Pt.26Arkady pulled his rented car to a stop a short walk from the church, behind a row of deserted houses. The mercenaries he had hired were already piling out into the early morning air, gathering their equipment for the job ahead. There wasn't much gear, only a few knapsacks, one containing explosives and others with various weapons. The man with the dead eyes, whose name he had learned was Ayers, quietly pulled his backpack from the car's trunk, ignoring his acquaintances busy murmuring. He pulled his favorite gun and knife combination from the depths of the sack and strapped them on to his body then tucked another knife into his boot. Pulling a pair of very dark sunglasses out of his pocket, he surveyed the area unemotionally. "You coming with us?" Ayers asked, already knowing the answer. Generals never went into battle with grunts and rich men didn't dirty their hands when they could hire someone to do it for them."I think you can handle it." Arkady replied, not seeing the look which passed over the mercenary's face. "Just get it done quick and quiet and bring me what you find." "Right. O'Hara, Mitchell, let's get going." Ayers turned to his team then stopped and squinted into the sunlight. A shadow seemed to dance swiftly down the wall of one broken down hut and disappear into the darkness. "Wait. Did either of you see that?" "See what?" O'Hara, the demolitions expert replied, his voice a little slurred from the pills he had popped a few hours before. He set his case of detonators down beside the car and squinted back in the direction the other man was looking. "Thought I saw something over there, by those ruins." The shadow he had seen returned suddenly, becoming more defined in shape, then disappeared again. "There, see that! Someone's watching us." Ayers pulled his Ruger from his belt and motioned his associates to flank the figure, making sure to keep it squarely in his sights. O'Hara went left, moving towards the remnants of a side window. Mitchell went right, angling towards a side door. Arkady squinted into the rising daylight, struggling to see what had excited the soldiers. "There's no one there!" he exclaimed, exasperated. "You're wasting time!" "Better to waste time now then get wasted by an ambush later." Ayers called back, stepping quickly and quietly towards the broken down house. He and the others soon disappeared from view. Arkady watched the men enter the abandoned house with undisguised contempt. "Great! They'll corner a cat while the Legacy finds the Grail. I knew I shouldn't have left personnel decisions to someone else." His expression grew even more sour as the sun continued it's slow rise in the sky, with no sign of the mercenaries returning from their search. It was almost fifteen minutes before all three men returned as quietly as they had left. "Well? Find anything?" he asked sarcastically. "Animal tracks and garbage but nothing else." Mitchell responded, hefting some of the heavy equipment onto his shoulder. "Didn't even see that much." O'Hara said, making sure his C-4 and detonators were carefully packed before he lifted them onto his back. "There was something there." Ayers insisted. "Probably a kid on his way to school or work or what ever it is kids do around here. Let's just finish this gig. I've got a bad feeling about it already." He started down the road towards the church, his fellow soldiers in step behind him. Arkady watched them disappear into the early morning fog, then returned to his car and started for town. None heard the screaming voice which came from the depths of the dilapidated houses, or the soft, feminine laugh which followed. -- Nick leaned on his shovel, a little winded. "I know they wanted to hide the entrance to this cave, but did they have to pile every available rock in the county on it?" Philip grinned back at his friend, dirt smudging his handsome face. "Wouldn't do to make it too easy for us, would it now?" He straightened and stretched, easing his tired muscles before bending back to his work. "Nothing is ever easy with the Legacy." Nick grumbled, wearily continuing to work. He, Philip, Alex and Derek had been at this for what seemed like hours, painstakingly moving large rocks from atop the gravesite to discover even more rocks beneath the first layer. Or at least, he and Philip had moved rocks. Alex and Derek had quickly become fascinated with marking they found on several of the larger stones and had set up a space beside a tree to examine them, leaving the two young men to do most of the physical labor alone. Nick had begun to believe that they were digging up the wrong grave when suddenly his shovel disappeared into a hole at his feet. "What?! Derek, I think I've found it!" Derek looked up from a stone from the gravesite he had been examining. "What have you found?" he asked, moving to stand beside the grave site. "Looks like an entrance to a small cave." Nick commented, carefully using Philip's shovel to dig around the open area he had uncovered. It was soon apparent that they had found the entrance to a small chamber built under the tomb. He eased himself carefully into the hole, flashlight in hand. "There's some kind of door here." He called back, excitement in his