by C. K. Brooke
He exhaled, trying to look anywhere else, but it was unavoidable. “Hurry up, Annie,” he muttered, all the while begging his lower body not to react. “Are you almost done?”
“I see something.” Her voice was faint as she craned her neck to look. “There appears to be a…a house. A very big one.”
“Annie…”
“All right, I’m done.”
He aided her footing, helping her back to the ground, where she brushed off her trousers, looking concerned. “I don’t know how we’re going to break in. Shouldn’t we ask permission onto the premises?”
Rob snorted. Permission? Was she out of her mind? “Think of what you’re saying. If we ask permission to dig on these folks’ property, then whoever owns this land can viably claim ownership of the pearl, as well—if we find it there.”
“So, we’re stealing it?”
“Yes.”
She frowned.
“They won’t know it’s missing,” Rob assured her. “I’m sure they don’t even know it’s supposed to be there. We’ll cover our tracks, refill every hole we dig… It’ll be like we never came.”
She still looked skeptical. “And what if, after a whole evening of digging—assuming we aren’t caught—we still don’t find the pearl? Do we keep on trespassing until we’re arrested?”
Rob grimaced at the notion. “Don’t worry about that right now. Just focus on tonight. We’re going to find it, and I’ll entertain no other option.”
“Tonight?” She hurried after him as he headed back up the valley, her blonde ponytail flapping at her neck. “You really think we’re ready?”
He met her eyes. “I’ve been ready my whole life, Annie.”
THE MOON WAS WANING, BUT its gentle light would have to suffice. Together, Rob and Antonia hiked out from the brush, seeking the eastern valley once more. The fence lay some yards yonder, and the kissing boulders a ways beyond that.
Their plan was set. Rob would help Antonia over the fence, then hop it himself. Maverick would remain outside, keeping watch for them.
Quietly as he could, Rob lifted the young woman until she had a sturdy grip on the bars. He supported her as she launched up and swung a leg over the top. Too soon, however, she let go and jumped down. He heard her hit the ground with a thump.
“Are you all right?” he whispered.
“Yes.” She grunted, her shadow rising from the grass. “Guess I misjudged that landing.”
Rob shook his head. “You need to be more careful. We only get one shot at this.”
She backed out of the way as he followed suit, climbing the fence. But something soft brushed against his leg. “Not now, Maverick,” he muttered. He pointed to the brush behind them. “Stay.”
The dog only crossed through the bars of the fence, tilting its head and squeezing in its stomach muscles to fit.
Antonia sounded confused. “Maverick? How…?”
“Maverick,” Rob hissed. “Get back here.”
The dog only wagged its tail from inside the fence, and Rob sighed. If Mav wished to follow them, then so be it. He only hoped the animal would have the sense to keep quiet.
At last, he lowered himself down onto the other side, his boots hitting the sandy grass soundlessly. He gazed around. Up ahead, a fair distance away, sat an enormous residence. Even in the faint moonlight, Rob could make out its expansive wings and sprawling courtyards. “Looks like some sort of estate,” he murmured. “Wonder whose it is.”
Antonia watched it warily, but he rested a hand on her arm. “Don’t worry. They’re far from where we’ll be. They’ll never notice us.” He glanced up at the moon. “But still, we ought to make haste.”
They set off along the perimeter of the property until they spied the familiar rock formations. Rob’s heart drummed with every footstep as he urged them onward, ducking before the formations so that the rocks would conceal them from the manor. Although he doubted anyone would detect them in the darkness and from such a distance, they still had to exercise every precaution. Because this was it, wasn’t it? He was, perhaps, mere hours from seizing the long lost pearl in his own hands—no feat to be trifled with.
The two great stones with the kissing archway in between were finally eminent. Rob jogged to them, his rucksack pounding against his back. He slipped it off and extracted his shovel, then tossed the bag to Antonia. She was quick to catch it.
“Get the map,” he whispered, hands trembling as he ran them along the smooth stones. The arch between them was too high to reach.
