Moving the bloodied left hand across the pillar, Rhane painted the seal red. The stones brightened. Symbols of the old language appeared, rising from the statue as if beckoned forth by some unspoken command. There was a noise, stone grinding against stone, and more blue symbols appeared in two vertical rows. The columns parted. A tiny crack at the foot of the statue widened to become a gaping hole, leading down into the earth and beneath the city. No one made a move. York and War seemed entranced by the blue light.
“Get inside!” Rhane yelled. Kalista, cradled safely within York’s arms, began to stir.
A noise above them made Rhane’s head snap up. Too late. He met the Reaper’s furious eyes a split second before it lunged. Four hundred pounds of predator landed on top of him, growling and snapping at his face. The smell of it was rancid, like rotting eggs and vomit. Rhane twisted so the weight of the animal collapsed them both into the passageway. He felt the sharp angle of every stair of the two flights he and the Reaper tumbled down. Landing solidly at the bottom, the impact flung them apart. Rhane recovered first and was on his feet in a flash, pumping the remaining bullets into the Reaper’s chest and head. It went down and didn’t move again.
He moved away until his back touched the wall. It took him another second to appreciate he was in absolute darkness. York called out from deeper within the passageway.
There was a bit of humor in his voice. “I’m coming up on your right. I’d say don’t shoot, but I doubt you’ve got anything left to shoot me with.”
“I still have a knife.” Rhane slipped the expended pistol into its holster.
York sniffed the air. “Well, we won’t have to worry about this thing for the foreseeable future. And you’re still bleeding.”
Rhane flexed his hand. “It’s healing.”
“Kali is coming around.”
“Good.”
York shifted uneasily. “How did you know this would work?”
Rhane looked where he knew York’s face would be had there been any light to see it. “It was something I’m not sure I understand.” He paused thoughtfully. Not wanting to take the chance that Kalista could be awake and listening, he shook his head. “We’ll talk later.”
“Fair enough,” York agreed. “But did your spider sense show you the way out of here too?”
Rhane walked away without replying. York called after him, “Seriously.” At least York was joking again. It was a good sign. The big guy’s relaxed manner meant the immediate we’re-probably-all-going-to-die danger had passed and things were unlikely to get worse.
“Even we can’t see down here without a luminary source of some sort,” Rhane said, addressing the most pressing issue. “We need to find light.” He continued toward the scent of Kalista. She was just ahead. He tried not to think of how little air flowed down in the tunnels or how tight of circles the currents moved in. York spoke at the right moment, redirecting those thoughts.
“I smelled ignitable materials over this way. Maybe there were torches left behind. Let’s feel around and see if--” He didn’t finish the sentence because a torch lit, breathing light into the darkness. Another lit as Rhane walked past…and then another. Rhane stopped.
York frowned. “That’s weird. Are you doing that?”
“Not consciously…”
War looked up. He was grateful for the light no matter the cause. “What happened to our company?”
“I took care of the one that followed me down. The doors closed as we fell. Nothing else got through.”
The younger kin visibly relaxed. “How do we get out of here?”
“I’m working on it.”
“Rhane, there’s something you should know.” War stopped, looking slightly troubled.
“What is it?”
“I saw River. He was on the plane.”
“Are you certain?”
“He was unmistakable.”
Rhane knelt beside Kalista. Her eyelids fluttered. “War…we’ll deal with that later.”
“Good idea,” York said. “I think she’s about to freak out.”
“She’s not going to freak.”
“If she doesn’t freak, I’ll do the repairs for the entire east wall of the manor.”
“York, she’s fine.”
“Come on. Let’s say she screams a tiny bit. What are you giving up?”
“That moped I was going to get you will be upgraded to a compact car.”
“You cheap--” York began but didn’t finish as Kalista sat up, going from semiconscious to wide awake in an instant. She scrambled away from them, kicking up dust. Her eyes were wide with unfinished fright from an earlier encounter. The torches expanded in a burst of intensity as if someone had stoked a fire. Changing from orange to an unnatural grey, the flames pulsed methodically.
