“Sorry,” I murmured, sitting up. Thankfully, the explosion had only been in my dream. The smoke had been replaced with fog so thick it swallowed the sea and the horizon. The sky above was a pale grayish blue. It was impossible to tell for sure, but I guessed the sun was rising.
Jazz rushed down from the second deck. “We’ve made incredible time! See? I told you this boat was amazing!”
“Are we close?” I asked, lowering my voice to avoid another kick from Brooks.
“We’re here.”
“This is the Old World?”
That got Brooks up. Her hair was a tangle of knots and she had dark circles under her eyes.
Jazz snorted. “No, this is the entrance.”
Blinking, I looked around, trying to see through the mist. “Where?” I half expected a door or a gate.
Brooks was on her knees, peering over the railing. “I don’t see anything.”
The boat lurched and stopped suddenly, like a stone wall was blocking our way. Slowly the fog separated and curled into ribbons, creating an image. I held my breath, watching as it took shape… sleeping eyes, a nose, and a mouth. It looked like an enormous face.
“Holy K!” Brooks cried. “What is that?”
“How do we get through?” I asked.
Jazz grunted. “The mouth, of course.”
“Do we need some kind of magic words or something?” Brooks said. “To get it to open?”
Jazz frowned, then looked at us with one frantic eye. “Give me something that belongs to each of you. Something with some weight to it.”
There wasn’t time for questions. Brooks yanked off her boot, muttering something about freezing feet, and thrust it at him.
Jazz turned it over in his hand.
“It’s all I could think of,” Brooks said. “Unless you want a dirty sock.”
I looked around, grabbed my stupid cane off the bench, and handed it to him. “You think it’s going to open for a combat boot and a cane?”
Jazz launched Brooks’s boot into the face. Nothing happened. “Just like I suspected,” he mumbled. The fog began to curl again and the face started to disappear. “Blood for the gods, open!” He launched my cane, smacking the face on the nose.
Slowly, the mouth opened, a huge yawn that revealed total darkness inside.
“Er… you sure this is a good idea?” I asked.
“You want to get to the Old World or not?” Jazz rushed up the stairs and put the boat in gear. We sailed into the mouth silently until we were covered in total darkness.
“Jazz?” That was Brooks.
He drew in a sharp breath. “I’m here, kid.”
As my eyes adjusted, I said, “This is the gateway?” My voice echoed like we were in a tunnel. A very cold tunnel that smelled like rotting roadkill.
Brooks wrinkled her nose and covered her mouth with her hand. The smell was sickening… like at the dairy farm back home, but mixed with raw chicken decaying in the sun. Then I saw why: in the dark waters below were bizarre-looking eyeless fish, as long as bull sharks and as bloated as puffer fish. Their pale flesh looked half-eaten, and chunks fell off as they slithered through the dark.
Whitish foam curdled on the water’s surface.
Brooks’s eyes were wide, trying to cut through the dark. “What do you see, Zane?”
“Looks like a tunnel.” I leaned over the railing. We were surrounded by rusted, corroded metal walls. “Or the hull of a wrecked ship.”
The space was so narrow, I could’ve reached out and touched the walls if I’d wanted to. Which I didn’t. Creaks and groans echoed through the cold space.
“Why is it so awful?” I asked, trying to take tiny breaths to avoid the rotten smell.
“Hasn’t been kept up,” Jazz said, flicking on a flashlight. It looked a lot like the burning-flesh kind Brooks had lost in the volcano. “When the new gateways were built, these were forgotten. Death has a way of infesting whatever it touches.”
I looked up at Jazz. He was frowning, scanning me like I was some kind of lab rat. Like maybe he’d like to switch on the red beam and burn me up.
“What’s wrong?” Brooks said. Her face was half-hidden in the shadows.
“When I got the letter,” Jazz began slowly, “I thought there’d been a mistake. Then I got suspicious. Why would someone ask me to take them to the Old World? A place of the gods.”
“What’re you talking about, Jazz?” Brooks asked.
He began to hum that stupid song “The Days Are a-Comin’,” and a terrible uneasiness rose inside of me.
