The Crusader ("The Crusader" Prequel to "Kingdom Come") (43 page)

"Your
crown isn't solid in my hands," David said, meeting Kieran's clear brown
eyes. "Hell, if this isn't the damnedest thing I've ever seen."

Kieran
cocked an eyebrow. "Is that good?"

Rory and
David laughed. "Listen to that accent!" David crowed as if it was the
most marvelous thing in the world. "There are a million things I want to
ask him and I don't even know where to start."

Kieran,
seeing that David was accepting the situation, stretched his long legs out over
the back seat. "Your colleague has spent the better part of the past several
days wringing forth information.  Certainly she knows more than I do by
now."

David
hung over the seat, watching Kieran get comfortable in the tiny back seat.
"I have no doubt about that," he said, the awe in his voice evident.
"To get first-hand knowledge from someone who lived and breathed during
the time of the Lionheart... Christ, I just can't believe this. It's amazing."

"That
may be, my lord, but the logical circumstance has been explained to you."

David
grinned like a fool. "He called me 'my lord'," he snorted.
"Well, hell, where to begin? How about your childhood?"

Rory's
brow furrowed. "Childhood?"

David
nodded eagerly. "You know, how he lived, when he fostered, the process
leading up to knighthood. I had a friend once who did his entire doctoral
thesis on the sporting events of Medieval Europe. He claimed they played
baseball centuries before Abner Doubleday supposedly invented it. Now I can
actually find out."

Rory
shook her head, looking at Kieran through the rear-view mirror. "I'm sorry
about him. Now that the shock is wearing off, he's only interested in your
mind."

Kieran
shrugged, grinning. "I would rather answer his eager questions that
experience more of Bud's hostility."

David
cocked an eyebrow, glancing to Rory. "Bud was hostile?  What in the
hell...? Oh, I get it."

Rory
raised her own eyebrow, nodding faintly. "I'll tell you about it later,
but please, don't ever ask him. Having the woman you love stolen by a corpse is
not exactly something you want to shout to the world."

David nodded
solemnly, his normal demeanor returning as the jeep bumped over the highway.
Truthfully, he didn't know why he had accepted Kieran's resurrection as easily
as he had; but as he had always told Rory, hard evidence was the greatest
persuader of all. And the fact that jealously wasn't clouding his opinion was a
contributor as well.

Gazing
at the weary face in the back seat, he knew the features all too well. He had
sketched them for documentation as well as taken up an entire roll of film.
Sure... he knew the face. And he accepted it for what it was, impossible or
not. He would have been fool not to.

"All
right," he said quietly, settling down for the long ride back to Nahariya
and glad that Rory was driving. "So let's start from the beginning. Like
your birth. Where were you born and did your mother use a birthing stool or a
bed?"

Rory
groaned. The stunningly blunt character of Dr. David Peck had returned with a
vengeance.

***

The site
was exactly as she had left it. It was nearly night by the time the jeep rolled
to a stop and Rory engaged the parking brake, smiling at the workers who were
waving at her. David was already out of the car, having spent the past two
hours in heavy conversation with Kieran and still lingering on some of the
aspects of their dialogue.

Kieran
bailed from the jeep with his usual agility, duffle bag on one hand as he
looked over the landscape. The Syrian foreman greeted Rory amiably, glancing
strangely at Kieran but refraining from comment.  Rory immediately informed the
foreman that they would be digging into the night and asked him to crank up the
generator.

As the
camp began to move with purpose thanks to the shouts of the foreman, Rory
turned to Kieran; he was still standing by the jeep, his gem-clear eyes roving
the gentle slope and distant city. Quietly, she moved up beside him and slipped
her hand into his massive palm.

"What
are you thinking?" she asked softly.

He
smiled at her, squeezing her hand. "I am not for certain," he
bass-toned voice was equally quiet. "The smell... it is the same as it was
in my time."

She
leaned against his arm, the hazel eyes licking the familiar sights. "Then
it smelled terrible. What else are you thinking?"

He
didn't reply for a moment, his eyes riveted to the scenery. "It feels odd
to be here. Strange. A timeless quality to the land and people that has not
changed in centuries."

She
glanced up at him, her brow furrowed. "I don't understand."

He
continued to stare, trying to shrug off the peculiar sensation he was
experiencing. After a moment, he squeezed her hand again and his smile
returned. "Nor do I, sweetheart. Come; let us begin. If you'll show me
where you found me, I can gain my bearing and..."

She
laughed softly, pulling him toward a wide, familiar tent. "In a minute.
Let's get settled and maybe change clothes. My tent is over here."

He
followed, struggling against the odd hollowness that seemed to fill his
stomach, spreading to his limbs. "Libby, we've no time to waste. I would
suspect Simon... or the man who calls himself Corbin has managed to wrest our
destination from Bud. We must hurry."

Rory
pulled him into the tent, moving to light the old Coleman lantern. In spite of
the sunlight, the tent was dim. "Bud didn't know our destination,
remember? Maybe he still thinks were in England. He knows you didn't have a
passport."

"But
he knows we were destined for Nahariya," he set his duffle bag on the
floor. "In fact, 'twould not astonish me if the man showed himself
shortly."

The
lantern cast a soft glow and Rory scratched her scalp wearily, wanting to
change out of her crumpled clothes and into her customary digging attire.
Kieran watched her as she fumbled with the small traveling case beside her bed,
his attention momentarily diverted by the amazing lantern as she rummaged
through her clothes.

"He'll
be here," she said finally, drawing forth khaki-colored jeans and a
tee-shirt. "After he gives Corbin the slip, he'll come and help us."

