by Lance, C. M.
Sig rolled his eyes and nodded. "Is that all?"
"That's all for today. I'll have more for you tomorrow. I hope you didn't think zombies were the only foes you would have to face. Necromancy is dirty, evil magic, but you should realize that rotting, animated corpses are one of the easier challenges you'll have."
Sig hung his head. "I'm sorry if I seem ungrateful. I know you're trying to help me."
"No, I'm sorry for loading you up like this, but I have to cover as much as I can in the time I have left."
A feeling of loss washed over Sig. His felt his face fall into a forlorn expression. "I'm sorry Grampa. I don't mean to make this hard for you. It's just that it seems like a mountain of information to memorize while I'm looking over my shoulder for the Dark Mage who wants to kill me."
"No, it's a mountain of information you must memorize if you hope to keep a Dark Mage from killing you."
Sig looked into Grampa's eyes and realized he was serious, deadly serious.
Sig assembled the equipment, which he would need when he met Madeline to check out the caves her uncle described and piled it in the back of his truck.
Back inside he hollered, "Mom, I'm going to meet Madeline about our geology lab project."
She came out of the laundry room. "Where are you meeting?"
"At the library."
"When will I get to meet your lab partner? Maybe you can invite her over for dinner. Since she's new in town, we should show our hospitality."
"Yeah, that's a good idea. She might like the company. The uncle she's staying with is out of town a lot and she doesn't have anyone else."
Meredith's expression turned sad. "Poor girl. Yes, please invite her. After a loss like she's had, being alone is probably not a good thing."
"I'll do it." Sig said with a smile.
"Call me if she wants to come over tonight."
Sig showed her his cellphone. "Will do."
†††
He pulled into the parking lot next to Madeline's BMW convertible. She swung her bare legs out and paused before she stood up with a grin. Sig smiled in appreciation. She wore gray short shorts and tight, long sleeved pink T-shirt. It was nice that the weather had turned warm. The reminders of the last snow were almost gone.
He pressed a button to roll down his passenger side window. "I know with this crazy weather that it seems like spring is rolling in, but won't you be a little chilly inside a cave?"
She flashed him a moue. "It's such a gorgeous day." She raised both arms toward the blue arc of sky, showing off her trim waist and belly button as the T-shirt rose above the low cut shorts. "I miss the sun on my skin. I am a California girl after all. I have sweat pants, a parka, and a blanket in the trunk along with the lunch I packed. I'm prepared for anything," she said with a crooked smile.
He got out of his truck and walked around the back. "Put the top up. I'll grab your stuff and put in the back of the truck. Hop in."
"I thought we'd take my car," she said with a frown. "I told you I need to soak up the sun. Besides, I know how to get there. Or is it not considered masculine to let a woman drive?"
Sig shrugged. "Okay. I don't want to be called a chauvinist." He grabbed a small cooler from the pickup bed and held it up. "Sodas." Next he hefted a gym bag from the truck bed. "I've got a flashlight, a high intensity torch, and 600 feet of rope. I hope you brought breadcrumbs so we can find our way out it that's not long enough."
"I don't think that will be a problem," she said with a smile.
On the passenger side of the BMW, he dropped his gear into the back seat and swung his legs over the door and slid into the seat. "I've always wanted to try that, but convertibles are scarce in Minnesota."
"I can understand why not, most of the time, but today is the perfect day." She giggled.
Sig leaned his head back on the headrest, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. "The sun does feel good. This is a good idea."
"I'm glad you like it." She started her car and pulled out of the lot.
†††
She drove for about an hour. The roads grew smaller, the terrain more hilly, and vegetation thickened. Finally she pulled off a paved road onto a gravel road.
"Do you think we should stop and put the top up to keep the dust out?" Sig asked.
"Naw, if we drive fast enough we should leave the dust behind."
Sig laughed. "Go for it California girl."
She mashed down on the accelerator and the car leapt forward trailing a towering plume of dust.
Sig looked back. "It's okay as long as you keep moving but when you stop, it's going to fill up your car."
She shrugged, pushed her Foster Grants up on her cute little nose and kept motoring. She slowed for stop signs but didn't stop. The dust never quite caught up, before she accelerated again.
Sig relaxed and drummed on the door and dashboard to the music blaring from her stereo system. He let her control the music and watched her golden red hair float around her face as she drove. Her skin seemed to glow and take on a bronze tone as they travelled. It was going to be the best geology lab he ever could imagine. So what if the caves were a flop?
Trees on each side of the road grew thicker and she had to slow to steer around wash outs that had been worn by runnels crossing the road. The trailing dust plume grew smaller, but still never caught her car. Her smile grew wider as they crested hills and dropped toward narrow points in the road where it passed over small creeks and streams.
She never consulted a map while she drove; surely negotiating turns even though street signs grew scarce.
"Have you been this way before? You seem to know where you're going." Sig said.
"No, I'm good at visualizing maps. After I study one for a little while, I'm good to go." She smiled over at him and then jerked her eyes back just in time to swerve around a particularly large gully cutting across the rutted dirt road. "Almost there, thank God. That one would have ripped out the undercarriage if I hit it."
