Betrayed (18 page)

“Sorry, my friend,” he said, looking down at the dying sailor, “but there can be no witnesses. The stakes are simply too high.”

Throwing the dagger next to Thomas's body, Black Douglas ascended up into the blue sky to the cheers of the adoring crowd. He grabbed a hold of a loading rope and swung both himself and the princess to the safety of the dock. A moment later, the ship lurched sharply and descended like a rock into its shallow, watery grave.

Prince Henry stared at the door. Connor looked around at the stunned faces in the small gathering. Returning his gaze to the perplexed look on his hero's face only added to his growing anxiety. Antonio Zeno finally broke the silence by putting a hand on the prince's shoulder.

“Don't worry. They'll come for us.”

It seemed to take a minute for the statement to sink in. The prince slowly shook his head. He turned to his friend. “A rescue? Unlikely, if not impossible. We'd starve or suffocate before they even came close to rebuilding the dyke, draining the bay, then emptying out the entranceway.”

Connor shot Angus a look of horror. Angus, however, was focused on the conversation and not its meaning. He must be in shock, Connor mused. He looked past Angus to the corner of the library. Na'gu'set had retreated to the wall, sat down cross-legged in a corner, closed his eyes and begun a silent prayer.

“What about the excavation tunnel?” asked Antonio.

Prince Henry looked up at the ceiling above their heads. “It would take weeks to reassemble the winch then dig their way back down, with a high likelihood of setting off the booby traps and thereby drowning us all.”

Silence again reclaimed the small group of men. Antonio began to pace back and forth, refusing to give up. “The dam
obviously gave way,” he said, deep in thought. “What do you suppose caused it?”

Prince Henry shrugged. “There was a storm brewing when we entered. Perhaps the winds suddenly picked up to hurricane strength, allowing the waves to weaken the dam until it burst.”

“But the coffer dam was over ten feet thick!” argued Antonio. “I can't imagine the structure going so fast. And where was the warning of the disaster? Surely someone would have noticed the breach in the dam. We could have been warned well before the bay filled up to the point where the water would reach the entranceway.”

Prince Henry shrugged. “I wish I had the answers, Antonio. We won't know what really happened until we get back to the surface.”

Connor's heart jumped at the ray of hope. “You mean we can get out, Prince Henry? I thought we were going to either starve or suffocate.”

Prince Henry turned and faced the young man. “I built this library and resting place for Mary Magdalene, not us.”

Antonio raised his eyebrow. “Oh, you have a plan, do you? I can't wait to hear it. Are we going to make like a pack of badgers and dig our way out?”

“Ye of little faith,” smiled the prince. “Didn't I tell you that I also helped design this temple?”

“Aye, I know you did,” grumbled Zeno. “I saw the plans too, remember? If I recall, you had the greatest engineers in Europe make this library so that it was impenetrable.”

“Aye, from the outside,” agreed the prince.

“But we're on the inside,” pointed out Angus.

“Correct. That might be what will save our lives.”

Prince Henry wheeled around and walked briskly across the room. Antonio shrugged to the others and followed the prince. Angus and Connor did likewise. Prince Henry went to a large bookshelf opposite the entranceway. On his toes, he reached up and pulled out a long, sealed metal tube. They gathered around a large table with a golden replica of the Last Supper sitting in the corner. They moved the pieces of art and placed them on the floor. Connor had grabbed the figurine sitting to the left of Jesus. There was something unusual about the shape of the figurine. He paused, looked down and realized the figurine was feminine, unlike the others in the set. Shrugging, he ignored the minor mystery and placed the figurine on the floor with the others. The boys jumped as the prince cracked the end of the tube hard against the edge of the table.

“Apologies for the noise,” he said. “All the materials in the entire library have been placed in waterproof containers. I have to break the protective seal to get at the plans.”

He reached into the tube, pulled out a large roll of paper, then flattened the paper on the table. “This is a copy of the design the engineers used to build the library. As you can see, the library is here in the centre of the island, one hundred and twenty feet below the surface, and to the left is the entranceway that slopes downward from the bay to the centre of the island.”

“Is that vertical rectangle above the library the excavation shaft you mentioned earlier?” asked Connor.

Prince Henry nodded. “You arrived when we were in the final stages of disassembling the large winch which was used for removing the dirt, clay and rock from the chamber area.”

“Then can't they just dig back down through the shaft to rescue us?” asked Connor.

“It's not that simple,” explained the prince. “Do you see the smaller tunnel moving to the right of the excavation tunnel? It is part of an elaborate flooding system designed to thwart anyone unfamiliar with the temple from ever entering it. Both the entranceway and excavation pit are rigged to flood with seawater should anyone try to dig down to the temple from above.”

“Since it's very unlikely anyone else will ever find out that I said this,” said Antonio, “I have to admit Prince Henry's design is a work of genius.”

The prince grinned. “Antonio, did I just hear you offer me a compliment?”

“On the other hand,” replied Zeno, “how many geniuses are so smart that they end up catching themselves within their own perfect trap?”

“Oh really, Antonio. For someone who has survived many close brushes with death, I'm surprised that you, of all people, would give up so easily.”

Zeno shook his head. “My friend, if you get us out of this one, I will climb up to the top of the mast in Princess Sarah's underwear.”

Prince Henry shook his head. “Not good enough. You also have to be playing the bagpipes.”

Zeno cringed. “All right! I'll climb up in her underwear while playing that sad excuse for a musical instrument that you call the bagpipes!”

Even Connor and Angus managed a grin at the ridiculous image, realizing the men were trying to lighten the mood.

