The Emerald Quest

by Renee Pawlish

  The Emerald Quest

  A Noah Winter Adventure

  First Digital Edition published by Llama Press

  Copyright 2012 by Renée Pawlish

  Cover Design by Graphicz X Designs – graphiczxdesigns.zenfolio.com

  For Beth Hecker:

  This home run is for you.

  LICENSE NOTES:

  This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your personal use only, then you should return this copy to the vendor of your choice and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  The author gratefully acknowledges all those who helped in the writing of this book, especially: Beth Hecker and Beth Treat, editors extraordinaire; Dave Martinache of Colorado Scuba Center, for his diving expertise and insights into diving shipwrecks (any mistakes in the book are mine, not his); Thom Adorney for his suggestions and help in getting this in the hands of readers; a wonderful group of beta readers: Julie Buda, Julie Friend, Thomas Lynch, Sean McMullen, Amy Mumma, Brandon Mumma, Sharon Pollock, Karen Rought, Sharon Stogner, and Emma Velie. If I've forgotten anyone, please accept my apologies.

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  The Emerald Quest

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER ONE

  “WE FOUND IT!”

  Noah Winter saw the twisted piece of metal jutting from the side of the Spanish steamship a second too late. One moment he was swimming effortlessly beside the San Isabel. A moment later, the claw-like piece hooked the oxygen hose of his scuba diving gear.

  Fstt!

  Noah was jerked to a standstill and his regulator popped out of his mouth. Bubbles rushed out the end of the mouthpiece, racing to the ocean’s surface. Suddenly without air, Noah had to act quickly. His dive training kicked in. He held his breath and calmly reached down to his right and grabbed the alternate air source. He cleared the apparatus by exhaling into it, forcing the water out of it. He then started breathing the air again.

  Noah smiled. Accident averted. Then he looked up and saw his mother poke her head out of the side of the shipwreck. She had seen him using the alternate air source so she kicked hard with her feet and shot through the water toward him. As she drew close, Noah could see through her facemask. Her eyes were wide with alarm.

  Funny, he thought. She seems really worried about me today.

  Noah gave her an okay signal and nodded his head. Even though he was only thirteen, he had been diving for three years, so he knew what to do in an emergency. Noah puzzled over his mom’s reaction. She usually trusted him to take care of himself. Seeing that he was okay, she patted him on the shoulder and gestured that she was going back inside the wreck.

  It was a beautiful Tuesday afternoon in August. Noah and his parents, Frank and Riley Winter, were diving the San Isabel. The San Isabel was a passenger liner built in 1907. She was almost 400 feet long, with a 48-foot beam. When the San Isabel ferried the seas, she was solid and sleek, with a steel hull, towering masts, and room for over a thousand passengers. In 1922, during a fierce storm off the small island of Key West, Florida, the ship went down with 312 passengers, 88 crew members, and a cargo of olives and wine.

  Noah swam after his mom. She slowed as she came to a doorway on the bridge. Then she gingerly glided through the opening, being careful that her scuba gear did not catch on the doorframe, and she disappeared from view. Noah edged closer, but halted before going inside the wreckage of the ship. Since he was not yet sixteen, he was not allowed to penetrate, or go into, a wreck.

  Noah spied his mom as she moved into the bridge, past what was left of the ship’s wheel. Her underwater dive light illuminated her way, the beam bouncing off the inside walls like rays of sunlight. Noah glanced around what was left of the San Isabel. Over time, the hull had rusted. All the wood had deteriorated and crumbled. The ship was only a shell of what it used to be.

  Noah noticed something on the floor inside the doorway. He swam close to the door, peering through his mask at a white object. His curiosity getting the best of him, he moved into the doorway and grabbed the object. As he did, his tank bumped the ship. Noah backed out, his heart racing.

  I’d be in big trouble if Mom or Dad saw me do that, he thought.

