Page 100 of Crossbones
I barely wait for the boat to scrape the snowy bank before I’m in the shallows. It’s hard to tell what the original landscape looked like a millenia ago. The small strip of shore we’re on is the only accessible point. The rest of the shoreline is steep, jagged ice that looks like large pieces of the land has been shorn away. If there was a town here below the fortress, it’s long gone. The slope of the land leads up to what would have been the fortress gate. Only two tall pillars of blue crystal stand. The rest of the stone lies in haphazard piles, iced over for so many centuries they hardly look like stone anymore.
Beyond the entrance, towers and turrets encased in glistening ice reflect the sun. The moment I step past the gate, a sense of foreboding takes over the excitement. I can tell Blackwell feels it too from the way his shoulders hunch around his ears and his hand goes involuntarily to his pistol.
“I don’t think those work on ghosts, Captain,” I murmur.
Our footsteps are muffled by the tall snow banks that line either side of us. I find we’re abruptly inside the ruins—the walls having deteriorated long ago. I walk past a wall of clear ice and stop.It’s like I’m witnessing a window into the past.
“Just in case there was any doubt about where we are,” I breathe in awe.
An enclave is on the other side; the stones are painted in brilliant mosaics, and a tapestry hangs on the wall depicting a gold griffin with three swords on a white background. Everyone stops and pauses at the tapestry—it’s like this view just made it even more real than before.
We walk down destroyed hallways, crumbled staircases and towers that have fallen into the inner sanctum of the ground floor. I walk up a spiral staircase that’s mostly intact, and we spread out to look around the massive hall it opens up into.
“Captain,” Harrison calls from up ahead.
He’s standing on the edge of what looks like an old viewing platform of some kind, eyes wide with a look of speechless shock I’ve never seen on his face. I hurry to his side.
“Holy fuck,” I gasp.
Before us is a massive garden sunken into the ground. Towering pine trees, vibrant orange, purple, pink and white flowers litter the ground—all of it encased in ice. Preserved as it was at that moment. And in the center is a massive tree. It’s so tall it shoots up above our heads. Ice covers it entirely; everything from its large roots to the leaves, and even the delicate vine of white flowers climbing up the trunk. The entire space sparkles in the shafts of sunlight streaking through the ceiling that’s open to the elements above—like millions and millions of diamonds—it’s a sight I won’t soon forget.
We all stand in awe for what seems like a very long time before I continue along a hallway that runs around the perimeter of the garden. I’m several yards in front of everyone when a loud crack echoes ominously around us, and the ground under my feet shudders. It gives way and I’m falling, entering empty air with a jolt of surprise.
Luckily, I don’t fall far—the impact sends needles shooting up my limbs, but it’s what I fell on top of that is concerning. I tangle with it as I scramble along the icy ground to extract myself and turn, only to come face-to-face with a body. A fully intact, human body.
“What the fuck!” I exclaim.
“Caspian!” Blackwell’s voice echoes down to me. I look up to see him and the others looking down at me.
“I’m fine but—” I look back at the dead man who’s just out of their line of sight. “He’s not.”
“What?”
“There’s a body down here.”
Istand up and go over to take a closer look. Only his right side is out of the ice, which is what I was wrapped up in. My fall through the ceiling broke open his icy tomb. He’s wearing clothing of what could be the royal guard, white and gold with an insignia of a griffin on his right shoulder. My attention snags on his face and a sinking sensation starts to form in my gut.
“Did you say a body?” Van calls down.
“Aye—I think—I think something happened here.”
I look around at the chamber and the feeling worsens. There are more bodies. Preserved in perfect condition. The part that is beginning to freak me out is along with keeping their clothing, skin and bodies preserved, it also froze their last expressions on their faces. And that is what’s bothering me because the emotion captured in their last moments is terror.
“Caspian! Fuck—”
I must have been completely focused on the bodies around me because Blackwell sounds agitated. I move back into his view and give a little wave, smiling slightly at the look of relief that crosses his face.
“I’m here.”
“We’ll throw a rope down,” Blackwell says.
I look once more around the chamber.
“No, you all should come down. I think I’m on the ground floor. The treasure would be in a vault, we need to go deeper.”
Blackwell lands beside me first. Walking over, he crouches down near the body I fell onto.
“I think something happened here,” I say quietly to him while the others descend the rope.