Antonia’s breaths were short as she unfastened the bag and rifled through its contents. Rob watched as she unfolded the vellum and found her place. “I can hardly see,” she complained.
“Here.” Rob rested the shovel and took the map from her, outspreading the page beneath a patch of moonlight. “In Osirio’s shadow, she rests three kubos deep,” he read. “Osirio’s shadow? The hell does that mean?” He flashed the map at her. “And what’s a kubo, for that matter?”
“Osirio’s shadow,” repeated Antonia thoughtfully. She tilted her head and gazed up at the night sky, the stars sparkling down at them from between thinning purple clouds. “There,” she pointed.
Rob looked up, recognizing the swine-like shape she’d once shown him in the Pirsi Desert. “Ah,” he realized, his eyes tracing down its starry tusks. Osirio was the Ancient Elphysian name for the Boar constellation. It was located in the western sky, while the Duck’s Bill, he knew, was east. “So we dig west of the boulders…that is, to their right?”
Antonia shrugged. “Apparently.”
Rob glanced back down at the map. It said nothing else; those were its final instructions.
“And to answer your question,” she added, “a kubo is an Ancient Elphysian term of measurement. It’s not so precise; it can range anywhere from about one-and-a-half to two feet.”
“Right, then.” Rob took a breath, lifting the shovel again. “Here goes nothing.”
Antonia and Maverick watched as he drove the mouth of the shovel into the gritty, sandy soil. All too soon, it clanged against a cluster of buried rock. Rob winced, glancing nervously over his shoulder. “Annie, take Mav and be my lookouts, will you?”
She appeared reluctant to leave him.
“Just stand on the other side of the rocks, and alert me if you detect any activity. I’ll be right here,” he assured her. “You’ll hear me.”
She nodded and, beckoning Maverick, turned away. Rob saw them safely perched on the opposite side of the boulders, facing the estate, before he resumed.
Moving his shovel a few inches to the right, he began to dig again. This time, clumps of shell came up with the sand. His blood pounded as he kept on digging until, nearly two feet down, he hit another solid wall of rock.
What is with this terrain? he thought furiously, as Antonia’s head whipped around at the bang of his shovel. Drawing another breath, he nestled the tip into a new spot in front of the hole he’d just dug. He glanced up. Was he still in Osirio’s shadow? He supposed so.
He burrowed on, channeling into the soil with all of his might. He’d already lost an hour, and was growing anxious when Antonia’s carrying whisper startled him. “Robin?”
He halted, heart pounding. She’d not seen someone approaching, had she? But she only asked, “Have you found anything yet?”
Frustrated, he shook his head. “No. And sorry, but try not to call me unless it’s an emergency. All right?”
She apologized, returning to her post, and Rob went back to work. It was arduous, and his hands were becoming sore. Thankfully, however, the soil in that spot was more easily lifted. But after tunneling down a few feet, he still found nothing.
Antonia did not interrupt him again. But as the next hour wore, he found himself worrying about her, sitting over there by herself. More than once, he stopped to check on her, concerned that
she might be growing sleepy, or prone to nodding off. But she vehemently denied it.
“I’m fine,” she insisted the third time he inquired of her energy level. “Do you want me to do the digging for a while?”
Rob swallowed. His hands were admittedly achy and chafed, and the offer was tempting. But this was his mission, was it not? He couldn’t ask her to do the work for him. He wanted to be the one to find the treasure, after all.
“Thanks, but I’ve, er…got a system going and…” He smiled. “Well… Better get back to work.”
He felt her eyes on his back as he returned to his latest pit. But even after reaching well past the depth of three kubos, he didn’t find anything. Don’t lose hope, he begged himself, lifting his shovel and breaking through yet another patch of ground.
The evening was getting later, cooling off, and Rob realized Antonia wore no jacket over her tunic. He was about to offer her one from his bag when her soft voice broke through the breeze. “Rob.”
He looked up, waiting as her shadow neared him, accompanied by an anxious Maverick. “Maverick’s whimpering,” she informed him.
