Battle Mage: The Dark Mage (Tales of Alus) (68 page)

Nodding, Emily said, “Let’s give Katie a minute to see if clearing the rotor will get the engine running again. If she can’t make it start then we’ll send a couple people up to test all the phones.”

Curiosity forced Phoebe to ask, “Do you know much about motors?”

“I’ve helped my dad and brothers with their cars. Dad has a garage. He and my oldest brother Jack run the place,” the girl said with most of her attention on the mess in front of her. “We don’t have a boat but I’ve messed with Emily’s a little bit. Usually I have tools to work with in a garage, so this is a little more challenging. As long as nothing’s broken or bent too much, it’s no big deal.” Glancing up to Emily momentarily, she asked, “Check the first aid kit. There might be a knife or scissors in there. This is pretty tough stuff.”

Her friend did as she was asked while the other girls watched and waited with various levels of patience.

After nearly half an hour and a little help from other hands, Katie managed to clear the rotor of tangling weeds. Despite the run in with both plants and what was guessed to be a hidden sandbar, the blades looked to be none the worse for wear. Using a Phillips screwdriver, the only tool they could find besides the small scissors in the first aid kit, Katie managed to open the cover on the motor and did her best to make sure there was no damage hidden that would ruin the machine even more if it was restarted.

Phoebe watched as the sun continued to dip towards the horizon. Clouds caused the light to scatter looking more orange as the globe fell further and further. She didn’t want to rush Katie knowing that, if the engine was on the verge of failing, only bad things could happen. As it was, if the engine and rotor all worked properly or enough to limp home, it was probably going to be dark while they were on the river. The house seemed very far away.

Turning away from a view that would have seemed beautiful had the circumstances not been so uncomfortable, the tall brunette decided it was time to either get into the boat or return to the beach. She and Katie hadn’t left the water since going in to help pull the craft to shore. Fingers were wrinkled and she could assume that her feet were as well just from the tightening that she could feel on her skin. As she
looked past the boat, Phoebe noticed that the tide had indeed been rising. The channel was filling and the beach had shrunk. Their piled clothes were still there and in danger if being washed away by the water climbing the sand.

“I’m going to move our clothes before they’re washed away,” the girl stated into Katie’s ear as she
lay a cold hand on the smaller blonde’s shoulder. Being cold as well, she didn’t even start at the clammy touch.

With a brief nod, Katie turned to look at her and Phoebe noticed that the girl’s jaw was fighting a shiver. She was cold as well, but refused to give up on the engine for fear of stranding them all on the island. “Yeah, if you could move mine to safety, I’d appreciate it. I’m going to want to snuggle into something warm in a minute. It’s getting pretty cold already.”

The taller girl returned the nod with a smile. As she began to walk past the boat and the water slipped below her shoulders again, the breeze caught her skin making her shiver with its passing. The day had certainly taken a turn. It had been in the mid eighties Fahrenheit, so the Americans had said. Phoebe guessed that it was now closer to seventy as clouds began to build in the west. Another rain was coming which was another reason they needed the boat to work and flee for home or they would have to suffer with no shelter.

In the midst of a shudder, Phoebe glanced up the newly filled channel and noticed a strange glint as the sunlight hit the cliff face.

As she climbed from the water and gathered the clothes of all four girls, Phoebe felt movement in the ground as if some giant stone was grinding against the earth. Forehead wrinkling in confusion, the brunette pushed back a strand of hair that fell across her face and looked towards the cliff. She was almost certain that it came from that direction.

Throwing on her shirt for the warmth it could provide after being heated by the sun and being dry, Phoebe glanced back to the boat noting the girls were gathered in the back of the craft. Katie must have been close to finished with what she could do for the engine, she thought.

Instead of returning to the beach or trying to ferry the clothes onto the boat for now, Phoebe let her curiosity carry her up the channel. Following the water inland, the girl found she could ford the water closer to the cliff and only step in to her knees. Quickly, passing through to the opposite side, Phoebe was able to see that the shape of the cliff led into a pocket only about ten feet from one side to the other. The water had climbed the channel and touched the stone of the cliff, but now there appeared to be a doorway where a large piece of the stone had moved away.

As she watched, she noted the opening widening even as the feeling in the ground continued.

Even more curious about such a strange mechanism being hidden on the island, Phoebe moved closer to look inside a darkened chamber. It almost seemed to absorb the day’s light in comparison and the girl found that her eyes could do little to penetrate the darkness within the chamber from where she stood in the daylight that was beginning to wane with the sun but was still much too bright to allow her vision to work at the mystery. All except one thing was hidden from her, a glint of metal flashing back the light of day as she turned her to head to peer into the chamber.

Her mind suddenly reeled with what she believed her eyes had seen. With a big grin suddenly crossing her face, Phoebe turned to run back out of the depression yelling, “Hey, guys, you have to see what I found!”

The other girls hadn’t heard the first cry but by the second all but Katie were moving towards the front of the boat aimed at the island.

“What’s going on, Phoebe?” Emily asked as her cousin exited the hidden opening.

“You won’t believe this, but I think I may have found a pirate’s treasure!”

After a moment of disbelief voiced to varying degrees by the girls on the boat, Phoebe elaborated as she pointed back to the cliff, “There’s a hidden chamber. It opened up all by itself. Maybe it was the water triggering it. I don’t really know, but I think I see a treasure chest inside. Come on!”

The girls in the boat all began to move as one. Such an odd find after the troubles with the boat seemed beyond belief. Katie had to be urged to worry over the engine later.

Emily urged her most, as she said, “Come on, it will just take a moment and then we can come back and try the motor.

Frowning, Katie quickly sighed then complained grumpily as she pushed through the water heading towards shore still shivering, “But I was just about to try it and we really need to pray that it works. As it is, we’ll be lucky if we make it home before dark.”

“We’ll be fine. I just know it,” Emily said positively. “This must mean our luck is changing. If it is a pirate’s chest, we could be making the most important discovery found near Charleston in like a century, I bet.”

Grabbing their shirts as Phoebe had, the older girls paused just long enough to fall a few steps behind Faith and Brook, who were eager to see what the Australian had found. As a group they rounded the obstructive wall, most gasped in surprise at a perfectly squared opening in the stone. It had to be a thing of man’s creation, but it seemed unnaturally brilliant in its operation. How could pirates have possibly invented such a thing of genius?

“Look,” Phoebe pointed into the dark opening and noted a glint flicker within as they stepped towards the mouth of the man made cavern. “See that’s got to be a treasure chest.”

The others caught sight of the flicker and the girls nearly ran full speed to the open doorway eager to find out the source of the reflected light. In a moment their eyes became accustomed to the darkness of the chamber and they could tell that they were indeed looking on a treasure chest.