16 – First Loot

To Ward’s relief, the pedestals didn’t sink, and no chimes began to sound as they made their way over the shimmering water to the platform with the door and the square copper box. Nevkin was the first there, naturally, and Ward was contemplating threatening him again so he wouldn’t open anything ahead of his arrival, but the young man restrained himself, pacing back and forth before the box, or “chest,” as he kept calling it. Haley hopped onto the platform and turned to watch Ward make his last two jumps, and then they all stood there, looking down at the inscribed metal of the shoe-box-sized container.

“So, you guys reckon this is a good thing, right?”

“Of course they do.” Ward flinched at the sound of Grace’s voice right behind him. He’d almost forgotten about her in the process of hopping across the water.

“Are you all right?” Haley asked, noticing his spasm.

“Fine.” Ward looked over his shoulder with a scowl. “Had a chill run down my spine.” He stepped forward between the two smaller individuals and squatted to get a better look at the box. “So, what’s the deal here? We just open it? You don’t figure it’s rigged to blow up or something, do you?”

“The accounts I’ve studied don’t generally indicate trapped rewards.” Nevkin leaned closer to the box, staring at it through his spectacles.

“I don’t see anything funny about it,” Grace interjected, stepping around Nevkin to stand beside the box, resting one bare foot against the left-hand edge. Ward tried to ignore her.

“I’ll open it.” Nevkin sounded a little too enthusiastic, and Ward’s inherent suspicion, honed from interrogating hundreds of suspects over the years, was piqued.

“Some reason you want to?” He glanced at Haley to see her face while he spoke, and she frowned and nodded.

“Well,” Nevkin began, drawing the word out. “Sometimes there isn’t enough of a reward for everyone who happens upon a chest to share. Sometimes there’s only one item.” At Ward’s glower, he hastily added, “Sometimes there are many!”

Haley folded her arms and stepped closer. “Didn’t Ward do most of the killing in this room?”

“I knew I liked her!” Grace smiled and moved around behind Haley. “I could hug her, even!”

Nevkin, likewise, folded his arms and drew his eyebrows together in a scowl. He stepped back, though, and muttered, “If you want to risk a trap, fine, you open it.”

“Oh? Now there’s a trap?” Ward chuckled, then made a shooing motion. “Back up, then. Don’t worry, I won’t snatch whatever’s in there.” When the two had moved back to the platform's edge, he leaned forward again, flipped the little latch up, and lifted the lid. Grace leaned forward, blocking his view, and he almost cussed at her.

“Ah! Boring, but useful!”

“Well?” Nevkin hurried forward.

“I’m not sure.” Ward shoved Grace aside and looked in the little box. A vial of sparkling red liquid sat nestled among fifteen or so precious-looking stones. Next to the potion was a plump, blue-stained leather pouch. “Some gems, a potion, I guess, and a pouch. Ward reached in and lifted out the bag, surprised by the hefty weight. Whatever was inside was hard and round, making him imagine a baseball-sized marble or crystal ball.

“What’s that?” Haley asked.

“Not sure. Relax, folks. Let’s all take a seat, and I’ll put all the stuff on top of the box, and we can look at everything together, okay?”

“Sounds fair.” Haley plopped down and crossed her legs. Nevkin hadn’t spoken yet, but he’d glanced into the box, and some excitement had left his face. Ward had the feeling he was hoping for something specific and saw it wasn’t there. Ward scooped up the gems and potion, then closed the box and set everything atop it as he’d promised.

The gems were all different colors, but none were polished or cut. Ward could hardly tell a cut crystal from a diamond, so he sure didn’t think he could appraise them. “Either of you know much about gemstones?”

“A little.” Nevkin looked at Haley to see if she’d speak up, but she shook her head. “I can tell that those two—the blue ones—are uncut sapphires. They’re probably worth a lot. The red one, too, is worth a pretty glory; I think it’s a ruby. The rest look like they’re rose quartz and agate.

“Easy enough. I’ll grab a blue one. Nevkin, you want blue or red?”

“Red.”

“Okay, here you go, and a blue for Haley. Then we each get three of the others.” Ward counted them out. “Fair enough?”

