by K. J. Emrick
Although, with the way this storm was progressing, she thought it probably wasn’t Mother Nature stirring things up.
More like the Devil himself.
Chapter 2
It was quite the convoy that Addie and her sisters led down the side roads from the middle of town to the edge of the lake. The plow had been a big hit when the group at the hotel saw it. They’d all been sure that the trip was going to be cancelled. Kiera had assured them that they had given this tour for more than ten years now, and they weren’t about to stop now just because of a little bad weather.
The comment had evoked a round of cheers from the five people standing there in heavy winter gear. Addie knew this storm was a lot worse than Kiera was making it sound, but she supposed it was important to keep the tourists happy. The five people eagerly waiting to view one of New England’s hidden treasures had paid a tidy sum of money to the town for the privilege. At the same time, doing these tours meant the Kilorian sisters could keep the real secret of Shadow Lake… secret. It was a win for everyone, but only if they could actually get there.
So they had started out in the plow down Main Street, followed by two cars packed with five people bundled in winter clothing, grinning ear to ear.
The first was a Chevy Yukon belonging to Mister and Mrs. Abbott.
There was a little bit of an age gap between the husband and wife, but they hadn’t been married all that long, only two years. Addie had expected a lot of hand holding and little kisses while Kiera had given the safety speech to the group, the one about staying together in the caverns and not wandering off. There hadn’t been anything like that at all. In fact, they’d just stood there and listened, right next to each other but not touching anything more than their arms.
Chase Abbott was tall and heavy, easily three times the size of his petite wife. His hairline was already receding, and he’d tried compensating for that fact by growing out a beard that he obviously spent a lot of time grooming. Purity Abbott was practically a supermodel, with pouty lips and wide eyes and luxurious hair done in a short braid. Her looks would have attracted any single man on the planet. It made Addie wonder what she saw in Chase.
Well. They said that opposites attract. Those two were as opposite as they came.
The remaining three guests were carpooling at the back in a Mercedes G-class SUV, which was basically an insanely expensive version of a Jeep.
Godfrey Huffington was an experienced spelunker who had gone crawling through caves at famous locations such as Kartchner Caverns and Krubera Cave and several others. When Addie told him that she hoped Shadow Lake Caverns lived up to his expectations, he’d just smiled, flashing perfectly white teeth in a deeply tanned face. In a rumbling bass voice, he told her that he enjoyed exploring caves for their natural wonder, and their history, and not solely for the physical challenge. Looking at him, she found that hard to believe. He was broad shouldered and built like a man who did everything for the physical challenge.
Evelyn Collins was even richer than the others, and she obviously had no problem showing it. Her coat and insulated ski pants were name brand, with the little logo prominently displayed for all to see. The camera hanging over her shoulder was obviously expensive. Her styled russet hair was not naturally that color. Unlike Godfrey, her tan was clearly from a salon, not from a life spent outdoors. The two-hundred-thousand-dollar SUV was hers, and it still had that new car smell. She was a woman who had no problem spending money, that much was certain.
The last guest was actually a reporter. Maria Martin had a light Hispanic accent, an outgoing personality, and unlike the others her cold weather clothing was off-the-rack from a department store. She used her cellphone as both digital recorder and camera, just happy to be part of the trip. Her online news magazine had paid for her to be here. There was no way she could have afforded the trip by herself.
Addie made sure to make Maria feel welcome. The more people who could see and learn about the Shadow Lake Caverns online, the fewer people who would try coming here themselves. Especially when they saw the price tag of the trip. Addie made sure to point that part out again and again.
There was a couple of times while they were driving when Addie was actually worried not even the snowplow would get them through. The plumes of billowing white they tossed up in their wake combined with the falling snowflakes, created a blinding curtain that would have made driving impossible if not for Kiera and Willow. They were both busy weaving spells as Addie drove, pushing the snow in the air to either side of the road, letting it drop there onto the snowbanks, creating a clear space around their vehicles.
The cats weren’t helping her concentration.
“Move your noggin,” Doyle griped at Domovyk from the pet carrier. “I can’t see.”
“Is nothing to see,” Domovyk told him indifferently. “Is like mountains in Ukraine. There is only snow, and more snow.”
“Well, if they’d let us out of this blasted box, we’d have more of a view, now wouldn’t we?”
Addie shushed them as she kept her eyes on the road ahead of her. “The reason we aren’t letting you two out is because we worried you would be a distraction if we did. Kind of like you’re being right now.”
Doyle grumbled to himself in Gaelic, but not so quietly that Addie couldn’t hear every word.
“That’s not very nice language,” she teased him. “Don’t make me wash out that little mouth of yours.”
After that, he rode the rest of the way in silence.
They were already at their destination, anyway. Driving in a circle, scraping the front blade along the ground, she created an open area in the tiny parking lot for everyone. The snowplow had done its job and brought them here safely. Now it skidded to a halt as Addie gently applied the brakes, and in the side mirrors she could see that the two cars did the same. No one ran into anyone’s bumper. Addie counted that as a small blessing. The insurance rates for both of those cars must be astronomical.
