Taylor’s lungs reached their limit. Red-hot and screaming, as she felt completely blind. The moment she’d plunged under the water she’d been swept away by some undercurrent.
A rough hand grabbed her first by the hair, causing her to scream precious air out into the water, before seizing her clothes by the shoulder and dragging her up and out.
She hit the rough and sharp stones, coughing into a complete blackness, with a man who could not really get more strange if he were to try.
He patted her gently on the back until she got her breath back, before standing. She didn’t see him stand, but she heard it. Heard the dripping as he quietly walked somewhere nearby, before there was the sound of rock on rock, and a burst of sparks nearly blinded her.
A couple more flowering fireflies in every direction, and a bright orange and red glare lit the cavern. Benny waved the torch around lazily, his keen eyes inspecting his hidden hovel - probably to make certain it was still so.
Taylor stood up slowly, “How did you even find this place?”
“Was Flint.” Benny grunted, “I… May have lied, ‘fore. I said I had the treasure but it more… I know where the treasure be lyin’. Flint ya see… He were the paranoid type.”
“Killed the men who helped him hide it.” Taylor pointed out, feeling a queasiness as she remembered what she had now done herself.
Benny nodded and began to lead her further into the cave, “That be true. Not enough for our bastard Flint, though. Beggin’ me language. Ya see, Flint were the worst of all men. Truly were.”
Taylor followed him carefully, looking about, but there really wasn’t anything much to see. Just a cave tunnel, beneath a hill. It looked natural enough to her eyes, but she doubted she could tell if a mole or man had dug it.
“The first o’ the guards, will see up ahead.” Benny said grimly, “He weren’t killed as such. Left to be the canary, so to speak. To scream fer help, and mark the newcomers, at least while ol’ Flint were doin’ the buryin’.”
She appreciated the warning as the edge of the red light touched on white and grey. Bones in rags, gnawed on by rats or whatever else had somehow found the body in this ill place.
Benny paused a moment there, kneeling in front of them and offering up a small and silent prayer. The dichotomy of the man was something that Taylor doubted she would ever fully comprehend.
She didn’t feel she had the words to offer, or really knew what would be appropriate. She was doing her best not to think of what it would have been like to die in chains, beneath a hill. All the same, to carry on in a trusted position with a man like Flint… A man who was as much horror story as he was myth…
Her companion stood and led her just beyond, to where they found an impasse. A large and round bronze door lay in the rock, with rough lettering carved into the surface.
> Keeping watch, the shadows creep,
> Evil whispers, secrets they keep,
> Yondering, what lies ahead,
> Unfolding darkness, filling with dread.
> No escape from this twisting fate,
> Destiny’s path we can’t abate,
> Eyes wide open, searching through,
> Revelations of the terrible, as they come true.
Benny turned to her and gave a small shrug, “Afraid that… This far as I been gettin’. Be hopin’ ya ship might have some powder. Blow the damn thing open, beggin’ the language.”
She held up a hand, looking at it carefully, “Just give me a moment.”
“I tried ta solve it, lass. There’s no doin’. None can think like Fli-”
Taylor stared. It couldn’t be that simple, could it? She shrugged and went down on her knees in front of the door and stirred her hands around in the rocks.
Her fingertips found the edges of something that felt like metal. As she excitedly began to dig around it, Benny stared at her. “How in the devil you be knowin’ that were there?”
“Key under? First letter of each line.” She shrugged as she unearthed a small tin box. She pulled the battered thing up, and lifted the top to find a rusty key within.
Taylor picked it up and found the small slot on the door and tried to push it in. The rust caught and groaned, before the key suddenly glided forward and clicked into place.
She made a face and turned it, feeling the protest of the door for a moment, before it, too, gave in. There was a thundering great click, and a woosh of air that nearly extinguished the torch, before the door fell backwards and to the floor with a clatter that nearly deafened her.
“I be a goat’s uncle.” Benny stared in astonishment.
Taylor rolled her shoulder and patted her ears, and then the two of them continued further into the cave system.
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The second pirate saved their skin.
They found him lying on the ground, or what was left of him. His ankle caught in some kind of bear trap. The man hadn’t managed to free himself before something else had ended him. His bones were raked with teeth marks, and not small ones at that.
Both Taylor and Benny went silent, crouched, and made their way carefully onwards, casting their eyes about for the hidden predator - and far more of the traps on the ground.
Some of the traps were triggered, their springs rusty and broken. Others had caught small creatures from the waterways that had formed the tunnels. Far more where lying in wait for them. One wrong footstep, to be caught and screaming for the tunnel’s predator.
Taylor really couldn’t think what Flint had managed to coerce down into these caves. She couldn’t imagine a tumbling creature in the water. Anything would be desperate after that sort of insane arrival - though… Maybe he had blocked off the water before forming his plan? None were left to tell.
Each footstep was careful, and away from the walls were the sconces were lit. The light was mostly useless, Benny’s torch lighting up far more. The sconces looked to be from a ship’s cabin, but Taylor couldn’t imagine Flint using his own. Probably more victory spoils.
She stepped carefully around the traps, which quickly had her questioning why they were there. They were easy to see with the light, and there was enough room to move between them all, if you took your time about it.
