The Red Pearl (16 page)

“I DON’T UNDERSTAND.”

“Maybe we’ve gone too far?”

An afternoon of downhill hiking, and the pair had finally approached the rocks they’d spied from the island’s peaks. And yet, the boulders in question were nowhere to be found.

“But they were right here!” Rob scratched his head, indicating the wide row of rocks lining the sandy valley. “We both saw the arch between the boulders. We weren’t dreaming.”

“Could it have been an illusion from the distance?” suggested Antonia, coming up behind him.

Rob refused to believe it. “Nah, couldn’t have been. It was identical to the mapmaker’s drawing, anyway.”

“Hmm.” The girl turned. “Well, hang on now,” she piped. “The rocks go on beyond that fence over there.”

“Fence?” Rob swiveled around. Some yards down the valley was, indeed, a tall barred fence. “Does someone live out here, or something?”

Antonia raised a hand over her eyes, apparently trying to figure how far it extended. “Looks like it.” She beckoned him. “Let’s go.”

Curious, they hurried along the terrain until reaching a succession of long metal rails. Sure enough, more boulders and rock formations sat within its confines. Rob stuck his boot between a pair of rails and hoisted himself higher.

Antonia looked up. “What are you doing?”

“Climbing the fence, of course.”

Her eyes widened. “But you might be trespassing!”

“How else am I going to have a better look?” The man squinted, gazing out across the landscape. A cloud shifted, permitting the sun to further illuminate the scene before him. But it was at least another minute before he finally spotted it.

“There.” With one hand, he gripped the rail, while pointing with the other. “I can see the kissing boulders.”

Antonia took a tentative step forward. “Are they inside the fence?”

Rob jumped down. “Yep.”

“So, now what?” The girl sounded disappointed.

“We wait for nightfall.” He lowered his voice. “And we break in.” He mopped the dampness from his forehead, gathering his resolve. He’d executed a secret intrusion in the dead of night before; he’d simply have to do it again.

Antonia didn’t argue, instead leaping onto the fence herself. “Let me see.
Oof.
” She slipped down, clearly unaccustomed to climbing. “A leg up, please, Rob?”

He came behind her uncertainly. “What would you like me to do?”

“Just…hold me up.”

Rob sighed, already knowing what this would entail. Gripping her by the waist, he lifted her, and she held fast to the metal bars. Already, his hands were sliding down, and he had to squeeze her hips—oh gods, they were so full, round and soft—to support her. Sure enough, her backside was in his face. Literally.

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…