Chapter 2: Dread and Discovery
Cutter's apartment hadn't changed much since Nathan's last visit when they had met here to figure out Marlowe's and Talbot's movements in London and where they were going to go next. Obviously, they had split up to go to France and Syria, but now it looked as though they were settling down to discuss their newest mission yet.
Elena certainly seemed to be enjoying the scenery, looking out onto the streets of London as the sun started to set. Nate, Elena, and Sully were dog-tired, but had settled their things down and got to work.
"Remind me again how you were able to coax Elena into coming?" Sully asked while drinking coffee and smoking on a cigar.
Nate grinned. "I promised her a romantic dinner cruise on the Thames River."
"And you said you would take me to the Somerset House, Little Venice, and Westminster Abby. Oh and the royal botanic gardens too."
"I did?"
"Might as well see what we can while we're here. If your little mission doesn't turn into a dangerous escapade that is," Elena sighed.
"Well, don't worry. It will be a piece of cake! Besides, you can chill around here while we are off looking for the book."
"And what exactly am I supposed to do here?" Elena asked, folding her arms and staring at him.
"You can clean my apartment," Cutter stated nonchalantly, playing on his phone.
"Are you texting?" Chloe asked on the other side of the table.
"No. Angry Birds."
Chloe shook her head. "I don't get it."
Elena raised an eyebrow as she watched her husband finish downing his second Red Bull. He went to the fridge, got out another and cracked it open. "Nate, that's your third Red Bull."
"I'm still on American time! I'm tired!" Nate whined, walking back over to the table and sitting down.
Elena shook her head slightly, sharing a look with Chloe. They just didn't get the men sometimes. Sully snuffed out his cigar to save for later. He folded his arms on the table, looking between them all. Elena finally sat down next to Nate.
"Can we get this show on the road?" Sully grumbled.
"Yeah, yeah, sure mate," Charlie stated, sitting his phone down.
"Chloe, are those your clothes over there in that basket?" Nate asked.
Chloe gave him a questioning look. "Yeah, so. Why?"
"Have you been living with Charlie this entire time?" Nate laughed.
"Well, you know I move around a lot," Chloe answered smoothly.
"Is there something we should know?"
Chloe glared at him. "Are you insinuating that-?"
"Yes, we're madly in love, can we please get on with this?" Charlie interrupted, pointing to the maps and notes they had sprawled on the table.
Chloe rounded on him, slamming her fist into his arm. Charlie yelped, giving her a look while rubbing the sore spot.
"Blimey, that hurt!"
"Okay, let's start with Glastonbury Abbey," Elena stated.
"Yes, it looks as though you two are going to have it made. Quick drive to Somerset. Should be easy to sneak into at night since it is only used as a visitor attraction anymore. The hard part is trying to decide where the book could have been located," Sully added, looking over the map.
"Well, according to Edward Kelley's notes. When searching for the book, he and his friend John Blokley came upon a spirit creature that led them to where the book was resting. Looks like you get to deal with ghosts," Nate joked.
Charlie didn't sound too enthused by that. "Oh, that's a load of bollocks, Nate. No such thing as ghosts or spirits. Don't try and scare me!"
"Who knows, maybe you'll find Avalon while you're searching for the book," Nate added.
"Focus, Nate," Chloe sighed.
"Err, sorry." Nate cleared his throat. "Since there isn't much left of the ruins. I would start with the Lady Chapel. According to Kelley's private journal, there is a hidden passageway that leads below the chapel to a hidden tunnel that had once been used by monks to perform witchcraft and certain ceremonies. He had been shown the way by a spiritual creature at Northwick Hill."
"According to these sketches he made, it looks as though it could be somewhere in the Lady Chapel, but it's hard to tell since most of the abbey is destroyed now. For all we know, the secret passage could be lost forever," Elena added. She then looked up to Charlie. "You got these from Lansin?"
"Yeah, he dropped them off earlier."
"It's amazing that he had all of this. I bet there would be hundreds of people who would want their hands on Edward Kelley's personal journals," Nate said, admiring all of it.
"Well, Lansin got it from Kelley. Apparently, this rich bastard has a mighty collection of lost history," Charlie answered.
