A Dark Grave (The Elysium Chronicles 0.5)(4)

I give him a crooked smile. “Unless you can turn into a bird and fly me out of here, I’m pretty sure we don’t have a choice.”

We sit quietly for a few minutes as the wind howls and lightning flashes outside the cave. Conn leans against the wall, his hat covering his eyes, so it’s difficult to tell if he’s sleeping or not. I take an inventory of all my injuries. It appears to be mostly scrapes and cuts. Some of the cuts are fairly long and deep, covered in dried mud. I’ll need to clean them before they get infected; they look pretty nasty already. And considering how much my arm hurts to just move it, it’s possible I have a broken arm.

While those are bad, it’s nothing that’s going to kill me right this minute.

However, if it gets much colder in here, I’ll end up freezing to death. I didn’t survive falling off a cliff just to die from the cold. Besides, the flashlights won’t last very long, we’ll need something for light soon.

I shove myself to my feet and look for anything to start a fire.

Conn looks up and I say, “Fire wood,” in response to his questioning look.

He nods again and pushes himself to his feet without speaking.

That’s Conn’s best quality. He doesn’t have to talk just to hear his own voice. Unlike my brother.

Which reminds me again how glad I am Tristan didn’t come. There’s no way he’d have been able to help me. I’d probably still be bleeding on that ledge. And he’d have probably fallen off and broken his neck trying to help me.

We spend the next few minutes gathering every stray thing we think will burn, tossing them, into a pile. Just as I get to the farthest part of the cave, I find a pile of sticks.

I stare at them for a minute. They’re set up just like the pile we set up in the center of the cave, but it’s made from sticks instead of scraps. That’s when I notice the silver object lying a few inches away. When I pick it up, I see it’s a compass. And I recognize it. But I haven’t seen it in months.

Not since its owner disappeared while hunting on the island.

Sam. My father’s old hunting partner -- and my mentor after my dad’s death. Like me, he felt there was a lot of game up this way. He’d come to the island by himself just after winter passed. We never saw him again. We sent a rescue party, but no one found him. I always thought something must have happened -- which is why I didn’t want to come alone. And now I know.

This is definitely his. Only one person in the village and probably what’s left of the world had a compass like this. From the outside it looks like a normal pocket watch—made of gold and etched in black. But when you open it, instead of a watch face, you have a compass. The face is entirely black, but the numbers are a greenish color that glows in the dark.

On the backside of the lid is a picture of Sam’s wife. She died long before I met him.

Maybe there’s something here that will point me in his direction. If he’s still alive, we have to find him.

I start searching for more.

It doesn’t take me long. Next to the compass, but mostly buried, is a really old set of binoculars with a broken lens. They seem like they’ve been in the dirt longer than just a few months, maybe even as long as Sam’s been alive, though.

A few feet from that, I find a pocket watch. Sam used to carry one, but I don’t think this is it. It looks like it’s been here awhile, too. Not quite as long as the binoculars, but definitely longer than the compass. It’s stopped working, but when I wind it, the second hand spins easily.

Conn sidles up next to me and I show him the instruments in my hand. His whole face scrunches up when he sees the compass.

“Isn’t that Sam’s?”

I nod, folding my fingers over the compass. “He’s got to be here somewhere. We have to find him. Even if all we find is his,” I swallow, “his body, we need to find him and bring him home. I owe him that much at least.”

Conn nods and helps me search the rest of the cave. But we don’t find anything else. The cave is just too dark, and our flashlights only help so much. But we do find something that could explain why no one came back.

On the far side of the cave my flashlight shines into some sort of opening. I gesture for Conn to join me as I study it. It’s fairly decent sized, not large enough for a bear to fit in, but we could easily fit through.

Our flashlights light up the space and show us the opening is actually a tunnel. A fairly long one if the deep darkness that lays beyond my flashlight beam and the chill coming from it is any indication.

The walls of the tunnel look just like the walls of the cave. Golden yellow limestone, quite obviously cut out by water. Maybe even filled with water during the wet season, which, thankfully, is months from now.

That has got to be where the missing villagers went. Maybe even Conn’s dad’s friend. The scream could have easily been him falling off the ledge like I did.

A shiver zippers up my spine and I turn to Conn. “I’m positive that our missing villagers went through this tunnel. We need to go find them.”

Conn doesn’t look convinced. “I don’t think we should. You’re hurt. It would be better if we let people know this is here. That way if something happens, they’ll know where to look.”

“There’s no way we can just leave them here, if we can help.”

“Gavin, think realistically. We have no real proof they’ve gone down there. And even if they did, it’s been months. Is there really any chance they’re still alive?”