Soren was pretty sure he heard Lochlan sigh, but the leprechaun didn’t respond; he just kept walking.
“If we get out of here, what then?” Glen asked.
“We kill the bitch that chased us down here,” Lochlan replied.
“Yeah, but how?” Glen asked. “The last time we encountered her, she pretty much kicked our asses.”
“I’ve been giving that some thought,” Soren said. “When we first met her, she was pretending to be weak and frightened, which she obviously wasn’t. But there was one time when she seemed truly upset.”
“When the professor tried to kill her,” Glen said, nodding. “She kept saying, ‘He almost killed me.’ I thought she was in shock at the time. But you’re right, she was genuinely scared.”
“Which means the professor was on to something,” Soren said. “Who knows how much he figured out? She said to me she’d turned human again to flush him out of hiding, hoping he didn’t know her real identity. But he clearly did. He was waiting for her and when he spotted her with us, he took his shot.”
“One I blocked,” Glen said.
“Not your fault; you did well,” Soren said. “A guy comes in wielding a shotgun, you don’t wait to ask his intentions. But that’s not the point.”
“The point is that she was vulnerable,” Glen finished. “If he’d shot her, she could have died.”
It made sense. Soren had watched Keevan fire off round after round into the gorgon without it slowing her down. It seemed to cause her pain, but that was about it. The snakes had formed a coat of armor around her. The bullets might harm them, but they weren’t getting anywhere close to the vulnerable girl underneath.
“What we need is a way to turn her back into Emily,” Soren said. “We need to get the damn snakes off her.”
Lochlan listened to the conversation silently, evidently taking it all in.
“Get me to the car,” he said. “We thought we were facing a cockatrice, not a Medusa, but I told ya we came prepared. We brought a nice little surprise in the trunk for tha fooker.”
“What?” Soren asked. “What’s in the car?”
Lochlan stopped and turned on his heel. Soren had to catch himself from running into Lochlan. Glen wasn’t so quick and he bumped Soren in the back.
“Hey, give me some warning next time,” Glen said.
“What’s in the trunk, Lochlan?” Soren repeated.
“I hope it’s a bazooka,” Glen said.
Lochlan looked at Soren and then scowled.
“I’m not sayin’ just yet,” he said.
“Why?” Soren asked.
“Because I don’t trust ya,” Lochlan said. “We’re working together and tha makes sense, but once I lead ya out of here, what’s to stop ya from trying to knock me off, take me weapon and get out of town? No, it’ll just have to be a surprise. Ya get me to the car and I’ll take care of the fookin gorgon.”
“And what happens if you get turned to stone before we reach the car?” Glen asked.
“Then we all die together,” Lochlan said.
Soren wondered about that. Now that he knew there was a weapon in the trunk, he thought he might still be able to use it whether Lochlan was there or not. He just wished he knew what kind of weapon it was. He supposed it could be something really technical or even magical—the leprechauns clearly didn’t lack for funding—but he hoped not. Not that Soren planned to betray Lochlan. Soren was a man of his word. Right now, his focus was on stopping the gorgon, and if that meant getting Lochlan back to his car so he could use whatever weapon he had there, so be it.
“Okay,” Soren said. “I wish you’d tell us, but I’m not going to push it.”
But Glen appeared unhappy with that decision.
“Are you serious?” he asked. “We should at least know. How do we know it’s going to work? Did you see what Emily did to the car? She nearly demolished it. She probably broke whatever toy is in there.”
Lochlan shook his head.
“Doubt it,” he said.
“Well, this is just great,” Glen said. “We’re so fucked, do you know that? How much more fucked could we be? The answer is none. None more fucked.”
Glen slumped against the wall of the cavern and put his hands on his head. He started laughing, a high-pitched giggle that sounded anything but amused.
“I think yer friend just broke,” Lochlan said.
Soren crouched down in front of Glen.
“We can do this,” Soren said. “The cockatrice and the gorgon are probably the same creature. If Lochlan came prepared to face one, we should be able to defeat the other. We’ve got a plan.”
