Chapter 14
2405 Words
14
Caius stood at the head of the center sarcophagus and pointed at the wall. “It’s moving!”
My companions and I all rushed to his side and watched two small doors slide away from each other to reveal a hidden cranny. We all looked at each other.
“Did someone do something?” Sage asked us.
Everyone shook their heads except me. I shrugged. “I kicked the figure at the foot.”
He arched an eyebrow. “Where on his person did you kick?”
I sheepishly smiled. “The groin?”
Caius winced. “That must’ve hurt pretty bad to make the head move.”
Sage stroked his chin. “‘To lie forever among between the two. To lie in private, a leg but no shoe.’” His eyes widened and he snapped his fingers. “That’s it! The man’s-” He paused and his cheeks reddened. “That is, his lower extremity-”
“His c**k was the clue,” Caius finished for him.
Sage frowned at my dragon shifter. “Yes, well, if you must put it that way, then yes.”
Marcus snorted. “They really thought that up?”
Sage allowed himself a chuckle. “Yes, it appears the ancients had some sense of humor.”
“I wonder if it was these guys who thought of it,” I mused as I looked at the three coffins. I froze and my eyes widened as a thought struck me. “A second look!”
“You mean what that guy said to you?” Caius wondered.
I whipped my head around and nodded. “Yeah! He said I should take a second look, and the coffin in the middle is the second one from either side!”
“We shall most definitely have to find this mysterious gardener of yours,” Sage reminded us as he knelt before the secret nook.
Marcus pressed in against his back and looked over his shoulder. “Is it treasure?”
“Only if you find history a treasure,” Sage answered as he nodded at the contents. The nook contained only a single folded slip of paper.
“Then there is a treasure and I can stay at the baron’s manor!” Marcus hollered.
“A scrap of paper isn’t treasure, so I still won our deal,” Caius countered.
Marcus grinned up at his brother and shook his head. “Nu-uh. I said that if we didn’t find anything I’d go back to Father Ferrero.” He pointed at the hidden nook and the paper. “This counts as something, and like Mr. Sagious, history is a treasure.”
Sage’s eyes twinkled as he caught Caius’ frowning look. “I believe he has the right of it.”
“Why don’t we have a look at the paper and see if there’s treasure to it besides its age?” I spoke up.
Sage returned his attention to the paper and pursed his lips. “This will not be easy to unfold.”
Marcus broke off a twig of his burning stick and held it out to Sage. “What about this?”
Sage smiled and accepted the stick. “It is just the thing. Thank you.”
Sage turned back to the note and slipped the stick between the folds of the ancient paper. We held our breaths as he eased back the fold. Cracks appeared across the paper and the edges crumbled. He succeeded in parting the parts and drew his flaming hand near the nook. His light revealed words scribbled in the Miamoran writing.
Sage leaned forward and squinted. “It reads: My dearest Sister. With the coming of the Travanians our most sacred legacy. If something should happen to me I will leave my diary in Ezra’s care. Those pages will have led you hear, and this note will finish the puzzle to where I have hidden our legacy. You will find it among the stones of our ancestors where we few three drew our murals among the many. May our Anima burn bright in the ether of all. Your dearest brother, Aiken.”
A hushed silence fell over us. My shoulders sagged. “It sounds like he kind of knew he wasn’t going to live much longer.”
Caius’ reaction, however, was much less subdued. He swooped down and grabbed the note with his gloved hand. The paper crumbled beneath his strong grip.
Sage started back and fell into Bee’s arms. His own face twisted in rage. “Have you gone mad?”
“That could have found us treasure!” Marcus added.
Caius drew his hand out and flicked off the paper. “What it found us was this.” He tore off his glove and shoved the bone arm into the face of his young brother. Marcus shrank back from the horrible sight. “This is what that guy died for! To curse us because we ‘Travanians’ were settling here when they were dying out! And you feel pity for that monster? For turning so many of us into monsters?”
I set my hands on Marcus’ shivering shoulders and met Caius’ furious gaze. “I’m sorry for what I said, Caius, but that’s no excuse for scaring your own brother with your curse. He may not have that arm, but by being in one of your family he carries the same burden.”