“Fair.” Haley opened her pack and stuffed the gems away. Ward did the same. Then he turned back to the other two objects. He picked up the thumb-sized vial of sparkling red liquid. Holding it, he realized something was inscribed in the glass. He tilted it left and right, trying to catch more light on the letters so he could read what they said.

“Huh. I think it says ‘restorative.’ Haley, you have a look.” Ward passed it over to her. He was sure he was right but wanted to include the others.

“I agree. This must be a healing potion!”

“Ward should take it,” Nevkin said, and Ward narrowed his eyes at him. The kid was playing a game; he was sure of it. Generous now, so when they find the thing he wants, he could claim it?

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Grace whispered in his ear, sending a cold shiver down his spine.

“Nah, you take it, Nevkin.” He glanced at Haley and winked, and she shrugged and held it out to the kid.

“No, no. I must insist one of you take it. I have plenty of healing salve.”

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Haley sighed and held it out to Ward. He tried to think of an argument but decided to give in; he was the only one without any sort of first aid gear. “All right.” He took it, pressed down on the wax-sealed cork to ensure it was secure, and then stuffed it into his pocket. Finally, he picked up the blue leather pouch and loosened the drawstring. “It’s heavy.” He grinned at Haley and Nevkin, taking his time and building the anticipation.

Grace nudged him with her foot, pressing her manicured, painted toes into his ribs. “You must have been a joy to watch at your birthday parties.”

“Hush!” Ward growled softly, working the pouch all the way open and tilting it so he could roll the heavy ball out into his palm.

Haley flinched back. “I didn’t say anything!”

“Nah, not you. Don’t worry, I’m just talking to myself.” The ball that rolled into his hand wasn’t what he’d imagined. It wasn’t glass or crystal, and it wasn’t colorful—it looked and felt a heck of a lot like a ball of lead. “Huh. Not very pretty.”

“What is it?” Haley stretched out a slender finger to touch the metal, pressing hard against it, so Ward had to compensate by pushing upward with his hand. “It feels like lead!”

“Not much of a prize.” Nevkin stood up, shaking his head in disappointment. “Perhaps it awarded you more metal to make bullets.”

“It?” Ward looked up from his ball of cold metal.

Nevkin sighed. “I don’t know. The chest? The catacombs? Whatever intelligence or spirit the creators instilled within it?”

“Nobody knows, Ward.” Haley stood up, brushing her leather pants.

“Don’t go melting that ball down anytime soon,” Grace said. “I think there’s more to it than these two can fathom. More than you can, too. Why would a ball of lead be in such a nice little pouch?”

“Yeah, I was thinking the same.” Ward stuffed the ball into the blue pouch and then found a spot for it in his pack.

Haley looked at him, eyes narrowed in puzzlement. “Thinking the same? Oh, that no one knows?”

“Right, Haley, right.” Ward lifted his pack, put his arms through the straps, and then regarded the copper door in the wall. “Guess we’re going through there next.” He stepped forward, nudging past Nevkin, and examined the handle. It was a simple copper lever, tarnished and green, beckoning him to press down upon it. He reached out his hand, then paused and looked at Nevkin and Haley, pointedly ignoring Grace as she paced behind the young woman. “Any objections?”

“None.” Nevkin shook his head. Haley mimicked the gesture but didn’t speak.

“Here we go.” Ward placed his palm on the cool, moist metal and pressed down. It ratcheted smoothly, and the door pulled away from the wall, revealing a dimly illuminated stone corridor with a downward slope.

“I’ll take the lead if you wouldn’t mind.” Nevkin stepped forward. “I’m rather skilled at noticing irregularities that might hint at a trap.”

“By all means.” Ward watched him enter the tunnel, and then Haley stepped past him and followed. “Guess I’ll bring up the rear.”

“Is something bothering you?” Grace was the only one to hear his muttered comment.

“Nah.” Despite his denial, Ward scowled as he glared at Grace. She might want to pretend their disagreement the previous night had never happened, but he was still quite sore about the state of his soul.

