The Hunt for Excalibur

34 Excalibur

Nina was astounded. She had seen Brian walk away from certain death at the end of the lightning bolt, but all the while, she could only ever believe that it was a stroke of unbelievable luck and not the doing of a magical leather sheath. Now she had to reassess her beliefs. Three rounds clipped her torso. Not only did she not feel a thing, but she did not bleed. Her body simply rejected the lead as if her skin was too shallow to let them in.

Sam had his arm around her shoulder, walking her out to the helicopter.

Purdue looked slightly frustrated. “No rental cars.”

“So what? If we cannot get wheels, we have wings,” Sam winked.

Purdue gave Nina a long hug. “I am delighted that you made it out, my dear. God, I missed you.” He smiled as his hands cradled her buttocks and she growled in his neck in mock protest. “Looks like the scabbard is really somehow magical,” he told her.

“Aye, it is crazy,” she agreed.

“I cannot wait to get it home to examine the real reason it repels bullets and electricity,” he sighed and climbed into the helicopter.

“Oh for fuck’s sake! Can you not just once let us believe in a little magic?” she whined. Sam got into the co-pilot seat next to Purdue, still reeling from the not so accidental death at the canal. Outside, Kostas helped Nina into her seat and went around the machine to his side. While he was outside, she asked, “Why is the man who kidnapped me suddenly not trying to kill me?”

Sam shrugged, but Purdue answered, “Men like him always sides with the highest bidder… and I am always the highest bidder.”

“Ah!” Sam exclaimed along with Nina. The Greek mercenary hopped in and buckled up.

Purdue looked at his party. “Are we doing this? We can just go home if you want.”

“What about Willard?” Sam asked.

“I will deal with him myself,” Purdue asserted.

“Willard?” Nina repeated, immediately thinking of the principal at Gracewill. Purdue affirmed it with a nod. Sam recounted everything about Willard to fill her in on the way to the small village of Machrie, while they all had lunch and a flask of tea, courtesy of dear Lillian.

According to the map on Warkadur, the village was close to a triangle of burial mounds, one of which was reputed to hold the mythical Excalibur. They reckoned that, if the scabbard was real, there had to be a sword to go in it, so they decided to complete the mission anyway.

“Now, we have to remember that this map was carved during World War II,” Nina said, “so the terrain and beacons may have changed by now. These burial mounds on the scabbard coincides with what is today known as the Auchagallon Stone Circle outside Machrie.”

“So, does it say which is where?” Purdue inquired.

Nina used his tablet to research the site. “Fifteen sandstone slabs from the Bronze Age surround a burial cairn. That is the official set-up,” she reported. “But on the scabbard there are two more burial mounds further north of the site. I say we try them all.”

“Try them?” Sam chuckled. “How are we supposed to use this huge fucking key to open a lock… if it is a lock.”

While they neared the western coast, Nina found something interesting on the internet, while researching the stone circle. “No fucking way,” she gasped.

“What?” Sam asked.

“You might want to add this to your report when you get home to write about this, Sam,” she said. “News Web says that a bloody crime scene in Guernsey, Channel Islands, was ‘perplexing’… that would be the one we escaped from,” she told the group. “This is interesting. It says here the bodies of Bernard Somerset, antique dealer from Glasgow, Major Johannes Rian, former military commander in the Bundeswehr and one Rudolf Shenker was found in an abandoned abbey.” She looked up at them. “Rian’s cause of death was poisoning with ricin, would you believe?”

“Someone must have poisoned him before you chucked him down the stairs,” Sam said, amused.

“I hope it was Bernard who did it,” she muttered.

“And good to know my rival is doing well after that hellish experience,” Sam smiled, referring to Brian. “Adore that little fucker.”

Nina smiled. “He is going to grow up quickly, that boy. Smart and unbelievably brave. If I have ever seen chivalry, he had it down. Such a pity their house burned down. The police in Guernsey notified them about Court’s death, but only that he died in a house fire. So sad.”

“Remind me to tell them when I see them again. Court did it all to better their lives. He was only a thief for one night, he said, and I am going to put that in my expose,” Sam declared.

“I think I am going to buy a little house in Guernsey soon,” Purdue smiled.

“Really?” Nina asked.

“I think so,” he replied. “If they wished they could stay there, I cannot see why not. After all, with a scholarship and college covered in full, young Brian should really live in a town where he can manage all those studies.”

Nina looked at the generous billionaire with wonder. “Talk about chivalry,” she smiled.

The helicopter touched down in Machrie in the late afternoon. It was very cold, so there were no people about.

“My God, what a stunning panorama!” Sam gasped as they reached the fenced in cairn and its ancient slabs. From the mound, an endless expanse of dark blue and grey sea suckled at the edge of the deep green slopes. Like a leviathan mirror, the water breathed its waves ever so slightly against the land, while the deep grey clouds hovered heavily overhead like a bride’s veil.

