The Fire Keeper

by J. C. Cervantes

  “She knows that, Hondo!” I growled. “And I’m pretty sure that isn’t helping.”

  “All I’m saying,” he added, “is that she needs to be able to handle stress. Meditation would help.”

  “I’ll try anything,” Ren said. “I can’t just become a zombie in the middle of some big moment or fight.”

  “I’ll train you,” Hondo whispered to her.

  “Can we just get inside?” Brooks shouldered her pack and got on all fours to lead the way.

  Hondo scrunched down to navigate the tight opening. “What is this, the elf entrance?”

  “It’s so dark,” Ren exclaimed, following closely behind Rosie, who had to belly-crawl so she wouldn’t hit her head. Flames blazed in the hellhound’s eyes, illuminating the space. “Thanks, Rosie.”

  “You mean…you can’t see in the dark?” I asked, bringing up the rear.

  Ren hesitated, then said, “That’s a Zane thing.”

  Rosie snorted.

  The passage was tight. Ahead of me, Hondo’s breathing quickened and he began to chant under his breath, but I couldn’t make out the words.

  “We’re almost there,” I said. I called the heat from Rosie’s eyes and made a small fireball for more light.

  I heard Hondo’s sigh of relief as we emerged into an open chamber. Our shadows loomed across the craggy walls. Ren spun around with her head tilted back. “It looks just like how you described it.”

  “Really?” Brooks said sarcastically. “I thought Zane was such a terrible writer.” She elbowed Hondo, who just shrugged and rolled his neck back and forth like he had a cramp.

  Rosie blew out a stream of smoke and lumbered across the chamber, where she stopped in front of three passages, each branching off in a different direction. I knew this place so well I could walk it blindfolded. Rosie, too. We’d spent years exploring the volcano back in New Mexico before I knew who I really was.

  I stared down the passage on the far right. That was where the demon runner had tricked Brooks and me and led us into the sacrifice chamber. A place I’d avoided ever since.

  Please don’t let that be the gateway to hell, I prayed.

  “Dude,” Hondo said, “you pick some creepy places to hang out.”

  “How many caves are in this place?” Ren asked like she was interviewing me for her alien blog.

  “A lot.” I shrugged. “It’s like a maze that goes on forever.”

  “So which one goes to Xib’alb’a?” asked Brooks.

  I didn’t want to admit the truth—that I had no idea where the door to hell was.

  It wasn’t like Ixtab had given me a map. She’d never mentioned the entrance’s exact location, only that it was inside the Beast. And even though I’d been back here a bunch of times, I never poked around for the passageway to the underworld, mostly because she’d threatened me with torture if I ever used it for anything but the direst situation.

  “I don’t see any emergency exit signs,” Hondo said.

  “Entrance,” Brooks corrected. “Not exit.”

  “Depends on how you look at it,” Hondo mumbled. He kept taking deep breaths and placing his hands together like he was saying a prayer.

  “You okay?” I asked.

  “Gotta prepare the mind, calm the nerves,” he said. “It’s all about controlling the breath. And seeing the outcome you want. I see a tall, beautiful woman opening the door and saying, ‘Hey, come on in for some Flamin’ Hot Cheetos and salsa.’ Then she gives us everything we want, we get to fight a demon or two for fun, and we go home with a trophy.”

  “Trophy?” Brooks let out a light laugh. “Pretty sure hell doesn’t give out trophies.”

  “It’s my vision, and your negative energy is jamming my good-vibe frequency, Brooks,” Hondo said.

  “I like it,” Ren whispered to Hondo. “Could use a little more detail, but pretty solid as far as visions go.”

  Brooks rolled her eyes and Rosie gave a short grunt like she was trying to say This is hell, not fairyland.

  “Rosie will show us the way,” I said. “Right, girl?”

  The hellhound escorted us down the corridor to the left. The passage led to a web of narrow caves, tight crawly spaces, and inclines so steep I couldn’t investigate them, even with Fuego. Just as we were about to cut right, Rosie stopped, backed up, and stared at the wall to our left. But there was no door, no opening, not even a sliver of light.

  “Are you sure this is it, girl?”

  She lifted her chin, and her eyes glowed red as she focused on the trio behind me and whined.

