Page 28 of Virelai’s Hoard (The Dagger & Tide Trilogy #1)

She turned to him when he didn’t reply. The gunner’s feet were stuck to the forest floor, just beyond the edge of the stone pavement, his arms crossed and a stubborn frown carved on his face. He settled his one eye on her, not moving from where he stood.

Sable clamped her jaws around a sigh, praying for patience. “Do you know what these carvings are?”

His face contorted as if he’d just eaten something sour. “How should I know? Do I seem like a scholar to you?”

“No, you seem like a seasoned pirate who might’ve come across all sorts of strange things during his years on the sea,” she retorted, patience wearing thinner. “At least take a look.”

He flung an arm around them. “Does this seem like the sea to you?” he harrumphed. “If you wanted to listen to me, we wouldn’t be here in the first place! We need to turn back. The whole place is cursed. That’s what the blasted symbols say.”

Sable swallowed a growl, her fingers flexing around the machete at her hip. What a petulant child . She turned her gaze to Thorian. He and Venn circled the walls, knives out and scraping the moss from the symbols, as if either could read them any more than she could. Or maybe one of them did?

“Thorian?” she asked.

He glanced back at her as he took another step. His foot sank with the floor.

Instead of a reply, a faint click resounded. A pressure plate? Sable’s body went taut.

For a moment, no one breathed. Then Venn shouted, “Watch out!”

The floor opened up beneath Thorian, and the ground swallowed him up.

“Thorian!” Sable called, rushing after him.

She skidded to a stop at the edge of the sinkhole. The others joined her. The darkness beneath was impenetrable.

“Thorian! Are you-”

A pained grunt echoed up to them. Sable exhaled with relief. He was alive .

“My fucking shoulder,” he snarled from below. “If I ever catch that Ryan asshole again, I’m gonna snap his fucking neck. One of you’s gotta come down here and set it for me. I can’t make the climb like this.”

Ignatius scoffed. “I say we throw him a rope and let him figure it out. He might make it by first sunfall.”

Sable rolled her eyes. For all of his posturing, he now stood beside them, fear of the stone forgotten. A worried frown replaced the stubborn one from before. They wouldn’t leave one of their own behind. Not even Thorian.

“Get the torches out,” she told Ignatius. Then she unshouldered her backpack, taking the ropes out and tossing them to Venn. “Braid these, and find something solid to tie them to. The two of us are gonna climb down–”

“Like hell you’re leaving me here ,” Ignatius groused as he lit the torches.

“Fine,” Sable snapped. They didn’t have time for arguing. It was already mid-afternoon. Aelion would go down soon, and they weren’t any closer to any fucking clue. “The three of us are gonna climb down. The rest of you will keep watch.”

When there were no further complaints, they all searched for a solid post to tie the braided rope to.

“Don’t mind me down here. Take your fucking time,” Thorian’s voice echoed from below. It would’ve been sarcastic, were it not for the high-pitched strain in it.

“Quit your whining, pup. We’re getting there,” Ignatius said into the sinkhole.

Venn snickered as he tied the rope to a post, and Sable’s lips twitched at Thorian being called a pup .

“I wanna see if you still think that’s funny once you’re down here in arm’s reach.”

Venn visibly paled.

They threw the rope into the darkness.

“Cat got your tongue?”

“Quit bullying the crew, Thorian,” Sable said. She grabbed a torch from Ignatius and tried to peer into the darkness, to no avail. “Was it a long drop? Anything broken? Can you see the rope?”

“No!” No to which question? “Just move it already! The rope is long enough.”

“At last, something useful . Fine, clear out!”

With a nod to the others, Sable gripped the rope and crawled her way past the sinkhole’s edge and into the darkness.

Her teeth gritted around the lit torch. Once she made it a couple feet down, Venn followed, then Ignatius.

As they sank lower, the air around became stale and humid, thick with the scent of earth and decay.

Before long, her feet hit solid ground, and Sable spit the torch into her hand.

