Tales from the New Republic (31 page)

I felt the barge veer to the right to avoid another dangerous coral ridge.

K’zk claimed that according to Zelosian legend, during the Day of the Sepulchral Night the tides would be at their lowest point. Several miles offshore of the main continent, the crest of the sunken mountain ridge called Zelosian’s Chine would poke above the waves. Supposedly great wealth rested within a cave inside the crest—treasure that once belonged to a merchant prince. According to the legend, nearly two hundred years ago during another rare eclipse, the prince’s ship was caught in Zelos’s gravity well and pulled into the atmosphere and crashed into the chine. The prince survived and directed his men to bury his treasure in a cave along the ridge. He intended to make a raft of part of his ruined ship, sail into a port, and purchase a ship that would take him back to his treasure and then offworld.

But according to the legend, he drowned before he got to shore. The melk probably ate him. And in the decades in between and since, no one had recovered the prince’s treasure. Not the Zelosians, because they wouldn’t go out during the Day of the Sepulchral Night. And not the tourists, because the legend was supposedly a closely guarded secret. K’zk wouldn’t say how he came by the tale.

“The chine, K’zk! I see Zelosian’s Chine!” one of the Qwohogs roared through his vocalizer mask.

I skeptically peered over the rail. Nothing but choppy water. I couldn’t see what the Qwohog was so excited about.

“K’zk?” I heard a Qwohog prompt. “We goin’ in?”

I felt the sail barge ease forward, then I looked past the bowsprit. There, a couple hundred yards out, something edged above the waves. At first glance I thought it was the spiny backbone of some great sea creature. I felt my hand drift to my blaster. But the backbone didn’t move, and I relaxed a little. It was nothing more than another coral ridge.

Solum’ke was at my side. She had left Sevik and Hanugar and had silently snuck up behind me. “This has to be it,” she breathed. “This has to be Zelosian’s Chine.”

“You don’t know that,” I gently warned. “There’s lots of coral ridges around here and…”

Her dark eyes sparkled and her wide mouth fell open as we neared the ridge. The moons illuminated the peaks that jutted above the surface about a dozen feet or so. There were a few deep shadows amid the rocks—caves, I figured. The largest was round, like the eye of some immense beast, and it was toward the top. The smallest were just above the surface of the waves.

I heard the sails being lowered and the hum of the repulsorlift engine dropped to a whisper.

K’zk quickly explained he didn’t want to chance the sail barge’s hull on finding any dark rocks hiding just above the surface, said he didn’t want it ending up like the Corellians’ wave-skimmer.

“The legend of Zelosian’s Chine,” Sevik whistled.

“That’s what you were out here after, wasn’t it?” Solum’ke asked him.

The Corellian nodded. “Yeah, tourist stuff—just like you.”

“Wonder what we’ll find?” she mused aloud.

I shook my head. “It’s a ridge, nothing more, with a few caves in it.”

“The prince’s treasure’s in one of the caves,” Solum’ke said. “Etren crystals as big as my fist, the legend says.”

“
If
this is the right ridge, and if the legend about the merchant prince is true,” I cautioned. “But the treasure might be gone—if there was any to begin with. Sevik and Hanugar are evidence enough we’re not the only treasure hunters on the planet. And don’t forget, a lot of years have passed. Sol, don’t be too hopeful about this.” My words and my pheromones were doing nothing to dampen her enthusiasm.

“Take the sail raft in as close as you can.” K’zk had moved up behind us. “Whatever you find—put in these sacks. Don’t try to hide anything from me. We’ll split it fifty-fifty.”

“What about us?” Hanugar interrupted.

“You have your lives,” Solum’ke said, a threatening tone laced into her sultry voice. “Fifty-fifty means two shares—ours and the Quohog’s.” Her pheromones backed up her threat, though the Corellians couldn’t read them.

“Now, now,” the Qwohog tsked, the noise sounding like an insect buzzing in his vocalizer mask. “We might spare them just a little bit if they lend a hand.”

I grabbed a couple of glowrods, got in the sail raft, and helped Solum’ke climb in.

She was curious like a jarencat, and despite my best efforts I couldn’t convince her to stay on the sail barge while I looked around. Sevik came along, and Hanugar took a one-man sail raft.

“Wonder what we’ll find?” Solum’ke mused aloud, as I steered the sail raft closer. “Wonder what we’ll find?”

