Jason swore and Sarah almost lost her grip on the parchment.
‘You two keep an eye out,’ Sarah said, ‘I’ll search.’ She hunted through the image, looking for signs of the massive Anakim structure that surrounded them.
A few minutes later her quest continued and Jason glanced down. ‘Any luck?’
Sarah shook her head. ‘No, you try.’ She passed the parchment over and the image disappeared before returning when everyone had readjusted position and Sarah had given Jason her pendant.
More time passed and Sarah could have sworn she’d heard another noise in the distance, possibly the same noise they’d learnt to fear.
Jason looked up. ‘I have it!’
Trish and Sarah peered at the image.
‘Are you sure?’ Trish said, sounding sceptical.
‘There.’ He traced a straight line on the parchment with a finger, before rotating it further and expanding the view.
‘Zoom in further,’ Sarah said.
He did so and the resemblance to their surroundings became clear, even down to the stairs they’d descended after their abseil.
‘Fantastic!’ Trish kissed Jason on the cheek.
But Sarah saw a flaw in the plan. ‘How do we find a transportation device?’
‘They must have put them at locations where a lot of people congregate,’ Trish said, ‘like the temple. Large places or areas like the one when we entered Sanctuary, that large circular cavern. You can’t tell me there won’t be some around here. Also, they should show up on the map when we do find one, like the canisters and that square platform at the Ruins of Copán, remember?’
Sarah felt they were clutching at straws again and her doubt must have shown.
‘I’d rather hunt around on this map looking for transportation devices and water than go up against that bloody light. Wouldn’t you?’ Trish looked at Jason, who nodded.
Sarah stayed silent, thinking.
‘Well?’ Trish said.
‘Okay, we’ll do it, but now we’re without water again that should be our first priority.’
Trish and Jason’s expressions were of sheer relief that they’d averted Sarah’s plan. Sarah on the other hand felt disappointed. She still believed her option was the better of the two, but now her friends had an alternative in their minds there’d be no counselling them. And yet another thought worried her more. I’d wanted to face the light, head on, to face my fear rather than flee from it. Is that so wrong, she wondered, or is it the danger I seek? Flashes of her recurring nightmare came to mind and she felt the days of sleep deprivation and lack of food press down upon her like an anvil. Leadership, and the burden that came with it, had drained her, body and soul, and yet they were still far from safety, the job only half done. If only they could catch a break. Since they’d left the base, virtually the entire journey to the Anakim temple had been one crisis after another, progress followed by calamity, followed by disaster. It almost seemed like Sanctuary itself was conspiring against them, lusting to hold on to those that dared traverse its dark domain.
Now a decision had been made, Sarah was compelled to make it work despite any misgivings she had about it. With the three of them still working as one to channel the power of their bodies through the pendant, they spent some time searching the parchment schematic for signs of water. However, such a hope was soon dashed when it became clear such resources weren’t displayed on the map, at least none that they were able to find. They then switched their attention to looking for the temple, their original destination, reasoning there might be another way to reach it. An alternative route also meant they could avoid any confrontation with the light. Unfortunately that failed to work too, due in no small part to the three dimensional complexity of the map, but also because, on further inspection, many features shown didn’t correspond to present day Sanctuary. Undeterred, Trish and Jason insisted there was still enough correct detail to be of use, and it was with this persistence that their searching finally bore fruit.
‘What’s that?!’ Trish stabbed a finger at the parchment.
‘Careful,’ – Jason gave her a stern look – ‘we can’t afford to damage it.’
Sarah leaned closer. ‘It looks like another temple.’
‘And what does that look like to you?’ Trish said, indicating a specific area.
Sarah squinted. ‘Zoom in further.’
Jason made the image larger.
‘It could be a transport device,’ she said, ‘or it could be something completely different.’
Trish gave Jason’s shoulder a congratulatory squeeze. ‘We won’t know till we take a look.’
‘What’s that around it?’ Sarah gestured for Jason to alter the perspective.