Benny on the other hand moved lithe enough that he barely seemed to notice the existence of the traps at all. He glided forward over the ground as if he were out for a walk in the countryside, not crouched in a cave and hoping some cursed treasure existed.
He and his torch moved on ahead, as Taylor struggled to keep up without getting a row of iron teeth throw her leg. The other man didn’t seem to notice at all, too excited by what might wait ahead.
Taylor was more circumspect with her hopes. If the man had laid two sets of traps, it wasn’t enough. People always tried to overdo things, in groups of threes. There was something of the asymmetry that appealed to the mind.
Benny was almost about to go around a natural curve in the tunnel, and out of sight, when Taylor’s eyes went wide and she shouted out, “Down!”
The water surged and burst forth as the scaled monstrosity surged up and out of it with a speed that could only come from the Devil himself. Teeth that shone powered down onto Benny with a snap that echoed even as the man screamed in pain.
There was a brief tussle, as Taylor held a hand to her mouth, too mesmerised to look about… Before Benny was dragged down and into the water.
The water bubbled and rolled about, until Taylor was left standing in the midst of the traps, the torches flickering on the walls, and the water just lapping delicately at the stone.
She didn’t dare to move.
Was Benny really… Gone? He was more the fighter than she ever was. If he was gone… Would the beast want another? Were there more beasts to be seen and had?
Her heart beat frantically in her ears, as she tried to think if stumbling back through the traps was the wiser option. Did she need to run back to the fortress and convince pirate or captain to send hunters out with her?
The temptation of Flint’s trove was probably enough to convince them, but it likely wasn’t the wisest move. Divisions among the pirates would rise, and dealing with a pirate shooting another, in caves beneath the hills, was not any safer than a crocodile.
“Bastard!”
She stared in astonishment, before quickly picking herself over to his side, as Benny fell back onto the stone, breathing heavily and weeping red from seemingly everywhere. Taylor dropped to her knees beside him and dabbed quickly at the injuries.
He shoved her back and stood himself up. His hands were shaking, but he gave her a keen-eyed smile, “I ain’t in no bad way. Shall we see what else Flint got in store for us, eh?”
Taylor went to protest that he needed treatment, but he had already turned. Not quite making the same pace across the area, but still much faster than she could imagine. Especially now with her heart in her ears.
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There had been another gate to mark the end of the tunnel section where the crocodile had been kept. This one wasn’t locked. Seemed that if you survived his pet, Flint wasn’t going to make things any harder.
The door even had a scratched acrostic, to compliment, from that old pirate monster.
> Gleaming treasures, freed from lesser men,
> Out at sea, we sail so free,
> Our crew, as bold as can be,
> Daring adventures, for all to see.
> Journeying above the ocean’s depths,
> Our ship, the best amongst all the rest,
> Battling fiercely, men at their best!
The last line had Taylor wondering whether that old man would be tossing in his grave to be learning that it was a woman who dared to think just a little bit wider. It was hardly as if his puzzles were difficult to solve.
Benny paused as they moved into the next cave, which Taylor was sincerely hoping was the last. There was no trap on the door, no sudden dropping hammer. So that was at least something.
The torches in this section were brighter burning, taller. Taylor was grateful for that, having lost Benny’s in the tussle with the crocodile. There were no obvious traps on the floor, but Taylor found herself taking the first step. The pirate letting her take the risk.
As she continued along, the other man careful to walk in her footsteps, Taylor began to notice old stonework rising up through the mud. Worn smooth with age, it was the road from some older world - not laid by Flint’s hand.
Here and there appeared keystones. Set as diamond instead of square, they had small engravings on them. Taylor bent to examine them, as Benny made annoyed sounds of impatience - not seeing how they might be clues for whatever laid ahead.
The engravings were not of Flint’s hand. These were not scratched, but the hand of some careful artist. Showing a tale from some ancient point in time.
Each told the section of a story, as Taylor moved along. She couldn’t be clear on it, not fully understanding the symbolism. She saw some giant crow, that came to protect the native people from something ghostly rising out of the sea.
The evil spirit burnt the forests, and cut down the mountains to nothing more than hills. It roosted on what it destroyed, before turning any straying local into nothing more than a pile of bones.
Those bones were taken as trophies, sometimes turned into clothing for the crow.
Newer stones began to appear. Carved less in the past hundred years, and some time so recently that the edges were still sharp and rough to the touch. A new spirit emerged from the sea, but this one brought fruits and seeds with it.
It showed the locals how to grow and harvest plantations, before they turned their friend against their enemy. He tore the spirit from the mountains and cast it into the sea.
Then he turned to them, and without warning, began to kill them all.
They ran into the hills, and he claimed the whole island for himself, laughing.
Taylor paused, “This is Flint.”
“What be?” Benny asked in irritation at her slow pace.
“Flint came. He cast out the British, and they thought he was a hero. And then he killed them all.” She said with disgust.
Benny yawned, “Aye, that be the man ‘imself. Nought much to be seein’ there, lass. He were no son o’ God.”
She looked at him and frowned, “If he killed them all… Who carved these?”
His face dropped and his eyes began to dart about. “God gave you a sharp mind there, lass. He surely blessin’ me to have ya cross me path.”
“Restez tranquille ou mourez!” A shout echoed throughout the cave.