brian laid down the leather pouch of swords on the ground and helped lift the end of the pole onto Dr. Ryan’s right shoulder. He then lifted the other end of the pole and placed it on Dr. McNamara’s right shoulder then stood back.
The room behind them suddenly gave off a flash of blue light that illuminated the room for a fraction of a second. Dr. Ryan and Dr. McNamara instinctively dropped the shields on the ground with a loud clang. They crouched down into a defensive position waiting for the worst.
Father O’Brian stood looking at them bewildered.
They waited a few more seconds but still nothing happened. The two men stood back up a little confused.
“I don’t understand,” said Dr. McNamara shaking his head. “I saw the flash of blue light from the other room but nothing has happened.”
“I’m confused too,” said Dr. Ryan scratching his head.
“Why? What happens after the flash of blue light?” asked Father O’Brian shrugging his shoulders.
He was standing just in front of the doorway to the soldier’s hall where the flash occurred.
Suddenly something reached out and grabbed Father O’Brian by the ankles and pulled him into the dark room. As he fell, he put out his hands to catch his fall. His hand caught a piece of stone on the doorway which made a small cut in his hand.
As he was dragged away, he left a trail of blood as he disappeared into the darkness.
The two men watched in horror as they heard the priest screaming as he was dragged into the next room.
Dr. Ryan quickly reached down and grabbed a sword from the pouch and ran into the dark room with Dr. McNamara following right behind him.
The darkness in the room felt so thick that their headlamps seemed to barely give enough light to see a meter of the floor in front of them. They followed the trail of blood along the floor.
About halfway through the room their lights shone on Father O’Brian. He was lying on the floor breathing heavily and trying to catch his breath. He appeared uninjured except for the cut on his hand.
He quickly turned over and crawled over to Dr. Ryan and Dr. McNamara.
“What - what was that?” he stammered as he got to his knees.
“I’m not sure,” replied Dr. McNamara as he shone his headlamp on the priest.
They heard a soft clicking sound out in the darkness not far from them. Their headlamps followed along the floor in sync as they raised their heads towards the sound. Their combined headlamps shone on a pair of boney feet and legs. As their lamps followed up the legs, they caught full view of a standing skeleton looking at them with a slightly tilted head.
The skeleton raised a sword above his head and began clicking his teeth together as if he were trying to talk. They separated the lights of their headlamps to reveal about a dozen skeletons behind him all with swords raised. They too began clicking their teeth together as if trying to talk to each other.
Father O’Brian quickly stood up and backed up behind the other two men.
The group of skeleton slowly stepped forward towards the bright lights shining on them.
Dr. Ryan raised his sword to defend himself.
Dr. McNamara looked frantically around himself for a sword or something he could use for defense. Then he remembered he had the pulse device on his belt. He punched the button.
A green shockwave rippled through the room. The full force of the shockwave threw the skeletons backwards against the wall with the sound of crushing bones. The bones fell to the floor with a thud along with the clang of the swords they were holding.
It also knocked down Dr. Ryan and Father O’Brian.
“Quick thinking,” said Dr. Ryan with an approving nod. “I really didn’t want a sword fight with a skeleton army. Looks like you had the power switch turned up.”
“Aye, I guess so,” replied Dr. McNamara as he reached down and helped pull both men to their feet.
“Father O’Brian, are you alright?” asked Dr. Ryan.
“I – I think so,” he stammered.
His hand was still bleeding. Dr. Ryan pulled out a handkerchief from his pocket and gave it to him. The priest wrapped his hand in the makeshift bandage.
“Let’s get out of here,” said Dr. Ryan as he quickly turned to leave.
“I’m right behind you,”
responded Dr. McNamara.
“Me too,” said Father O’Brian staying close behind the other two.
There seemed to be a sudden explosion of several flashes of blue lights. Objects from the floor and wall began hurling themselves at the retreating men. A spear flew through the air and narrowly missed Dr. McNamara as it stuck into an old wooden cask. Some of the objects hit them but without injury.
“Hit the button,” shouted Dr. McNamara to the priest.
Father O’Brian reached down and hit the button on his device. The green shockwave emanated throughout the room.
