Treasures - Book 4 The Frencolian Chronicles (complete)

Chapter 2

Jobyna awoke to the sound of tinkling coins.

Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she spied Luke searching through the chests.

In the flickering lights of many lamps, she saw beautiful clothes strewn all over the place.

Rising from her 'bed', she examined some of the outfits and cloaks Luke had piled on the stone floor. Most of them were studded with jewels and gold threads woven in intricate patterns.

"I had thought the chests were full of gold and jewels," Luke said, "I'd say over half have clothes in them. Look, Jo, here, they're ladies' gowns."

"Aren't they beautiful! I've never seen such exquisite embroidery," she said with awe, "Mother had some beautiful clothes, but nothing like these. Luke, these must belong to someone... and we need to find out who that dead man is..." She looked around the cave as though expecting the man to rise up and speak out. "But how will we know?"

"I'll tell you what to do, Little Sister," Luke walked over to the chest by the dead man. "Here, you take this scroll, and the case; they'll give you something to do today. Let's go out into the fresh air. There's some bread left in the pack we put in the first cave, it's a bit stale but it's better than nothing."

He put a handful of gold coins in a moneybag he found among the clothing.

"Shouldn't we put the lamps out before we leave, Luke?" she asked.

"Just a few, I'll help, you'll need light when you come back in here tonight, Jo."

She laughed a strangled kind of laugh, and said, "Yes, right. As if I'm coming back in here without you. I don't really mind if I never come back in here ever. You just need to ask some knights to take care of that body and the rest of the stuff!"

"It isn't just 'stuff', Jo." So saying, he stepped away from her.

She watched Luke snuffing out the lamps and stepped over to do some nearer the entrance wall.

Picking up the water-bottle, Luke strode right to the wall, saying, "Now, to find how to get out of here."

The two knobs were on their side of the wall and he remembered how it had swung around after they were in the chamber for several minutes.

"Be careful, Jo, the wall closes on its own after a while, it must be on some kind of ratchet system. Oh, and, on second thoughts, snuff out all the lamps to save oil, and, yes, I'd better leave this here." 

Putting down the things he carried, Luke tried to pull the medallion over his head. Turning the necklace around, he called, "Here, Jo, there's a key on this chain, undo the lock for me will you?"

Jobyna put the scroll and the jeweled case down and tried to fit the key into the tiny padlock.

"It won't go in, Luke," she said, "the key's too big."

"Well," Luke said quizzically, "I wonder why it's got a key on it at all?" He pushed the necklace under his heavy wool tunic. "I'll just have to wear it, won't I, until we find a way to get it off!"

Luke grasped the two knobs and they found themselves on the other side of the treasure cave. He looked cautiously out through the heavy greenery.

"There's no-one out in the valley. Look, the sun's just coming up over the cliff-top so we can be sure that is about due east." He turned to Jobyna, "I'm going to ride Speed to the nearest village and buy us some food. I'll find Sabin."

"Luke, I know we need food, but please, be careful. I wish we didn't have to use that money; it belongs to someone else." Jobyna tried to hide how upset she was about Luke leaving her there alone. "What will I do if someone comes in here, Luke?" she asked fearfully. "People must know about this valley —Sabin did."