The Golden Sickle

The Golden Sickle, a cutthroat's tavern in post-Revolutionary Virginia, is a labyrinthine structure built by a river pirate and central to the solution of a cryptic map to a fabulous lost treasure a map that the cutthroat sent by way of a fallen priest to the thirteen-year-old son he had abandoned.

Dan Cresap tells the tale of the night the priest came to him, pursued by a demoniacal dwarf who led a band of pirates determined to get to the treasure first. From Christmas Eve to the New Year, Dan and his blind girl companion are seldom out of danger and always near death at the hands of the pirate band.