"Does it matter?" Chloe snorted, leaning back in her chair. "Didn't Lansin say that Kelley made the overall payout 100,000 pounds?"
Sully choked upon hearing that, his jaw dropping and eyes shining. "Did I just hear right?"
"Damn. Now I'm kinda curious what he'll pay if he wants us to continue searching after these two places comes up empty," Nate said, shocked.
"I don't know. Something doesn't feel right about this. That's a lot of money. Are you so sure you can trust this guy?" Elena inquired, tone laced with worry.
"Don't be such a wet blanket, Sunshine. It'll be fine."
Nate rubbed on Elena's back reassuringly, before glancing over to Charlie. "I guess just keep those main ideas in your head. And keep an eye out for any spiritual creature. Whatever that could mean. Vampires, fairies, unicorns. Who knows."
Charlie rolled his eyes, but chuckled. "Right, mate. So let's move on to Prague Castle. Gonna be much harder than ours. Lots of traffic, and there are guards at times. Head of State and the President occupies a good portion of it and it is the largest medieval castle in the world. There are courtyards, a monastery, museums, towers, and palaces throughout the castle. Where the hell are you going to start? How are you even going to get in?"
"Do enlighten me, kid. Because it sounds impossible without getting caught. I understand why Kelley is paying big bucks now," Sully grumbled.
"I was wondering myself until I read Kelley's journal during his stays at the castle with King Rudolf II. According to Kelley, after the fire that hit the castle in 1541, Rudolf II added on to it. The Spanish Hall is the most popular of the few that were completed during his reign. But there's more. See, Rudolf II was obsessed with witchcraft and alchemy. He thrived on Kelley's magic and knowledge of alchemy and the Philosopher's Stone. So much, that Rudolf II had started calling Kelley "The Magician". He added a whole underground court for his work, and gave it a secret entrance as well as exit in case of discovery or hazards such as another fire. It says right here in Kelley's journal that there are a few secret entrances to the underground court. There's one in the main courtyard, and one in the Spanish Hall. However, there is one that leads way out from the castle into the St. Wenceslas vineyard. According to his journal, the entrance is just above the Old Castle Stairs. He even sketched out the key to the entrance." Nate showed them the journal, the sketch of a phoenix rising up with its wings against its body pointing downward with its tail, the talons spread out, and the beak opening in a scream. There was a strange design in the phoenix's eye, one that looked familiar to him.
"Isn't that the squared circle symbol of the Philosopher's Stone?" Cutter asked, turning his head to try and look at the eye upside down.
Nate looked at the journal again, only this time turning the symbol upside down. Sure enough, it was the squared circle. Why it was drawn upside down inside the phoenix's eyes was lost to them, but they now knew it was their key to finding the entrance to the tunnel.
"Good eye, Charlie," Nate chuckled.
"Still doesn't solve how we get inside," Sully grumbled.
"Simple. We go in as visitors. Wait until dark and then find this phoenix that is supposedly carved into the old stairs. The Villa Richter is right there with a restaurant. We just wait for the right moment and figure out the puzzle," Nate explained, smiling and so sure of himself.
"Sounds easy enough," Sully answered, though he seemed unsure.
"Are we set then?" Chloe asked.
Nathan nodded. "Yeah, we'll head out in the morning. Elena, are you sure you are going to be okay?"
"I'll be fine. It will be you guys I'm gonna worry about. If anything goes wrong, just call me."
"You'll come to our rescue?" Nate joked.
"Or get us out of jail," Sully snorted.
"Not funny."
Nate and Sully exchanged looks, smiling. With that, they all left from the table to get ready for bed. They had a long day tomorrow ahead of them. Nate and Elena took the guest bedroom and Sully took the couch. They all noticed however, that Chloe followed Charlie into his room.
The ruins of Glastonbury Abbey came off as mystical, maybe even haunting at night. The property was huge, with public roads of Somerset surrounding all sides; it felt they were in the center of a forgotten land. The grass was vivid green. The ruins produced shadows in the faint lights of the walkways and even their flashlights.
There were only a few buildings that were fully together, like the Abbey's Kitchen, and the Lady Chapel. Most of the park was left with walkways and lone standing walls and stones.