‘It looks like it’s on a hill,’ he said.
Trish eyed the image, her expression full of concentration. ‘Looks more like a mountain than a hill.’
‘Who cares,’ Sarah said, ‘let’s just find it.’
Working out its location in respect to their own, they set off again, desperation strong but optimism renewed. Sarah just hoped it didn’t turn out to be another nail in a coffin of their own making.
♦
A few hours later and Jason fired up the map again to see how close they were to the new temple.
‘It should be through there.’ He pointed over to the right at a group of crumbling ruins surrounding a spire that must have been over a mile high, its point a distant shape through their visors.
The map disappeared and Jason let out a squawk of protest. Trish had turned away to look back the way they’d come.
Sarah moved to her side. ‘What is it?’
‘I’m sure I just saw movement.’
‘The light?’
‘I don’t know.’
Jason joined them. ‘Where?’
Trish indicated an area on the far side of the highway, a mile behind them.
Sarah searched the terrain with her eyes and scanned across before stopping and returning to a section she’d just passed. Her eyes narrowed. A curious fluctuation in the air hovered in the shadow of a fallen statue. ‘Don’t make any sudden moves,’ she said, ‘but I think I see it.’
‘What?!’ Trish sounded terrified.
‘I think it’s stalking us. You two start moving to the temple.’
Trish hesitated. ‘I’m not letting you be bait.’
‘Don’t worry, I’ll be right behind you, let’s just not give away that we know it’s there.’
Jason took charge of the Centipede and with Trish at his side, made his way under a shattered archway. Sarah pretended to look in the opposite direction to where the light hunkered, while on her visor she watched its position in the mirror. Giving Trish and Jason time to get well into the complex, Sarah followed at a slow walk. Reaching some steps, she almost tripped as her attention remained focused on the light with increasing intensity, the image seeming to fill her whole mind.
At the arch she paused, waiting to see if it moved.
It didn’t.
Reluctant to relinquish her advantage, she activated her helmet communicator with a touch of a button. ‘How far are you inside?’
A crackle of noise buzzed over the speakers and then Trish said, ‘About a kilometre, where are you?’
‘I’m still outside.’
‘What, why?!’
‘I don’t want to let it out my sight. We know where it is, that’s an advantage.’
‘Not for you, it’s not,’ Jason said, ‘get in here!’
Sarah failed to say anything and Trish spoke again. ‘Sarah, you have to come now. The way ahead splits, you wont be able to find us.’
Sarah swore, took one last look at the hidden light and ducked into darkness.
Chapter Twenty Nine
With one eye on her visor’s mirror window, Sarah Morgan ran through the remains of the ancient Anakim building, curious carvings and frightening statues jumping out of the dark as she passed. Ahead, the lights of the Centipede traced the silhouette
s of Trish and Jason as they waited for her in the pitch-black. Rejoining her friends moments later, she took charge of the supply vehicle and they ran as one, trying to put distance between themselves and the thing that pursued them: the ethereal shimmering light.
A pile of rubble blocked their path. Panicked, Sarah scrambled over the obstacle, slip sliding down the other side while trying to keep the Centipede moving forward. Trish and Jason soon joined her and they sped into another hallway. Huge, twisted tree roots narrowed their path and shattered masonry hung down from above, forcing Sarah through a myriad of twists and turns. She guided the Centipede before her, following the elusive forms of her friends, their faint shapes appearing and disappearing like mist demons in the fog.
Emerging into another open area, the small fellowship regrouped, each casting fearful eyes back the way they’d come.
‘Where now?’ Trish said.
Sarah pointed up. ‘Your mountain.’
