“¡Dios mío! Counterweights!” Fredy said as he grabbed the lighting tripod from the floor and pointed it up.
They craned their heads upward, the spotlight revealing a large expanse of domed ceiling. It was as if they were descending from the roof of an ancient cathedral. They could see it now – they had descended out of an oculus centered in the dome above. The giant column Sarah had been inside of stretched up all the way to the top of the dome and into the center of the hole, like an oversized fireman’s pole.
Gabi stood, neck bent backward, studying the ceiling’s shape. The half-globed arc with the stone column was just like what she had uncovered on the wall painting. Then she heard a distant sound from way off in the darkness. What was that? It was barely audible over the soft rumbling of stone sliding on stone, but it was there. Looking at her mom told Gabi that Itzel had heard it too.
The others stood still, each straining to hear the sound again.
The hair stood up on the back of Gabi’s neck.
“What was that?” Itzel asked, pushing herself out of Andrés’s arms to meet his eyes.
Gabi’s father shook his head. “I don’t know, but it can’t be what it sounded like.” His curious unease twisted into fear as his brows furrowed.
It was María who finally said it. “It sounded like someone talking.”
“That’s ridiculous. No one could be down here,” Sarah said.
They looked out into the blackness, searching for the source of the mysterious sound, but beyond the platform was only darkness.
As they continued to descend, Gabi’s mind spun with possibilities. Are we alone? What if some race of giant things are living down here? What if the skulls were placed on the racks as a warning for them not to come back up? Then there was what she had seen on the wall under the pyramid. But that couldn’t have been real… there couldn’t be a—
With a bone-jarring thud, Gabi fell onto her bottom. The platform hadn’t slowed before touching down hard, pulling her back into the moment with a jolt. Just like the sudden start had knocked them off their feet, the sudden stop did the same. With the exception of a startled scream from María and grunts from the others, the chamber was eerily silent. They stood, brushing themselves off and taking in the scene around them.
They had settled at the bottom of a large domed cavern. As they shined their lights over the side of the platform, the first thing Gabi noticed was water – water everywhere. Their platform seemed to be an island. Fredy worked the tripod light, shining it across the expanse, searching for any clues of what this place was.
“Over here, Fredy, look.” Sarah was shining her headlamp at a stone pathway leading off the island across the water toward a wall. “Focus your light at that far wall!”
They all joined Sarah and Fredy. Fredy aimed the light across the stone pathway, following it to the wall, then searching along it.
That’s when they saw it. A giant arched opening was set into the left wall of the massive cavern, a couple hundred meters down the path.
“An adjacent room!” Andrés said.
The opening itself was enormous, but what was more amazing were the megalithic sculptures stretching up the entire height of the cavern on either side of the opening.
“That’s it! Do you see it?! Look, there are carvings, Fredy!” Sarah jumped off the circular platform onto the stone pathway.
“Sarah! Wait! There could be traps!” Fredy shouted. But it was too late – she was already on the path.
Suddenly they heard the sound again, coming from the direction of the opening. Everyone froze, including Sarah.
Gabi’s heart pounded in her throat as she squeezed her mother’s hand. There could be no denying it was a voice.
The voice thundered out across the water in a language Gabi didn’t recognize. She was still a bit of a novice in her language studies, but she would have at least recognized Hebrew, Lithuanian, Farsi, or a number of other languages, even if she couldn’t have understood them, but this was something completely unlike anything she had ever heard.
“Sarah! Come back,” Fredy urged.
Sarah’s eyes were flexed wide as she stood stone still, either trying to comprehend the strange language or frozen in fear – Gabi couldn’t tell which.
“Mamá,” Gabi managed as she gave her mother’s hand a tug. “Please, we need to go.”
Andrés focused a light upward, looking for a rope from Manuel, but saw nothing. “Come on, Manuel.”
Across the chamber came another sound. A terrible screech that at first sounded like dying pigs. Gabi squinted her eyes and covered her ears. “Mamá, please!” she urged.