Kostas was carrying the shield, walking with Nina as she took pictures of the beautiful landscape. Purdue was examining the tall stones. “Of the fifteen stones, there are thirteen of red sandstone. Look! Only two of them are of grey granite. Peculiar, is it not?”

“A gate?” Kostas guessed. Purdue smiled at him and said, “That is what I was thinking.”

He used his tablet to survey the terrain to locate other rocks or mounds containing granite, basically just feeding a hunch. The LED screen displayed the result. “You are almost right, Kostas. Through those two stones there is an underground rift of granite that leads to two other mounds that are not documented anywhere.

“Let us go and visit them,” Nina smiled. Kostas seemed to have a hard time moving with the shield in his arms. She raised her eyebrow and scoffed. “What is wrong with you?”

“My boots,” he replied, looking properly flabbergasted. “They are pulling up my feet.”

Purdue was following the invisible route that led to the two mounds a few meters from the cairn. He listened to Kostas, but kept his eye on the screen. Nina found it all hilarious. Laughing, she shook her head. “Pulling up your feet?” she giggled, but when she touched the shield, her forearm slammed hard against the silver with a mighty clang. She could not pull her hand free without the Greek’s help. “See?” he said, prying her bracelet free.

“Kostas, are you wearing steel tip shoes?” Purdue asked.

“Yes, why?” Kostas responded, and then his face lit up. “A magnetic metal!”

Purdue was excited beyond words. He motioned for Kostas to bring the shield to the left side mound. “Wait!” Sam exclaimed. “I have to get footage of this.”

“That’s right, Mr. Investigative Journalist,” Nina said. “Whip it out!”

Sam slung down his bag and pulled out his big Canon high definition camera. Purdue walked up the mound with the shield and held it up like a mirror, circling the crown of the unknown cairn. Sam filmed from a few meters back, just in case they found something. Above them, the thunder began to rumble. Nina felt secure about lightning since she was wearing the scabbard, but she was worried about the shield’s potency for drawing a bolt. “Be careful, Purdue! I do not trust the weather.”

Nothing happened. Purdue shrugged. “Wrong key!” he said.

“Wrong lock, maybe,” Kostas mumbled, cowering from the angry skies.

“You are right!” Purdue grinned. “Let me try the other one.”

Sam moved to the other side and kept filming while Nina guided his way by pulling at his shirt. They both watched Purdue angle the shield over the small rock that marked the Bronze Age burial mound and waited. Eventually Purdue got bored, but he inched side to side to cover all angles. A deafening crack of thunder shook the ground, giving them all a heart-stopping start. Nina cried out from the sudden scare, but she stood her ground. The sky lit up like a flash from a camera and a split second after, the shield received a buzz of electricity from it.

“Aow!” Purdue yelled in pain as the electrical current snapped at his hands.

“Hold it! Don’t drop it!” Sam shouted. The charged shield hummed from the current it held. Next to the marker rock, the ground began to well up through the grass. Spellbound, they all watched as Purdue maneuvered the magnetic shield lower to the ground. The lower he brought it, the stronger the effect.

“Oh my God, I wish Brian was here to see this!” Nina exclaimed excitedly. In Sam’s camera frame the tall, white haired explorer towered over the rock on the mound, manipulating an intensely charged battle shield. From the surging earth that broke up through the surface, a dirt-laden relic came into sight. First to surface was a black hilt of enormous size, aptly accompanied by the clap of thunder over the Isle of Arran. Purdue’s mouth was agape at what was happening. The electrical surge washed through him, making his entire body tingle and forcing the mighty sword out of the stone, so to speak.

“I cannae believe this,” Sam smiled. “Holy shit! It is Excalibur!”

Nina could not contain her emotion. She wept with joy and awe. Kostas was on his knees, speechless and ecstatic at the event he was privileged to be part of. When the sword protruded halfway out of the rock, Purdue laid the shield down and pulled it from the mound.

The monumental experience had them all emotional, but the weather was becoming too dangerous. Flying would be perilous at the time, so they elected to find a bar to kill the time in. Made of iron and magnetite, just like the shield, Excalibur was magnificent. Far from the shiny, perfect prop used in countless films, it denoted true battle efficiency in its worn metal. There was no denying that it was a formidable weapon made with impeccable artistry. Its steel sang softly as Purdue swayed it while they walked.

“Mind if I slip my sword into your sheath?” he teased Nina, aiming the huge sword for the scabbard on her hip. Her look of warning had the men laughing. She took a deep breath and thought about the man who pulled the sword from the stone. He was a king, he had a castle, complete with his own Round Table, after all.

She winked at Purdue and said, “Well, maybe just this once.”