© 2005 revised 2011
Chapter Eleven.
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Helen woke quite early the following morning feeling surprisingly refreshed. Yawning she peered through the curtains of the window to see the dawn had brought another glorious autumn day. Before long she was downstairs preparing breakfast for the others, Sean and Thomas had slept in the two spare beds while Nikki had used the sofa bed. Looking at her watch Helen decided to wake them knowing that Sean and Nikki would be as keen as her to make an early start, giving them as much chance as possible to track down where the second map referred too. Thomas had indicated last night that he didn't mind what time he was woken.
Soon Helen had three mugs of tea balanced on a tray to hand out to her bleary eyed guests. She woke Nikki first before going upstairs to wake the men. About twenty minutes later Helen sat at the kitchen table reading the morning paper when Nikki appeared. Nikki certainly looked less tired than she had done the previous morning. She smiled at Helen before helping herself to fresh coffee. She joined Helen at the table just as the door opened again and Sean and Thomas appeared. Thomas as always seemed fresh and rested. By contrast Sean looked as tousled and unkempt as he had morning before. Helen decided that must be his normal state at that time of the day. Yawning his good mornings he also went and helped himself to coffee. Helen knew that Thomas would prefer earl grey tea so she got up to turn the kettle on for him.
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Before long the four of them were engrossed in eating cereal and toast. Once they had finished and sat with relaxing with mugs topped up with drinks of their choice Helen couldn't help speculating what Thomas had planned for the rest of the weekend. "So when do you go back?" She asked him.
"I had thought about today but I have decided to be really cheeky and ask if I can outstay my welcome for tonight at least, maybe tomorrow night as well? I would love the chance to visit Stonehenge."
"You know I half expected you to ask that," Helen slowly shook her head in disbelief at his boldness, but sounding half resigned to his request. "I don't know. I'll need a little while to think about that."
"I understand, that's natural," Thomas stood up and rinsed his mug before putting in the dishwasher. "I'll get out of your hair, I need to make a phone call and sort a few things out before I leave anyway."
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Just after he left the room Helen looked at Sean and Nikki with a mixture of despair and compassion on her face. "Well that really complicates matters. Oh why did he have to choose this weekend? Now I don't know what to do. Part of me wants complete freedom to finish this task and find the answers we are looking for, but the other part of me is quite happy to put Thomas up for a couple of nights. Help me out here guys, after all, whatever I decide could have a direct bearing on all of you."
Sean shrugged, "I don't see a problem with inviting him to stay. So long as he doesn't want to tag onto what we are doing then it shouldn't interfere with what we plan to do." Sean turned to Nikki, "What do you think?"
Nikki looked a bit more concerned about the idea, the reason becoming clear as she spoke. "Its only the personal issues that worry me, I don't want to see you get hurt again, other than that I tend to agree with Sean, I can't think of anything else that would be relevant, other than I know Trish will feel the same way."
Helen smiled, which lit up her whole face. "Thanks, and Nikki, don't worry, I won't leave myself open to be hurt again, if you are sure then I'll invite Thomas to stay, but on the understanding he is on his own during the day and we'll be unable to show him the sights."
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Helen went up to tell Thomas of her decision just as the doorbell rang. Nikki called up the stairs that she would answer it. As expected Trish had arrived, but unexpectedly she was clutching several reference books in her arms. Nikki raised an eyebrow in surprise and silent query, wondering what they were for.
Seeing Nikki's face all Trish would say to her was. "Wait and see, buster, I had a brainwave last night." The blond woman made her way into the kitchen with a very smug look on her face.
About twenty minutes later Helen had finally managed to get Thomas to leave the house, and he was still proclaiming his thanks at her hospitality as he was going out through the door. Eventually, relieved he was out of the way; she was able to sit down at the kitchen table with the others to get a chance to talk out loud.
She looked questioningly at Trish. "That's the look of the cat that's got the cream."
"I know," Nikki ground out. "She's been frustrated Sean and myself for the last twenty minutes refusing blankly to tell us what's she's found, she's just sat there looking like Miss Goody two shoes as if butter wouldn't melt in her mouth."
"So, come on woman. Give. Or I shan't be responsible for my actions." Sean added in what he had hoped was a slightly menacing tone.
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Trish laughed gleefully. "Ok, ok," she carried on talking in a rushed tone, the excitement obvious in her voice. "After I got home last night I couldn't settle so I started wondering about the swords and the shield and where the shield might be." Trish reached out and opened a couple of the reference books at some pages she had marked.