voice. "Careful, Nick." Philip called out. "The Knights might have set traps around the door to keep intruders out." "Great, now I'm Indiana Jones." Nick muttered, carefully playing the light around the door. There seemed to be no traps that he could see, and no latch or handle to open the door. "Derek, this thing looks more like a seal than a door." "I'm coming in." Derek replied, carefully lowering himself into the small space. He shone his flashlight on the artifact in front of him and examined it closely. "You may be right, Nick. Look at the engraving on the metal. The same strange figures as we found on some of the stones you removed from the grave. They have also been found in other sites related to the Templars. This may be a seal meant to close up the entrance to something - a cave or storage area. We'll have to dig it out." "Yeah, you mean Philip and I will." Nick commented, gently prying at the edges of the seal. "Alex, send down that pickax. I think I might be able to pry it lose. Also, toss down that knapsack of mine. I've got some other things in there I'm going to probably want to use once this thing comes down." He motioned his precept to move back and give him room to work. "Right." Alex replied, handing Philip the requested implements. She glanced across the field to the small church where Padre Saenz and Jesus were watching. She frowned slightly. "Say, where did Jesus and the Padre disappear to?" "What did you say?" Philip asked, looking up at her from the edge of the pit. "Oh, never mind. They're probably just inside." She shrugged and focused her attention back on the hole in front of her, ignoring her sudden uneasiness. -- Ayers looked down at the two helpless old men, checking to make sure their bonds were secure. They had been quickly overwhelmed by the younger and stronger men, putting up only a token resistance. There had been no talk of killing the two, even though they had seen the men's faces. Ayers knew that the death of the village priest would bring out not only the local authorities but probably any military in the area, something he knew his new employer would not appreciate. He watched expressionlessly as the group across the field worked at something. "Looks like they may have found the entrance to that cave Arkady told us about." He commented, lighting a cigarette. "So, why don't we go in and take them out now?" Mitchell asked, looking up from his post at the door. "Our orders are to wait until they collect this "item" the boss wants then kill them when they are on their way back out. That's where you come in, O'Hara. You'll set your charges so that we can collapse this cave in over their bodies with the minimum of fuss. Then we collect our fees and catch the first plane out." "Works for me." O'Hara replied, hefting his revolver nervously. He risked a glance out of the doorway. "Looks like they're going in." Ayers stubbed out his cigarette with a sigh. "Time to rock and roll." -- "It's moving!" Nick called out, rocking the stone seal back and forth until it fell forward into the small alcove. It had taken over an hour to dig around the seal, carefully chipping away at old roots and rocks to loosen the large object. He peered anxiously into the darkness behind it, shining his flashlight into the gloom. "Man, it looks like there a major set of catacombs behind this thing. Air's pretty stale, but I think we can survive it if we don't waste a whole lot of time." He stepped forward gingerly and ducked under the low handing ceiling, crawling forward a few feet till he could stand upright. He panned the light in front of him, bouncing the light off the rocks. "This thing must go on for miles under the countryside!" "Look on the walls beside you." Derek said, moving to climb over the fallen door. "There may be more marks like the one on the seal to show us our way." "Yeah, here they are, about eye level. Looks like we go this way." Nick commented gesturing straight ahead. He motioned Derek to proceed him. Derek reached out tentatively to touch one of the symbols, unsure of what was driving him. As he brushed his fingers along the damp stone, the images flooded his mind, images of two men, one elderly and one much younger, digging in the caves, fear pouring from them like sweat. The older man stopped and using a small crock of paint, began to make the marks on the walls, some to lead to the heart of the labyrinth, some to lead away. And in the background, above all the other images, was a voice which whispered over and over "Chevalier, this is the way." He pulled his hand away quickly, breaking his contact with the stone and the visions then turned to look back at his team, who watched him soberly. "No. We go to the right. Straight ahead is a dead end." Nick was the first to respond. "Whatever you say, boss. Derek, you take point, then Alex and Philip. I'll bring up the rear. Just in case Arkady decides to pull any surprises out of his hat." He gripped his precept's shoulder briefly, trying to gauge his condition. Derek nodded distractedly and turned back to look down the corridor. "That's a cheerful thought." Philip commented, helping Alex over the fallen stone seal. "Better safe than dead." Nick replied, reaching back into the alcove