Read Online The Crusader ("The Crusader" Prequel to "Kingdom Come") by Kathryn Le Veque - Free Book Online

like a time
capsule, preserving everything in an air-tight fashion. But I suspect the
condition of this book won't stay good forever; exposure to the air will speed
the decaying process. It needs to be sealed."
    "After
we find out his name," Rory said, glancing to the helmed head at the other
end of the trench. "Come on, big boy. Tell us who you are."
    Being
very careful, Bud turned another page. He was about to turn another when Rory
suddenly stopped him.
    "Here."
She jabbed her finger at the bottom of the fourth page. "From what I can
tell, this is the knight's journal. He's talking about his trip aboard a
ship... and here he mentions the city of Acre. My God, Bud, this guy really was a crusader. Bingo!"
    Bud
grinned at her excitement. "You already convinced me of that last night.
So what's his name?"
    Hazel
eyes scanned the pages. After a moment, she appeared to find a passage of
particular interest.
    "Right
here," she murmured, struggling to read the script. "Heck, it's so
faded I can hardly read it. But he swearing the truth of his recollections by
God's Holy Order and whosoever should repeat these tales... on and on and on...
now where does he mention his name?"
    Reseated
beside the artifacts, David's cataloguing came to a halt as Rory read aloud
from the chronicle. Even the foreman had paused in his duties, listening
carefully. Bud had given up trying to read the stuff and now stood waiting
patiently as Rory completed her analysis.
    The
activity grew oddly still as Rory scrutinized the unfamiliar writing. Turning a
page, she seemed to go back and forth between a couple of pages before her gaze
came to rest on what she apparently sought. Slowly, her face lit with a
beautiful smile.
    "Well?"
Bud demanded. "What's his name?"
    Rory
sighed dreamily, gazing to the ancient knight. There was gentleness in her
expression as she spoke.
    "Good
doctors, meet Sir Kieran Hage of Nottingham, an crusader with Richard the Lion
heart." Her smile broadened when she met Bud's gaze. "A real
honest-to-goodness English knight."
    Bud
grinned timidly in response to her declaration. Even Peck was smiling. Hardly
able to control her exhilaration, Rory impulsively threw an arm around Bud's
neck and kissed him loudly on the cheek.
    "I
want to send a message to Becker personally," she said happily. "I
told you guys there was something here. I would say Sir Kieran is a pretty big
something."
    Peck
scratched underneath his baseball cap. "Even if he's not your crown?"
    Rory
removed her arm from Bud, much to the man's disappointment. Her smile faded as
she moved to the rim of the grave, holding the journal up to David.
    "It's
not like I'm going to give up looking for it altogether," she said, the
usual defensiveness absent from her tone. "But what I've got here... it's
real, and it's tangible. It's not as if I'm chasing a myth. I've got some hard
excavation waiting for my attention and I intend to give it my full
focus."
    David's
brown eyes were soft, hearing his own cynical words reflected in her voice. He
suddenly didn't like the idea of Rory unwilling to pursue her dreams; as
outlandish as they could be and as much as he criticized her, the world would
be a dismal place without people like Rory to have faith in the impossible.
    "But
you're not going to give up?" he asked quietly.
    "Never.
Just call my crusader a momentary diversion."
    Peck was
oddly comforted by her words. "When this is over, I'll help you go over
the Byzantine manuscripts again. Maybe there is something there you missed,
something an unbiased view can help clarify." He felt foolish for his
hypocracy, embarrassed that he was all but admitting his faith in her beliefs.
"I've... I've invested too much time not to do all I can."
    The
smile returned to her tired face. "Thanks for your devotion, Dave."
Noting his flush as he refused to meet her gaze, Rory nonetheless winked at him
and turned back to the knight. After brief deliberation, she moved to the
helmed head and hunched over it,