by Lisa Lace
“Do you think it will be more dangerous than going through the stone soldiers?”
“We can’t go through the stone soldiers, Emmy.”
“That’s my point. Even if the zip line approach is unorthodox, it might be our only way forward. It’s brilliant, even if I do say so myself.” She smiled and punched my arm.
“Don’t hurt me. I have to slide down this rope in a minute.” I pulled her into a hug. “If we’re going to do this thing, let’s not waste any time.”
She nodded. “There’s a ladder on either side allowing access to the cable.”
“Wait a minute. The ladder hasn’t been coated with chromate. It’s made of wood.” I was having second and third thoughts about her idea.
“That’s true.” She stood and looked up at the ladder. “But they did use darkwood to construct it, which is both insect and rot-resistant. There are still darkwood houses on Heralla from centuries ago. They look brand-new.”
A short piece of rope appeared in her hands. She must have taken it from her bottomless pockets. She pulled out a knife and cut the rope in half, giving me a piece.
“Is the archeologist in you trying to tell me the ladder is safe?”
“No,” she said. “I’m not saying that at all.”
“I’m glad we agree on something. I’ll go first.”
“Why?”
“You’ve got all the necessary information. If one of us is going to plunge to their death, it should be me. I’m expendable. Also, I weigh more than you.”
Emmy stepped forward and put her hand on the side of my face. “You’re not expendable to me.”
I smiled, and I kissed her, breaking it off before I became overwhelmed with the urge to take her.
“Don’t worry, Professor. I’m not going to die today.”
She nodded but looked more worried than before. I began to climb, testing my weight on each rung before trusting it. The first few feet seemed sturdy. I didn’t look down. I was not afraid of heights, but I knew better than to risk distraction.
All I had to do was keep moving one arm after the other, and suddenly I had almost reached the top. After two more rungs, I would be able to use my rope and slide over certain death into a much safer probable death.
The rung broke, leaving me dangling by one arm forty feet in the air.
Chapter Twenty-One
EMMY
All I could think about was Ven swinging above my head, hanging by one arm, scrambling in a valiant attempt to grab hold of another rung to pull himself back onto the ladder. There was nothing I could do. It felt like the longest twenty seconds of my life. I had to stop looking.
His deep voice called down to me. “I’m okay.” Perhaps he was all right, but I wasn’t sure if my heart would ever be normal again. I was used to taking risks by myself and for myself. It was quite a different experience when I had to watch someone I cared for putting their life in danger.
Ven kept climbing and reached the top, flipping his rope over the cable with one hand, and keeping a firm grip on the ladder with the other. If the ladder collapsed before he secured himself on the wire, it would be the end of him.
My idea was stupid. If the cable had eroded over time, he would drop straight into the middle of the stone warriors. The number of things to worry about was endless.
He didn’t know what I was thinking. “Be careful of the broken rung and make sure you test each one. They seemed to take my weight, but I don’t know if I weakened them while I was testing.”
“Okay. Be careful, Ven.”
He nodded. “I’ll see you on the other side.” I knew he believed neither of us would die. But I also knew the odds were against us. We weren’t the first people to look for the ladle. The simple truth was that no one ever returned. I didn’t think it was necessary to inform Ven about that little bit of information.
Thinking about the future’s problems didn’t always help the present. Having to worry about another person made everything different. I wasn’t usually this concerned about my survival. I had always assumed I would come back alive.
I watched with fear in my heart as he grabbed the rope with both hands. All he had to do was hold on. Gravity would do the rest. I pulled out a pair of gloves to strengthen my grip when it was my turn.
My body didn’t move. I felt like I wouldn’t be able to do anything until he was safe on the other side. He had his rope draped over the cable and held it with both hands. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, then lifted his legs and began sliding down the line.
It was just as I imagined it in my head until something happened on the far side of the enormous cavern. I saw his body plummet to the ground. By that point, the drop wasn’t too far, so the impact wouldn’t hurt him too much. The problem was that he hadn’t cleared the statues yet. He fell in the middle of a small group.
I heard the twang of a crossbow firing. Ven’s cry of pain echoed across the cavern.
I grabbed onto the ladder and climbed as fast as I could. A poison-tipped arrow had just impaled the only man I ever cared about. We were far from medical attention, and I didn’t carry an anti-venom kit around with me. If Ven was going to survive, his only hope was finding the ladle.
VEN
Everything started out fine as I glided across the top of the room. The problems started when I ran into an obstacle. A thick nest of insects had formed near the cable, creating an immovable barrier. When I ran into the nest, my motion completely stopped. I felt the abrupt change of speed in my arms. I involuntarily opened my hands and fell straight into the last group of statues.
I was able to roll when I landed, but I managed to trigger one of the crossbows, which still worked perfectly after all these years. Up close, the arrow looked like it was made yesterday. It cleanly sliced into my bicep and emerged on the other side of my arm.
My arm looked terrible, but I would live. With my working hand, I eased a multi-tool out of my pocket, activating the laser cutter and removing the arrowhead. That was the easy part. The hard part was pulling the arrow out of my flesh. I screamed in pain, but I only lost a small amount of blood. It appeared the arrow had missed hitting any major blood vessels.
