Oberon's Dreams - By Aaron Pogue Page 0,11
wild cheer. Corin did not move. He only stared into the darkness, disbelief battling with the wild exhilaration clawing at the back of his breastbone.
“We’ve done it,” he breathed at last, inaudible beneath the noise. And now the thrill of victory won through. Now he grinned and turned to Blake again.
“You silly little pup, with your fancy waistcoats. You might have gained more wealth than all your family’s houses could contain, but this little spot of toil was too much to ask of you.”
Corin turned and met the eyes of all his men. “I have asked much of all among you. I have dragged you from the sea and spent you on this wild hunt. Perhaps…perhaps your first mate heard you grumbling. I will not fault a man among you for complaining. But only one of you raised arms against me.”
He touched a hand to the drying blood at his collarbone, then pressed his palm against his black shirt, still wet to the navel. He showed the bright-red palm to the men, then crossed the little distance to the place where Blake stood, now disarmed, his hands roughly bound.
Corin pressed his palm flat against the man’s bare chest, leaving the crimson stain of his accusation.
“Blake will have nothing more from us. He risked everything on this gamble, so we will give him nothing.” Corin stared down at him for a moment, then nodded. “Nothing. No punishment for what he’s done, but no share of this great treasure. No horse from our pickets. No water from our stores. No place among our tents. Let him find his own way from this place.”
Corin ran a look around the circle and saw admiring approval. It was a good pirate punishment. Even in this bleak desert, a man might be marooned.
He hid his smile and turned his attention to the passageway. “Torches!” he cried. “Bring me torches. Let us see what we have won.” He headed for the archway.
“Stop!” cried Iryana. She sounded frantic. “By Oberon’s name, Corin, do not trespass here!”
Corin spared a sad smile for the miserable native. “You do not have to come.” He raised his voice. “You have served us well, Iryana. Take a camel and anything you can carry, and return to your people’s tents.”
“There is no treasure for you here,” she screamed. “I swear it. Not for Godlanders. There is only the record of your sins.”
Corin hesitated a moment, then went to her. He stood over her for a moment, holding her eyes, then bent his head to speak softly near her ear. “You must get out of here. If Blake had accomplished what he intended…I could not have saved you. For all their useful traits, these are not good men.”
“And you ask me to leave you to their mercy?”
Corin shrugged. “I am not a good man, either. But I would not like to see you come to harm. Take the offer I have given you, and get far from this place.” He stepped back, still holding her eyes. She didn’t move. She didn’t blink.
“Please,” Corin whispered. “Take a camel and go.”
Behind him, Dave Taker raised his voice. “Captain? Is there a problem with the girl?”
Corin ground his teeth and turned away. “Not at all. She has served us well. Now…let us see this treasure. Who has my torches?”
“There is some light already,” called Charlie Claire, staring past the doorway. He sounded nervous, and Corin nearly chastised him for the very superstition Iryana had accused them of, but then Corin saw it, too. The glow was thin and gray, an eerie twilight, but it was enough to see by. Corin forced himself not to look back at Iryana. He rested one hand on the hilt at his belt and strode into the mountain.
The entrance was a tunnel, the same size and shape as the scrollwork gate, but roughly hacked from living stone. It went five paces deep then opened up to left and right. The ceiling soared away above, too, so Corin felt himself on the edge of one huge, open chamber. The feeble light didn’t show him much, but the vastness of the place was a taste in the air, an echo in the ear.
The floor was not a cave’s rough floor, but cobbled stone. The rock wall was irregular and jagged like a natural cavern’s, but it did not seem a real part of this place. It was the boundary. But within the cavern, there seemed an unreal space, like something out of dream. Like the