This was still a rescue, and the one in need of rescue was my best friend. I continued up the wall, but remained silent. I didn’t want Ike to know I was here, until I was to him. I couldn’t risk the voice coming back, or the HowlSage, or the gray mist. I couldn’t risk that Ike might be excited and start talking to me.
The chamber that the platform hung in had continued to widen the further I climbed up. It was pitch black, and aside from the sound of my dagger slipping into the muddy wall, and the occasional clod falling from my feet to the ledge below, there were no sounds. When I was nearly even with the platform I decided it was safe enough to speak to Ike. I could now see it wasn’t just a platform, but looked like an oversized birdcage. The spot where the voice had shined its light from and thrown the water was another twenty feet up in the side of the cliff and it was clear as far as I could see.
“Ike, it’s me, Taylor,” I said softly.
“Taylor!” he shouted.
“Shhh! I know you’re excited, but keep your voice down. Whoever put you here might be close. I’m here to rescue you,” I said.
His voice was much softer when he spoke again. “Thanks for coming. I really got myself into something this time.”
I swallowed hard; before I rescued him I knew I needed to tell him sorry. “Ike…Ike, I’m sorry. I’m sorry for how I treated you. I was mean, and I was neglectful. Can you forgive me?”
Silence ensued for a moment.
“That means a lot, and of course I can,” Ike said.
“Good, now let’s get you out of here.”
“Taylor?”
“Yes?”
“I’m sorry too.”
“Don’t worry about it, I forgive you.”
“Now I’m ready to be rescued.”
“All right, I’m going to climb a bit higher and drop onto the top of the cage. Then I’ll get you out.”
I made quick work of the wall, and pushed off just enough to get myself away and over the cage. The landing was a bit rougher than I’d expected and my right foot slipped right between two of the bars.
“Ouch,” I said.
“What’d you do?” Ike asked.
“Nothing, one of my feet just missed the bars.” I squatted on the top of the cage and found where a small door had been built in. I used the dagger to pry it open, and then laid across the top of the cage and leaned my upper body through the opening.
“I’m nearly in the center and reaching toward you. If you just stretch your arms a little ways up…”
He did and I grasped his hands; they were icy cold and wet.
“Hold on tight,” I ordered, and relying on my abs, I lifted us back out of the cage.
He hugged me, and I hugged back. “Thanks for coming. I knew you would,” he said.
I smiled, although he couldn’t see it. “Now, we have to get back down. This might not be that easy.”
I looked around the chamber, and realized it resembled an old water well. Of course, I knew it was part of the mines and it probably never held any water. The cage hung from a long rope—no, two ropes, but they disappeared into the darkness above. Even with the night vision goggles, I couldn’t see where the ropes attached to anything. But then I realized what to do.
“Ike hold on to me. There are two ropes here. I’m going to cut one.”
I felt his arms around my waist.
“The cage is going to fall away, and I hope—I think—once the rest of the rope drops down it’ll be long enough for us to slide down.”
“OK,” Ike said. I felt him shiver in the frigid air.
“Hold on.” I swiped the dagger across one of the ropes, once, then twice, then a third time. Still the rope didn’t break. I sighed, and then—
Snap!
The cage below us dropped away and I hung onto the rope with all my might. I was holding not only my weight, but Ike’s as well.
A resounding crash below told me the cage had found the ledge and the narrower drain down.
We had to hurry.
“Your captor may have heard that. We have to be quick. Can you grab the rope and slide down?” I asked.
“Yeah,” Ike said as he let go with one hand, and I felt tension in the rope below me. Then his other hand let go. I felt his body pass my knees, then my feet. He was on his way down.
I looked down and could see him shimmying down the rope. But then I saw something I didn’t want to see. Something that could be one of two things, but either was not good.
Smoke or mist was rising up the tunnel below us, and it wasn’t dust from the collapsed cage settling. It was rising in tendrils.
