The Secret Crown (2010) (37 page)

‘In some places, it’s ten feet deep.’

Jones leaned against the safety railing that had been installed for tourists. He was struggling to comprehend the grotto’s technology. ‘They built this place in the nineteenth century? When did they add the lights?’

‘Believe it or not, they’ve been here since the grotto opened in 1877. Obviously we’ve upgraded the technology over the years and made some repairs, but the basic look is the same. What you see is what Ludwig saw when he lived in Linderhof.’

Payne shook his head in amazement. ‘I didn’t even know they had indoor electricity back then. I find it hard to believe they were able to do all this in the 1800s.’

‘Back then, they used arc lamps - bulbs made of charcoal rods that had been invented fifty years earlier - to light the grotto. To change the colour of the lights, they rotated a disk of coloured glass and shone the bulbs through it. Sort of like a slide projector. Ludwig was actually able to programme a sequence of lights - five sets of ten minutes each - in the order he wanted. In addition, he could shine the colours in unison, which projected a rainbow above the far alcove.’

‘How was it powered?’ Jones asked.

‘They used a primitive electromagnetic generator known as a dynamo. There were twenty-four of them in a machine shop about a hundred metres to the north. The power facility was one of the first of its kind in Europe.’

Payne whistled softly. ‘I’ll admit it, I’m impressed. This place is awesome.’

She signalled for them to wait. ‘Hang on, I’m not quite done.’

‘There’s more?’ Jones asked.

She ducked behind the fake boulder. ‘Much more. Check this out.’

With a flip of a switch, the water in the lake began to move. Slowly at first, and then more steadily. Before long, the entire lake was churning with waves. ‘Sometimes Ludwig wasn’t satisfied with calm waters, so his designers installed a wave machine. This way, when his servants rowed him around the lake, he felt he was facing the elements.’

Payne laughed in amazement. ‘Un-friggin-believable!’

She called out from the control panel. ‘I thought you’d like that, but believe me, the best part is yet to come. If you don’t mind, do me a favour and take a few steps forward on the path. I want you to have the best view for the finale.’

Payne moved forward until she was satisfied.

‘Okay, that’s perfect! Prepare to be shocked.’

He glanced round the grotto, wondering what was going to happen next. All of a sudden, he heard a soft rumble coming from the walls themselves. He glanced up and spotted a large opening in the rock face above him. The outer surface of the hole was glowing red while the interior was light blue. Over the years, Payne had been involved in enough practical jokes to sense when one was being pulled on him. Luckily, he stepped aside a split-second before water came roaring out of the spout, or else he would have been drenched by Ludwig’s waterfall.

‘Shoot!’ she yelled from her position behind the boulder. ‘I almost got you!’

He stuck his hand into the water, imagining how cold it would have felt on his back. ‘You’re lucky you didn’t. Otherwise, you would have gone for a little swim.’

She laughed as she headed his way. ‘That’s not nice.’

‘Neither is luring someone under Niagara Falls.’

She playfully punched his arm. ‘Oh, please! You can hear the water coming from a mile away. I didn’t think it would actually get you.’

He stared at her. ‘But you were
hoping
it did.’

She giggled softly. ‘Maybe.’

Jones listened to their banter and rolled his eyes. He didn’t have the tolerance to listen to their flirting. ‘Sorry to bust up your honeymoon, but didn’t you say something about swans?’

‘Swans?’ she asked.

‘You know, the
riddle
. The reason we’re here.’

‘The riddle!’ she exclaimed. ‘Yes, of course, how silly of me! It’s been a while since I’ve given a tour through the grotto. I guess I got caught up in the excitement.’

Payne reassured her with a smile. ‘Don’t worry about it.’

