The Royal Stones of Eden (Royal Secrecies Book 1) (21 page)

“It was long before I fought with King Richard in the land of the Christ. I remember living in a land I scarcely know details about. I cannot even remember its name. Was it called Laish, or was it Dan? I know you think I may be mad, but I remember another life and another person. It has haunted me in the dead of the night many times.

“I remember a great leader called Danaus that led a group of freed slaves out of Egypt, through old Syria. I feel like I was part of that group somehow, like I was actually there.”

“Go on, I believe you. Please go on.”—Merlin’s insistence encouraged me to speak further.
      

“Danaus and his descendants,” I told him, “traveled in ships and gradually left Syria and migrated into Greece and beyond. The people of Danaus, or the Danes, as they were called, moved into Greece and merged with a new people, the Romans. The tribe of Danaus gradually lost their identity—it faded as the centuries past. Many became known as Macedonians instead of Danes, while others became Picts, or Zarians. There were many names, and many of them ended up eventually on the soil of the Saxons, or the Franks. From Egypt, they traveled through their generations and migrations to the British Isles.

“They organized themselves into kingdoms, instead of tribes, and they were lead by kings. They were the Celts, the Saxons, and the Franks, although many of the Franks settled off the island, southward of it. The Kingdom of the Scotti and the Picts took the land furthest to the north of the islands.

“The once strong tribe of Danaus was broken up, but with one exception. There was a group who kept a sacred treasure. The treasure was from Egypt, composed of sacred and ancient stones and gems. With the treasure, there were iron swords and spears. There were containers of gold that held the treasures. The knowledge of the treasure was kept secret to the point that only a select few knew about it. The few that did know about it divided their own knowledge. No
one
person knew the exact location of
all
of the treasure. No
one
person knew what exact power was in their possession. No
one
person knew how to activate the power. However, everyone in this group knew instinctively that they possessed a royal and an ancient secret. The secret of a great power was in their possession.

“Marian had a red stone that she wore around her neck. She said that her stone spoke to her. It guided her, she told me. I suspected it a mere superstition and dismissed it, but then something happened that confirmed the power of their influence.

“One night, she wakened me and told me that the stone spoke to her. It told her in a vision, she claimed, that our camp would be raided on the following morning. Being a responsible leader of a group of stealthy soldiers in the foreign land of Egypt, I ordered our group to relocate, merely as a precaution, and to silence the concerns of Marian, who tormented me on the matter. A messenger came to our men the next day. He explained that a band of thieves had taken over our former position and had burned and torched three cities in their efforts. We had been saved by the power of her mystical stone. It was then that I partially believed in it.

“Marian’s mother told her that there were once ancient and royal stones of the pharaohs—and even before them—and these stones possessed great power over time and space. She said that she did not believe everything that her mother told her, but the power of the red stone made her believe that at least some truth was possible in her mother’s legends. I did not argue with her, although there was a part of me that thought that the red stone story was myth or coincidence.

“Then I a met a man later in Nottingham who claimed he had been part of a group called the Guardians, or Knights. He joined our group of forest rebellers against the Normans. He was an old man, and I accepted his help. I hired him as a cook, for he was too old to fight.

“In those days, my men fought against the greed of landowners, their taxes, and their enforcer, the Sheriff of Nottingham. During one of our battles, the old man foolishly attempted to help us on the battlefield, but he died from a stray arrow. He died in my arms and gave me his entire possessions, a bag of gold, and two stones. He told me to guard the bag with my life. One stone was blue, and one was white, or sand colored. He said that they had great power that no evil one should possess.

“The bag in its appearance was plain, and the stones of blue and white had a scribbled snake emblem on them. It was then that I started to recall some kind of ancient past regarding a snake. I recalled it to be a symbol that a tribe once displayed. I thought it might be a memory that I was once involved in. I did not exactly know. I only recalled that the snake seemed to symbolize the message of a people. The mark of the snake symbolized a journey, a journey that left behind its influence as the group of people slithered or migrated through many lands.

“In the very dark corner of the bag, I found a green stone. This is the stone that I am wearing even now.

“I shared the story of the dying man with Marian, who compared the old man’s words with the words of her mother. Marian’s mother had told her of two similar stones, one of blue, and one of white. They had the power to remove someone from danger and to deliver them to a place of safety. Her mother said that the stones, together with a stone of green, could transport one to a place of safety in the time past.

“I refused to believe in the old man’s words, or the words of Marian’s mother. I was a skeptic from the beginning, with only a possible belief in Marian’s prophetic abilities. I thought Marian was a seer, but I thought that her visions had little to do with her red stone around her neck. I could not deny, however, or even explain my own memories of another time and another place. That was my personal mystery.

“Then, during another battle with the Sheriff, there came an opportunity to test the possible power of the stones. The kings in that day took over many lands for purposes of providing areas of exclusive hunting for the royalty. Hundreds of families, over several generations, lost their own lands as a result of pillaging by a king’s army. Our own money to finance our campaigns was difficult to obtain. So, we obtained our wealth from the lords that we saw as corrupt. We used that money that we stole to fight the ones that were victims of our thievery.

“My ancestors, grandparents and beyond, had been victims of the abuse of power. My family history contained the displacement of families out of the hunting forest. Kings like William the Conqueror made forest laws that allowed the blinding or killing of anyone that killed a deer that belonged to a king. William’s son, King Rufus, followed in his footsteps.

“In our search for money, there was a suggestion made by one of my men, John. He thought we could obtain some rare objects that were said to be in some castle ruins, not far from Nottingham. John suggested that we find and sell the objects, in order to finance our war with the kings that had taken our lands.”