  He examined the piece he’d retrieved. It was a circular piece of white porcelain, like the rim of a cup. It had round edges and there was writing on it. Noah looked more closely. Thin wires stretched across the opening, hooked to tiny screws in each side of the porcelain. It reminded him of a flour sifter, but with most of the wire mesh removed. Noah ran his hand over the piece and wondered about the people on the ship. Did a cook use this? Who were the passengers? Noah pictured a woman, dressed in a pretty full-length dress, dining as she sat across from her husband. She would be dreaming about when the long journey over the ocean would be over. Noah gazed at the wreckage. Only she didn’t make it, he thought sadly.

  Noah looked back inside the wreck. Both his mom and dad had vanished into the innards of the ship. Noah imagined them, with their flashlights illuminating the darkness, poking around the depths of the San Isabel. They were searching for a treasure map, although Noah couldn’t see how a map of any kind would have survived in the water.

  Noah meandered away from the bridge toward the bow of the ship. Above him, through the clear, warm water, he could see the underside of the Explorer, the cabin cruiser his parents owned. Sunlight pierced down from the ocean’s surface. Noah was in his own little world, where all he heard was the sound of his breathing through the regulator. He had spent countless hours diving with his parents, and he loved being beneath the ocean’s surface.

  As he wandered about the wreckage, Noah came to a jagged hole in the ship’s hull. This damage was what had sunk the ship. The water here was only twenty-five feet deep and the San Isabel had apparently run into a reef, sending the crew, passengers, and cargo to the ocean’s floor. Noah spotted yellowtail snapper and queen trigger fish darting around the wreckage.

  He touched the edge of the hole and felt the rough metal. The ship’s steel hull proved no match against the dangers of the ocean. Noah shook his head. Sunken ships riddled the waters off the Florida coast, the victims of reefs, hurricanes, and other storms.

  A huge fish suddenly slid from the hull, his sharp white teeth smiling at Noah. Noah jerked backwards, pressing himself against the side of the ship. He dropped the piece of porcelain he’d been carrying and it sank into the sand below. His heart pounded in his chest. He worked to keep his breathing even and slow. The fish, a black-tip shark, swam leisurely past him. Although that species rarely hurt human beings, Noah wasn’t taking any chances. He waited, moving as little as possible, until the shark faded into the murky distance.

  Noah turned and gazed through the hole again. Did that shark have any companions?

  Something grabbed Noah’s shoulder, startling him again. His arms tingled with fear for an instant as he whirled around. What kind of fish was attackin
g him? With relief, he stared into his father’s face mask. Frank Winter’s long arms and legs moved slowly. His short brown hair waved in the sea water as he stared at Noah.

  Scared twice in just a few moments! Noah chuckled to himself.

  Frank gestured at Noah to follow him. Noah could see the anger in his dad’s blue eyes. He had wandered too far from his parents. Frank pointed up. Noah nodded. It was time to surface.

  He followed his dad, kicking with his feet as they swam back to the bridge where his mom was waiting. She tipped her head upward and they all slowly ascended toward the ocean’s surface. As Noah rose, the water grew clearer and rays of sunlight danced around him. The San Isabel was a dark hulking pile of metal below him. Then Noah’s head bobbed into the open air. He slid his mask onto his forehead and pulled the regulator from his mouth. He sucked in a few breaths and smiled. What an adventure!

  Noah’s dad emerged beside him and Noah saw his frowning face.

  “What were you doing so far away from us?” Frank scolded him.

  “But Dad, you usually let me swim around the wreck without you,” Noah said.

  “I told you this time not to,” Frank said.

  “Why are you worrying about me?”

  Frank took in a deep breath and let it out. “It’s nothing, okay? But in the future, you need to listen to me.”

  “Yes, sir,” Noah said.

  Then his mom surfaced. She had a huge grin on her face.

  “We found it!” she said as she held up something from the shipwreck.

  CHAPTER TWO

  NOT JUST ANY OLD SPYGLASS

  “What is it?” Noah asked.

