Inside were small insects. He thought they looked like maggots; small and white, twisting through the matter. He watched them for a few moments, then dropped out of the River.
“My god,” Steven said. “It’s full of bugs. Never noticed before.”
“What kind of bugs?” Maynard asked, but before Steven could answer he’d dropped into the River himself, and was observing the ring.
Steven answered to Roy instead. “Looks like worms to me. Little worms, like maggots.”
Steven was surprised to see Roy’s face turn white. He’d never considered his father squeamish. When Roy’s eyes shifted to the left, looking away from him, Steven began to wonder if the insects meant more than he thought.
“What?” he asked Roy.
“I hope it’s not…” Roy started, then stopped.
“Not what?”
Maynard returned from the River. “Yup. Maggots.” Steven saw Maynard turn to Roy, and Roy looked back at him. The two obviously saw some significance in the discovery of the insects that Steven didn’t share.
“So the maggots mean something?” Steven asked.
“He doesn’t know?” Maynard asked Roy.
“I’ve never told him,” Roy said. “I don’t dabble in it. I’ve always stayed a million miles away from it.”
“Dabbled in what?” Steven asked.
“Now, we don’t know for sure that that’s it,” Maynard said. “Let’s just have a look see under this lid.”
Maynard reached forward and grabbed a small black handle on top of the lid that covered the metal pot. Slowly, he lifted it. Smoke drifted out and ran down the sides of the pan, like dry ice.
Maynard blew into the pan to disperse the smoke, as though he might be blowing into a pot of stew to cool it down. As the smoke dispersed, they all three leaned over the device to look down into the open container.
It was black. Nothing was distinguishable; no sides, no bottom.
“Shit,” Roy said.
Maynard replaced the lid. “Well, I guess now we know what he was up to.”
“We don’t know why,” Roy said. “Why he went there.”
“Went where?” Steven asked, thoroughly confused.
“I always heard that these were unstable,” Maynard said. “Perhaps that’s why he constructed the giant vortex. To make it stable.”
“Just like a rich guy,” Roy said. “Didn’t want to travel. Wanted his own personal access. Rich people always want their own private entrance.”
“Will one of you please tell me what’s going on?” Steven asked, irritated. “I’m getting pissed.”
“I think your friend Unser here was even more ambitious than you realized,” Maynard said, turning to Steven. “It wasn’t about draining gifteds, although that’s the fuel he’s using. And it wasn’t about building a giant vortex, although he’s certainly built one. It was about this.” Maynard pointed to the covered metal pot.
“That?” Steven said. “An empty pan?”
“It’s far more empty than you think,” Roy said.
“You explain it to him,” Maynard said. “He’s your son.”
“It’s nothing I wanted him to know,” Roy said. “Lived my whole life having nothing to do with it. Wanted the same for him.”
“I feel the same way,” Maynard said. “But you’re wrapped up in it now. You’ll have to explain it.”
“Goddamnit!” Steven said. “I’m right here, you two! Somebody tell me what the fuck this thing is!”
“Upstairs,” Roy said. “I want another drink first.”
Chapter Fifteen
Roy took another gulp of his second old fashioned and gave Steven a long stare. They were seated in a group of high back leather chairs that were situated in a corner of the library.
“I never wanted you to come into contact with this,” Roy said. “I’ve avoided it my whole life. Parents try to shield their kids from things that aren’t good for them.” He took another gulp.
“I’m waiting,” Steven said.
“You’ve spent enough time in the River now to know how varied it is,” Roy said. “When you first discovered it, just after we finished off Lucas, you spent a lot of time in it. You had that trouble with the slenders, and I warned you not to spend too much time in the flow, remember?”
“Yeah, I remember,” Steven said. “Go on.”
“Well, there are parts of the River that are harder to get to than others,” Roy said. “The more time you spend in the River, the easier they are to reach. And then there’s some parts that are hidden, not just hard to get to, but you really have to put in an effort to get there. Think way up in the mountains in the middle of nowhere, that kind of thing.”
