Chapter 41
FORTY-ONE
Bishop
There’s no convincing Aspen to wait the next morning.
Once Fallon’s off to school, we’re in the truck heading for Fool’s Gold Mine.
She packed a bag and dressed like she’s going out into the field, and I did the same, but I have a feeling we’re woefully underprepared for wandering around inside a more or less abandoned mine.
To my knowledge, and from the brief update she gave me this morning, no one’s been inside it in decades.
But she’s right that the symbols on the two pieces of paper match, and that, combined with the chunk of pyrite that tumbled out of the broken hilt of the sword, means we don’t have much of a choice about where to head for the next clue on this little adventure. The timing is what we’re debating.
“I still think we should wait for Levi or Rowan. Someone who’s got the authority to spend some money on experienced professionals with all the gear to do this.
” I express my concern as we unpack ourselves and our things from the truck.
We’ve parked on the road to the mine, but there’s still a decent hike up the mountain to get inside.
“Don’t tell me that, with everything you do for a living, this has you worried.” She flicks me a look, throws her backpack over her shoulders, and clips the chest strap.
“Used to do. You wanted me to quit because it was too dangerous, remember?” I try to get her to see sense.
“I just want to see what it looks like in there. If anything is risky, we’ll come straight back out.
I promise.” She gives me a sympathetic look.
“I’m not looking to get hurt or stuck in some sketchy situation.
I just want to do a preliminary. We won’t know who we’re hiring or what kind of equipment we need until we have some information.
Plus, I want to see if the map matches what we can see inside there. ”
“There are drones that can do that kind of recon for you.”
“Do you have one?”
“No, but I’m positive Levi can get one.”
“You texted him, right?” She double-checks with me as we stand outside the entrance. I can already feel cooler air emanating from inside.
“I did. I told him we need him over here as soon as possible. That you found something, and it should be in his inbox from last night.”
“I’m surprised he wasn’t knocking at our door first thing this morning.” Her brow furrows.
“Maybe he spent the morning in bed with his girlfriend, having coffee after a long night.”
“Slackers. We had a long night and look at us.” She grins.
“I don’t know. A donut and coffee in bed sounds pretty good right now.” I look skeptically at the slope down into the mine. Even from here, it looks like it’s a mess of rotting wood where the cart path has aged terribly and warped with time.
“The Bishop I knew was always up for adventure.” She glances at me as we start to make our way inside.
“I’m always up for adventure. Just a little more cautious when I’m worried for your safety and not feeling as prepared as I like to be.
” I flip on the flashlight and illuminate the space in front of us.
I don’t mind a dangerous situation, but I like having all the plans laid out in front of me first.
“All right.” She pauses and looks at me, apparently acknowledging the apprehension in my voice.
“We get to a point where you want to stop or go back, just say so. I want to check things out, but I don’t want to put us at risk.
So you get to a point where you tell me you’re uncomfortable, and I’ll respect that. We’ll come back. Okay?”
“Okay.” I nod, satisfied that she’s serious.
We press on into the mine, a cavernous maze of old tunnels.
While the snow has melted down in the valley where we were excavating the sword, up here on the mountain, it’s a different story.
There’s still a lot of snowpack on the peak and surrounding slopes.
Holes and craters above our heads lead down into the mine and have created avalanches of snow that show up as obstacles we’re forced to climb on and around.
Huge swaths of the floor are flooded with frozen ice, and jagged icicles hang from the low ceilings in places where the snowmelt leaks through cracks in the rock and forms icy stalagmites on the ground that we have to dodge our way around as we head deeper into the mine shaft.
We follow the old rusty cart tracks deeper and deeper in, our flashlights guiding the way. But when the mine opens up, it branches off in several different directions, and I’m left wondering what the hell we’re doing in here without more people with us.
“Left, center, or right?” I ask.
“If I’m reading the map correctly, we go right.” She curves that way, and I follow her.
The air feels heavy, and as we round the corner, we create enough vibration to start a small rockfall from the wall to our right around some old, rotten beams that have seen better days.
Beyond it is another break in the path with two paths diverting: one heading up, and another on the left, heading down.
We walk toward it as she taps a spot on the map that seems to be similarly marked.
There’s a bright-red X on the wall that’s either a guidepost or an ominous warning.
We have no idea which, and I can’t help but feel a little trepidation as we make our way down the curving path, which turns steep.
My calf muscles start to burn from bracing against the slow pace as we go deeper.
A bit of the earth under Aspen’s feet gives way, making her slide forward suddenly.
“Shit!” she curses, and I grab her arm out of instinct, keeping her from falling.
But her momentum drags us both forward, and we stumble down several more feet before we hit an abrupt end to the path.
I grab a giant beam of wood to my left and tighten my grip around her arm, pulling her close as the cavern opens up beyond us.
Then there’s the flutter of dozens of wings over our heads that makes a whooshing sound.
We duck down, narrowly avoiding the bats we’ve disturbed, and there’s another soft string of cursing from my side. She pulls her free hand over her head and peeks out at me from behind her fingers.
“I could do without that.”
“They’re not my favorite either.”
“Don’t tell me you’re afraid of bats.” She smirks.
“Not afraid, just not a fan.”
