The Secret of Excalibur

19

‘Well, bugger me,’ said Chase. ‘Is that what I think it is?’ ‘It is,’ said Nina, amazed. Unlike the elaborately decorated Caliburn, this sword was plain, almost stark in its design, the only ornamentation being intertwined twin snakes inscribed into the hilt - just as Rust had described. Yet it was evident a great deal of time and work had been put into its creation, the metal of the blade having an almost mercury-like reflective sheen, the hilt perfectly moulded to the grip of one particular man. ‘Oh, God, poor Bernd. He spent all those years trying to work out how to find it, and he was right . . . but he couldn’t be here to see it.’

Mitchell stepped forward, brushing past Nina to stand between the two coffins. ‘The important thing is that we found it - and before the Russians.’ He knelt, waving for Nina to bring the torch closer. Slightly irked, she did so. ‘Look at the finish of the metal, how smooth it is. We were right, it’s more than just steel.’ He reached out one hand to take the hilt.

‘Ahem,’ Nina said. ‘Before you get your muddy hands over everything, can I at least document what we’ve found?’ She held up the camera.

‘Of course. Sorry.’ Mitchell backed out so Nina could photograph the room and its contents.

‘So,’ said Chase, his anger fading to be replaced by a surprising eagerness, ‘which of us gets to be the next king of England, then?’ Nina looked at him questioningly. ‘Oh, come on! It’s the sword in the bloody stone! It’s got to be done.’

‘Caliburn was the sword in the stone,’ she pointed out, ‘not Excalibur.’

‘Whatever, it’s still King Arthur’s sword. Even I know about the whole “once and future king” business.’ He stepped up to the stone. ‘At least take a picture. Come on, something to show the grandkids.’

‘Where the hell did grandkids come from? We haven’t even set a wedding date yet!’

‘Just take the picture.’ He struck a pose beside the stone, hand poised over the hilt. Nina rolled her eyes and reluctantly nodded. ‘Oh, yeah,’ said Chase with a huge grin, gripping the sword. ‘I’m the king of the world!’

Nina took a picture as he grunted and strained to pull the weapon free. ‘God, what a face.’

‘Yeah, that’s what all the lasses say,’ Chase declared, releasing the hilt. The sword hadn’t moved in the slightest. ‘Guess I’m not king material. Mind you, I kind of suspected that already.’

‘What about you, Jack?’ Nina asked. ‘Fancy taking a shot at the throne?’

‘I’m more interested in getting this thing out of here to somewhere secure,’ Mitchell told her. Nevertheless, he reached for the sword as Chase stepped aside. ‘Still, you never know . . .’ Nina took another picture as he too strained to raise the sword - with the same result. ‘Looks like we’ll have to take the stone with it.’

‘Think we’ll need some help,’ said Chase. ‘It’s what, nearly a yard to a side? Must weigh well over a ton.’ He looked at Nina. ‘You not having a go?’

‘Yeah, right. If you can’t move it, I’m hardly going to be able to.’ Nina returned the camera to her pocket and crouched by the granite block, holding the torch beside the blade. ‘You’re right about the metal though. It’s definitely not ordinary steel.’ She leaned closer, examining tiny details. ‘It’s been used as a weapon; there are scratches and chips in the blade - but they’re very small. It must be extremely strong.’ She straightened, holding Excalibur’s hilt to pull herself up—

The whole weapon lit up with an eerie blue glow. Nina jumped in shock - and pulled the sword cleanly out of the stone. She yelped, letting go. The glow instantly vanished, Excalibur clanging to the stone floor.

‘What the hell was that?’ Chase demanded. The only light now coming from the sword was the reflected torch beam.

‘That glow,’ said Mitchell, cautiously raising a hand towards Excalibur as if feeling for heat, ‘almost looked like Cherenkov radiation.’

Nina backed away. ‘You mean it’s radioactive?’

‘So much for the grandkids,’ Chase muttered.

‘I don’t see how,’ said Mitchell. ‘But there was definitely some kind of high-energy reaction.’ He leaned forward to touch the sword.

