IN THE TIME WE HAVE, Chapter 6
Elsie was no longer hiking – she was floating.
Elsie pushed through the brush, her feet barely touching the ground. If she'd had a modicum of talent she'd have been crooning sappy love songs to any bewildered fauna within earshot. She smiled serenely whenever a thorn pricked her, laughing off the barbs' pitiful attempts at scuppering her mood.
She was happy.
Actually, happy was an understatement. Normally going with just four hours' sleep would have left the blonde tired and grumpy, but the previous night had thoroughly energized her.
It had all led to a magical shared moment the following morning as she and Lara had huddled together and watched the sunrise gradually bake away the mists drifting up from the woodland lake, quietly basking in each other's presence. They'd listened to distant haunting loon calls in silence, exhibiting the comfort of two souls not dependent on spoken words. Even the brunette seemed to have Zenned out since the previous evening, the blonde having caught the archaeologist absentmindedly dropping a tea bag into a cup she'd already spooned some of the Elsie's instant coffee into – she had no idea what the resulting concoction must've tasted like, but the fact that the brunette drank it at all was telling.
They'd both been so in the clouds that they'd very nearly set off without their tent; the realization of which had sent both young women into embarrassed giggles.
Elsie had been practically waltzing through the wilds since.
It was with that faraway mindset that the blonde ran straight into a waist-high rock that had been concealed behind a bush.
"Oof!"
She staggered back, confused. She pushed the brush aside to reveal a roughly rectangular, slab like stone protruding from the ground. It was immediately apparent even to an archaeological neophyte that this was no natural formation: the stone had clearly been placed there.
Elsie drew closer, attracted by faint markings etched in the weathered stone surface. She drew her fingers over the scratches – she'd seen similar symbols before.
It hit her. The year before, curiosity had compelled her to look up the Ogham language Lara had once described.
She was staring at an Ogham stone.
Shit!
She knew straight away if Lara saw it she would want to investigate, and all attempts at taking her mind off her work would instantly be derailed.
Rustling in the brush behind her: the brunette was getting close.
She ran back and intercepted the startled archaeologist. "Stop!"
Lara grasped her climbing axe and held it at the ready. "What is it?"
"Uh…nothing," said the blonde, quickly adopting a less urgent tone at her friend's tense demeanour. "We just…took a wrong turn."
"A wrong turn?" asked Lara, frowning. "To where, exactly?"
"Um, poor choice of words," amended Elsie. "There's a…big drop off up ahead, it's too steep to climb down…we should double back and look for another way…"
"Well, we have basic climbing gear," said the brunette. "And a fair amount of rope, maybe we can rappel down…let's have a look, shall we?"
She began to move around her companion.
"NO!" blurted Elsie, moving to block the archeologist's progress.
Lara froze.
"Um…it's a good two hundred foot drop at least," she continued excitedly. "There's just no way – "
Lara folded her arms. "And a river full of alligators at the bottom, no doubt," she said. "Care to tell me what's really going on here, Elsie?"
Elsie's heart was racing. "Um...I just…oh crap," she said resignedly, placing her hand on the brunette's. "Lara, just…go with me on this, okay?"
Lara's eyes narrowed. "You found something," she accused. "Didn't you?"
Elsie's shoulders slumped. "Okay, yeah," she finally admitted, defeated. "But Lara…you came here to get a break from all that, remember?"
Lara's mouth opened slightly.
"Please," begged Elsie. "Trust me on this…"
"You're asking me to just...walk away?"
"Yes. I am. Please."
Elsie clasped her hands together and gave the brunette her best pleading puppy-eyed look.
Lara sighed. "All right, Elsie," she said unenthusiastically. "If it means that much to you…I'll leave it be, whatever it is…"
"Thank you," said Elsie, profoundly relieved. "It's for the best, Lara…"
The brunette gave her an unconvincing smile. "Well…lead the way, then."
Elsie bit her lip at her friend's pained expression and started back down the way they'd come. She hadn't gone ten paces when she stopped in her tracks, the archeologist almost bumping into her.
"Now what?"
"Dammit," said the blonde in frustration. "I can't do this…"
She turned to face the Englishwoman. "It's in your blood, Lara…it's going to gnaw at you the entire time we're out here, isn't it?"
Lara ran her hand through her hair. "Well, of course," she admitted. "You've piqued my curiosity, Elsie, you can't expect me not to wonder…"
"Come on," said the blonde, taking Lara by the hand. "With any luck, maybe it's not that big a deal..."
"You're sure about this?" asked Lara as Elsie led her toward the stone marker.
"No," admitted the American. "But I'll hate myself if I don't..."
