‘Look! Emily said suddenly, breaking the silence that had fallen over the clearing in the forest. Opening his eyes, Lewis saw her pointing towards the sky. For the last couple of hours, he had been slumped against the bronze pillar, dozing for ten minutes here and there.

The sun had set hours ago. Unfortunately, as darkness came, so did the clouds. With nothing but a couple of small oil lamps, the five of them sat in the clearing, waiting for the break in the clouds that would allow the moonlight to activate the star map.

‘What time is it?’ Lewis asked as he sat up. Rolling his neck, he tried to get rid of the stiffness.

‘Almost two in the morning,’ Thomas replied as he consulted his pocket watch in the dim lamp light before looking up at the sky. ‘We might be in luck.’

As Lewis looked up, he saw that the clouds had become more broken, with the hazy moonlight lighting up the clearing to some extent. Getting to his feet, Lewis stretched, yawning as he did so. ‘I can’t wait to be back in a real bed,’ he sighed.

‘What’s going on?’ Arthur muttered.

‘The clouds are breaking up,’ Lewis said with a glance at Arthur, who was slumped against his supply bag with Amanda still asleep beside him. They hadn’t used much of what they had brought with them, mainly for the fear that lighting a fire to cook on would attract anyone on the island. Instead, they had made do with a cold meal that Thomas had managed to knock together while they waited for nightfall.

‘I think something’s happening!’ Emily said, pointing at the star map.

Where the star map had sat suspended by an invisible force ever since Thomas had placed it on the pillar, it had begun to move, spinning on its point. The more of the moon that came out from behind the cloud, the faster it sped.

Whether it was out of fear as to what would happen next or wonder, Lewis, Emily, and Thomas backed away. Just as the final slither of the moon emerged from behind the cloud, there was a blinding flash of light. As the star map continued to spin, Lewis saw the stars it was projecting flashing around the edges of the clearing.

With a hand raised to shield his eyes from the bright light, he watched as the prism began to twist, orienting itself so that the point was now directed at the huge, circular bronze door. Stepping away from the pillar, Lewis walked towards the door, vaguely aware that Emily was following him. The stars that had whirled around the clearing were now all projected on the metal, every single one aligning perfectly with the hundreds of tiny indentations.

‘It’s not opening,’ Emily said in confusion as they looked at the door.

He didn’t know what made him do it, but Lewis reached out, placing the palm of his hand on the cold metal. The second his skin came into contact with the door, there was a bang like the sound of a cannon going off.

Spinning around, he grabbed hold of Emily, pulling her aside just in time to avoid the thousands of tiny glass shards that were flying towards them. Standing beside the pillar was Thomas, hands over his ears, staring at where the star map had been before it had exploded. On the other side of the pillar, Amanda sat up quickly, looking around in confusion.

‘Is everyone alright?’ Lewis called out as he looked around. When they all murmured their agreement, he turned back to the door. The tiny indentations where the stars had been moments before were now filled with the glowing remains of the destroyed star map.

‘It’s quite beautiful,’ Emily whispered as they stared at the illuminated map of the night sky on the door.

‘Yeah, it is,’ Lewis muttered as he considered it.

‘Try placing your hand on the door again,’ Thomas said as he appeared on Emily’s other side.

Warily, Lewis reached out, waiting for the sound of another explosion as his fingertips brushed the metal. However, this time there was no bang, just a faint cracking. Stepping back slowly, the three of them watched as a glowing white line appeared down the centre of the door.

With an echoing creak, the door to the tomb opened inward, a wave of stale air rushing over them. ‘So, this is it, then,’ Lewis whispered as he stared into the darkness.

‘Thomas!’ shouted Arthur suddenly. Turning, they found him pointing towards the sky. A large cloud was heading towards the moon. As soon as it eclipsed the tiniest slither, the door behind them began to creak again.

‘Go!’ Thomas said, shoving Lewis and Emily towards the door. ‘Amanda, get a lamp!’

‘What about you?’ Lewis asked as Amanda ran across the clearing, shoving one of the oil lamps into his arms.

‘We’ll wait out here,’ Thomas said. ‘I don’t know what’s inside there, and we can’t leave Arthur out here.’

‘But how do we get out again?’ Lewis demanded as Thomas pushed them through the door and into the tomb.

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‘The door should open when the moon comes out again,’ he said hurriedly. ‘If not, I’ll find a way. Go!’

As the creaking of the doors echoed around them in the darkness, the moonlight began to fade as it became obscured by the clouds.

‘Good luck!’ Amanda spoke quickly before the huge metal doors snapped shut again, blocking out the last of the moonlight.

‘Thomas? Can you hear us?’ Emily shouted, pressing her ear to the door. When there was no reply, she turned to Lewis, the look of fear on her face illuminated by the oil lamp he was holding. ‘What do we do?’

‘I don’t think there’s much we can do,’ Lewis said as he turned away from the door, holding the lamp up to try and shine some light on their surroundings. ‘It’s up to us to find the crown now.’

‘I don’t like it in here,’ she muttered, gripping his hand tightly.

‘Me either,’ he replied, giving her hand what he hoped was a reassuring squeeze. ‘Let’s get this over and get out of here.’

‘Okay,’ Emily whispered as she allowed him to lead her forward, the lamp held out in front of them. ‘Where do you think this tunnel goes?’

‘Probably somewhere under the hillside,’ Lewis guessed. ‘We would have reached the back of the ruins by now otherwise.’