“Whoa,” York breathed. “Her trick is way cooler than yours.”
Rhane kept his attention on Kalista. His voice remained low and gentle. “It’s okay. It’s Rhane. You’re with me now. And you’re safe.”
Her chest expanded rapidly with shallow respirations. The sound of her heart thudded in his ears. Her lips parted.
“You’re safe,” Rhane repeated firmly.
“There was a m-monster,” she stammered.
“He’s gone.”
She looked at him. Recognition flooded her eyes. Rhane could see the tears she held back, tears best shed later. He waited quietly, afraid to say anything that might break down the dam she was trying so hard to build. If Kalista fell apart, they would be stuck underground that much longer.
Her glance flickered over his shoulder to where War crouched out of the way. “I saw that boy on the plane. And then on my balcony.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “And I think I saw him change…from something else. It wasn’t human.”
Rhane turned and glared at War. The boy looked very contrite. Mouthing “sorry,” he stood and repositioned himself out of Kalista’s line of sight. Rhane looked back at Kalista. “Do you trust me?”
“Yes,” she said without hesitation.
The conviction in her response made him smile. “The boy is with me. That means you can trust him.”
She nodded. Some of the tension and all of the fear left her features.
“Can you stand?”
“I think so.” When she wobbled with the effort, Rhane leaned in to steady her. She looked around with more than a little confusion. “Where are we?”
He grimaced. “Underground. These are hidden labyrinths beneath the ruins.” He removed a couple of torches from the recess in the wall. The flames were of normal intensity and color again. Handing one to York, he kept the other and faced Kalista. “We need to get moving.”
Behind him York muttered, “That totally counted as freaking.”
Chapter 43
Kali walked next to Rhane, feeling embarrassed because he’d had to come to her rescue yet again. Even chicks in movies didn’t need saving this much. Her mind reeled with events of the night. There hadn’t been much time to process any of it. Her terrible nightmares had somehow become a crazy, life-threatening reality. Horrible creatures were hunting her. Mack had made a black market deal to sell her. Now he was dead and so was his mistress. Defensive moves Kali hadn’t known she possessed had come to her like second nature. A fire bomb had propelled from her freaking fingertips after appearing out of thin air. Now she was in a top secret passageway. And the boy walking ten feet behind her was human only on a part-time basis.
The tunnels were seriously creepy. Light from the torches cast odd shadows, creating an eerie ambiance. Add to it the strange quiet. Only the sound of their footsteps, or rather, her footsteps resonated in the silence. She was the only one in their entourage who made noise as she walked. But in comparison to everything that had happened, Rhane, York, and Warren’s ability to move like ninjas rated very low on the scale of weirdness.
There were so many questions to ask. Kali wasn’t sure where to start. She wasn’t sure if Rhane would answer any
of them. She wasn’t even sure if anyone knew where they were going. To her, everything looked the same. Her companions seemed confident. Then again, Rhane always appeared certain of himself.
“How did you know where to find me?” she blurted.
He glanced at her with a secretive smile. “I’ve been keeping an eye on you since that night at the theater.”
She thought that over for a second and decided Rhane’s stalker confession was harmless. So far he had done all the saving and none of the endangering. “Do you know why those things are after me?”
“Honestly, no.” After a pause, he asked, “What were you guys doing out here in the middle of the desert anyway?”
Kali let out a long breath. “My boss acquired a rare artifact. He came here to sell it.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Do you usually accompany him on such risky business ventures?”
She shook her head. “Not really. I mean, I’ve traveled with him before on digs, but usually the selling and trading he handles alone…or with Wesley.”
“What made this time different?”
“I don’t know. Mack wanted me to come. He said the buyer asked for me specifically.”
Rhane looked doubtful. “And your parents let you go?”
“Wesley talked to Lisa. He must have been convincing because she said yes.” Kali shrugged.
