Nine by Night: A Multi-Author Urban Fantasy Bundle of Kickass Heroines, Adventure, & Magic

by SM Reine

  Somewhere behind me, Simon cursed only to have the words cut off in a startled cry of pain. I slowed to glance back, but in the tight passage I stumbled over my own feet and fell. My hip struck the unyielding rock, and the flashlight flew from my hands. Either it broke or the switch was bumped off. Blackness descended on the passage again, and I couldn’t see or hear a thing.

  CHAPTER 23

  For a long moment, the only sound in the tunnel was that of my own breathing—fast and ragged in my ears. I twisted about, wincing at the new lump on my hip, and tried to see the exit. I hadn’t scrambled that far, had I? The opening and the daylight beyond it ought to be in view. Unless that opening was blocked...

  “Temi?” I whispered. “Simon?”

  They’d been right behind me. Surely they’d had time to dive into the hole too.

  “Ssh,” Temi breathed so softly I almost missed it. It sounded like she was about twenty feet behind me and higher up. The passage was sloping at a thirty, maybe forty percent grade. Climbing back out would be like crawling up a slide at a water park.

  Scrapes and grunts drifted to my ears. The predator. It was farther back than Temi—it must still be outside, otherwise she’d be shoving at me and yelling for me to hurry. I hoped it was too large to crawl inside, then realized that must be the case. Otherwise it would have followed Eleriss and Jakatra, and it’d be following us now. Maybe they’d designed their hole to these narrow proportions, knowing that the creature would give chase.

  “You two okay?” Simon asked from farther back than Temi.

  I exhaled in relief. When I’d heard his cry, I hadn’t been sure he’d made it inside.

  A deep rumbling snarl answered him.

  “I wasn’t talking to you,” he said his voice sounding farther away.

  I blinked slowly, realizing he’d turned around and was addressing the creature.

  “Don’t get cheeky just because it can’t reach us for the moment,” I said. “We have to go out that way at some point.”

  “I’m sure it can’t understand me,” Simon said.

  Remembering the way the predator had targeted our headlights with its rocks, I wasn’t as certain. If someone had engineered it into existence, they could have made it bright and taught it to understand English too.

  A hint of light returned to the tunnel. The monster must have moved away from the entrance.

  I patted around, hunting for the fallen flashlight, but the effort was in vain. With that slope, it would have kept rolling until it hit a level spot. I imagined it plopping out of a cavern ceiling to land at Jakatra’s feet. Lovely way to announce our presence.

  Shadows moved above me. A light winked to life, nearly blinding me. I raised my arm to block it and looked away.

  “Sorry,” Simon said, turning the flashlight toward the wall, “but here’s your bow.” He leaned around Temi to hand it to me.

  I accepted it, glad to have a weapon again. There wasn’t any room for anyone to pass anyone else, so I was stuck leading. Temi handed me her flashlight, and after conking my head on the ceiling a few times I gave up on crouching and crawling in favor of sliding down the slope.

  In the distance, water dripped. Time oozed past as we continued downward. I shivered as the air grew chillier, or maybe it simply seemed chillier. All of the rock climbing had left my hair and clothing sweaty, and they clung unpleasantly to my cooling body.

  “How deep did you say the cavern was?” I asked as we continued to scoot down the slope.

  “About seventy-five feet,” Simon replied.

  “Haven’t we gone that far yet?” It felt like we’d gone seven hundred.

  “It’s possible our friends missed the target,” he said.

  “If so, one would think they’d figure that out quickly, and that the tunnel would take a few hard rights or lefts, followed by a bunch of squiggly curves as they searched for the right spot.”

  “Just because that’s how you drive through the Walmart parking lot doesn’t mean that’s how they’d drill their hole.”

  Temi snorted.

  “Ha ha,” I said, then didn’t speak for a while. The drips of water in the distance had turned to a steady trickle and sounded closer.

  I scooted down the slope faster. It sounded like there was going to be a cave down here. It wasn’t that I’d doubted Simon exactly... but I’d been skeptical of some undiscovered grotto so close to town.

