The Secret Songs of D.C. Silverenn

Chapter Nineteen

The parking lot by Dead Face Cave is vacant, abandoned. I step from Emi's car, and the shutting door echoes off the surrounding rock. My eyes scan the rising cliffs as if they can follow the reverberations.

I tell myself that the lack of people is a good thing. It means no one will get in our way while we hunt for the treasure. But apprehension still nags at me. There's no one around in case something goes wrong, and I can't help but feel like once we enter, there's no return.

Isn't that what Silverenn said at the beginning? Once I started to decipher the clues, I already set my fate in motion. I just hope treasure lies at the end of the tunnel, not an abyss.

"Do you think the cave is safe?" Emi asks.

I force a smile as I look at her. "Safer than Silverenn's old warehouse. The city actually allows visitors in the cave."

"Shouldn't we have a tour guide?"

"Do you think a tour guide would let us go snooping for a supposed treasure? And even if they did, we'd probably have to split it with them."

Emi sighs. "Why do your bad ideas sometimes make sense? Honestly Cerise, you should've gone into marketing."

"Well, once we're rich, I'll set aside more time to market our trio."

"Deal."

Side by side, we face the cave. I'm hit again by the realization that we must enter. I prepare my phone's flashlight, the narrow beam barely visible in the sunlight. Gravel crunches underfoot as we approach the cave and darkness envelops us. Emi unfurls the map clasped in her hands.

"It appears that we need to follow this main tunnel until it branches into six smaller ones," she says.

"Kay."

Our footsteps patter in the stillness. I can feel my heart pumping in my chest despite the slow, full breaths I take. I form a rhythm with the droplets dripping in the background. Inhale, beat, plop. Exhale, beat, plop. The repetition calms me down, perhaps it even grounds my sanity, too.

Thin strands of light from my phone shine upon the semicircular room we enter. Six channels carve through the gray rock, away from the current path.

"Which one do we take?" I ask.

"The second one from the left," she says after squinting at the map. "We'll have to make a quick right afterward."

"Just let me know when."

The glow casts just enough light to see what's ahead. I almost walk past the next turn, but Emi places a hand on my arm and pulls me onto a narrow path. It's just large enough for us to walk shoulder to shoulder. I take the opportunity to glance at the map, noting our position. The corridor appears to cut across the cave, positioning us near the treasure.

The dripping peters out, a deafening void in its wake. My ears hone in on our labored breaths to take its place. Somehow, this is harder than shopping all day, or in Emi's case, practicing for many hours.

Another sound, a faint clicking, whispers through the rock. Ice grabs my arm. I jolt back with a gasp only to realize it was Emi's hand. I look at her with wide eyes. She mimics my expression and mouths,

"Do you hear that?"

I listen closer. It doesn't sound like the soft sneakers I'm wearing or Emi's flats. It sounds more like dress shoes, shoes that mean business. I really hope my suspicions are wrong, but then again, who means business when entering a cave?

"Silverenn's mob?" I whisper.

Emi cringes and nods. "What do we do?"

If Silverenn's descendants are looking for the treasure, then we only have one option: to reach it first.