“Only gods can open the old gateways,” he said. “I’m not a god, and, Little Hawk, you’re not, so that leaves the two others on board. And something tells me it isn’t El Luchador downstairs.”
I opened my mouth to say something….What, I didn’t know.
Brooks shot me a look while Jazz continued to unravel my secret. “Your cane,” he said. “That’s what opened the gate.”
“How does a cane open an ancient gateway?” I asked flippantly, hoping Jazz might hear how crazy it sounded.
“By belonging here,” Jazz said. “By belonging to a god.”
I didn’t like the way he was considering me with his one eye. This had gotten out of hand. There were too many clues and signs pointing to me as a godborn, and I knew it was only a matter of time before everyone figured it out. I had to get to Ah-Puch, and I had to get there fast.
A flash of movement in the water caught my attention.
Slowly, like it didn’t want us to notice, the dark water began to rise. The foam bubbled and steamed.
“Jazz?” I looked over my shoulder at him.
“So,” he said, still stuck on me having the power to open the gateway, “what do you have to say for yourself? You some kind of god in disguise? What kind of game are you playing?”
“Uh, can we talk about that later? Because right now we’ve got a problem.”
“Problem?”
“Looks like the water’s rising,” I said more calmly than I felt.
Jazz’s eyebrows shot up. He rushed to the boat’s railing, aimed the light, and scanned the sea below. Shadows cast by the pale eyeless fish darted right under the surface. Then he mumbled a few curses and said, “It’s even worse than that.”
“Jazz!” Brooks shouted. “The walls are closing in—”
“Someone’s trying to shut this gateway!” Jazz jerked off his vest. “We gotta get out!”
“Get out?” Brooks said. “How much farther do we have to go?”
“Is there an emergency exit?” I hoped.
“Just a few feet,” Jazz barked. “A few lousy feet!”
I didn’t have to guess who was closing the gateway: Pukeface. Blasted tracker—I should’ve carved it out of my skin. But I’d been stupid enough to believe he’d be too busy tormenting the twins to care about me.
Jazz scrambled up to the deck, shifted the gears so hard the boat groaned in protest. The engine sputtered. “Come on, move!” he yelled.
I felt helpless. The water continued to rise. I heard the sound of rusted gears grinding as the walls kept closing in. The air was so thick, it felt like a living thing trying to choke us all.
“Zane!” Brooks hollered. “Do something!”
I gave her a panicked but blank look. “Like what?”
“You’re the son of…” She threw her hands into the air and shouted, “I don’t know, like ANYTHING!”
I leaned over the edge, willing the water to stay in place. Mat had only traced his hands through the water to get it to do as he commanded. Instinctively, I raised my hand. “Stay!” Okay, lame choice of words. I mean, I wasn’t commanding a dog. But it was all I could think of.
The water kept rising.
Rising and rising and rising.
My body stiffened. Jazz cursed up a storm as he rushed belowdecks and returned with an inflatable raft. “Boat’s too big to get through. It’s gonna get crushed like a sardine can!”
He was right. In
only a minute or so the crushing would begin. Jazz raised the raft to his mouth and started blowing. Fortunately, a giant’s lungs are big enough to inflate a four-person dinghy in fifteen seconds.
“No way I’m getting into that!” Brooks said to Jazz. “Those… those monsters will eat right through it.”
“They only eat flesh,” Jazz argued, rubbing his chin. “Don’t think they like rubber.”
“Oh,” I said with a casual shrug. “Well, that makes it a super option!”
My wrist began to burn like hot wax was dripping onto my skin. I didn’t want to look down. Somehow I knew that the second I did, everything would change.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
Clenching my jaw, I glanced at Ah-Puch’s mark. The eyes beneath the eyelids moved back and forth wildly, impatiently. Slowly and painfully my skin began to tear, as if an invisible razor was slicing it open. I bit back a scream, watching in terror.
The eyelids opened. This wasn’t just a tattoo. These were real eyes. Black eyes that could see. Now I did scream.
A line of blood snaked down my arm.
“What is it?” Brooks’s voice shook.