It would be nice if witches could just pop themselves from place to place. The drive here had left Addie with a knot in her right shoulder from gripping the wheel. Some witches claimed to have mastered transportation spells, but they all required so much Essence to perform that a witch would risk burning themselves out if they tried. The life force within living beings was nothing to mess with. Too little could leave you an empty shell. Too much could literally turn you to ash.
Of the two options, Addie much preferred dealing with driving a twenty-ton vehicle down slippery streets.
Willow leaned forward from the backseat to stare at the storm. It was coming down in clumps now, almost like a flurry of shaved ice. “If it keeps up like this, the vehicles might be buried by the time we come out again this afternoon.”
“That is true,” Kiera agreed. “However, we are here now. Let’s get everyone inside.”
The sisters climbed down from the cab of the snowplow. Willow carried Doyle and Domovyk in their carrier, and her backpack on her shoulder. The guests rushed out of their cars to form a tight group, bundling their coats up tighter or holding gloves over their mouths and noses to ward off the cold, waiting for directions on where to go next.
“Follow me, if you please,” Kiera said over the howl of the wind.
It was already midmorning, but with the dark clouds and the snow it was nearly black as night. Addie knew that the edge of the lake was only a few hundred feet in that direction, but she couldn’t see it. Usually they would have their guests stop and take pictures of the scenic view, with the pine trees all around, and the sheets of ice on the water, and the sunlight sparkling off a thin blanket of snow.
This year the snow was less like a blanket, and more like a smothering layer of foam insulation.
Seriously, where was all of this coming from?
In the dark it was hard to see the path in front of them leading from the little parking area up to the cave entrance. Addie had her backpack open, searching for her flashlight when Willow looked over at her and snorted. She balanc
ed her pack, and waved her arm, and Addie felt the magic from her sister’s spell.
The two six-hundred-watt floodlights secured to the front of the cave entrance snapped on, and light cascaded around them, bright as artificial suns. Thankfully they were pointed down at the path so no one was blinded. There were a few gasps from the group behind them, though.
Addie turned, and lowered her scarf to smile at everyone. “Remote control sensors,” she lied. “We don’t usually have to use the lights during the day but it’s always good to be prepared.”
The five guests laughed at her little joke and kept going, following Kiera as Addie pulled Willow aside. After everyone had passed, she whispered, “You have to be careful about using magic, sis. You can’t just wave your hand and make things happen. Not while they’re here.”
She was using magic herself at the moment, but that was different. She was threading energy from her Life Essence into her words so they would only carry to Willow’s ears over the wind, and no one else’s. She didn’t want anyone to hear this.
“Oh, give me a break,” Willow snarked, using the same trick to keep their conversation private. “Nobody in this group believes in magic. I could pull a rabbit out of my bum and they’d think it was all for show.”
“Oh, that’s a nice visual. Thanks for that. I’m just saying. Be careful today, all right?”
Willow’s eyebrows lowered under the edge of her wool hat. “I’m not a child anymore, Addie. I’ve done this before, same as you. I know the rules. Can we just go now?”
“I second that!” Doyle meowed from inside the cat carrier. “Good old Domovyk here makes a nasty sort of pillow, I can tell you that.”
“Then keep your head off my leg,” Domovyk griped.
“You keep your leg off my face!” Doyle shot back.
“Shut it, both of you,” Addie told them. “Cats don’t speak, remember?”
A pair of eyes she recognized as Doyle’s peered out at her from the carrier’s window. “Me-ow,” he said, accentuating both syllables.
“Oh, this is going to be a long day.” Addie brushed snow off her shoulders. “Very funny. Just remember to watch what you say and do. All three of you. Come on. Kiera’s already inside with the others.”
Willow stuck her tongue out but then brought it in quickly, spitting off snowflakes that had gotten stuck to it.
The floodlights were secured to a solid rock outcropping rising up from the ground in front of them. There was a roughly circular opening between them, the edges of the stones irregular and smoothed by centuries of weather. It tunneled into the hillside here near the edge of the lake, under the layers of soil and tree roots, and if not for the cave entrance it would have been totally unremarkable. Except, of course, for the padlocked gate of iron bars drilled and set into the rocks. Kiera had already opened it and it had swung aside into the snowdrifts.
The lock wasn’t the only security measure on the gate. Neither was the alarm system that rang directly into the police station over in Birch Hollow. There were also several nasty magic spells laid over the gate to keep out the curious. They couldn’t rely on a simple padlock to keep their secrets safe. The spell Addie liked the most was the one that gave someone an instant case of hives if they so much as touched the bars. The scratching and red rash would only stop once they left the area. Kiera had created the magic for that one. Her older sister had a mean streak, when she wanted to. Addie made sure the gate was shut and locked up again behind them.
Flashlights in hand, the five tourists were already scanning the inside of the mouth of the cave. There wasn’t much to see up here, but they were fascinated with each striation in the rock, and how level and flat the floor was until it started sloping down just a few hundred feet inside. Heavy gage wiring had been installed along all of the tunnel walls for lighting many, many years ago, and the control panel for the different sections was up here. When Kiera pushed one green button, the lights snapped on all along the flattened oval of the tunnel ahead of them.
