by Jasmine Walt
“Of course, Señor.” The housekeeper bustled through the doorway, making me think she couldn’t have been far. She helped the children to their feet and gently placed her arms around their shoulders. “Come on, niños. It’s been a long day.”
I waited until they had shuffled out of the room, their footsteps long faded, before I spoke. “That’s a handy trick,” I said to Señor Tarras. “But you can’t put them to sleep every time they ask about their father.”
Señor Tarras’s eyes flashed, and I wondered if I’d overstepped. But then his broad shoulders sagged, and he let out a ragged sigh. “I know.” He scrubbed a hand over his face. “But there is nothing I can say to them right now that will comfort them.”
“What are the chances that he’s still alive? Did he have enough food or water to last this long? Is the search party still looking?”
“There is no search party,” he said heavily. “There never was. And he is almost certainly dead.”
“What?” My startled yell echoed off the walls, and I was on my feet before I even realized it. “What do you mean there’s no search party!”
“Silencio!” The mage made a pulling motion with his hand, magically yanking me back down into my chair. He flicked his hand at the door, and the walls and windows shimmered: an anti-eavesdropping spell I recognized. “What I am about to tell you must not leave this room. Understood?”
“Understood.” Which wasn’t to say that I agreed. But he didn’t need to know that.
Señor Tarras raked a hand through his silver hair. “Sorbano probably told you that my son-in-law, Emilio, likes to explore in the caves at the edge of our property for fun, and that is how he went missing. What he did not tell you is that there is a special fungus that grows in those caves, and that Emilio goes down there every season to harvest it for our family to sell.”
I frowned. “What’s so special about this fungus that Sorbano had to keep it a secret from me?”
“The fungus has magical properties and can be used to cure all sorts of otherwise untreatable illnesses. It has grown in those caves for centuries and is how my family obtained its wealth. Unfortunately, mages cannot enter the caverns without suffering from crippling illusions, which is why we have always sent non-magi from our family to harvest the fungi. I tried myself, and the horrific visions I experienced drove me from the cave immediately.” He shuddered, a haunted look entering his eyes. “Emilio is not a mage himself, which is why he was able to go into the caverns without experiencing any ill effects. It usually only takes him a day to harvest everything and return, but he has been missing for nearly a week now.”
“So that’s why you weren’t able to search for him,” I said. “But that still doesn’t explain why you haven’t sent a search party.”
“None of the servants will go near the caves,” Señor Tarras said grimly. “They are superstitious and believe the cave is haunted or cursed. Perhaps I cannot blame them, considering what happened to Emilio, but I cannot leave my son-in-law’s body in there to rot. I had planned to send Sorbano down there after he returned, but now...”
A bad feeling settled into the pit of my stomach. “Are you asking me to go down there instead?” That explained why he’d invited me to eat with his family: he was buttering me up.
“Yes. I would like you to find Emilio’s body and retrieve it if possible.” His gaze sharpened. “You will have to swear a magical oath not to reveal the location of the cavern entrance to anyone, but I will give double what I have already paid you. And I will provide you with all the equipment and protection you need.”
I hesitated. This mission had red flags all over it. I didn’t believe in evil spirits, but if the fungus was so valuable, what if some criminals had taken up residence in the caves and were harvesting it for themselves?
Then again, so what? I was more than capable of dealing with a small bandit infestation and had done more dangerous gigs before for far less pay. Besides, I felt bad about leaving the estate without resolving this. The children deserved to know what had happened to their father. They deserved to have his body returned to them so they could say their goodbyes and bury him. And if, by some miracle, he was still alive, then they sure as hell deserved to get him back.
“All right.” I pulled a notepad and a pen from my pocket and leaned forward. “What do I need to know?”
6
The next morning, I rose early, dressed, and double-checked my pack. Last night, after swearing the oath, Señor Tarras had told me how to get to the cave entrance and what I could expect from the terrain. He'd also given me some helpful supplies—rope, a strength-boosting charm, and two magitech flashlights that wouldn't go out unless they were broken. A mule was waiting downstairs to help carry my supplies as well as Emilio's body, if I was able to recover it.
