Free Lucan: The Pendragon Legacy by Susan Kearney Page B

astrology.”

    “Astronomy,” he corrected automatically. “I’m no astronomer, but this looks… far too accurate for its time. King Arthur, remember. The Age of Chivalry.”

    “Yeah, right.”

    Lost in thought, he ignored her sarcasm. “This map has details the Hubble telescope might not pick up, yet it’s thousands of years old. It’s unbelievable.”

    “So it’s a fake?”

    “I’ll have to perform tests…” He squinted at the map. His gaze moved on to the distant stars and their planets. “Hell.”

    “What now?”

    He pointed to the map. “This moon is named Pendragon.”

    “Wasn’t that King Arthur’s last name?”

    He nodded and squinted. “And written right under Pendragon is the word
Avalon.
”

    “Avalon? Is that significant?”

    “Avalon was a legendary isle ruled by a Druid priestess called the Lady of the Lake,” he answered. “She helped put Arthur on the throne. And according to the stories, Avalon was also where King Arthur left the Holy Grail.”

    “The Holy Grail?” Disbelief filled her voice.

    “The powers of the cup are legendary. If the myths are true, the cup might cure physical ills—cancer, heart attacks, and…” He hesitated before breathing out the word. “Sterility.”

    Though neither his sister nor her husband was officially sterile, like most of Earth’s population, they couldn’t have children. Her recent miscarriage had been her second in as many years. If the cup truly existed and he could find it, his sister—and hundreds of thousands of others—could finally carry a child to term.

    “Throughout the ages,” he continued, “many men, including Arthur’s own Knights of the Round Table, have searched for Avalon and the Holy Grail. Legendary stories of the Grail’s healing properties exist in many cultures, yet no one has found it.” He pointed to the small moon on the ancient map. “Maybe that’s because Avalon wasn’t on Earth.”

    “You’ve lost your mind.” She sighed, but the catch in her voice exposed her wishful thinking that after all this tim Fth= hee despairing, she might be able to hope again.

    “A search for the Holy Grail might be the most exciting thing I’ll ever do.”

    “It might also be the last thing you ever do. Didn’t you learn your lesson when you went in search of Preah Vihear antiquities?”

    “The golden statue of the dancing Shiva I found in the Khmer temple was worth—”

    “Ending up in a Cambodian jail?”

    “Just a little misunderstanding. We got it squared away.”

    She cursed under her breath. “You sure you don’t have a death wish? Or are you just an adrenaline junkie?”

    She was fussing only because she loved him, so he ignored her rhetorical questions. Besides, he wasn’t the only twin who took calculated risks. As a reporter for the
St. Petersburg Times,
Marisa had placed herself in danger often. They were some pair. She wanted to report the present to change the future. Until now, he’d believed humanity was headed for extinction, and he had studied the past because the future looked bleak. But if he could find the Grail, the past just might offer hope.

    Marisa sighed. “We need to dig out of here.”

    He carefully rolled up the parchment and placed it in the dry sample bag he’d pulled from his backpack. Then he shined the light on the broken pottery. Kneeling, he began gathering as many shards as he could carry.

    He reached for a particularly large piece, covered in an array of signs and symbols, when he spied daylight glimmering through a tiny opening on the far wall of the hidden room. A way out. “Time to go.”

    “Now you’re in a hurry?”

    “Don’t you want to find out if this map’s authentic?”

    She sighed. “I’m more interested in warm, dry clothes.”

    “Do you realize what we may have found?”

    “We? Just you, my brother. Avalon? The Holy Grail? A cure for cancer? The idea is more than crazy. It’s nonsense. But knowing you, you’ll find a