Alluvial Mine – Real Gold

We left the mules tethered at the entrance of the mine, and let Max do all the talking. The minekeeper dressed in red nodded her head and gave us no trouble as we passed, concealing the skull behind her back. She brushed away some cobwebs that had gathered, hanging like old garments from the damp cave walls. Max chirped and chattered, his small eyes glowing red in the semi darkness, and he had an intense look on his face. The grey ghost was nowhere in sight. The rock glowed in places, clinging with bright jade moss and shimmering ore. Our footfalls echoed in the space, and we could hear water running, cool and clear, inside the honeycomb caverns. “It’s better than I thought,” said Orlando, and I nodded, knowing he did not always believe things until he saw them. “It’s because of Max…he knows far more than we do, and everything more than the other ‘advisors’. I think they were illusions. Delusions. Maude did mention them…” He nodded, distracted by a kind of room formed by old water routes, that once roared through the honeycomb. Max was animated, leaning forward like an arrow, his little glowing eyes beaming in a new direction. A thin shaft of sunlight streamed in from a gap in the rock of the underground space, illuminating a kind of font, and we looked at the reflection in it. “What is it?” I said. “What is it indeed?” I said, as we both suddenly realised its meaning and stared.

(copyright Imogen Crest 2006.)