A deep, dark laugh echoed off the walls.
“AH-PUCH!” I shouted so loud the walls vibrated. “You’re a coward!”
“Where is your father now?” His voice was steady as a thin trail of black mist rose from the slit in my wrist and encircled me.
“Zane?” Brooks’s wild eyes took me in. I could tell she couldn’t hear the god of death.
Anger was climbing up my throat now, fast and furious. It burned like lava.
“Guys!” Jazz called from the front of the boat, where he’d already loaded Hondo. “Get in!”
I hurried over, tugging Brooks along, and made sure she got into the life raft. She looked back, reaching for my hand, but I’d already stepped away.
Her eyes glowed like fire. “Zane!”
“Let them go, Ah-Puch! It’s me you want!” I gripped the railing. The corroded walls continued to press in.
“Zane!” Brooks shouted again. She was trying to scramble back aboard the boat, but Jazz had a hold of her. She kicked and squirmed. “Let me go!”
The dark laugh bounced off the walls. Ah-Puch was enjoying this.
The albino fish-monsters began to glow beneath the dark water, casting a putrid yellow light through the tunnel.
I glanced down at the eyes on my wrist. They were staring up at me. Gods can be in more than one place at a time, Mat had said. I finally understood. Ah-Puch could see me, knew my every move, but not because of some tracking device. These eyes…his eyes had become a part of me. I gagged.
“We’re not going without Zane!” Brooks had managed to get free of Jazz and was climbing back onto the boat, which the walls were still crushing. Why was she so stubborn?
More screeching and grinding of metal on metal. Water splashed over the sides and foam pooled on the deck. The monsters below opened their massive jaws, ready to devour whatever flesh came their way.
Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Brooks coming toward me with awkward strides as the boat tipped dangerously.
I dropped to my knees. I knew what I had to do. Brooks was gripping the railing, getting closer and closer. “Stay back!” I hollered at her. But I knew it was useless. She never listened.
“You’re strong, godborn,” Ah-Puch hissed. “But not strong enough.”
Then an idea struck me. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the jade. Whoever gives it away can give it any power. With an outstretched arm, I tried passing it to Brooks. To give her some kind of control over water so they all could get away.
“Take it!” I shouted.
Her eyes fixed on it and I could tell she understood. She lunged, her free hand extended.
As our fingers met, the boat lurched forward, forcing me to lose my grip on the stone. It skittered down the deck.
Pivoting like a tornado, Brooks went for the jade, but she didn’t have enough light to find it.
It was gone.
The shadowy sea crept up, higher and higher. Like sharks that could smell blood, the monsters gathered with open mouths.
I called to Brooks over my shoulder, “Pull me out when I tell you to, okay?”
“Pull…? What… what’re you talking about?”
“Just be fast!” I hollered. Then to Ah-Puch I said, “You want me? Then come and get me.”
And I plunged my wrist into the hungry waters.
32
It was worse than I’d imagined. Like acid burning through my skin. The screams that tore through the tunnel weren’t mine. At first. They belonged to the god of death. But it wasn’t long before my screams joined his as the monsters ate away at his eyes and my flesh.
Brooks grabbed my other arm and pulled me away from the water. I fell back, crashing against the deck. I heard heavy footfalls. Jazz had returned to the boat.
The tunnel walls had stopped closing in.
I gasped, shivered uncontrollably. I was in shock. Terrible, numbing shock. Brooks’s voice was coming at me like she was underwater.
“Zane, what did you do?” Zane this. Zane that. Zane. Zane. Zane.
At the edge of my mind I remembered thrusting my arm into the water. I could still feel the monsters’ sharp teeth.
I looked up at Brooks. Her dark hair spilled around her worried face. “Get me a rag for his arm,” she said.
There was a sudden sound of rushing water, and our poor crunched boat pitched forward with a groan. Soon it felt like we were cruising down a river. The rotten smell had disappeared, which told me we weren’t in the tunnel anymore. But the darkness hadn’t let us go.
