Chapter 18: Treasure in the Dark

I turned over, rolling on shoulders and legs, pain shooting through my body, but I managed to get out of the way before the flames landed next to me, far enough that I didn’t get burned. The flames gave a sudden burst of light, and the resulting darkness was stark.

Rocks and soil followed the flames, and I scurried out of the way.

I collapsed in agony. It hurt to move, to breathe, and I gave up for a few moments, expecting the Cursed to come flying down the hole to finish me off.

He didn’t.

Laying there on my back, my arms at my side, my legs straight, I waited in that odd place of injury where I didn’t know how bad it was and didn’t want to know, so I just refused to move. I could only wait so long, though, and first tried my arms. Not broken. Bruised and battered, my left arm especially, but not broken.

I shifted my legs next. I had hit my knee at some point in the fall, and the kneecap protested. I sat up and got to my feet. My ribs screamed. A couple might be broken, or I aggravated an older injury from Cityguard in Landen or the Living Mountain. The more I moved my body, I made my own diagnosis. I would be sore for a few years, but I could move. It would simply hurt.

The light from the hole had diminished, and when I gazed up, crud and debris had partially blocked it, only a few rays of light peeking through.

Looking down, wooden pieces that I had crashed into lay in a pile, and a few of them were on fire, the flames beginning to die out. I chose the longest one with more of a handhold, used dirt to douse half of the board, and lifted it. Now off the ground, the flame caught more air and continued to burn.

A torch.

Glimpsing up, I couldn’t go back that way, through the hole, the opening higher than I could think to jump, and rubble barred it.

There were other noises above, a clanging and clattering from within the palace. Sounded like the Cursed found Felix.

I had to find a way out down here. I cast my makeshift torch around to see remnants of crates and barrels, nothing in them now. A storage area of some kind.

I sighed. I had lost direction, tumbling down the hole. I did the one thing I could and randomly started walking.

Forward. As good a direction as any, right?

The burning wood gave minimal light, so I almost hit the side of the underground space before I saw it. Taking cautious steps, I began to explore and soon discovered piles of trash, the remnants of the contents of the room. The garbage proved useful since I found some old cloth that had somehow survived and wrapped the burning end of the wooden plank. The torch now burned brighter.

Muffled sounds of thunder reached me, dirt disturbed and falling while the basement area shuddered, like a battle took place above. Felix and the Cursed?

One end of the basement slanted downward, and I limped into a deeper cavern. The ground leveled, and after a few more steps, another pile appeared in the bubble of torchlight.

My breath caught. I paused and then extended the torch to get a better view.

Plates, candleholders, jewelry, statues, and other items in a stack higher than my head. They were all made of gold and silver, covered in crud, but when I picked up a platter and wiped it with the palm of my hand, the torchlight gleamed off the gold.

The platter seemed too big to carry around if I needed to move fast, so I picked up a silver candleholder and began to peer about for an escape.

Hobbling forward and to the right of the pile of treasure, another item gleamed white ahead. I squinted and approached it. A white pole leaned against an imposing boulder, and when I stood closer, it was a staff made of ivory or bone. I dropped the candleholder and grabbed the staff, light but strong in my hand.

I held the staff, mesmerized by it for a few seconds, but the odd shape of the boulder stirred my curiosity. Bringing the torch near and examining the massive stone, sections were white, like the staff. With the minimal light of the torch, my brain took a minute to comprehend the form.

It was a skull, caked over from a thousand years in the cavern, buried here. I tracked the long snout and even found a tooth half my height.

... great beings of majesty and evil also roamed this world, Galen had said. Dragons were among them...

Dragons. This was the skull of a dragon.

They had passed into legend, and most people dismissed their existence, interpreting their mention in religious texts as symbolic more than reality. But they had been real.

The cavern trembled, dust and sand falling from the ceiling. Being so far underground, the whole island must be quaking with the battle above. It also hinted that Felix still lived.

If the bulk of the treasure was down here with the skull of a dragon, then it would be difficult for Felix to find anything of value. I might have time.

I only had to find a way out. And there had to be one. An old chute to the basement of the palace couldn’t be the only way into an area of treasure and a dragon’s skull.

I held the white staff in my left hand, using it as a crutch, and the torch in my right, I started to search the rest of the cavern, shuffling around on my stiff leg. Another minute passed, and I rounded the front of the dragon skull to explore the other side.

The oval opening appeared like an illusion at first, like a perfect hand of Tablets dealt to me. Walking closer, however, the mouth of a tunnel became clear. I didn’t know the direction or destination, but I entered the shaft.

My legs protested, but I hurried, the torch out in front, the white staff clicking on the rocky floor. The wide and tall tunnel wound to the left and right then curved far to the left and angled down.

Light appeared, a faint glow, and then the end of the shaft came into view. I emerged from the tunnel onto a plateau near the coast, a stone overhang above my head. I scanned the coast, and to my right, the pier extended out into the ocean, The Last Sentinel still docked there, the snapping of its white sails echoing in the wind.

I took a deep breath and bent over at my waist, my hands on my knees. Gathering my strength, I pushed forward along the coast over and around rocks, picking my way through without a path.

Arriving at the road, I turned right and walked down the wooden dock toward the ship. Galen and Iletus stood on the deck near the railing and watched me with cold eyes. I walked up the ramp with the staff as a welcome help, and I joined them on the deck.

I looked around the deck and then at the elves. “Felix?”

“You have won the test, Caleb,” Galen said.

My shoulders slumped with relief. I nodded and handed the staff over to Galen.

Galen took it, and his brow furrowed. “This is what you found?”

I swallowed hard and leaned against the railing. “Yes.”

Galen’s head whipped over to stare at Iletus, whose own eyes were wide. Iletus turned to me. “Where did you find this?”