The Red Pearl by C. K. Brooke Read Free Book Online Page A

The dog drank thirstily, water droplets splaying every which way.
    The sun rolled westward still, dipping down beneath the distant mountain range and casting a striking bronze hue across the horizon. Antonia eyed the sprawling desert illuminated in a glare of gold, when a thought occurred to her. “Rob?”
    He rested on his elbows. “Mmm?”
    “Earlier, you mentioned something about…being on a hunt. Digging for buried treasure.” She picked at her sandal strap. “Does this have anything to do with the map we’re after?”
    He sighed, gazing into the sunset. “Yes, Annie. It has everything to do with the map we’re after.”
    Her heartbeat quickened. “It’s a map to buried treasure?”
    “To the buried treasure.” He faced her, looking quite serious. “Have you ever heard of the Red Pearl?”
    Antonia squinted. The name sounded vaguely familiar, conjuring notions of ancient queens in faraway lands to her mind. But she could not recall exactly what it was. “Refresh my memory,” she entreated him.
    Robin lay back, watching the darkening desert. “It’s said that more than a thousand years ago, the largest pearl known to man was discovered in the reefs of Axacola. It was large as a plum, and red as wine, the most valuable jewel in all existence.”
    Antonia listened as the first trace of the moon imprinted on the evening sky.
    “It was immediately brought to the Queen of Ancient Elphysia—that’s modern day Elsland, now—who governed our continent, Otlantica, at the time. She and her daughters kept it in their jealous possession for generations, until the Torcan-Elphysian War.
    “When the Torcs seized the Elphysians’ Grand Palace and everything in it, the Red Pearl was supposed to be among their most prized lootings. Yet, as the story goes, the last Elphysian Queen had already hidden it, far away. Rumor has it, she enlisted someone to bury it near its original place of discovery, in Axacola, to be uncovered again only when the Torcs were defeated, and Elphysia ruled once more.”
    He took in a breath. “And so, the man who hid the pearl created a map to guide him, or his sons after him, back to the treasure, once Elphysia regained her power. But as we know, the great empire never did return to sovereignty. And everything that once made Elphysia great—its royal bloodline, its language and architecture—has long since faded into antiquity. All that remains is…”
    “The religion,” Antonia finished for him. She well knew that the goddess Azea, whom she worshipped, along with all of Otlanica’s other deities, were originally borne of the Ancient Elphysian pantheon.
    Robin nodded. “Well, the map was lost to history for centuries. In fact, most believed it never to have existed at all. Indeed, many still think the pearl itself is only legend.
    “But one fearless adventurer,” his eyes shone, “by the name of Ricardo Rivera, resolved to seek it, more than sixty years ago. Incredibly, he found the map. Alas, he perished tragically on his search for the pearl. I’m told he was hiking through the canyons and fell.”
    Antonia swallowed.
    “A man after my own heart, Ricardo was, although he died long before I was ever born.” Robin looked wistful. “One could say I’ve since become his greatest disciple. From the age of fourteen, I’ve been hunting down the map he found. And only mere moons ago did I actually obtain it!”
    At this, Antonia looked away. That folded piece of vellum she’d lifted from the ground and freely handed to Robin’s wavy-haired ex-girlfriend was that very map? Antonia had touched it, had held such a significant artifact in her own hands? “Do you mean to say,” she gathered her unsteady breaths, “that yours is the map to the Red Pearl ?”
    He nodded, solemn.
    She suddenly understood how outrageous, how foolish it must’ve appeared when she’d so easily given it up, that morning in the brush. Of course, the woman, Rowena, had been aiming a pistol at them. But