“OK,” Steven said patiently, waiting for Roy to get on with it.
“There are a handful of gifted people who, for some reason, gravitate to those really hard to reach places, and they spend a lot of time there. Too much time. It warps them, twists them. They get addicted to it, and want to stay.”
“Like Eximere?” Steven asked, connecting the dots.
“Kind of like that, yes, but not this nice, nothing like this,” Roy said. “The places they go to are vile and disgusting.”
“It’s called the Dark River,” Maynard said. “Most of us won’t have anything to do with it.”
“The Dark River,” Steven repeated. “What does this have to do with Unser?”
“There’s shady parts of the River that you or I might stumble upon,” Roy said, “but there’s only a few ways into the Dark River. You have to physically go to an access point. They’re rare.”
“There’s one not far from my home,” Maynard said, “in a cave. There’s a blood river that runs through it, and you can get to the Dark River in there. It’s one of the few places on the continent.”
“We think Unser wanted to be able to go to the Dark River whenever he wanted,” Roy said. “So he made his own way.”
“That device you saw in the basement,” Maynard said. “The blackness inside the pot, the maggots in the gel. That device makes it possible for him to get there. I suspect that everything else — this place, the vortexes, the graves — they’re all here to service that purpose.”
“So the bodies buried outside aren’t being used to power Eximere?” Steven asked.
“Some of them are, yes,” Maynard said. “But I’ll bet you many of them were buried to power the access point, wherever it is.”
“You knew the moment I told you there were maggots in the gel,” Steven said to his father. “I could tell you knew.”
“Maggots are associated with the Dark River,” Maynard replied, defending Roy. “Most of us know that. I suspect energy from the graves is transferred to the gel on that device, and the maggots eat through it, transforming it somehow into the fuel that feed the access point.”
“He enters the Dark River through that pan?” Steven asked.
“No,” Maynard said. “That’s just the device that makes it happen. If our theory is correct, the access point will be somewhere in the cave, somewhere he could easily get to.”
“So when Christina said he’s not dead, she was right?” Steven asked. “He’s actually there? In the Dark River?”
“Very possibly,” Maynard replied.
“So he might come back?” Steven asked.
The conversation stopped. Roy took another gulp of his drink.
“We buried his body,” Steven said. “Assuming that was him. It was just bones. But it did have the ring that operated the device.”
“It’s never your body that goes there,” Maynard said. “Like when you enter the River. Your body usually stays put. If Unser went there, it’s likely he’s been there a long time. People get addicted to it, like a drug. He probably went there years ago, and is still there.”
“His body died in bed,” Roy said. “Like he knew he wasn’t coming back before it would give out.”
“It’s got a strong pull,” Maynard said. “My father always warned me to never consider it.”
“Mine either,” Roy said.
“But you didn’t think I should know?” Steven said. “Your dad told you, but you weren’t going to tell me?”
“You came to all this pretty late in life,” Roy said, taking another gulp, finishing off the glass. “I didn’t think you needed a lesson on it, no. I was hopeful you’d go the rest of your life and not even hear about it. It’s bad news, something to steer clear of.”
“Well, I guess when we made the decision to camp out here at Eximere, we steered right into it,” Steven said. “I want to know everything there is to know about this Dark River, and I want to know now. Spill it.”
“Not much more to say,” Maynard said. “Honestly.”
“You know those kids at school who seemed off, who seemed like they’d grow up to become arsonists, or molesters, or murderers?” Roy asked Steven. “Those are the kind of people, if they’re gifted, who are drawn to the Dark River. It’s full of that kind. Unser was obviously one of them. Look what he did to get there — all the people he buried, all the lives he ruined.”
“Including our great-great-great-grandfather,” Steven said.