“How long have you known Wesley?”
“Since I was a little girl. He said it was okay. And I trusted him. That’s why I’m here.” Her lip quivered. “Shannon, the intern who was with us, said they had arranged to sell me.” Rhane’s eyes seemed to change to an entirely different color. Kali brushed it off as a trick of the light. She remembered something the old man had told her. “Our bus driver said something about a reward.”
Rhane stopped walking. “Tell me his words exactly.”
“He said,” she tried not to shiver while remembering Mr. Ma’s soulless glare, “if he delivered me to his master, he would be rewarded with life.”
Kali didn’t miss the subtle look exchanged between the men. Rhane abruptly resumed walking. She scrambled to catch up to his ever increasing stride. “What aren’t you saying? What’s going on?”
He didn’t look at her. “I can’t say.”
“What? What do you mean, ‘I can’t say’?” Her head shook with the incredulity of it. “This is my life that’s being threatened here. Tell me what’s going on!”
Rhane stopped again. He stuck his face close to hers, lifting the torch higher so she could see him clearly. “Kalista, I cannot explain anything to you until I understand it myself. Right now the conclusions I have are of the absolute worst nature. To share them with you is a cruelty I am not capable of.”
She relented with a hesitant nod. “Okay.” But there was something else. “I think one of them is communicating with me somehow. He’s like this huge, terrible monster waiting for me to fall asleep. Can you at least tell me if he’s real? I feel like I’m going nuts.”
A brief battle flashed across his face. Finally, he answered. “If it is he who I think it is, then he is the reason this labyrinth was built.”
“Oh?” She hoped very much that Rhane would go on, and was surprised when he did.
“A very long time ago, that creature committed an act of treason that ripped an entire civilization in two. In the years during the civil war, tunnels were constructed beneath this city to ensure the safety of ruling families.”
“You said your lineage traced back to a people who lived at foot of the Golden Mountains. That’s relatively near the Gobi. Have you ever been here before?”
Up ahead, York whistled. “That one is smart as a whip.”
Ignoring him, Rhane slid a glance in her direction. “I’ve never been down here before this night.”
“It feels like we’ve been walking for hours. How will we find the way out?”
“It’s only been forty-one minutes,” a voice called from behind. That was Warren, the wolf-boy.
“These tunnels are very old. They range for miles, covering the entire area underneath the city.” Rhane gave an easy shrug. But the way his shoulders were set remained tense. “It’s not a maze. It will eventually lead us to the surface.”
Ironically, at that moment the single shaft diverged into two separate pathways headed in very opposite directions. Everyone stopped at the juncture except Warren. He walked ahead to examine the gaping dark of both entrances.
York looked at Rhane. “Is your spider sense back yet? Hear any more voices?”
Kali had no idea what the big guy meant, but when Rhane replied, he sounded annoyed. “You two go scout ahead.” He handed his torch to Warren. “Report back. Then we’ll figure out which way. I’ll stay here with Kalista.”
York grinned. “Sir, yes sir.” After gesturing for Warren to take the right tunnel, he quickly disappeared into the left.
They left and the light went with them. Kali had no time to feel any measure of unease. For as soon as they were gone, Rhane moved closer and wrapped his arms around her. She went willingly as he drew her close and buried his face into her hair. A moment passed, and he pushed her away gently.
Kali looked for where his face would’ve been, confused and missing his warmth. “What was that for?” Before he could answer, the glow of the torches returned, getting stronger and brighter as they converged. Warren and York were back.
York didn’t waste any time delivering the results of his reconnaissance. “My way is a no go. There’s a cave-in after several hundred yards. I hope War did better.”
Kali had turned to hear York more clearly through the distorting underground echo. Feeling Rhane’s fingers brush against her sleeve, she looked back to him.
“Because I needed it,” he whispered softly. His voice was normal again when he addressed York. “That’s okay. War doesn’t look like he thinks we’ll be spending the night down here. I guess we’re headed right.”