  “Back up, everyone.” Rosie grabbed my fireball between her jaws and nudged my cane. I knew what she wanted me to do. I changed Fuego into its awesome glowing blue spear self and stepped back the entire ten feet the passage allowed. With a deep breath, I launched the weapon, worried it didn’t have enough distance to gain momentum.

  The passage lengthened, and the wall opened wide when the spear hit it. I blinked as bright light streamed into the cave. When my eyes adjusted, I saw a snowy meadow in front of us. There was an icy rush of a stream, and snowflakes tumbled down from above.

  Pale shapes glided through a few leafless trees like white shadows or ghosts.

  “Holy K!” Brooks said as we teetered on the edge of this strange world.

  “Holy hell,” Hondo uttered.

  “Increíble!” Ren said.

  “We’re going in there, aren’t we?” Hondo shivered. “Someone could have told me to bring a coat.”

  “Just tell yourself it isn’t cold,” Brooks teased.

  “This doesn’t feel right,” Ren said.

  “Then we’re in the right place,” I said as Fuego appeared back in my hand and I stepped into snow up to my ankles.

  My heart pounded as we inched across the meadow toward a dead forest. “What is this place?”

  “It’s like the North Pole or something.” White fog streamed from Hondo’s mouth. “I thought hell was all fire and brimstone.”

  Brooks pressed her lips into a line and glanced around suspiciously.

  Looking stunned, Ren stood a few feet behind everyone like she was too afraid to take another step toward the strange forest. “I really don’t think that’s the way,” she said.

  “How would you know?” Brooks said to her.

  “I just have a sixth sense about stuff like this. I can always sniff out a fake alien report, too.”

  The snow beneath my feet shifted to reveal an ice lake. “Guys.”

  Brooks’s and Hondo’s gazes followed mine.

  “Please tell me there’s not water underneath this,” Brooks muttered softly, like she was afraid her words could puncture the ice.

  “Nobody move,” I said, stopping in my tracks. I looked at Rosie. Smoke curled from her nose. Her muscles were flexed.

  “Let’s just back up slowly,” Brooks said.

  “Backing up is the wrong direction,” I reminded her.

  “Water is always the wrong direction!”

  I glanced over my shoulder. Ren stood at the edge of the meadow, shaking her head and gesturing for us to come back. Her mouth was moving, but I couldn’t hear what she was saying.

  The snow was falling heavier now, big thick snowflakes that stuck to my lashes and blocked my view of Ren. The gloomy sky seemed to press in on us as an arctic breeze swept through.

  “Ren!” I shouted.

  Her muffled voice traveled to me, but still I couldn’t make out the words.

  Then I heard the sound of a whip being cracked. A hairline fracture traveled through the ice, stopping only inches away from our feet.

  “It’s going to break,” Hondo warned. “We gotta bolt.”

  “Running will for sure make it break,” I argued. Why would Ixtab give me such a dangerous entrance to hell? Maybe she was so confident in her shadow magic she never thought I’d need it.

  “Zane.” Brooks pointed to my feet. “You’re…you’re melting the ice.”

  Water pooled around my feet.
It had to be a result of the fire I’d pulled inside of me a few minutes ago. Crap! Crappity crap!

  “Dude, really?” Hondo rubbed his arms.

  “What do you want me to do?” I groaned.

  “Don’t be so hot!” Brooks said.

  Hondo raised his eyebrows and let out a shivering laugh.

  Brooks threw Hondo a scowl as I lifted my feet one at a time, trying to shake the heat out. Rosie gave me a look like Not happening.

  “Zane, we can’t stand here all day,” Brooks said.

  “I’ve got an idea!”

  I had just called Rosie over to hitch a ride, when Hondo said, “This place feels muy dead.”

  The stillness of the moment was shattered. Upon hearing the word dead, Rosie launched a massive fire stream from her nose and mouth directly into the ice.

  “STEAK!” I yelled, but it was too late.

  Brooks’s NO echoed across the forest as the ice collapsed and we were plunged into the freezing dark….

  I totally expected violent waters, but instead I got a g-force drop through a howling tornado of wind and ice. Hail stabbed me like a million needles as my screams echoed. Fuego slipped out of my hand.

  Brooks, in hawk form, dove past me with Hondo clinging to her back.

