Everything about the room looked exquisite. Caspian didn't like putting his dirty, wet underwater gear on any of the expensive looking furniture. Eventually he simply dropped it all on the expensive looking carpet. While Vella removed her breathing helmet, he carefully used the cloth of his jacket sleeve to pick up the crown, placing it back in his pack.
"Do you think the others are still where we left them ?" Asked Vella.
"I hope not, but I don't intend to go back to find out."
The dry area of the cellars they'd been in had looked as if someone had stripped it of everything of value, but the room they were now in was a statement of wealth. Everything from the carpets, to the figurines in a cabinet, all of it looked expensive.
"Human." Said Caspian.
Vella jumped, as though one was coming up behind her.
"Sorry. The figurines, they're of humans."
He opened a glass door, the panels shining as though they'd been dusted that morning. The delicate ceramic figures looked perfect, as though time hadn't moved on since the humans left the City, millennia before.
"They're beautiful." Said Vella.
"Wrap a few up and put them in your pack. Whoever owned them is long dead."
Vella seemed hesitant, so he removed an expensive looking embroidered wall hanging and cut it into strips with his dagger.
"They're dead and gone Vella. Use this to wrap up what you want to take."
He explored while Vella wrapped various objects from the cabinet. In the centre of the room was a large wooden box on a table. It couldn't be that easy, could it ? Caspian expected the box to be locked, but the heavy hardwood lid lifted easily once he used both hands. There was a loud crash as the lid went back and hit the table. Vella put down her pack and came over to see what he was doing.
"Not what I was expecting." She said.
"Nor me."
A belt was in the box, made of the green mottled skin of some kind of creature. Attached to the belt was a scabbard, too big for a dagger, but too small for a short sword. A yellowing bone handle protruded from the scabbard and Caspian held it and withdrew the blade.
"This can't be it." He said.
"I thought it would be bigger, much more shiny."
The blade was about fourteen inches long and made of a dull metal and it had two bad notches from previous battles. The sort of weapon seen in the slums, being sold on a stall for a few coppers.
"Someone must have found the weapon and left this behind." He said.
Caspian was putting the weapon back into the box, but then he saw the vision of a smiling human face in front on him. Was it a smile or a leer, he realised the implication for each were very different. The face vanished in a fraction of a second.
