legend about Longinus which often gets confused with that of the wandering jew.”
“It’s what? I’m sorry, say again.”
Natalie cut in.
“It’s said that as a punishment for what he did Longinus was cursed to walk the earth in perpetual immortality. The wandering jew is of a legend about a man who taunted Christ on his way to his crucifixion and was then cursed to walk the earth until the second coming of our lord. The two stories very often get confused.”
“I thought we discovered back in London that Longinus himself was beheaded.”
“He was,” Dennis replied, “He was beheaded in front of a king who was blind and the king’s sight was restored when he was splashed by the blood of Longinus. Or so the story goes. Like we said, it’s only a legend.”
Hutchinson was studying the four spears again. The Schatzkammer one was the only one sketched with a shaft.
“Now this is interesting,” Hutchinson said, “The Vienna spear is the only one depicted as having the shaft attached.
Dennis and Natalie both craned their necks to see.
“Do you suppose the shaft is needed. Maybe that’s the missing piece of the puzzle. Maybe it’s not relics at all. Would it still exist?”
Dennis saw a sign on the wall announcing free wi-fi. He picked up Hutchinson’s permanently left on lap top.
“Mind if I have a look?”
“Be my guest.”
Dennis got the answer in less than a minute.
“The shaft is in one of the four pillars of st Peter’s church.”
“Why didn’t they go for it then.”
“Probably they knew it would be impossible,” Natalie said.
“Or without the journal you’re holding they didn’t even know of its existence.”
“Hey. Apparently, legend has it, that another spear shaft exists in Israel or Palestine. The whereabouts is unknown.”
“That’s not much help,” Hutchinson said studying the drawings of the spear and shaft both separate and then joined together. The joined drawing had a halo around the spear head.
“It would seem that Doctor Von Brest knew that the spear was magical only when complete and joined to the shaft, Hutchinson tapped the leather bound journal, “That would now explain why Von Werner was desperate to get this back,”
“And kidnap you for it.”
Hutchinson turned another page. The creature sketched was hideous.
“What the hell is this?”
Dennis and Natalie leaned in again for another look. The creature drawn had its hands held up to its face and was screaming. The fingers were long with long fingernails like talons. The teeth were long and pointed, sharp fangs to rip at flesh. The jaw was also long and frayed in the sketch, where the jaw ended couldn’t be seen and yet, strangely, the creature was wearing what appeared to be Roman armour. There wasn’t enough of the shoulders and torso drawn to verify it but the armour definitely looked to be Roman. Next to the sketch were the words ’Casca Loggius’
“Casca Loggius,” Hutchinson said, “Is that the name of a place. Like city of the dead or something.”
“No,” Dennis shook his head, “It’s him. Longinus. Von Brest has misspelt the name. Or got it confused with someone else. These are very common names in ancient Rome.”
“Longinus? Don’t tell me you believe the story that he still walks the earth.”
Dennis looked at the foul creature in the sketch.
“If that’s anything to go by. I hope not.”
Hutchinson turned the next page, glad to be rid of the foul monster. On the next page was a sketch of the church of the holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. He flicked back a few pages to Christ on the cross, his side pierced by Longinus. Dennis was taking a swig of his coffee. Natalie had taken over the lap top and she suddenly looked up.
“I think I’ve found our missing link. There is a second possible location for the spear shaft,” she said spinning the computer screen around for them to see.
“Where?” they both asked excitedly.
Natalie brought up a map and zoomed out slightly.
“Qumran?” Dennis asked, “Where or what is that?”
“It’s the caves in Palestine where the dead sea scrolls were discovered,” Hutchinson answered, “It’s always been rumoured that they were linked to Christ himself. They’re certainly from the same time period. The Vatican on the other hand dismisses any evidence of Christ and the scrolls though.”
Natalie looked for more clues on the web page.
“Anything else?” Dennis asked.
Natalie read on. There were more clues and she read them out one at a time. Hutchinson listened intently. He continued to flick backwards and forwards between the pages of the journal.