Lizzie's POV

The skeletons came out of the darkness, descending from the sky like ghosts their calcium-white bones glistening in the light of Uma's torch, they danced in the black their limbs making herky-jerky motions up and down, bobbing as they walked.

Gil screamed and fell backward, splashing water everywhere and I panicked thinking one of the skeletons might have struck him with its swords, Harry quickly bent to check for wounds, while the skeletons drifted closer, dipping up and down their feet hardly touching the ground.

We had no idea what magic this was especially since magic didn't work here so I had no clue how was this even happening and upon further look I realised there was now more skeletons, descending from the dark reaches of the cavern's ceiling, a place so distant that not even Uma's torchlight could reach it.

The crew quickly formed ranks, drawing our swords and readying one another for the fight but I noticed our faces were as white as the skeletons, we were a hardened crew but none of us had ever seen anything like this.

"Gil's okay" Harry announced.

"Just a bit of wounded pride" Gil added as he shook the water from his hair, stumbling backward to avoid the approaching skeletons.

We were all retreating but the lagoon was at our backs so with each step we took we were forced to walk deeper into the water as I tried not to panic as the water started to reach my knees, this could only go on for so long before we'd need to stop and fight but the skeletons didn't pass the water's edge and they hung there waiting their twirling swords and nodding heads tempting us pirates into battle and Uma being Uma had never been one to turn down a fight, so she rallied the crew and stormed the beach.

"At my back, you cowards!" she called and I sighed pulling out my sword with the familiar sound ashamed by my own courage, I'd had enough fear already from near drowning so I wasn't going to be stilled by skeletons, we called out battle cries and emerged from the water splashing onto the beach.

I swung at the skeleton closest to me with every bit of might that I had hoping to nick a bone or perhaps to break a rib or two but instead watched as its entire rib cage shattered, sending bones flying in all directions, some landing in the water with a hundred different splashes.

I smirked encouraged by my success and continued on slashing and knocking my blade through the skeletons watching as they fell before I suddenly stopped when I saw one of the heads bobbing up and down in midair...

"It's on a rope!" I called out informing the others as I slashed at the darkness above one of the skulls severing the cord, sending the head tumbling onto the beach before looking back at all the skeletons we'd taken out and with a quick inspection I saw a whole series of thin black ropes that were tethered all over the skeletons, it must have been some kind of mechanism that had been jerking them up and down, back and forth, like marionettes on a string. "They're not alive, it's not magic it's just a trick!" I added quickly.

"Keep moving!" Uma instructed. "There must be some machine up there, embedded in the cavern's ceiling" she said as we continued through the cavern, the black strings were nearly invisible in the dark cave.

I turned finding Harry was the closest to me watching as he was going over a fallen skeleton, inspecting the ropes, some of which were still connected to the machine before a severed hand leaped upward from the beach dangling in his face with its sword still in its grasp and I laughed a little seeing him slash at the cord and the arm fell limply to the sand but the whole thing was unnerving.

I focused back on the rest of the crew seeing we were all slashing at the ropes but we could only cut so many, so the dead continued their dance and pretty soon there were pieces of broken arms and legs everywhere, some still jerking about in the air.

"I never thought they were alive" Harry spoke up as he pushed against a skeleton, sending it swinging away but it swung right back, hitting him so hard it knocked him to the ground and I laughed.

"Maybe they don't need to be alive to take you down" I joked as he glared at me, I held my hand out for his arm and helped him stand, even if these were mechanical skeletons their blades were real enough that they could still do damage. "Be careful" I cautioned looking at the crew.

"She's right, cut the ropes watch out for the swords and someone fetch me that torch, we need light!" Uma quickly added and one of the crew retrieved the still-flaming torch that Uma had dropped near the water's edge and he held it high above us all, revealing at last an elaborate web of strings and cables, all of them disappearing upward toward the cavern's ceiling.

In spite of our increased illumination I noticed Harry got his hook wrapped up in a skeleton hand, he twisted to and fro before finally getting so caught in the cables he fell to the sand and I shook my head at him since even Gil was doing a little better, having wrestled one of the skeletons to the ground and stomped all over its bones slashing at the ropes when he was finished while the rest of the crew howled their battle cries, as they took down the cables but I heard Uma growl annoyed that it was taking us so long to escape and I knew why since it was a booby trap and there was obviously going to be others.

"Keep cutting strings!" she ordered. "And try to do it with a bit more organization" taking her advice, they went about cutting the ropes in a more coordinated manner, moving down the line, slashing just above the heads so the skeletons would fall limply to the beach in a single cut.