for one of the bags Alex had dropped in to him. From its depth he pulled out a Glock semi-automatic. "Where did that come from?" Alex asked, frowning. "I thought you told me last night that you lost your gun to the local cops in the town plaza." "I did." Nick explained, popping a clip into the gun. "But that was the Browning. This is a Glock, a present from a friend of mine I was in service with. It's a backup." "You won't need a gun." Alex continued patiently. "The Grail shouldn't hurt us, and any supernatural guardians it might have won't be affected by that." "This may not work on ghost and demons but it'll work just fine on Arkady or anyone he decides to send down here." Nick replied, tossing a bag of extra flashlights and ammo at her. They started down the darkened corridor, their footsteps echoing eerily in the darkness. Pt.27The group walked for what seemed hours, using their flashlights and lanterns to light their way. The air was stale and dusty, yet breathable. The caverns themselves were incredibly elaborate, branching off at times into several different routes and different directions. Each time, Derek knew instinctively which route to take. It was as though the proper symbols called to him in a voice only he could hear, a voice that called him to something or someone who was waiting. His lantern was always pointed at odd angles as though he did not need its uncertain light to show him the way. He moved ahead of the group with assurance, avoiding low hanging rocks and tree roots that seemed determined to snare the other searchers. Alex watched with concern as her precept as he moved hurriedly through the rough corridors. "Philip, Derek's acting almost as though he's been in these tunnels before." She commented, whispering to the young priest at her side. She stumbled on yet another unseen rock formation and muttered something rude under her breath. Philip had also been watching his old friend with concern. "Perhaps it is the Grail which is calling to him?" he commented, reaching out to steady Alex as she stumbled. "Maybe, but what if it's those two mysterious people who have been goading us into this search from the first? What if they want Derek to find the Grail for reasons of their own?" "If they want it, why don't they just come down here and get it?" Nick whispered, stopping briefly to look behind them. The others were making too much noise for his taste, making them too easy to track. "Maybe they can't." Alex replied practically. She stopped as well to look back at her friend. "They are long lived, and most likely quite powerful. Why wouldn't they be able to take the Grail if they wanted to?" Philip said, stopping as well. Derek turned angrily and shone his light on his errant crew. "What are you three waiting for? It's only a little further." He gestured behind him then abruptly plunged into the darkness, dropping his lantern with a clang. "Derek!" Alex exclaimed, darting in his direction. She skidded to a stop suddenly. "Alex, what's wrong?" Nick asked, running up to her side. He found himself facing two tunnels, either of which his angry precept could have taken. "Which one do we pick?" "There are signs on both sets of walls." Philip commented, shinning his light on the stone face. "But without Derek to tell which set is real and which set is false, we could find ourselves wandering underground for days." "Nick, Alex, Philip! This way!" Derek's voice echoed eerily through the tunnel on the left. "It's here!" "Looks like he found it." Nick commented, motioning the other two to proceed him into the tunnel. The trio moved as quickly as they could through the narrow corridor till they could see a light in front of them, emanating from a small room at the end of the tunnel. Their precept was standing in the doorway, staring into its interior. "Derek?" Alex asked hesitantly, reaching his side first. She glanced into the room and gasped. There, in a small niche in the wall, was a small metal goblet, much like the chalice she had seen used in church services. A golden light poured from the cup, filling the room with its color and warmth. "Is that …the Grail? I never imagined it would be so ….golden!" "Golden?" Philip said, surprised. "No, its a stone bowl!" To his eyes, the object in the niche was not metal and not golden but roughly made of stone, the simple implement of a carpenter. "Stone? Sorry, Philip, I've got to go with Alex. That looks like a golden cup to me." Nick replied, moving past his friend to examine the room. "Each of us sees the Grail as we expect to see it." Derek replied, moving slowly towards the alcove. "Alex, you said you never imagined it as a golden cup, but when you read the stories of the Knights of the Round Table searching for this, a golden cup is probably exactly how you imagined it. Nick, the same is probably true for you. Philip, you would have seen it as a simple stone cup because that is what you believe that Christ would have used." "What do you see?" Philip asked, seeing the entranced look on his precept's face. "Light. I see …Light." Derek moved to within arms reach of the cup and stopped, overwhelmed with emotion. In his mind, the voice which had led him to this spot was speaking louder than ever. <Reach out to it.