| |
Loch Ness
The murky waters of Loch Ness seemed to close in around Maddock as he swam in the darkness. The peat particles that filled the loch limited visibility to a few feet in front of him. It reminded him uncomfortably of clouds of silt that could blind a diver inside a sunken ship or underwater cavern. He’d long been aware of the challenges inherent in diving in the loch, but experiencing it firsthand was something else entirely. Now, as he propelled himself through the murky depths, he could easily understand how a creature could go undiscovered within these waters.
He swam along, his headlamp fighting a losing battle against the darkness that enveloped them. Something shot past them, a large silvery fish, a salmon perhaps. He didn’t startle easy, but this strange place had him unnerved. Visions of the tooth he’d recovered from the U-boat kept flashing through his mind. What if the legends were true? What if they were swimming into the creature’s den?
He and Bones hugged the steep, rocky side of the loch and relied on GPS to track their movements. When they’d reached the area below Urquhart Castle, he signaled to Bones, and they began their search.
Careful to shield their lamps, they began just below the surface of the lake, and quickly worked their way down. Maddock swam back and forth, his eyes searching the shadows, looking for anything that might indicate a passageway leading beneath the castle.
Fifteen minutes later, their search hadn’t turned up anything. Bones gave a shake of his head and turned his thumb down. He hated thorough searches. If luck didn’t lead him to the prize in short order, he grew impatient and annoying, though he stuck to the task until the end.
Maddock checked his dive watch and held up ten fingers. If they didn’t find anything within ten minutes, they’d give it up. Bones nodded and they continued their search.
As they swam, Maddock found his thoughts drifting. If this dive proved fruitless, what would they do next? Call it quits? No, he couldn’t do that. He wasn’t one to give up on a treasure hunt, and he couldn’t let Isla down. She’d confided in him how important this treasure hunt was to her. Her family... Stop thinking about Isla, he chided himself.
He didn’t think about the beautiful journalist for long. As he swam into a dark crevasse, a serpentine head suddenly filled his vision. Dark, jagged teeth gleamed in the light of his headlamp.
Maddock immediately changed directions. He drew his knife and slashed at the creature, and felt his blade strike something solid—harder than flesh.
He froze, his heart pounding double-time, and took a long look at the monster’s head that loomed before him.
It was a carving about the size of a football. Silt and peat clung to it, obscuring the eyes and nostrils, but the toothy jaws shone in the lamplight. He reached out, still a little creeped out, and brushed it clean.
The years had robbed it of some of its fine detail, but it was still a remarkable piece. What was it doing down here? It hadn’t simply been tossed into the water. Instead, it was affixed to a sheer rock wall a good twenty meters below the surface. It had to have been put here for a reason.
He took hold of it and pulled.
Nothing.
He tried again. Same result. He considered the problem for a few seconds.
Maybe it’s a doorknob.
He tried turning it clockwise, but it held fast. One possibility remained. This time he turned it to the left.
Little by little, it moved a quarter turn and then stuck. Maddock heard a dull clacking sound, but nothing happened. He tried again to turn the sea serpent’s head, but it wouldn’t budge. It was time to get some added muscle.
He swam out of the crevasse, got Bones’ attention, and guided him back to the serpent head. He made a quick rotating motion with his hands to show his friend what he had in mind. They set to work and this time, the serpent’s head turned a full circle. Gears ground somewhere in the darkness, and then the rock wall before them slowly swung backward, revealing a wide, natural passageway running straight back in the direction of the castle. Wide enough, Maddock thought, for a prehistoric sea creature to swim through.
As usual, Bones didn’t hesitate. He surged ahead like a torpedo, leaving Maddock to play catch-up.
It would serve you right if I held back and let the monster make you his midnight snack, Maddock thought. Then again, Bones would probably be an entree, and Maddock the main course.
The channel ran about fifty meters straight back, terminating in a large underground cavern. Maddock and Bones broke the surface to see two stone doors, each as large as the one through which they’d passed minutes before, standing open. They climbed out of the water and moved in for a closer look. The air was dank but breathable.
Rusted iron bars, as thick as Maddock’s wrist, ran vertically through a broad slit in the door on the left. Broken chains lay strewn about, rust pitting the black links.
“Look at the bar on this thing.” He pointed to the thick metal shaft, held in place by iron bands. “You slide that sucker into the wall and that door’s not coming open easily.”
“It was definitely built to keep something in,” Maddock said.
Bones grimaced. “Like there’s any doubt what that was.”
Cautiously, they peered inside to see another large cavern, this one with a deep pool in the middle. At the far end lay a huge, recessed overhang, the floor worn smooth. The remains of fish, seals, and a few humans lay scattered about.
“I think we’ve found the curse,” Maddock said, “and it wasn’t a virus.”
“Looks like it’s been empty for a long time,” Bones said. “Doesn’t bode well for the legend of the treasure, does it?”
“Let’s take a look and see.”
The second door was a solid block. It had no bar on the front—only a large keyed lock. The space beyond it was small, scarcely large enough for Maddock and Bones to stand side by side. Shelves carved from the bedrock lined the walls. All were bare.
“I don’t see any sign of the Tuatha,” Bones said. “No symbols, nothing.”
“And these shelves weren’t made for a sword or spear,” Maddock agreed. “Maybe the stone or cauldron, if they’re small enough, but I’m with you. I don’t think it’s Tuatha.”
“But still, monsters and treasure,” Bones said.
“Neither of which are here anymore. So unless you have an idea of what happened to them...” Maddock lapsed into silence as his eyes fell on a series of carvings on the back of the vault door. “What the hell are these?”
He and Bones shone their light on a pyramidal shape—but this pyramid was not formed from blocks.
“Are those severed heads?” Bones asked.
“Seven of them. I wonder what that means.”