“Including Christina,” Maynard added. “Just a little nine-year-old girl. Didn’t deserve that. The draw to go there is strong to some people, so strong they’ll commit horrible crimes.”
The conversation stopped again.
“We should —” Steven started, but Roy stood up, cutting him off.
“NO!” Roy said loudly, the effects of the booze adding to the volume.
“You don’t know what I was going to say!” Steven said.
“I know exactly what you were going to say,” Roy replied, “and the answer is no. No, no, no!”
“What do you think I was going to say?” Steven asked.
“You were going to say that we should go into the Dark River and hunt Unser down,” Roy said. “And the answer to that will be, absolutely not! I’ll never set foot in there. And there’s no reason to go there. By all accounts it’s a hellish place, and if that’s where Unser is spending eternity, perfect!”
“That was not what I was going to say,” Steven said patiently. “I was going to suggest that we figure out a way to ensure that he can’t come back. Can we destroy the access point?”
Maynard rubbed his chin. “Don’t know. I’ve never seen a man-made one before. This is a first for me.”
“He’s not coming back,” Roy said.
“What if we snipped all those wires running from the pan to the maggots?” Steven asked. “Like defusing a bomb?”
“Might work, might not,” Maynard said. “It could be a bad idea. The access point might be tied into this place somehow.”
“You mean if we destroy it, we might destroy Eximere?” Steven asked.
“He isn’t coming back!” Roy said, more loudly this time.
“You saw how the vortex worked,” Maynard said. “Everything is connected. One little piece of it goes wrong, it impacts the others. Could be the same with the access point. I don’t know.”
Roy stood up. “Listen, you two. Unser has been over there for more than fifty years. He isn’t coming back. He’s addicted to whatever’s there. There’s no chance.”
“If that access point is open,” Steven asked, “can other things come through it? From the Dark River, to here? Other than just Unser?”
“Theoretically, yes,” Maynard said.
“Could he have used the access point to place the Marchers here? Pulled them through from the other side somehow?” Steven asked.
“I suppose,” Maynard said.
“Then other things, like the Marchers, or worse, could come through it?”
“Nothing’s coming through it,” Roy said. “Even the vortex starting to fall apart didn’t bring Unser back. He doesn’t care about any of this in the real world anymore.”
“Yeah, but how long before something does come through it?” Steven asked. “Some opportunistic little prick like Jurgen? He found that Oregon portal in a mine in the middle of nowhere! If these access points are as rare as you say, I imagine this one would be valuable. Someone like Jurgen would turn it into an enterprise. Eximere would become a ticket booth.”
“You’re letting your imagination run wild,” Roy said.
“If you’re right, and there’s an access point somewhere in this cave,” Steven said, “we’ve got a huge liability to deal with now. For all we know, we’ve simply been lucky. Lucky that nothing has come through.”
Roy rubbed his hand over his face. “I’m going to bed,” he said. “I’m tired.”
“How can you sleep?” Steven asked, standing up. “Knowing something might slip in here and slit your throat? There’s no way to lock up this house. There’s no way to lock your bedroom door. We’re sitting ducks.”
“We’ve been sleeping here on and off for months,” Roy said, walking to leave the room. “Nothing’s changed.”
“Other than the knowledge that we might be sleeping in a deathtrap,” Steven said.
“I’m going to bed,” Roy insisted. “We can talk more about it in the morning, if you want. But right now I just want to go to sleep. Good night, the both of you.”
Roy padded out of the library.
“Are we in danger?” Steven asked Maynard.
“I don’t know,” Maynard said. “This is all just a theory. For all we know, we could make spaghetti in that pot.”
“You know that’s not true,” Steven said.
“I’ll admit the story fits. Whether or not it’s true remains to be seen.”
“You’re not in the least bit concerned about what might come through that access point?”
“If you haven’t seen anything in the time you’ve been here, that’s a pretty good indication. You haven’t, right?”