She handed them over to the others to read. "I couldn't remember anything about any shields in any of the local museums that might help, so I started to wonder about local myths and legends." Trish paused to soak in the dawning look of understanding that was now apparent of everybody else's faces, dramatically she carried on. "So I'm now going to gloat. I'm 99 percent sure to where the second map refers."
Sean looked up from his book and said in admiration. "Oh, clever, very clever, so what story did you find that might tie in?"
Trish leant in closer to the table so she could read the notes she had made. "Ok, the legend states that after a huge light was seen in the night sky two swords and a shield were forged like no other. They belonged to a local Chieftain for defence of his lands. It was said that while he had these objects none could defeat him. His story ends at his death, when the three were split between his sons and hidden so no one else could misuse their great power. Most stories agree and say the swords were thrown into a lake."
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"That sounds a bit like the King Arthur legend," Sean interrupted. "Although, so far the story fits with what Nikki and her Mum have told us about Carod."
"Yes and I also think that the description of the artefacts has been embellished over the years," Trish quickly scanned the pages of one book until she found what she was looking for. "They say that the swords and the shield were covered in jewels and gold like none before, etc, etc."
"So if anybody found the real things they were likely to be discounted as not being them and not very special, in fact almost worthless. And if the swords we found yesterday are the ones in the tale that description would be true myth." Helen said.
"Exactly," Trish was beaming from ear to ear.
"But what does it say about what may have happened to the shield?" Nikki scrunched up her face in puzzlement.
"Well, that's the thing," Trish answered now sounding slightly unsure of herself. "Unlike the swords, where most scholars agree, we have the opposite here. No two stories are the same, one says that it was melted down and destroyed. Another says it was buried in the foundations of Salisbury Cathedral. The list seems almost endless."
"Damn, that doesn't help us then, but you think that you have placed the map?" Nikki asked confused.
"Ah, my crowning glory," Trish said triumphantly. "I came across several accounts of where people think the Chieftains village was."
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Understanding dawned with the others.
"If Nikki's map corresponds with that area I think we can safely assume that the shield didn't go far." Sean looked excited at the prospect.
"So it was all a piece of ancient propaganda," Helen conceded. "Giving false information on the objects in question, then hide some away but keep the other close to home. I have to say, ingenious."
Nikki got up from the table to get both the copy of Alex's map and the modern reference map that Helen had found yesterday for them. She opened the contemporary map first and spreading it on top of the table looked at Trish. "Ok, so where do those accounts put our village?"
Trish studied the map closely and compared it to a diagram in one of the books. Then she firmly placed a finger over an area of the map. "Around here is the most popular choice."
Soon Nikki had traced out the grid reference numbers given on Alex's map. Helen got a pencil and lightly marked the place with a cross. It matched up perfectly with the area Trish had indicated. It was outside Salisbury. Not far from Stonehenge.
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"Well no obvious landmarks to go for, according to the map its mostly wooded countryside," Sean studied the map with a clinical eye. "At least it looks as thought we can access it relatively easily, there are a lot of footpaths running around there. How about we take a look?"
"I'll all for it." Nikki gathered up the maps.
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Before long they were out of the house and on the road. They had decided to take two cars this time so they could split up easily if they needed to. To give Sean and Trish a break from the driving, Nikki and Helen both drove, and despite the good weather they were finding the roads clear of traffic.
While the four friends had been getting in to their cars Thomas had arrived at Stonehenge and was getting out of his. He had been amazed at the scale of the site. Nothing he had seen quite prepared him for the sight of the stones rising up like they did.
Almost as soon as he had alighted from his car another man had parked right next to Thomas's car and got out. He turned to speak to Thomas, with a slight local accent that carried gently on the autumn breeze. "Magnificent isn't it?"
"Yes it is, isn't it," Thomas didn't even bother trying to hide the awe in his voice.
"Well then let me fill you in on a bit of its history. I think you will find the latest stories associated with the site of particular interest."
Before long Thomas found himself drawn in to the tales the man was telling him.
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Meanwhile, Helen, Nikki, Sean and Trish had reached their target. They'd discovered the forestry commission ran much of the area and conveniently a picnic area with plenty of parking space was placed close to where they needed to go. Helen had brought a rucksack with her, which she had packed with the relevant maps, a torch, camera, small spade and food and drink for everybody. She had also enclosed a large blanket in case they found the shield and needed to wrap it in something. It didn't take them long to find the route that they needed to follow and they made a brisk pace along footpath, surprisingly it only took them about five minutes to reach the spot they were looking for. They were taken aback to discover that the place they wanted was a large clearing in the trees.