Heidi took a moment to gather her thoughts, then pointed at a golden cockleshell boat that was near a colourful mural which had been painted in a large alcove at the far end of the lake. The mural depicted a scene from Richard Wagner’s opera
Tannhauser
, one of Ludwig’s favourites, and looked as though it belonged in a museum, not an artificial cave. As the group walked closer to the painting, Heidi hustled over to the control panel and turned off the wave machine. Although it was an impressive special effect, it was rarely used during regular tours because the ‘fake’ waves eroded the artificial environment like ‘real’ waves on a beach. Then she turned off the waterfall, so they wouldn’t have to shout above the roaring water.

‘How much do you know about Lohengrin?’ she asked.

Ulster answered for the group. ‘I know enough to fill a notebook, whereas they know the basics. I filled them in only yesterday.’

Payne glanced at him. ‘You did? You better refresh my memory.’

Ulster nodded. ‘Lohengrin was the son of Percival, one of the Knights of the Round Table. He was sent to rescue a maiden in a far off land. Wagner wrote an opera about him.’

Payne had a blank look on his face. ‘Go on.’

‘He made the journey in a cockleshell boat pulled by a magical swan.’

Jones laughed at the description. ‘I remember that! Ludwig used to dress up in his costume and prance around the halls of his castle.’

Payne finally remembered. ‘The Swan Knight.’

‘Yes!’ Ulster exclaimed. ‘Ludwig was obsessed with him, which is why Ludwig is often called the Swan King. If you remember, Ludwig even sealed his mysterious correspondence with a black swan. Hence, the black swan letters.’

Jones grinned. ‘Ludwig going rogue.’

‘Actually,’ Heidi said, ‘if you believe the rumours, that’s exactly what Ludwig did. He went rogue. Having bankrupted his personal fortune building places like this, he was forced to turn to outside sources to maintain his standard of living. The money he collected would have been the source of his mythical treasure.’

Payne nodded. ‘Which leads us to the riddle.’

Heidi pointed at the elaborate boat. It was elevated just above the waterline by a discreet metal stand to keep it in good shape. Painted gold and shaped like a giant cockleshell, the boat featured carved fish near its base, wooden doves attached to the back of the shell and several strings of dried flowers draped from its edges. Inside was a small padded bench and a single back pillow covered in red velvet. Two wooden oars were affixed to their stands.

She asked, ‘What’s wrong with this boat?’

‘Too many things to name,’ Jones cracked.

‘I meant in terms of Ludwig.’

Jones smiled. ‘In that case, not much. It fits him perfectly.’

‘I would agree with you, except for one tiny detail. Do you see it?’

Payne, Jones, and Ulster stared at the antique boat, trying to figure out what she was alluding to. At first glance, the boat seemed to fit Ludwig’s lifestyle. It was ornate, whimsical and somehow innocent - like something out of a child’s dream. Even the carved figurehead, a naked cupid shooting his bow, seemed appropriate for a man of his ilk.

Sensing their confusion, Heidi gave them a hint to speed up their search. ‘Think about the boat in terms of the riddle. Where would a swan go on his journey home?’

A few seconds later, Payne figured it out.

Payne grinned with pride when he solved the riddle. ‘That’s really clever.’

‘What’s really clever?’ Jones asked.

‘The riddle. We were thinking about it all wrong.’

‘Wait! You figured it out?’

Payne nodded. ‘Yep, I figured it out.’

Jones turned towards him. ‘Well?’

‘Well,
what
? Figure it out for yourself.’

Jones shook his head. ‘You’re so full of shit! You don’t know the answer.’

Payne raised his right hand. ‘I swear to Ludwig, I figured it out. Like I said, we were thinking about it all wrong.’

‘In what sense?’ Ulster asked.

‘The swan isn’t the one going home. So stop thinking about nests and lakes. Think about it from a different perspective.’

Heidi nodded her approval. Until that moment, she wasn’t sure if Payne had actually worked it out. ‘Jon’s right. The “his” in the riddle does not refer to the swan. Someone else is making the journey. Focus on the words. Where would a swan go on his journey home?’

Jones was getting more and more confused by their clues. ‘Wait! What are you talking about? Who’s making the damn journey?’