Rob scratched the dog’s neck. “He’s probably just confused. It’s past his bedtime; he wants to be curled up in a warm blanket with me somewhere.”
Antonia was unconvinced. “But I think I heard something, too.”
He cut her off. Some time ago, he’d heard it as well, gulls squawking down by the shore. “Was it a high noise?”
She nodded.
He patted her shoulder. “Just seagulls, Annie. Nothing to worry about.”
She bowed her head, walking away as he resumed his excavation. At that point, he was becoming awfully tired. And it would prove to be far more difficult than expected to cover his tracks. He’d dug up quite a bit of earth already; why, it would take just as much energy to refill the holes as it’d taken to empty them. Perhaps he wouldn’t be covering his tracks that night. Perhaps they would just have to get out, soon as he found what he was looking for…
He was nearly five feet down when his shovel happened to unearth something more than dirt. He paused, his breath stopping short as he dropped to his knees to investigate.
And that was when his heart nearly burst from his chest, for Maverick emitted an earsplitting bark, startling the daylights out of him. “Gods be damned!” Rob roared, swinging his head around. “Maverick, what in the hell—?”
“Rob!” Antonia’s voice was panicked. “Someone’s coming!”
Pulse pounding, the man dug his fingers into the upturned dirt and grasped the coarse little pouch poking out from it. He gave it a squeeze. Whatever was inside was round, the size of his palm, and hard as granite. He was dizzy, trembling as he shoved the pouch into his pocket, unable to believe what was happening…
Antonia dashed to him with fear in her eyes. “I—I’m not sure exactly what it is, but we have to get out of—”
They gave a start as a cacophony of high-pitched yapping sounded in the distance, encroaching nearer by the moment. It was accompanied by the bobbing of lantern lights.
“Oh, no,” Rob breathed, as dozens of tiny, pointy-eared shadows flooded downhill from the residence. “An Axacolan Alarm.”
Antonia shot him a quizzical look.
“Vicious little native dogs,” he explained, grabbing her hand. “Run.”
ROBIN SWEPT UP HIS RUCKSACK and bounded back to the stretch of fence over which they’d entered. Antonia hurried alongside him. But a set of guardsmen patrolled the space, lanterns aloft. The guards immediately chased after them, shouting in Axacolan.
Antonia, Robin and Maverick raced in the opposite direction, throwing themselves down the hill as fast as their legs could carry them. All the while, the little dogs’ high yipping—the “Axacolan Alarm”—rang in their ears, gaining on them. Maverick turned to confront the creatures, but Robin ordered him onward.
A deafening boom split across the sky. Reflexively, Antonia covered her head. “Oh, my goddess,” she cried, terrified as they hurtled through a valley, running ever downhill. “They’re shooting at us?”
Breathless, Robin seized her hand and steered her sharply to the left. “Throw ‘em off a bit.”
“We’ve got to get off their land.” She nearly tripped over a protrusion of stones, and held tight to him. “Where’s the fence?”
“I dunno; this place is huge.”
In her moment of desperation, Antonia cried out to her patron deity: “Azea, protect us!”
“Halto!” male voices shouted after them, as another gunshot sounded. Robin and Antonia ducked.
“Unless I’m going crazy,” she gasped, her lungs burning as she zigzagged down a second hill, “I think I can smell the ocean.”
“We’re on an island,” panted Robin. “I’m sure you can.”
“No, I mean…” She gasped as a dozen more Axacolan dogs poured after them. “I think we’re almost to shore.”
“And then what? We swim?”
Antonia didn’t respond, only kept running. Truth was, she didn’t know what to do. Even as she fled, images of being caught plagued her imagination. The miniature dogs would attack her, the guards would seize her, and she’d have no choice but to submit, being dragged away and made to answer all the guards’ questioning. From there, she’d be retained in a filthy Axacolan prison until her trial—if she even got one—and that would be the end to her adventures.