‘What, are you crazy?’ Nina asked. But nothing happened.

He withdrew his hand. ‘You try.’

‘I’d really rather not!’

‘You’ll be okay. I have a theory.’ Her frown deepened, but Mitchell gave her a reassuring smile. ‘Trust me.’

Nina dubiously touched the sword with the tip of her forefinger. It lit up again as if she had switched on a light, glowing from end to end. When she flinched away, the effect immediately disappeared.

She touched it again, more firmly. The glow returned, the metal itself somehow emitting light. Examining it more closely, she realised the glow was not uniform; instead, it had an almost rippling quality, subtly yet constantly shifting. She slid her finger down the flat of the blade. ‘It’s not even warm.’

Chase stepped forward and put his fingers on the hilt. The glow didn’t alter. But when Nina drew her hand back, the light vanished once more.

She looked at Mitchell. ‘Okay, Jack. What’s this theory of yours?’ ‘We were right,’ said Mitchell, gazing at the sword. ‘It really is a superconductor, and it really can channel earth energy.’ He raised his hands, indicating the chamber’s ceiling. ‘This whole place, Glastonbury Tor - it must be a convergence point for that energy. And for some reason, when you hold the sword, you’re focusing the energy.’

‘Why? How? And, er . . . what?’ Nina pressed her fingers to her temples in pained confusion. ‘What the hell are you talking about? How can I be making it do anything?’

‘I don’t know. But there’s obviously something about you that makes it react that way. And whatever it is, King Arthur had it too. Remember the legends of Excalibur lighting up when he wielded it? Shining with the light of thirty torches, something like that?

Maybe your body has a specific kind of bioelectric field, the same as his, I don’t know. We might be able to check with Kirlian photography.’

‘Kirlian photography?’ hooted Nina. ‘Okay, now we’re getting into auras and chakras and crystals.’

He pointed at Excalibur. ‘You explain it, then.’

Nina picked up the weapon, which flashed into life again. ‘I can’t, can I? But you seem to be coming up with stuff very quickly.’ She raised it for a closer look at the blade.

‘DARPA’s been researching the potential of earth energy for some time. But this is . . . well, an unexpected development. It fits in with our theories, though.’ He regarded her thoughtfully. ‘An earth energy generator would need a superconductor to work. Excalibur is a superconductor, it must be. But for whatever reason, when you hold it, it enhances its abilities. You’re making it channel earth energy directly, without needing an antenna array.’

‘But how? It’s just a piece of metal.’ Nina lowered the blade and clanged it against a corner of the granite block to illustrate her point . . . and the sword sliced through the stone as if it were no harder than butter. A fist- sized chunk fell heavily to the floor.

‘Aah!’ Nina jumped back. ‘What the hell?’

‘Push it back in the stone,’ Mitchell suggested. Nina did so, the weapon sliding easily several inches deep into the granite. She let go of the hilt; the glow vanished, leaving the sword sticking out of the block at an angle.

Chase tried to pull it loose. Metal crunched against stone, but he couldn’t actually remove it. ‘Okay, you just chopped through solid stone.’

‘But . . .’ Nina took hold of the hilt, and the blue glow returned. It took almost no effort for her to slip Excalibur back out of the granite.

She rounded on Mitchell as Chase knelt to take a closer look at the damage she had done to the stone. ‘Okay, if you have a new theory, I really, really want to hear it!’

‘Actually, I do - but it can wait. Give me the sword.’ Taking great care to hold the blade away from him, she passed it to Mitchell. The glow vanished when she let go. ‘This is what we came for. The rest of the site, you can get a full archaeological team to survey it, but we need to get the sword to DARPA for analysis as soon as possible.’ Mitchell carefully ran a finger along the blade, then whistled admiringly. ‘We did it. You did it, Nina. You found Excalibur. Congratulations!’

‘Thanks,’ Nina replied. She walked towards the door to the main chamber. ‘But for now, how about we get