I wished I'd been allowed to take a map, but Señor Tarras had refused to let me keep the one he'd drawn. Instead, he made me memorize it, then he burned it with a flash of magical fire. It didn't matter that I'd taken a magically binding oath; he wasn't taking any chances.
Not that I blamed him. If that fungus really could cure all the things he said it could, it was worth a fortune, and it was a secret well worth keeping.
Confident that I had everything I needed, I hefted my pack onto my shoulders and headed downstairs. I'd nearly made it to the front door before I heard the pitter-patter of small feet and turned to see the children running down the hall.
"Señorita Annia!" Belira skidded to a stop by the door, her eyes wide. "You're leaving already?"
"Are you really going to find our father?" Tereso demanded. His bare toes were scrunched against the tile, almost as if he were bracing himself for me to deny it.
"I'm going to try." I crouched down so I could look at them both at eye level. "Your grandfather told me how to get to the caves, so I'm going to check them out and see what happened."
"Do you think he's still alive?" Belira's lower lip trembled, and I ached for the little girl. I knew exactly what it was like to lose a father so young.
"I hope so," I told them.
Belira threw her arms around my neck in a tight hug. "Be careful, Señorita Annia," she said, sniffling into my shoulder. "I don't want something bad to happen to you, too."
"I'll be fine." I hugged them both, swallowing a lump in my throat. I wished I could tell them I was going to bring their father back alive, but their grandfather seemed convinced that he would not have survived this long, and I didn't want to give them false hope. The best I could do was give them closure, no matter what I found in that cave.
Squaring my shoulders, I loaded up the mule and set out for the caves. It was a good three-hour trek, but the cool air and lush vegetation made it a pleasant one. The first mile or so was all manicured gardens, but the terrain eventually gave way to crop fields, and beyond that, thickly wooded forests bustling with animal life. I caught glimpses of deer, boar, and other game as we walked along the trail, and I guessed that Señor Tarras and his family hunted in these areas. The reheated venison stew we'd eaten for dinner last night was probably from here.
We passed a huge tree with a giant hole in the center. The mountains loomed just ahead, casting a dark shadow over the path. "All right," I said to the mule. "This is the landmark he mentioned, which means the path to the caves is just around the bend.”
Sure enough, I soon found myself on a narrow path that twisted up the side of the mountain. The cave entrance was cleverly hidden by a large boulder, and I ran my hand down the side closest to the ground, searching for an indentation. The moment my finger glided over the spot, the boulder rolled away, revealing the entrance. A dank, musty smell wafted out on a wave of cold air, and I shivered a little, glad that I'd packed a jacket. I pulled the jacket out of my pack, then secured the pack on my shoulders again.
"You wait here, okay?" I told the mule, patting him on the head. Señor Tarras had told me he wouldn't run unless threatened; all his pack animals were spelled into obedience, something I
found both alarming and fascinating. If animals could be spelled to follow certain behavioral patterns, did that mean humans could, too? Or were we more resistant to such magical manipulation because we had larger brains and stronger wills? I already knew mages could use spells to force us to tell the truth or put us to sleep, but those spells wore off after a time. Did they last longer on animals?
Shaking my head, I cast the thoughts aside and cleared my mind. This was no time to think about that. Switching on one of my flashlights, I stepped into the cave. The boulder immediately rolled shut behind me, trapping me inside, and I shuddered. I knew I wasn't really trapped—Señor Tarras had told me how to get out—but it still felt that way.
The cavern walls and floors were damp with moisture, so I trod carefully as I moved deeper into the mountain. The cave was much larger than I expected, the path gently sloping down as it widened. My shoulders tightened, remembering the crippling hallucination that Señor Tarras had suffered, but my mind remained clear and free of magical influence.
Guess it really does only affect mages after all. I wondered if the hallucinations were a side effect of the mushrooms or if they were caused by the special stone that allowed them to grow here.