The rough heath land grass was cropped short. Sheep were dotted about grazing happily, unconcerned by the human invaders. The path they were on ran right through the middle of the clearing. Grass encroached the path edges, hinting that this was an area that was seldom used by the many visitors to the area each year. The air seemed to hang heavy. A few birds could be heard faintly in the distance but not a lot else stirred.
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"Well this could be interesting," Helen consulted the Satellite Global Positioning Unit she was holding to make sure that they were in the right place. "This says we are in the correct spot, but there certainly isn't anything that looks as though it could help us, unlike last time."
Nikki removed the copy of her families map from the rucksack. "This isn't much help either," she added looking up from the piece of paper. "It is basically just showing the pathways, she hasn't really marked any land features."
"Did Alex write anything that might help us, like the last time?" Sean asked.
"Yeah, but I can't see what it relates too," Nikki sounded confused. "All she has put is 'Use your own belief."'
"Och, that's not much to go on," Helen said and she looked around the landscape hoping it might help. Sometimes the ground could hold clues with bumps, hollows or lines in the grass which as an archaeologist Helen hoped she would spot. All of those things could identify possible features to aim for. Helen saw nothing. The landscape looked as though it was full of natural geographical features and nothing else. Sean had automatically done the same thing, and reached the same conclusion as Helen.
While Helen sat the rucksack down the other three wandered a bit to see if they could glean any help at all from their surroundings. Nobody went more than twenty foot away before they stopped and looked aimlessly around, each of them desperately hoping for some clue, no matter how small that might be.
Helen found she was muttering under her breath. "Use your own belief, what does that mean? Own belief," she chastised herself as she glanced around the trees that edged the cleaning. "Come on Stewart, its got to mean something. Own belief, belief as in natural surroundings, but nobody here is a bloody tree hugger, so what?"
While Helen was trying to work out the clue Nikki was struggling with her own thoughts. She'd felt certain being at the spot where Anharad and Carod lived and after the way she had felt at St Peter's, that she would get some kind of connection or feeling as well, but to her bewilderment she had so far felt nothing. If it hadn't had been for Alex's map Nikki would have been convinced that they were in the wrong place. She walked back over to where Helen was standing and despite everything was faintly amused to hear Helen quietly talking to herself. It was a habit a lot of people did, and right now it was one that Nikki found strangely comforting, with everything that was going on in this extraordinary event, normal things were still happening.
Without meaning to, Nikki overheard the final couple of sentences and couldn't help laughing out loud. Helen looked up surprised at the sound, "What caused that?"
"Sorry, I couldn't help but overhear the 'bloody tree hugger' bit. I wasn't spying."
"Oh, that's alright," although Nikki had spoken in a light tone, Helen still sounded frustrated. "I just thought that the belief bit could refer to a belief in nature or something like that."
"You may have hit on something there," Trish responded as she and Sean moved to join them.
"What do you mean?" Sean asked.
Trish looked at him in disbelief. "Don't tell me your memory is that bad, think back to the other night and the story of the water dowsing that Nikki entertained us with."
"My memory is just fine thank you. However, I still fail to see the significance to our current predicament?"
Trish's nostrils flared in mock indignation, she turned to Helen and Nikki and said in glib tones. "Why are men always so obtuse? Although it would be a travesty if Sean Parr grew up one day."
Sean put his hands on his hips in an exaggerated fashion. "I'll have you know I intend to act this age all my life, so there."
"So I noticed," was the dry reply.
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Helen and Nikki chuckled quietly at the quiet banter that was being exchanged. It had momentarily broken the tension that had naturally built up. Soon they all brought their thoughts back to the reason why they were there, which sobered the moment.
Trish finished her original statement in much more solemn tones. "The reason I thought of Nikki's water dowsing was that some people can locate precious metals and jewels using the same techniques. I believe there are reports of some companies that used to use dowsers to locate new ores to mine. If my memory is correct some councils also used dowsers after the second world war to try and locate water, sewage, electricity and gas pipes because so many records were destroyed during the bombing raids. We know Nikki can dowse for water. If that trait is inherited from Anharad's time, maybe they buried the shield so only somebody with that sort of ability could locate it. Don't forget that metal detectors are a modern invention. And the chances of somebody stumbling across such a find using one of those is small. Hence, using your own belief would make sense. Believe in your own natural talent to find the shield."
