Page 141 of Blossoms of the Heart
“Just be careful,” she cautioned.
I couldn’t help the smile that tugged at the corners of my lips. “I miss you.”
“I miss you too.”
God, why did I just sense the hesitation in her voice. Was that real or me being paranoid?
“You sure?”
“Of course… I thought maybe I could help with the description.”
“I swear it looks like a tin with a flag.” I looked at the drawing again and Scott nodded his agreement of the description.
Phoebe was silent for a moment then sighed. “Tai, I think what you’re looking at could be the character for a box with a cover on it. Does it maybe look like that rather than a tin with a flag.”
I narrowed my eyes and focused on the character. Yes. It did look like that.
Excitement filled me again.
“Scott what do you think? Box with a cover on it?”
“Yes that would be my other description.” Scott agreed.
“Phoebe it does look like that, but we’ve come to a dead end that couldn’t have been anything other than that centuries ago. There’s no path, just the river.”
“Where’s the drawing?”
“On the wall near the river.”
“What if you have to go in the river?” Excitement brightened her voice.
In the river?
Maybe the directions did continue indeed. Just under water.
“I’ll check it out.”
“Be careful,” she warned.
“I’ll be fine.” I liked that she was worried about me. It showed she still cared.
“What are you doing?” Scott asked as I set down the phone earpiece on the ground and started taking off my clothes.
“Phoebe thinks I should go in the river. I’ll check it out.”
Scott nodded. “Okay, signal if you need me.”
I left my pants on, took a flashlight and a headlight then walked into the river. It was a lot deeper than it looked. The murkiness at the bank made it appear more shallow.
I dove in and started looking around under the water with the help of the headlight. I swam around for about fifteen minutes but came up with nothing.
Looking at the symbol on the wall again gave me an idea to go in that direction, just underneath the symbol. Maybe it was like an arrow.
I was glad I did that because holy shit, was there a path that led straight under the wall.
Fuck, I absolutely had to give our samurai credit for this. The man knew what he was doing.
I swam back up to tell Scott, then went back under and proceeded down the path. To my surprise it branched out to clearer water and another section of the cave so I didn’t need to swim underwater. An Arabic symbol on the wall Phoebe told me was for the wordheregave me a jolt of excitement and I knew the directions meant for me to continue swimming.
