Rhayne pulls the oar.
The mechanism answers with a deep click from somewhere under the statue, followed by the sound of old gears turning inside the stone. The stone vessel stays down under the weight of the seventeen coins, and no window opens in front of my eyes.
No gate opens. No alarm sounds.
The water keeps coming in through the floodgates, slowly.
I let out the chain at my waist as far as its length allows and walk from the pillar to the second statue. The eighteen North Sea coins are already separated in the vessel. I check the count again before I take hold of the spear and pull.
Another click crosses the gallery.
Veric looks my way.
"So we're right."
"Don't celebrate yet."
Some of the confidence goes out of his face.
"Nothing happened."
"That's how it works. The Ferryman's Toll only tells you that you were wrong after the last answer."