The screeching rose and fell strangely. “Andrés, listen to it,” Itzel said. “Those are words, not just screams. A second voice speaking to the other?”
Fredy set the light down and jumped down onto the path next to Sarah. “We need to get out of here!” he said, grabbing her by the wrist. Consumed by fear, he began forcefully pulling her back toward the platform, like she was a disobedient child being pulled from a playground.
Suddenly the screeching voice distorted into a violent roar so deep and loud it reminded Gabi of the black howler monkey.
Everyone instinctively covered their ears.
As the roar grew it became so loud that, even with their ears covered, it created a piercing pain. Gabi screamed – maybe everyone screamed – but nothing penetrated the incredible roar.
The ground began to pulse. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Gabi pressed her hands tight to her ears. She wanted so bad to shut her eyes up tight, but she forced herself to look. Sarah was still down on the path with Fredy, bathed in the glow of the tripod light. She could see Fredy’s lips moving, only he wasn’t speaking. His mouth moved, opening and shutting like a goldfish with no sound coming out. Finally finding words, he mouthed, “¡Ay, Dios mío!”
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! The booming grew closer until suddenly a figure burst through the opening in a panicked run. Beyond the shadowed figure, the room it emerged from began to glow.
Gabi knew what she was looking at, though what she was looking at was impossible. She couldn’t speak. Couldn’t move. She was fixed like a stone.
The giant stood taller than a house, easily ten meters high. It was clothed in a tattered tunic and loincloth, with a headdress fixed atop its head. It was the statue from up above come to life. No, Gabi thought. This was even bigger. It held something in its right hand, but it was hidden in shadow. The giant paused for the briefest second, its head swinging left then right, before abruptly lunging, throwing itself against the wall in what appeared to be an attempt to take cover behind the carved monolith.
It’s true – what I saw on the wall under the pyramid, it’s all true! But that means not just the giant, but what comes next. Oh María Purísima, it was all painted right there on the wall!
Before anyone could register what they were seeing, the roar from beyond the opening reached a pinnacle, and the glow turned into flame. The flame poured from the room in a strange-colored liquid fire, lighting up the entire chamber in unnatural greenish-orange light.
Gabi stood paralyzed on the spot, ignoring the fire to stare at the giant, who stood facing them with his back against the wall. In the light, she caught a glimpse of its face. Only one eye?
The massive fireball continued through the chamber, rolling across the water, not stopping – and heading right for them.
Fredy let go of Sarah’s wrist, then pushed her off the stone path into the water. Sarah gasped, sucking in a breath as she plunged into the frigid liquid.
Gabi felt a shove from behind her as her father shouted something she couldn’t make out. She was falling now. She turned in time to see her father grab María and her mother’s hands as he leapt from the edge. The water was cold, and she wanted to gasp but she held her breath as she rolled onto her back. Near her, bodies crashed into the water. For a brief second everything was dark. Gabi kicked her legs and broke the surface, stealing o
nly a single gasp of air before her vision filled with flames. She pushed herself under as far from the surface as she could get with a few quick waves of her palms. Then as if the sun itself had leapt out from hiding and rolled over them, everything exploded in fiery light.
Distorted flames glowed above them as the seconds passed. The ominous roar was now muffled under the water, but then a new sound replaced it as the water near the surface began to boil. They were trapped under fire.
Instinctively Gabi pushed herself even deeper. But as she looked for the others, she could see María was too close to the surface. Her father was there grabbing María by the ankle, pulling her down with a sudden desperate jerk, trying to get her away from the surface, away from the superheated water. María let out a gargled scream, releasing what little air she had as she began rubbing frantically at her arm.
Gabi watched as her mother swam to María, grabbing her flailing arms. She tried to pull the woman close, tried to calm her. But it was a futile effort; María kicked at her and flailed, desperate for air, until finally she broke free. In a strange, emerald-yellow distortion of light cast by the flames from above, Gabi watched in horror as young María swam upward as hard as she could. Oh no, please, María! Please! Don’t!