“Aye, then, what do you think, lads? Is that worth the
challenge? Personally, I would dig us to the other side of the Earth with my bare hands in order to see my Italian friend playing the pipes in my sister's skivvies.”

“It would be a sight,” agreed Angus.

Prince Henry turned to Zeno. “You realize I'll have to have all of the lasses present for the ceremony as well.”

“Invite every woman in the entire world to stand on the deck, for all I care!” cried Zeno. “I can't see you ever getting us out of here!”

Na'gu'set finished his meditation and joined the group. The men and boys poured over the plans. Connor and Angus quizzed Zeno and Prince Henry about the flooding system, the distances to the surface and the construction of the tunnels. Na'gu'set pointed out the slight differences in topography of the island that were not present in the diagram. After several minutes of brainstorming, even Prince Henry was beginning to look despondent. They tried to think of ways the men on the surface might mount a rescue operation. They debated other possible excavations, the rebuilding of the dam or even someone attempting to swim down the long entranceway. Every idea was quickly shot down as hopeless. There simply wasn't another way up to the surface.

Connor's thoughts wheeled within his head as he scanned the island diagram for the umpteenth time. His eyes noticed something about the flooding tunnels.

“Prince Henry, is there any way for us to travel back to the surface through the flooding tunnels?”

“That's a good thought, Connor, but we purposely built them to a size so small that a man couldn't travel through them. They're barely two feet wide.”

“And besides,” added Zeno, “how would you get to
them? If we went up through the ceiling to the bottom of the excavation tunnel, we would set off the flooding mechanism and drown us all.”

Connor continued to ponder, his eyes never leaving the map. “What is this large area down here, below the temple?”

“That,” explained Prince Henry, “is a large natural cavern located directly below us. This whole island is virtually made of waterproof clay. Even though the cavern is below ocean level, it is watertight and full of breathable air.”

“Do we have access to it?”

“Aye, we do. Where do you think all of the water went with the flood?”

For the first time, the boys noticed that they were not sloshing around in water. A huge amount had spilled into the temple before they were able to close the door.

“I had hidden grates built into the floor of the temple. The cavern below is a natural phenomenon that we discovered during the excavation process, so we incorporated our good fortune into the plan. If small amounts of water leaked into the chamber, it would simply drain down into the cavern below, leaving the temple high and dry.”

“What's going on in that young mind of yours, Connor?” asked Zeno. “Unfortunately, the chamber takes you further down into the earth. We want to go the other way.”

Connor moved his finger along the map. “Most of the cavern is below us, but your map has a section of it going up towards the flooding tunnel. See? Right there.”

Zeno nodded. “When excavating that section of the flooding tunnel, the men started a slight cave-in into the cavern. We had to reinforce that part of the system and waterproof it in order to maintain the floodway's integrity.”

A smile began to creep across Prince Henry's face. “Are you suggesting that we try to go up through the bottom of the flooding tunnel that is exposed in the cavern and escape that way?”

“Even if we could,” said Angus, “you said that a person would never fit through the tunnel.”

“I said a full-grown man,” corrected Prince Henry. “Antonio and I wouldn't have a chance, probably not Angus either with his wide shoulders. But our young friend Connor, here, and possibly Na'gu'set . . .”

All eyes turned to them.

Na'gu'set rested a hand on Connor's shoulder. “While praying, I asked the Great Spirit for guidance. I was told through a vision that the answer would come through this one.”

“Na'gu'set. Connor. Stand back to back,” Prince Henry ordered.

Connor reluctantly turned and lined up against Na'gu'set. Na'gu'set's long, lean body must have been a good three inches taller than his own embarrassingly short, skinny frame. Zeno and Prince Henry circled the two and nodded approvingly.

“Look at that. Almost exactly the same shoulder width. You know, they might be able to pull it off.”

Connor shifted uncomfortably. He wondered what his suggestion was getting him into. Perhaps any crazy idea was worth exploring at this point. Death, even in a beautiful temple containing the remains of Mary Magdalene, was not an option. He had to somehow help his friends out of this grim situation.

“But how do we get up there?” Angus said, pointing back to the map and the high ceiling of the cavern. “It looks like quite a distance from the cavern floor, and I don't see anything
here in the temple that looks even remotely like a ladder.”

Zeno tapped the area at the bottom of the cavern. “We might find something useful in the bottom of the pit. Instead of hauling all of the unusable building material back up to the surface, we simply threw it down into the cavern. No one would ever see it there, and it saved us a lot of time and energy.”

Prince Henry stepped back and broke into a big smile. “Good work, gentlemen. I believe we have a plan.” He left the table and began pacing around the tiles near the entranceway. Slowly, he spiralled in on a section of glittering geometric tile that shimmered blue and gold.

“The location of the hidden grate is encoded in the tiles itself,” said Zeno, seeing the confusion on the faces of the young men. “He's looking for where the similar-shaped tiles come together with multiple points of symmetry. That will be the hiding place of the grate handle.”

The boys looked at each other as if he were speaking a foreign language.

Zeno shrugged. “The masons who built this chamber love that sort of stuff.”

Prince Henry stopped, bent down and carefully removed two loose tiles from the floor. He hooked his fingers into the small openings, leaned back and heaved. With a slight scraping sound, the floor opened up, revealing a dark, square opening. Putting down the section of flooring, The prince picked up a nearby oil lamp.

“May I suggest that we implement our plan immediately? I feel it's about time my blessed ancestor gets the silence and peace she so greatly deserves.”