“Is anyone else having second thoughts about this adventure?” I whispered.
Temi nodded. “Yes.”
Simon shook his head. “No.”
I stared at the dust and tufts of grass at our feet while listening for more scrapes. I didn’t hear anything. It’d either moved on or it was hiding in the shadows somewhere, waiting for a chance to pounce on us. Except that it hadn’t proved that subtle yet. It simply attacked when it wanted. Maybe we’d heard something else. Or maybe it had bypassed us and was after the sword. Either way, I was less enthused about hunting for caves. When I’d agreed to follow the riders, it had been under the assumption that our monster friend wouldn’t be roaming about during the day.
“Why not?” I asked Simon quietly.
He shrugged. “We need to keep an eye on our employers. Once they get what they want, they might take off and we’d never see them again.”
“I believe Eleriss would return to the vet parking lot to bring us our coin,” I said.
“But he wouldn’t explain anything. I want to know what they’re looking for in there. Besides, they might need our help with that creature. They already fought it with the sword and barely hurt it, if they hurt it at all.”
“How would we hurt it?” I asked.
“With our crafty cunning.”
“How... optimistic.”
“That’s not the word I would have used,” Temi said.
“All I know is that someone needs to kill that thing,” Simon said, “because it’s murdering people left and right. And if we’re there when it faces off with those guys—if we can help when it happens...”
“You can get a picture of yourself standing with your foot up on its dead corpse?” I asked.
“Well, yes, but it’ll still be dead, won’t it? That’s gotta be the goal here, not just to learn languages and look at artifacts. Getting rid of it has to be the most important thing.”
Simon of all people was lecturing me on morality? “I don’t disagree with you,” I said, struggling to keep my voice calm, “but I don’t think we’re qualified to do it.”
“Who is?”
“Them.” I flung a hand toward the rocks, though I had no idea where Jakatra and Eleriss were in relation to us.
“They’re not even human,” Simon said. “How much can they really care?”
“We don’t know that. We don’t know what they are.”
“Exactly, and we don’t ultimately know why they’re here, no matter what they say. We have to make sure that monster gets killed one way or another. And if it’s following them and trying to get that sword, then that’s where we need to be.”
“With our crafty cunning,” I said.
“Exactly.”
Temi was looking back and forth between us, probably trying to decide how serious our arguing was. I had assumed Simon’s ulterior motive in stalking the riders had been to get more pictures of the monster; I hadn’t thought he’d been dreaming of killing it. Sure, he’d said something about killing it and saving the town, but that had been a joke, hadn’t it? Like I’d told Temi, I knew his entrepreneurial streak had been born out of wanting to help his people—or prove himself to his people anyway—but I’d never taken him for some knight-errant in geeky armor. I sure hoped this wasn’t about impressing Temi.
“I don’t suppose you’ve got some kind of clever trap in your pack then?” I asked.
“I did have the idea of setting a trap for it with that sword,” Simon said, “if we can get a hold of it, but I think we need to see what else those guys are going to pull out of this cave first. And it’s a foregone conclusion that they’re not going to tell us what it is; we have to be there when they get it.”
I sighed and looked at Temi. She shrugged back at me. And here I’d wanted a third person so I could have the deciding vote.
A breeze whispered through, again hinting of cooler weather. It also hinted of... I sniffed a few times. “That’s that acid chemical smell from the cavates.”
“They’re burning holes again,” Simon said. “We must be close.”
“All right.” Afraid I’d regret it, I whispered, “We might as well take a peek.”
“Famous last words?” Temi asked, though she followed us when we continued through the little dell.
The rock walls grew narrower, and we had to walk single-file. I watched the route ahead but also the tops of the boulders on either side, all too aware that something up there could jump down and land on us before we knew what was happening.
I stepped around prickly pear cactus and shrubs that were only slightly less prickly. I’d lost track of where the hiking trails were, but this area definitely wasn’t traveled often. We rounded a jumble of boulders and walked into a tiny box canyon, the ground flat and dusty and dotted with more cactus patches.