> the voice said urgently. <Reach out and take it from its spot. The time is now.> He slowly stretched out his hand to the source of the light. "That's far enough." A rough voice from the doorway ordered. Pt.28From behind them three figures emerged from the gloom, each carrying automatics. Nick whirled around, reaching for his weapon. He stopped short at the sight of one of the men pointing his gun at Alex's head. "Let me guess, you're Arkady's goons." "Bright boy." One man sneered, keeping his gun trained on Nick. "Give it up soldier." Nick tossed his revolver at the man in disgust. "I knew we were being set up. Should have followed my instincts." One of the armed men stepped forward "So, where's the treasure?" "What treasure?" Philip asked, moving to stand beside Alex. "Don't play dumb." Replied one of the men, moving his flashlight slowly around the confines of the small grotto. "O'Hara, start setting up your little toys." "Yeah, right Ayers." the younger man replied, gingerly dropping his pack on the ground. "Hey Mitchell, what's that on the far wall?" "Just a brass cup." The larger mercenary replied, sliding quietly around the group. He glanced at the cup sitting in its niche then focused his attention on the prisoners. "Ayers, there's nothing here that would be worth taking back. What now?" Nick watched angrily as Arkady's hired thug started to remove small devices from his knapsack. It took only a few moments for him to recognize the types of items the mercenary was assembling. "You're going to blow the place, aren't you?" He asked the mercenaries leader. "Does it matter?" Ayers replied, gesturing with his gun for Nick to join Philip and Alex. "Tell us where this treasure Arkady wants retrieved is and we'll all walk out of here together." Alex and Philip glanced at each other in puzzlement. It was as though none of the mercenaries was seeing the Grail for what it was. The holy symbol appeared to be nothing more to them than a brass cup, not the most treasured of religious icons. "Derek?" Alex whispered, trying to break through her precept's intense concentration. Her friend ignored her, seemingly unaware of the events that were transpiring behind him. Derek looked at the cup, seeing the radiance that flowed from it. It was as though the chalice was alive with power, alive with the force of its own light. The voice which had called to him seemed louder now than ever before. "Reach out and take it." it demanded, spurring him to movement. He slowly approached the niche and raised the cup from its hiding place, staring down at it with spell-bound eyes. "What the hell is he doing?" asked O'Hara, pausing from his work with the explosives. "Maybe it's that cup we're suppose to bring back." Mitchell replied calmly, his eyes never leaving Derek's still form. "Toss me a sack." "It can't be just that old brass cup." O'Hara said angrily. "You can get a dozen of those in the markets for twenty bucks. Arkady said they were after a treasure." "One man's trash is another man's treasure." Ayers commented pensively. "Mitchell, put the cup in the sack and let's move. Our employer isn't the most patient of men." "Right." Mitchell agreed, tossing the sack to Derek. Derek looked at the bag in his hand and at the man who had given it to him. His eyes turned cold and for a moment the Legacy group could see the spirit of the Templar Knight looking out of their precept's eyes. "No. You can not have this. Its power can not be taken by evil." "Fine time for him to wake up." Nick muttered, assessing his chances of overpowering the mercenary closest to him. O'Hara stared back at him darkly, each recognizing the hunter in the other. "Give it up and no one gets hurt." Ayers spoke in a calm, almost friendly fashion, belying the cold look in his eyes. "Derek, it's all right. Give him the cup." Alex pleaded, her concern for her mentor's life overpowering her horror at their situation. "Never." Derek replied coldly. "Your choice." Ayers stepped forward and aimed his revolver at Alex's face. "No, wait!" Philip exclaimed, moving to his old friends side. He gently pried the bag from Derek's fingers and pulled it over the cup, still clutched in the other man's hand. "Derek, we have no choice. God will understand." "Will he?" Derek replied, suddenly weary. "Will she understand? I've failed to protect it again. I failed my lady. Darkness has triumphed. How can God or my good Lady ever forgive that?" He reluctantly let the young priest take the chalice from his hand and hand it to the larger mercenary, who gravely tucked the bag's extra fold around the cup. "Let's get this over with." O'Hara rapped out, setting the last of his charges. "Yes, it is time for this to end." Ayers agreed. He turned and motioned to Mitchell and O'Hara to precede him. The Legacy group tensed, prepared for the hail of bullets that would shortly end their lives. Only Derek seemed unconcerned, numbed by the loss of the Grail. Suddenly a low growl emanated from the corridors behind them. Two sets of vivid blue eyes moved out of the gloom, staring hungrily at the armed mercenaries. In the blink of an eyes, Ayers and O'Hara were on the ground, wrestling with two of the largest wolves the Legacy team