Page 69 of Night's Reckoning
Would she take Benjamin to her valley? Maybe.
She nudged Cheng. “Show me. I know you didn’t come back from that wreck empty-handed.”
Cheng couldn’t suppress the smile. “Who, me?”
“Pirate.”
He bowed. “I claim that title with pride.” Standing straight, he motioned her to a bucket she’d spotted near the door. “I left it in seawater for now.”
“Good idea.” Tenzin walked over, and Cheng retrieved the bucket, placing it on his desk.
Tenzin peered inside. “Is that a storage jar?”
“A broken one.” Cheng reached in and turned the jar on its side. “Look.”
The bucket probably held ten gallons and the storage jar filled most of the space inside. An intact jar wouldn’t have fit, but this one was broken in half, and what she saw inside spurred the familiar flutter of anticipation in her stomach.
“Cobalt glass,” Cheng said. “Look at the quality.”
Mixed with the silt-like sediment in the bottom of the storage jar were dozens of small, fine glass bottles in brilliant blue with gold decorations on the outside. They had probably once contained perfumes, incense, or spices. Most of them were in pieces, but half a dozen were intact.
“Some of them still have stoppers in them,” Tenzin said. “The glass itself—”
“Priceless.” Cheng ran a finger along one curve of a delicate bottle. “They were likely packed in straw or sawdust. It must have cushioned the pieces when the ship went down. Over time, the mud covered them and kept them in place.”
“This was sitting on the bottom of the ocean?”
“We saw the edge of the storage jar sticking out of the wreck. We took it just to see.”
“There will be more,” Tenzin said. “Much more. If the wreck was covered like this, what will the condition of the treasure be?”
“If it’s covered like this or even better,” Cheng said. “Good. Very good. But it will all depend on how it was packed and what was packed. Anything wooden would be most vulnerable. Spices from India, cobalt dye from Persia, and incense from East Africa—which is what much of the shipment would have been—would be gone. But the glass… The glass will be preserved. Fine metals will survive. Gemstones and metalwork will survive. And Arosh would have sent all that.”
Tenzin didn’t even try to stop the smile. “This has been a good night.”
* * *
Ben woke earlythe next morning, eager to look at the wreck for himself. He’d learned how to dive in Italy with Fabia when he was in high school. He’d never enjoyed the feeling of claustrophobia the mask produced, so he didn’t dive for fun. But he did know how to do it competently.
Fabia was already suiting up with four university divers when Ben arrived.
“I see I’m not the only one who’s excited.”
Fabia’s grin filled the room. “Professor Chou will be sending down the submersible with us to record everything. It has the best cameras. But we’ll be setting up reference markers by hand.” She motioned to the divers. “This is… Let me see if I can remember. Lin”—she pointed to a young woman who waved—“and Delun. They’re the most experienced divers on the team. And then there’s Meili—did I get that right?” The other woman Fabia pointed to nodded. “And… Je-on?”
“Jian,” the last man said with a smile as he strapped on his dive tanks. “Just call me Jon. Like the American name.”
“Jon has the best English,” Fabia said. “And we’ll all be connected by radio.”
Jon responded to Ben in Mandarin. “It is nice to meet you, Ben. Fabia says that you speak good Mandarin?”
“I do,” Ben said. “Well, I speak like a sailor, but that’s a long story.”
All the student divers smiled.
“We’ll have to hear it another time,” Lin said. “We are so excited to see the ship now.”
“Sounds great.”