War nodded. “The tunnel goes on for about a quarter mile and then opens into a big cavern of some sort. The walls are covered in a weird man-made coating. Beyond that, I’m not sure. The tunnel definitely continues. It smells like there might be water up ahead.”
“Okay,” Rhane said. “Let’s get moving.”
War had understated the size of the cavern the tunnel led into. Half of a city block could have easily fit inside the immense space. Kali couldn’t hide her awe as she turned in a full circle, taking in as much as the dim light would allow. Something bizarre was happening. It was as if the walls themselves were absorbing the light, and a faint glow began emitting from the rock.
“Do you see that?” Kali wasn’t sure why she was whispering.
“Yeah.” Rhane sounded wary.
“Up here,” York called.
Rhane touched her arm. “Wait here.”
York pointed to an area in the floor when Rhane reached him. “There are impressions. Like someone stood in this exact spot pretty often.”
Rhane crouched down to take a closer look. Kali stood on tiptoe, wanting badly to see what they were looking at. She risked moving closer. War glanced in her direction but didn’t try to stop her. The impression was a pair of footprints. Nothing was miraculous about them. It was only that they were worn permanently into the floor. Rhane straightened. With a measured look at York, he stepped into the impressions. Kali heard a faint click. And then the walls came to life.
Powered by some unseen source, light flooded the cavern. Pictures materialized on every walled surface, surrounding them with a 360 degree view of a projected painting. A faint humming filled the room. Kali took in a startled breath when the pictures began to move. Above their heads, the ceiling erupted in a brilliance of red and orange as if it were on fire. Light from it grew brighter and brighter, becoming so blinding that it hurt to look at. The faint hum built to a dull but painful roar, and the roof of the cave seemed to move toward her. Kali threw up both hands, shielding her eyes from the light. She stifled a scream, m
entally reassuring herself that it wasn’t real. There was no way Armageddon would start a hundred feet below the surface in an old, man-made cave.
The fire that engulfed the ceiling shifted to the walls, transforming into a massive fireball hurtling through the sky much like an asteroid en route to earth. It impacted the ground, violently imprinting its presence with a huge crater. The flames died, and a foreign-looking object was revealed in the settling dust. Kali wasn’t sure what to call it. Nothing she’d ever seen in sci-fi movies came close to replicating the structure. For lack of a better word to describe it, her mind labeled it a pod. And it was immense. The pod towered above every tree that had survived the destruction of its arrival. Strange blue symbols illuminated metallic surfaces, glowing for a short while and then disappearing. Animals emerged from one of three spirals that sprouted from a spherical core. Fearsome teeth and claws identified the creatures as predators. Fur in colors ranging from white to black, with every shade of grey and brown in between covered their hides. They ran on all fours, assimilating into the surrounding habitat. A second group of animals came forth. These were horrible monstrosities. Some ran on all fours like the ones that preceded them. Others ran on two legs. And as the sunlight touched them, the creatures appeared to writhe in pain. Stronger than the agony was the will to be free. Hides smoking under the merciless sun, they streaked away from the downed vessel, finding cover in the shadows.
The scene shifted, faded to a darkness that didn’t last long. The images that surfaced next were even more disturbing than the last. An all-out war raged. Soldiers in gold and black armor battled shadowy figures that shifted forms, alternating between men and grotesque troll-beasts. Both sides suffered heavy losses. Blood soaked the battleground. More beasts poured onto the scene, joining the gruesome fray. It was horrible to watch. Some died as men. Others died as monsters. Kali wanted to close her eyes, but she couldn’t. She had to see what happened next.
Despite the climbing death toll, the number of participants embroiled in the war continued to grow. The masses increased until only a weird mixture of human and inhuman faces filled the walls with expressions of rage, triumph, defeat, and regret. The faces began to disintegrate. The scene changed, gradually dimming to nothing as darkness reentered the cavern.