England 2010
The Nuns gathered in the great hall, eating their meal in relative silence. It had been two days since the tragedy and though they knew the Mother Superior had died, they had been told it had been natural causes. Sister Bernice had been sworn to secrecy, the explanation being that there was no need to worry the rest of the order. None of the Nuns were allowed outside of the walls after dark, and Maximillian and his son, Jacob, patrolled the corridors at night. Despite all this, Bernice still felt uneasy. She had never questioned the way of the order before but could not understand why they just didn’t call the police. Agnes had spent a lot of time with her in the last two days, trying to convince her that it was in everybody’s interest to keep the tragedy within the realms of the order, though despite Bernice’s protestations, she would not tell her exactly why. All she would say is that they nurtured a sacred secret and if the outside world came snooping around, then that secret could be lost forever. Bernice was also reassured that steps had been taken to protect the order and that very soon she would be initiated into the senior order, and, when that happened, everything would be revealed to her.
The meal continued in silence. Every thought was with the mother superior, now laying at rest in the order’s crypt beneath their feet. The seals had been replaced on the crypt and the Sisters were partaking of their last meal before a day of fasting. Once again Bernice sat alongside Sister Suzanna.
‘How are you coping?’ asked Suzanna in concern.
‘Not very well, in truth,’ she answered.
‘She had a good life,’ said Suzanna, ‘And it was her time. You even said yourself she was not looking well.’
Bernice stared at her friend, desperate to blurt out the true horror of what she had seen yet keeping her silence due to her loyalty to the order.
‘Oh, Sister,’ she said, ‘One day, when this is all over perhaps I will share my burden with you. In the meantime, I just need to get through the next few days. I may need your support.’
Suzanna took her hand and smiled.
‘I am here for you Bernice,’ she said and they both turned back to their meagre meal.
— -
Brandon and India walked around the inner walls of the church looking for any sign of the carving. Ten minutes later they met again near the altar.
‘Any sign?’ asked Brandon
‘Nothing,’ said India, ‘But it could be anywhere. What about the back rooms?’
‘All locked,’ he said.
‘Can’t you open them with that thingy?’ she asked.
‘I could but will take a while,’ he said. ‘Tell me, why is it so important we find this carving? It’s not as if it is the actual Palladium.’
‘No but if it proves the Temple was actually a Vestal Temple then it may prove that Rubria came here all that time ago. If we can prove that, we are one step nearer finding the Palladium.’
‘Come on then,’ sighed Brandon, ‘Let’s get started.’
For the next few hours they searched the small church for any sign of the carving without any luck. Finally they came back to the seats before the altar and sat on one of the pews.
‘I can’t believe we done all this for nothing,’ said India.
‘Never mind,’ said Brandon, ‘Let’s get out of here.
As they stood up, they heard the sound of the front doors creaking open and they stopped dead in their tracks.
‘Someone’s coming,’ whispered India.
They ducked behind the altar and peered towards the far end of the church.
A figure entered the gloom and paused at the end of the aisle.
‘Who is it?’ asked India.
‘A woman,’ said Brandon, ‘Cleaner, I expect.’
‘Do you think she seen us?’ asked India.
I don’t think so, said Brandon, though we can’t get out that way anymore.’
‘Shit, she is coming!’ hissed India, ‘We have to find somewhere to hide.’
Brandon grabbed her arm.
‘No time!’ he said, Come on, there has to be another way out. He led her back towards the rear of the church, following the short corridor towards a single door.’
‘We don’t have time to pick the lock,’ said India.
‘No need,’ said, Brandon with a smirk and pointed at the chrome push bar that looked so out of place on the old oak door. ‘Fire-escape,’ he said simply, ‘Good old heath and safety!’ He operated the mechanism and led her out of the door into the cemetery at the rear of the church.
‘Quickly!’ said Brandon and pulled her along the wall towards the wooded area of the cemetery. Suddenly India tripped and sprawled into the undergrowth of an unkempt grave.
Brandon turned to help.
‘You okay?’ he asked.
‘I think I’ve twisted my ankle!’
‘Let me help,’ he said.’ He bent down to help her to her feet, but as she looked up at him her gaze focussed on something behind his head.
‘What’s the matter?’ he asked.
‘Look!’ said India, ‘Up there on the wall. All that searching and it was outside all this time.’
