Battle Mage: Dragon Mage (Tales of Alus) (64 page)

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.