Excavations and Enlightenment (A sequel to "Caveats and Cliches")

Chapter 15: A Twist Of Fate

I wake at dawn to Easton shaking my shoulder. I grumble a complaint at the intrusion and try to turn away, but he keeps at me.

"Come on, brother, there's work to be done!" He whispers excitedly.

Knowing this won't stop, I thrust myself out of bed and exit the community tent, mumbling about the advantages of being an only child.

The day has barely begun and there is little light to work by, so I convince Easton to restart the fire and make us some breakfast. He reluctantly agrees and I do my best to shake the sleep from my eyes. Easton does a good job preparing our meal, and I've almost forgiven him for awaking me when I realize it's just the two of us.

"Where's Toby?"

Easton shrugs. "I let him sleep in."

"Lucky me." I huff, feeling less accommodating.

Easton grins. "Oh, come on!" He gestures toward the decaying structures around us. There are more of them than I had realized.

"This is a reconnaissance mission. We need to narrow down the possibilities before we can excavate. Obviously, I need my wise, older brother for that kind work."

"Did you just emphasize old?"

"No. I'm sure I emphasized wise."

We chuckle quietly for a moment, then I stand and stretch.

"Well, let's get started."

Easton bounds up happily and leads me toward a building on our left.

"Pema noted in her journal that they explored about thirteen of these structures. I'm betting the staff is hidden in one of those. So we need to identify which buildings have recently been worked on, then we can focus our efforts on them."

The further we walk the more structures I can see. It's not nearly as expansive as the city in the valley, but large enough that we have our work cut out for us. Easton produces a sheet of paper that has a few of the buildings already scratched in a rough map onto the page. We work our way through the deserted town, marking which buildings were of interest to Pema and her team. When we are nearly through, Sarah and Toby make an appearance.

"Trying to get all the fame and fortune for yourselves?"

"Well, we couldn't spend all day waiting around for you two slugabeds."

Despite all the disappointment we faced on the last dig, everyone is in a good mood. We identify all the buildings in question and start searching them before the goblins have even finished their breakfasts. It's easily done; no one has made any attempt to rebury these edifices. In fact, it's in only the fourth building that we find what we are looking for.

It's just sitting there, on a low stone table in the farthest room back, no casing or adornments, simply covered by a brown tarp. We all stand staring for a moment, stunned into silence.

"It's a bit anticlimactic, isn't it?" Toby finally says.

"You were hoping for what? Boobie traps that released falling boulders? Poison darts shooting from holes in the wall?"

Toby grins at his sister. "An ancient curse, that mysteriously rhymes in English, would have been nice."

Sarah and Toby burst into laughter, and Easton finally reaches for the staff. Lifting it from the table, he weighs it in his hands.

"It's heavy." He murmers, running a hand over the intricately carved handle. Then he turns and holds it out. "Sarah, can you check and see if it's real?"