Simon gripped my arm and pointed at a big clawed and webbed print. A fresh one. The scent of the sea hung in the air, utterly out of place in the desert clime. If someone killed that monster, at least it could be thoroughly examined and we could figure out what exactly it was.
“There’s your hole.” Temi, taller than Simon and I, pointed at something behind a manzanita shrub growing out of a narrow crevice. The tracks led straight to it.
“If it charges out,” Simon whispered, “we can try climbing up those boulders to get away from it. I bet something that big isn’t that agile at scaling walls.”
I wasn’t going to take that bet. I hoped it’d gone down after the others and that we wouldn’t see it until they’d dealt with it.
I slipped an arrow out of my quiver and crept forward. Several of the manzanita’s ropy red branches had been snapped. A dark hole gaped behind it. Like the one in the cavate, it was perfectly round and not nearly as wide and inviting as I’d like. It sloped downward and toward the lake, the angle not so steep that one would have to slide down on one’s butt—or use a rope and grapple to climb out. That was something, I supposed.
Simon squeezed in beside me. He touched one of the tunnel’s walls. “It’s cool. We’re farther behind than we were last time.”
“I think... maybe we should stay even farther behind. Like how about we climb up on the rocks where we can watch down here and wait for them to come out? We’ll see whatever they carry out, and if we’re curious, we can go back into the tunnel after they—and the monster—are gone. Plenty of time to explore then, right?”
Simon frowned, but Temi was nodding. “That sounds wiser than crawling down there into the middle of trouble.”
Rocks shifted and clunked somewhere outside the canyon. I whipped my head in that direction so quickly that I almost fell in the hole. I couldn’t see anything, but a soft scraping came after the rocks settled. The rasp of claws on stone again? The noise sounded like it came from higher than ground level.
Temi and Simon were staring toward the mouth of our narrow canyon too. Without moving, I lowered my gaze to the footprints again. The tracks led to the hole, and I’d assumed the creature had gone in, but what if it’d turned around, planning to wait for Eleriss and Jakatra to come out, just as we’d thought to do? Ugh, yes, there was a print pointing in the other direction. It’d come up to the hole, then turned back.
A shadow fell across the canyon floor.
I gulped and looked up. The dark figure crouching above us was all muscle beneath its sleek, black hide. Though its weight rested on four legs instead of two, its head seemed more human than animal, mounted on a thick corded neck. Its ears were close to its head, and the face seemed simian rather than canine or feline. Its stout muscular arms and legs gripped the edge of the rock, long dagger-like claws biting into the stone. Tiny shards fell away, the dust trickling down the granite wall. If those claws could cut into rock, they’d have no trouble tearing off a man’s head...
“Down the hole,” Simon whispered. “We have to go down the hole.”
The creature’s eerie iridescent eyes stared down at us, utterly soulless and without mercy. It shifted its weigh
t, the muscular haunches bunching, preparing to spring.
My instincts cried out against the idea of throwing myself into a tight space, but trying to flee out here would be even more suicidal. We wouldn’t be able to outrun it, wouldn’t be able to—
“Go!” This time Simon shoved me toward the hole.
The predator leaped from the ledge, claws glinting in the afternoon sun.
I dove headfirst into the tunnel. My bow caught, and I lost it. I didn’t care. I scrambled into the passage on hands and knees, heedless of the inky blackness ahead. All I knew was that I had to keep going so there’d be space behind me for the others to fit inside. I fumbled at my belt, unhooking a flashlight. I thumbed it on, and the beam brightened smooth, uniformly curved gray walls.
Somewhere behind me, Simon cursed only to have the words cut off in a startled cry of pain. I slowed to glance back, but in the tight passage I stumbled over my own feet and fell. My hip struck the unyielding rock, and the flashlight flew from my hands. Either it broke or the switch was bumped off. Blackness descended on the passage again, and I couldn’t see or hear a thing.