The light barely penetrated enough to let her see the ground at her feet, the darkness thick and heavy on her tongue. This wasn’t natural. It wasn’t right .

What were they looking for again?

“Over here,” someone to her right said.

Sable swung her torch around, hand flinching toward her weapon.

Thorian. It was just Thorian. The light played on the scar splitting his beard in two.

The others shuffled behind her, sticking close together as their heads twitched in every direction.

Sable understood why Thorian was goading them to move faster now.

She wouldn’t want to be alone down here, either.

Why were they here? They’d been searching for something. Probably.

It didn’t matter now. They needed to get out. She handed the torch to Thorian. “Hold this. Which shoulder is it?”

“The left one.”

A wet, scraping sound. Somewhere nearby.

Thorian hissed. Like a cat.

“Stay still,” Sable snapped.

“What the fuck was that?” Venn asked, flashing his torch around. A dragging shuffle answered his question somewhere behind his back. He swiveled in place. “Show yourself!”

There was nothing there but thick darkness.

“Venn, stay close,” Sable said, dragging her attention back to Thorian’s shoulder. She felt the articulation, ignored his wincing.

Just like Venn ignored her warning. “No, wait, there’s…” His footsteps echoed further into the cave. “ Something .”

“Ignatius,” she called. “Don’t let him get out of sight.”

“He’s a grown man, he can-”

“I don’t fucking care! Do as I say!”

A scoff and a second pair of footsteps drew away from her and Thorian.

To him, she said, “I’ll snap it back in place on three.” She made him sit for better reach, ignoring his complaint at the moist floor, and set her hands firmly on his elbow and shoulder. “One,” she started. “Two.” She popped the shoulder back into its socket.

“Motherfucker!”

“Three.”

Sable released her hold, finally turning to the others.

Ignatius and Venn walked just a few feet ahead, their torches bobbing lights into the darkness. The fire reflected off a rocky wall, shining with dampness. More symbols were carved into it, resembling the ones from the ruins above.

There was still skittering somewhere close, just beyond the reach of the light.

“Move your asses, you two. We’re going,” Sable called after them.

“No, wait,” Venn said. His voice echoed in the cave-like chamber. His fingers trailed the wall. “Look, there’s a light over there.”

Sable squinted at where he pointed, and he was right. A sliver of light from above cut through the darkness in a way their torches didn’t. It settled on an inconspicuous patch of damp earth. Something was lodged in it.

The shuffling grew louder, and a warm breeze set her hair on end at the back of her neck. It felt like a breath, humid and viscous. Just her imagination. It had to be. She slid her blade out anyway.

“Grab it or leave it, but do it fast or we’re leaving without you,” Thorian said, glued to her side.

Sable turned to head back to the rope, and that was when she saw it.

The darkness. It moved–compacted, folded in on itself.

She stumbled back as the torches suddenly shone brighter, revealing a bony hand reaching out.

Too long and too thin to be human. Somewhere high above, two empty sockets, darker than the darkest darkness, stared directly down at Sable.

She stumbled back, throat closing up against a startled shout.

She didn’t wait for the rest of the body to come into view. She grabbed Thorian’s arm and made for the rope.

“Holy shit, what the-”

“Shut up! Move!” Sable glanced back–Ignatius grabbed Venn by the base of his neck and shoved him forward. “Now!”

The shadow took a staggering step toward them.

“You go first,” Sable told Thorian, squaring her feet and her shoulders as she pointed her blade at the advancing shadow. The other two men rushed to their side, and Ignatius took his pistol out. Could this thing be cut? Shot? Killed? Sable prayed they didn’t have to find out. “Venn, you go-”

She did a double-take when she saw Thorian still by her side and Venn halfway up the rope already. She scoffed. “Thorian, you go second . Don’t fucking argue with me or we’re all gonna die here. Move the fuck up!”

Thorian opened his mouth, said something.

A shot going off by her left ear muted the words.

Sable covered it with a curse, flinching, her ears ringing with the power of the blast. The bullet went straight through the monstrosity, putting a hole in its chest. It stopped advancing, looking down at itself.