Glen kept laughing, but it sounded so close to crying Soren was no longer sure which he was doing. Maybe both at the same time.
“It’s crazy,” Glen said, pausing for a minute to draw a deep breath. “This whole thing is insane. My friend is a statue, the people in this town are all art pieces and our only hope is a mystery weapon held by a bad-tempered leprechaun. We’re going to die, Soren. We’re both going to die.”
Soren reached out and grasped Glen’s shoulder.
“Look at me,” Soren said.
Glen giggled for a second and stared at the ground.
“Look at me,” Soren said again, this time more insistently.
Glen looked up.
“We’re not going to die,” he said. “We’re going to find our way out of here; we’re going to get to Lochlan’s car and we’re going to solve the fucking problem. Because that’s what I do, remember? I solve problems like this. Trust me: you’re going to be just fine.”
Glen opened his mouth but Lochlan cut him off.
“Shhhh,” he said. “You boys hear tha?”
Soren listened. For a second, he could hear nothing, just the sounds of Glen’s rapid breathing. Then he heard it. It was a soft sound coming from far away, but it echoed through the caverns, bouncing back to them.
It was the sound of hissing.
“The bitch is here,” Lochlan said. “The gorgon is in the tunnels with us.”
Chapter Eighteen
Glen was so terrified he couldn’t speak.
He heard what Lochlan said just as that awful sound entered his ears. The hissing. He thought of the snakes all around him when he was in the tent. Somehow he’d withstood that, but then he’d seen a true monster. The gorgon had been grotesque in the daylight. But meeting her down here would be a thousand times worse. The thought of her in these tunnels with him made him want to scream.
It was a thought Soren seemed to anticipate. He gripped Glen’s shoulder.
“You can do this,” he said. “You need to get up.”
His voice was a whisper but there was a confidence in it. Prior to this moment, Glen had seen Soren as arrogant, foolhardy and more than a little crazy. But something in his voice now was strangely reassuring. He couldn’t see Soren’s eyes—it was dark and they were still hidden behind his reflective glasses—but his manner seemed calm and self-assured. It was as if he honestly thought Glen and he could survive this.
If there was any chance, even a slim one, that Glen could live through this, then he couldn’t waste it cowering on the floor of this cave. He’d been counted out before and come back even when the odds were against him. Maybe, with this man’s help, he could do it again.
“Okay,” Glen whispered.
It was apparently all Soren needed him to say. He stood up and reached out his hand to pull Glen off the ground. In the few moments that had taken, the hissing had grown steadily louder. Glen couldn’t tell where it was coming from. The noise in the cavern made it sound like the gorgon might be simultaneously in front of and behind them. She was everywhere and nowhere at all.
“What now?” Lochlan asked.
“There’s two possibilities,” Soren replied. “Either she broke through the collapsed part of the tunnel—or she found another way down. I’m willing to bet it’s the latter. It would have taken longer to clear that rubble, even for her. If that’s the case, we nee
d you to use your tracking skills to find the exit, same plan as before.”
“But she’s up there somewhere, waiting for us,” Lochlan replied.
“Maybe she’s dumb enough to go looking for us directly rather than hovering by the exit,” Soren said. “One more thing. You have any extra guns on you?”
Soren shone his light on the leprechaun’s vest, which was mostly empty aside from ammo and the leprechaun’s assault rifle which hung on a makeshift harness. Glen didn’t see any more guns.
Surprisingly, however, the leprechaun nodded. He reached behind him and pulled out a large handgun. He hesitated for a minute.
“If I give this to ya, will ya tell me where the boy is, the one we’re after?” Lochlan asked.
Soren had been reaching out to take it, but pulled his hand back. Glen mentally urged him to make up something the leprechaun wanted to hear. But then he wondered if that was a good idea. He didn’t know much about leprechauns, but he’d heard a story about a farmer who lied to one. It had ended badly. Apparently Soren had heard something similar.