Pulling out a piece of chalk, I began marking my path as I went. I found no magical fungus growing on the walls as I walked, but about ten minutes in, I came upon several burlap sacks sitting on the cavern floor. Crouching, I opened one up, and sure enough, there were glowing green mushrooms inside. Fascinated, I reached in and touched one of the fungi, running my fingertip along the smooth, rounded shape. My finger came away glistening with green residue.
Uncertain what kind of effect the magic would have on my skin, I hastily wiped my finger on the sack, then tugged it closed and brought all four of them to the cavern entrance. Then I retraced my steps back to where I'd found them.
"Emilio?" I called. My voice echoed off the walls, as expected, but it was strangely muffled. I called his name again as I continued down the path, but got no answer other than my own voice.
The uneven ground strewn with small stones and pebbles made travel through the caverns excruciatingly slow, though not quite as bad as those narrow mountain paths. The farther in I went, the more uneasy I became, painfully aware that I had no backup, no one to help me if something went awry.
I was just wondering if I’d find anything at all when I reached a dead end. Shining my magitech light, I found the entrance to a rough corridor that led further into the mountain, dropping away steeply. Cautious, I began to shuffle down it, holding the flashlight in one hand as I braced my other against the wall.
"Emilio?" I called again. "Emilio, can you hear me—ahhhhhh!" I stumbled over an unseen wire and pitched forward, dropping the flashlight and throwing out my hands to break my fall. But the path here was even steeper, the stone polished smooth, providing no traction for me to slow myself down.
"Shit!" My scream echoed off the walls as I shot straight down a jagged hole—a narrow chasm cutting the path in two that I could have easily jumped over if I hadn't sped into it like a child hurtling down a deadly, terrifying slide. My head slammed into the side of the hole as I fell, and pain exploded through my skull.
I'm going to die, I thought.
And then I passed out.
7
A throbbing pain in my skull gradually drove me awake. For a minute, I thought I couldn't open my eyes, but then I realized that it was just pitch black in here—my flashlight must have broken during the fall, leaving me in total darkness. Groaning, I pushed myself into a sitting position so I could slide my pack from my shoulders. The motion sent pain rippling through my body, but I gritted my teeth against it. I needed to find out where the hell I was, and whether there was any way out of here.
I groped around in my bag for several minutes before I finally found the other flashlight. To my relief, it switched on—I’d been worried I might have crushed it in the fall. I shone it around the space, illuminating an underground chamber. A few feet away from me, a man lay on his back, his neck and leg twisted at odd angles as he stared up at the ceiling.
"Well, shit." I pushed myself to my feet and cried out at a sharp, stabbing pain in my left ankle. It gave out, and I winced as I landed heavily on my butt. Gingerly, I rolled up my trouser leg, then pushed down my sock. The whole area was swollen. Dammit. Was it broken? I took stock of myself, and noticed that the armband I’d bought from Tia Maluca had torn in half and was lying on the ground a foot away.
The bruja’s words echoed in my head: “Should you end up in a life-threatening situation, you may find that you are saved by a stroke of ‘good luck.’” I stared at the ruined bracelet, a little unnerved. Had the magic saved me? I could have easily broken my neck or back, like the dead man lying next to me.
It doesn’t matter, I told myself firmly. I needed to focus on what was happening now and get out of here.
Unwilling to put weight on my ankle again just yet, I crawled over to the man on the ground and shone my flashlight on his face. It was definitely Emilio—the narrow nose and stubborn chin matched his children’s perfectly, not to mention the blond hair. A wave of pity washed through me, and I gently closed his eyes. Then I patted down his body to see what he’d been carrying on him. Part of me hated fleecing him, but the man was dead, and I needed all the help I could get if I wanted to escape this place.
"A knife...another broken flashlight...and a half-full water flask," I muttered. "Great." The man hadn't had any food on him—not that it would have mattered, I thought ruefully. He’d died on impact, judging by the angle of his neck. At least he hadn't suffered...which was more than I’d be able to say about myself. If I didn't figure out how to get the hell out of here, I was going to die of thirst.