  The light played across something metal up ahead. I tensed, but it was only the clip on the flashlight I’d lost. It lay on a flat stretch of stone in a tunnel that crossed ours, creating a T-intersection. The other passage was identical in size and shape to this one.

  “Then again,” Simon said, “maybe they do drive their tunnel-maker the way you drive the van.”

  I sat down in the intersection and waited for the others. I fought a jittery feeling of unease at the lowness of the ceiling and the knowledge that we couldn’t stand and run if we needed to. We’d have to crawl out the same way we’d come down, except much more effort would be required for ascent.

  “How’s your knee?” I asked Temi. “Regretting your choice to join us for this foray into the underworld?”

  She was also taking the opportunity to sit, her legs stretched out to one side. “Given that the monster can’t get down here, I’d rather be here than waiting up by the kayaks. Though perhaps a hotel in a far away city would be acceptable as well.” She adjusted her leg and grimaced at some stab of pain or another. “A hotel with a masseur. And a hot tub.”

  Simon, hunkered behind her, blinking a few times at whatever images her words conjured in his mind. I widened my eyes at him. I still didn’t think he had a chance, but he might never get a better straight line for offering her a massage. He opened his mouth to speak, then closed it, his shoulders slumping. Temi was rubbing her knee and didn’t notice.

  “Shall we split up?” I asked. “Or check both sides together?”

  “I feel that this would be the appropriate time to pursue group activities and bond as a team,” Temi said.

  “Enh, the monster is stuck outside,” Simon said, “and I don’t really think Eleriss and Jakatra will kill us at this point. There shouldn’t be anything down here to bug us. I’ll check to the right, and you girls can go left. One’s probably a dead end anyway.”

  He crawled off in his chosen direction before we could object. He was probably right, so my only objection was to his stupidity when it came to women. Temi had massages on her mind and wanted to stick together, so what was he doing? Fleeing in the other direction.

  “Except whatever they’re looking for,” Temi murmured.

  “What?” I asked, not certain I’d understood.

  “He said there wasn’t anything down here to bug us, but we don’t know what those two are looking for.”

  “Oh,” I said, imagining ancient weapons and booby traps. I was almost tempted to crawl after Simon, but even if we both had tendencies toward rashness, I thought he was smart enough to avoid some centuries-old land mine. “I’m sure he’ll be fine.”

  I glanced at Temi, wondering if I might catch her gazing back with concern for Simon, but after a pause, she nodded and waved for me to lead the way.

  Without the slope to aid us, we didn’t advance as quickly. I kept the flashlight trained on the passage ahead of us, and it gradually curved to the right. That was it for variations in the scenery. The tunnel otherwise remained the same perfect circle. I guessed Eleriss and Jakatra had run into some particularly hard stone or a terrain feature they’d had to go around.

  It was still chilly down here—even if they’d burned through the rock to make the tunnels, the walls had since cooled—but traveling horizontally took more effort, and I had to pause a few times to wipe sweat out of my eyes. It occurred to me that with the only exit guarded, we were stuck down here until the riders left with their sword, and the monster took off after them. If something happened to them, and they didn’t—or couldn’t—leave, how long would that cr
eature wait out there? We had no chance of outrunning it on foot, or in kayaks, not when it could cover ground as rapidly as our van.

  I wiped my eyes again. I needed to stop thinking about this stuff.

  “Can I ask you a question?” I asked to distract myself—and because it’d grown apparent that the tunnel would go on for a while.

  “Yes,” Temi said.

  “Why didn’t you ever email or write home after you left?”

  Out of all the things I could have brought up, I don’t know why I chose that. Maybe it was one of those things, like putting one’s will in order. I wanted it resolved... just in case. Besides, I’d keep feeling awkward when I was alone with her until I knew what she thought about back then.

  After a long moment, Temi said, “My parting with my parents was so... uncomfortable that it soured me on everything back home. I didn’t keep in touch with anyone.”