I pulled the suit’s handkerchief out from my breast pocket. It would be large enough to wrap around my arm. I managed to tie it with one hand and tighten the knot with the help of my teeth. After I had bandaged my arm and checked to make sure I wasn’t leaking blood anywhere, I started to look around for a way out.
I couldn’t see Emmy, but I knew she was on her way. I hoped she wouldn’t fall too. She must have seen what happened to me and developed a plan to avoid the obstacle.
A moment later, I heard the sound of a rope sliding down the cable. I held my breath, waiting for her to hit the nest. If she fell, I wanted to be ready to get her out. When she got close to my position, she arched her back and swung her legs up. Her stomach muscles were functional as well as decorative. She wrapped her boots around the cable, using them to slow her descent until she slowed to a gentle stop.
Emmy wrapped her legs around the wire, letting go of the rope and grabbing the cable with her glove-protected hands. She hung from her hands and feet on the cable, and she began to inch down hand over hand. Emmy didn’t stop until she reached a ladder. As soon as she climbed down, she went to my side.
“How do you feel?” she whispered.
I didn’t know why she was whispering. We were the only people around. “I’m here,” I whispered back. “Everything’s still working.”
“Did you get hit by an arrow?”
“I did, but it was a shallow wound. I already pulled it out. It wasn’t a problem. See?”
She bit her lip, and her eyes looked scared. “They’re probably not regular arrows. They’re coated with strychnine.”
As if on cue, the muscles in my legs started to spasm. Emmy’s eyes looked so fearful than I wanted to comfort her but I couldn’t move until the pain stopped.
“But if we can get you to the ladle, it sh
ould fix everything. Right?”
“Right.” Relying on a mythical ladle that was supposed to cure anything wasn’t my idea of a practical plan, but the poison was old. Maybe it would have lost its potency by now. It was still powerful enough to make my body ache.
“Do you think you can get up?” She peered at me through two statues that stood between me and a safe place.
“I can. But should I?”
She grimaced. “I don’t know. I see at least two tripwires.”
“What if I run as fast as I can and stay low to the ground?”
“You might have to. I don’t know of any other choices. Let me trigger some of the tripwires before you start.” Emmy left my line of sight for a moment and returned with a stick. She pushed the closest wires, making arrows fly out with familiar twangs before they landed harmlessly on the ground.
I looked at the floor and tried to plan out a course. The idea wasn’t the best. I took a deep breath and began running.
It was hard to move fast when I was also trying to keep my body a small target. When I felt my foot hit a tripwire and heard the noise of an arrow, I dived to the ground and rolled, but I was too late. The bolt hit me directly in the chest, and it was a deep wound this time. I groaned but managed to crawl to Emmy. I only set off one more trap. The arrow flew harmlessly overhead.
“That was a terrible performance.” She winced when she saw the arrow sticking out from my chest.
“I’m afraid you’re going to have to pull it out,” I said. “Every second will count if poison is involved.”
Emmy moaned. “There’s a reason I’m an archeologist and not a nurse.”
“I hope you’re a quick study.” I felt my legs start to cramp up again. She took a firm grip on the arrow and pulled, but not hard enough. I felt the arrowhead tear my flesh. It wasn’t out yet.
I groaned in pain. “You need to do a single pull with all your strength and remove it.”
“I’m sorry!”
I felt her grab the arrow shaft again and hoped she could do it correctly this time. I needed her help. She yanked, the bolt came out, and blood started freely flowing. I had clenched my mouth shut, but a small moan still escaped.
She pulled out a flattened roll of gauze. I wondered what else she had in her pockets. A second later, she had my shirt off and began wrapping my chest. Once Emmy stopped the bleeding, she helped me put on my shirt again.
Pain seared through my chest and arm as I stood up stiffly. I tried to ignore both the pain and my stiffening legs. This place was not going to get the best of me.
“I’m fine. What’s next?”
She turned to face a stone bridge, which stretched over a dark chasm. I didn’t want to think about how far the fall might be. “We have to cross it.” Emmy gestured to the stones laid in a swirling pattern.
“What are we waiting for?” I moved to walk across it.
Emmy put out her arm and blocked my path. “It’s not that simple.”
“Of course it’s not.”
“We have to figure out which stones are safe to walk on. If we step on the wrong ones, they fall away.”
“Fine,” I said, feeling impatient. “How do we determine the correct path?” The bridge. looked rectangular-shaped. Within the rectangle, stones were laid in a spiral.
“The stones have Karfalun markings on them. They’re numbers. Each stone has a number from one to…” She fell silent and started counting. “It looks like thirteen.”
“Do we step on them in counting order? That sounds simple enough.”
“That sounds too easy. What do we know about spirals? They’re pretty and an example of a vortex…they’re also examples of the golden mean.” She was thinking out loud. “The spiral is a mathematical construct.”
“Aren’t spirals more art than math?” I felt out of my depth again, but it didn’t bother me.
She shook her head. “No, they’re definitely math. I think they’re based on the Fibonacci sequence from Earth.”