had ever seen. The carnivores were white, long furred. But it was not their size or obvious ferocity that stunned the Nick and the others. It was their eyes. These large canines had human eyes. Pt.29"Mitchell, help us!" O'Hara screamed, blood flowing from his arm. The wolf sitting on top ignored his preys frantic screams, shaking his jaws back and forth as he slowly crushed the mans windpipe. Ayers fumbled madly for the gun he had dropped when the second animal had knocked him over, but it was too far away. With a snap, the wolf finished off his victim, then looked up to assess the remaining humans in the room. "What in God's name…?" Philip gasped, taking a step back from the wolves. "Now is not the time." Nick replied, grabbing the young priest by the arm. "Alex, get Derek! We're out of here!" He considered briefly making an attempt to retrieve his fallen weapon but the intelligence gleaming from the wolves eyes told him that would be a very bad decision. He glanced back to see that the last of the three mercenaries had dropped his gun and was standing frozen against the far wall, too far to be off any help or to be a hindrance. "Derek, we need to go now!" Derek looked at his friend coldly. "Go? I will go nowhere until the Chalice is safe." His voice had an eerie tone to it, as though another man's words were being spoken through the Precepts mouth. "Philip has the Chalice. We've got to get out of here before those explosives bury us under the Spanish countryside." Nick gave Philip a none too gentle shove towards the tunnels, ignoring the growls from the wolves as they dragged their prey into a corner. Derek followed closely behind them, moving slowly so as not to startle the canine hunters before him. "What about him?" Alex whispered, horror in her voice. She nodded slightly towards the still figure of the remaining mercenary. "The predators have become the prey." Derek replied, grimly, reaching to take the sack containing the Chalice from the young priest. "Leave him to his fate." He stepped around the bloody trail on the floor in front of him and moved out into the darkened corridor. Nick agreed silently with his Precept's words, though he suspected that there was more to his friend's unusual behavior than he knew. He motioned Alex to move towards the door, keeping his eyes trained on the wolves. For their part, they seemed to be as interested in watching him as he was in watching them. Yet strangely they made no move to stop the group as they slowly backed out of the cave. As soon as they were out of the animals site, he and Alex ran down the corridor, catching up with Philip and Derek only a few yards from the grotto. -- Behind them in the cavern, the wolves quickly lost interest in the now cooling bodies before them, contenting themselves to lick the blood from each others fur. One wolf looked up at the figure against the wall and whined softly. "Yes, I know. We've interfered again. But frankly, I didn't think they would ever get on with it." In the gloom, the large form of the surviving mercenary seemed to shiver and change. A light again filled the room, but this time it came not from a simple cup in the wall but from the form of the young man stepping out of the gloom. Damien glanced briefly at the explosive device O'Hara had been working on just before he was attacked. "A simple little device. Just enough, I think, for what we want." He bent and completed the assembly, setting the timer for five minutes, then waved the wolves towards the door. "Off with you. Your mistress and I will be with you shortly." He waited until the wolves disappeared into the darkness of the tunnels, then flipped the final switch. As an ominous ticking sound filled the cavern, the light which had surrounded his dimmed and died, leaving behind only the dead and the promise of more death to come. -- Derek stopped in his tracks and shivered, recognizing their flight as the scene from his vision. Yet something was missing. Something… "Never send a boy to do a man's work." A voice remarked. Arkady stepped out of the gloom of one of the adjoining corridors, a gun clutched in his hand. "Well, at least this saves me from having to pay their fee." "Arkady. I'm surprised it took you so long to make your appearance." Derek replied, stepping back slightly into the shadows. "Oh, you know how it is. I like to make an entrance. Now if you'll just hand over that sack…" "Sack?" Derek replied innocently, "What sack?" "Don't play games with me, Rayne. I know you've found the Grail. Now, hand it over and maybe I'll let you leave with your lives." "I don't think she'll agree to that." Nick commented, pointing his flashlight just over Arkady's shoulder. "Oh please, you can't really expect me to fall for that old…" the sound of wolves howling in the corridor behind him stopped Arkady in his tracks. He jerked around suddenly as the sound seemed to get closer, giving Nick the edge he needed. Swiftly, the young soldier brought the heavy flashlight down on Arkady's skull, dropping the man in his tracks. "Good move." Alex breathed, relief in her tone. She looked back at her precept, who had not moved from the shadows. "Derek?" "We must go, and go now." Derek insisted, edging around his fallen