Tommy was leaning over the top railing of the fence, eagerly watching his friend’s progress. He looked like a kid at a toy store. “It should be okay. I don’t think there are any snakes at this elevation. And if there are, they’ll be pretty dormant in these cool temperatures.”
“Good point,” Sean said, still hoping his friend’s rationale was sound.
His right hand came to rest on a wide, stone shelf on the upper left side of the hole’s interior. Sean felt around for a few seconds, a sense of panic beginning to set in. “I found a shelf, but it’s empty.” He reached deeper into the cavity, nearly all the way to his shoulder, his face pressed against the steep embankment.
Sean was about to give up, resigned to the fact that someone had probably come along and taken whatever it was that would have been hidden inside. For the briefest of moments, it made him think about how the pyramids and so many other historic locations had been pilfered by the greedy. He took a deep breath and stretched his arm in just a little farther, pressing his shoulder fully into the hole. Unable to avoid it anymore, the frigid, flowing water ran down his shirt from his armpit to his belt. He ignored the cold liquid, desperate to find the item that could possibly save Adriana. A second later, his middle finger touched something on the shelf. It was cold and dry to the touch. With every ounce of energy he could muster, Sean extended his fingers another inch deeper into the crack. Three of his fingers found the top of something that felt like a stone cylinder. He pulled the object along the shelf toward where he was crouched. It rolled easily, confirming its wheel-like shape.
“Did you find something?” Tommy shouted across the water.
The sudden noise of his friend’s voice startled Sean. His arm jerked to the right, nearly knocking the precious object into the water flow. He let out a long breath and ignored Tommy for a moment. More cautious and deliberate, Sean continued to roll the cylinder along the shelf until his elbow was nearly in the clear again. His fingers wrapped around the little tube and he pulled it free of its ancient resting place.
For a second, he stared down at the strange piece. It was carved from white marble and only seven inches long, perhaps two inches in diameter. Sean tried to remember if he’d seen anything like it on his previous journeys, but he couldn’t recall ever finding such an artifact.
“What is it?” Tommy asked impatiently. He’d climbed over the fence and was standing next to the water.
Sean didn’t answer immediately. He continued to examine the cylinder, rolling it over in his fingers. The open end had been sealed with a deep, crimson wax. As he turned the object, he found an image engraved into one side. The profile of a man with a wreath atop his ears and wrapping around his head, stared off to the right. Sean recognized the Latin words immediately. It was the royal seal of Julius Caesar.
Chapter 33
A blurry light seared through the cracks of Adriana’s eyes as she gradually awakened. The haze slowly began to fade, giving way to her surroundings. She was back on the floor of the cellar. The light emanated from a solitary light bulb overhead. The back of her skull ached, sending throbbing pain signals through her brain every second. Instinctively, she tried to reach up and massage the spot that seemed to hurt the most, but immediately realized her hands were bound tightly behind her back. Her neck was sore from lying on her side, though for how long she didn’t know. Her ankles had also been tied up, preventing her from any movement other than wriggling like a worm on the floor. There was a sharp pain coming from her side, though she didn’t know why. It felt like one of her ribs was badly bruised, maybe broken.
Adriana tried to collect her thoughts amid the pain and confusion. What happened? She remembered running down a gravel road amid tall stands of grass and trees. There was a boy running ahead of her. Who was he?
Then the story began to come back to her. Niki. The boy’s name was Niki. He’d been imprisoned with her in the cellar. They’d tried to escape. She’d taken out several guards, but something had happened. Someone tackled her from a blind side. She hadn’t seen it coming. Adriana winced. The pain in her ribs stabbed at her with every breath. The man who had tackled her had also kicked her in the side. The awkward position in which she lay wasn’t helping the pain. She needed to roll over to her other side to take a little pressure off the injury. It took a minute, but after rocking back and forth she was able to roll over onto her other side. The movement had increased the agony during the process, but now at least her ribs weren’t killing her.
The whole room was still somewhat blurry, despite her regaining consciousness. She’d hit her head pretty hard on the gravel road. Adriana took a long, deep breath and sighed. She needed to focus. Another realization hit her: Niki was gone. Had the boy made it to the town? She’d told him to go to a church, but she wasn’t really sure if the kid would be able to find his way. Children frightened easily. If he had gotten lost, he could be in worse trouble than he would have been in the cellar with her.
Adriana shook her head. No, Niki had made it. Kids were resilient. She remembered playing in her father’s vineyard outside of Madrid. Their family’s land holdings were vast, and extended for hundreds of acres across the countryside. She’d gotten lost in the rows of grape vines when she was only five. She’d been running through the fields with a paper kite flying a few feet above her. Before she realized it, Adriana had lost track of where she was. She had never been to the far reaches of her father’s land before. There were tall trees protecting the boundary of the vineyards, trees she’d never really seen before. The curious part of her had wondered what lurked beyond the tree line, in the dark shadows of the forest. The other part of her had a healthy fear of the unknown, and had steered her back toward the house.
After a few hours of wandering through the seemingly endless rows of vines, she began to worry. The day was getting late, and she’d not had anything to drink since lunch. Her parched throat begged for water or something cool to drink. Eventually, Adriana calmed herself enough to plop down on the ground and think. She looked up at the sun and remembered where the sun always set in relation to her home. West, she thought. She stood back up and looked in the direction of the dropping sun, then spun around and headed in the opposite direction, resolved to keep walking until she found her way home. And find her way she did. Her father had been looking all over for her and had gathered the field workers to help with the search. She remembered how he hugged her when she arrived at the house. He’d picked her up and squeezed her so tight she’d squirmed a little, telling him she was going to pop. He kissed her forehead and cheeks, relieved that she’d come back safely.
“Promise me you won’t run away like that again,” he’d said.
“I didn’t run away, Papa,” Adriana had answered with childlike innocence. “I was just on an adventure.”
Even now, with the throbbing pain and the dire situation facing her, she smiled at the memory. She wished her father could be there to pick her up and take her back into his home, clean her up and take care of her. Adriana had been independent since that day in the vineyard. She hoped Niki had the same spirit, the same sensibility that had led her home. The boy would be fine, she told herself.
A loud thud followed by a crash sounded from behind her. Someone had kicked open the door, spilling a little more light into the room. The loud noise hadn’t helped her headache, but the more pressing concern was who had entered the room. A second later, she got her answer.