Jason and Trish looked in the direction she indicated. Dominating the view, the grey shades of their visors depicted the single spire they’d seen from the Anakim highway. A slender tower at its peak, the base of the structure bulged out in a spectacular web of supports like the legs of a giant insect, each strand swirling upwards to merge into the single body above. This great, monolithic temple had been built atop a rocky mound wider than a city block which was in turn encircled by a massive, moat-like chasm. But as they drew nearer it soon became apparent that the surrounding obstacle couldn’t have been further removed from said medieval defence. Wider than a football pitch was long, the barrier that prevented them from waltzing up to their intended destination fell away into the depths.
Completing over half a circuit of the fissure revealed it left the temple in perfect isolation, cutting off any access to it and creating a mountain where ninety per cent of its mass stood sunken into the Earth’s crust. Far below, the familiar orange glow of lava flowed in steady spirals along a meandering river.
Despite this massive obstacle to their progress, there was some good news; the fearsome light had yet to reappear.
Jason approached the edge. ‘There’s no way across.’
‘What about that?’ Sarah gestured ahead at a structure that had been built inside the crevasse.
Moving closer, they came to an ornate gateway leading to nowhere, except a one-way trip down to the lava, thousands of feet below.
‘What is that?’ Trish peered out. ‘An aqueduct?’
Sarah nodded. ‘I think so.’
The crumbling structure sat slap bang in the middle of the expanse that prevented access to the temple beyond.
‘I can see bridges down there,’ Jason leaned out further, holding onto a granite pedestal. ‘I think some are aqueducts, too, one still has water flowing across it!’
‘There are tunnel entrances over there,’ – Trish pointed behind them – ‘they probably lead down to the bridges and then go up inside to the temple.’
Sarah didn’t fancy going into more tunnels, especially if the light returned and decided to follow them inside, but something else had grabbed her attention. ‘I think there’s an Anakim device on the aqueduct.’ Sarah zoomed in her visor. At least it looked like it could be part of one, the strange shine of the ceramic-like substance seemed indicative of at least some of the ancient builders’ technology.
‘You’re right,’ Jason said, ‘but it’s a bit closer than you think.’
Sarah followed his gaze down to her feet. The glint of ceramic sparkled from beneath a covering of loose sediment. She scraped her foot across the surface to reveal it further. Dropping to her knees, she swept it clear with her hands. Standing, she looked at a circle indented into a pale flecked surface about a metre square.
Sarah removed her climbing boots and socks, but before she could step onto the circle Trish grabbed her arm. ‘Wait! We can’t just keep activating this stuff; we don’t know what it does.’
‘And the light,’ Jason said, ‘it might attract it.’
‘And you’d both prefer to go through more tunnels, unable to see round the next corner, with nowhere to run?’ Sarah, fed up with their caution, stepped onto the circle.
Nothing happened.
She rolled up her sleeves and looked at Trish and then Jason. ‘I need your help.’
Trish snorted. ‘You’re unbelievable.’
Jason wilted under Sarah’s gaze and grasped her arm. Her pendant warmed against her chest and a tingling sensation spiralled up her legs. A flash of light from the aqueduct transformed into a seething mass of red electricity that flowed out towards them, crackling bolts of blue lightning flashing to Sarah’s platform like a Tesla coil.
Trish backed away and Jason swore as the wave of deafening energy closed in. Sarah flinched before the electricity flickered over the ceramic platform and tendrils of tiny lightning licked at her feet. Light flared and died and the noise subsided. Glimmering in the dark was a pathway to the gods; a bridge of blue light spanning the gap to the aqueduct.
Dumbstruck, Jason’s hand slid from Sarah’s arm.
Sarah raised her visor and gazed out at the incredible vision. She held out her hand and Jason, reading her mind, passed her the cable from the Centipede’s winch. Attaching it to her harness and steeling herself, Sarah stepped out onto the Anakim creation. Beneath her bare soles the pulsating energy rippled and crackled and pinpricks of discomfort like pins and needles attacked her skin. Each step brought with it a swell of electricity, the tiny branches clinging to her feet as she moved.
A distant screech stopped her dead.
‘The light!’ Trish said. ‘He told you!’