"Good point," Sean said, although there was obvious concern in his voice at her theory. "I have one slight problem with that though. It doesn't matter whether the shield is made of metal, leather or wood. How do you think it could be protected against corrosion if it is buried?"
"That crossed my mind as well," Helen admitted. "But I still like the idea."
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Nikki's mind was racing, could her strange gift be the answer. That was if she believed in it enough. She looked around at the brooding landscape, and deliberately took her time before she said anything. "Corrosion has to be a worry, but I feel they would have known about that so I think the shield will have a natural protection of some sort. Look at how clean the swords were when we found them. I am much more worried by something else though."
The others looked at her with query in their faces. "I am doubtful I can do this, "Nikki admitted quietly. "I can see where that own belief part comes in now, but I'm not sure I am confident enough to look for the shield."
The three of them gathered around Nikki reassuringly.
"You're only just beginning to discover your talents," Helen said gently. "But if this trait wasn't strong in your family, why would they have relied on it so much?"
"Exactly," Sean concurred positively. "You're the one who has been chosen to seek out these things.
"Alex would have complete faith in you," Trish added craftily knowing Nikki wouldn't want to let her Great Grandmother down. Helen shot Trish an admiring glance at her clever insight. As soon as she had spoken you could see a slight change in Nikki's face.
"So what do you need?" Helen asked Nikki, assured that the argument had been won.
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Nikki weighed up what the others had said before she replied. "What I need is a bloody miracle, but if I don't give this a try then I'll never know." She looked across at the surrounding trees. "It's a good job that this is mixed native woodland rather than an evergreen pine forest. I need hazel, as we haven't got two metal rods with us. It needs to be a good strong branch, not too thick and springy with a good fork in it."
"Let's get looking." Sean bounded off into the trees to start the hunt.
The others spread out after him. Helen struck lucky first, coming across a hazel tree that hadn't been coppiced for many years, giving it lots of branches they could choose from. The others quickly joined up with her when she shouted. Sean took out a penknife and cut several suitable looking pieces from the main body of the tree. Nikki felt each one, holding at the end where the two forks were with the single branch pointing down towards the ground.
At the third try she found the one she was looking for. "This is it Sean, would you mind trimming all the twigs and leaves off for me?"
"No problem." And soon did as she'd asked. Handing her back the dowsing rod he asked. "How do you want to go about plotting the area?"
"I thought we could use the GPS system that Helen brought with her, that way we can write down any areas that I hit fairly accurately."
"A bit like a grid system that Geo Physics would use," Helen said. "That's a good idea."
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Nikki led them back out through the forest undergrowth to where Helen had left the rucksack. After Helen removed the GPS system and gave it to Sean she took out some pencils and a notebook to record everything. Trish had taken charge of Alex's map to double check that there wasn't anything they had missed.
Looking nervous Nikki positioned herself on the left hand side of the clearing, intending to walk up and down in as straight as line as possible. Several big trees gave her good reference points to work from. Hesitantly she started to walk holding the hazel rod slightly in front of her body, almost horizontally at about waist height. Trying to force her mind to be quiet was the hardest thing to do. Nikki knew that if she thought about what she was doing too much nothing would happen, although she still needed to keep a part of her mind focused on the shield. The thing she needed to evade was hitting any sites that contained water. When Nikki was half way across the first section when she discovered a spring bubbling up from the ground, which was exactly the interference she had been hoping to avoid.
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Sure enough it distracted her, causing the dowsing rod to quiver and twitch badly forcing the single branch to face downwards, pressing the forks she was holding so painfully into the palms of her hands, it almost made her drop the rod.
"Damn!" She exclaimed angrily. "I feel like throwing these away and giving up. I'm so inept. Damn, damn."
Helen walked from behind her. "You're not inept," she offered kindly. "It's just that the effort you always put in is so heartfelt, and I think that knocks your confidence in what you are doing."
"You really think that?" Nikki was astounded at the sincerity of Helen's remarks.
"Yes I do," she sighed before she carried on. "Nikki, I wouldn't just say this for the sake of it." Suddenly she leant forward and surprised Nikki by returning the kiss on the cheek that Nikki had given her the day before. "Yesterday you did that for thanks, so today I do this to say, I believe in you."
The candour with which Helen spoke caused Nikki to redden with embarrassment, something she couldn't remember every having done before. Unexpectedly she felt tongue-tied and this caused her to blush even more, because of that she avoided Helen's eyes, afraid that the kindness she knew she would almost certainly see in them would reduce her to tears. Mumbling her thanks, she took a deep breath and brought her mind back into focus.