My breath evened out. My eyes focused. Terrified of the damage I might see, I squinted at my wound. The skin was raw and bleeding, like the time I’d fallen off the back of Hondo’s truck and scraped my knees against the hot asphalt. From what I could tell, at least some of Ah-Puch’s mark was gone. I hoped those eyes were history.
Jazz shone his flashlight on me while Brooks shoved a rag into my hand for me to hold against my wrist. She cursed under her breath while she prepared a bandage. Jazz had found some gauze in the boat’s first aid kit, but it must’ve been for giants, because it was huge. She tore a strip with her teeth.
“You saved us.” That was Hondo.
Hondo! I turned to see him kneeling next to me, a smirk sliding across his mouth. “You’re one crazy, stupid-brave kid.”
I grabbed hold of him, pulling myself into a sitting position, and hugged him with all the strength I had left. “I’m sorry,” I whispered. Sure, my flesh might have been dinner for some creepy fish, but I couldn’t imagine the pain he had gone through.
Other than the dark shadows under his eyes, he looked okay. But that’s not what worried me most about him. Sometimes the bruising on the inside is what gets you the worst.
Brooks gently took hold of my arm and began wrapping it, first with the gauze then with a strip of silk lining she’d torn from Jazz’s purple vest. It wasn’t exactly a cool bandage, because the fabric had tiny pink flowers printed all over it. “Not so tight!” I flinched. She definitely should never be a nurse.
Then I put my hand over hers and made her look at me. “It was my fault,” I muttered, because I knew she was blaming herself for the lost jade.
She brushed away a tear and opened her mouth but said nothing.
“You’re one helluva hero, running Ah-Puch off like that.” Jazz clapped me on the back and I wondered if he’d meant to put that much muscle into it, or if maybe it was payback for lying to him. “You saved our lives!”
But there wasn’t time to celebrate. The real battle hadn’t even started. And without the jade, I had nothing to help me.
Jazz tried to start up with me. “So, you’re a godborn, eh?”
“Can we talk about that later?” Brooks shot him a glare and helped me to my feet. “You’re okay?”
“Other t
han the pink flowers?”
“Zane!”
“Yeah, I… I’m fine,” I said, forcing a smile.
Satisfied I wasn’t going to bleed out, she snapped, “You could’ve lost your arm, you idiot! What were you thinking?”
“I had to take out his eyes. He could see me, see every move before I made it.”
Hondo gave a short nod of approval. “You attacked his weakness. But seriously, dude… that was pretty gross.”
So I’d found the first soft spot (Puke’s overconfidence, his underestimation of me) and I’d landed a blow. I had to admit, I felt pretty proud of myself, despite the fact that I was going to have a killer scar to remind me of the terrible burning pain from those evil little fish with razor teeth. They had only removed half of Ah-Puch’s mark, and now it looked like a regular eyeless skull. But at least he couldn’t see me anymore.
I went to stand, and that’s when I saw my flattened backpack. I must’ve fallen on top of it. Quickly, I unzipped it and rooted around for Ms. Cab’s eye. I didn’t have to pull the baggie out to know. I could feel the mush. I’d smashed her eyeball! She was definitely going to kill me. If Ah-Puch didn’t do the honors first.
The boat pitched. A dim light flickered up ahead. Inch by inch we floated toward it until the tunnel disappeared entirely. “Whoa!” Hondo turned in slow circles, taking in the gray jungle around us. Brooks drew in a sharp breath, leaning over the boat’s edge.
Broad trees stretched toward the cloudless sky, their branches drooping with the weight of spiderwebs that were choking the life from them. It was a strange world—dull, like all the color had been drained from it. The trees, the sky, the earth were all different shades of gray. Other than the dried leaves rustling in the slow breeze, the place was as silent as an old graveyard.
“It’s… it’s eerie,” I said, not sure what I was expecting.
“The Old World,” Jazz whispered, all awestruck, as if it needed to be named. Yeah, emphasis on old. As in one foot in the grave.
Hondo grimaced. “Place looks dead.”
“Not dead,” Jazz said. “Asleep. It has been eternal night here ever since the gods abandoned it.”
The Storm Runner Page 26