Charlie and Chloe headed for the Lady Chapel, knowing it was the best place to look for the underground tunnel where Kelley had supposedly found the Book of Saint Dunstan.
"See any ghosts yet?" Chloe chuckled, leading the way with her flashlight.
Charlie grimaced. "Not funny, darlin'."
"What's up your bum? We're almost there."
"I don't know. I'm getting a weird feeling about this."
"A weird feeling?" Chloe echoed, smiling and shaking her head. "Don't tell me you're afraid of the dark, Charlie."
"No, no, it ain't that. I just feel…like we're being watched."
"Oh jeez. You're paranoid, mate. It's probably your imagination. You let Nate get to you again."
"Yeah, you're right," Charlie replied, giving a half-hearted chuckle.
They came upon the Lady Chapel, not far from the parking lot. The ancient building gave off such a powerful sense of time and tenacity, of elegance and solitude. The ornate masonry just added to the effect of it all, bearing the wears and scars of time, but also telling a story all of its own in each stone.
"Wow, it's beautiful," Chloe stated as they entered through the front. She shone the flashlight around, the chapel in pitch darkness even with no roof up above.
Charlie didn't answer, just nodded his head. They knew they had to get down to the lower area, where the altar was. They shone their flashlights ahead as they found their way down there, bypassing the disabled bridge and going downstairs. The hall was long and narrow with hallways lined on each side to other parts of the chapel. They walked all the way up to the altar, shining their flashlights around to look for clues.
In the distance, Charlie heard a rock drop and hit stone below, a small scraping sound echoing. He jumped, looking in the direction it had come from despite the darkness all around. The stars above did nothing to light their way. Nor did the moon. Chloe had reacted to the sound as well, though not near as sharply.
"Charlie, chill out. It was nothing," she sighed.
Charlie couldn't help the dread that was filling his head. He found himself breathing harder, his hands shaking. His heart rate had definitely gone up, and now he felt twitchy. It was a feeling he had felt before, only once in his life, and could not understand why he was having this same kind of attack here.
"Hey Charlie, shine your torch over here."
He barely registered Chloe's voice. Timidly, he moved over to the other side of the altar, shining his flashlight for her. Chloe smiled upon receiving more light, because she found something etched on the side of the altar. The sign of Saint Dunstan. She started messing with it with her fingers, and finally she was able to push the emblem back into the stone. Suddenly, the altar was sliding over, revealing an entrance down below.
Chloe brushed off her palms, smiling proudly. "If that isn't it, then I don't know what is."
When she didn't get a response from her partner, she looked up at him. She frowned, noticing how pale Cutter was. "Charlie? The hell? What's wrong?"
"N-nothing. Let's go."
Chloe was unsure at first, and then reluctantly started the descent down the ladder to the tunnel below. Charlie tapped his cheeks, blinking hard and trying to focus. He couldn't understand why he was feeling like this. There had to be something here with them causing this much dread within him.
He slowly followed Chloe down below, landing on the cool dirt floor at the bottom of the ladder. The tunnel started out skinny, but soon widened as they started to follow it. They were quick to realize that this wasn't just an underground tunnel, it was a catacomb. There were recesses in the walls containing skeletons from ages ago. There were bones scattered across the floor, urns lined along the walls, and also tools and accessories strewed about.
"I'm officially creeped out," Chloe chided, watching as a large rat darted across the way from her.
She kept an eye on Charlie behind her. He was still struggling with whatever was bugging him, but soon the tunnel widened out into a large room full of books, alchemy equipment, and signs and items of necromancy. They spread out to look through the secret room. Charlie's flashlight was twitching along with his hand, and he felt ice cold down here.
He was trying to calm himself down, the dread circulating his body and he was at the brink of having a full panic attack.
"Charlie! Over here! You've got to see this!"
He moved over to Chloe's side of the room. She pointed to a table that had alchemy ingredients and tools on it. There was a book, but not the right one. What she was pointing at, however, was the thick red powder that was piled in a bowl. Charlie, with uneasy hands, took the sandy grains in his fingertips and grinded them together. Red powder, one of the mysterious ingredients linked to the Philosopher's Stone. Kelley had supposedly found some of this down here when he retrieved the book.