“Look!” Robin pointed ahead, where Antonia distinguished a familiar shadow at the base of the hill: the fence. An end was in sight.
She glanced over her shoulder. Her heartbeat quickened at the sight of the skittering dogs, the lantern lights impeding closer…
Their boots clapped over a sort of pavement, and Antonia looked down. It was a brick walkway, the type that could be found at… “A gate,” she breathed, viewing the spindly door in all its glory. It was locked by a series of latches. But in that case, it was no matter; they were on the inside.
Robin launched at it, sliding the bolts and chains undone, and thrust it open. It emitted a bone-crushing groan, as though seldom used. “Hurry!”
They darted through, their feet hitting the sandy shore as moonlight reflected off a stretch of ocean in their midst. Antonia had no choice but to follow as Robin leapt atop what appeared to be the property’s private dock. With haste, he unknotted the rope to a small rowboat and hopped into it. “Get in,” he ordered her. He beckoned the dog. “C’mon, Mav.”
Maverick whined in fright, backing away from the drifting boat.
“Mav,” urged Robin, his face panicked.
Antonia outstretched her arms, and the creature seemed keen to receive her embrace. She scooped him in her hold, stroking his slick black fur. Together, she jumped with him into the boat.
Robin tossed her an oar. “Row,” he gasped, taking up the other one. The pair set to work, steering the boat away.
A flood of voices and light paraded ashore, filling the dock Antonia and Robin had only just occupied, seconds before. But with great speed, they pressed over the rolling waves, hiding their heads as more gunshots fired after them.
“Someone should really add a motor to one of these things,” said Robin, as they heaved their oars through the brackish waters at full speed.
“Perhaps that ought to be your father’s next invention,” Antonia called in response over the rushing sea.
They rowed ceaselessly, arms burning, backs aching. But not once did they dare to slow. After an hour, they finally spotted mainland Axacola, dark and sleepy as it awaited their return.
They had long since fled the little island, and successfully lost their pursuers. Sensing safety now, Antonia sighed and rested her oar. Robin set his down as well. For a moment, they simply bobbed in the black waters, drifting with the tide to the shoreline.
Antonia didn’t know what to say. After their whole journe
y, and all they’d gone through, they had been chased off, thwarted. Would Robin be so dogged, reckless enough to go back and try again another night? She was afraid to ask.
“Hey.” His voice sounded strange. Wary, she looked up at him. She was taken aback to see his eyes twinkling in the moonlight, even as his chest heaved from exertion. “I…I think we have it.”
She shook her head. Was there water in her ears? “What did you say?”
The man shivered a bit, which she imagined had little to do with temperature. “Just moments before you came to me back there, I…uncovered something.” He patted his trouser pocket. “It’s here with me.”
Antonia could have laughed—or cried. Maybe even screamed. She could barely discern her relief from her shock as it was. “Are you serious?”
He laughed giddily, an unfamiliar sound. “Yeah!”
They rowed ashore and hid the stolen rowboat beneath the nearest dock. “What now?” Antonia was still shaken from their near-capture, but far greater was her renewed excitement.
“We can’t stay, in case the guards from that island come looking for us. We have to find the carriage and get out of here.”
“So, we drive through the night?” She glanced up at the moon. It wasn’t exactly bright. Then again, there wasn’t likely to be anything on the road with which to collide at that hour.
Robin nodded. “As far away as we can get.”
They kept to the shadows as they crossed the coastal town into the rainforest. At once, the plenteous treetops blotted out the moon’s meager light. Antonia halted. “We can’t go in there now.”
His face was earnest. “Annie,I know it looks scary, but we’ve got to get out. We’re on the run; we could be arrested.”
She bit her lip, gazing fearfully into the dark jungle, and took a single step.
“Where is it, Mav?” Robin turned to the dog. “Lead the way.”
Maverick buried his nose in the soil, and Antonia latched onto his back, refusing to remove her hand as he guided her. “Dogs have good night-vision, don’t they?” she asked hopefully. “You think Mav can see where he’s going?”
