Where could they have gone? Maddock looked around, but there was no one in sight.
“Maddock?” A voice called from the woods. “Bones? Thank God.” Avery appeared from the shadows and hurled herself into Bones’ arms.
Maddock raised an eyebrow and Bones shrugged.
“What happened?” Maddock asked.
“Angel’s been arrested. I went over to the shore to look for you and, when I came back, they were putting her in their patrol car. I feel like I should have tried to stop them, but what could I do?”
“Nothing,” Bones reassured her. “They would have taken you in too.” He looked over the top of Avery’s head and scowled. “Let’s go get her. Meade and his crew have pushed this too far. They can’t just take my sister in on some bogus charge.”
“I know,” Maddock said. “First, we need to get out of here in case they come back. Then we’ll figure out the best way to handle this.”
Avery handed him her spare set of keys and, only then, did she notice the casket they’d recovered from the island. She looked at him in surprise and excitement.
“It’s sealed shut. We’ll take a look at it when we’re somewhere safe. Bones, you ride in the back and keep the casket with you. If we get stopped, you might have to slip away.”
“No problem,” he said.
Maddock took them on a route that led up the coast, away from town and, he hoped, the sheriff’s patrols. As he drove, he fought to suppress the rage that boiled inside of him. Right now, all was forgotten except the thought of Angel locked in a jail cell. He wanted to go in, guns blazing, and rescue her. He had a vague picture in his head of carrying her out through the front doors, action hero style, and laughed inside at the image. Where had this sudden hero complex come from?
As rational thought took hold, he considered their options. He and Bones were on the sheriff’s radar, and likely wouldn’t get anywhere if they showed up at the jail. Besides, they were in a foreign country. What she needed right now was bail money, a good attorney, or both.
“We need to call Charlie,” he finally said. “He’s got money and connections we don’t have. If we show up there, we might get arrested too.”
Bones considered that for several seconds before acquiescing. “Yeah, Charlie’s the man for the job. He can take care of getting her out while we follow up on this.” He tapped the casket.
“The mystery’s solved,” Maddock said. “That casket was the only thing on the island. Once it’s opened, that’s it.”
“Hardly,” Avery said. “There were three chests. Three treasures. I don’t think Dad planned on quitting after only one. He’d follow it all the way to the end.”
“You know how it goes with us, Maddock.” Bones leaned forward and rested his chin on the back of Avery’s seat. “The first thing we find is never it. There’s always more.”
“Yeah, I know.” Maddock chuckled. “You can’t blame a guy for wishing for a quiet life.”
“I’m not even going to comment.” Bones sat quietly for a minute, then suddenly burst out laughing.
“What’s so funny?” Avery asked.
“Angel’s going to be pissed when she finds out we started without her. She’s been dying to go on another of our little adventures.”
“Do you do this sort of thing often?” Avery looked from Bones to Maddock, who grinned ruefully.
“You have no idea.”
They contacted Charlie, who assured them he would take care of Angel, as well as send a couple of his men to the cottage to collect everyone’s remaining belongings. They didn’t provide him with any details of what they had discovered beneath Oak Island, but assured him the search was over and encouraged him to pack up his crew and return to the States as soon as possible. By the time they rendezvoused with Corey and Willis, who met them aboard Sea Foam, they had filled Avery in on all the details of the hidden Templar church. She was fascinated and couldn’t wait to see the pictures they’d taken, but was even more eager to see what was hidden in the casket.
While Willis piloted the boat toward international waters, Maddock, Bones, Corey, and Avery gathered belowdecks. Using small chisels, Maddock worked at the seal until he freed the lid. He paused and took a long look at the others. This was the moment he relished- the edge of revelation.
“Stop titillating us and open it already,” Corey said.
“Dude, you said tit.” Bones elbowed Corey, who winced and rubbed his arm.
“Are they always like this?” Avery cast an annoyed glance at Bones and Corey.
“What did I do?” Corey complained.
“Never mind,” Maddock said. “Masks on and we’ll do this.” When they had all donned surgical masks, Maddock took hold of the lid and lifted it free.
The inside was stuffed with a tangle of stringy brown material.
“Coconut fiber,” Avery said. “It was used for packing material. They even found some in the Money Pit.”
Maddock reached a gloved hand inside and pushed the fiber aside to reveal a dagger with a dark, mottled blade and a gleaming white handle. He looked up to see Avery holding the casket lid in trembling hands, and Bones and Corey looking over her shoulder.
“Carnwennan.” She turned the lid so Maddock could see the Latin word carved on the inside. The word was unfamiliar, but the look in her eyes told him it was significant.
“And what is that?” he asked.