Brandon followed her gaze and for a few moments, both people stood gazing up at the relief of a figure, set into the church wall a few feet above their heads.
The carving was set back in an arched alcove, carved out of a single piece of marble. It stood out from the rest of the wall as it contrasted against the dull greyness of the local stone and looked slightly out of place. Within the alcove was the image of a figure wearing a toga, and, though badly weathered, enough detail was still visible to see the outline of long hair suggesting it was female. What was more important, was what she was holding in her right hand.
Reaching half way up the body was a representation of a staff, on top of which stood the worn remains smaller figure. The pole was thicker than you would assume a staff to be and on closer inspection, they could make out that it was enwrapped with some sort of vine or serpent.
‘That’s it,’ said India in awe. ‘That’s the Palladium!’
‘Are you sure?’ asked Brandon.
‘Well, obviously it’s not the actual palladium,’ said India, ‘But certainly a representation of it. The statuette of Pallus Athena atop the staff is weathered away, but you can see where it once was.’
‘Fair play, India,’ said Brandon. ‘It seems you were right. It looks like Rubria might have brought the Palladium here all that time ago, after all.’
‘Doesn’t tell us where it is now though,’ said India.
Brandon snapped to his senses.
‘No time for that,’ he said, ‘We’ve got the proof we needed, now lets get out of here.’ He helped her towards the perimeter wall, supporting her weight as she limped along. Within a few minutes they were in the car.
‘Where are we going?’ asked India
‘Get that foot seen to first,’ he answered, Then somewhere to rest until we make some sense of this.’
The car sped away into the encroaching darkness, the occupants conscious that they were getting closer to solving the mystery, but completely unaware they were being watched from the church tower.
Jason Venezelos sat in the one room of the squalid bed-sit he had called home for the past few weeks. It was dirty, sparsely furnished, and smelled badly of the recent, down on their luck occupants who had hidden away from the prying eyes of society as they plied their trade in sex and drugs. Ordinarily, he would not have even considered such a place, but the back street location in the sleazy part of town and the greed of the landlord who was only interested in the money he offered, meant it was perfect for his needs, anonymity.
He paid in cash, kept his head down and made sure he did not draw attention to himself, eating at grubby takeaways and changing his routine daily as he went about his business.
When they had first arrived in England, he and his brother has rented a small flat but when Peter failed to return one evening he knew there was a possibility that he had been caught or worse. The brothers had made a pact, that should anything happen to either, then the other would continue in their quest so he had left the flat in a hurry and found the sleazy bed-sit in a nearby town.
The two Greek brothers had been in the UK for six months, following the leads they had been given back in Rome. At first it had been exciting and they had embarked on their quest in a haze of patriotism. However, after the first few weeks the trail had grown cold and their enquiries had drawn nothing new. The lack of progress was frustrating and they were on the point of giving up when fate stepped in to lend them a hand. Jason Venezelos had been researching their own country’s history, taking advantage of the free internet access in the local library when a Google search pulled up the image of a very interesting coin. Further investigation had revealed the owner was looking for identification and valuation, but to Jason, it was priceless and exactly what they had been looking for. A couple of false e mails later they had managed to set up a meeting with the man with a view to purchasing the coin.
That’s when it had started to go so wrong. The man had refused to sell and the conversation had got heated. In the end a scuffle broke out and only the intervention of a passer by stopped the fight getting worse. The brothers had ran but soon doubled back and followed him back to his home, For several days they watched him, never managing to get close, but, finally, the opportunity arose when he had visited a library and showed the coin to the librarian. When he left the library the brothers made their move but Peter had lost his temper and used his knife on the man. They immediately knew the wound was fatal, and what made matters worse, was the fact that he didn’t have the coin after all but had left it in the library.
Everything was going wrong but despite his pleas to his brother to flee the country and return home, Peter had insisted on returning that night and breaking into the library to retrieve the coin, torching the building to hide their tracks.
Jason sliced off another wafer of cheese from the block he had bought the night before, chewing slowly as he stared at a spider making its way across the peeling wallpaper. Since that night the situation had escalated. A policeman was obviously on their trail and Peter had set out one night to warn him off, and that was the last he had seen of his brother. In the meantime, Jason had relocated to this slum and kept his head down. He finished his meal before throwing the remains across the room. He picked up his rucksack and left the room without a backward glance. He knew that whatever happened, he wouldn’t be returning here again.