The Witch Hunter Chronicles: Hunted

“I hate riddles,” I said.

“You will find the path where strength is seen in excess of what is needed,” Jordan said. “What does that even mean?”

I shrugged. It didn’t mean anything the first time Marc told us the clue to finding the secret passage, and, three hours of searching later, it still didn’t.

“You want to go check out that circular room again?” he asked. “I’m not sure where else to look at this point.”

The circular room was the pitiful remains of the perimeter of what had once been an Abby entryway a hundred years before the United States became a country. What I found much more interesting than that was Marc sitting by himself on a patch of grass, up on the little hill that separated the Citadel property from the modern apartment buildings and row houses.

He just naturally gives of the impression that he’s brooding. I wonder what he’s thinking about. Me maybe?

“Um, maybe in a bit?” I answered.

Jordan followed my gaze and smiled when he saw Marc. “Sure kid. Take your time.”

“How’s your head,” I asked when Marc noticed me approaching.

He shrugged. “I could use a few ibuprofens. Or maybe some Cognac.” He patted a patch of grass and I plopped down next to him. My hand found his seemingly on its own. Like that’s where it belonged.

“Do I look as tired as you do,” I asked. His eyes were bloodshot, and his lids looked heavy.

“You look beautiful,” he replied.

I can barely keep my eyes open, I need a shower and I’ve had bedhead all day. I don’t look beautiful. I probably smell. Truthfully, he does too...

Still, it made me smile. “Thank for that lie,” I said. “You don’t have a concussion, right?”

He smiled. “What if we just sit here and watch the sunrise together?”

“That sounds a lot better than what we’ve been doing,” I replied. My head found his shoulder, and a yawn escaped my lips. “The tomb will be here tomorrow... If it’s even here.”

“If the story is true, it should be here,” Marc said. “The key was hidden after the Citadel was built. The ruins have been basically untouched since then. If the story is true...”

I looked down at the ruins. From this angle I could see both the parallel walls that marked the longest porting of the building. In places, the height of the wall reached over two stories in height, while in others, the outline of the foundation was now just piles of rubble anywhere from about my height to a few inches off the ground. I found Lucía ’s flashlight bobbing around the official catacomb entrance that had been filled with sand, and I tracked Jordan by his snoring. He was asleep under a tree.

I wanted nothing more than to close my eyes and do the same thing. Well, minus the snoring. Still, something had been nagging me for days, and I figured it was better to ask now, before things got too complicated. I took my head off Marc’s incredibly comfortable shoulder and asked, “Are you ready to tell me what upset you so much at the cabin?”

He didn’t look at me. He just shook his head no.

“You know you can tell me anything, right” I said.

“I wish I’d known you’d be like this,” he said, barely above a whisper.

“Like what?” I asked. “Sarcastic and goofy?”

He looked at me as he replied. “A real person.” He took my face in his hands and looked into my eyes. “Infuriating and sweet and wonderful.” He let go and turned away from me to stare back at the Abbey. “Not the cold, calculating ruler I was told to expect.”

Told by whom? Fran? Did she expect me to be more mature?

I was about to press him further when he said, “Well I’ll be damned.”

“What?” I asked.

“I think I just figured out the clue,” he answered.

“Just now?” I asked dubiously.

He nodded. “You see that circular area in front?” he asked. I nodded. The sun wasn’t up yet, but it was getting light enough to see. “Well, that’s the entrance, right?” I shrugged, but he didn’t see it because he wasn’t looking at me anymore. The wall goes off at right angles in both directions. Now see the load bearing columns on each side?”

“Sure,” I said. And then I got it. “You’ve got to be kidding me.” For the same amount of wall in each direction, there were two columns on the left and three on the right. Three load bearing columns were strength in excess of what was needed.

We both looked at each other and smiled.

“Let’s go get my sword,” I said. “We can catch some other sunrise.”

We actually ran to the middle pillar. Lucìa saw the commotion and met us there. She was the only one that wasn’t breathless when we arrived.

“What’s up,” she asked.

“This pillar’s a fake,” I said in between deep breaths.

Running’s for suckers. Still, I beat Marc by two lengths. Just saying.

“Look for a keyhole, hermana,” Marc added.

The pillars were thick square features, equally spaced, that jutted about six feet off the wall. We scoured every inch, and after about ten minutes of searching Lucìa called out, “I found something!”

What she found was a tiny rhino horn near the bottom face of the pillar that faced pillar one. We all crouched down for a better view.

“What did you find exactly?” I asked.

“It’s an etching of Oliphant, Roland’s horn,” Lucía replied.

“Ok, that’s really cool and all,” I replied, probably sounding snarkier that was intended. “but there’s no keyhole.”

