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Aidan mouthed the word “feathers,” leaving Cat snorting into her napkin.
“Sit down before you break a hip, you musty old fool,” Maude scolded.
Ignoring Maude’s unusual way with endearments, Daz fell into a chair. Opened the book to a dog-eared page. Pushed it across to Aidan with a dazzling smile. “I knew I’d a seen a mention of it somewhere.” He pointed to a paragraph halfway down that had been heavily underlined. “See? The Rywlkoth Tapestry. That’s the one.”
Aidan scanned the entry, his face hardening into grim lines. He looked up. “And you say this”—he flipped to the flyleaf then back to the proffered page—“Dudley Squires met a sticky end?”
Ahern nodded, his smile dimming. “Found dead in his bath.”
“What’s so mysterious about that?” Cat asked.
“He was fully dressed and missing his head.”
Cat grimaced. “Sorry I asked.” She turned her attention to Aidan, who remained stone silent, his gaze dark with some inner demon. “May I?” She slid the book from under his fingers. Read the underlined passage. And then a second time—more slowly—trying to take in the implications of Squires’s hypothesis. “The High King’s hidden tomb.” She glanced up. “That same term was mentioned in your father’s diary.”
“Apparently not so hidden if one has the tapestry,” Aidan said, coming out of his trance to top off his claret. Tossing it down as if it were water.
“A sort of a treasure map?” she asked, frowning her distaste. “Follow to where ‘X’ marks the spot and voila—Arthur?”
“It’s not as simple as that, Miss O’Connell. It’s a riddle. Instructions woven into the fabric only those with the knowledge might decipher.”
“Cat’s an expert at deciphering.” Aidan glanced her way with a possessive can’t-wait-to-get-you-in-bed stare that had Maude’s lips pursing to a white line of disapproval.
Cat felt the woman’s warning like a mental slap to the back of the head. A slap she chose to ignore.
“So if the tapestry finds you Arthur’s resting place, what’s the stone for?” Cat asked, firmly dismissing Maude’s intrusion.
Ahern snatched the book back from her. Flipped pages to get to the second bookmark. “Here.” Shoved it back into her hands.
Cat scanned the page, her turn to grind her teeth in growing fury. “The stone’s the key that releases the protective wards. Why such safeguards?”
Ahern cast her a look like she’d taken leave of her senses. Not so far off. Here she sat discussing the reincarnation of a king as nonchalantly as if she were conversing about a visit from some family friend.
“It was Arthur,” he said in a tone clearly implying she was daft to even ask such a question. “Those who attended his death and saw to his burial knew the importance of the last Other king and his legacy to our race. To protect his eternal sleep, they hid the tomb. Warded it against any trespass.”
“Then why keep a map and a stone as if tempting someone to use them? Doesn’t seem an intelligent idea on the part of those so-called protectors.”
“According to the legends, an attendant kept eternal vigil within the tomb,” Daz explained as if she were a rather slow-witted convalescent. “Every year the guard changed in a ritual handover. The map and the stone would be the only way to gain access.”
“But if the map and stone are lost—”
“Somewhere there’s an attendant left unrelieved,” Aidan ended her sentence on a solemn intonation.
Ahern fluttered. “It’s a hypothesis only. No one knows if the tapestry and stone are anything more than grand hoaxes or if they lead to anything.”
“My father believed it. So did Brendan. And they managed to convince plenty of others.”
“But they’re dead. All of them. The Amhas-draoi ended it. The Nine are gone.”
“Not all of them. You said it yourself, Daz. One of them survived. And he’s set his killer on our trail. He wants the diary, and he’s prepared to kill to gain it. Now we know why.”
“But Brendan has the stone already,” Cat reasoned. “It said so in the letter your father wrote. Brendan took the stone and your father took the tapestry.”
“So Brendan’s back to find out the tapestry’s hiding place. He must think Father wrote where he hid it in the diary.”
“Brendan?” Ahern asked.
“It seems as if my brother’s not so disappeared after all.”