“No,” Soren said. “Never. You could torture me, cut me to pieces, burn me alive, whatever you can think of. I will never give you the name of the boy. Nor will I lead you to him. And if the price of that gun is his name, I won’t pay it. I will let the three of us die.”
Lochlan hesitated a moment and then handed him the gun.
“Take it anyway, free of charge,” Lochlan said. “I’m startin’ to like ya, or at least respect ya, even if ya are a giant pain in the arse.”
“Same to you,” Soren said, taking the weapon.
“Do you have a gun for me?” Glen asked.
The leprechaun gave him a sharp glance.
“Fook off,” Lochlan replied. “Even if I did, I’d enjoy watching that thing rip you apart.”
In that moment, Glen truly hated the leprechaun.
“’I’ve got to get away from these kids. They’re always after me Lucky Charms,’” Glen said in the most offensive Irish accent he could muster.
Lochlan practically threw himself at Glen, but Soren stopped him and put a finger to his lips.
“Cut it out, both of you,” Soren said. “It’s showtime.”
Soren clicked off the flashlight app, plunging them into darkness. Glen wanted to protest, but knew Soren was right. The light was a beacon in this place, drawing the gorgon closer. They couldn’t afford it any longer. Besides, Glen had glanced at his phone long enough to see the battery was already running low. Using the flashlight app had drained it quickly and it wouldn’t last long. They would just have to hope Lochlan could find his way out in the dark.
“Put your hand on my shoulder,” Soren said to Glen. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”
They started walking again. As they did so, the hissing became steadily louder, echoing through the tunnels in a way that made it sound like not just one, but potentially hundreds, of gorgons were coming for them. Glen thought of the eggs in that cavern and shivered. If they died, that was exactly what was going to be unleashed on Virginia and the world at large. Jay had risked his life to try to stop that from happening. Now Glen was about to do the same.
The hissing grew so loud it felt like it was inside his head, rattling his spine. Glen kept walking, hoping with each step that Lochlan had some clue about the way out. Soon, however, he could think of nothing but the hissing, which seemed to be all around. It felt smothering, like it was taking away all the air inside the tunnel.
The sound of it was nauseating. Snakes made a hiss to frighten away predators and intimidate enemies. Glen considered himself properly intimidated.
And then it got worse.
“I know you’re here,” Emily’s guttural voice echoed through the cavern. “I can ssssssmell you.”
Like the hiss, it was impossible to identify where her voice was coming from. The three of them didn’t stop to try to locate it, but just kept walking. The only good news was that the slope of the tunnel was no longer flat; they were headed upward at last. But Glen had no sense of how far underground they’d gone or how much distance they had to cover until they hit the surface.
They walked slower than before, careful to avoid making any noise that might alert Emily to where they were hiding. If the gorgon was patient, she would have simply waited for them to find the exit and strike then. But her presence down in the mine suggested that she was nervous, probably because her eggs were there as well. She didn’t want the three intruders to hurt them.
Which gave them an advantage, Glen thought, albeit a slight one. If Emily couldn’t find them, she might head to check on her eggs, which meant she had to go past the three of them through another tunnel. That would allow them a chance to get out, provided they could avoid the gorgon and find the right exit.
“I know you’re here,” Emily’s voice called. “I’m going to find you and make you pay.”
The hairs on the back of Glen’s neck were up. He had no way of knowing for sure, but he felt like the gorgon was close. His instincts all told him the same thing: run away. But there was nowhere to go. Without Lochlan, he would be hopelessly lost. And if he fled, he knew she would hear him. She would find him.
“The first two I find get turned to sssssstone,” Emily said, her voice echoing through the mine. “The last one gets eaten alive. Tell me now, how do you prefer to go? Wouldn’t it be better if I found you ssssooon? Wouldn’t you rather be part of my collection?”
The tunnel was definitely sloping upward; Glen could feel it. He wanted to see some concrete sign they were headed out, like maybe a glimpse of sunlight. But it was still pitch black, darker than night.
At the same time, though, he thought the air seemed fresher. He hadn’t been conscious of it feeling stale before, but this smelled better. He found it easier to breathe.