  So because her parents had been jerks about her dreams, she’d decided to ignore her best friend for the next ten years? It sounded like a half-truth. Maybe I should have let it go, but I wanted to clear the air. Somehow it seemed easier here, where I didn’t have to look her in the eye because I was busy crawling down a tunnel. I wondered if that made me strange.

  “If it was at all because of me,” I said, “I want to say I’m sorry for that last night. It was kind of... impulsive. It didn’t really mean... I don’t know. I was just a dumb kid, you know?”

  The silence that followed my fumbled words made me wince. I shouldn’t have brought this up. Bad timing.

  “What are you talking about?” Temi finally asked.

  Now I was the one who didn’t speak for a moment. She couldn’t possibly not know what I was talking about, could she? “That last night we hung out before you left, and we went walking out to the canyon in the moonlight.”

  “Yea...”

  “Well, I kissed you, right?” I said in a rush. “That’s what I’m talking about. I thought it might have offended you or made you think I was nuts and not want to talk to me again because you were afraid I’d... I mean, I wouldn’t. It was like I said, an impulse. I, uhm, date guys now.” We could have been crawling through a volcano tube full of molten lava and my cheeks wouldn’t have been any hotter. I resolved to stop talking before I made myself more uncomfortable, if that was possible.

  “Oh,” Temi said, the single syllable doing nothing to relieve the awkwardness cloaking me.

  I told myself not to say anything else. I’d uttered what I’d needed to. Time to drop it and pay attention to what we were doing. The sound of trickling water had grown louder. I hoped that meant we’d reach our destination soon, whatever that destination might be.

  “I’m not sure how to say this in a way that won’t be insulting,” Temi said, “but...”

  I cringed, certain the answer would slay me.

  “I don’t remember that,” Temi finished.

  For the first time, I stopped and turned to face her. “You don’t remember it?”

  Temi spread a hand. “I mean, I guess I do, but I didn’t really think anything of it at the time, and I’d forgotten about it until now. Mainly what I remember from that night was going over and over in my head whether to run away from home. I appreciate that you were there... but I was so focused on myself that I don’t remember anything you said. Or much of what you did, I guess.”

  I managed to wait until my back was to her again to roll my eyes. All this time, I’d wondered if I’d irrevocably offended her, and she didn’t remember it. Unbelievable. I continued down the tunnel. Well, as clear as the air was now, I ought to be able to shoot straight bull’s-eyes with my bow.

  “I’m sorry I never wrote,” Temi said. “I meant to, but I was really busy and then it seemed like it’d been so long that I thought... I don’t know. I thought you’d think the way my parents did. That I was wasting my life smacking a little ball around a court. Yaiyai made a point of writing and telling me your SAT scores when you took them and that you were on your way to college. I had the distinct impression she wished you were her adopted granddaughter.”

  “Please, you must have been smoking something out there in Florida if you think my SAT scores impressed anyone. It’s not like Harvard was knocking on my door, eager to offer me a scholarship.”

  “Hey, they were good. If you didn’t get scholarships, it’s because you were more interested in roaming the desert, poking your nose into old caves and pueblo ruins, than doing extracurricular activities at school to impress admissions officers.”

  Huh, I hadn’t realized she’d followed my school career at all, or that her family had. By then she’d been winning junior tennis tournaments all over the world; my accomplishments had been nothing in comparison.

  “So,” I said, “basically we haven’t talked in nine years because we were worried about what the other person was thinking about us?”

  “Apparently,” Temi said, a smile in her voice.

  A whisper of damp air brushed my cheeks. It seemed like a good time to focus on what we were doing.

  “I think we’re getting close,” I said. “Close to what, I couldn’t tell you.”

  My flashlight had been playing along the same monotonous gray stone, but it glinted against something bright, and I paused. A golden vein streaked along the ceiling. I withdrew my utility tool, pulled open one of the knives, and scraped at it. Flakes of the soft ore fell away.

