The Templar's Legacy (Ancient Enemy) (38 page)

“Oh thank God! You’re okay!”

“I’m okay. I was—Finn! There are bad people outside. They’re coming here.

“You mean here to us?”

“They just entered the chapel.”

“Is it Mark or the Delacroix?”

She sat up with furrowed her eyes and then shook her head. “I don’t know, Finn. I didn’t see anything that clearly. They—their faces—looked like animals. They had guns.”

I cast about for someplace to put that, but gave up. What were we looking at now? Beast-men? Werewolves?

“Maybe you’re just getting some sort of representational vision?” suggested Dave. “You know, they aren’t really animals, but you see them that way because they’re nasty or vicious men?”

Jen looked doubtful, but nodded.

“What do you think they are?” I asked. “Why would they come here? Do you think they know we’re here?

She helplessly raised empty hands. “I don’t know, Finn. I’m sorry.”

Dave had been watching us silently. “Well, we need to get out of here.”

“I don’t think it’s going to be any safer upstairs,” I said.

“So, what’s behind door number two?” asked Dave, pointing to the door in the back wall of the cellar.

“No idea. I can feel something behind it, but Colette never figured out how to get it open.”

“Sheesh, it would have killed me, not knowing that. Maybe it’s an escape tunnel. Let’s find out.”

I looked to Jen who just shrugged.

I didn’t really like the idea, but I hadn’t gotten a feeling of danger or anything. Certainly nothing as concrete as animal men with guns. “Okay,” I said. “It looks pretty sturdy, but let’s see if we can get it open.”

Working singly and in pairs, we weren’t able to do much other than make noise. After our last attempt, Dave said, “Okay, stand back, baby bears, papa bear is going to give it a try.”

We scrambled away from Dave, and before I could remind him to strip down, he blew up—like a balloon, not a stick of dynamite. In a few short seconds, an enormous black bear filled the space in front of the door and filled the air with its musky fragrance. Various shreds of clothing fell from him to the floor. The bear was so large that it couldn’t completely stand up on four legs in the confined space.

Behind me Jen said, “That is so cool!”

“It really is, isn’t it? I’d forgotten you’ve never seen it before. Unfortunately, he forgot to take off his clothes again.”

She giggled. “Oh, this is going to be fun.”

I grinned and watched Davey Bear figure out how to break open the door. It quickly became clear the low ceiling was seriously cramping his style. Bears weren’t really built for ramming and I could tell he was hesitant to try. We backed away to avoid getting stepped on as Dave maneuvered around trying to get some sort of decent positioning. His body just wasn’t built for it.

The bear took a couple of swipes at the door with his huge paws. It left some gouges in the wood, but the door didn’t budge. With a low Wookiee cry, he scuttled back around and just put his head against the door and pushed.

The door withstood over a ton of determined bear for about thirty seconds before it screeched surrender and snapped open. There was a flash of light followed by the smack of the door against something unseen. If he hadn’t been on four paws, Dave would have tumbled after it.

“Finn, did you see that flash of light?”

“Yeah.”

“Penis pustules!” snapped Jen.

Though the image generated by her curse was extremely unpleasant, I didn’t disagree with her sentiment. Had Dave just gotten himself hexed or something? I brought up my Sight to look for any clues. There seemed to be some sort of fading aura around the door, which was gone after a few moments, like an afterimage. A piece of soul freed from a warding? I looked at Dave anxiously to see if he was turning green or anything. Nothing showed.

“Maybe he made his saving throw?” I said.

“Really?” Jen grimaced. “Saving throw?”

“Well, it sure as hell makes as much sense as anything else.”

Dave shrank back to normal size and presented his all-over in its pale glory. He glanced down on himself and said, “Crap.”

Jen let loose a little squeal, “Oh, my virgin eyes, Dave, you really are hung like a bear!”

Dave turned his back on her, “Hey, no freebies!”

“You’ve got a cute butt, too!”

Dave just growled and grabbed his shredded shirt from the floor. He wrapped it around his dangly bits then turned on me. “Thanks for the reminder there, pal.”

“Hey, don’t put this on me! I didn’t know you could change without blowing the whistle.”