“Maybe nothing,” I said—again—as I tied the raft off on a rocky protrusion.

Hanugar had already landed, and was heading into the largest cave at the top, the one that seemed to look like a beast’s eye. Let him have that one, I thought, as I watched him scramble inside. If I were hiding a treasure, I would put it in the least likely spot. And the least likely spot that we could see tonight seemed to be the cave I noticed closest to the water, a narrow crevice that looked like a big black wrinkle. It would be a tight squeeze. The other caves were too small to even consider. It was possible there were more caves beneath the surface.

Solum’ke nudged me forward. I hated enclosed places. And I hated treasure hunts. Give me a handful of contracts on pirates, spies, and failed smugglers—you’ll get richer much faster.

Solum’ke passed a glowrod to Sevik. He still looked in sorry shape, despite her ministrations, but his eyes gleamed like hers at the prospect of wealth. Was I the only one being realistic about this? I wondered. Was I the only one who knew we would be sailing away empty-handed? Anything to humor Sol, though. Anything to make her happy. I felt her thick fingers brush my shoulder. She was right behind me. It was easy going at first, as there were few jagged edges to bite into our boots. The decades beneath the waves had smoothed the rocks’ surfaces.

“Wonder what we’ll find?” she whispered again.

I shrugged my broad shoulders and slid inside the crevice. The space was small, making me uneasy, and the glowrod Solum’ke held behind me lit the damp walls and sent shadows rollicking about the cramped confines. Our own silhouettes against the rocks seemed eerie and added to my queasiness. Still, I edged forward and down, following the natural shaft, then I stopped when I heard something crunch beneath my boot. I looked at the stone floor and blinked. Bones, humanoid ones from the looks of them. They were brittle with age, but white, picked clean by melk I guessed.

“Diergu-Rea?” Solum’ke’s voice was tinged with just a touch of nervousness.

“What’d ya find?” Sevik called. He couldn’t see anything around Sol’s pleasantly stocky frame.

“What’s left of earlier treasure hunters,” I replied. Maybe they’d found the crevice on a Day of the Sepulchral Night decades ago and dallied too long, became trapped inside and drowned when the eclipse ended and the water rose. Or maybe something else had happened to them. I sped our course and wished we would have thought to buy rebreathers before we left port.

We must have been more than a dozen feet below sea level when the passage became tighter still and pools of saltwater swirled around my knees in the depressions. No wonder the Qwohog was afraid to come down here. The water had so much salt in it that even my thick skin was irritated.

To complicate matters, I felt trapped, like a caged beast. I almost signaled Sol to turn back, but something sparkled ahead, quickening even my doubting heart. I pushed myself between the shaft walls and cringed when my shirt ripped on a rock. I felt the stone cut across my shoulder blades and felt the warmth of my blood running down my back. My back would heal—Sol would see to that—but the shirt wouldn’t. And it was expensive, a gift she gave me on our first night here.

“How much farther?” Sevik called.

I didn’t know, so I didn’t answer. I continued to squeeze through the shaft and edge downward still. The walls were slick with moisture, and I suspected the glowrod-light bouncing off the water was what caught my eye. I ran my finger along the stone in front of me and brought a drop to my lips. More saltwater. There must be cracks in the rocks someplace, letting a little bit of the sea in.

“There’s nothing here,” I whispered to Solum’ke. “Let’s turn back and hope Hanugar was more successful.”

I saw the dejected look on her face and read her pheromones that screamed disappointment, then her expression and mood instantly brightened. She was looking past me. I craned my neck and followed her gaze. Red crystals. A couple of shards sat on a ledge a little farther down. It was enough to make me forget my concerns and my claustrophobia and press onward.

“We found something!” Solum’ke passed on to Sevik. He let out a whoop behind her.

My boots crunched over more bones as I reached the niche with the crystals. Beyond, the shaft opened—as did my mouth. Myriad multicolored crystals littered the floor of a natural cavern, covering every bit of stone and twinkling merrily like fireflies in the light of the glowrod. Some crystals winked up at us from below the surface of small pools, making it impossible to tell just how deep the wealth lay. Urns, miniature statues, hammered metal idols, and more caught Solum’ke’s attention. A large wooden chest sitting amid the wealthy clutter caught mine. I let out a low whistle and padded toward it, my boot heels clinking across the crystals. I quickly knelt before the old chest. The wood stank, rotten with age.

