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James Abby’s body was stiff, laid out on the floor under the pit, his eyes and mouth still open wide in fear and astonishment.
“Why did it kill him, do you think?” Captain Able asked me, standing off to the side.
“He tried to use it for something other than good,” I answered simply. “The vase knew he wished death on someone more than anything and it took him as punishment.” With a shiver, I remembered my drugged meeting with Zeus and his warning about using Pandora’s Box.
“Mother Agnetha must have foreseen his actions,” Tristan concurred. “But she didn’t know who he was.”
“I’ve wondered as much as well,” I mused, still staring at him. “He was a brave man.”
“A good friend,” Tristan said softly and I nodded, feeling more tears gathering in my eyes.
“Shall we bury him, then?” Captain Able sighed, shifting his weight from one side to the other.
“No,” Tristan and I said together.
“Why ever not?” the captain asked in surprise.
“Because he was still here when I first entered in my own time. He was right here, under the pit. I stepped on him. Sorry, James,” I added, feeling guilty for disturbing his remains. “I didn’t mean to.”
“His spirit will stay to protect the treasure if we leave him as well,” Tristan answered. “It is a custom among pirates.”
“Yes, but they murder their victims savagely beforehand,” the captain argued.
“I’d say he had a pretty horrific death,” I cut in.
They both fell silent at this, the three of us continuing to stare at him. Finally, I felt I could turn away and did so, looking at the both of them. “So, what now?”
“We’ll have to move the treasure,” Captain Able sighed. “Now that there is a pit over the top of it, it will never be safe. Someone will find it if we fill it in. All they’ll have to do is dig it back out.”
Smiling, I shook my head. “You’re going to booby trap it,” I said smartly. “It will take a lot of work, but your treasure will be safe for a very long time, possibly even forever.”
“How can that be, if you were in it yourself?” he asked, confused.
“It flooded while I was in here,” I answered, turning to James’s body. The vase was lying by his side, the lid screwed on tight, though I didn’t know how since there had been no one down here to do it. Picking it up gently, I moved around James, placing it back in Tristan’s box and closed the top on it. “This is staying right here, where I found it,” I added, stepping away.
“I’m assuming that you have designs for these booby traps?” the captain asked suspiciously. “And you’re certain that they will work?”
“I’m positive.” Smiling at him, I motioned to Tristan, ready to leave. “I have the history to prove it.”
As we walked through the tunnel to the broken entrance, I explained everything I knew about the flood tunnels to the captain. They would need to build the wooden vault around the rooms and waterproof them, but I already knew that they would handle it all perfectly. He seemed to agree that they would do the trick, falling silent as he thought it all over.
“What about this door?” he asked as we climbed out of the tunnel.
“Bury it, too,” Tristan suggested. “Collapse the tunnels and fill it in.”
“There’s freshwater under here somewhere,” I stated. “This was all a swamp in my time. If you can find the water, it will come up and flood the whole thing. No one will be able to see the door or find it.”
“It will take a lot of time,” Captain Able mused. “And lots of manpower. But we can do it. My only concern is that someone who lives nearby will see us working here.”
“If they do, they never told anyone. Oak Isle is a mystery that no one can solve. Just when you think you’ve figured it out, the island comes back and bites you.”
Pulling a coin from his pocket, he rubbed it between his fingers, looking up at the sky. “We will do it, then,” he announced, suddenly losing his grip and dropping the coin.
“Leave it,” I laughed as he bent to pick it up. “One day it will be a treasure beyond anyone’s wildest dreams.”
“Come, Samantha,” Tristan said then, taking my hand. “Let them do their work. We have other things to think on.” Leading me away with a smile, we strolled along the edge of the ocean, the breeze playing with my hair and tickling my skin.
“I thought I was going to lose ye, down there in the vault,” he confessed, squeezing my fingers painfully tight. “The air was howling all around us, yer hair was stinging my skin, and it was as if I could feel ye, slipping away.”
“But I didn’t,” I reminded him quietly. “I’m still here.”
“Aye, ye are. But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t relieved to never have to see that vase or this island again.”
“What will you do now, with no treasure to guard?”
He remained silent, slowing our steps enough that my feet sunk into the sand with each movement. The peace allowed me to think on our future and I abruptly knew what he would be doing.
“We’re going to hunt Randall, aren’t we?”
“Aye, if ye agree to it.”
“If I hadn’t let him knock me over, we could have caught him,” I spoke guiltily. “We could have gotten the vial and you would have finished him instead of me screwing it up.”
“I seem to remember that I was the one being held at gunpoint,” he chuckled. “It was no one’s fault. He got away and we both live to fight him again.”
Sighing, I looked back across the island, taking it all in. The sun shone down on the green leaves and grass, a lazy bee buzzing around every so often. Waves brushed the sand inches from our feet, the ocean reaching out into the vast unknown. “I still can’t believe that it was all here,” I confessed, staring at where the future swamp would lie.
“What do ye mean?” He shrugged his shoulder a little, adjusting the bandage around his new cut, his white shirt looking dirty after climbing in and out of the vault.
“The treasure of the Templars,” I laughed. “Buried on an island in the middle of nowhere. All of that history and religion, tucked away where no one would ever find it.”
Chuckling, he stopped, looking me over. “Ye think this is the only place we hid it?” he asked. “Why would we do that?”
“You mean there’s more?” I whispered, eyes growing wide.
“Aye, Samantha. Much more.”
“Well, where is it?’ I demanded, feeling the breath whoosh out of me at the revelation.
“Now that is a secret I can not tell ye, because I don’t know the answer.” He paused, a calculating look growing in his eyes. Humming thoughtfully, he stopped our movements, standing in front of me as he grinned. “But I have heard rumors. Tell me, lass, have ye heard of a place known as El Dorado?”
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