Page 82 of Gothikana

‘Some of it, yes,’ Corvina admitted quietly. ‘Troy?’ she asked, her stomach knotting.

Ajax sobered. ‘Resting in peace.’

They stood silent afterward, just watching the lake as the divers did their work. She felt other people join them at the railing, Vad on the other side of Ajax, her friends on hers.

‘They found anything yet?’ Vad asked, taking a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket, silently offering one to Ajax who took it.

‘Nope.’

They lit up, smoking.

‘How long will you search the lake?’ Jade asked from her side, peeking in. ‘I’ve never seen water this dark before.’

‘There’s an old legend behind the colour,’ Vad informed her, his knowledge of these mountains so much more vast than she’d imagined.

‘What’s the legend, Mr Deverell?’ Ethan asked, leaning on his elbows.

‘I’m interested, too,’ Ajax piped up.

Vad took a smoke and blew it out. ‘It was called the Snake Lake a long time ago. According to legend, this hole in the mountain was a pit of monstrous snakes. They would eat anything they would find in the woods. One day, they bit a man in the forest, dragging him into the pit with them. His lover’ — he took a drag, his voice hypnotic in his storytelling — ‘was a powerful sorceress. When she discovered him gone and brutally killed, her rage knew no bounds.’

He paused to exhale, and Corvina watched his profile, hooked both on him and the story.

‘In her pain,’ he continued in his deep, gravel voice, somehow making the story even more chilling, ‘she went into the pit and trapped all the snakes with her hair, embracing the decaying body of her lover, and filled the pit with water, forcefully drowning them all. They say theblack in the water is her hair, keeping the venomous snakes trapped for eternity as she stays with her lover.’

Corvina shuddered.

‘That’s macabre.’ Ethan’s voice shook slightly.

‘Fuck, I have goosebumps.’ Erica rubbed her arms.

Vad chuckled, stubbing his cigarette on the stone railing. ‘It’s an ancient legend. You’ll find a bunch of them about these mountains in the library if you looked. Places like this tend to inspire imagination in the wickedest of ways.’

‘Good thing the divers don’t know the story then,’ Ajax quipped, breaking the gloom.

‘You all should get back to the castle,’ Vad told the group. ‘You have classes, and this doesn’t concern you.’

Corvina could see the reluctance on everyone’s face but they all nodded, going back to the castle, life resuming as normal.

Three distracted classes and homework later, she returned some books to the library, meeting the group again during dusk, taking the little trip to the lake.

The scene they came to was slightly different.

There was a tarp on the bank with some stuff forensics people were working on, something Corvina couldn’t see. The tension in the air was high, the investigators all wearing severe faces. Vad and two other teachers, Dr. Brown and Dr Pol, stood on one side with Ajax, arms folded.

‘What’s going on?’ Jade asked, wondering the same thing Corvina was when a shout went out.

Something else had been found.

Corvina gripped the strap of her bag with white knuckles, keeping her eyes on the lake as a team of people rushed to the diver in a boat, taking whatever he gave them, before going down again. The team hurried to the bank, carefully placing whatever was in their hand on the tarp they had laid out. Her friends hurried there to see what it was, but Corvina stayed on the spot, suddenly feeling the warmth of his presence at her back as the chill invaded her bones.

‘It seems like you were right, little crow,’ he spoke quietly, his tone sombre.

‘They found the bodies?’ She turned to look at him, her heart pounding.

‘Bones.’

Corvina shivered, the urge to step closer to the warmth of his body severe.

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