enemy. "The bomb they planted will go off any minute." "I don't think they finish setting up the explosives." Nick protested, stepping over Arkady's prone body. "Baring an act of God, we should be home free…" The sound of the explosion cut off the rest of his thoughts. Pt.30"Run!" Derek commanded, shielding himself from the falling stones. All around him, the cave walls shuddered and buckled under the force of the explosion. Philip and Alex followed his command without question, running blindly down the disintegrating corridor towards what they hoped was the cave entrance."What about Arkady" Nick called out to his Precept, crouching over the unconscious form on the ground. "We can't leave him." Derek shouted, though everything in him screamed it was a fitting punishment for this servant of the Darkness. He reached out to help Nick pull the man onto his feet and drape him over Nick's shoulders in a fireman's carry. The young soldier grimaced as rocks and grit assaulted him as he tried to move quickly with the other's dead weight weighing him down. "Why did I know he was going to say that?" he groused, trying to hurry down the corridor after his friends. Derek started after his group, then stopped in confusion. The sack he had been holding, the sack which had held the most priceless of Christian artifacts was now no longer with him. Somehow, when the explosion had hit, he lost his hold on it and now it was hidden in caverns darkness. "I can't leave without it." he thought frantically, dropping to his knees to search for it. "Derek, come on! This cave's going to bury us all if you don't hurry!" Nick's voice called out of the gloom. Derek ignored his friend's voice, desperate to find the item he had traveled so far to find. As he leaned forward, the chain on which he kept Marianne's token swung forward, its weight reminding him of its presence. He reached down to clasp the arrow in his hand, his mind numb with fatigue and guilt. 'I have failed you, Lady." "No, you did what we wished you to do." A voice in his head responded. A silvery light seemed to envelope him, covering him with it's cool glow. The dust and rocks reflected the glow, dancing in its light until they came together to form an image. An image of a woman in white holding a staff. Marianne's eyes were calm and clear and on her face was a gentle smile. "We never expected you to take the Chalice to the world. Only to stop the representative of the Darkness from taking it from it's place of sanctuary. Now we will take it to a place where it will be guarded until the time it may be revealed to the world in safety." "What must happen now?" Derek asked, afraid to hear the words he knew must come. "Now you must go home and leave the rest to us." She replied, brushing an errant lock of hair from his eyes. "Will we meet again?" "Not even the Immortals know all that Fate has planned for us. But perhaps, one day, you will look across a crowded room and see a pair of familiar eyes. Who can say?" Marianne gently lifted Derek from his knees and set him back on the path. "Time to go." Derek blinked, startled. "What?" he sputtered, awakened suddenly as though from a dream. Somewhere in the back of his mind, a familiar voice sounded a farewell. Then there was nothing but the rumbling sound of the cavern as it collapsed in on itself. He turned and fled up the still opened path. -- Alex and Philip reached the cave's entrance first, scrambling up towards the surface as quickly as their tired legs could take them. "Where's Nick and Derek?" Alex exclaimed, peering back into the dark cavern they had just run from. "They were just behind us." Philip replied, coughing from the dust. "Wait, there's Nick!" Nick stumbled from the cave, dropping Arkady's body none too gently on the ground in front of him. "Derek was right behind me, then he stopped and went back." "He'll be buried alive!" Alex exclaimed, trying to dart around her partner to reenter the cave. "No Alex!" Philip grabbed her as she went by, holding her arm. "Look, there he is!" Derek stumbled out of the cave just as it's roof collapsed. He looked back at the now ruined cavern then at his team. "Is everyone all right?" "We're fine but why did you take such a risk going back?" Philip asked. "The chalice. I dropped it when the explosion first hit us. I thought I could find it but…" he looked thoughtfully at the blocked entrance to the Grail's hiding place. "Perhaps it was never meant to be found." "Then why the hell did our two "friends" go to all this trouble to make sure we found it?" Nick asked, exasperated. "Maybe to see if mankind were ready to find such a powerful item." Alex offered, looking down at the still form of Arkady. "I guess the answer was no." "What do we do about him?" Nick nudged the still form with his toe, watching for any signs of life. "Leave him. The local police will have a few questions for him when he awakens. Right now, I think we need to see if Padre Saenz and Jesus are all right." He started off across the field, his team trailing along behind him. Derek wondered briefly if he should tell them about Marianne's words to him in the cavern, then thought better of it. Her words had been for him alone, something he would carry with