“Doesn’t the Templar’s Round Church in London have some of these?”
He gave her an appraising look. “You do know your history.”
“Or else I watch the right movies,” she replied with a smile. “So you’re saying that this proves someone came here before Columbus? But it doesn’t prove whom.”
“I’ll argue that point,” Lucas said. “Knights were often buried where they had fallen during those times. The research that has been done on this particular coat of arms shows that the brooch is a design used by a maternal branch of the Scottish Sinclairs.” He pointed toward the ship. “This type of galley came from the Norse, and the Norse line on Orkney was the Sinclair bloodline. This Shield was found to belong to the clan of Gunn, which was a branch of the Sinclairs and, in particular, it belonged to Sir James Gunn, who accompanied Henry Sinclair on his voyage to Nova Scotia.”
Sara let the information sink in. “Then you’re saying that they were here? In Massachusetts? In the 1300s?”
Lucas nodded. “There’s a second stone with very similar carvings in the Fletcher library here. We’ll take a look at it before we head south.”
A short time later, they were back in the car and headed toward the southeastern coast. Since Lucas didn’t want to spoil his next surprise, they talked of current events, listened to music on the radio and, when they stopped for a late lunch near Falls River, got into an a friendly argument over whether the Americans who still painted black and white stripes around their chimneys in New England really were Tories as their ancestors had been.
“I mean, it’s not like they’re terrorists or anything,” Sara said as she took a bite of flaky baked cod.
Lucas’s mood sobered. “Terrorists. Balor has managed to take a peaceful religion and turn it into something monstrous.”
Sara tilted her head. “You say his name strangely. Baa-lor. Is that the Scottish way of saying it?”
He hesitated. “Aye. You could say that. Adam Baylor may very well be named after the Celtic god of the evil eye.”
She creased her brow, thinking. “Wasn’t he cursed to be killed by his own grandson so he tried to keep his daughter from getting pregnant, only she did anyway and he threw the baby into the sea? And a sea god rescued the child?”
“So the story goes.”
“Ah, well,” she said, “that story has been passed along in other myths too. Taliesin, the Great Bard, was said to have been given to the sea. There’s even a version of King Arthur gathering boy babies and setting them adrift in order to make sure his incest-begotten son, Mordred, was killed.”
“Arthur would never do such a thing.”
She looked at him, puzzled. He looked so serious. To lighten his mood, she laughed. “Were you there?”
He started and then he smiled. “That would be hard to do, wouldn’t it?” He picked up the check. “Let’s go. I still have things to show you.”
They drove a short way to where the Taunton River emptied into Assonet Bay. On the east side of the bay, Lucas pointed out a large rock with symbols inscribed in it that were of the same style used in the inscription on the knight’s effigy. “It’s called Dighton Rock. More mid-1300s,” he said. “Do you remember Longfellow’sSkeleton in Armor?”
“That was about a Viking warrior, wasn’t it?”
“Longfellow’s version. The skeleton of a knight in armor really was found here. It was actually preserved until the mid-1840s when a fire destroyed the museum. One more thing,” Lucas said as they drove on.
They stopped in Newport, Rhode Island, near the water and got out. A round tower of gray stone greeted Sara. A series of eight ten-foot-high arches rose from the ground with a floor built across them. The walls of the tower itself were three feet thick.
“What is it?” Sara asked. ‘Who built it?”
Lucas shrugged. “It could have been an early lighthouse. There’s a hearth of sorts in the middle of the floor.” He pointed to the ledges around the edges. “There are torch holders there. Maybe it was used as an astronomy center, a solar/lunar indicator.” He squinted up against the sunlight to look at it. “Some say the Vikings built it. But its design is the same as the Templar churches, round with eight arches.”
“So you think the Templars were here? That the Spear may be here?” She felt a slight shiver begin in her spine. Could they really be that near?
He smiled. “No Spear. The place has been too cleaned out. But the Templars… I think Henry Sinclair was here. He was the guardian of the treasure. The symbolism of the tower is strong.Eight is the number of infinity and the circle never ends. I think he built this to let a future seeker know that the Hallows are eternal and that they are here in the United States.”
“So where do we start to look now?”
Lucas shook his head. “The clue must be in the verse.”
“Where roses climb to heaven…” Sara said. “Roses are symbolic of the feminine and ancient goddess worship…” She rubbed her temples, sure that another “vision” headache was coming on, and wondered if Lucus would massage her head again like he’d done before. His touch really was magic.Stop it. Don’t spoil the day with fantasizing about something I can’t have. Shouldn’t have. Can’t have…Stop it!
He was looking at her strangely. “Are you feeling all right?”
She took a deep breath. “I’m okay. My head’s just spinning with all these thoughts. The Sinclair tomb at Rosslyn—the Guardian’s tomb, I think you called it—had a Sword and a tall Chalice engraved on its top with the face forward and the rose cross plainly visible. Arosecross.” Her head felt like it was going to launch itself off her shoulders. “The rose is also the symbol for Mary Magdalene. Didn’t the Templars dedicate their churches to her?”
