Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
Bardsey Island was small, but even small islands felt big when one had no idea what they were looking for.
Thomasin knew they had to reunite Merlin with his staff, and so presumably that meant some kind of crypt or tomb.
But the island was wild and overgrown. Their exploration was slow as they hacked through the brush and thick tangles of criss-crossing tree branches.
As they explored, Edith recited the cipher clue under her breath.
No matter how many times she said it, no new meaning was imparted.
Thomasin, certainly, was no help. She was too distracted by the slope of Edith’s shoulder, the sweat glistening at the nape of her neck.
The flush of her cheeks, and the way their fingers lingered when they passed the canteen back and forth.
Every time Edith’s skin brushed Thomasin’s, she was transported back to that little alcove in the church.
She had half a mind to take Edith in her arms and pin her against a tree.
And if the shy little glances Edith kept throwing her were any indication, Edith’s thoughts weren’t far off.
It was only by pure luck, or maybe fate, that Edith spotted the small E carved into the base of a gnarled oak tree. She traced her fingers over the etching. It was deep, ancient. The tree had begun to grow around it.
They fanned outward from the tree, searching for the next step in the path. To the north, Thomasin found another tree with a carved I. Had they not known what they were looking for, they would have missed the straight slash in the bark.
“Einion,” Edith said. “We just have to follow him.”
With each letter they found, the suspense buzzed louder beneath Thomasin’s skin.
She touched the second I. They were so close now.
It felt like they were on the precipice of something impossibly big.
Her heart was racing, and the anticipation was making her fingers tingle.
She had risked death on many occasions, but she had never been this nervous before.
Edith found the last N. It was just below a hollow in a tree that towered over all the rest, looming over the island and kissing the stormy gray clouds.
Thomasin had expected there to be a more obvious way forward at the final letter, but there was nothing more than that singular N.
So they did what they had done at the previous letters, kept walking in the general direction of the letter, all the while methodically searching their surroundings for anything out of the ordinary.
A little ways out, Edith stopped in her tracks.
Thomasin nearly crashed into her but was able to regain her balance thanks to the sharp reflexes her criminal life had honed.
To the left, the trees stretched on farther than Thomasin could make out.
Despite being well into the afternoon, the mist had not dissipated.
The gloom seemed to be clinging on for dear life.
To their right, which was where Edith’s attention had turned before she halted, was a short cliff that rose perhaps twice Thomasin’s height.
It had risen in a steady slope from the ground, and now the gray crumbling wall of rock loomed above them.
“What is it?” Thomasin asked, but Edith ignored her, trailing closer to the cliff. She stomped through the brush and shoved right into the dense thicket of bushes that grew against the rocks.
Thomasin followed behind her, wincing as a thorn pricked her finger. Edith stared at the cliff, her mouth hanging slightly open. It took her a moment, but then Thomasin saw it too, hidden among the craggy, jagged lines of natural rock.
There was a strange symbol carved into the face of the cliff.
It was a circle, about two feet across. One half of the circle was a sun, with curling rays of fire around the edge.
The other, Thomasin assumed, was the moon.
There were sharp, diagonal lines radiating from it, as if to depict moonlight.
At the center of the circle was a diamond.
Edith laid her hand on the rough stone. Her fingertips traced the lines that bisected the diamond. There were two parallel sets of waves, one facing up, the other down.
But those waves were not what made Thomasin’s breath catch in her throat. Emerging from each line of waves were swords. Right at the center, one pointing up at the peak of the diamond, the other down to the earth.
“This is it,” Edith murmured.
Thomasin looked around, not sure what she was expecting to find. A door? In the middle of nowhere on this deserted island? “What are we looking for?” Thomasin asked, pressing a hand against Edith’s lower back as she brushed by her.
Edith seemed loath to look away from the symbol, as if she was scared it would disappear the moment she did. Thomasin could understand. All of Edith’s hoping and dreaming had led to this moment. If Thomasin were her, she’d be nervous about all of it crumbling at the last second too.
