The Tower Grave (33 page)

             
David slapped his leader on the shoulder and gave it a thankful squeeze before lying down in his cloak and drifting straight off to sleep.

             
John looked up at the stars through the tops of the trees above him. Without the lights of modern day, the clear night sky was far more vivid and spectacular than he had ever imagined and they alone had been his favourite part of the fifteenth century. He knew he’d miss them and the rest of his most recent adventure when he got home; but the thought of finally holding Jane and his children made him smile and look forward to the morning.

             
“Are you sure?” whispered Spence from atop his large, black gelding. “You want to stop here?”

             
“Trust me, boy,” answered the foul-smelling Starkes from under his hood. “The tracks haven’t deviated for fifty miles and suddenly there are two trails with one shooting off into the woods? They’re camping, I know it. If we move off over that hill ahead and wait for them they’ll ride right into our trap. We don’t need to chase them when we can intercept them.” He laughed. “And I might join you on the back of Miss Du Lac now they’ve put me through this run-around.

             
Spence chuckled.

             
“Fine, let’s go,” he said. “And you better be right.”

             
Starkes snorted as he rode past the arrogant knight and led his group of black-cloaked men into a trot and across the darkness towards a distant hill ahead.

Twenty-Eight

24
th
June 1483

             
Jake woke as the light began to seep through the autumn branches and the scurry of a nearby woodland animal made him jolt.

             
“You scared him off,” John said smiling. “Sleep ok?”

             
“What was it?”

             
“Just a young deer. It came right up close then just stopped and stared when it saw me watching it. When you sat up underneath it the poor thing looked like it had seen a ghost; or a lion at least.”

             
“I am a lion,” Jake said and laughed.

             
“Yeah a cuddly, tame one.”

             
The rest of the group stirred at the conversation and within minutes John had gotten their items together and they were ready to move on.

             
Their mood was one of restrained excitement as they slowly walked their horses out of the woods and back onto the last few miles towards the portal. They discussed the last few weeks of their lives with awe, wonder, excitement and sadness as they took the path slow and savoured the last moments of their adventure.

“Now we’re home free, I really think I’ll miss this place,” said Charlotte as they trotted slowly
together.

“Me too, I’ll never forget it,” said John. “But last night alone gave me lots to think about. It’s really pushed me, some of the things I’ve had to see.”

              “You more than us,” said David. “The torture?”

             
“Strangely, no, more so the amount of innocent lives that have been wasted and the look on that boy’s face as he died on my sword.”

             
“It was him or you, John,” answered Jake. “In a way it was him or either of us. We fought because we are spies in a war against terror. We didn’t do this for fun; we did it to stop people dying. Soldiers get killed in every war. Unfortunately, you had to see it first-hand this time.”

             
“He would’ve died anyway,” said Charlotte from the side. “That soldier, I mean. Everything we did and every alteration to history that we made resulted in the same thing. The past continued as it has always done. The King still got killed. Courtridge still survived. Samuel still managed to clear the path for Henry Tudor and bury the diary in St. Albans before he was killed. We were nothing but witnesses.”

             
John looked at her and smiled.

             
“You’re deep, Charlotte. But you’re right,” he said.

             
“Yes I am,” she replied, smiling and looking around at Jake.   

After
a further half an hour, they were shaken from their conversation as Chris’ portal tracker gave them a signal to let them know they were close.

             
“What does it say?” asked John.

             
“That it’s just up there,” Chris replied, looking down at his tablet screen.

             
“What is that, Chris? Is it GPS?” asked David.

             
“No, of course it isn’t. It can’t be GPS without satellites and they aren’t invented yet. It’s a proximity tracker and it tracks the portal’s signal with direction and distance, showing on a map as though it was like GPS. It’s more of a homing device, I guess.”

             
“Can I see it?”

             
“Of course,” Chris replied as he turned technical and began to baffle David with facts. Jake and John shared a grin at the look on the archaeologist’s face as Charlotte’s own smile disintegrated.

             
“Shit,” she complained with fear clear in her tone. “Shit, shit, shit! Why now?”

             
Following her eyes, the team looked into the sun in the east where they realised their last remaining fears. Just over a hundred metres ahead and spreading out across the landscape, a large group of cloaked figures crested the hill to their right and began to descend towards them. Their identities were obvious as the twelve men sat their horses with high hoods and faces like a pack of grim reapers. One further man wore no hood and his arrogance was clear even from their distance.

             
“Spence,” said John. “What do you want to do, Jake?”

             
“You’re the boss, John.”

             
“And you’re the lion.”

             
They both smiled, lifting the confidence of the rest of the team slightly.

             
“Well, remember the horses coming back when they went through? Mine was fine, I still ride her. Charlotte’s was dead but made it in and David’s was exhausted. We are all riding our own horses. Chris’ never came back, we know why as Brierly took it. It’s yours that remains the mystery, John.”

John blew air through his cheeks and looked down at his horse in thought.

“We could try to lose them in the woods?” Jake offered.