Merlin interrupted me, “But I don’t understand. You fought with King Richard! King Richard had possessed lands and displaced families as well! Why did you unite with such a king, given your family history and motives for revenge for your family’s honor?”

“Marian and I became Christians in Wessex,” I told him. “I eventually forgave the past hurts and dismissed them. I was attracted to the vision of King Richard and his holy quest. It is true that he disguised himself as a Knight Templar and that he used his role to kill and to exploit...but...something happened in the forest of Hampshire that altered my mind and course of direction.”

“You Christians have killed many a soul in the name of a carpenter from Nazareth!”—Merlin interjected and denounced emphatically,“Damn you!”

“Maybe so, but hear the rest of my tale,” I pleaded. “During one campaign, it was rumored that an ancient sword—‘The Sword of Gath’—and an ancient spear—‘The Spear of Gath’—were held and locked in a treasure room. It was said that they were in the ruins of a castle long since destroyed by invaders. The legend said that men of renown, about a hundred years earlier, had secured these treasures, while they illegally made corrupted coinage for the king. The coins made were not genuine. The men sold the copper that was supposed to be in the coins, and then they used the stolen copper to finance their secret operations. They distributed, in the name of the king, coins that were not legitimate, being made with other metals in place of the copper. They were counterfeiting the king’s money.

“These men were possessors of great treasures and ancient knowledge, it was said. It was John that suggested, very strongly to me, that we might somehow find the Sword of Gath and other possessions in the ruins, even valuable stones and gems, where the coin makers once forged their metals—and, once obtained, sell the treasures for our own benefit.”

“But the sword, stones and the treasures were not there as expected!”—Merlin told me with a smirk—as if he had suspected that.

“No, they were not there,” I admitted to Merlin. “And, when we arrived at the ruins, we were attacked by the Sheriff. John and I hid behind a mound for cover, while enemy arrows sailed toward us. My bag of stones from the old man fell to the ground, and they spilled out of the bag. John fell to the ground too—but he had arrows in his shoulder and thigh.

“I quickly crouched down and picked up the stones and put them in my bag. I saw John was in great pain, and he reached out his hand to me. I grabbed his hand, and then an event happened that changed my beliefs in the stones from Egypt forever.

“At that very moment, John and I were transported to another place and to another time. The mound was gone. The arrow in John’s shoulder was gone, and the men were gone. The enemies that had come upon us in surprise were all gone.

“The place was different. Instead of being in an open field, we were in a deep forest. We heard a horse approach and quickly found cover behind some trees. John and I were shocked by the event, but we saw the chance to raid a nobleman. We temporarily forgot our sudden and extraordinary experience, and we focused on the monetary opportunity.

“I instinctively reached for my quill and bow and found it there still on my neck and shoulder. My bag of gems, the ones that I had secured before our sudden trip, was secured tightly around my waist. John motioned upward toward an advantageous branch above us, and we both climbed up to the inviting branches of the tree.

“The rider approached, and John jumped down and knocked him to the ground. Then I jumped down in haste as well. John withdrew a knife from his boot and held it to the man’s throat in a most threatening manner, and I held an aimed arrow at the man’s heart.

“He said, after some coercion, that his name was Henry, and that he was the brother of King William Rufus. He rode into the forest in a fit of rage because of his brother. There had been a fight, and he had scars on his face that seemed to back up his story. We talked for a long time. We killed a rabbit, an act probably against his brother’s law, and we feasted and conversed near a stream where there was water to drink.

“We confided to Henry that we were on the quest for the Sword of Gath, and Henry said that he knew of its exact location. We both agreed about the reputation of his brother. His brother and his father had done a great evil when they killed and displaced the families in the forest. So, we made a bargain.

“Seeking to obtain the sword, although I was still unsure how I and my companion would ever return, I made a bargain of great importance with Henry. I said that his life would be spared if I had the Sword of Gath. In return, I would help to make him the next king, if he could lure his brother into the forest.

“It was evident during our lengthy conversation with Henry, that John and I had been transported back in time—about a hundred years, although we did not tell Henry about this. Henry assumed that we were bandits, and he was simply using it to his own personal and political advantage. Henry went on and on about acknowledging Anglo-Saxon ways and traditions—as if that was supposed to command some loyalty within us.”

“So you killed Rufus, and Henry became the next king!” Merlin asked me.

“Yes,” I confessed. “But somehow, when my arrow pierced the lung of King Rufus, I did not seem to be quite satisfied. I realized that the country,
our
country, would fare better if everyone would unite, instead of living in segregation, living in fear of other local kingdoms. Was this the end of things, I thought—one family fighting another—and so on—and so on. I thought the whole thing futile.

“Yes, it is true that I seemed a hypocrite in many ways, but John saw my point as well. Fighting alongside a king that supported the ideals of planting a united and Christian society seemed right and good.”

“The end justifies the means?” Merlin scorned.

“Exactly,” I admitted. “When the deed was done—when the murder was committed, John and I were forced to run and hide. Men quickly gathered and sought the killer of the king. During our escape, we heard the sounds of soldiers running after us. We ran through the woods with great speed. I reached into my bag. I held the stones. I grabbed John’s hand, to see if the magic would work again. I did not care about obtaining the great sword anymore. I wanted to save our lives. For you see, Henry had only agreed to bring me the sword after the murder was committed. We did not yet have the sword that we had bargained for.

“The magic worked again. Suddenly, we were in a place about a hundred years later, not far from where we were when we left. We were at a safe distance away from our prior conflict, but we were close enough to see all of our men massacred and disemboweled. John and I shared an experience that connected us from then on.