“Wow,” Maria Martin breathed. She took several pictures with her cellphone, no doubt committing her thoughts and impressions to memory, so she could write a good story for her online magazine later.
“Oh, this is nice,” Godfrey Huffington told her, “but you should see the beauties of the Waitomo Glowworm Caves. Everything there is lit up by bioluminescence.”
Maria looked like she didn’t really understand what that meant.
The others in the group were just as impressed, in their own way. Evelyn Collins, constantly adjusting the sleeves on her expensive coat, tried to look disinterested but her eyes got wider with each passing second. Her pack was an oversized purse, and Addie had the feeling it contained more makeup than anything that would be really useful in a place like this.
Chase and Purity Abbott were further down the tunnel, by themselves, pointing to irregularities in the rock, to funny swirls in the sedimentary layers, and whatever else they found interesting. They still weren’t holding hands, but Addie supposed some couples just weren’t the sort to show affection in public. Once or twice they looked back at the others, then went right back to their conversation.
She and Lucian weren’t like that. When they were together, even when they were working through the clues in a mystery together, they would find little excuses to touch each other. Her hand brushing his. The way he would push her hair out of her eyes. Things like that.
She really missed him and wished he could be here. If only wishing made it true, she thought to herself. With this storm, no one was going to be getting into Shadow Lake. Not even an intrepid police officer like Lucian Knight.
The sound of Godfrey clearing his throat broke into her thoughts about her boyfriend. “This is a corrasional cave,” he said. He meant it as a fact, not a question, based on his vast experience with cave systems. “I can tell by the striations and how smooth the scalloping in the rock is. The information when I booked this tour said the caves extend two dozen kilometers? Is that true?”
All five of them turned to hear the answer. Addie smiled at them, knowing what they were thinking. “Yes, and actually it’s even longer than that. However, there are large sections of the caverns that are closed to viewing even on this tour. We’ll only be touring through the most interesting sections. Each of them is unique, and each section has its own name. We’ll tell you all about them as we go. That way, you’ll be able to know where we are at any given moment. Our tour today is five or six miles, one way. We don’t expect the tour to take any longer than four hours.”
“Why is that?” Maria asked, her phone held out to record the question and the answer.
Addie wasn’t sure she understood. “Why are we only touring the most interesting sections? Because you all paid good money to be here. Lots of cave systems are set up that way. Luray Caverns in Virginia has areas on their tour such as the Saracen’s Tent, Giant’s Hall, and Dream Lake. Personally, I think our Shadow Lake Caverns are much more interesting.”
“That’s quite the boast,” Godfrey observed. “I’ve been to Luray Caverns.”
“Trust me,” Addie promised him, “you won’t be disappointed.”
Maria shook her head. “No, I mean, why are most of the tunnels here closed to the public?”
“Oh, that. Well, some parts of the caves don’t have electricity running to them due to budget constraints.” Which was a lie. “Some parts have been condemned by County safety inspectors.” Also a lie. “Some parts are just too far to walk to in a day.”
That part, at least, was true. Part of the caves went right under the lake itself, deep under the lakebed, and although they would pass right by the start of those tunnels, it could take a full day to get to their furthest sections. Addie had walked out that far exactly four times in her whole life. She still remembered the water dripping through unseen cracks in the ceiling above, and the sound of the bedrock over her head, under the weight of that much water.
The Well of Essence was in that direction as we
ll, but there were plenty of other reasons to keep people out of those sections.
At any rate, her answers seemed to satisfy the reporter and the others. Godfrey was nodding, slinging his backpack up on his shoulders. “I’m betting the water that carved out these sections also dropped mineral deposits further down. There must be some spectacular speleothems further down, not just stalactites and stalagmites but helictites and flowstones and rock spires. The information online hinted at it but I can’t wait to see it.”
Evelyn tapped a finger against her lips. “Stalactite, stalagmite… I can never remember which is which. One goes up, and one goes down, right?”
Addie saw the Abbotts laugh quietly at Evelyn’s confusion. If they only knew that was a common question on these tours, they might have felt differently. Chase leaned down to whisper in Purity’s ear. With a little magic, Addie listened in on the last part of what was said.
“…never change, will she?”
That surprised her. Did those three know each other?
Interesting.
Willow had already set the cat carrier down on the floor and now she opened the little door to let Doyle and Domovyk out. They squeezed past each other, each trying to be the first one out. Tumbling to the rocky floor, they quickly twisted up onto their feet, both of them trying to look like that was exactly the position they meant to land in. Domovyk sniffed and began licking a front paw.
“So,” Maria asked, obviously confused, “what’s with the cats?”
Kiera gave their prepared answer. “Mascots. They like to be here with us, and they warn us if danger’s coming.”
“Danger?” Evelyn asked, wrapping her hands around her arms dramatically. “What sort of danger?”
“Nothing to worry about,” Addie promised her. “Occasionally one of the tunnels will flood up to our ankles. The cats are intuitive about that sort of thing. They also keep the bats away.”
That was met with a heavy silence from everyone. Except Godfrey.
“Cool,” was his enthusiastic response. “This just gets better and better.”