Ulster broke into a wide grin. Thanks to Heidi’s hint, he had solved the riddle. ‘Lohengrin! Lohengrin is making the journey!’

Jones grimaced at the clue. ‘You mean the Swan Knight? How in the hell am I supposed to know where he’s going? I’m not a travel agent!’

Payne laughed at Jones’s frustration since he was always bragging about how much smarter he was than Payne. ‘You don’t have to know where the knight is going. That doesn’t matter. The question is, where would the swan go on the knight’s journey?’

‘Don’t ask me. I’d never take a bird on a fucking trip.’

Payne and Ulster laughed so loudly tears formed in their eyes.

Meanwhile, Heidi managed to bite her tongue and stifle her laughter. Feeling bad for Jones, she put her hands on his shoulders and gently turned him towards the boat. While standing next to him, she simplified the riddle so he could solve it. ‘Lohengrin used to travel in a cockleshell boat pulled by a swan. In that scenario, where would the swan go?’

Jones shrugged. ‘In the front?’

‘Exactly! The swan would go in the front, or else it couldn’t pull the boat.’

Jones, who was doing his best to ignore Payne and Ulster, pointed at the boat. ‘But I don’t see a swan. I see a fat-ass cupid.’

She nodded. ‘Which is the problem I mentioned earlier. Why would Ludwig build an exact replica of the Swan Knight’s boat in his private grotto but omit the most important part? He
wouldn’t
- unless the added feature was more important than a swan.’

Suddenly excited, Jones turned towards Payne and smacked him in the back of the head. ‘Are you listening to this?’

Payne’s laughter stopped immediately. ‘Listening to what?’

‘I figured the riddle out
yesterday
, and you guys made fun of me.’

Payne stared at him. ‘What are you talking about?’

Jones refreshed their memories. ‘Petr said Ludwig had hidden the secret document in his
gartenhaus
, and I said I had done the same thing while crossing the Afghan border. Remember?’

Payne nodded. ‘What’s your point?’

Always the showman, Jones used his hands to explain the process. ‘According to Heidi, Ludwig took his secret document and stuffed it right up cupid’s
gartenhaus
. Probably did it in the dark while listening to opera.’

She blushed at his description. ‘I never said that.’

‘That’s because you’re a lady. But that’s what you meant, right?’

‘Not at all! I simply think the document is inside the cherub.’

‘Yeah,’ Jones said, still pleading his case, ‘which is what I said
yesterday
. The secret document is inside the cupid’s - wink, wink - cherub.’

Payne rolled his eyes at Jones’s antics. His friend would do just about anything to avoid being wrong. ‘As far as I’m concerned, I don’t care who solved the riddle. The only thing that matters is what happens next. How do we retrieve the document?’

Ulster made a suggestion. ‘Why don’t we pull the boat over and examine it from shore?’

Heidi shook her head. ‘We can’t. It’s on a metal stand to keep it from rotting.’

Ulster squatted and stared at the lake. For the first time, he realized the boat was being held just above the surface of the water. ‘Now I feel foolish. I didn’t even notice the stand.’

‘No one does,’ she admitted.

Payne studied the lake. ‘How deep is the water out there?’

‘Thigh-high at most. Back in Ludwig’s day, he used to invite opera singers to perform on this side of the grotto. Once they arrived, he made them sing while standing in the water.’

‘Why is that?’ Ulster wondered.

She pointed to the alcove at the far end of the lake. It depicted a scene from one of Wagner’s operas. ‘He used the mural as their backdrop. It helped set the mood for their performance.’

Ulster chuckled. ‘He really was an interesting chap.’

‘Wasn’t he? I’ve been a fan of his for a very long time.’

Payne cleared his throat to get their attention. ‘As far as I’m concerned, we have two viable options. If you want, I can hop in the lake, rip cupid off the boat, and bring it to shore …’

She shuddered at the thought. ‘Or?’

‘Or you can wade over there and examine it yourself.’