She brought her companion to the stone and drew back the bramble partly obscuring the carvings.
Lara's eyes lit up.
Crap.
"I take it...it's significant?" asked the blonde.
"Elsie, do you know what this is?" countered the brunette breathlessly.
"It's one of those Ogham stones, right?"
"Well, yes, but so much more..."
The archaeologist wrapped her hand around the concealing brambles and effortlessly tore them from the ground roots and all, tossing the thorny branches aside.
"Ouch!" exclaimed Elsie, wincing. "Didn't that hurt?"
But Lara paid no mind, crouching down before the stone and brushing off centuries of accumulated dirt and muck.
"Look at this, Elsie," breathed the brunette, her voice taking on the slightly schoolgirlish tone whenever she was excited. "Classic Ogham script...definitely connected to our excavation last year..."
Elsie crouched next to her companion. "But that was a good thirty miles from here at least," said the blonde. "Are you saying this is another site?"
"It's possible," said the archaeologist. "The stones we found made reference to at least one other site in the interior."
Lara's fingers slowly traced the ancient symbols carved into the weathered surface.
"...repose...rightful king?"
"Huh?" asked the American.
"...three hundred...poles..."
"Okay I'm lost," said Elsie. "I thought you couldn't read that stuff?"
"I crammed Ogham when I got home last year," explained Lara, her eyes never deviating from the stone. "I'm no expert, but I can make out…enough of it to...bloody hell!"
She straightened up, Elsie following suit.
"What is it?" asked the blonde.
Lara stared into the woods ahead. "It's here," she said, her voice a bare whisper.
Elsie was becoming frustrated. "What's here? Lara, can you clue me in, please? Layman here, remember?"
The brunette blinked and refocused her attention on her companion. "Sorry," she said. "It's whatever they'd come here for, Elsie, two millennia ago…it's just three hundred rods due west of here."
The American tilted her head. "Rods?"
"Rods, yes," affirmed Lara. "It's an ancient measuring unit, about five yards or so…"
Elsie did the math. Lara already had.
"Half a mile, Elsie," said the archaeologist excitedly, a disbelieving smile creasing her features. "Can you believe it? Oh, we're so close…"
Dammit…
"Um…close to what, though?"
"Well…that's the question," replied the Englishwoman. "The inscription mentions something about the 'rightful king', or something to that effect."
Elsie was trying to cram it all in. "What could that mean?"
"Only one way to find out," said Lara eagerly, her face almost glowing with excitement. Though she was loathe to investigate further, it was hard not to get caught up in her friend's excitement.
"Well…I guess we've come this far…"
Lara threw her arms around the blonde and drew her into a hug. "Thank you!"
"I get a feeling that trying to keep you away from a potential archaeological find would be like herding cats," said Elsie, stroking her friend's ponytail affectionately. "Frustrating as hell, and ultimately doomed to fail."
"I'm not that bad, I hope," said the brunette.
"Just…be careful, okay?"
Lara drew back and smiled at her friend. "Always."
"Uh-huh," said the blonde dubiously.
-oOo-
"Okay, but what happened to your dig from last year?" asked the American as they trudged through the brush. "Didn't anyone follow up?"
"Nothing," replied Lara, holding back a branch so that it didn't whip back onto her companion. "With Beacham gone, no one was willing to take our work seriously. Claimed our stones were nothing but elaborate forgeries and hadn't been taken in situ. Bunch of duffers. The fact that the entire team save myself was killed didn't help to attract new investment, either."
"But what about those Trinity dudes?" countered the blonde. "Didn't the authorities charge them?"
"They disappeared, Elsie," said the brunette. "As they tend to do…it was all I could do to convince your constabulary that I hadn't been the one that murdered the research team…"
"Shit."
"Indeed."
"So if – "
Lara stopped in her tracks.
"This is it," she said.
Elsie drew alongside her friend. From her vantage point they were standing near the base of a small tree-covered hill. There were no artificial structures visible anywhere.
"Um…care to educate me?"
"Right there," said the brunette, pointing to the small hill before them. "Incredible…"
"Wow," said Elsie, strangely disappointed considering she hadn't wanted Lara to be distracted by a potential archaeological site in the first place. "It's a…hill."
Lara looked at her. "Don't be blinkered," she said. "Look!"
"It's a…pretty hill, I guess," ventured the blonde. "Sorry Lara, I just don't see it!"
The brunette moved behind the blonde, pointing her hand over her shoulder to direct her gaze. "Right there," said the archaeologist, pointing to a massive boulder embedded in the hillside. "See?"
"A rock," said Elsie neutrally. "Oh. My. God. Mom will never believe this."