Although she wasn't able to block Helen's words completely from her mind Nikki found that she was now able to block the rest of the outside world. Suddenly it was a lot easier to pinpoint thinking about the shield at the expense of everything else.
With renewed confidence she set off again. Slowly she covered each strip of ground. Every so often she felt a pull on the dowsing rod, sending a tingle up her arms, causing her to halt. Sean would come over and mark the position using the GPS system, calling out the coordinates to Helen who would write it down. Each section took about five minutes to do, and with twelve strips to complete the whole procedure took about an hour. Finishing off the final section check the sweat glistened on Nikki's brow, not so much from the warmth of the day but from the emotional effort it had taken to conduct the search.
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After a small break had been taken to allow Nikki to recover a bit they studied the data they had collated.
Sean pointed to several readings. "Nikki said that those areas didn't give her as strong a sense as some of the other places, so if they are metal I would hazard a guess at things like coins." He looked at the others, and nobody disagreed with his assessment.
"So where did you get the strongest feeling Nikki?" asked Trish.
Without hesitation Nikki looked up towards a large magnificent copper beech tree that stood at the other end of the clearing, central to the path. She pointed over to it. "Very near that tree, I had a real pull there, but it still didn't feel quite right, sorry I can't explain it better."
"That's alright," Helen said reassuringly. "Often these sorts of things have no real words capable of describing them, do you feel up to trying around there in a bit more detail?"
"Yes, I'm glad I don't do this for a living though, I'm knackered."
Everybody laughed at Nikki's humour. It had obviously been hard for her, and they were grateful it was something they didn't have to do.
Sighing Nikki got up and made her way over to the tree. Reaching the spot where she had felt the pull from before Nikki went to start, but Helen reached out and placed a hand on her arm to stop her, in an almost mirror image of what Nikki had done to her the day before when they had been looking for the sword. "Hang on. This is an old tree, how about working around it?"
"Ok." Nikki wasn't sure what had prompted Helen but she trusted the other woman's instinct. She made her way to the very base of the tree and went to start dowsing, but she had hardly got the hazel rod into her hand when it moved with such force it fell from her grip, grazing her palms as it went. "Ouch! Shit! Bloody hell."
Nikki nursed her hands for a few seconds, checking to see if there was any bleeding, and was pleased to see that the grazes weren't deep enough to break the skin.
"Are you alright?" The concern sounded in Helens voice.
"Yes. My god, I've never felt anything like that before. What made you pick that spot?"
"I'm not sure, but after our encounter with the yew tree at the church yesterday and the pagan element of the whole thing, it made sense that a tree might have been used to mark any important places."
"And this is a lovely tree."
"Yes, so do you think we are right?"
"I'm sure of it, have you got the spade?"
"An archaeologist wouldn't be seen dead without one" Helen grinned, opening the rucksack, to produce the small metal spade which had a folding handle. "Do you want to do the honours?"
"Suddenly I don't feel tired anymore," Nikki said grinning, taking the spade off Helen. "I just hope this isn't too deep."
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It took a lot of clearing work to remove the nettles and grass before Nikki had finally been able to start digging. Once she had gone down a couple of feet, Sean had insisted on taking over from her, saying that her didn't want to be responsible for taking a half dead women into Casualty with a no good story about how she had got into that state, and despite Nikki's weak protests the others had sided with him.
Making sure he was careful it didn't take Sean long to get down another foot before the spade hit something quite solid, and with extra caution Sean worked his way around the object, clearing soil away, making sure he wasn't wasting his time on a large stone. He eventually uncovered a large lid made of lead, in almost perfect condition. Nikki wasn't prepared to miss out on the final bit, so Sean made way for her and Helen to open the lid. Carefully Helen prised the spade under the lid's lip and started to lift.
Offering a lot of resistance to start with the lead seemed stuck but suddenly it gave way, breaking from the bottom half perfectly, allowing the two women to easily lift it out of the way between them. The lead interior was shallow, with a thin cloth covering the inside. Helen carefully unfolded the cloth to reveal a small metal shield, round in appearance with a radiance that came from around its golden edging. It didn't appear to be a typical style from any time period, if they had seen it in their official jobs they would had found it difficult to date it on looks alone such was it's uniqueness. They all stared at its beauty before Nikki lifted it out of the lead casing which had helped protect it for all those years.
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