  “Zane,” he hollered. “Grab hold!”

  I grasped one of her talons, struggling to get a good grip. I swung mightily as she flew through the air. Her widespread wings acted as shields against the ice daggers.

  Kee-eeeee-ar! she cried.

  Rosie tumbled past me, howling with such ferocity the ice walls shook. Streams of fire spewed from her mouth, melting the falling hail. Then I did a double take. I couldn’t believe it—Rosie had sprouted wings! Huge black wings. How in the…?

  Brooks flew back up, up, up.

  Freezing rain pounded us. I’d never been so cold. My fingers were so numb I wasn’t sure I could keep holding on.

  “There’s no opening!” Hondo yelled when we got back to just under the surface of the ice lake. “It’s frozen over again!”

  “Where’s Ren?” I screamed. Had she fallen past us?

  Rosie’s howl carried from below. Brooks beat the ice ceiling with her massive wings with zero success. “We can’t leave Rosie behind!” I hollered.

  With a loud shriek, Brooks swooped down—actually, she flipped 180 degrees and went into a dive that nearly made me heave. But, lucky me, I didn’t upchuck. That came after we landed on the icy surface below.

  After I saw all the eyes.

  Fuego zipped back to me as I took in the eyeballs (big and squishy with black irises). They were packed into the ice walls, shifting back and forth like they were following our every move. They didn’t have lids or lashes or anything resembling normal or human. For all I knew, they belonged to demons.

  I gagged, readied Fuego, and scanned the place. Which, by the way, was so not a good entrance to hell. I mean, Ixtab could’ve totally given me an elevator and ixnayed the creepy polar chamber and ogling walls.

  Rosie appeared beside me, whining and dancing in place. I shouldn’t have looked down to where she was fixated. But I did. That’s right. More eyeballs were lodged beneath a thin layer of ice right under our feet.

  I jumped back, gagged, then barfed.

  Hondo climbed off Brooks’s back and swayed, his face looking a little green. “Dude, hold it together, man.”

  I tried to warn him, but it was too late. He stared at the eyeballs looking up at him. He might’ve yelped. Then he hurled, too. Twice as much as I had, by the way.

  Brooks had already shifted back. She wrinkled her nose and hooked one arm under Hondo’s while I held up his other side. “You okay?” I asked.

  “Are those ojos real?” he slurred.

  “Don’t look at them,” Brooks said.

  “¡Están por todas partes!” he cried. “¡Odio los ojos!”

  He was right. The eyes were everywhere, and I hated them, too.

  It was always obvious when my uncle hit his freaked-out threshold, because Spanish came pouring out of his mouth.

  “How about we don’t stand in the vomit?” Brooks grimaced.

  We stepped back a good five feet. The ice chamber was only about fifteen by fifteen.

  Brooks and Hondo started shivering uncontrollably. I pulled Rosie’s heat inside of me and created a tiny fire between my hands that everyone huddled around to try and warm themselves. That’s when the jade tooth around my neck vibrated. I held my breath, hoping I hadn’t imagined it. There it was again. Was it Hurakan trying to communicate with me?

  “What happened to Ren?” I asked after the jade went still. Had she tumbled into this subzero hell, or had something even worse befallen her?

  “She was smart enough not to follow us.” Brooks blew warm air on her hands and nestled close. Which I didn’t mind, exactly.

  “Are you sure?” I said, looking up. “What if she went into one of her trances again and she’s stuck up there, and…”

  Brooks frowned at me. “I’m sure she’s fine, Zane. And even if she did, she’s better off up there than down here.”

  Hondo wore a stunned expression. “Did I just fly?”

  “Technically,” Brooks said, “I just flew.”

  Hondo hunched closer to the flame. “Who knew getting into hell would be so hard? I mean, shouldn’t it be the opposite?”

  A cracking sound caught our attention and a set of doors slid open in the ice wall. Ren stepped out, wide-eyed and panting, as if she’d climbed Mount Everest. “You’re okay!” she shouted. “I told you that wasn’t the way!”

  The doors closed and disappeared behind her.

  “There’s an elevator?” Hondo snarled. His lips were turning blue. “Are you k-k-k-kidding me?”

  “There was an elevator,” I muttered.