Instantly, airborne objects stopped in mid-air and dropped to the floor.
As they entered the supply room, Dr. Ryan placed his sword back into the leather pouch on the floor. Both he and Dr. McNamara quickly grabbed each end of the pole of shields and hoisted it onto their shoulders.
With hearts still pounding, they moved quickly towards the stairway of the northeast tower with Father O’Brian right behind them. He had only made it to the middle tower room when he realized that he had left the leather pouch of swords down in the supply room.
“You two go ahead,” he yelled at the others as they strained with each step to get the heavy cargo up the stairs. “I forgot the swords!” the priest exclaimed as he headed back down into the supply room.
“Be careful!” yelled back Dr. McNamara.
Dr. Ryan and Dr. McNamara moved as quickly as they could with the weight of the shields on their shoulders through the narrow stairway.
“Brody, get to the opening and grab the end of the pole as soon as we get there,” shouted Dr. McNamara into the radio.
As he poked his head out of the opening, Brody reached down and grabbed the end of the pole. Dr. McNamara turned each shield at an angle to push them through the opening. He then took the end of the pole from Dr. Ryan and pushed it onto the deck and laid it down.
Deep down in the tower they could hear banging noises.
“Father O’Brian’s in trouble,” exclaimed Dr. Ryan with alarm.
“We can’t let them take him too,” replied Dr. McNamara as he turned around.
The two quickly raced down the tower steps.
Father O’Brian tried stepping every other step on the stairs as he tried to hurry back down to the supply room to retrieve the pouch. As he neared the last step he tripped and fell onto the supply room floor. He got up on his hands and knees to catch his breath. He looked over to his right and saw the leather pouch of swords about a meter away.
As he crawled over to the pouch and reached for it, he noticed a small, blue light forming next to his head to his left. Bewildered, he stared at if for a second or two before realizing he needed to do something. He put his hand to his belt and felt for the button on the pulse device. He pushed the button and nothing happened. He pushed it again without result. He looked down and noticed the device had a huge dent in the side where he had fallen on top of it. The device was damaged. The blue light grew bigger until it almost enclosed him.
“I’ve failed,” he thought to himself as he prepared himself to be transported to the netherworld.
A green wave rippled down from the stairway and into the supply room. The blue light dissipated. Another green wave rippled throughout the room. Father O’Brian looked back towards the tower stairs to see Dr. Ryan racing towards him followed by Dr. McNamara.
Father O’Brian quickly grabbed the leather pouch of swords and clung to it. The two rescuers quickly picked up the priest by his arms and helped him to the tower stairway.
Father O’Brian quickly made his way up the stairs holding the leather pouch close to his chest. He looked up to see daylight above his head. He quickly climbed out onto the tower deck and laid on his back looking up at the sky to catch his breath.
Dr. McNamara climbed out onto the deck next followed by Dr. Ryan. Both bent over with their hands on their knees breathing heavily.
“That was close,” said Dr. Ryan as he turned to look at the others.
“Too close,” replied Dr. McNamara looking back.
“How are you Father?” he asked turning towards the priest.
“I’m alright,” replied the priest as he sat up.
“You almost got to go see Father Fahey,” said Dr. Ryan with a slight smile.
“Not a meeting I would want at this point in time,” responded Father O’Brian shaking his head.
The three stood up. Father O’Brian handed Dr. McNamara the leather pouch of swords.
“That took a lot of courage to go back and get the swords,” said Dr. McNamara as he smiled at the priest.
“Good job,” said Dr. Ryan as he patted the priest on the back.
Father O’Brian smiled back at the two men. He appreciated their comments as he felt he had not been much help with the rescue up until now.
It was now mid-afternoon.
“Well, that was different,” commented Dr. McNamara raising his eyebrows.
“Aye, I hadn’t anticipated a skeleton army,” replied Dr. Ryan rubbing his chin.
“What skeletons?” asked Brody as his eyes widened with excitement.
“Something new from Faelan,” answered Dr. McNamara. “She brought some of the skeletons to life to attack us.”
“Wow, what will she come up with next?” he exclaimed with a gasp.
“Let’s not find out,” replied Dr. Ryan.