There was the sound of rocks scraping nearby and Lochlan and Soren abruptly stopped. The hissing, already intensely loud, now sounded like it had a direction—it was coming from just in front of them.
Glen could feel his palms sweating and his heart pounding like a hammer in his chest. It was so loud, he worried the gorgon could hear it too. He didn’t think he’d ever been more terrified in his life. Except for maybe once, and he’d sworn never to repeat that experience. Yet here he was, topping it. He’d been a fool for taking Terry’s offer and very soon he was going to be a dead fool.
He waited in the dark, listening. In addition to the ever-present hissing, he could hear the sound of something massive moving through the narrow tunnels. Glen thought of that writhing gray flesh worming its way through the cavern, looking for him. He lived in dread that soon he would see two pinpricks of red—the gorgon’s eyes—and that would be the last thing he ever saw.
“Move back,” Soren whispered, drawing Glen’s attention to his companion.
He slowly took a step backward, then another and then another, feeling Soren and presumably Lochlan do the same. Glen worried he would fall but he managed to keep his balance. After several steps, Soren broke contact, pulling away from Glen.
For just a moment, Glen was alone in the dark, uncertain where the others were. He had a vision of the gorgon picking them off one by one. While they’d been walking, it had killed Lochlan, and now it had grabbed Soren. Glen was the only one left.
But then he felt a hand—a human hand—on his shoulder.
“Lochlan needs to talk to us,” Soren whispered.
“She’s very close,” Lochlan said. “I can sense two tunnels in front of us and she’s guarding both. But only one of them leads to the outside and I can’t tell which.”
“You saw this? How?” Glen asked, keeping his voice as low as possible.
“It’s just an instinct,” Lochlan replied. “It’s like a movie in me mind. I don’t know how I know; I just do. I can see just in front of us, but not far. But here’s da ting. She’s hiding in whichever tunnel is the right one. The bitch is crafty. She wants to spook us into runnin’, but she doesn’t want us
escapin’ either. She’s waiting for us to take the right tunnel and kill us, or the wrong one and be trapped.”
“And then kill us,” Glen finished.
“Tha’s the plan,” Lochlan said.
“And you can’t tell which one leads to the surface?” Soren asked.
Glen could almost hear the leprechaun shaking his head.
“The tunnels run close together, mostly side by side,” he said. “I can’t tell which is which. But one will get us out, that I’m sure of. I can smell the air.”
“Why can’t we see sunlight?” Glen asked.
“Because it’s probably dark by now ya fooking idiot,” Lochlan said. “And the exit is still far away.”
The hissing grew suddenly louder again and the three of them stopped talking. Glen could hear the scraping sound again, the sound of the gorgon barely fitting its way through the tunnels.
“I can hear you,” Emily’s voice said. “I hear you whispering in the dark. Maybe I won’t save you for my collection. Maybe I’ll eat all three of you.”
The hissing bounced off the walls and echoed throughout the cavern. Glen covered his ears but it didn’t help much. He could still hear it in his head. After a moment, the sound receded again, evidently as Emily went back to her hiding spot.
“I’ve got an idea,” Soren whispered.
“Uh, oh,” Glen said. “That’s not good.”
Soren ignored him.
“You said your magic was based in illusion,” Soren said.
“Won’t do us much good in the dark, lad,” Lochlan said. “I doubt even she can see anything I conjure down here.”
“I don’t need her to see anything; I need her to hear it,” Soren said. “Can you make sounds too?”
“I can do tha,” Lochlan said.
“Good,” Soren said. “We need to know which tunnel is the right one. I want you to project a sound into one of them. Just have her hear a voice, either of Glen or myself. Don’t make it obvious.”
“How does that help us?” Glen said.
“Because one of two things are going to happen,” Soren said. “If we’re very lucky, Lochlan projects his voice into the tunnel the gorgon isn’t in. She runs to attack us in the wrong tunnel while we get past her and escape.”
Carnival of Stone: A Novella (The Soren Chase Series) Page 13