  “I tried to tell you about it,” Ren said. “I didn’t see the button at first. It was actually a rock, but it totally looked out of place,” she explained. “Super-slow elevator, though. And there was a creepy voice that kept singing ‘Welcome to the dark side. One way only. What goes down doesn’t come up.’”

  Brooks glared at me. “I’m following her from now on.”

  I threw my hands in the air, dissolving the mini fire. “Like I was supposed to know I had a private elevator to hell?”

  “This is the und-d-der-r-wor-rld?” Hondo’s teeth chattered.

  “It’s gotta be Rattle House.” Brooks rubbed her hands together before tugging the gateway map out of her backpack.

  “One of the six fatal houses?” I said.

  “Fatal?” Hondo echoed.

  “Yeah,” I said as I drew more fire from Rosie to warm everyone. “The first is Dark House—so dark it drives people crazy. The second is this place. The third is Jaguar House, filled with hungry razor-toothed cats ready to rip out your throat.”

  “Man,” Hondo groaned. “What’s up with the Maya gods and blood and guts?”

  Brooks drew closer, her hawk eyes glowing amber. “The fourth is the worst, if you ask me. Bat House, filled with the bloodthirsty shrieking things.” She shivered a little as she studied the map. “They like to suck your blood nice and slow.”

  “Dude, can you make the fire a little bigger?” Hondo asked, closing his eyes and taking deep breaths.

  “What are you doing?” I asked him.

  “Trying to meditate away the cold.”

  “Is it working?”

  “No.”

  Rosie whined and danced as she stared down at the shifting eyes in the ice, trying to stamp them out with her massive paws.

  “You’re afraid of the eyes?” I asked her.

  Rosie groaned her agreement, and then, without warning, a torrent of fire erupted from her mouth, aimed directly at the floor.

  “STOP! STEAK!” I yelled. “You want to melt the floor and let them loose?”

  “Uh, that would be a huge NO!” Hondo cried, opening his eyes.

  Surprisingly, Rosie listened to me this time; I scrat
ched her neck.

  Ren rubbed her arms vigorously, scanning the miserable space no bigger than my bedroom. “Uh, guys…I don’t think there’s a way out of here.”

  Anger pulsed beneath my skin that this…this was my entrance to the underworld? What happened to the nice, newly renovated apartment Ixtab and I had hung out in before?

  “These houses are just places to test people’s strength,” I said, looking around for an exit. But why would Ixtab want to test me more than I’d already been tested? “The twins got through here somehow….”

  “The twins,” Hondo repeated, venom in his voice. “Well, if those morons could find a way out, so can we.” He rushed around the room, tapping his knuckles on the icy walls, looking disgusted.

  Rosie hurried behind him.

  “Well?” I peered over the edge of the map Brooks was holding. The wrinkled paper was a mess of crisscrossing lines in all different colors, connecting flashing blue squares. I remembered the first time I saw this thing and how it was like staring at a long scientific formula. Ms. Cab had explained that these magic maps are rare and the squares mark the gateways to different places and layers of the world.

  “Whoa,” Ren breathed. “All the place names keep changing. I just saw Boise Tortillería and now…the letters are some kind of hieroglyphs.”

  “Look for one that’s blinking slowly. They blink faster when they’re going to close soon,” I said, as if I could read the thing. Thankfully, Brooks could, sort of. Hopefully enough to get us to the other side of hell and close to South Dakota.

  “Er…we’ve got a problem,” Brooks said.

  “Other than freezing to death in hell?” Hondo shouted as he continued looking for a way out.

  “There’s no rhyme or reason to this.” Brooks pressed her lips together. “It’s like the map’s going haywire….”

  “Maybe it doesn’t work in Xib’alb’a,” Ren said.

  “It has to work!” The map was our only ticket off the island.

  “Stop looking at me!” Hondo shouted at the roving eyes.

  “No one’s looking at you,” came a familiar voice.

  We all spun to see a young woman step through a panel in the ice wall that closed behind her with a swish. She wore loose black cargo pants with ties at the hems and a black long-sleeved shirt. Her hair was tied into a high ponytail that drew her face back so tightly it looked like her skin might crack if she smiled. No chance of that happening, though. It was Brooks’s fierce (and super-demanding) older sister.