The flames in Caius’ eyes settled, but didn’t disappear as he whipped his face away. “What would you know about curses?”
I was rankled by that remark, but I didn’t want to see myself reflected in his anguished and angry face. I walked around Marcus and cupped Caius’ face in my hands so I could turn him to face me. His eyes searched mine as I gave him my warmest smile. “You foolish dragon. Have you forgotten what I can do with these?” I drew my hands away and held them up between us. “Not everything I’ve seen has been flowers and picnics.” Memories of the end of Staba flashed through my mind. I wrapped my arms around myself and shuddered.
Caius grasped my arms and pursed his lips. “I’m sorry.” He looked Marcus. “To both of you.”
Marcus shook his head. “It’s all right. I wouldn’t like having that arm, either.”
A chuckle interrupted our heartwarming apologies, and we all turned to Sage. “How very ironic.”
“What is, dear?” Bee asked him.
“The deceased foe of the grayscales may inadvertently lead us to a cure for the curse. At least, that is what I hope for in this ‘legacy,’” he answered.
I shook my head. “I don’t follow.”
“The Miamorans were legendary for their very strong, but limited magical abilities. Legends state that they used arcane books to focus their limited magic into powerful spells.” He nodded at the remains of the note. “The note may very well lead us to that book, and within its pages we might find a cure to the curse of the grayscales.”
Caius’ eyes widened. “I. . .I’d be free?”
“Yes, though you would be left with only your dragon abilities,” Sage pointed out.
Caius grinned. “I think I can live with that.”
“Then let us seek out these ‘stones’ the note mentioned before we all forget the contents,” Sage suggested as he turned toward the door.
“We don’t have to,” Caius spoke up.
Sage paused and looked over his shoulder with an arched brow. “Pardon?”
I set my hand on Caius’ sleeve and caught his gaze. “You know where these stones lie?”
He nodded. “Yeah, and so does Marcus.”
Marcus’ eyes widened. “The Hopping Stones?”
Caius grinned. “Yep.”
“What are those?” I asked them.
“Some old stones outside of Trava,” Caius explained. “The kids have played on them for as long as anyone can remember. It’s not easy climbing up the columns, but if you can do it you can hop from one to the other. Well, of the ones that are still standing, that is.”
“Then let us pay these Hopping Stones a visit,” Sage insisted.
We left the sorrowful remains of a dead people and closed the doors behind us. Caius packed away the rope around his arm and we walked in the direction of the village.
I noticed Marcus glared at the ground. “You’re awfully quiet.”
Marcus slapped his fist into his other palm. “I can’t believe the treasure was right under my nose.”
Caius ruffled his hair. “You and me both. I played on those old smoothed stones, too, ya know. Anyway, this really isn’t treasure we’re looking for anymore.”
“I know that!” Marcus snapped as he waved away Caius’ hand. “But I think it’s treasure for us. You know, you and me.” His eyes flickered to Caius’ arm. “ It’s not like I want to have kids who have that.”
Caius wagged his eyebrows. “Thinking about taking a wife already, huh? Maybe one of these fine buxom village beauties?”
Marcus blushed and looked at the ground. “There. . .there is this one girl in the village. . .”
Caius laughed and slapped Marcus’ back so hard the boy stumbled forward. “That’s the way! Keep up the family tradition and we’ll have a whole city of grayscale in no time.”
Marcus took on a curious expression as he studied his brother. “Aren’t you worried we won’t find the book? Or that there’s no book there?”
Caius shrugged. “The worst that can happen is I keep living the life I’ve always had. I’ve dealt with that so far, I can keep doing that.”
“An optimist to the end?” Sage spoke up.
“Just being realistic,” Caius countered. “Legends about old books have floated around longer than the books. It wouldn’t surprise me if this one wasn’t any more fake than the others.”
“How much farther until we find out what’s fact and what’s legend?” I asked them.
Caius nodded at a rare cluster of trees some two miles away. “They’re over there. The rocks are around a natural spring.”
We reached the trees and found an oasis of green among the fluttering grasslands. The trees were tall and thick, a sign of their great age as they ringed a large pond that was fed from underground. The grass at the waterside was as green as emerald and the water was as clear as crystal.