He suddenly grinned. “Pretty damn cool, isn’t it? You’re not the only one practicing.”

I had to allow that it was, pretty damn cool.

The air coming from the door was cold, damp and musty. When we shone our lights into the opening, it revealed a semi-regular stone corridor with a shallow slope leading down into blackness. We’d all turned off our phones earlier to conserve battery life, but there wasn’t much left in any of them, so we wouldn’t have a lot of time. I led the way, followed by Jen, and then Dave, wrapped in one of the tattered blankets from the nest. Thankfully, he hadn’t totally destroyed his shoes when he’d changed, so he had something to wear when his bear feet turned into bare feet. Heh.

The six-foot(ish) diameter tunnel proceeded straight in front of us at with its moderate downward slope. We entered, and Dave closed the door. Its now-warped wood and twisted iron bands squealed into its frame and stuck. After about fifty feet, our corridor opened up into a cave system. We found ourselves walking through a fissure in the rock filled with spectacular examples of flow-stone and tiered pillars that looked like wedding cakes. After a short while we came across several still pools of crystal clear water. This whole area looked a lot like a smaller version of the Lascaux caverns that Colette had visited when she was younger. It also resembled,
Gouffre Géant de Cabrespine
and
Grotte de Limousis
—two smaller cave sytems that were located nearby. We wended down maybe one hundred meters over a path that had been worked smooth.

As we walked, an odd chiming grew in my mind. It had a rhythm and melody almost like, no, exactly like, my Caduceus. The path was joined by a small stream.

“Wow, you guys feel that?” asked Jen in a low voice which didn't hide her wonder and excitement.

“Yeah, it’s grating on my nerves,” said Dave.

“It feels like the Caduceus,” I said. “There’s some sort of hoodoo here.”

A short distance later, Dave said, “That’s it, I’m going back. It feels like my brain is crawling with ants all scraping their fingernails on tiny blackboards.”

“Maybe if you put down the bear?” I suggested.

“Not happening. I’ll wait back there, but call if you need me. Be quick because my nards are turning into ice-balls.”

“Okay, frosty, we’ll let you know what we see.”

The tunnel we followed widened as we continued down the relatively smooth and flat path. Someone had carved or worn it into the natural floor.

“This is beautiful!” said Jen behind me.

I pulled my attention away from the song and really looked around me. I nodded my head in heartfelt agreement. The beauty that random natural forces could create was mind-bending.

My phone gave a forlorn beep indicating a seriously low battery. I turned off my light, and I was plunged into...blueness. An ice-blue radiance lit the features of the cave in front of me.

“Jen, turn off your light for a minute.”

She did without question and the glow seemed to intensify. It emanated from a bend in the cave around us.

“What is it?” she asked.

“I don’t know. Let’s see.” I didn’t wait for agreement. A growing excitement had blossomed inside and I walked quickly down the path. As we moved forward, the air grew rich with a mineral smell carried upon the damp scent of water. We followed the path around the bend and were presented with wonder.

The crevice we’d been following ballooned out into a larger cave, and we found ourselves bathed in an ethereal blue light on the shores of a shallow lake. The light came from luminous wisps which flowed silently around the area like air fish.

In the center of the lake, about thirty feet away, someone had built a structure of stacked stone. It rose from the water and joined the spiked ceiling some twelve feet above. Other, more natural-looking columns made the same span, giving the place the feel of an ancient cathedral.

A doorway in the center of the structure led into room filled with more of the flickering blue glow.

The whole pageant carried on in absolute silence.

I had to see what that room contained. Spring was as enraptured as I was.

I raised my Sight. Everything around me intensified. The flickering tendrils of blue light left streaks of radiance as they swam in random curving paths through the air around the central structure. The doorway blazed with golden light.

I felt Jen’s hand on my arm and realized I had waded several feet into the water.

“Jen, I have to go see this.”

Her face flickered and morphed with the movements of the light, so it was tough to tell her mood, but her own deep blue aura seemed to reach out to the wisps.

“Okay, but we need to be careful.”