Gabi slammed her eyes shut, unable to watch.
33
Love Inferno
Wednesday, April 6 – God Stones Day 1
Petersburg, Illinois
“Wait, Pete!” Breanne shouted, but Pete didn’t wait. Instead he closed the gap between he and Lilith, his face saying it all. His heart was leading him now, compelling him to her.
Breanne thought, God, after what she’s done!
“Janis. Please, don’t kill him.” Pete held his open palms up, pleading. “If you care about me – if any of our talks, any of the time we spent meant anything, please… stop this!” He turned his palms down, willing Janis to calm down. “Please, Janis, you’re killing him! I beg you, please!”
“Careful, Pete!” Breanne yelled, swinging the tomahawk at a rat’s face but missing. “Paul, can you handle this? I have to help Garrett.”
Paul nodded over his shoulder. “Go! Help the kid. I got this,” he said, spinning as a rat lunged forward. He snatched the rat by the tail and began dragging it. “Come here, big fella!” The rat screeched as two others closed in.
Above them the giant sucked in a long, slow breath, blinked, blinked again, and then set his strange egg-shaped eye on Apep.
Breanne ran for the slab. She had to try and stop Janis.
Then Apep shouted and Breanne gasped.
“Lilith! Finish the boy now!”
“Yes, father.”
As Breanne approached, she watched Lilith hesitate. Something in her eyes was different. For the briefest second, she struggled in thought. Breanne prepared to take the moment and attack but then, atop the slab, the roots fell away, and Garrett collapsed.
“You worthless girl!” Apep shouted at his daughter. “You pathetic human failure!”
“Get him down, Pete!” Breanne said, turning her attention to Lilith. Breanne met the girl’s strange eyes and what she found was a deep sadness. Instead of attacking her she felt compelled to reach for Lilith’s hand.
Lilith narrowed her eyes.
“Lilith, you are not worthless! You have friends! You have Pete! Help us, please!” Breanne begged.
Lilith’s sharp features softened as she took Breanne’s hand in hers and nodded shyly. “Janis. Call me Janis. That’s the name my mother wanted me to have.” She glared back up at Apep. “I hate the name he gave me!”
“Okay… Janis.” Breanne nodded.
On the slab, Apep was speaking triumphantly in an incomprehensible language.
“I don’t know what he’s saying, but it must be bad! Please, Janis. We need your help.”
“He will kill me, and all of you… Petey too,” Janis said, tears building in her golden eyes. Then turning to meet Breanne’s gaze, her face hardened once again. “Unless I kill him first!” Still holding Breanne’s hand, she reached out with her other, placing it atop Breanne’s own as she spoke the words of power, “Mueeshshi esh ak akdoemue.”
Breanne felt a strange tickle in her mind.
Apep spoke in the same incomprehensible language but now something had changed. Breanne could understand. Now the words unscrambled in her mind’s eye, and they made sense.
“Balor, I have awoken you!” Apep said.
Across the chamber, four more eyes opened as the dragon raised both its scaly heads.
Breanne’s eyes sprung wide as the heads looked at each other, then turned to face Apep and the giant. The dragon seemed to take in the scene as it stood and stretched its wings, then pulled them back to its side. Its black-scaled heads stretched up high above, vanishing as they blended into the shadows of the massive chamber. As the dragon rose to its full height, the chamber suddenly seemed very small to Breanne.
“Janis!” Breanne pointed.
“Go! Help the others!” Janis turned away, then turned back. “Thank you, Bre.” She turned away again and this time she didn’t look back as she ran to face the dragon.
Behind Breanne, Balor spoke in the same odd dialect as Apep. The chamber rumbled at the sound of his voice. “How long have I slept?”
Apep answered, “Thousands of years too long, but I’ve kept my promise.”