"This is something we should definitely tell Nate about," Chloe stated, turning and heading away from the table and following her flashlight's path.
Suddenly, a loud rumbling sound was echoing above them. It sounded like something heavy grinding along a path. It took seconds for Chloe and Cutter to exchange looks and take off sprinting back the way they came. By the time they reached the ladder, it was too late. The altar had slid shut over the opening.
"Fuck!" Charlie shouted, his panic peaking. "That couldn't have been on a damn timer! We were bloody followed! I knew it!"
"Oh come on, Charlie, calm down. We don't know that for sure," Chloe answered calmly, though underneath the tone, her nerves were starting to panic. Her next sentence revealed her worry, as she stuttered the words. "L-let's just go back to the room. May-maybe we can find another way out."
They made their way back to the necromancer's room, both thoroughly disturbed and confused. Chloe forgot about their objective, and turned towards trying to find a way out. Charlie felt his heart aching, he was panicking so much. He fell to his knees, using his hands to cover his temples.
"Damn it! What's wrong with me?"
Chloe ran over to his side. "Charlie? Charlie, what's wrong?"
She heard something come to her right, behind Charlie's back. She shone the flashlight in that direction. The path of light suddenly flashed onto a figure cloaked in black, a large ram's skull with necromancy symbols painting on the bone covering the head. Chloe screamed, knowing they had no weapons, but she didn't have time to react before something hit her from behind and she crumbled to the floor. Charlie leaped up, his fists flying at whatever it was that struck Chloe down.
A blow went to his head as well, and he crashed to the floor next to Chloe. The world was spinning, despite the darkness all around, and the beams of light from the flashlights seemed to intensify. Before he lost consciousness, Cutter saw a man walk up to him in a black suit.
Nathan and Sully had entered Prague Castle as tourists with no problems. The evening went by with them taking advantage of the downtime until dark. They looked over many of the castle's locations. There were many people here from all over the world as tourists. The Czech guards in their light grey-blue uniforms were posted along many areas of the grand castle grounds. They passed along many people speaking different languages, from Czech and French, to Spanish and English.
When the sun started to set, Nathan and Sully went to the Villa Richter, where they sat down to dine at the Piano Terra and eat dinner. No one had been suspicious of them all day, and the father and son duo reframed from talking much about their objective in case of listening ears. After they were finished with their meal, it was time to revert to the shadows and covert movements. They made their way to the Old Castle Stairs at the base of the vineyard and way down from the old metro station. Much of the walkways were added much later than Rudolf's reign. They were looking for the oldest part of the stairs, which most of which were in the wall off the side of the edge of the old vineyard.
There wasn't much traffic anymore, and there were no guards around. Sully and Nate decided to go over the high enclosure wall to the oldest rocky promontory below the Old Castle Stairs. There wasn't much light down in this area, hiding the two men as long as they stayed quiet, but then enough light from the moon and stars gave Nate and Sully enough light to look for the phoenix.
They felt along the stone wall, smooth in areas from being repaired. It was then that Nate found the etching of the bird, but barely. Only the tail, parts of the talons, and some of the head was showing from remodeling. Nate started digging at the bird with his fingers. Sully walked over, looking around to make sure they weren't being watched.
"How the hell is that thing going to get us a secret entrance to the underground court? They probably ruined it trying to cover it up in the remodeling," Sully asked.
"I'm…trying to figure that out," Nate replied, feeling all along the head of the phoenix.
Finally, a part of paint over the bird crumbled off a bit from being brittle, and Nate started digging at it. He tore the paint away until the head was revealed with its strange eye. Nate studied it for a moment, and then it was so obvious. The indention around the eye clearly showed him the eye could be turned like a dial.
"Sully, give me a hand," Nate said, grabbing one side of the circle.
Sully grabbed the opposite side of the Philosopher's Stone symbol in the eye of the phoenix.
"On three, try clockwise."
"Three? Okay. Wait, is clockwise towards you or me? I can't tell by this awkward angle."
"Towards me. Now, one, two, three."