“Ike, quick. Change course, come up! Come up!” I shouted.
“Why?” His voice called out in panic.
“Because either the gray mist is coming up below us, or the purple smoke you created to stop the gray mist has been unleashed. Either way—”
“It’s bad news,” Ike finished my sentence.
I watched him hand over hand climb toward me. He was quick. I started up the rope.
At the hole where the voice had been I stopped, Ike was hanging just below me.
“We have to work together and get this rope swinging. We’ve got to get to that tunnel,” I explained. “On the count of three, shift your body to the left.”
“Is that your left or my left?” he asked. “It would be counter—”
“Ike, not now, I can see you through the goggles. Your left.
“One—two—three!”
We both shifted our weight to the left, the rope moved slightly.
“Again.”
We did. The smoke or mist was getting closer. I even thought I could hear it sizzling.
“Again.”
The rope began to swing, we were both moving with it. When it moved left we jerked our bodies left, when it moved right we shifted right.
“Almost there!” I said. I looked down the tunnel, hoping I wouldn’t see the source of the voice or its accomplice. Not because I didn’t want to fight them, because I did. I was ready to take care of whoever had imprisoned my friend. But at the moment, we weren’t in a good spot to defend ourselves.
The rope swung as close to the tunnel as it had yet, and my fingers grasped the ledge, but slipped away. Our pursuer from below was nearly here.
“One more time!”
We swung away and then back. I reached and grabbed. My left hand found a stone, a brick of some sort, and I held on.
“Ike, quick! Climb up.”
I watched him get a hold of the ledge and pull his body into the tunnel. Then he grabbed under my armpits and pulled me into the tunnel entrance with him.
We weren’t safe yet. The mist or smoke was still rising.
Knowing Ike couldn’t see without the goggles, I grabbed his hand and led him down the tunnel. I hoped it was the purple smoke behind us; its pursuit would be purely based on airflow, not on intelligence. I was mindful that at any moment we might come across the bearer of the voice or the HowlSage. But we didn’t. The tunnel curved and climbed up. Eventually we came to a split, and I didn’t have a clue which way to go. But Ike said he could feel a draft coming from one of the directions, and that the air smelled fresh. So we followed it.
Ten minutes later, we were out in the middle of bare white tree trunks—a grove of aspen that had long lost their golden leaves to the cold oncoming of winter. It was still dark, but the sliver of moon was enough for Ike and me to see without goggles.
“Were you alone?” Ike asked.
“No, Jesse and McGarrett were with me,” I said.
“McGarrett?”
“Yah, he wanted to help find you. I think he felt responsible.”
“Did he tell my parents?”
I swallowed a lump that had suddenly formed in my throat. “Yeah, they’re near.”
“Really?” Ike asked. “How close?”
I wasn’t sure how to tell him without giving him a chance to panic; after all they were safe. “Well, they’re in the tunnel on the roa
d into town.”
“How do you know that?” he asked. It was a fair question; it didn’t take more than a minute or so to traverse that tunnel.
“They’re kind of trapped, but they’re safe and they have food.”
“They’re what?”
I explained about the collapse and that we expected it was the HowlSage, and also that it was no coincidence that a vending machine supply truck had been trapped with them. Plus, a rescue squad was already working to free them.
“Wow, that’s amazing. God does some pretty cool stuff,” Ike said. “A vending machine truck, ha.”
We both laughed for a moment. Ike was always looking on the bright side. It sure took a lot to bring him down.
“Tay, you’ll never believe what I saw as they took me to the cage,” he said. “I passed through a chamber, and you know what I saw?”
I shook my head. “Nooo.”
“A candelabra, a silver one!” he exclaimed.
Now I was really confused. “So?”
“That’s right, I hadn’t told you. I found out that there’s an old storage shed on the backside of the property. I discovered several broken pieces of furniture, discarded silverware and china, things like that. But there was also three silver candelabras, just like the ones in the library, just like the one on Ash Isle.”
