The Mask of Destiny by Richard Newsome Page A

point on the ground. They lit a human skeleton.
    It lay on a stone tablet where the rock ceiling dipped low, its feet closest to them.
    â€˜It’s all right,’ Sam said to Ruby, placing a hand on her shaking arm. ‘I think he’s dead.’
    Ruby unwound herself from Gerald’s shoulders. ‘Hardly anyone likes you,’ she said to her brother, doing her best to still the quaver in her voice. ‘You know that, don’t you?’
    Gerald inched closer to the skeleton for a closer look at the nest of bones. The body was lying on its back, with its right arm stretched behind its head, as if pointing to something deeper into the cavern. The dull grey of the bones suggested it had been there a very long time. Then the lamp caught a glint on the extended hand.
    â€˜There’s something on one of the fingers,’ Gerald said. He dropped to his knees and crawled closer.
    â€˜It’s a ring,’ he said. ‘A gold ring.’
    Then Gerald gasped.
    â€˜What’s the matter?’ Ruby asked, poking her head out from behind Sam.
    â€˜The ring,’ Gerald said. ‘I think it has my family seal on it.’
    â€˜No!’ Ruby said. ‘How can that be?’
    Sam squeezed in beside Gerald, shining his light onto the hand. ‘Three arms locked in a triangle around a sun,’ he said. ‘Looks like it to me.’
    Gerald reached out to take the band of gold but it was stuck on the curled finger, clenched and locked in place by a thumb. And it wouldn’t budge.
    â€˜Hold on,’ he said. ‘This isn’t bone. It’s more like stone.’
    â€˜Fossilised,’ Sam said. ‘All that silt from the bay. All those high tides. A thousand years ago the water must have reached in here and covered him up.’ Sam rapped his knuckles on the skull, which emitted a hollow clonk . ‘Looks like Ruby’s not the only petrified thing down here. This guy’s made of stone.’
    Gerald tugged hard on the finger and with a final grunt of effort it snapped off, releasing the ring into his hand. He buffed it against his shirt and held it next to the one on his left hand. Under the yellow beam of the headlamp, the rings gleamed in the surrounding dark.
    â€˜Identical,’ Gerald said. He slipped the ring onto the little finger of his right hand; it almost clung to his skin. ‘A perfect fit,’ he said.
    â€˜I guess this must be Lucius,’ Sam said. ‘Maybe the ruby casket is buried nearby.’
    â€˜It’s all rock,’ Ruby said. ‘Not much hope of burying anything here.’ They hunted around the stone platform but there was no sign of any place where a casket could be hidden.
    â€˜Unless he snuck in a jack hammer, I don’t think we’ll find any buried treasure in this place,’ Sam said.
    Ruby looked doubtfully back at the pool they’d swum through. ‘Maybe it’s at the bottom of that thing,’ she said. ‘And I’m not volunteering to go have a look.’
    Gerald sat next to his fossilised ancestor and rubbed the cold stone skull. ‘Come on, Lucius,’ he said. ‘Give it up. Where did you put the casket?’
    â€˜How do you think he died?’ Ruby asked. She had edged a little closer to the skeleton, but was still keeping a careful distance.
    â€˜High cholesterol?’ Sam said. ‘What do you think? He was trapped down here, stupid.’
    â€˜Well, if he was trapped here, what makes you think we can get out?’ Ruby said. ‘Or hadn’t you thought of that?’
    Sam’s face went blank. ‘We can swim back to the other cave,’ he said.
    â€˜And what? Get pounded by the tide twice a day until someone on a relaxing stroll through the quicksand hears our cries for help? Brilliant suggestion.’
    Gerald looked at the broken stone finger in his palm. Then at Lucius’s outstretched arm. A wrinkle of a thought unfurled in Gerald’s