“Why are you whispering? Oh! You don’t want your new friends to think you’ve gone mad?” Again, Ward didn’t answer. “It won’t matter in a few hours or days. Either they’ll be dead, or you will be, or you’ll be separated by the cruel mechanics of this place. I know I sound like a downer, Ward, but I didn’t know the catacombs would be like this. You have to believe me, okay?” She reached up, grabbing hold of some loose tatters of his blood-stained, no-longer-white shirt. “God! Those things really sliced you up! I can’t believe I didn’t talk to you about buying some new clothes or maybe some armor. You know I’m new to all this, too, right? I’ll do better going forward.”

“If we live,” Ward hissed. He’d been taking slow steps, falling a good deal behind the other two, with no end to the long corridor in sight.

“You’re going to live, Ward! Believe in yourself.”

Ward frowned at her, contemplating a snarky response, but decided it wasn’t worth the effort. Instead, he picked up the pace and drew near Haley again. “Long hallway.”

“Yeah.” Haley turned to smile at him, nodding.

“Ward, do you have many cartridges for that pistol of yours? That’s quite a sophisticated piece.” Nevkin paused, leaning against the wall, awaiting Ward’s response.

“Yeah, I’ve got a few. Glad you approve.”

“I think he’s used to the type of guns people on Cinder usually carry. They’re not so effective.” Haley slipped her pack off and dug around until she lifted out a big, round canteen. She sipped at it, making Ward suddenly thirsty. He licked his lips but didn’t give in; he only had a single copper bottle of water, which made him wonder just what the hell he’d been thinking. The truth was, he hadn’t worried too much about the “catacombs.” He’d had some major misconceptions, starting with expecting to be able to bail out if he wanted to. “Nevkin, you seem to have studied these challenges a lot. You think we’re very far in?”

“Well . . .” He pushed his glasses up on his nose, then wiped the sweat on his tattooed brow. “We’ve passed four obstacles if you count the stairway turning into a pitfall.”

“The stairway, the fire jets, the doors only allowing three people to pass, and the boggerts.” Haley counted down on her fingers while she listed them off.

“Right. Accounts of the Tarnish Catacombs I’ve read seem to indicate that an exit might present itself anywhere after your fifth obstacle, depending on the path you take. It’s all, of course, dependent on what the catacombs offer you. One man swore he’d circumvented thirty obstacles before he found an exit.” He straightened and started forward again. “Let’s keep moving.”

“You’ve got a good work ethic, kid.” Ward nodded and straightened from where he’d been leaning on the wall. He glanced over his shoulder, wondering why Grace hadn’t been sniping at him, but she wasn’t anywhere in sight. Was she just back in his head, or could she wander off? Again, Ward shook his head, annoyed with himself for not yet covering basic details like that with her. He had to remind himself to cut himself some slack—she was the one who kept interrupting their conversations every time they started getting good.

“I am a hard worker, but this is more about not wanting to die. I’d rather get through this corridor before the catacombs decide we’ve been here too long.”

“He makes a good point!” Haley hurried after him. Ward kept pace, mentally creating a checklist of things he wanted to talk to Grace about the next time they were alone. He wished he had a piece of paper and something to write with.

“Is paper uncommon in this world?”

“Hmm?” Haley looked back at him. “No, not at all.”

“Good.” Ward was definitely going to do some shopping the next time he was in town.

“I see a door!” Nevkin called, and Haley and Ward hurried to keep up with him. When they all stood before another copper door, much like the one they’d come through, Nevkin gently tapped it with his knuckles. “That was a long corridor with no trap or fight. I have a bad feeling that things won’t be so peaceful on the other side of this door.” With that, he drew his little rapier and regarded Ward and Haley.

“I guess there’s no going back.” Ward drew his pistol with his right hand and yanked his big bowie knife from its sheath with his left, holding it ready.

“Let me charge my fists.” Haley stepped back and began to do her weird fast-motion Tai-chi dance, and Ward watched, amazed, as her knuckles began to redden and palpable waves of heat radiated from them. After a few seconds, she nodded, holding her vibrating fists in a boxer’s guard. “Ready!”

“Here we go!” Nevkin reached with his free hand and pulled the door open.