A Man of Fortune

12: The Thieves of Libertalia

 The brothers opened the golden doors and inside was a grand looking hall, but it was a complete mess. Once upon a time I didn't doubt it looked beautiful, more beautiful than anything we'd seen so far but something had happened to completely destroy it. There were many, many grand looking shelves and chests placed strategically around the hall to form what looked like corridors, and around the end of the room were multiple columns decorated with beautiful carvings. There was even a large, intimidating statue at the end of the room which looked like it was made from marble. High up on the walls were grand paintings of the twelve founders, however the entire place had been completely ransacked.

The beautiful shelves were toppled over and splintered, the chests were dented and had been thrown around carelessly, and the columns lining the walls had plenty of damage from what looked like more than age. Even the paintings of the founders had been vandalised, the word 'thief' painted on them. The statue at the far end had even been decapitated. The falling through of most of the roof must've caused some of the damage, but a lot of it looked like it was done on purpose.

"It's empty," Sam stated the obvious. "You think Rafe?"

"Nah, nothings been touched in here for hundreds of years," Nate said after brushing his hand along a nearby table, revealing how dusty it was.

"Right... well... search for clues?" Sam suggested, Nate and I shrugging.

"Might as well," I said, the three of us getting to work. There was a lot to search, various drawers on the ruined shelves and plenty of crates and chests. I came across a painting of one of the founders on the floor, it having once been high on the wall, and was now branded with the word 'thief', just like the others. There were a few more skeletons in fancy armour dotted about the place also, it looking like the battle had extended to inside.

I opened up one of the chests and saw a piece of parchment. Filled with curiosity I lifted it out and saw it was a manifest, describing a lot of Mughal treasure. "342 gold coins, Mughal... 240 silver coins, Mughal... 734 copper coins, Mughal... hey guys, I found a manifest!" I called out to the boys who came over.

"I found one too," Nate said, holding up his own piece of parchment.

"What the hell happened here?" Sam asked, an anxious tone in his voice.

"Good question," Nate said.

"What if... maybe there's no treasure left? They spent it all on the marble floors... so the colonists find out their money's gone and they get pissed," Sam said.

"Of course... that'd make sense of everything," I said and the boys looked at me as though to carry on. "Think about it. We found makeshift tunnels and hideouts in town right? One of which had a map of this very treasury with arrows pointing to it... the invasion was the colonists. They must've thought that the founders were taking it for themselves, I mean that would explain the portraits," I pointed out.

"Thief," Sam muttered, seeing them all.

"Exactly. Not murderer, not tyrant-,"

"Thief," Nate said.

"The colonists we're trying to get their treasure back, but I think these guys took it for themselves before they could get it," I explained.

"Pirates will be pirates," Nate chuckled.

"That and the manifests on the shelves... the treasure was here," Sam said in disbelief.

"Begs the bigger question... where is it now?" Nate said and we all thought for a moment, looking around to see if there was anything that could tell us.

"Huh," Sam muttered, catching our attention. "I know where they moved it."

"What? Where?" I asked and saw him looking up. I followed his gaze to see that what remained of the ceiling was painted with a map of the island. "That's Libertalia," I saw the town marked.