CHAPTER 23
For a long moment, the only sound in the tunnel was that of my own breathing—fast and ragged in my ears. I twisted about, wincing at the new lump on my hip, and tried to see the exit. I hadn’t scrambled that far, had I? The opening and the daylight beyond it ought to be in view. Unless that opening was blocked...
“Temi?” I whispered. “Simon?”
They’d been right behind me. Surely they’d had time to dive into the hole too.
“Ssh,” Temi breathed so softly I almost missed it. It sounded like she was about twenty feet behind me and higher up. The passage was sloping at a thirty, maybe forty percent grade. Climbing back out would be like crawling up a slide at a water park.
Scrapes and grunts drifted to my ears. The predator. It was farther back than Temi—it must still be outside, otherwise she’d be shoving at me and yelling for me to hurry. I hoped it was too large to crawl inside, then realized that must be the case. Otherwise it would have followed Eleriss and Jakatra, and it’d be following us now. Maybe they’d designed their hole to these narrow proportions, knowing that the creature would give chase.
“You two okay?” Simon asked from farther back than Temi.
I exhaled in relief. When I’d heard his cry, I hadn’t been sure he’d made it inside.
A deep rumbling snarl answered him.
“I wasn’t talking to you,” he said his voice sounding farther away.
I blinked slowly, realizing he’d turned around and was addressing the creature.
“Don’t get cheeky just because it can’t reach us for the moment,” I said. “We have to go out that way at some point.”
“I’m sure it can’t understand me,” Simon said.
Remembering the way the predator had targeted our headlights with its rocks, I wasn’t as certain. If someone had engineered it into existence, they could have made it bright and taught it to understand English too.
A hint of light returned to the tunnel. The monster must have moved away from the entrance.
I patted around, hunting for the fallen flashlight, but the effort was in vain. With that slope, it would have kept rolling until it hit a level spot. I imagined it plopping out of a cavern ceiling to land at Jakatra’s feet. Lovely way to announce our presence.
Shadows moved above me. A light winked to life, nearly blinding me. I raised my arm to block it and looked away.
“Sorry,” Simon said, turning the flashlight toward the wall, “but here’s your bow.” He leaned around Temi to hand it to me.
I accepted it, glad to have a weapon again. There wasn’t any room for anyone to pass anyone else, so I was stuck leading. Temi handed me her flashlight, and after conking my head on the ceiling a few times I gave up on crouching and crawling in favor of sliding down the slope.
In the distance, water dripped. Time oozed past as we continued downward. I shivered as the air grew chillier, or maybe it simply seemed chillier. All of the rock climbing had left my hair and clothing sweaty, and they clung unpleasantly to my cooling body.
“How deep did you say the cavern was?” I asked as we continued to scoot down the slope.
“About seventy-five feet,” Simon replied.
“Haven’t we gone that far yet?” It felt like we’d gone seven hundred.
“It’s possible our friends missed the target,” he said.
“If so, one would think they’d figure that out quickly, and that the tunnel would take a few hard rights or lefts, followed by a bunch of squiggly curves as they searched for the right spot.”
“Just because that’s how you drive through the Walmart parking lot doesn’t mean that’s how they’d drill their hole.”
Temi snorted.
“Ha ha,” I said, then didn’t speak for a while. The drips of water in the distance had turned to a steady trickle and sounded closer.
I scooted down the slope faster. It sounded like there was going to be a cave down here. It wasn’t that I’d doubted Simon exactly... but I’d been skeptical of some undiscovered grotto so close to town.
The light played across something metal up ahead. I tensed, but it was only the clip on the flashlight I’d lost. It lay on a flat stretch of stone in a tunnel that crossed ours, creating a T-intersection. The other passage was identical in size and shape to this one.
“Then again,” Simon said, “maybe they do drive their tunnel-maker the way you drive the van.”