The dragon spoke now, their voice coming in a strange hiss, each word emerging from one head then the other, but the speech was fluid, as if one mind controlled the thought. “Dökkálfar Apep and nephilbock Balor! What is the trickery that brings us to this place… This place of our enemies?” The dragon didn’t wait for an answer as both heads began to roar, loud at first, but rising to ear-piercing volume within seconds.
Inside the stone prison, David woke to a large rat licking his face. He screamed, scrambling backward on his butt, trying to put distance between himself and the massive rat. Quickly he found himself trapped between the rat and the chamber wall. David would have given anything for a different magical power in that moment.
There was nowhere to go. He closed his eyes tightly, turning his face away as he thrust out his arms to stop the rat’s advance. For the second time in his life he was so frightened his bladder released. The rat’s open jowls came close to his face, clamping down hard with a loud Snap! as hot rancid breath washed over David’s face. He gasped in the rank air, his fingers sinking into the rat’s coarse hair as he squeezed it in fistfuls, trying desperately to hold back its pressing weight. The rat was strong and heavy. David’s arms shook as they began to fold, the rat’s teeth coming so close. He couldn’t hold it back.
“Help! Please, someone help me!” he croaked. But no one came.
As the rat inched ever forward, David’s hand slipped further down its neck and into something wet.
The rat shrieked from the pain of David’s hand sinking into the deep wound. The rat hissed in rage, pressing harder than ever. It opened its jaw and prepared to lunge again at David’s face. David jerked his head back so hard it bounced off the chamber wall. He didn’t think about what happened next. It just happened.
David began to glow.
Breanne got to Garrett right as Pete dragged him off the slab, and both tumbled down onto the temple floor. Balor rolled his giant frame off the stone slab too, landing hard, shaking the chamber.
Pete sprang into action, scooping up Garrett’s sword from the floor. “We have to kill the giant now before he gets up!”
Garrett lay on the ground, holding his head in one hand and his throat with the other, still coughing and gasping for breath. “No, Pete… Wait!” he rasped, reaching for his friend, but it was no use – Pete was heading straight for Balor.
Breanne pulled Garrett to his feet. “Jesus, look at her, I think she’s controlling it! She’s talking to it. Can you hear her in your mind, Garrett?”
“Hear her?” he asked, brows furrowing as he searched for Pete.
Janis closed both
her hands, and the dragon closed both its mouths. “That’s right, Sylanth, good dragon. You don’t really want to burn me, do you? No, you want to make the one who put you here pay,” she said in a soothing voice as she slowly walked toward the calming beast.
Sylanth settled their focus on her. “Where are we, child? How have we come to this place?” The dragon’s questions were no longer angry but curious.
Breanne turned to see the giant was starting to push himself upright as Pete appeared behind the slab next to the giant’s head, Garrett’s sword cocked and ready to strike.
“Pete!” Garrett shouted.
Apep shouted a warning to the giant.
Pete swung the sword.
Balor must have caught the movement of flashing steel in the firelight because he flinched away, the sword missing his neck and instead cutting a deep gash along his jawbone. The razor-sharp blade continued its severing of flesh across his entire face, just missing the oval eye before glancing off his forehead.
“Oh, father!” Janis shouted from across the chamber. “I guess my worthless human side takes after uncle Syldan after all.” A sly smile stretching across her face, she pointed at Apep. “He imprisoned you here, my dear Sylanth! Kill him!”
Sylanth’s two toothy mouths opened, each saying one word, “Dökkálfar Apep!”
Apep’s eyes darted to the dragon then to Pete as he shouted ancient words of power, “Shirayshi, Esh akoz, oz akdoe!” Ribbons of Sentheye yanked Pete from the floor and several feet into the air. Apep held him there suspended between himself and the dragon. The squeeze of shadows forced Pete to drop the sword as he struggled just to breathe. The shadowy tangles of Sentheye began drawing the life from him.
“Kill the beast, girl! Kill them or he dies!”
“Oh, no! Pete!” Breanne yelled.
Pete looked down at her, his terror-stricken eyes pleading for help.
The Keepers Of The Light (God Stone Book 2) Page 23