The Forgotten Palace by Alexandra Walsh

Author:Alexandra Walsh [Walsh, Alexandra]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Boldwood Books

The rest of the day passed in a blur of excitement, dust and shouting. After their tour of the site, Evans was called away and Duncan Mackenzie guided Alice and George to the mound of earth near the wall Hugo and Theo had been examining earlier.

‘We need a delicate touch as we don’t want to miss anything,’ Mackenzie said. ‘Pottery shards over there, figurines in the basket, and anything you’re unsure about, give me a shout.’

Having emptied her canvas bag into a small basket she found on the edge of the trench, Alice folded it in half, placed it on the ground and knelt on it. A shiver ran down her spine as she peeled off her leather gloves and touched the crumbling ground of ancient Crete for the first time. It was cool, clumped with moisture as old as the mountains. Picking up a clod of earth, she breathed in the smell of soil, decay, water and time, and, with a grin, she began to dig.

An hour later, Alice had discovered several small pot shards, a thrill of delight jolting through her with each find. Pausing to drink from her water canteen, she looked around, brimming with excitement.

Then she resumed digging until the blade of her trowel scraped against something hard. She peeled off her gloves and probed further, eventually scooping up the lump of earth to examine it in more closely. As her hand tightened around the soil, crumbling it through her fingers, she felt a sting as a sharp-edged object grazed her palm.

Brushing away the dirt, expecting to see a pebble, she felt her heart rate quicken as the light caught the oblong stone. For a moment Alice was transported to the past, seeing a young woman walking along the path in front of her, laughter ringing, confident of her future and the love in her heart. Her feet were clad in embroidered slippers, her long hair flowed in silken coils down the back of her tunic, and around her neck were strands of sparkling beads making their own music in the breeze, while a shimmer of iridescent light shone around her head.

The image cleared and Alice reached for her water canteen, pouring it over the stone, clearing away the detritus of millennia with trembling hands to reveal a sparkling crystal.

‘George,’ she called. ‘Look!’

George and Mackenzie, who were a few feet away, rushed to her side and, as she held up her find, they stared at it in as much wonder as Alice.

‘Is it a sealstone?’ she asked.

Light fractured through it throwing rainbows around them.

‘If it is, I’ve never seen one like it,’ said Mackenzie.

‘Is it a diamond?’ asked George.

‘Perhaps,’ grinned Mackenzie as he helped Alice to her feet. ‘Where did you find this, Alice?’

She pointed to the red earth and was surprised when Mackenzie squatted down beside her and began shovelling earth into a wide sieve, which had been discarded a few feet away.

‘What are you doing?’ she asked.

‘It’s a new technique Arthur is using. We sieve the soil to ensure we can find even the smallest of artefacts.

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