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Mendicino, Italy
The village of Mendicino lay only a few kilometers southwest of Cosenza. If not for the equipment they had to carry along, Maddock and Bones could have jogged there with no problem. Lina had taken the day off and, despite Bianca’s duplicity, had once again asked her to watch the museum, without mentioning what Bones had seen. At first blush Maddock and Bones had seen the decision as foolhardy, but after grilling her about it they soon accepted the logic. It would arouse less suspicion if Bianca continued on as usual. In order to throw Father Romano off the trail, she had told Bianca that she, Maddock, and Bones were headed north to Quattromiglia to scan the confluence of two steams—the Emoli and the Sturdo. Hopefully, Romano and his cohorts would fall for the diversion and head off in the wrong direction.
Now, the treasure hunting trio wandered through a thin patch of forest in the foothills of the Santa Lucerna Mountains. The terrain wasn’t difficult to navigate, consisting of hard packed soil with a light leaf litter covering. So far the trickiest obstacle they faced was the occasional raised tree root or errant rock. Bones casually lifted a foot over just such an obstruction and said, “Tell me again why we’re going caving?”
“Two reasons,” Maddock answered. “First, inside one of these caves is carved a rune that resembles a menorah.”
“A thinly drawn one,” Lina added.
“That brings me to the second reason. About forty years ago, a farmer came across a mass grave not far from here—twenty men, all with their heads cut off. Their bodies were dated by experts to approximately the time period of Alaric’s burial.”
Lina seemed to understand immediately. “So you think they were the men who dug Alaric’s tomb?”
Maddock nodded enthusiastically as he ducked a low-hanging branch. “I do. I also learned that, according to a few different accounts, Alaric was buried ‘along’ or ‘near’ the river, not necessarily directly underneath it.”
“But those same accounts are specific on the point that it’s near the confluence of two rivers,” Lina protested. Bones nodded as if that’s what he were about to say, but Maddock responded.
“Put yourself in Athaulf’s position. You can’t erase every single detail of the burial unless you kill every man in your army, and that’s not going to happen. So, you take additional steps to protect the truth.”
“You tell a story that’s almost true, but with some important details changed,” Bones interjected.
“Exactly,” Maddock said as they reached a small clearing in the forest where an obscure opening in a cleft of rock was barely visible. “It’s time to get to work.”
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Maddock cursed under his breath as his flashlight grew noticeably dimmer. He shrugged off his backpack and dug out a fresh set of batteries, watching while Bones continued to scan the cave walls for any clue to the fate of the treasure. Maddock swapped out the batteries and shone his light anew on the cave’s smooth and uninterrupted walls. He could see nothing significant and wouldn’t let the others know it, but he felt like a sled dog near the end of the Iditarod race. All day long they’d been crawling through caves, tunnels and caverns. A few of the tunnels were so low they had to scoot along on their bellies. The cavern they now found themselves in was one of the larger ones they’d encountered so far.
“I’m not seeing anything in here, Maddock,” Bones called out, breaking him from his exhausted stupor.
“Me neither,” Maddock returned.
“Nor I,” Lina chimed in from her position on the opposite cavern wall from Bones.
“Let’s head topside, then” Maddock said. The three of them made their way to the cavern’s exit and then followed a narrow, upward sloping chute until they came out above ground in the clearing where they had started their hunt. There were multiple passages leading underground in the area, though most of them were not easy to find. But the one they now emerged from was not the same one where they had started out. The clearing was the same, but not the cave entrance. As the sun began to set, the trio looked around the clearing some more, checking for passages underground they might have missed. After a few minutes, Lina stopped walking and put her hands on her hips.
“Maybe we should call it a day?”
Maddock looked around while nodding slowly. “Sounds good. I think...” He broke off in mid-sentence as his gaze lingered on something. He focused on it for a few seconds, recognizing it as a narrow, partially concealed fissure.
“What is it?” Lina asked, following his gaze but not seeing anything noteworthy.
“On second thought,” Maddock said,” maybe we should give it one more try.”
Lina’s expression betrayed her disappointment. She held up her banged up elbows and pointed to her ripped jeans through which bruised knees were visible. “I’m not going to lie. I’m getting pretty tired of abusing my body to no end.”
“She’s right,” Bones said. “I can think of much more rewarding ways to abuse one’s body than that.”
She cursed him in Italian and Bones grinned in response. “Relax. Why don’t you take a break? I’ll check out that opening real quick and see if it’s even worth descending into.”
Lina agreed to that and she and Maddock remained where they were while Bones jogged over to the newly sighted fissure. He disappeared behind a clump of foliage but a few minutes later they heard him call out. “You two owe me a beer. This looks good!”