Fifteen minutes later, Sean stopped the SUV at the foot of a ridge where the road came to a sudden end. The mountain rose up four or five hundred feet from the desert floor, jutting up suddenly like a giant ripple in the earth’s surface. He got out of the vehicle and grabbed a bottle of water from his backpack before slinging it over one shoulder. A few hundred feet up the side of the hill, the mountain appeared to level off a bit. That must be where the cave is, he thought.
He trudged up the steep hillside, weaving his way between huge rocks and tall strands of prairie grass. His legs burned, and the heat of the bright sunshine baked his skin, even though he’d only been out there for a few minutes. One thing Sean had learned about the dry heat of the desert was that he didn’t seem to sweat as much. What was actually happening, he learned, was that he still perspired the same amount, but it evaporated faster. Possessing that knowledge from prior visits is why he always kept a bottle of water handy whenever venturing out into the desert during daylight hours.
Sean took a big gulp of water and put the lid back into place, then stuffed the bottle into his backpack. He’d thought the plateau where the hill leveled off was closer to the bottom, but as he climbed he realized it was nearer the top. He smiled. Just another kind of mirage, he thought.
Sean continued plodding up the hill, putting one boot in front of the other until he finally reached the lip he’d been focused on for the last several minutes. As he crested the small plateau, the cave overhang came into view, and then the rest of the natural opening in the mountainside.
In front of the cavity, a small pit had been dug away by previous archaeologists who visited the site. It was still marked off with a few boards and ropes. They likely had the intent of returning at some point soon. Sean wasn’t going to disturb their work. He simply wanted to see if his hunch was right.
He took a few deep breaths, his lungs still gasping a little from the hike up, and turned around to take in the view. The Arizona desert stretched out before him as far as his eyes could see, reaching a horizon on some distant, reddish-brown mountains. From here, Sean could see his rental vehicle down below and the little dirt road winding its way through the prairie grass, rocks, dirt, and the occasional cactus.
Part of him was enjoying the vista, but if he was honest with himself, he didn’t want to look at the rune stone. There was a piece of him that wanted to wait for Tommy and Adriana to see it.
He grinned, squinting from the bright sunlight despite his sunglasses protecting him from the majority of it. He’d come this far. He had to know for sure.
Sean turned around and walked over to the hole in the ground. He took a deep breath and looked down at it, bending to one knee as he did. It was a sacred moment for him. Not just because people had died searching for this place, or because it was the location of a holy relic. It was sacred because the man who was buried there had made a great journey and had done so because he believed in something so strongly that he would go to the ends of the earth to see it through. Sean took off the baseball cap he’d put on before getting on the airplane in Atlanta and held it over his knee, paying respects to the man he believed was buried there.
A few seconds later, Sean stood up and spun around. The black hole in the side of the mountain beckoned to him. He pulled a flashlight out of his bag and switched it on, stalking determinedly into the cave’s mouth.
The recess only went forty or so feet into the rock, but it was nearly twenty feet wide, providing a decent amount of space and protection from the elements. Sean imagined that the two Vikings must have taken shelter here on the cold desert nights nearly a thousand years ago before Holger Danske succumbed to the call of death.
Sean aimed the beam at the wall to his right first, scanning the sides of the wall as he made his way to the back of the cave. Another grin crept onto his face. “Sure seems like I’ve been spending way too much time in caves lately,” he said to himself, his voice bouncing off the walls with a low reverb.
He reached the innermost part of the cave and stopped, letting his light play across the jagged rock. He wasn’t sure what exactly he was looking for, only that he believed there would be something there, a marker of some kind that would let him bring an end to the adventure.
Ten minutes later, he was about to give up when he noticed something strange at the bottom of the rock wall, only a few inches above the floor. A bird of prey screeched outside, causing him to look back over his shoulder quickly. He let out a slow breath, calming down from the sudden noise, and refocused on the marking on the wall.
There, cut into the ancient stone was a small object. It wasn’t much, which was why he’d missed it on his initial scans of the cave’s interior. But now that he saw it, it couldn’t have been clearer. A rudimentary shaft with a pointed blade at the top had been carved into the rock. Time had worn it away and caused the markings to fade. Nevertheless, Sean knew what it had to be.
His lips parted in a broad smile, and he took in a deep, satisfying breath. In an instant, his mind began racing again. Who should he call? Should he get a dig permit and excavate the entire area? Who would the lance go to? The Catholic Church? Or could it be put on display at the IAA Historical Center? The Danes might have something to say about it too.
Finding the lance that pierced the side of Christ, here in America, would rewrite the history books. It would change the way everyone viewed so many things.
Sean started to realize that this might not be such a good thing. Sometimes, it was better to leave history alone rather than tamper too much with it. People were comfortable with the things they believed in. Letting the world know that Holger Danske was real and he’d stolen the Holy Lance from Charlemagne could cause more harm than good.
Perhaps it was better to leave Holger Danske as he was when Sean found out about him originally: a legend.
Sean put his flashlight back in his bag and sauntered back out to the cave’s entrance. A warm breeze washed over him as the sun bathed him in sunlight once again. He stared down at the stone with the runes cut into it.
“Rest in peace, Holger Danske. After the journey you made, I’d say you earned it.”
Sean made his way down the hill, careful not to slip on any loose dirt. He looked up into the sky and saw an eagle circling high above. He watched the bird for a few minutes until it finally straightened out and soared into the distance, off to find something more interesting.
When the bird had disappeared from sight, Sean climbed back into the SUV and started the engine. He gave one last, long glance up at the site before backing the vehicle up and guiding it back down the dusty road.
Epilogue
The phone rang a few times before Emily picked up. She sounded a little out of breath, but composed herself quickly. “Hey, Sean. What do you need today? Someone chasing you again?”
He didn’t respond immediately, still considering what he was about to tell her. He’d been fighting it for the last several years after leaving the agency.
“Emily, I don’t know how to say this, so I’m just going to say it. I want back in.”
He was greeted with stunned silence for a moment. Now it was his turn to wonder if she was okay. “Emily?”
“I’m here,” she said. “Are you sure that’s what you want? Or are you just messing with me?”
He nodded as he stared out the window at a plane rolling by on the hot tarmac, waves of radiant heat rippling through the air. “Yeah, I’m sure. I can’t be back on the list, so I’m not talking about a full-time thing. But if you’re ever in a pinch and you need me, I want you to know you can call.”