A few minutes later she slowed and pulled off next to a sagging metal gate. No signs indicated where they were.
Sig looked at the skeptically. "Through there? Do you think it will open? That's a pretty big lock."
She reached into the console, pulled out, and brandished a large key. "That's what this if for and my big strong boy is here to open the gate. Here." She handed him the key. After fiddling with the lock for a moment before it released, Sig was able to lift the gate and swing it to the side, enough for her to pull the car through. Beyond the gate, the track became two ruts separated by brown weeds rising two feet into the air.
He looked quizzically down the trail. "Can this sports car get down that path? This is where my truck would come in handy."
"Get in. It's supposed to be clear enough."
He stepped into the car and she slowly picked her way through the weeds accompanied by the steady crunch of gravel.
The rutted trail wound down a hill, switching back twice until they reached a cliff of jumbled boulders ascending eighty feet in the air. She stopped, shut of the car, and turned to Sig. "We're here."
"Wherever here is." He got out and looked up the pile of boulders and around at the brush growing up to the base of the boulders, leaving only enough room for the car path to end.
"See that trail winding up through the boulders?" She asked. "Uncle told me that it leads to the cave entrance. Come on, grab your stuff and let's check it out." She popped the trunk and pulled out a picnic basket and a blanket. "I've got mine."
Sig smiled and grabbed the cooler and gym bag. "Let's go."
She threw the blanket over her shoulder, and then grabbed his arm by the bicep and pulled it close to her chest. "It looks rough. Don't let me fall."
He tensed his arm, said, "Hang on," and followed the narrow winding trail up between the boulders.
They slipped and hopped around boulders taller than Sig. Finally, behind a particularly huge boulder, a dark opening yawned in the side of the hill.
Sig stared at the opening. A feeling like first time he entered an amusement park overwhelmed him. The joy of adventure beckoned from an opening six feet wide and about five feet tall.
"This is so neat! I feel like an explorer." He flashed Madeline a broad smile, dug a flashlight out of the gym bag, and peered into the opening.
As the light played around he saw that the opening grew taller. A few feet in, he stood erect with inches to spare. He turned and Madeline held out his gym bag and cooler. "Forget something?" She said with a smile.
He took them with a bashful grin and Madeline returned outside to retrieve the picnic hamper and blanket while he looped and fastened his first rope around a medium sized boulder.
He picked up the gym bag. "Let's see what we can find."
"Don't you want your cooler," she asked.
Before he replied, she cocked her head and held up the palm of her hand.
A distant plink sounded to break the silence.
Sig's eyes expanded. "Your uncle said something about an underwater lake."
"Yes, at least that part sounds right. I don't see any stalactites though."
"Those are caused by water seepage through the limestone. I bet there are some near the lake." Excitement laced his voice. "I'll come back for the cooler."
He lead the way over and around boulders, sometimes bending almost double to get past low roofed areas, paying out rope as he went.
Sometimes he remembered to come back and help Madeline over particularly tough stretches, but his enthusiasm kept him moving forward past others. Sometimes she called him back so he could shine the flashlight over the rock strewn floor. "You know I can't see in the dark. I don't want to twist an ankle. Then you'd have to carry me out."
"I'm sorry. Here take my hand." He helped her clamber over yet another large boulder.
Just after he connected his third 200 foot length of rope, they ran across the first stalactite, stalagmite pair. One suspended from the ceiling as a slender needle about two feet long. It hung over a squattier tooth rising from a surprisingly clear area of the floor. The flashlight reflected multiple shades of cream, yellow and orange. Sig walked around them shining the flashlight at various angles.
"See how the metallic impurities in the calcite crystal cause the hues to change?
"Fascinating. We're walking through a fairyland and you're ecstatic about the science of calcite."
"Yeah, the class is going to love this. I hope there are more." He replied, seemingly oblivious to her sarcasm.
He stepped over what looked like it might be a fallen stalactite and stepped into a puddle of water. "Darn it!" He hopped past, but could feel the cold water squishing in his sneaker. "Be careful. I think I just stepped into your uncle's lake." He shone the flashlight into a six inch deep body of water that was about two feet wide and six feet long.
He gave Madeline a rueful look. She shrugged and then they both heard a reverberating plonk of a water droplet in the direction they had been travelling.
Sig's expression transformed into a crooked grin, "I guess there are more puddles up ahead." He extended a hand to help her step over and around the pool he had soaked his shoe in. She still hung onto the picnic hamper and blanket.
Twenty paces further on, the flashlight reflected off a larger body of water winding in and around a large collection of stalagmites. Warm pastel reflections temporarily made him forget the chill from his damp foot.
"It's beautiful," Madeline said. She walked over to a flat rock shelf standing a little way from the water and set down the hamper and blanket. "I'm ready for a rest."
Sig laughed. "We're getting ready to run out of rope anyway. I'll go back and get the cooler."
"And leave me here in the dark? I don't think so."
He reached into the gym bag and pulled out the large torch. Tilting the lens back he shone it at the ceiling. The reflection lit up the cavern like a cathedral.
"Wow," he said. The plentiful collection of columns stretching up and reaching down, some joined, reminded him of pictures of flying buttresses he had seen in books at home.