Both men put their strength into it. Despite the eye only being the size of a soccer ball, it was hard to turn. It scraped along the stone, catching easily, but eventually they were able to turn the symbol right side up. As soon as it was, Nate pushed it in, and it clicked. Suddenly, a slab of stone grazed down, revealing the entrance. The two men looked around and listened, hoping the sound of the entrance opening hadn't attracted anyone.
Soon, the two men were heading into the chamber. Sully was relieved to see old torches on the wall. He grabbed one and lit it up with his Zippo lighter. They followed the dark tunnel, made out of smooth stone, and looking untouched for ages, until it opened up into a large court.
"Wow! This is amazing!" Nate exclaimed, laughing a little from his excitement.
Like a little kid he ran ahead. Sully chuckled behind him but kept the same pace. The underground chamber was large, but built with such mastery. It had shelves of books on alchemy, necromancy, and spiritual things. There were books on the supernatural, on history, and on ancient medicine. Any of the books would be worth a fortune, but there were also tables holding alchemy ingredients and tools. Rare gems, gold, silver, copper, and all kinds of metal were strewed about. One table had a human skull on it, a couple of rubies around it with tarot cards and a crystal ball. Another had various necromancy items, and a bowl of red powder.
As Nate was looking around, he saw Sully pocketing gold pieces and gems. He shook his head, chuckling. "Seriously?"
"Why not?" Sully shrugged, grinning under his mustache.
Nate was intrigued with the place, checking it all out from corner to corner. "I bet Chloe and Cutter didn't get to find anything near as awesome."
"This would be hard to top."
"Can you believe it? This is where Kelley and King Rudolf II got the closest to anyone in history to the Philosopher's Stone. Kelley performed magic here! Not only was he one of the most brilliant alchemists like John Dee, he was a true magician! He could really perform witchcraft, and talk to angels, and use it all to his advantage!"
"So do you think the book is here?" Sully questioned, looking around with the torch. The light from the torch covered most of the underground chamber in a decent, orange light.
"I don't know. I doubt it, but we can look to be sure. After that, we can get the hell out of here and collect 100,000 pounds from Kelley and go from there."
Sully nodded, but as Nate turned his back on him, the older man was attacked from behind. An arm came around his throat, and he barely managed a shout to his adopted son before his mouth was covered. He was being choked, and Sully dropped the torch to fight back.
Nate spun, seeing two other figures in dark clothing coming for him. With the torch on the floor, the light was weakened on the floor, darkening the roof and anywhere above Nate's head. He grabbed one, slamming his head into the stone table, before running to the next one.
"Hold on Sully!"
Sully was able to break out of his attacker's grasps, elbowing the man in the gut and spinning around to fight him head on. Everything was happening so fast, Nate didn't have time to try and figure out who these men were. He was fighting one suited man when he saw another come up behind Sully while he was fighting.
"Sully! Watch out!"
It was too late, the man grabbed Sully, enabling the other attacker to come forth and start pounding at Sully. Nate became more desperate trying to get to his adoptive father. He took quite a few punches before he was able to take two more men out and run over to Sully. He jumped the guy holding Sully, breaking his neck and moving on to the other one. They brawled shortly before Nate was able to knock him out.
He ran over to Sully, who was on his knees catching his breath. "Sully? You alright? Let's get the hell out of here!"
"Who are these bastards?"
"Let's not worry about that right now," Nate replied, grabbing Sully and pulling him to his feet. He started pulling him back to the tunnel way. "We need to get out of here!"
"This was a damn set up! No one knew we were here!" Sully cursed, coughing.
"Let's hope that isn't true and that Chloe and Charlie are alright," Nate answered, catching his breath.
The two men headed back the way they came as quickly as they could. The torch was going out, but it managed to get them to the entrance before the outside draft killed the torch. Sully tossed it to the side, and the two men went through the hole back outside.
As soon as they were out of the tunnel, both men were knocked out cold from more men in black suits that were waiting for them to come out.
A/N: And there is Chapter 2! This chapter took a lot of work and research, but I had a blast writing it. Very excited about this story, and I hope you all enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it! It looks as though both groups were ambushed. Obviously a set up right? So who are these guys? Will they be okay? Will Elena find out about this? All of these questions plus more will be revealed in the next chapter! Thanks peeps for reading and reviewing! Have an awesome week! :)