Love and Misadventure

“Juliette, this is… incredible.”

Henry and Levi gaped at the treasure room and all the valuables within. Levi found his gaze move to Juliette with her proud smile glowing on her face.

“Really incredible,” Levi agreed, making Juliette blush.

“I don’t even know where to start,” Henry said breathlessly. “The gold is just gold. We’re looking for insight on Queen Arisha and her reign. You two get started, I’ll go fetch Captain Fuller.”

“Maybe we should get a head start,” Juliette suggested. “Uh, before we tell the captain and everyone.”

“Don’t be silly, Jewel,” he chuckled. “We could use all the help we could get in here.”

Levi didn’t like the idea of the Captain seeing everything, but he just gently put a hand on Juliette’s back and nudged her towards the treasure. This wasn’t a battle they were going to win.

They searched for a couple minutes, careful not to ruin anything, but nothing was of obvious significance. Levi knelt down to look into a chest, pushing some jewelry aside until his hands found something bound in letter. His heart skipped a beat when he realized it was a book. When he opened it, he saw handwritten ancient Leylan text.

“Oh my god,” Levi said once he realized what it was.

“What did you find?” Juliette asked.

“It’s like an autobiography of sorts,” Levi said. “A full history of Queen Arusha’s life, written by the queen herself. I bet it answers every question we have, including why she was in the wall.”

“That’s amazing, Levi,” Juliette said with a laugh. “I told you! You’re going places!”

She threw her arms around him and kissed him with excitement, making him feel a little lightheaded. They gasped softly when they heard voices approaching. Levi noticed that Juliette had her shirt untucked and billowy to cool off from the heat, and he quickly lifted her shirt and tucked the book into her waistband so the shirt would cover and hide it. She was a little alarmed at first, but seemed to quickly understand that Levi didn’t want Fuller to know about the book yet. Royce and Henry walked over to them, marveling at the treasures.

“You really did it old man,” Royce chuckled. “One last find. And I’m even willing to share it with you.”

The smile fell off Henry’s face and was replaced with confusion.

“Share it?”

There was a clicking noise, and Levi felt a cold barrel of a gun against the back of his head. A second gun was pointed at Juliette. Henry glared at Royce.

“What is the meaning of this?” he demanded. “After all these years?”

“After all these years, you never once let me make a decent amount of money from these expeditions,” Royce snapped. “You publish your works and make a fortune, but when it comes to fencing the goods, you claim I’m ‘disrespecting history’ and the artifacts should be donated without profit. I’m retiring, and this time I’m retiring in comfort.”

“You leave them out of this,” Henry said, gesturing to Levi and Juliette.

“I can’t do that,” Royce said apologetically. “You care for them, so they’re my insurance policy. And I can’t risk them telling anyone what’s happening, so they’ll be sealed up in this tomb. But I’ll tell you what. You help me navigate this tomb and get what I want, and then you use your pretty name to get us on our way back home. Then I’ll let you go and you can come back to save them.”

Levi and Juliette were prodded at by the men with guns. They were afraid of saying anything so they just complied. One of the men took Juliette’s bag away from her, but didn’t notice the book Levi had tucked in her waistband. Henry exchanged a look with Levi, and Levi gave him a quick nod as a promise to take care of Juliette. Although, he wasn’t sure how he was going to do that quite yet.

They were led away, back outside the treasure room and to the front, where they had found Queen Arisha. She was still laying on the ground, but the crown was missing. Royce had already taken it, no doubt. The men bound Levi and Juliette’s hands behind their backs, then shoved them into the wall. Then a huge board was lifted in front of them, and they were nailed in. Sealed in the wall, where Queen Arisha had been.

Levi heard them walk away and tried a few times to break the wall open with his shoulder, but they had placed something heavy to block them. He could hear them walking away and tried a few more times to break the wall open, but everywhere but the blocked opening had been reinforced with stone.

In the pitch black darkness, Levi could hear a muffled sob. He didn’t have much room to move, but he side stepped and tried his best to take her hand while he was bound. It was hard to breathe, but he did his best to stay calm.

“Hey, we’re going to be okay,” he said.

“We’re sealed in a wall,” she whimpered. “And my father is out there with that man.”

“They won’t harm him,” he told her. “They can’t. He’s the only person who can navigate the map and secure them passage back home. If anything, they’ll abandon him in town before they leave.”

This seemed to ease her slightly, but she was still whimpering.

“It’s so claustrophobic in here,” she said, breathing quickening. “I feel like I’m suffocating.”

“It’s in your head,” he promised her. “Hey, you need to calm down a little. Breathe with me. In and out.”

He couldn’t see her, but did his best to sound comforting despite his own panic. He heard her breathing slow, but he was still worried about her.

“We need to find our way out,” he told her. “You’re smaller than me, so you have room to move a little. Can you reach the bindings on my wrists?”

“I- I think so.”

He felt her shift and reach for the bindings. It took a couple minutes and failed attempts, but finally the rag was loosened. Once his wrists were free, he did his best to do the same for her. She let out a sigh of relief when her wrists were free, and holding their hands at their sides gave them a little more room to move.

“We need to find a weak spot in the wall,” he said. “If Queen Arisha could do it as a corpse, we can do it as living people.”

“Okay.”

She didn’t seem sure, but followed Levi’s lead in side stepping and pushing against the wall to look for a weak spot. Levi wasn’t sure how far they had traveled inside of the wall, but suddenly Levi felt the floor give out under his feet. Next thing he knew, he was falling. Again.

“Levi!” Juliette cried out.

He landed with a splash into a large body of water, which was surprisingly deep. Deep enough to break the fall, that was for sure. He surfaced and sputtered.

“I’m getting really tired of falling!” he called back.

“Are you okay?!”

“There’s water down here,” he said. “More fucking water. Jump down, I’ll catch you.”

He could hear that she was hesitating, but soon he heard her shriek and land in the water next to him. He caught her and helped her resurface. It was dark, but Levi’s eyes were starting to adjust and he could see what looked like a dry surface up ahead. He helped Juliette swim over to it, and they both crawled onto what felt like marble. There was finally breathing room, but they must have been pretty far underground. The tomb had even more secrets below it.

“I have some flint in my pocket,” Juliette said. “It’s wet, but maybe we can still make it work.”

“I’ll look for something we can light up,” Levi told her. “I have no idea where we are and everyone is probably gone by now, but if we’re lucky we can navigate our way out and back to town before Fuller leaves or tries to harm Dr. Covington.”

“Levi?”

“Yes?”

He was startled when she suddenly grabbed him and pulled him into a kiss, then buried her face in his chest with a tight hug.

“That was really scary,” she said. “I know I was trying not to be a baby, but that was scary.”

“If you’re a baby, then I’m a baby too,” he chuckled. “I’m also scared. Terrified. You’re not being weak. And hey, guess what?”

“What?”

“There’s no one in the world I’d rather be sealed alive in a wall with than you.”