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He turned the octant in his hands, reasoning that it was almost the perfect shape missing from the cogs. On the back of the octant, where the measuring arm met the mirror, was a tiny cog that had nothing to do with the mechanics of the navigation. It looked as if it would fit right into the...
He pressed the octant into the space and felt it slot into place with a click. He felt Evie’s gasp against his cheek as she came to stand, tucked beneath his arm so that she could see. ‘I think the measuring arm becomes—’
‘A lever,’ she finished easily and looked up at him with her excitement sparkling in her eyes like fireworks.
‘Go on, then,’ he encouraged with a laugh.
It was a little rusty and she strained between being gentle and firm, when just like before, there was a clunk, and a puff of air on the other side of the wall. Grinding gears sounded and they both took a step back, alarm and excitement warring in his chest.
‘This is it,’ she said to him, gripping his arm with strong hands. ‘This is where we’re going to find the answers,’ she declared, and he’d never wanted to kiss anyone more.
The stone wall slid away to reveal an opening. Evie looked back to make sure he was with her and, after his nod, made her way towards it. Mateo inhaled a breath of air fresher than the stale, gritty air of the cave. Curious, he ducked into the opening behind Evie and followed the curve of the wall until it opened out and...
‘Cristo,’was all he was capable of saying when he found himself in a giant underground cave system, so large it must have run under the entire island. But it wasn’t the cavernous space that awed him, or the beam of sunlight shining down into the space and illuminating it from the cracks in what appeared to be a ceiling. It wasn’t even the pool of water that lapped at a stretch of the same white sand they’d landed on.
‘Is that a—?’
‘Pirate ship,’ Evie replied, the words coming out of her mouth on a whisper.
CHAPTER TEN
‘HOWDIDITget in here?’
Evie shook her head, not sure. It could have been a volcano, an earthquake or even a cave-in that had surrounded a previously accessible section of the island, but it had effectively trapped an entire sailing ship here.
They walked out into the cave—a space that was easily larger than four football pitches. The light from the crack in the stalactite-covered ceiling illuminated the entire space with a gentle glow. Almost half of the space was water, lapping gently at a sliver of silver sand where the ship had beached. Beyond that, the terrain quickly became rocky, much like what they had found when they’d landed the speedboat earlier. The movement of the water suggested that it must have been coming in from under the walls of the cave somehow.
‘What kind of ship is that?’
‘It’s afluyt. A Dutch sailing ship,’ she explained as she made her way towards the ship that had collapsed on its side, signs of damage from age and war clear in the ancient wood. But the name was still bold and proud and Evie couldn’t help but press her fingers to her lips in shock. ‘And it’s not just any sailing ship, it’s Loriella’s.’ She drew level with the ship, a shiver working its way over her skin as she reached out to touch the wood. Even in its derelict state, it still loomed upwards of nearly twenty feet above her.
‘I wonder if this was once part of the island,’ she said, thinking out loud, ‘and an earthquake caused a landslide, or landfill or something. That could explain the sudden disappearance of Loriella and her crew.’
‘But they got out? Or at leastsomeonegot out if the wooden steps are anything to go by,’ Mateo observed.
‘Someone who was able to write the coordinates down and hide them in the octant,’ she stated.
Mateo nodded. ‘But if they could get out, then why did Loriella and her crew simply disappear?’
‘In the last skirmish, the Dutch Duke was finally forced into battle. It raged for hours, so many were killed, including the Duke himself. The bounties on their heads would have been enough to tempt anyone to turn against them, so it’s assumed that they simply slipped away into anonymity after getting their revenge.’
‘For going after Isabella, or killing their captain?’
‘Both, I’d imagine,’ Evie said, turned to look out across the cavern. Mateo beside her did the same, until she felt him stiffen. Following his line of sght, she turned towards the rocky side of the cave, surprised to find a wooden structure erected between the beach and the cavern wall. Instinctively she began to make her way towards it.
‘What is that? I’ve never seen anything like it,’ Mateo said, wonder in his voice.
Evie had a suspicion but she didn’t want to voice it until she was sure. She looked at the markings that covered the doorway. Religious symbols carved into the wood with exquisite detail that would have taken much time and dedication. A sense of hallowed stillness fell over them.
She felt Mateo’s gaze on her as she gently pushed against the door to the small wooden hut. Shelves lined the walls, covered in jewels, coins, old-fashioned pistols, muskets, cutlasses, chests overflowing with jewels tarnished by age and dust and sea air. But it was the two figures on a bed in the centre of the room that caught her attention the moment the door was opened. Wrapped in each other’s arms, there lay the skeletal remains of Loriella Desaparecer and her lover, husband, and first mate.
‘It’s them,’ she whispered, unaware that tears had risen to press at the corners of her eyes. She felt Mateo’s hand on her shoulder, and reached up to hold it there, needing his touch in that moment.
She felt him look around the small wooden burial chamber, taking in all the treasure that lined the shelves as she had done in a heartbeat before her focus was drawn to the final resting place of Princess Isabella of Iondorra.
Mateo pointed to several lines of rough writing carved into the wood. ‘What is that?’
‘It looks like Iondorran,’ Evie replied, leaning closer to the words above the wooden bed.