             
“We’ll never lose them. This is their world remember. They’re obviously quick and know how to track. We’d be split up and hunted in the woods and I don’t fancy that one bit.”

             
“Can we get past them before they can cut between us and the portal?”

             
“How far is the portal, Chris?”

             
“It’s bang on eighty five metres. Just past where our paths will cross.

             
“Can we make it?”

             
“We can try. Listen, if it’s impossible and I call it off, stop with me and we’ll attempt to talk our way out of it. At least until we can cross into the portal.”

             
“Got it,” Jake said. “Now?”

             
“Now.”

             
They kicked in their heels and shot straight into a gallop. They’d all improved their riding apart from Chris who clung desperately to Charlotte as she pushed her horse ahead of the group despite the extra weight.

             
They rode in silent concentration towards the portal, listening to Chris’s commentary as he watched both the tablet screen and the mass of men now matching their pace towards them from the right. It quickly became clear they wouldn’t make it past and John called the halt before they met with a crash.

             
The smug expression of Spence was obvious as he approached the team and looked at the men around him. He smiled at the number of drawn bows either side him and turned his gaze back to his target. John eyed the still clear line to the portal’s position only thirty metres away and despaired at the arrow points that would see them dead before they reached it. He could see the slight haze in the landscape and knew his team would spot it too.

             
“I finally have you, Rougemont,” Spence said harshly as he walked his horse in towards them. “Well? Mr tricks? What will you do now?”

             
“Nothing, Spence, let us go. We will bother you no more and you will never hear from us, or of us, again.”

             
“After you set me up to be captured and executed you want me to let you go? Are you mad, man? You’ve ruined me!”

             
“We’ve done nothing to you, I swear. It wasn’t us. They got me out after your own games and that is all. I think you know who ruined your reputation.”

             
“Yes and one of them is rotting outside your stable with his head under his arm as we speak. But it matters not, John. It is over now.”

             
“Then take me and let them go. It’s only me you want.”

             
“Bollocks. I want your brother’s throat and then your pompous uncle before I kill you.”

             
“Leave them, William. Take me instead. You can do as you wish then.”

             
“I’m not finished, Rougemont. I’ll hurt and kill you; then I’ll ravish the bitch before I rip her open and leave her for the wolves. The boy? I know men who will pay me a fortune for his arse.”

             
Jake’s rage emitted from him like heat but a subtle lift of John’s fingers kept him in place. As John stepped down from his horse, he held up his hands and fixed Spence with a stern look.

             
“Spence, this is enough. Take me and do what you will. They can go. It’s my decision.”

             
“No, John!” Charlotte roared making Spence laugh.

             
“Now I’ve seen it all. Men, kill them all but save the bitch.

             
The shadow men ignored Spence’s orders and turned to Starkes for direction. Starkes hesitated as his hidden face looked over Jake and Charlotte who he had come to respect.

             
“Starkes!” yelled Spence before a voice behind them made them all jump once more.

             
“William Spence,” it boomed from the crest of the hill. “You are under arrest!”

             
Every person turned to see two men in armour sitting atop the hill wearing the crest of York.

             
“Two men?” Spence chuckled. “Starkes, deal with them after these fools please.”

             
But the shadow men began to shift uneasily on their horses as the low drum of hooves sounded from over the hill in the distance. Suddenly men on horses appeared along the crest of the hill on both sides of the original two. The numbers grew rapidly as the group watched in shock and John smiled as at least forty soldiers stood facing them and calling for Spence. As Starkes’ men began to panic, John looked around at his team and knew their only opportunity had arrived.

             
“Surrender, Spence!” came the voice of the soldier again as John shouted for his team to run.

             
“Now!” he said and he sprinted on foot towards the site of the portal followed by the deafening rush of three horses and their riders. He ran with every ounce of effort he could muster and the horses caught him quickly as he closed on their escape.

             
“Fire!” came the voice of Spence and the air around him exploded into mayhem as the whoosh of arrows and a scream from Charlotte filled his ears. The horse holding Jake tumbled next to him and the entire group fell in a heap as they crossed into what they hoped was the portal. Everything around John became a background to the familiar screech that filled his mind and with the final faint pop that followed he found himself landing hard on the floor inside the portal.

             
Initially confused and feeling faint, he was shaken from his daze by a scream beside him and he turned to see bodies clambering over each other to get to Charlotte.

             
“God, Jake, it really hurts!” Charlotte screamed as she clutched an arrow impaling her thigh and oozing with blood.

             
The door burst open almost immediately as Jake took hold of her and the panicking face of Derek filled the doorway. The same clothes they had seen weeks before were pushed aside as the wet and desperate face of Jane rushed into the portal. She fell onto John in tears as Derek shouted for first aid and John looked through the pandemonium to see his whole team with him. With pain and relief forcing tears from his eyes, he squeezed Jane and watched Charlotte smiling back through her pain to Jake as he comforted her. David hugged Chris and laughed on the other side as John looked to Jane who was watching him with amazement.