Sarah rushed back to her friends. Detaching herself, she clipped Trish onto the cable and pushed her forward. ‘Go!’
Trish resisted. ‘What are you doing? There’s no way from the aqueduct to the temple!’
‘Yes there is, now go!’ With a shove, Sarah thrust her out onto the bridge.
Sarah snatched a rope from her back and secured Jason to the Centipede and sent him after Trish.
Another roar echoed into the chamber, sending fear coursing through her limbs.
Trish had made it across, but Jason was only halfway over. A movement caught her eye. A shimmering glow of blue-green moved towards her at speed. With no time left, she drove the Centipede onto the bridge and no sooner had it touched the surface than steam rose from its tyres. The rubber melted, leaving black trails that smoked until vaporised. Running on its rims, the remote vehicle ploughed onwards chasing Jason onto the safety of the aqueduct ahead. Trish screamed a warning and Sarah felt a guttural growl reverberate through her chest. Stranded in the centre of the bridge without any harness, Sarah glimpsed the stomach churning drop below as she turned to face the thing that dogged their steps.
A shimmering form hovered just above the ceramic platform that had activated the walkway, the air around it distorting and contorting, preventing the eye from resolving what lay beneath. Sarah found herself backing away and she stopped her retreat.
‘What are you doing?!’ Jason shouted. ‘RUN!’
Sarah held her ground. Perhaps this thing was like a wild animal, unable to resist fleeing prey. If she turned tail she could be dead in an instant. She also felt some strange compulsion to look it in the eye, or at least where its eyes should have been. She took a step forward. A sick thrill of horror at her own insanity resonated into a voice within her mind, a voice that sounded like her own. Am I not what you desire? it whispered, the silver tongue laced with an insidious hunger, why do you fear me?
Sarah thought she heard her friends shouting to her, but she only had ears for the crackling electricity beneath her feet, her eyes drawn to the beguiling light.
The spectre glided forward, its indistinct outline inching onto the throbbing bridge of energy. Light flared and an ungodly screech shook Sarah from abstraction. Blinding blue pulses enveloped the entity. Its light flared red and Sarah glimpsed a writhing form within. Terror struck, she turned tail
and ran. The bridge flickered in failure. A blast of air threw her forward and she leapt toward Jason’s outstretched hand and grasped it as the support vanished from under her.
Heaved to safe harbour, Sarah turned to see the chasm resumed, the bridge gone and the light nowhere to be seen. Breathing hard, she dropped to a crouch, sweat beading on her brow.
Jason put a hand on her shoulder. ‘Fucking hell, Sarah, what were you thinking?’
Sarah looked up at him and shook her head, she wasn’t sure she’d been thinking at all.
‘I can’t see it anywhere.’ Trish stared out into the black.
Sarah rose and scanned the area.
Nothing could be seen.
‘Perhaps it’s dead,’ Jason said.
Sarah hoped that was the case, but right now they had to reach the temple. With the possibility of an Anakim transportation device so close to hand, the fresh air of the surface beckoned like the promise of Elysian Fields.
Still spooked by the confrontation, Sarah assessed their surroundings. The temple mount was a hundred feet away with only the yawning crevasse between them and it. They were closer than they were before, but not close enough.
She focused on the aqueduct, which had once cut a semi-circular path out over the abyss from the mountain where it originated. Most of the structure had collapsed eons past, leaving just the tip of its arch held aloft by immense curved supports that disappeared down into the darkness below. And it was on this lone section of the aqueduct on which they now stood, stranded in no man’s land.
The shattered ends of the broken structure terminated at the cliff face opposite, its water-bearing channels long since blocked with the debris of fallen rock.
Jason peered over the edge. ‘That looks a long way down.’
‘Too far,’ Sarah said. ‘We lost most of our climbing gear when the light chased us on the highway.’
Trish joined them. ‘And you didn’t think of that before we crossed over?’
‘Of course I thought of it.’
2041 Sanctuary (Let There Be Light) Page 19