Kieran
heard the tone of her voice, knowing she did not believe what she was saying.
Her fear that Bud had ended up in deep trouble distressed her, but she could
not give up hope that he had somehow managed to slip free of Corbin's clutches.
Kieran gave up fooling with the lamp and gave her his full attention as she
stripped off the stained white shirt.

"Bud
is a wise man, Lib," he said softly. "You must trust that he will
come through unscathed."

She cast
him a long glance. "You and Bud haven't exactly been the best of friends.
And you still think he's wise?"

He
nodded.  "I cannot say that if our roles were reversed, my reaction to him
would have been different. And just because he is resistant to the event of
miracles does not mean he is a fool," his gem-clear eyes glittered in the
weak light. "Moreover, he loves you, does he not? I cannot fault the man
his choice of perfection."

She
flushed, removing her shoes and tossing them to the floor. "I don't even
know why he even bothers," she said softly. "He's done so much for me
and all I've ever given him is heartache."

He
watched her as she pulled off her pants, clad only in her bra and panties.
Certainly they had no time to waste, but the more he watched her beautiful body
in the weak lamplight, the more his desire threatened to outweigh his reason.

"He
is a grown man," he said quietly, moving toward her. "And he has made
his own choices. Whatever he has done for you has been of his own free will.
Sometimes love itself is the greatest sacrifice of all."

She
fumbled with her tee-shirt, looking up at him and noticing he was nearly on top
of her. "What does that mean?"

He
smiled, a massive hand reaching out and embedding itself in her hair. "It
means that you have done so much for me and all I have ever given you is
heartache. Do you hate me overly?"

She
tried to shake her head, unable to move when a second hand lost itself in her
hair. "Of course not," she breathed, feeling the heat of sensuality
ignite. "I'd do anything for you."

He
pulled her against his chest as her tapered fingers went to work on the buttons
of his shirt. "As Bud would do anything for you. As I would do anything
for you. The joy, my dearest Rory, is in the doing. In this time or in mine.
Regrets are useless."

She
whimpered softly when his lips found her eager mouth, the fire of passion
finding fuel. Tongues touched, tasted, and plundered as they lost themselves in
a timeless desire; one loving kiss, one delicate touch, for every star in the
bright Turkish sky.

***

David
was waiting for them near the gravesite when Kieran and Rory arrived an hour
later. Signature baseball cap on his receding brown head, he had difficulty
looking Rory in the eye and she knew it was because he had heard their
lovemaking. Fighting off a grin as David proceeded to explain the grave to
Kieran, she let the smile break through when he finally met her gaze. Blushing
profusely, David struggled not to appear too embarrassed.

Kieran,
however, was tactfully oblvious to David's chagrin and Rory's seeming
nonchalance. He listened carefully to Dr. Peck's assessment of his grave,
having great difficulty with the New York accent. If listening to Rory butcher
the English language had been tough, deciphering David Peck was a nightmare.
But he managed to catch the gist of the explanation, understanding that he had
been buried in what was apparently the center of the temple. When David quieted,
Kieran began to pace the gridded floor.

"In
my time there was a good deal more to this structure," he said, trying to
gain his bearings. Turning to Rory and David, he gestured behind them.
"There were columns here at one time, thick marble pillars that had been
left over when the Muslims finished building their mosque. Hypocrites that they
were, they believed the Greeks to be pagans but it did not prevent them from
stealing the fine stone from their temples to build their own houses of
worship."

Rory was
fixed on Kieran as he moved about the careful grids. "We're facing west,
Kieran. Were it not so dark, you could see the Mediterranean in the distance.
Where was the mosque from here?"

He turned
and pointed down the hill. "Down there, where your camp is."

He began
to walk in that direction. On his heels, Rory and David followed like eager
puppies, a palpable sense of excitement filling them. They were closer to the
crown than they had been in fourteen months and their enthusiasm was a powerful
motivator. Kieran's long strides thundered down the hill, treading along the
edge of the encampment. As Rory and David fell in behind him, David's cell
phone rang.

It was a
SkyPhone, a very expensive cellular phone that was linked to satellite. If David
was in the middle of the Arctic, he could still be reached. Whipping the phone
from his pocket, he answered.

"Yes?"
a slight pause and then his face lit up. "Bud!"

Rory
came to a halt, turning anxious eyes to David. "It's Bud? How is he?"

Even
Kieran stopped as David held up a quieting hand, listening to Bud speak.  After
a minute, he nodded. "Yes, she's came just like you suspected. No, I don't
know how she got Sir Kieran out of the country. And by the way, it was nice of
you to tell me about Sir Kieran's... yes, but you could have tried. Not only
that, but... all right, all right, hang on," he handed the phone to Rory.
"He wants to talk to you."

Rory
snatched the phone. "Bud? How are you? What's happening?"

On the
other end of the line, Bud sighed with relief. "Rory, how in the hell did
you get Kieran out of England?"

She
glanced at the massive knight, outlined by the mercury vapor lamps. "We
stole a passport. Worked like a charm," she didn't really want to
elaborate further on her crime spree. "We've been here for a few hours.
What's going on with you? What happened with Corbin?"

Bud was
calling from the ancient Turkish city of Tarsus. The bus from Istanbul had
stopped there for refueling and he could hardly stand the thought that he wouldn't
be in Nahariya for another four hours. And it was very, very important that Rory
understand what was happening.

"Rory,
listen to me," he said quickly, quietly. "Corbin is on his way to
Nahariya. Hell, he's probably there by now. I tried to hold him off, but Becker
called and tipped him off."

Beneath
the silver moonlight, Rory went pale. "Becker? He's in on this?"

"I
don't think he knows exactly what's happening," Bud said gently. "He
thinks Corbin is trying to help you. When you called your mother yesterday to
ask for money, Becker relayed the information that you were at Heathrow. He
thinks you're running from the law, which you are. But what Corbin thinks is
even worse."