One after another they dropped to the sand, making a great pile of bones and cords forming at our feet and I smiled watching as the last skeleton fell to the ground but the glee was short lived as there was a low thrum echoed in the darkness.

"What was that?" Uma cried, we turned towards her seeing an arrow struck the stone next to her, an inch to the right and it would have split her head in two, the sound of soft whistling of bowstrings reverberated in the darkness, we had all hit the sand after seeing the first arrow flattening ourselves as best we could as the barrage sailed over their heads.

"When we cut that last skeleton it must have triggered some new part of the mechanism" Harry called out over the sound of whistling arrows.

"I think we all guessed as much" I told him given I was the closet to him but the real question was, what was coming next since it was clear the sorcerer had no intention of letting anyone take what was in that treasure chest, I watched as some of the pirates had already stood but there was a distant clicking and a winding sound.

"Duck!" I yelled and the pirates slammed once more onto the sand, covering themselves with their hands, or whatever else they could use for shields, from a new assault of arrows.

"The machine rewound itself" Uma added. "It paused after the first volley, just to trick anyone who was clever enough to avoid the first before it sent out another attack"

"So what do we do now?" Gil asked. "I can't stay here with my face pressed in the muck" I looked over taking in his position seeing his knees were sunk in the water and his face was dabbed with mud and most of the others weren't in much better shape, we were all wet and only half of us had made it fully out of the water before we'd had to drop.

"Listen" Uma suddenly called out.

"To what?" Harry asked.

"To the silence, the machine stopped" she replied and motioned for everyone to stand, I hesitated for a second before one by one we all lifted ourselves from the muck, our feet making terrible slurping sounds as we were wet and dirty but at least we were alive, the silence meant that the machine had stopped but I doubted we were out of danger yet. "Come on!" she said, leading us toward a narrow finger of light in the distance, indicating a way out of the cave but she suddenly froze and I knew why immediately and looked down seeing what looked like a floor switch and in the distance, you could hear an ominous rumbling.

"I think I triggered something" Uma pointed out the obvious. "The machine's going again." dust sifted downward from the ceiling, followed by a low thunder that shook us to our knees and rocks fell from the cavern ceiling and we could hear stones breaking all around us.

"The cavern's collapsing!" I cried out but by then they'd figured it out as well, this must be the final trap, the one that would seal anyone in the cave with the treasure chest forever, I'll give it to him the sorcerer had obviously been serious about the safety of these formerly magical objects even without magic at his disposal, he had successfully created obstacles that would deter even the hardiest and greediest goblin but we were no goblin and were determined to leave the Isle of the Doomed with the only inheritance Uma would ever receive from her mother's past. "Run!"

"Already there!" Harry called back at our side, Gil puffing not far behind as Uma waved her cutlass in the air.

"Follow me!" she said, leading the crew toward the light as all around us stones pelted our heads, the air was already filled with dust but a light shone faintly in the distance so we ran toward it with the earth beneath our feet collapsing as we went and the walls were falling all around us.

Uma and I were the first to make it to the cave's mouth but we stayed there, waiting for each member of our crew to pass, the captains should always be the last to leave after all, the ones who went down with the ship and I refused to budge until the last pirate was out and luckily the pirates were a frightened bunch, so they ran like children, tumbling over one another to get out of the cave as quickly as possible before Uma and I quickly stepped out of the cavern just as the last stone broke and the ceiling collapsed entirely, forever trapping whatever was left in there.

"We made it" I muttered stating the obvious, as I stumbled out onto the sand hair caked with dust and tiny stones as I looked around my make sure everyone was okay before my eyes meet Harry as he reached up and brushed a rock off shoulder.

"Where is it, the treasure chest?" Uma suddenly demanded, in all the confusion and our sheer desire to get out of there had we left the one thing we'd come to find, Harry suddenly smirked at me before he tapped her on the shoulder reaching underneath his arm and revealed what he had been carrying the entire time, the treasure chest and without hesitation Uma flipped open its wooden lid, we all gathered around it seeing there was an old yellowed envelope inside and Uma pulled it out. "...'Ursula'..." she read, examining the spiky handwriting on the envelope then shook out the contents onto her palm and there it was, her mother's seashell necklace except it was in a hundred tiny little pieces. "I forgot it was broken" Uma deadpanned.

"Nothing a little island sludge can't put back together" Harry replied. "Come on, we've got a bucket of the stuff back on the ship, it's stronger than glue it'll work" we nodded and Uma put the necklace back into the envelope before we headed back to the rowboats and back to the ship.