Lucìa scratched at the grout below the brick, “The grout here is wider and a slightly different color. May I borrow Carnwennan?”

I clicked the release on my new sheath I’d found in the cabin, which kept my blade hidden vertically and upside down between my shoulder blades, and handed Carnwennan to Lucìa. She bent down and began to scrape at the grout.

I blew on my hands to warm them before shoving hem in the pocket of my hoodie. Marc came over and put his arms around me. I closed my eyes and leaned into him.

“Better?” he asked.

“Much,” I replied.

“I’m not going to do all the work here while you two flirt,” Lucía said.

“Is kissing ok?” I asked.

“I’m sure you could work while we kiss,” Marc said. He bent down to plant one on my cheek.

Lucía whirled around. Her look was somewhere between disbelief and annoyance.

“Maybe you could whistle,” he added. “Or hum. To block out the noises.” He smacked his lips for effect.

“Marc,” Lucía said firmly. “Why don’t you find where Jordan wandered off to.”

“I don’t know where Jordan is,” he replied.

“He’s sleeping under a tree,” I said. “I’ll show you.”

“No Kenz,” Lucía said. “I think it would be much more poignant to have you stay here with me and find the secret lever or whatever.”

Marc shrugged. “Point the way.”

I pointed, and he handed me the key and jogged off.

“I feel like a reprimand is coming,” I said.

She chipped away the old grout, and it came off in chunks.

“No, not a reprimand,” Lucía ’s back said to me as she worked. “Just a gentle warning that Marc is, number one a player, and number two, almost certainly keeping something from us. He really didn’t want to come here, remember? And why wouldn’t he let you knight him?”

“I really don’t know,” I said. “I was close to getting it out of him and then we figured out the riddle.”

“I recommend waiting till you have the answers before doing anything... that you may regret,” Lucía said. Another chunk of grout came out and she said, “Will you look at that.”

It was a keyhole that looked just the right size for a skeleton key. I slid the key into the lock and gave it a turn and was rewarded with a satisfying click. Then nothing. I gave it a push, but it didn’t budge at all.

“What now?” I asked.

“Maybe the door is stuck,” Lucìa answered. “It’s been closed for hundreds of years after all. Plus, you have noodle arms.”

“Hey!” I said.

“They’re beautiful noodle arms, but not ideal for pushing,” she amended.

She lined up next to me and we both pushed. It moved inward, but only about half an inch.

“It pains me to say this,” Lucía said, “but we need the boys.”

“Well,” I said breathlessly, “At least we know we’re in the right place.”

The sound of laughter alerted us that the boys were returning. I turned to see that Marc had Jordan in a headlock, and then Jordan just scooped Marc up like he was carrying a child. The laughter increased.

“Well,” Lucía said, “that’s something.”

“I’m almost feeling jealous,” I joked.

I guess Marc wanted to be in someone’s arms for the sunrise.

The sun was in fact beginning to peel over the horizon. I looked at my phone and winced.

“It’s almost six,” I said. “We need to get in and out before staff starts to arrive. A sword is gonna be pretty hard to hide under my shirt.”

Lucía raised her voice and said, “Hurry up. We need your help with the door.”

They immediately began to push when they arrived. The door slid about six inches further before they had to stop and rest.

After catching his breath, Jordan asked Lucìa, “You have strong legs, I assume?”

“I can squat one-eighty-five,” Lucìa answered. “Reps, not max.”

My bestie raised his eyebrows. “Ok then,” Jordan said. “Well, here’s what we’re going to do. Marc and I will stand and push because we’re both totally ripped.”

“And humble,” I added.

“Obviously,” he continued. “Lucia, you’ll sit between us and press with your long Wonder Woman legs.”

“It’s like you’re A+ in geometry is actually going to pay off,” I said. “What am I supposed to be doing?”

Jordan smirked. I narrowed my eyes in anticipation of snark. “Kenz, since you can barely squat your cat, your job is to sit back-to-back with Lucìa to brace her.”

“In my defense, Bennie Boo needs to be on a diet,” I answered.

After twenty seconds of pushing and grunting, I felt breeze of cold, musty air blew on the back of my neck. I turned to see what kind of progress we’d made and found about a half-foot gap between the wall and the edge of the door.

We flipped on the flashlight and peeked inside. A short tunnel to the left of the door cut straight through the original stone walls of the Abbey, and from there a rock stairwell spiraled steeply down into the dark. Dust hung in the air as we played the beams of our flashlights into the inky blackness.

“Should we close the door behind us,” Jordan asked.

“Only if you want to be trapped down here until we all starve to death,” Lucìa replied.

“Then we’ve got to move fast,” I said. “Someone’s bound to see the opening in the wall and come investigate.”

No one argued. Without further discussion, we lined up single file and made our way down the stairwell and into the crypt.