“Aside from the hallucinations I saw when the vortex was unstable, no, there hasn’t been anything unusual. The place is always calm and quiet, just like now. It’s always the same, every time we visit. You can’t even hear my father walk up the stairs.”
“And it’s addictive,” Maynard said.
“Yes, I remember thinking that when we first discovered it,” Steven said. “Doesn’t occur so much to me now.”
“You’ve become used to it,” Maynard said. “Perhaps its proximity to the access point is the reason for its addictive qualities.” He rose from his chair. “Listen, I’m going to bed too. I’m tired. But I do think we should hunt for that access point tomorrow, and see if we can determine what condition it’s in. Maybe it’s closed, and everything is fine.”
“If it’s closed, then why all the activity in the device?” Steven asked. “The maggots were churning through something.”
“I don’t know,” Maynard said. “But I’ll have a new head in the morning, and I’ll think it through then. Good night.”
“Good night, Maynard,” Steven said. “And thanks for all your help.”
“Don’t mention it,” he said, walking out. “This has been the most unusual vortex I’ve ever come across. It’s been kinda fun.”
Wish I could view it that way, Steven thought as Maynard left the room.
◊
Come on, Eliza, pick up, Steven thought. He was cold and knew he’d only last a little while, standing in the woods, the cell phone pressed to his ear.
He couldn’t sleep. Knowing there was some other way into the cave, a way for god knows what to creep into Eximere, he’d just tossed and turned in bed, his mind racing. He’d decided to call Eliza, so he got out of bed and walked back up the stairs, through the tunnel, and out into the woods where he’d be able to get barely enough reception to place a call.
“Hello?” came the voice at the other end of the line.
“Eliza? It’s Steven.”
“What time is it? It’s two a.m., Steven. What’s wrong?”
“I couldn’t sleep. I had to talk to you. There’s been some developments, and I need some advice.”
“OK. Tell me what’s going on.�
�
“Have you ever heard of the Dark River?”
There was a pause.
“Yes,” Eliza said hesitantly. “I’ve heard of it.”
“Apparently no one wanted to tell me about it.”
“It’s something most of us who operate on the legitimate side of things don’t delve into.”
“Well, the current thinking is that Unser built an access point to the Dark River. That’s what the other device in the basement room was all about. I had to pry information about the Dark River out of my dad and Maynard. They didn’t want to talk about it.”
“There’s only a few access points to it in the entire world,” Eliza said. “Or so I’ve been told.”
“Unser apparently wanted his own,” Steven replied. “Everything else was just a way to get there. Eximere included. He didn’t really hate gifteds, he just saw them as a way to get what he wanted. They’re powering things. The bodies in the ground behind Eximere are what’s keeping the access point going.”
“So Maynard thinks there’s an access point to the Dark River somewhere in the cave?”
“That’s his theory. My dad thinks Unser is long gone, not interested in coming back. But Maynard couldn’t assure me the access point was closed, or only one-way. Things could come back through it.”
“But they haven’t yet, have they?”
“The Marchers might have come through it. Unser set up all kinds of defenses, so he might have used it to place them here.”
“Wow — you’re right! That would explain why they were there in the first place.”
“So I couldn’t sleep, considering there’s a portal just waiting to pop out another Marcher, or who knows what. Somehow Dad and Maynard went to bed, but I couldn’t.”
“You’re going to hunt for the access point, right?”
“That’s my plan,” Steven replied. “Maynard said he’d help.”
“I’m sure Roy will too.”
“I don’t know. He’s not too enthused about this Dark River thing. Seems spooked.”
“I was raised to never consider dabbling in it, not to even talk about it, really. I’ll bet it’s the same for Roy.”
“I don’t know how we’ll locate it, but I guess that’s something we’ll figure out tomorrow. I had to talk to you, though. Because if we do find it, what then? Just shut it down? Find a way to keep things from coming back? Or do we go through and find Unser?”
The Haunting at Grays Harbor (The River Book 8) Page 17