him until the next time his soul and hers would meet. -- EpilogueEfraim de la Vega, Precept of the Madrid House, paced his underground chamber worriedly. His conversation with Jesus had been brief but to the point. The old man and his cousin, the village priest, had suffered no lasting harm from their brush with darkness, yet Efraim had insisted that his House member take some time to rest and recuperate from his ordeal. The members of the San Francisco House were already on their way back home, having at once found and lost the prize they had come so far to find. Yet Efraim had the feeling that his former student was not so distressed at the loss of the Grail as the loss of his one point of contact with the mysterious Lady who had led him to it. "I wouldn't worry too much on that score." An amused voice sounded from the doorway. Damien stood bathed in sunlight, no mean feat as they were in an underground cavern. Behind him, Efraim could hear the sound of wolves howling in the distance. "My lady sister has a nasty habit of turning up at the most unexpected times and in the most inconvenient places." Damien tossed a well worn sack to the man with a lazy flick of his wrist. "What is this?" Efraim asked, though in his soul he knew what the answer must be. "The Grail, of course. We couldn't leave it under all that rubble. It wouldn't be respectful of the power of the new religion. Take it to the place in Portugal which has been prepared for it. The brethren there know what must be done." The light dimmed slowly as the young man walked back through the doorway. Efraim looked down at the sack in his hand then quickly found a chest to tuck it into. For a moment he considered simply locking the chalice away until he could arrange for its transport. But the call of his faith was too loud to ignore. Reverently, he placed the sack on top of the chest and slowly unpacked its contents, gazing in awe at the simple item which stood before him. There were no words to express his feelings, gazing down at this small stone cup, a tangible link to his God. He gazed at the chalice for a moment in awe and wonder then reluctantly lifted the trunks lid and gently placed the Grail, sack and all, in its depths. He locked the trunk then started up the stairs to have Miguel book him on the first plane out of the country. -- Derek sat lost in thought, the private Legacy jet winging its way back to San Francisco. The other members of the team were dozing in their seats, exhausted as much from the emotional farewell the Madrid House had shown them as the adventure itself. For his part, Derek was unsure of how he felt about leaving. On the one hand, he was saddened to know that the Grail would not be proven more than a myth. Yet at the same time, he was glad that Arkady had not been able to defile it with his evil. Still, there was something incomplete about the feel of this adventure, something that was missing. He closed his eyes and surrendered to the wave of vertigo that assaulted him as his Sight took him to another place and another scene… -- In the garden of the Luna Foundation mansion, Kat practiced diligently with the bow and arrow set she had managed to get her mother to buy for her. She carefully lined up her shot and released the arrow, taking care not to let the string hit her as it had the first few times she had tried. The slender shaft flew a few feet and buried itself in the grass with the others, none of whom had made it to the target. "I'll never get the hang of this." She thought to herself. "Sure you will." A pleasant voice replied from behind her. Kat spun around to see a familiar form walk around the corner of the house. Marianne was again dressed in her short white tunic and held her bow firmly in her hands. Behind her were two large gray wolves, each trotting a respectful distance behind her. "You just need practice. And a better bow." She took the plastic bow from the child with a frown then tossed it behind her. "I'm sure if you look behind you there will be something much better that you can use." Kat turned and gasped in delight. A small wooden bow stood propped against the target, a quiver of colorful arrows draped beside it. She ran and took up her new toy, running gentle fingers over it's well carved form. "It's beautiful!" "Take great care of your weapon child and it will take great care of you. Now come and I will show you how to use it for I have not much time here." "You're leaving?" Kat asked, sadly. "Not for long and not for forever. Just for now. But let us worry about such parting later. For now, let's see if you can learn to make this bow hum." She enveloped the child in an affectionate hug then led her back to where the wolves were waiting. Her melodious laugh was soon joined by the child's voice as a friendship was cemented and a alliance was formed. -- Derek opened his eyes slowly, a smile crossing his handsome face. His heart was lighter now, content in the realization that he and his Legacy family would continue to bask in the attention and love of his Lady Huntress. He fingered the arrow pendant around his neck as he drifted off to peaceful sleep, dreaming of a sylvan glade and a woman's laughter heard over the sound of hunting horns. |