On the far side of the pond stood a mess of stones. They had been cut to perfection into tall columns, and most still stood in their ring, monuments to a people long gone. The ground around them had once been lain with the same stone, but those stones had cracked and weeds and grass poked through. Two out of the dozen columns lay on the ground, victims of time and their own defections. A pedestal of stone stood in the middle of the tall columns, a short mockery of the grand procession around it.
We walked over and stopped at the edge of the stone area. “So what kind of marks do you think we’re looking for?” I asked my companions.
“The note mentioned murals,” Caius reminded me.
“So pictures of people?” I guessed.
“That is as good a place to start as any,” he returned.
We spread out and looked over every inch of the stones. What I found both amused and irritated me. At my second column I paused and looked over at Marcus and Caius who were both looking over another column. “How many people have carved their initials in these things?’
“Everyone with a pocket knife,” Caius quipped.
Marcus pointed at a pair of initials. “These are mine.”
Caius nodded at some particularly large initials. “And those are mine.”
My shoulders drooped and I hung my head. “You guys aren’t helping. . .”
Sage knelt beside the central pedestal and brushed his hand over the top. “How very strange. There is a slight indentation in the middle of this stone as though it once held a great weight.”
Midge let out a twitter and flew off my grandmother’s shoulder. He landed in a pile of grass just outside the stone circle and turned to twitter at my grandmother. She furrowed her brow. “More columns? Are you sure, Midgy?” Midge fluttered his wings and twittered. “I know you don’t like to be called that, but are you sure?” Midge nodded.
“What’s he saying about more columns?” I asked my grandmother.
She turned to me with a puzzled expression. “Midge says there used to be more stones around these other ones.”
“Does Midge have any proof?” Sage questioned them.
Midge puffed out his feathers and stomped to and fro over the bunch of grass. Bee walked over and knelt beside him where she brushed the grass away. She smiled and looked up at Midge. “It is another base, isn’t it?” Midge bobbed up and down.
“Let me inspect that,” Sage requested as he hurried over to her side. He brushed aside the grass and studied the ground. “How very interesting. There does appear to be the remains of a column here.” Midge puffed out his feathered chest. Sage lifted his eyes and studied the area outside of the ring. “Do not strut your feathers until another is found.” Midge snapped his beak at him and fluttered to another nearby clump of grass.
Bee followed him and pulled aside the grass. She smiled and looked back at her husband. “I believe this is another one.”
Sage stood and studied the area. “Then we may assume there was another row of columns.”
Marcus’ shoulders drooped. “You mean what we’re looking for might not be here?”
Caius nodded. “Yeah. The murals we’re looking for could’ve been carried off centuries ago.”
Sage cupped his chin in his hand and furrowed his brow. “But carried off to where?”
“Maybe they recycled them,” Bee suggested.
Sage dropped his hand and smiled at her. “You never cease to remind me of your brilliance, my dear.”
Bee blushed. “You always were the flatterer.”
Sage turned to Caius and Marcus. “What is the oldest building in the area?”
“The manor!” Marcus spoke up.
Caius frowned at both Sage and his younger brother. “I know what you’re thinking, that maybe the stone that holds whatever this treasure is might be a part of the manor house. I don’t care about that.”
Marcus’ face fell. “But we’re so close! I just know it!”
“What I know is that you’ve taken enough risks and you’re going back to Father Ferrero,” Caius insisted.
Marcus’ face fell and his enthusiasm drained away. “But we can help you by finding the treasure.”
Caius turned him around so the young boy faced the direction of the village. “You can help the father by carrying his buckets.”
Marcus hung his head. I smiled at him. “Well, how about we at least go back to him and tell him everything that’s happened?”
“And in the meanwhile, we will search the grounds of the manor and see if we cannot find these murals,” Sage suggested. “If we should find anything than we will send word via one of the baron’s servants.” He paused and looked to me with a glitter in his eyes. “Perhaps we will find your mysterious gardener and have him be our messenger.”
“Just don’t run into that Fenla woman,” Caius warned him as he turned Marcus toward the village.
Sage smiled and bowed. “We will heed your warning, and we hope to see you all soon.”
- Writer
