🏝️ Chapter 13: The Ascent
The climb began at first light, a grim procession up slopes of crumbling white rock that shifted like broken pottery under their boots. Harker drove them forward with relentless purpose, his eyes fixed on the jagged peaks of the Spine of the Serpent that tore at the bleached sky. Elias walked just behind him, the weight of every man's expectation pressing on his shoulders heavier than any pack.
The lie had taken root. Red and the others watched his every step, searching for some sign of secret knowledge in his choice of path. He offered none, keeping his eyes on the treacherous ground, praying the high route would prove safer than the river's deadly embrace.
The air grew thinner, the metallic stench of the island sharpening with every foot of elevation gained. Strange, blind insects with pale, translucent shells scuttled away from their footsteps. Once, a patch of grey moss recoiled from Two-Finger Tim's boot with a hiss, revealing needle-thin thorns beneath.
"Don't touch anything," The Professor warned, his voice tight. "This entire mountain is... aware."
They found the first sign of others at midday, sheltered in a shallow alcove. It was not a camp, but an altar. A flat slab of the ubiquitous white stone was supported by two pillars, and upon it lay a scatter of artifacts—a tarnished silver cup, a rust-eaten dagger, and a single, giant human femur, polished smooth by time. Crude, frantic carvings covered the slab, depicting stick-figures bowing before a radiant, jagged shape.
Old Man Finnigan made a warding sign. "They worshipped it. The poor devils."
Harker barely glanced at the relics. His interest was purely strategic. "It means we're on the right path. They built their shrines close to their god. Keep moving."
Elias stared at the ancient bone, a cold knot tightening in his stomach. Thorne's riddle—climb the bones—felt less like a clever lie and more like a horrific prophecy.
The terrain grew steeper, forcing them to use their hands to scramble up sharp, unstable inclines. The silence of the wood was gone, replaced by the howl of a wind that whipped across the bare rock, carrying with it the faint, ever-present whispers that now seemed to come from the stone itself.
It was Red, scrambling up a ledge ahead of the others, who first saw the new danger.
"Ho! Look there! To the east!"
They crowded the ridge. Below, snaking through the lower foothills, was Billy Bones's crew. They were maybe thirty strong, moving with a brutal efficiency that made Harker's weary party look like a band of pilgrims. Sun glinted off cutlasses and the barrels of muskets. They were not lost. They were hunting.
"He's following our trail," Avery said, his face grim. "He'll be at this summit by nightfall."
Harker's jaw tightened. The race was now undeniable. His grand plan of a methodical treasure hunt had collapsed into a desperate scramble.
"There," The Professor said, pointing to a dark fissure in the mountainside a hundred yards ahead. "A cave system. It could offer shelter, a defensible position."
Harker didn't hesitate. "To the cave! Now! Move!"
The final push was a panicked climb, men slipping on the loose scree, casting fearful glances over their shoulders at the advancing party below. Elias's heart hammered, his muscles burning. He had traded the terror of the eels for the terror of the heights and the enemy at their heels.
They tumbled into the mouth of the cave just as the first drops of a cold, acidic rain began to fall, sizzling as they hit the white rock outside. The entrance was wide and tall, descending into a profound darkness that the grey daylight did little to penetrate.
As the last man stumbled inside, a collective shudder ran through the group. The howl of the wind was cut off, replaced by an immense, waiting silence. And in that silence, the whispers they had heard outside were no longer faint.
They were clear. They were distinct. And they were inside the cave with them.
A voice, thin and reedy, seemed to slip from the rock next to Elias's ear. "He knows you lied..."
Another, from the darkness ahead, a perfect mimic of his father's cough. "You left me, Elias..."
Red spun around, his musket raised. "Who said that? Show yourself!"
Harker stood at the center of the cavern entrance, his chest heaving, his face a mask of fury and determination. He looked from the advancing enemy outside to the terrifying darkness within. They were trapped.
"The island seeks to break us before Bones even reaches us," The Professor murmured, his usual calm finally cracking. "It uses our own minds as its weapon."
Elias leaned against the cold, damp wall of the cave, the voices swirling around him. The physical climb was over. A more terrifying ascent into their own fears had just begun. The bones of the mountain were not just under their feet; they were in their heads, and they were beginning to scream.