Stretching from the middle of the room was a column. Nestled at the top was a block of ice that had a mountain of treasure frozen within. That treasure was further protected by the column’s distance from all the walls, the sheer drop, and the deadly water below.
Vi looked from water to ice to treasure as the men spoke.
“So then who made the ice?” Baldair was saying. “It’s still frozen solid, so it must have been recent.”
Vi doubted that. “Adela,” she chimed in.
“I thought Adela was dead,” Erion said cautiously.
“Just because she hasn’t been seen in a few decades doesn’t mean she’s dead.” Vi shrugged. It was the best tip she could give them on Adela, and she hoped to Yargen they listened. “And she seems to be as greedy as ever.”
Adela never got the treasure out, so she froze it in place to prevent anyone else from getting to it as if to say “see but don’t touch.” It seemed like a very Adela thing to do.
“It doesn’t matter who’s making the ice—made the ice—if we can’t even get to it,” Baldair said. “We have no Waterrunners in our party to cross the gap.”
“Should we go back to town and look for one?” Erion thought aloud.
“I don’t think we need to,” Vi said, her mind working swiftly to avoid bringing more people into the situation. “Adela was a smart woman—or it seems.” Vi was loathe to pay Adela a compliment, but intellect didn’t play favorites between good and evil. “She wanted to keep the treasure from anyone else, but it wouldn’t be impossible to believe that at some point, she might need to send someone who was not a Waterrunner to fetch it. Maybe she would’ve made it more difficult for them… but there has to be a path.”
“Or Adela was a murderous madwoman who wanted to keep her prize only to herself and send anyone who attempted to claim it to a watery grave,” Erion said grimly. Vi hated that a part of her agreed that it was possible.
“No… I don’t think so…” Vi looked up to the ceiling that was mostly cast in shadow. The only chutes of light were coming from three-fourths of the way up on the walls around one side of the room—the side that faced the beach where she’d found the coin, she hoped. “We merely have to see past another illusion.”
A dark line of shadow caught her eye and Vi lifted her hand, sending a burst of fire up to the ceiling.
“Look there.” She pointed to the line she saw, the firelight illuminating it. “I would bet that’s wide enough to shimmy around.”
“How did you even see that?” Baldair murmured.
Vi focused solely on moving forward. She was so close now, and all she wanted to do was get to that treasure.
“There are cut hand- and foot-holds here.” Vi gripped a narrow outcropping of stone. “Had to be some reason why someone wasted the time. I would bet that behind that pillar is a bridge of some sort, connecting it to the far wall. We just can’t see it from here, and Adela knew this would be the only entrance.”
Jax boldly followed behind her as she began to climb.
“Jax, wait, what’re you doing?” Baldair stole Vi’s words from behind her lips.
“Someone is going to go over, right? We’re not really going to get this far and just wait for a Waterrunner, are we? We all know I make the most sense. It’s not like my life really matters, not like yours or Erion’s.”
“Your life most certainly matters,” Erion blurted, warming Vi’s heart. “If you are reckless here, I will pull you from the Father’s halls myself.”
“You’re our brother,” Baldair said, joining Erion’s cause. “And I don’t want to see you die here.”
“Is that an order, my prince?” Jax asked in an almost timid tone that nearly betrayed all the brokenness she’d seen in his eyes.
“It is,” Baldair affirmed. “Stay alive, Jax.”
Vi continued her climb so she wouldn’t be caught staring at the unorthodox little family—the start of the illustrious Golden Guard. Jax’s feet scraped the stone behind her as they shimmied across the narrow ledge that rounded the room. Vi glanced at him from time to time, wondering if she could, somehow, convince him to turn back. But it would be suspicious if she pushed too hard. So Vi said nothing and prayed his balance was good enough to stay on the path.
Finally, on the other side of the cavern, they descended onto a narrow ledge that had a wooden bridge connecting it with the column in the center of the room.
“Do you think it’s safe?” Jax asked.
“We came this far. Are you really going to turn back now?” Vi hoped he’d say yes, but knew from his determined expression, he wouldn’t. “I’ll go first.”
“Wait—”
“What?” She stopped, one foot on the bridge.
