by Melissa Frey
“See, I knew it. Holun’s working for them! He sent a message to Na-um telling him when we’d be here. This is all just an elaborate trap!” Justin took a step toward their young guide. Mandy rolled her eyes at his childish display.
Grady stepped in, putting a hand on Justin’s chest. “Justin, he wouldn’t do that.”
Justin knocked his hand away as he took another step forward. “You can’t know that. He led us here to die!”
Grady moved to stand directly between them, blocking Justin’s path to the boy. Justin stopped, his face less than a foot from Grady’s.
“Grady, get out of my way. We can’t trust him! If you protect him, we will die.” Justin leaned in closer, inches away from Grady’s face.
Mandy was starting to get worried. Justin was taller than Grady, but, given that Justin was a stick, Grady outweighed him by almost thirty pounds. Mandy hoped Justin would back down. Grady would probably win in a fight, but she was really hoping it wouldn’t come to that. They didn’t have the time.
“Justin, listen to me. Holun led us here of his own will. He came to us without asking for anything in return. All you have to do is look into his eyes to know he’s telling the truth.” He paused, placing his hand lightly on Justin’s shoulder. “Let him show us the way. We can trust him.” He cast a quick glance in Kayla’s direction. “I believe that completely.”
Mandy held her breath as she waited for Justin’s response. The silence in the group was thicker than the humidity of the forest surrounding them.
Then she heard Justin sigh. She released her breath in a rush.
When he finally spoke, his voice was much quieter. “Fine,” he muttered. “I’ll back off. But I don’t have to trust him. I just hope you don’t get us killed.”
Grady nodded once. “Thank you, Justin. We will be fine, I know it.”
Justin just shrugged, crossing his arms.
Mandy spoke up then, trying desperately to change the subject. “So, Holun, what do we do now?”
Holun couldn’t figure out what went wrong. In his vision, he clearly saw that a hand flattened on this exact spot would open a passageway in the rock. But nothing had happened. And now Justin didn’t trust him. He didn’t really blame him.
Holun didn’t answer Mandy’s question; instead, he closed his eyes again, searching the vision for any more clues. But it looked just the same. Except . . . wait. Now he understood.
That wasn’t his hand.
“Kayla,” he called, reaching in her direction. “I need you.”
Kayla stood in the exact spot Holun had, staring at the same rock face. He had told her to reach out her hand and flatten it on the face of the rock, just as he had done. For some reason, he believed that only she could open the secret passage. Of course, with all she’d seen in the past few weeks, she knew it was entirely possible.
She pulled in a breath before slowly reaching out her right hand, offering a silent prayer that this would work.
Just before her hand touched the surface, her mind flashed with the picture of her opening this passageway into the rock formation. Then the picture vanished as quickly as it had come. She smiled and touched the rock in front of her. If they’d had the time, she would’ve relished the fact that this vision didn’t cause her any pain.
But the enemy was coming. And soon.
The rock was warm. It surprised her; she supposed she had expected it to be cool, though she didn’t know why. Her fingertips touched it first, then she stretched her arm out further and her palm connected with the stone.
The moment her hand was completely spread out on the rock, the sound of grinding stone reached her ears. She couldn’t help but wince and hope that the sound wouldn’t carry across the clearing and out into the rainforest. She certainly didn’t want to attract the attention of Na-um and his men. Of course, with Na-um’s super-hearing, he was probably already listening.
The boulder directly to her left, right next to the staircase, began to open. The progress was slow, and only a crack showed at first. Kayla hoped it would hurry up.
It took almost a full minute for the stone to fully open and stop moving. Kayla was getting nervous. Na-um and his men could be here any minute. They had to find this book.
Kayla bounded into the opening as soon as the grinding stopped, clicking on her flashlight as soon as she stepped inside.
But only a few feet inside, not even far enough for the darkness to have swallowed the sunlight, she stopped at a dead end—or so it appeared. Would this whole thing be full of secret passageways? That would get old really quickly.
She did the first thing she thought of—she reached out her hand and flattened it against the wall in front of her. To her surprise, the wall in front of her swung inward at her touch, just like a door. Hopefully everything would be this easy. Knock on wood.
With the rest of the group following close behind her, Kayla began their not-quick-enough descent underground. The floor started sloping to the left as it descended, creating a ramp leading deep into the earth. She fearlessly hurried down it, eager to find out what was ahead. She could instinctively feel that the worst danger was just behind them—but that their salvation was just ahead.
They descended for a few long minutes before the slope flattened into a long hallway. She shined her flashlight ahead, trying to see what lay ahead of them. Nothing but darkness met her eyes, so she headed into it.
After they had gone a short distance, the hallway began to open up in all directions. The ground sloped down slightly, the ceiling sloped up drastically, and the walls sloped away from her on either side. Her skin started to tingle. This is what she was waiting for. They were close.
The hallway was, in fact, opening up into a large room; her light couldn’t reach the other side, or even a close side wall. She stepped into the room and took in her surroundings, trying to make sense of them in the near blackness. As she stood there, she could sense the others come up behind her.