“They’re kind of cute when they’re not dive-bombing you.” She nods at one that’s still neatly tucked in the rafters, its thin wings folded around its body so it’s cocooned as it hangs upside down, oblivious to our presence.
“Kind of,” I admit. The little ears and nose aren’t half bad, but I’m still fairly sure they’re just rats with wings.
Once the little guy’s friends have cleared out, spinning their way through the tunnel and into another cavern, we stand again, carefully peeking our heads over the precipice while holding the beams behind us to keep us centered.
Beams I don’t entirely trust, and I grab Aspen’s belt to keep her rooted to me.
“Damn.” She admires the steep drop, using her flashlight to illuminate the bottom. “That’s a long way down.”
“One we’re not trying.” I nod my head at the old wooden ladder that descends into the pit. It’s seen better days, and several rungs have decayed to the point of splitting into two or are missing altogether. Who knows how bad the rest are?
“Fair. But I want to get some pictures of this. See if it means whatever experts they hire can come prepared the first time they come out for all of this.”
“Gonna be hard in this light.” I look at her skeptically.
“You got me?” She glances down where my hand is firmly wrapped around her belt.
“I got you.” I nod.
She pops the flashlight into her mouth and inches forward, leaning over and flicking her phone’s camera on, switching it to video mode. She makes a slow pass through the space, treating it like a grid, back and forth, capturing all the angles, like she’s still slow-walking her GPR machine.
She only stops when her flashlight catches something that glints below.
It’s not ice. There’s plenty of it down there.
There’s another mass of snow flowing down from the hole in the ceiling, and water slowly drips into towering masses of ice, but this shimmers differently, practically glowing and sparkling.
“Oh shit!” she curses, forgetting her flashlight in her mouth, and it tumbles into the abyss beneath her. I yank her back from the edge. “Fucking hell. I was getting a good video too.”
“At least it wasn’t your phone.”
“True. But what the hell was that thing? It sparkled.” Her brows knit together as she looks at me. “Let me have your flashlight.” She holds out her hand.
“No. We can’t risk losing it. It’s the last one left. Which means it’s time to get back to the surface.”
“Bishop, please, just one more look.”
“No.” I refuse to give on this. If we lose the flashlight, making our way back to the surface with just the weak light from our phones would be difficult at best, dangerous at worst. “See if you caught it on your phone.”
She pulls the video back up. It’s still a touch grainy from the dim light, but it captured a remarkable amount of detail down here. She scrubs through the footage, getting to the end where she dropped the flashlight, and finds the glimmering object in the reflection of the ice.
It’s gold. Gold and silver. Sticking out from a mound of ice.
It’s difficult to make out what the object is, but it’s possible… and we both turn to look at each other wide-eyed.
“It looks like it, right?”
“It’s hard to tell for sure, but I think it could be.”
“We’ve got to get down there to look at it.” She presses her phone to her chest and looks down, squinting in the low light as if that will somehow allow her to see it better.
“We do. But not today.” I tug on her belt and then nod back to the tunnel that brought us here.
“Let’s get back to the surface. I don’t like the air down here, and I don’t like us only having one flashlight.
Something happens, and we’re stuck crawling out of here in the near dark, trying to feel for the walls. ”
“No, thank you.” Her face screws up in disgust.
“Then let’s go. Back to the entrance.” I nod.
I don’t have to say it twice. She’s marching onward and upward, and we’re making better time getting out than we did getting in.
When we reach the surface and make our way back down the trail to the entrance, a truck is just pulling up, one I recognize as Levi’s, and he hops out with Zephyrine at his side.
Aspen hurries over to show them her find as Levi chastises us both for going in without telling anyone else.
Complaints that are quickly silenced when he sees her video and she explains how well the map matches the paths we saw when we were inside.
“Well fuck. We’ve gotta get down there. Sooner rather than later.” Levi looks at us both.
“We do. But it’s gonna take equipment and people who know what they’re doing. It’s not particularly safe,” Aspen admits.
“Ladders are rotting. So are some of the support beams and tracks, which make for a trip hazard. Not to mention, there’s still a lot of weather getting in. Snow, ice—the lot of it.” I give Levi a quick rundown. “It’s warming up out here, but down there it might as well still be winter.”
“But if we had rope and experienced climbers, I think you could anchor in and rappel it. You’d definitely want someone who’s done something like this before,” Aspen agrees.
“So no chance of Rowan and me just giving it a go?” Levi looks between us, but his question is largely for me.
“No chance. Not if you don’t want to take some massive, unnecessary risks. It’s not going anywhere. It’s been down there for decades, I imagine.”
“Well, let’s get back to the Avarice and get to making some calls.” Levi looks frustrated but is willing to trust our assessment. “Hopefully, we can get someone out here by next week.”
“I can update everyone. Let the abbey and the Vatican know we have a lead, but it’s gonna take some time before we know for sure.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Levi agrees with her, and Aspen and I both nod along.
Once we’re back in the truck, rambling down the dirt road that leads back to the main part of the ranch, I feel like I can take a breath.
It’s one thing to take risks like that when I’m on my own and the only one who’s ever in danger, and another when I’ve got Aspen with me.
But I don’t think she’d take kindly to me badgering her about the dangers and risks.
So I’ve just got to learn to balance my worry with the reality of being with someone who’s an unstoppable force.
Particularly when she has a map and a purpose.