I nodded and pressed on through the cold, six-inch-deep water. The lights met us halfway across. They danced around us, but didn’t offer anything more. When we were a few feet away from the structure, I could see shiny mineral deposits beginning to cover the structure and dripping from the edges of the stones. They made it look like those stones were melting. Underneath the deposits were hints and suggestions of some sort of letters or glyphs.

Whoa, this is so Indiana Jones!

I had to agree. I dropped my Sight to better see the writing, but it
wasn't anything familiar.

“Oh!” said Jen beside me. It was a simple sound, but filled the silence with wonder.

I waded up to the structure, once again breaking the silence of the cavern with the wooshing splash of our steps. I stopped outside the arched stone doorway, momentarily held back by a forlorn little voice of caution. Inside there was some sort of stone block or altar. The blue lights swirled around it in the restless but unified action of a school of fish around a reef, illuminating the layer of flow-stone which coated and softened the lines of the rectangular block.

I stepped through the arched stone doorway. Jen was right there with me. The white tops of domed rocks and petrified branches poked from the water around the base of the larger block, but what commanded my attention lay on top of the altar. My heart jumped when I recognized it.

The flickering light revealed a human body upon the stone. I stepped closer, trying to see through the restless play of light and shadow. It was a statue, a statue of a slender woman. The detail of the carving was incredible. The pulsing song came from here.

As I closed the last few feet to the central altar, the footing grew irregular and treacherous. The shadows' movement became faster and more agitated.

Jen released a wordless shout of surprise from behind me.

When I looked, she was pointing at my feet. “Finn, those aren't rocks.”

My downward glance was met by the vacant and forelorn stare of a skull.

“Ah!” I jumped back and nearly tripped.

All the sticks, rocks and branches below me snapped into a new reality. They were human skeletons. Skulls, ribcages, hip bones and various limb bones filled the water. All were covered by a layer of flowing rock which distorted, but didn't hide their essential nature.

“Holy crap!” I exclaimed.

“Finn, I don't think we should get any closer,” Jen said.

White girl speaks wisdom, Kemosabe.

Yeah, I suppose.

“What’s going on?” Dave’s voice floated to us through the entrance from the shore.

“We’ve found Sleeping Beauty,” I called back.

“Ha ha.”

“And the bodies of all the knights that tried to rescue her!” added Jen.

“Damn, that water’s cold!” cried Dave.

I tore my eyes off the sight in front of me and looked back at Dave. He stood stark naked with his tattered blanket in his hands.

“What the heck, Dave? You look like an ice cube! Put the towel back on!”

He lifted said towel. “Can’t. It’s holding Bear. I couldn’t leave him behind and I couldn’t stand having him closer than this!” He looked down at his sneakers. “That water is damned cold and my nards are frozen.”

“Dave, I can see you shivering from here,” said Jen beside me. “Go back and we’ll let you know what we find.”

We both dismissed Dave and his cursing and turned our attention back to Sleeping Beauty.

I moved toward the altar, stepping carefully around the bones at my feet, and stopped about three feet away. From here I could see more detail. The flow-stone had distorted the features of the statue of the woman, but I could tell she had been lovely. Looking down her long form, I noticed an odd black fissure above her modest chest. I leaned forward to get a better look.

“Careful, Finn, don’t touch it!”

I eyed the pile of bones at my feet. “I’m not that dense, Jen.”

“Just being sure. You look pretty lost there.”

I dismissed her from my thoughts and struggled to make out what I was seeing. I pulled up my phone and turned it on again. The bright light illuminated everything in stark relief.

The statue's form was distorted. It seemed elongated and its proportions were subtly off. The statue's hands were clasped upon its chest. The black gash I’d seen resolved itself into a long irregular shape clasped in long, spidery fingers. Excitement flashed through me, to be taken up by Spring.

“Jen, its another caduceus!”

Its shape was completely different, but there was no mistaking its form and color. It seemed to be the only thing in the room not sporting a mineral coat.

Holy crap, Finn!
Take a
Look at it.

“We need to get it, Finn!” said Jen as I pulled up my Sight.

The golden radiance I'd seen before filled my mind with its power. The source was the statue. A pulsating aura blazed from it. Its sheer magnitude made it difficult to look at.