"Don't think you can leave just because I have light now. I'm not staying here by myself." Madeline said from where she sat on the blanket spread out on the stone shelf." She patted it. "Come sit down and rest. We can do without the cooler." She held up a small canister. I have a little something here that will tide you over." She screwed off the top and set it down.
He sat down, elbows on knees, and gazed at the jagged spires sticking out of the small pond.
Madeline put her hand on his shoulder and rose gracefully to stand in front of him. "It's like our own little fairyland." She nudged his feet apart, stepped in between his knees, put both hands on his shoulders, and began to rub them and his neck. "Maybe we should keep it to ourselves."
Sig looked at the scooped neck of her T-shirt just inches from his face and groaned with pleasure.
She ran her fingers under his necklace and rubbed the angle between his neck and collarbone.
He shut his eyes and leaned his head forward.
Her hands rose and she stepped to the side.
He suddenly realized she'd slipped off his chain and medallion. He grabbed for it. "Hey, give that back."
One of his fingers snagged it. She tugged. The chain sailed through the air, landing in the lake with a splash.
Sig stared at the spreading ripples. He started to rise but she lunged and straddled his lap, knocking him back down. Surprised, he landed hard. "What are you …?"
She shoved the lip of a small bottle into his open mouth. Sickly sweet fluid flowed across his tongue. He tried to spit, but her hand clamped across his jaws.
He attempted to jerk away but found he couldn't. His body wouldn't respond to his wishes. He drooped and fell sideways onto the shelf. He heard, but didn't feel his head smack the rock.
His eyes stared at rock walls illuminated by the torch. Fingers passed in front of his face and then pressed his eyes closed to slits.
He heard her steps recede and then heard a thump. "Ow! Damn! The torch!"
Splash.
"Hmmm. The torch works underwater," she said.
"My, but that water is deep. I don't see your amulet down there. Well, I don't need it. I have this flashlight and your rope to help me find my way out. You'll have light from the torch down there, at least until the batteries run out.
"I know you can hear me even if your body is frozen. I'm sorry about this, but the Dark Mage has knowledge I need. This is my payment to him. He must fear and hate you a great deal to want me to do this to you."
He heard foot steps moving away.
"My advice is to sleep—sleep as much as you can. It will make it easier." She said over the sound of her receding footsteps.
He was an adorable boy, but the Dark Mage promised to reveal the secrets of demon summoning. Not just any demon, higher order demons.
The boy took such delight in the cave and its geologic features. It will be a suiting place to entomb him for all time.
She picked her way back along the rope trail laid out in the cave.
Funny that the Dark Mage needed her help against a Battle Wizard. The problem was his talisman. Total resistance to magic, potions, charms, incantations, curses, and, perhaps, even riddles, jokes and jests. Although vulnerable to physical attacks including lightning, fireballs, knives, bullets, bombs, and demons in all forms, his Battle form and that sword were potent offensive and defensive weapons. The Dark Wizard hadn't been able to kill him so far.
That's why a witch is called for. What chance did a wee witch have to cope with him? He is a male and thanks to magic, this girlish figure has been maintained for over 500 years. Two hundred with White magic, but Black magic has been needed to make it even better for the last three hundred years.
Luckily, a secret she learned centuries ago is that when magic won't work, pressing pert breasts in a man's face and furnishing an expert shoulder and neck rub, turns the male brain to mush more
effectively than any known potion.
That, in combination with a potion providing short periods of supernatural quickness, taken after arrival at the underground lake allowed removal of his amulet.
Unfortunately, the boy in his normal form was almost supernaturally quick too. The Dark Mage wanted the amulet. With its built in resistance, magic won't retrieve Sig's talisman out of the underground lake. If the Mage wants it badly enough, he can dive to the bottom for it. The pool appeared very deep, and very cold. He lips peeled back in a feral grin.
Guided by the rope Sig had provided, she arrived at the tunnel entrance with only one mishap, stepping into the same puddle that soaked Sig's feet on the way in.
Outside in the sun, she retrieved her cellphone to call the Dark Mage. Before dialing she was startled to hear, "I take it you administered the potion. Let's have the amulet." Whirling and looking up she saw him standing atop the large bolder that hid the entrance.
She looked down as she folded the cellphone and put it in her pocket. "It fell into the underground pool," she mumbled.
His lips thinned as he stared at her.
She threw her hands up. "Come on. We struggled over it and he knocked it into the pool. I can't swim. Sorry. You can still jump in and look for it," she said defensively.
"But you did administer the potion? You haven't answered." He glanced nervously at the cave entrance.
"His body is frozen. He is aware. His vision and hearing work, but he is entombed in an unmoving body. Without his amulet the task was simple, and it will stay at the bottom of the pond."
"Very well."
"Alright, I've completed my part of the deal. Now it's your turn."
He looked at her with a sneer. "Only a portion of your assignment is completed. I don't have the amulet."
"I did my part, putting him out of commission. The amulet was an extra you threw in at the end. It wasn't part of the blood oath you swore. I got it away from him so the potion would work. It's working. He's in eternal La-La-Land."