An exasperated sigh. "Okay," said Lara. "My fault. You've never been to Britain I take it?"
Elsie shook her head. "New Zealand, Australia and Canada," she answered. "That's it."
"Well, these sorts of mounds are scattered throughout the British Isles," explained Lara.
"Oh, so you guys have hills too?"
"It's manmade, Elsie!" stated the brunette, exasperated. "It's not a hill, it's a chambered tomb!"
Elsie looked back to the unremarkable knoll before them. "How can you possibly tell that?"
"It's a classic shape," explained the archaeologist as she made her way towards the massive boulder. "The way the sides angle off uniformly at ground level, a natural hill would have a more graduated slope, and show much more variation. The overall symmetry of the place, no aberrations whatsoever...and of course the portal stone."
"Okay," said the American. "Let's say you're right, and the thing is manmade...what do you suggest we do about it?"
"We investigate, of course!" said Lara excitedly. "Elsie, this shouldn't even be here. And there's a definite inconsistency with this structure and the settlement we found last year, but I have to think they're related somehow."
Elsie scratched her ear. "What do you mean?"
"These sorts of mounds are classic Neolithic structures," continued the brunette as she approached the massive stone and cleaned off accumulated dirt from its surface. "Yet the settlement east of here was clearly Iron Age. That's about a thousand year gap at minimum, why would they build something that even to them would have been considered obsolete? Oh, look at this..."
The blonde moved closer. The stone had several Ogham symbols carved into its centre.
"Okay, I'm sold," said Elsie. "Manmade, all right. But Lara, how are we supposed to 'investigate'? It's not like we're equipped for it, are we? We don't even have a shovel, and we'll never budge that stone – that thing's got to be a good twenty tons or more!"
But Lara wasn't paying attention; instead her unblinking gaze was riveted to the ancient symbols as her fingers slowly trailed along the weathered carvings.
"Paging Lara Croft…hello? Attention K-Mart shoppers…"
The brunette slowly shook her head. "I'm having trouble reading this," she said softly. "I think it...it requires something to allow entry...but what..."
"What's the Elvish word for 'friend'?" asked the blonde.
Lara finally broke from the stone long enough to look at her. "What?"
"Sorry," replied Elsie, stifling a smile. "Just...kinda feels like we're trying to get into Moria here..."
Far from drawing a rebuke from the archaeologist, the blonde was surprised to see Lara's eyebrows rise.
"No," said the Englishwoman, turning her gaze back to the stone. "Not Moria. But...I wonder..."
"Lara?"
"There are a few words I can make out," continued the archaeologist. "But I need to make sense of it all...'king'...something...'stone'...'rule?'…"
She looked to her friend. "Does that make any sense to you?"
Elsie shook her head disbelievingly. "You're asking me?"
"European Iron Age isn't exactly my specialty," stated Lara with frustration.
"Well it's hardly mine!" said the blonde. "Look, it says something about the king of stone, right?"
"That's very literal," countered the archaeologist. "It could just as easily be 'stone of kings', or – "
The brunette fell silent.
"What?" asked Elsie.
"Stone of Kings," mulled Lara softly. "I wonder…"
"You know, you really need to voice out your thought bubbles."
"Sorry," breathed the Englishwoman. "But…there is a 'Stone of Kings' of sorts in Ireland…on the Hill of Tara in county Meath. I've even touched it once, on an outing with my father."
"And you think that's a connection?" posed Elsie.
Lara drew back from the boulder. "Its proper name is the 'Stone of Destiny'," she explained. "Legend held that a prospective ruler would only have to touch the Stone to determine his rightful claim to the kingship of Ireland; if he was the true king, the Stone would roar, if not, it would remain silent."
"So apparently you're unfit for Irish kingship," declared the blonde. "I think I'd prefer that to the freaking two year-long presidential elections we have here…"
Lara turned her attention back to the boulder and ran her hand over the inscriptions.
"Stone of Destiny," she said softly. "My Gaelic is so rusty, Grim would box my ears if he were here…Lia…"
"Who?"
"Not 'who'," said the brunette. "Oh, bloody hell…"
"Too bad we don't have cell coverage out here," said Elsie, looking up at the sky. "We could just Google it – "
Lara snapped her fingers. "Lia Fáil!"
"Gesundheit."
The ground shook. Elsie jumped back nervously. "What the hell?"
The blonde's eyes grew wide as she watched the boulder slowly roll off to one side as though guided by a giant invisible hand, revealing a darkened passage beyond.
"Holy crap! Did…did I just see that?"
Lara shifted impatiently.
"Down the rabbit hole…"