‘Do you think there’s anything down here?’

‘Just the crown, I hope,’ Lewis replied. ‘Mind the steps.’

With the weak light from the oil lamp, they began to descend the uneven stone steps carefully. Since the moment the doors had closed, Emily’s tight grip on his hand hadn’t let up. He didn’t blame her, to be honest; he was just glad that there was someone else with him. Roaming the dark rooftops of Tristan in the middle of the night was one thing, but this was a whole different level.

It wasn’t the thought of being inside an ancient tomb or the possibility of finding human remains that scared him. Yes, it creeped him out a little, but he was fairly certain that most people would feel the same way. The thing that scared him more was being trapped. If the moon didn’t come out from behind the clouds again or Thomas couldn’t find a way to open the door, then they were already as good as dead. In their rush to get inside the tomb before the door closed again, they hadn’t picked up any of the supplies.

As far as they knew, they were completely trapped. After everything they had gone through, surely they wouldn’t meet their end in an ancient tomb, which was more than likely filled with decaying remains with nothing to eat or drink. All they had now was an old oil lamp, the stale air inside the tomb, and each other.

‘Look,’ Emily whispered as they reached the bottom of the stairs, emerging into a cavernous room. Through the darkness, he could just about see the stone pedestal that she was pointing at.

Lifting the lamp a little higher as they approached, his eyes fell on two skeletons lying side by side. Swallowing audibly, he looked down at the remains. Suddenly, it felt a lot colder inside the tomb. ‘Who do you think they are?’

‘Sebastian and Evelyn Vandemark,’ Emily supplied without hesitation.

‘How do you...’ Lewis began, trailing off when she pointed to the engraved stone plaque that sat at their feet.

‘There’s more,’ Emily said, taking the lamp from him as she moved over to another stone plinth that stood alone. ‘This one’s Matthew Vandemark. And look, here’s Felicia and Lindsey Vandemark as well.’

‘You say their names like you know them,’ Lewis said as he watched her move between the plinths, muttering more names under her breath.

‘I do,’ she said. ‘Well, I don’t know them; I know their names. They’re all on the Vandemark family tree that was in Sebastian’s office. You remember the tapestry that was hiding the tunnel out of the castle?’

‘The entire family is here?’ Lewis asked. ‘My...family?’

‘It looks like it,’ she said. ‘Sebastian, Matthew, Felicia, and Lindsey were the four children of Arden Vandemark.’

‘There was more than one Sebastian Vandemark?’ he said.

‘Three,’ she replied. ‘That is Sebastian Vandemark. This is his only son, Sebastian. He had three sons. Sebastian, the one we knew, Thomas, and Edmund

‘Is he here? My father?’ Lewis asked as he moved away from the plinth that held Sebastian and Evelyn’s remains.

‘No,’ Emily said as she stopped beside an empty plinth. In silence, Lewis joined her, staring down at the small stone plaque that bore the name of his father, Dominic Vandemark. ‘You thought he would be here?’

‘I don’t know,’ he muttered. ‘Charles dealt with all the funeral arrangements after his death. I just assumed that, as he knew my father’s real past, he might be here.’

‘You don’t know where he’s buried?’

‘No,’ Lewis admitted. ‘My mother made a little flower arrangement the year after he died and placed it at the base of one of the big fir trees near the lodge. If she knows where he’s buried, she hasn’t ever mentioned it. I never thought to ask Charles either.’

‘Maybe when we get out of here we could try and find him,’ Emily suggested.

‘Maybe,’ Lewis muttered, his eyes not leaving the name plaque.

‘Look, there’s another empty plinth,’ she said, moving away from him, the lamp light fading with her until Lewis could no longer read his father’s name on the stone. ‘It belongs to Arden Vandemark. I wonder where he is.’

‘We should try and find the crown,’ Lewis said, breaking out of his thoughts. It felt so strange to be standing among the remains of all these people. All this family that, up until recently, he never knew he had.

‘I’m sorry,’ she said apologetically.

‘It’s okay,’ Lewis assured her, despite the fact that he felt less than okay. He felt overwhelmed. Was this how she felt when she found out about Arthur?

‘Let’s go. I think it’s this way,’ she said, pointing at a large gap in the stone wall that sat on the other side of the room.

Nodding, Lewis wound his way between the plinths, joining her under the archway that led into the next room. Hopefully that was all the remains they would have to see, he thought as they stepped into the next room.

Like the one they had just left, it had a high ceiling as well. The only real difference, as far as he could see, was that instead of the stone plinths holding the remains of his deceased relatives, the room was filled with giant statues.

‘What on earth is all this? Some sort of memorial?’ she said as she set off amongst the statues. Following a few paces behind her, Lewis looked around the room. There were dozens of statues in a range of different sizes.

‘Emily! No!’ he shouted after her, his stomach dropping through the floor as his eyes fell on a huge stone sword that was lying to one side of the room. It wasn’t a memorial. It was a lot worse than that.

‘What?’ she asked, glancing over her shoulder at him as she stepped between two of the huge statues.

‘Don’t move!’ he said quickly.

Before she could question him, a creaking sound echoed around the chamber. In the dim light cast by the lamp she was holding, he saw one of the statues move. With heavy footsteps that echoed around the chamber, a huge stone Warrior stepped out from between two giant, shield-wielding statues. As she turned to see what he was staring at, the lamp slipped from between her fingers, smashing on the floor before they were plunged into darkness.

‘Oh no!’ he heard her whisper in the dark.