I swiveled my flashlight around the space, trying to see if there was a way out. Unfortunately, the only way out was up. "So much for this," I grumbled, staring at the charm Señor Tarras had tied around my wrist like a bracelet. A strength-boosting charm was worth absolutely nothing if I couldn't put weight on my ankle to help me climb out. Tears of frustration stung the corners of my eyes, and my chest tightened as panic set in.
"Breathe, Annia," I ordered myself. Giving in to fear would only hasten the inevitable. Leaning against the wall, I took slow, shallow breaths, forcing my heart rate back down to a manageable level. I began to sort through my thoughts. Emilio was down here next to me, which meant he’d tripped over that same wire. Who had put it there? An enemy or a thief? But then why didn't they take any of the valuable fungus with them? Judging by the amount in those burlap bags, there was a fortune’s worth left behind when Emilio sprang that trap.
As time passed, I gradually became aware of another presence. The air grew heavy around me, my skin prickling, and I drew one of my knives from its sheath, my fingers digging into the hilt. "Who's there?" I called.
Was it the person who had set the trap, coming down to see what he had caught? But if that was the case, why wait until now? Or had he only just found out about Emilio's disappearance?
No one answered, but the sensation didn't go away. Could this be the evil spirit that the locals had talked about? I glanced down at the pouch tied to my belt, wondering if I should take the pebble out. Or was it repelling the spirit simply by being there?
"Honestly." I rolled my eyes. This cave was really getting to me if I was seriously entertaining the idea of evil spirits. It was probably just an animal. Fresh air was getting in here somehow—that meant animals could likely come in and out, too.
Knowing there was no point in sitting around and waiting for death, I cut strips of cloth off Emilio's shirt and used them to bind my ankle. It still throbbed when I put my weight on it, but not as badly as before, and I hoped that meant it was just a sprain, not a break. Holding the flashlight between my teeth, I reached for the nearest handhold—a rocky outcropping just within reach—and began to climb.
The climb was pure agony on my ankle, but thanks to the strength charm, which s
tarted to glow the moment I began my ascent, I was able to haul myself up despite the pain. As the top of the pit grew closer and closer, the anxiety in my chest began to lift. If I could just get myself to the top, I could get out of this mess. I wouldn't be able to bring Emilio’s body back with me, but at least I'd confirmed his death and location. That would have to be enough, until we could get a team out here to retrieve him.
Two-thirds of the way up, I reached for another handhold...and found nothing. Panic gripped my throat as I flailed around, trying to find something, anything, to grab onto. I angled my head to shine the flashlight around the pit, but the walls from this point out were completely smooth.
You could try to jump, I thought, eyeing the top of the pit.
And that was when the handhold I was gripping abruptly gave out on me.
"Fuck!" I screamed, and plummeted yet again.
I landed hard on my ass, bruising the hell out of my tailbone and jarring my ankle again. Tears of pain and rage streaked down my cheeks, and I snatched up a rock in a fit of pique and hurled it as hard as I could against the wall. I half expected it to bounce off, but instead it lodged itself in a crack I hadn't noticed before.
Frowning, I rolled onto my belly and crawled over to the crack on the opposite side of the pit. It was just wide enough for maybe a rat to pass through, but there was loose rubble on the ground in front of it. I dug at it with my bare hands, hoping it was hiding some secret exit. I managed to clear maybe a foot of it away when my hand struck something that felt like bone.
"Ugh." I recoiled, a shudder rippling through me. But a metallic glimmer reflected the light from my flashlight, piquing my curiosity. Reluctantly, I dug up more of the rubble, exposing a brittle skeleton. Its clothes, if it had been wearing any, had long turned to dust, but a splendid gold torque hung around its neck. Beautiful, ancient symbols and imagery had been etched into the surface. Without thinking, I reached out and brushed a finger along the cold metal.