Mystery: The Laird's Labyrinth: A Duncan Dewar Mystery of Murder & Suspense (Duncan Dewar Mysteries Book 4) by Victoria Benchley

Author:Victoria Benchley [Benchley, Victoria]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2015-11-12T05:00:00+00:00

-13-

A Viking Invasion

The next week passed with tense anticipation, as each day they uncovered more of the labyrinth. Harold worked mornings, spent the afternoons with Penny, and sometimes dropped by the chippie to see her at night. Duncan and Julien excavated from early until nightfall, taking breaks for lunch and tea. Reginald spent more time in the chapel every day, observing their progress and offering encouragement. Donald popped in often, always making a remark about what he would give to be young again or some other bromide regarding hard work standing cheek by jowl with youth.

Early the following week, Harold proposed to not only attend Reggie's lectures, but visit Durham and view its copy of the Lindisfarne Gospels as well. Donald still planned to head home for a few days to give his daughter, Skye, a break from the inn. Duncan looked forward to a day or two alone and intended to set up another fault tree analysis.

As more of the labyrinth became visible, he found himself inexplicably drawn to the mosaic. At night, he dreamed he walked, meditated, and even sang his way along its paths. He increased his efforts each day and as the week went on, progress increased exponentially. He hoped the entire mosaic would be revealed before the others left the island and that he'd have that time alone, with the maze, to experience its mysteries.

He had heard of gold fever taking hold of men and driving them to imprudent and reckless actions. If the stories were true, then he had mosaic fever. Whatever mysteries the design held regarding ancient treasure, those came secondary to Duncan. He longed to experience walking the labyrinth.

As the sun sank behind the horizon on Friday, they came close to achieving their goal. More than three quarters of the mosaic lay exposed in the dim room. One of the surprises they encountered excavating was that none of the quadrants of the design were identical. The overall shape, that of a cross, proved symmetrical, but each area contained either different designs, colors or motifs.

Peach, gold, and cream tiles composed the base of the cross, with two stylized flowers at its outer border. Lines here formed four Greek keys, two by two. Soft green and gold mosaics made up the right quadrant, which featured a birdlike creature with brown and gold feathers. The monks utilized blue, gold and white squares on the left arm, along with touches of light pink marble. A face framed by golden wings, Duncan assumed an angel, stared with red eyes at the observer from this area.

The paths along each arm of the cross still made the investigator think of Peru's Nazca lines. The center of the cross contained black and white marble tiles, forming their own mini-maze, with a round empty space of beige in the middle. Only a portion of the top of the cross remained buried. Tan, brown and gold stones peeked out where the debris had been removed. The designs took on a round shape within the borders of the top of the cross, but a total picture was not yet evident.

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