  “Huh.”

  “That’s unexpected,” Temi said.

  “And apparently not what our guys are looking for, because they didn’t pause to dig any out.”

  “Are we going to pause to dig any out?”

  “I suppose we could scrape away few flakes. Technically, you’re not supposed to do anything more than recreational gold panning and metal detecting in parks. I’d say this qualifies as a more in-depth excavation, though, since we didn’t dig the tunnel, the interpretation could be a little fuzzy.”

  “Who would know?” Temi sounded amused.

  “I would, I guess, and knowing my luck, I’d get caught. I already have enough people ragging on me for going rogue. No need to truly do anything illegal.”

  “Ah.” Temi ran a finger along the vein. Maybe she was less worried about her reputation.

  She followed after me when I trundled off again though. We could always come back later.

  The breeze grew more noticeable as we continued, and the next time the view changed, it was because the beam from my light disappeared into darkness. Our tunnel ended, the walls disappearing as it opened into a chamber. I crawled to the edge and probed the blackness with my flashlight. It shone onto water some twenty feet below us, water filled with jagged stalagmites that would feel none-too-comfortable to fall on. An underground lake stretched for as far as my light could reach. In places, thick stone columns rose out of the water, reaching to an arched ceiling ten feet above our ledge. Other chambers and tunnels waited, their openings too dark and distant for my light to pierce. This cave was much larger than I’d expected from the blob on Simon’s screen.

  “I guess it was a mistake not to bring the kayaks,” Temi observed.

  “Too bad they weren’t the folding kind.”

  Aside from the tunnel, I didn’t see any signs that people had passed this way. In fact, the flashlight chanced across more veins that sparkled in the distance. That assured me more than anything else that people had never been down here. Amazing. As a girl, I’d dreamed of discovering undiscovered places; I hadn’t expected it to happen in Prescott, Arizona.

  Movement at the edge of my vision made me jerk my flashlight in that direction. Something landed in the water with a splash. Something big.

  “What the—”

  A large, dark head popped up in the water. My heart sank. The familiar oily black form of the predator looked in our direction. For a long moment, it stared at us, and in that moment, I told myself three or four times that it couldn’t fit into our tunnel and that we were safe as long as we remained where we we
re. But the creature didn’t head toward us; when it started swimming, it veered in the opposite direction, toward those tunnels at the back of the lake. I lifted the flashlight toward the ceiling. There was a dark hole in the stone up there with water dribbling from one side. The predator must have found some other entrance to the cave system and come out of that opening. The drips made me wonder if it linked to the lake somehow. Maybe there was an entrance nobody knew about underwater up there. However the creature had arrived, its presence didn’t reassure me, not at all.

  “There’s no way we can warn Jakatra and Eleriss, is there?” Temi asked.

  I’d been more concerned about warning Simon. “No, if they have a phone they stole from Elizabeth and Maude Somersett along with the Harleys, I don’t know their number. I doubt any of us has reception down here anyway.” I pointed behind us. “Let’s find Simon.” And preferably another way down. I didn’t fancy jumping onto those stalagmites. Although, with the creature trolling the cave, maybe we needn’t jump down at all. If it wasn’t guarding the entrance anymore, it ought to be an excellent time for us to head back to the surface and escape while we could.

  We didn’t have to go far to find Simon. He was on his way to find us. Before we reached the intersection, he popped into view ahead and waved enthusiastically.

  “I found the way into the cave,” he said.

  “We found the monster,” I said.

  His waving hand drooped. “Down here?”

  “It found another way in. As much as I’d like to explore this place and as much as I’d like to see that creature out of commission, I don’t think we’re capable of taking it on, and right now, it’s between us and the others, so we can’t count on them and that sword for protection.”

  Simon’s shoulders slumped.

  “Look, we can still wait outside the hole or by their motorcycles and see what they come out with.”

  “Agreed,” Temi said.

  “I wish I’d at least caught some pictures of it,” Simon said. “You didn’t take one of it swimming, did you?”