The moment she stepped into the room, Kayla felt something start crawling up and down her skin. For a split second, she thought something might be down here with them, but soon realized that the sensation was coming from inside of her. It was an odd sensation, an inexplicable sense of déjà vu. She could’ve sworn she’d been here before. Something was so familiar about it.
And suddenly she knew where the book was, without even being able to see the room. She knew what the room looked like, without light to make sense of it. She knew there was a large rock formation in the middle, not unlike the one above them or the one in the first cave at Lamanai. And she knew that at the base of the formation there was a small opening, one where the book was waiting. Waiting for her.
She turned to her left and found what she already knew was there: a small opening carved in the stone wall of the room framed a large torch, ready to be lit. She knew the room was surrounded by identical openings. She had a sudden thought and considered speaking it aloud, mostly for the benefit of Mandy and Justin. It seemed Grady was distracted by trying to figure out how big the room was anyway; she wasn’t even sure he’d heard what she’d just realized about this room. “Grady, do you have a lighter or a match or something?” Kayla’s voice echoed in what she knew was an enormous room.
Grady said, “Sure, here,” as he handed her a small pocket-sized lighter, the ones that were so cheap they were disposable. She idly wondered why he carried it—but before she could complete her thought, Grady offered, I wanted to be ready for anything. Kayla smiled. He was back.
After a few attempts at igniting the grass in the torch, the fire caught. Their small corner of the room illuminated slightly, casting ghostly shadows across their faces.
Kayla took charge. “Mandy, Justin, can you take this and light the rest of them?” She tossed the lighter to Mandy, then pulled the torch from the wall and handed it to Justin.
“The rest?” Mandy sounded like she thought Kayla was crazy. Well, yeah, by almost any definition she was.
“They ar
e spaced about ten feet from each other around the circumference of the room. Please hurry.” Without offering any further explanation, Kayla started off toward the middle of the room with only her flashlight to light the way.
As she moved toward the center of the massive room, Kayla heard Holun move a good ten feet to the right of the entrance, a careful distance away from the opening should anyone else enter the room, and take a seat. Kayla was grateful. He had done his job, and was now just trying to stay safe.
What aren’t you telling them? Grady broke into her thoughts as he followed closely behind her.
I know this place. I think I’ve been here before, or . . . something. Kayla didn’t really know herself why it was so familiar to her, so she couldn’t exactly explain it to Grady. So, instead, she recalled the déjà vu she’d experienced just moments ago—and he promptly apologized.
Oh. Sorry I wasn’t paying attention earlier.
Kayla smiled. No problem, Grady. We’re still getting used to all this.
Grady nodded in the semi-darkness. Just let me know what you need. I will follow your lead.
Kayla sighed, knowing Grady would somehow understand. Thank you. I know I’m crazy.
Not crazy, Grady replied. Just . . . certain.
Kayla’s smile widened.
Mandy followed Justin quietly, watching him light each torch. He’d only needed the lighter once so far, so Mandy was starting to feel a little useless. She wanted to be able to help, not just trail Justin around the room doing nothing.
They were halfway around the room when Justin turned to her. “I’m sorry.”
Mandy’s eyes shot to his. “What?”
He sighed visibly. “I scared you earlier; I could see it in your eyes. I don’t want you to ever be afraid of me.”
Mandy nodded slowly, not sure what she was supposed to say to that. At least he had read her correctly; she had been scared of him. Justin grabbing her arm had more than surprised her—she’d been genuinely frightened. And she still wasn’t quite sure why.
Justin looked down, blowing out the torch he was holding and setting it carefully against the wall. His next words were a whisper. “You don’t trust me.”
Mandy’s heart tugged at her chest as she looked at the ground. “No, I . . . I don’t know. You just . . .” She sighed. “It’s not really that I don’t . . . I want to trust you. I just . . . can’t.”
“Why?”
Mandy shook her head slightly, then started speaking without knowing what she was going to say. “You’ve been so distant. You’ve been argumentative, or, at best, you’ve ignored me. I want to be close to you again. I want to trust you. I just feel like . . . like you’re pulling away. Maybe it’s this thing with your dad, I don’t know.” Her voice had lowered to a whisper.
Justin sighed and reached a tentative hand toward her face, and this time she didn’t pull away. He laid his hand gently on her cheek, his thumb caressing her skin. “I love you. I always have, and always will. I don’t know what’s going on with me right now, but I still love you. I don’t always show it; I know that. But with everything going on, with my dad . . .” His voice broke. “I’m just going through a lot. Then after I couldn’t hear your thoughts anymore, it was just . . . I guess it was just easier to ignore you than face the truth about how much it hurt to miss your voice in my head. Or I thought it would be easier. But it’s been tearing me up inside. I can’t do this alone anymore. I need you. I can’t live without you.”
Mandy’s heart thudded in her chest. She had been trying for hours to figure out what was wrong between them and how to fix it. Justin had just told her everything she needed to hear from him—and she believed him. She knew he’d been through more than any person should have to handle, and she’d wanted to help him through it. Now, finally, he was letting her in.
She swallowed hard and lifted her gaze to his. She touched her hand to his cheek. “I love you, Justin Stanford. Forever.”