The hole filled back up, and the shadow lurched toward them.

Faster. Angrier. Ignatius’ hands trembled as he recharged.

“Pup, if you make me die here, I swear I’ll come back and haunt your arse. Climb the fucking rope!” Ignatius snarled.

Another shot went off. The shadow didn’t even stumble this time.

The bullet got swallowed up into its belly.

It was so close now Sable only needed to take a step forward to slash at it.

Her blade cut through its limb as if through air, and its hand exploded into a cloud of darkness.

In a blink, it was back. Looking solid. Sable didn’t want to know what would happen if it grabbed her.

“Sable! You next! Now!”

Two quick shots. A swirl of smoke filled her lungs, and Sable didn’t hesitate.

She followed after Thorian, dropping the torch to the ground as she gripped the thick length of rope.

Hauling herself up, her heart beat in her throat as she dragged her body toward the blue rectangle of light above her head.

She ignored the shots, and the metal clatter of a gun being dropped to the ground, and the chill coming from below.

A rush of relief shot through her as she felt the lurch and sway in the rope below–Ignatius was following.

Cursing. Alive. Then the rope swayed too much.

Tendrils of darkness pulled at it, like fingers on a harp.

She climbed faster. Her foot stuck, and she glanced below to see one tendril wrapped around her boot.

“Fuck! Fucking–”

With a grunt, Ignatius swiped his dagger at it, and Sable freed herself with a lurch.

The edge was right there. She reached for it.

Hands shot down to grab her and pull her the rest of the way.

As soon as she was through, she dropped to her stomach and gripped Ignatius’ coat at his shoulder.

She pulled, gritting her teeth, but he wasn’t budging.

Something pulled back . Her other hand shot out to grab him, and she nearly slipped back into the sinkhole.

“Someone fucking–”

A shot rang out.

The darkness gave way. They pulled Ignatius out.

“-shoot it,” Sable finished in a huff of breath. “ Fuck .”

They were through. Everyone was safe. Sable rolled on her back and saw Venn standing above her, a smoking pistol gripped in his hand.

He looked pale as death, but he laughed, reached down with his free hand.

Sable clasped it and drew herself to her feet.

A few deep breaths later, she peered back down into the sinkhole.

The creature was gone, the darkness below thick as ink once more.

Thorian and Ignatius were both shaken, but unharmed. Alive.

A stony scraping sound rang out. The floor closed in on the sinkhole. Sable shuddered.

Venn stared at what was now solid, stony pavement. “If we hadn’t made it in time…”

“Yeah.” Ignatius clapped him on the back. “But we did.”

“Did you get it?” Thorian asked, looking at Venn.

The younger pirate blinked at him, then his face cleared. He nodded hastily and reached into his coat. “Here.”

He held a piece–a half?–of a stone tablet, with writing and symbols on it.

And Sable finally remembered. The treasure. They were supposed to be looking for clues. How had she forgotten?

An intense, rotting odor wafted through her nostrils, and her nose scrunched in protest. “What is that smell?”

The pirates around pinched their noses. Venn gagged.

“Think it’s coming from your pack,” Thorian said, voice a nasal baritone as he held his nose.

Venn turned in on himself, then shrugged his backpack on the ground. He poked at it with his boot. The pack turned and opened. A molding, rotting sphere squelched on the ground. His eyes snapped to Sable’s.

The pears.

“Guess we’re not eating those after all,” Ignatius said, lips curled in disgust.

“Look,” a hushed voice beside her said.

Sable followed the pirate’s gaze to the forest. Or what had been the forest, once. Long before today. Today, the lush trees and undergrowth were gone. Black stumps shot up from the earth, gnarled and burnt. That was what she’d been smelling earlier. Ash and rot.

“We need to go back,” Sable said.

“Fucking told you the island was cursed,” Ignatius grumbled. “You should’ve listened to me.”

“Heard you the first fucking time, old man,” Thorian said.

“Call me old one more time. I dare you.”

Thorian laughed. It was the only sound that echoed around the dead island.