“OK, keep going,” I said.
“The day I was captured, I’d checked the recording from the secret camera I’d placed in there, but it was unnaturally distorted. Something had interfered with it.”
“Like the downed communications?”
“No, different, so I decided to go check, and you know what I found?”
I shook my head, which was becoming a common occurrence in this conversation.
“The candelabras were gone, but not the silverware.”
I stared at him, clearly confused.
“The candle holders were made of pure silver, the silverware was not. A regular thief wouldn’t have been so selective, they’d have grabbed everything and sorted it out later. No, our thief could discern between the two.”
“So you’re saying that the cloaked figure has come onto the inn property?”
“Maybe. If not it, someone else has,” he explained.
Now that Ike had made his point, I understood that there was a clear threat in the appearance of those candelabras. They showed that our normal defenses were not being effective against the enemy. We’d need to ramp that up. And speaking of ramping our defenses up, I remembered about the Raptoryx.
“We saw the Raptoryx again,” I said.
“How’d you know what—?” Ike started.
“McGarrett told me that you’d figured it out. Sorry for not waiting for you, for not listening to you.”
“It’s OK. You’re forgiven,” Ike said. “You want to hear about it?”
“Yes, you can tell me as we find our way back.”
We both agreed that the best thing we could do was to head back to town or The Pink Hippo, whichever was closer, and call McGarrett. Heading back into the mine was not an option. We were armed with nothing. I had a dagger and the goggles, but I’d mistakenly left the radio with my pack when I’d removed the excess gear.
So together we shivered and walked in the direction we thought town was. We were pretty sure we could see the ambient glow of the city lights off a few scattered clouds.
Three hours later we stepped on to a curvy paved road that we recognized as the one leading from the mines to town.
It was another hour before we reached the gates of The Pink Hippo. The sun would be up soon and we only hoped that McGarrett and Jesse had escaped. That they’d survived. The news was grim when we dragged ourselves up the stairs and through the front door.
Mrs. Riley, through a forced calm, let us know that neither Mr. Riley nor Jesse had returned. We followed her to the dining hall, where we ate a couple of her oversized, gooey, warm cinnamon rolls. We were ravenous from all the walking, and I’d never seen Ike’s small frame put down so much food. As soon as we were finished, Mrs. Riley told us to get some rest and that she’d wake us when they returned.
I felt like I should go back out looking for them, but I knew this wouldn’t be helpful. As tired as I was, I’d be more likely to get in trouble or drop over from exhaustion then perform any sort of rescue. So Ike and I both found comfy spots on the couches in the foyer and crashed.
I woke to someone shaking my shoulders.
“Tay,” the voice said. “Taylor, wake up.” It was Ike. “They’re back and it doesn’t look good.”
I rubbed my eyes and sat up, then yawned. There were at least a dozen people in the lobby with us. Most were in uniforms. I looked at Ike.
His eyes were glassy as if he was about to cry.
“Who are all these people?”
“McGarrett and Jesse are back. Chief Rutledge brought them in with the paramedics. The chief is comforting Mrs. Riley now.”
“What happened?”
“Apparently, a tunnel collapsed on McGarrett and Jesse. Both of them are unconscious. They’re alive, but they’re not responding.”
I knew why they’d been brought here. The Pink Hippo had very good medical equipment, as good as the local hospital, but more so because it was likely the wounds that McGarrett and Jesse had could reveal more about what we did to a regular citizen than was desired. Chief Rutledge knew our line of work—he wasn’t a hunter, but he was a believer.
I didn’t recognize the paramedics, but some of the other people in the room I did. The mayor and his wife, believers, the Friggs, and a few other members from the local churches—deacons, elders, etc.
The chief walked over to where Ike and I sat. “Why don’t you guys come with me for a moment?”
We followed him outside on the porch. The circular driveway surrounding the fountain was filled with several vehicles, some with lights flashing blue and red. Several personal cars filled in the gaps.