  “Hold on.” Riley tipped her head in the direction of the Explorer. “Time to get on board, then I’ll tell you all about it.”

  Frank and Riley Winter were treasure hunters. They searched for items lost at sea. Sometimes, insurance companies hired the Winters to locate lost valuables, other times a collector would pay them to find some lost artifact. Treasure hunting involved not only diving shipwrecks, but also researching clues in old documents like ship logs, which detail the cargo and passengers aboard a ship, and journals from surviving passengers or crew members.

  Noah and his parents paddled slowly over to the Explorer. By the time they got to the boat, Noah was breathing heavily.

  “Good workout, right?” Frank said as he climbed the ladder into the boat and took off his diving tanks. Noah nodded as his dad helped him out of the water.

  “Hey boss, how did it go?” said a tall, lanky young man with dark hair and even darker eyes. Anthony Napolitano was the Winters’ assistant. He was twenty-three years old and just out of college. He had helped Frank and Riley on expeditions since he was eighteen, working with them when he wasn’t in school. Now that he’d graduated, he manned the boat and assisted with research. He also lived with the Winters and was like a big brother to Noah.

  “Found the other piece,” Riley answered as she got into the boat.

  “Awesome!” Anthony said.

  “Can I look at it?” Noah asked as he peeled off his mask.

  “Be careful.” Riley handed her prize to him. “Don’t drop it.”

  Noah took the object from her. It was part of an old, brass spyglass, with two nested tubes, just like pirates used to use. Pieces of leather still covered part of the brass. He drew the spyglass out to its full length, about twelve inches.

  “It’s missing some tubing,” Riley said, pointing at the tubes. “We found some of the other pieces a few days ago. A typical spyglass would have three or four tapering tubes that slide into each other, so it could be as long as twenty-five or thirty inches.”

  “It’s sorta like the one I have at home.” Noah put one end of the spyglass up to his eye and squinted into it, but all he saw was blue sky.

  “Only yours is new.” Riley held out a hand and Noah gave the spyglass back to her.

  “If we can find the rest of the pieces, it should point us to the De La Rosa emerald,” Frank said..

  “How?” Noah asked.

  “Get your gear off and I’ll tell you,” Frank smiled.

  Riley handed the spyglass remnant to Frank. He carefully placed it in a felt-lined box where another brass piece lay.

  Anthony helped Noah take off his regulator and oxygen tanks. “And what about you? Did you find anything?”

  “Just part of an old flour sifter,” Noah said as he slipped out of his diving suit. “But I dropped it when a shark came out of the hole in the ship.”

  Frank raised an eyebrow at his son. “What happened?”

  “It’s nothing,” Noah said, then explained about the shark.

  “You reacted well,” Riley said. “Don’t ever take a chance with a shark, even a smaller reef shark.”

  “Can’t dive without running into a shark now and then.” Anthony tousled Noah’s bleach-blond hair.

  “That’s right,” Frank said. “But you still need to be careful.”

  Noah nodded as he helped stow away his gear. Then he took a towel and dried himself off. As he did, he looked inside the box at the pieces of the spyglass his mom had found. It was somewhat worn, but in surprisingly good shape.

  “How is this going to help us find the treasure?” Noah asked, once Frank and Riley had stripped off their gear. Frank and Anthony put the equipment away as Noah and his mom talked.

  “The De La Rosa Emerald,” Riley said with a smile. She wasn’t much taller than Noah, who was almost five and a half feet tall. But Riley was lean and muscular from many years of swimming and diving. She toweled off her shoulder-length brown hair as she talked. “You know a little about the gem, right?”

  Noah nodded.

  “I know that Juan Carlo De La Rosa has hired us to find the De La Rosa Emerald that belonged to his ancestor, Roberto De La Rosa,” Noah recited. “It’s from Central America; it’s shaped like a heart and supposed to be twice as big as a quarter.”