“That took an additional year off my lifespan,” said Dr. McNamara as he put his hand on his chest.
“After what we have experienced, I’m not sure we have much left,” said his friend with a grin.
Even though they had been attacked, they were grateful that they had not encountered the dark creature on this final trip into the castle.
“Faelan almost had him,” said Dr. Ryan quietly.
“A few seconds more and she would have,” replied Dr. McNamara. “That shows that Faelan is monitoring everything we do in the castle.”
“Lucky for us we don’t need to go down there any more before going into the netherworld.”
“Aye, but I’m afraid our trip to the netherworld could be worse than anything we have experienced so far.”
“I hope not,” replied Dr. Ryan. He turned to the others on the deck, “We have lots to do and not much time left to get ready for the trip. Let’s get to work.”
15 Into the netherworld
Dr. McNamara consulted Dr. Ryan on how to attach the portal cage and wires to the stone surfaces in the castle.
“I’m worried about causing structural damage to the stone walls with the all the attachment points needed. What do you suggest we use to anchor the cage and wires to the walls?” he asked.
“I think I know something that will help. It’s something I’ve used before.”
“Great, what is it?”
“The system is comprised of a special adhesive that is heat sensitive. A ball of the adhesive is attached to the base of a small metal round base plug. The plug is placed where it is to be attached and heated with a heating gun. The adhesive at the base of the plug attaches almost instantly and maintains a strong bond to the stone. A metal T-clip is attached to the metal base which will hold in place any item to the stone surface. The adhesive is very strong and can take substantial pressure. When you no longer need to have anything attached to the stone, the T-clip can be removed. The metal plug is reheated and removed from the stone. It worked for me on a previous dig,” explained Dr. Ryan gesturing with his hands.
“Sounds like exactly what we need here,” replied Dr. McNamara with a nod.
“It will have to be shipped from London. I’ll have the museum set up a direct flight from London to the nearest airport in Waterford. Since it’s about 70 kilometers away, I’ll send one of dig team ahead of time to meet the plane and get the equipment to minimize time,” said Dr. Ryan searching for his phone.
He left and immediately made a call to order the equipment and scheduled the plane to deliver it to Waterford. He called over his excavation foreman Brian
to assign one of the team to get the equipment as it was delivered to the airport at Waterford. Dr. Ryan sought out Dr. McNamara to give him a timetable on the arrival of the adhesive plugs.
“We can have the adhesive plugs here in about three to four hours,” said Dr. Ryan holding up his fingers.
“That’s great. It will give us time to get the cages and wires down in the tower and put together. Then we’ll be ready to attach it when the plugs arrive,” replied Dr. McNamara.
Dr. Ryan searched for a large thick blanket. He asked Ansley if she had one. She was more than happy to contribute it for the rescue. He cut large lengths from the blanket that were slightly longer than the shields. He placed large strips between the shields and fastened them to the pole to keep them from clanging together when they walked holding the pole.
He had also prepared two copies of the castle map, one for himself and one for Dr. McNamara in case they were separated in the netherworld. Since they already knew the castle layout from memory, the maps were just a backup.
Dr. McNamara and Brody spent the rest of the day assembling the portal with direction from Aine. They had Aine accompany them down to the supply room at the base of the tower as their lookout. They provided her with a pulse device and had her stand guard while they worked.
They took the cage and wires down the stairs of the northeast tower and began piecing together the portal cage. They carefully bundled the wires together with plastic clips to keep them from becoming tangled as they extended from the top of the tower deck down to the portal cage at the base of the tower. They had the portal cage pieces on the floor of the supply room waiting for the anchoring plugs to arrive. They made their way back up the tower steps to the roof deck to wait. Dr. Ryan was on the deck waiting for them to give them an update.
“It will be another hour or so before the anchoring plugs arrive,” commented Dr. Ryan as he checked his watch.
He made his way down the ladder from the top of the tower.
Brody looked over the edge of the tower at the stack of lumber, electrical wires, and mesh wire near the tower.
“It looks like we overestimated the amount of material we needed for the portal generator. We still have plenty of extra mesh wire and electrical wire. We even have a backup generator,” he said pointing to the stack of items.