“I—” Edith’s mouth opened and closed. She tucked the sweaty strands of hair that hung in her face behind her ears. “The tomb must be in here. We just have to find a way inside.”
“A way inside the cliff?” Thomasin clarified, jerking her chin at the symbol. Edith nodded. So there must be a door. Or a tunnel, perhaps, that led underneath the cliff.
Edith reluctantly stepped away and began walking the length of the cliff.
Thomasin took her place in front of the symbol.
She rapped her knuckles against the diamond and smiled.
An idea had occurred to her. Finally, after all the puzzles, and the thinking, and the moral dilemmas, here was a challenge that Thomasin could provide the answer for.
Brute force.
She pulled her biggest dagger from the sheath strapped to her thigh.
It had a thick, weighty handle made of solid iron.
Thomasin flipped the dagger in her hand and then slammed the pommel right into the center of the diamond.
The rock gave way. First just a crumbling hole at the center, but that was enough for Thomasin to be able to get the handle wedged inside so that she could pry away the rest of the symbol.
“What are you doing?” Edith shouted as she bolted over to Thomasin. She practically threw herself on Thomasin’s back, grabbing the arm that raised the dagger.
“Look!” Thomasin gestured wildly with the dagger as she stumbled forward, struggling against the madwoman who had latched on to her.
She leaned forward, tilting her shoulder so Edith was right at eye level with the hole Thomasin had made in the stone.
Edith stilled but did not loosen her grip.
Thomasin knew Edith could feel it, though.
The draft from inside the cliff. And she could see it too.
The dark passage beyond the broken symbol.
Edith slid off Thomasin’s back, but she did not break the contact completely. Her hand slid down Thomasin’s arm, and she tangled their hands together. Thomasin looked at her with a smug expression, lips quirking up.
“Well, keep going!” Edith demanded indignantly, cheeks slightly pink.
Thomasin laughed, shaking her head as she went back to work. Edith helped, prying away bits of rock until there was a hole just big enough for them to crawl through.
Edith shuddered when she reached her hand in. As she batted away cobwebs she said, “Please no more spiders.”
Thomasin watched as Edith gripped the edge and hauled herself up. “I’m starting to think you hired me just to kill spiders.”
Edith shot her a look over her shoulder. “You can’t say that I hired you anymore! It’s obscene now that we’ve, you know—” She raised her eyebrows meaningfully, her face comically severe.
“Had sex?” Thomasin filled in.
Edith turned bright red before whipping her head back around to face the tunnel. “Yes. That,” she mumbled.
“Still shy, huh?” Thomasin mused aloud as Edith shimmied into the tunnel. Thomasin patted her leg, only her calves and feet dangled from the rocks now, and said, “Don’t worry. We’ll work on it.”
Edith’s flustered reply echoed out to her. “Can we focus, please?”
“Whatever you’d like, sweetheart,” Thomasin called out to her. There was no response, and she chuckled, picturing the blush that had probably spread all the way to Edith’s neckline by now.
Once Edith’s feet disappeared into the tunnel, Thomasin hoisted herself in.
The drafty, mildewy air enveloped her as she inched her way farther into the darkness.
She heard a thud, the rustle of clothing, and a soft groan of pain.
“Are you okay?” Thomasin shouted. Her toes dug into the soft dirt of the tunnel floor as she doubled her efforts.
“I’m good,” came Edith’s voice. “Be careful, though. The tunnel drops off rather abruptly.”
She was right. After a few more moments of crawling through the cramped space, the tunnel came to an end with a ledge that one could easily crawl right off if they weren’t paying attention in the dim light.
Edith stood just beyond the tunnel. Thomasin took her outstretched hands, and Edith helped pull her from the passage.
After brushing the dirt from her pants and tossing Edith a pack of matches so she could light the torch she’d found, Thomasin surveyed the space before them.