  “But gemstones are weighed in carats, which measures how big it is, so a gem that size would be…” Riley paused.

  Quizzing Noah about the treasures was a game Frank and Riley liked to play.

  “Somewhere around 120 carats,” Noah completed Riley’s statement. “And it would be worth at least a few million dollars today.”

  “And what happened to the jewel?” Riley kept quizzing him. “Do you remember?”

  “In 1824, Roberto De La Rosa was going to return to Spain from the United States,” Noah continued reciting the facts he’d memorized. “But, he worried that pirates would steal the jewel so before he went home to Spain, he hid it somewhere in the Florida Keys. He created a secret map so he could find the emerald when he came back. Only he never came back. The secret map was passed down through the De La Rosa family for a long time to, uh…”

  “Alfonso De La Rosa,” Frank said as he came back from the bridge. He sprawled on a cushioned bench. “In 1922, Alfonso sailed from Spain on the San Isabel to the United States, carrying the secret map with him, so he could find the hidden gem. But when the San Isabel sank, so did the spyglass.”

  “What happened to Alfonso De La Rosa?” Noah asked.

  “He survived,” Frank said. “But over time, the emerald was forgotten.”

  “Why?”

  “Now that’s a tale in itself,” Riley said. As she talked, she frisked her hands through her hair to dry it. “Alfonso was obsessed with finding the emerald, so much so that he frequently neglected his family, including his son, Ernesto – ”

  “Who is Juan Carlo’s grandfather,” Anthony said as he returned from the cabin below.

  “Right,” Riley said. “So Alfonso journeyed to the United States to search for the map spyglass that would then lead him to the emerald.”

  “But didn’t they know that the ship sunk, and the spyglass with it?” Noah asked.

  “Yes, but that’s only part of the story. As your dad said, Alfonso survived the sinking, but he still was determined to find the spyglass. He searched the wreck site
repeatedly. Keep in mind that, back in the 1920’s and 30’s, diving was without all the equipment we have now. It was very dangerous, and, sure enough, Alfonso died on one of those dives. Ernesto, his son, was so bitter about Alfonso’s fatal fascination with the emerald that he vowed never to talk about it again,” Riley continued. “And he kept that vow until he was an old man. Then, he began talking about the spyglass and the secret of the hidden emerald. He only told Juan Carlo about the spyglass a month ago.”

  “And Juan Carlo hired you to find it,” Noah said.

  “That’s right. And you can help me with some research tomorrow, as part of your schoolwork,” Riley said. Noah’s mom homeschooled him, and whenever possible, she combined their current expedition work into Noah’s studies.

  Noah twisted his lip in thought. “So no one’s found the emerald before because no one knew about it. Wow.”

  “Juan Carlo thinks the emerald is hidden somewhere on Key Largo,” Anthony interjected.

  “Yes,” Frank answered. “That’s what his grandfather Ernesto told him, but it’s just a family rumor. And even if the rumor is correct, landmarks may change, so it could be impossible to locate with a map that’s so old.”

  Noah sat down next to Frank and pointed to the spyglass pieces in the box. There was writing scrawled on the side of one of the tubes.

  “What’s this writing?” he asked.

  “That’s what told us we have the De La Rosa spyglass and not just any old spyglass,” Riley said. “The maker of this special spyglass put his own name where a manufacturer’s name usually would be.”

  “I don’t understand how a spyglass will help us find the De La Rosa treasure,” Noah said. “It’s not a map.”

  “Ah, but it is! This spyglass was specially made by a man who worked for Roberto De La Rosa,” Frank explained. “That’s the maker’s name on that piece,” he said, pointing to the writing. “Roberto had the fellow design a spyglass with special end-pieces made of etched glass. Those pieces were attached to the end of the spyglass. You rotate the pieces a certain way, and the tubing extends to a specific length. If you do it exactly right and then shine a light through the spyglass, a map is projected out onto a flat surface, like a piece of paper or a wall.”