A serene smile crossed Justin’s face. He leaned down and brought his lips to hers. She felt all the concerns and heartache of the past few hours—weeks, really—start to melt away with his kiss. She kissed him back, putting both hands behind his neck and pulling him closer.
He was everything she wanted. He wasn’t perfect, but then no one was. They had work to do, trust to rebuild. But somewhere deep inside, she knew that they would become close once again. They would get through this together.
And she knew, with absolute certainty, that he was hers. Whatever was happening between them now would be fixed—and their relationship would be better for it.
But Mandy also knew that sometimes what takes only a second to break can take infinitely longer to heal, and she sensed that she might need a little time. But she still hoped that healing wouldn’t take very long. With Na-um and his men coming, she feared that they may not have that kind of time.
Kayla approached the rock formation in the middle of the room in a dead run. She knew that hidden somewhere near this collection of boulders was the last book they needed to find, their only hope of defeating Na-um and his army of mercenaries. She drew in an anticipatory breath as she slowed to keep from crashing into the boulder in front of her. She was so close she could almost taste it.
Grady came up behind her just as she reached the base of the first boulder and placed a hand on the small of her back, encouraging her further. Kayla was tempted to be distracted by his touch, but chose instead to focus on finding that tiny opening. She knew it was here somewhere . . .
But then a sound broke the silence, the painfully recognizable click, click of the hammer of a gun sliding into place. Kayla instinctively froze, and Grady tensed behind her. Simultaneously, almost as if they’d rehearsed it, they slowly began to raise their hands.
In that instant, standing only a few feet away from the boulders that held the book they so desperately needed, Kayla realized three horrific things: the hard face of the rock formation was in front of them, a shooter was at their backs, and there was nowhere to run.
They were trapped.
CHAPTER 43
Codex
Mandy and Justin were still circling the large room, re-lighted torch in hand, lighting more torches as they went. They had nearly come around the far side of the boulders—even in the dim torch-light, Mandy thought she could see the entrance to this room just beyond the formation—when she heard it.
Mandy.
She froze, staring at the back of Justin’s head. The voice wasn’t his—she had clearly heard a woman’s voice. What on earth was going on?
The voice came again. Mandy, we need your help.
Kayla! Mandy wanted to yell out for her, but sensed that if Kayla had made a connection this strong out of nowhere, something had shaken her up pretty badly. Mandy couldn’t even imagine what it might be. Was Na-um already here? What’s going on?
The answer didn’t come right away, which didn’t make Mandy feel any better. Someone’s here. I think . . . they have a gun.
Mandy gasped—she couldn’t help it—and Justin whipped around at the sound, eyes wide. When he saw Mandy’s expression, his eyes flashed; Mandy hadn’t seen such genuine concern in a long while. She smiled, a non-verbal I’m alright so he wouldn’t worry, but she knew he wouldn’t be put off so easily. She’d have to explain later, when they had more time.
What do you need from us? Mandy asked, trying to concentrate to make sure her message got through.
Kayla’s voice resonated in her mind. We’re not sure what’s going on. Mandy thought she could hear someone else, maybe a male voice, in the background. Was that Grady? This was all too weird.
Kayla continued. We’re blindfolded, and the person’s tying our hands behind our backs. Ow! Whoever it was, they were being rough. It couldn’t be Na-um, could it? Mandy assumed the question was rhetorical.
She grabbed the torch from a confused Justin, blew it out, then let it drop in the dirt as she grabbed his hand and pulled him toward the center of the room. We’re
coming. Hold on.
Mandy, don’t! You don’t know who . . .
Mandy cut her off. It can’t be Na-um; we would hear it if the whole army was here with him. This has to be someone else. Then Mandy had a thought. Besides, why would they tie you up and blindfold you if they had other people with them? If there were others with them, they would’ve found the rest of us by now. Maybe it’s just one person. She and Justin had just reached the boulders nearest them and started to head around the massive rocks, toward the entrance. Kayla, are they still there?
Kayla’s voice answered her, but something was off. We, uh . . . they’re moving us toward the rocks now.
Mandy did not like her tone of voice; she tried not to picture someone leading her friends up against a rock wall with a gun at their backs. She picked up her pace, still dragging a bewildered Justin along behind her. Kayla, focus. You will get out of this. We need you to find the book, anyway, Mandy teased, trying to get Kayla’s mind off the situation, if only for a second. Then Mandy heard that male voice again, very softly. Is Grady here, too?
Yes. Can you hear him?
Vaguely. Let’s just focus on you right now. I’m coming around the formation. I can almost see . . .
A shot rang out, echoing off the massive cavern walls so loudly that it made Mandy’s ears hurt. She ducked behind a boulder as quickly as she could, but not before seeing a spray of pebbles and dust burst into the air just inches from her head.
Mandy! Are you okay?!
Mandy drew a shaky breath, trying to collect her thoughts enough to be able to answer Kayla. Yes, yes, we’re fine. She swallowed hard. Guess whoever it is is still here. Mandy drew in another breath, as deep a breath as she could muster, while the echoes in the cavern finally subsided. I have to try again.