“Taylor and Ike, what I’m about to tell you isn’t something I’d normally tell to an eleven and fourteen-year-old, but you guys won’t be surprised by any of it.”
We both nodded to the chief.
“McGarrett and your cousin were lying in a wide chamber when we found them. A circle of stones had been placed all around them, and there were large wax candles burning everywhere,” he explained. “Their bodies are covered in bruises and scrapes, but there are no bites; there are no mortal wounds as far as I can see.”
“Wait, you said they were in a chamber with candles. I thought the tunnel collapsed?” Ike said.
“Well, some of it did, but it was the story I leaned on when I dragged the bodies out to the paramedics.”
“So if they don’t have any serious visible injuries, why are they unconscious?” Ike asked.
“That’s what we don’t know, and that’s what I’m worried about. You see, there was more in the chamber than just candles and stones,” Chief Rutledge explained grimly. “There were three bowls of liquid and there were amulets everywhere.”
“Amulets?” I asked.
“I saw a dagger, a locket, a crown, two bracelets, a couple anklets—all of which were adorned with rubies and diamonds.”
“Amulets are often used in rituals to raise spirits or transfer powers,” Ike muttered.
“So you think all these things were being used in a ritual, and that McGarrett and Jesse were being used too?”
“I absolutely do,” the chief explained. “I’m not sure how far they got. When Mrs. Riley called me she let me know where you guys were supposed to be, and I used the tracking device McGarrett had given me to find them. Due to the nature of the situation, I could only take the mayor, the minister, and Mr. Frigg with me.” Chief Rutledge took a hanky from his pocket and wiped it across his brow. “I have to admit, I’m not sure how you do it, Taylor. How you go in there after a demon.” He sighed.
“We found two cloaked figures when we got to them. No HowlSage, but two beings. As soon as I called for them
to, ‘Freeze!’ they took off into a side tunnel. As our mission was just to rescue, we didn’t pursue. By the time we’d navigated the mine, the paramedics had arrived and we delivered McGarrett and Jesse to them and that brings us to now.” The chief looked at Ike.
“What about the stuff? Didn’t you get it out?” I asked.
Chief Rutledge shook his head. “We couldn’t…” The chief paused. “McGarrett set up a series of contingency procedures for me to follow. As you know, I’m not a hunter, and McGarrett instructed me to avoid contact with the demons as well as their tools. In this case the amulets.” The chief sighed. “It was hard. I knew it’d make it easier on you to have collected that stuff. But I’ve given my word and that is something a man does not break.”
I understood, but it seemed sort of crummy of McGarrett not to have shared these contingencies with me.
Chief Rutledge looked at Ike. “There is some good news also. We’ve estimated Ike’s parents will be rescued sometime tomorrow afternoon. The equipment used to bore through the rock arrived, and so far the progress has been very good.”
Ike released a pent-up breath.
The chief cleared his throat. “Taylor, I want to be clear. I think it would be best that you remain at The Pink Hippo the rest of the night. Go to school tomorrow, both of you, and I’ll pick you up as soon as we are about to reach the survivors.”
I nodded. “Should I call my aunt and uncle?”
“I’ll take care of that. I’m sure they’ll want to come down right away. For now, the best thing you can do is pray, and rest.”
“Can we go see McGarrett and Jesse?” Ike asked.
“Tomorrow morning you can; for now get some rest.”
“But we just slept for a long time,” Ike retorted. “I need to invent, to plan.”
“You can tomorrow; just find a nice non-hunt related book or something. Maybe go for a swim in the pool.”
“OK,” Ike agreed.
Ike and I followed Chief Rutledge back into The Pink Hippo; the crowd was there. People were chatting and sitting in the foyer. Mrs. Riley had been crying, but Mrs. Frigg had her arm around her and there were several other ladies gathered around.
Ike and I headed to the elevator together. When we reached his floor, he stepped out, but stopped the doors from closing.
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