Emmy didn’t realize how attractive she became whenever she started discussing obscure mathematical concepts. She had opened my eyes, and it was getting more difficult for me to remember that I had avoided intelligent women in the past. The more time I spent with her, the more I realized that her brain was one of her sexiest attributes.
“Talk dirty to me, baby.” I couldn’t help flashing a grin.
She gave a startled laugh, and her eyes lit up. “You like that? Does it turn on the alien? How about this? A Fibonacci sequence is a series of numbers where you derive each number by adding the two previous numbers.”
I fanned myself. “Come over here. If I’m going to die today, I want to hold you as much as possible before my time is up. I used to be intimidated by smart women, you know.”
“Really?” Emmy looked like she found it hard to believe. “What changed?”
“I got to know you. Keep telling me about Fibonacci.”
Emmy walked over to me and put her hands around my neck. I held her tightly as she explained how she thought about the puzzle. “The sequence starts at zero, so you add zero and one, and you get one, then you add one and one, and you get two. The beginning of the series is 0, 1, 2, 3, 5, and 8.”
She pulled away. “I think that’s how it goes. I wish we could test it and be sure. If we get something wrong, we’re going to fall and die.”
“We can try the first step without anything bad happening. If that one holds, we can do the next one. We just don’t go on the same stones at the same time.” I stopped talking when I noticed my voice trembling.
She studied my face. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“I’ll be better when the poison is out of my body.” I gave her a tight smile.
“Right. Let’s get moving.” Her face looked determined. “I’ll step on the number one.”
She put her foot onto the first tile and pushed down, keeping most of her body weight on solid ground as well as holding on to my hand.
“It seems safe enough.” She transferred the rest of her weight onto the large square stone.
“Great. Which one’s next?”
“Well, one plus one is two, so I should step on the number two stone.”
“Sounds good to me.” I wasn’t paying complete attention to her plan. I thought she was smart enough to figure it out herself, and my head felt light. “Wait. Emmy, don’t move.”
It was too late. She had already pushed on the second tile. It fell away beneath her, and she stumbled into a gaping hole.
Chapter Twenty-Two
VEN
By reflex I pulled on her hand with all my strength, yanking her back onto a sturdy tile.
She put her hand over her chest as if she was trying to contain the pounding of her heart. “Why didn’t that work?”
“You forgot a number. If zero and one give you the first number, then the sequence begins with zero, one, and another one before you get to two.”
She glanced at the hole where the two had been.
“Shit. You’re right. 0, 1, 1, 2, 3. That’s embarrassing. Maybe you should be the archeologist.” She leaned over and kissed me on the cheek. “Don’t believe anyone who says you’re stupid.”
I shrugged, my face burning. It felt like Emmy had given me permission to use intelligence I barely knew I possessed.
“Now what?” She turned to look at the spiral of stones.
“There has to be another number one.”
Emmy examined the stones for only a second before she exclaimed in delight. “There it is.” She pointed to her left side. “I didn’t notice it before.” She pushed on the stone and shifted some of her weight to it. “I think it is safe.”
“That’s a relief. You would have stepped on two if it was there but since it’s not, the next number is…”
“Three, right?” She looked at me for confirmation, and I nodded.
“Okay.” She tested it, transferred her weight and walked across the bridge. I followed a stone or two behind her.
“Five plus eight is… thirteen.”
She looked at the gap. It was quite a distance. I knew I could jump it, but she had shorter legs than I did.
“We’re almost there. Let’s get off this damn bridge.”
“The mistake made me nervous, Ven. We can’t afford additional errors.”
I didn’t respond to her. I felt like I needed to get off the bridge and sit down. The world was spinning around me, and I thought I might pass out. In the meantime, Emmy moved to the back of her stone and leaped with all her strength. She missed her mark slightly, making the twelfth stone tumble away. Her chest landed on the secure rock and she pulled herself up and out of the way.
I couldn’t afford to hesitate further and risk falling over the side of the bridge. I jumped and barely made it to the stone Emmy had just vacated. My body began to shake. I didn’t want to collapse in front of her, so I moved away and plopped my ass down on the floor.
“Everything okay?”
“I think I need to rest for a minute.” I folded my arms over my chest, trying to prevent Emmy from seeing my spasming muscles. “What do we have to do next?”
“The final test forces you to confront your deepest fears.”
“I’m not afraid of anything.” In reality, the thought made me feel queasy. It was either my fear or the poison spreading throughout my body.
“That’s because you have never had to face yourself. The Gate of Truth is supposed to be a lie detector. Not about what you say, but about who you are.”
“That sounds confusing.”
“The legends say only those who believe in their self-worth can pass. No one knows how it works, but somehow the sensors can measure whether you think about yourself.”
She took my hand, and we walked up to a large arched doorway. She let go of me and immediately walked through. Nothing happened. She came out on the other side and smiled at me. “See? No problem.”
“Wait a second. What happens if someone doesn’t pass the test?”
She looked away from me. When the seconds stretched into a minute, I felt myself begin to sweat. “Just say it. We don’t have a lot of time to waste.”