I sat down in the intersection and waited for the others. I fought a jittery feeling of unease at the lowness of the ceiling and the knowledge that we couldn’t stand and run if we needed to. We’d have to crawl out the same way we’d come down, except much more effort would be required for ascent.
“How’s your knee?” I asked Temi. “Regretting your choice to join us for this foray into the underworld?”
She was also taking the opportunity to sit, her legs stretched out to one side. “Given that the monster can’t get down here, I’d rather be here than waiting up by the kayaks. Though perhaps a hotel in a far away city would be acceptable as well.” She adjusted her leg and grimaced at some stab of pain or another. “A hotel with a masseur. And a hot tub.”
Simon, hunkered behind her, blinking a few times at whatever images her words conjured in his mind. I widened my eyes at him. I still didn’t think he had a chance, but he might never get a better straight line for offering her a massage. He opened his mouth to speak, then closed it, his shoulders slumping. Temi was rubbing her knee and didn’t notice.
“Shall we split up?” I asked. “Or check both sides together?”
“I feel that this would be the appropriate time to pursue group activities and bond as a team,” Temi said.
“Enh, the monster is stuck outside,” Simon said, “and I don’t really think Eleriss and Jakatra will kill us at this point. There shouldn’t be anything down here to bug us. I’ll check to the right, and you girls can go left. One’s probably a dead end anyway.”
He crawled off in his chosen direction before we could object. He was probably right, so my only objection was to his stupidity when it came to women. Temi had massages on her mind and wanted to stick together, so what was he doing? Fleeing in the other direction.
“Except whatever they’re looking for,” Temi murmured.
“What?” I asked, not certain I’d understood.
“He said there wasn’t anything down here to bug us, but we don’t know what those two are looking for.”
“Oh,” I said, imagining ancient weapons and booby traps. I was almost tempted to crawl after Simon, but even if we both had tendencies toward rashness, I thought he was smart enough to avoid some centuries-old land mine. “I’m sure he’ll be fine.”
I glanced at Temi, wondering if I might catch her gazing back with concern for Simon, but after a pause, she nodded and waved for me to lead the way.
Without the slope to ai
d us, we didn’t advance as quickly. I kept the flashlight trained on the passage ahead of us, and it gradually curved to the right. That was it for variations in the scenery. The tunnel otherwise remained the same perfect circle. I guessed Eleriss and Jakatra had run into some particularly hard stone or a terrain feature they’d had to go around.
It was still chilly down here—even if they’d burned through the rock to make the tunnels, the walls had since cooled—but traveling horizontally took more effort, and I had to pause a few times to wipe sweat out of my eyes. It occurred to me that with the only exit guarded, we were stuck down here until the riders left with their sword, and the monster took off after them. If something happened to them, and they didn’t—or couldn’t—leave, how long would that creature wait out there? We had no chance of outrunning it on foot, or in kayaks, not when it could cover ground as rapidly as our van.
I wiped my eyes again. I needed to stop thinking about this stuff.
“Can I ask you a question?” I asked to distract myself—and because it’d grown apparent that the tunnel would go on for a while.
“Yes,” Temi said.
“Why didn’t you ever email or write home after you left?”
Out of all the things I could have brought up, I don’t know why I chose that. Maybe it was one of those things, like putting one’s will in order. I wanted it resolved... just in case. Besides, I’d keep feeling awkward when I was alone with her until I knew what she thought about back then.
After a long moment, Temi said, “My parting with my parents was so... uncomfortable that it soured me on everything back home. I didn’t keep in touch with anyone.”
So because her parents had been jerks about her dreams, she’d decided to ignore her best friend for the next ten years? It sounded like a half-truth. Maybe I should have let it go, but I wanted to clear the air. Somehow it seemed easier here, where I didn’t have to look her in the eye because I was busy crawling down a tunnel. I wondered if that made me strange.
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