“King Arthur’s dagger.” She leaned in for a closer look. “He had three legendary weapons: Caliburn, which we know as Excalibur, Rhongomnyiad, his spear, and Carnwennan, his dagger.”
“Wait, so we’ve just found proof that...” Bones began.
“King Arthur was an actual, historical figure?” Maddock finished. His mind was numb with shock. He’d expected to find treasure beneath Oak Island, but not this.
“It was one of the legends associated with Oak Island, but probably the most far-fetched one of them all.” Avery’s voice trembled.
“But why would somebody try to kill us for it?” Bones asked. “I mean, it’s a huge discovery, but there’s got to be more.”
Maddock withdrew the dagger and held it up to the light. The blade was made of a substance unfamiliar to him. It was mottled gray, its surface covered in a hexagonal grid of alternating light and dark metals. The blade was honed to razor sharpness, and the butt was translucent, almost black, like obsidian.
As he gazed at it, the handle began to pulse with a dull, bluish-white glow that gained strength with every beat.
“What is it doing?” Avery took a step back as if it were a venomous snake.
Maddock didn’t reply, but removed his hand from the hilt and, carefully holding the knife by the blade, held it up to the light. The pulses came faster, the light more intense until it shone so bright that Maddock had to avert his eyes, and a low hum filled the room.
And then it stopped.
The hilt no longer shone, but it glowed a brighter white than before. Pinpoints of light like tiny galaxies sparkled deep in the handle and butt, and threads of blue flickered around the hexagonal patterns on the blade.
“It’s like it absorbed energy from the light,” Avery said. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“We have.” Bones grimaced.
Maddock examined the dagger closely, carefully running his finger along its length. There was something odd about the way the butt was made. It was concave on the bottom and flattened out so that it did not quite conform to the dimensions of the hilt. Frowning, he pressed his thumb into the recess. Nothing. Then he gave it a twist.
The dagger vibrated and his vision swam for a split second.
“What the hell?” Bones said.
“Maddock! Where did you go?” Avery sounded panicked.
“I’m standing right here.”
“No way.” Bones reached out awkwardly, as if he were playing Blind Man’s Bluff, and grabbed Maddock by the forearm. “He really is here,” he marveled.
“But... how?” She gaped at a spot a few inches to Maddock’s left.
“What are you two talking about?” Maddock looked back and forth between the two of them. If it were only Bones, he’d figure it was a lame joke, but Avery appeared rattled.
“Dude, you’re invisible.” Bones’ matter of fact tone was void of humor. “One second you were there and then you were gone.”
“It must be the dagger.” He explained what he had done, and what he had seen and felt.
“The stories are true,” Avery whispered. “Legend says Carnwennan had the power to cloak its owner in shadow. It really does make you invisible.”
Maddock turned the butt back and, once again, the room swam for an instant.
“He’s back!” Bones said. “Here, let me see that.”
Maddock handed him the dagger and, a moment later, Bones vanished.
“I don’t feel anything,” Bones’ voice said from nowhere. “Am I really invisible?”
“Yes, but we still recognize your foul stench,” Maddock deadpanned.
“Star Wars quotes are my job,” Bones said.
Maddock stared at the spot where he heard Bones’ voice. He thought about what Avery had said. Carnwennan cloaked its bearer in shadow. He wondered...
“Bones, do me a favor and move side to side a little.”
“You mean like line dancing? You know I hate anything redneckish.”
“Just do it.”
“Fine, I’ll do the Casper Slide. Ready? To the left!” Bones began chanting lyrics and, presumably, dancing.
Maddock followed the sound and, sure enough, he saw movement.
“Avery, Corey, can you see it?” He drew them to his side and pointed. “If you really focus, you can tell a difference between the space where Bones is and the wall behind it.”
Avery narrowed her eyes and, a few seconds later, smiled.
“It’s like an imperfect piece of glass. You can see through it, but something’s just a little bit off.”
Bones stopped chanting and, an instant later, reappeared.
“I don’t think a woman’s ever called me imperfect and a little bit off in one breath.”
“No one’s ever made the mistake of thinking you were only a little bit off.” Maddock relieved his friend of the dagger and held it out so everyone could see it. “Look at the pattern on the blade and think about what this dagger does.”
“It’s a cloaking device!” Bones said, following Maddock’s line of thought almost immediately. “This isn’t some magic weapon. It’s seriously advanced technology.”
“Scientist are in the early stages of developing technology that bends light rays, making a particular spot invisible,” Maddock said, noticing Avery’s confused expression. “Nobody’s achieved anything like this, though.”
“But this has clearly been down there for centuries. And if it’s really Carnwennan, how did they get their hands on such technology?”
“I don’t know,” Maddock said, though he was turning over a myriad of ideas in his mind. “But now we know why someone would kill in order to get their hands on it.”