“We’re rich!” Solum’ke cried. “Oh, Diergu-Rea, I knew there was something to the legend. I just knew it! K’zk was right!”

I looked over my shoulder. She had set her glowrod down and was scooping up crystals, letting them fall through her fingers and clink against the floor. Sevik was busy skirting the edges of the saltwater pools. He started unrolling the canvas sacks K’zk had given us and was deciding what to fill them with first.

“These crystals are old, lover,” Solum’ke said. She was holding one, almost reverently. “We’ll be set for the rest of our lives.” Bits of rotting leather were scattered here and there, remnants of the sacks that the crystals had once been stored in. She brushed the leather aside and plunked the crystals into her own sack. “This’ll buy us our own freighter, a fleet of them, maybe a moon somewhere.”

I returned my attention to the chest. It had a large, primitive locking mechanism that was rusted, as were the iron bands that cut across the discolored wood. An iron plaque on top had some type of inscription on it, but it was in a language I couldn’t read. I reached to my waist and retrieved a Rodian throwing razor. Jabbing the pommel at the lock made a hollow sound that reverberated around the chamber. The lock wouldn’t give. But the wood was old, and I redirected my attention to prying at it. It took me quite a while. How long I’m not certain, but eventually I cut a hole in the top of the chest. I reached for a glowrod, peered into the cavity, and sucked in my breath.

“Diergu-Rea, what’d you see?”

“Gems, crowns, the wealth of a prince, Sol,” I answered hoarsely. My throat had gone dry. “Crystals not quite as big as your fist, but big. We’re going to be very rich.”

She squealed with delight and passed me a sack. I thrust my hand in the chest’s opening, my fingers closed around the gems, and I started pulling them out. The light danced across their facets, and I enjoyed the view for a moment before I dropped them in the sack. My arm worked faster, in and out of the opening, retrieving sparkling gems as black as a midnight sky, pale blue ones in the shape of tears, orange ones that brightened with the heat of my hand, and more. I dropped a green crystal necklace over Sol’s head, and returned to scooping jewels into my sack. I let my thick fingers play along the surface of a large sunblaze, let myself get carried away.

I’m not sure how much time passed; time seemed irrelevant while there was all this loot about. But I know it was enough time to let me fill my canvas sack. I started stuffing my pockets full of the gems left in the bottom of the chest. I wasn’t going to let even one bauble escape me.

“I can hardly lift this,” Solum’ke grunted. She was a formidable Weequay, probably stronger than I, and the seams of her sack were threatening to split. “If this planet were more civilized, we could’ve rented droids to help us carry this.”

“Not many droids on Zelos II,” Sevik cut in. He was obviously strong, too. He had two bulging sacks, each tossed over a shoulder. “In fact, there’s not many…”

His words trailed off when I waved at him. I cocked my head to the side and listened. Water. “Something’s wrong,” I said. My pheromones told Solum’ke I was worried. I shouldered my sack, took one of the glowrods, and eased my way by Sevik and into the tunnel.

I’d made it to the narrowest part of the shaft when I realized something was very definitely wrong. A rivulet of water was running down the rocky floor, the source of the noise. At first it looked like a trickle, but as I stared, the water spread out and was coming quicker, becoming a stream. It rushed into the pools of water that were in the depressions of the tunnelway, then came out the other side like a miniature waterfall.

“Sol! We’ve got to get out of here, now! Grab what you’ve got and let’s go! Fast! I think the sea is rising!”

I heard Solum’ke scrabble across the crystals on the floor behind me. A glance over my shoulder revealed that Sevik’s feet were rooted to the spot, his eyes transfixed on all the crystals we were leaving behind.

“Sol!” I shouted, nodding toward our guest.

She gave him a harsh nudge that seemed to snap him back to reality. He brought up the rear of our little entourage, carrying his sacks practically effortlessly. It was tougher going climbing the shaft. It was steeper than I’d realized, and the floor was slippery. As we neared the opening, the water came rushing in even faster, surging around our knees, then our thighs.

A moment later, my head poked out of the opening, and I balanced on the ledge to keep from falling into the sea—which was lapping at my waist now. I let the glowrod slip from my fingers—I didn’t need it. The sky was lighter, the eclipse ending, the tides rising quickly. I started scrambling up what was left of the ridge, motioning Sol to follow me.