After...
Abigail searched the area surrounding the old mining town, and it didn’t take her long to find what she was looking for: a hidden entrance at the top of a waterfall leading underground. It was covered by a number of huge stones, and it took them a good thirty minutes to clear the area.
Once they did, it revealed an ancient trapdoor built into the ground, covered in runes.
“What’s this?” Haatim asked.
“It’s what the demon was looking for,” Abigail said.
“It wasn’t that hard to find,” Haatim replied.
“No, but that isn’t the point.”
“Wonder what’s inside,” Haatim said, reaching for the stone trapdoor. “It feels like there’s something…”
Abigail caught his hand and pulled him back. She felt a tingle as her hand got close to the door, almost like electricity.
“Don’t touch,” she said. “Do you see these runes? They are old, at least a few hundred years, and loaded with energy.”
“What kind of energy?”
“The kind that kills you,” she said. “And the kind that destroys demons and sends them back to hell. That’s why the demon wanted my help because it can’t get past here.”
“You can get past this?”
“No,” she said. “Not precisely. I don’t actually know many people who can get past runes like this, but these sorts of places always have a backdoor. There is definitely another way inside, we just have to find it.”
“Oh,” he said. “So what do we do now?”
She gave him a long look. “Ever been spelunking?”
Spelunking, it turned out, was the most horrible experience of Haatim’s life. He’d never really thought of himself as claustrophobic, but he’d never really understood what claustrophobia was before, either. He thought it only applied to people who didn’t enjoy confinement in small rooms: however, being trapped deep underground in tunnels and holes beneath the earth was terrifying.
There was no light except for his and Abigail’s flashlights, and even that was only a pinprick he could shine forward. The only sounds came from them scratching their way through the tight tunnels and his heavy breathing from the exertion.
Abigail was in front of him, first walking while they traveled down the miner’s tunnels and eventually crawling. After about an hour they reached a split where the passage forked to the left and right. One pass looked manmade and was larger and lined with tracks for the carts, and the other looked like a wall had crumbled and led into tighter tunnels that looked ancient and rough.
“This must be where it’s hidden,” she said. She examined the stones. “Looks like it was broken open sometime in the past. Hard to say when.”
“Where does it go?”
“No clue,” she said. “But if the artifact is down here, this is where we’re going to find it.”
“Artifact?”
Abigail ignored him and kept moving. She slipped into the tight hold and disappeared. Haatim let out a sigh and followed. It led into a steep decline and was moist with water and mud. He half slid and half crawled down after Abigail, struggling to slip through the small tunnel.
“Shouldn’t we have hats on?”
“Only if you’re concerned with falling rocks.”
Haatim frowned. “We aren’t?”
“The likelihood of a falling rock killing us is way less than a cave in. That would cut us off and starve us long before a rock would kill us.”
Haatim hesitated. “That doesn’t make me feel any better.”
Abigail didn’t reply. He kept sliding after her, grunting from the exertion and feeling his body muscles burning from the strain. There were thousands of pounds of rock resting casually above his head, and he tried really hard not to think about that.
They reached a slightly larger room after about twenty minutes of crawling and Haatim could hear the rushing sound of water. It was difficult to tell exactly where it was coming from.
“What’s that?”
“Underground river,” Abigail explained. She gestured her hand toward a hole off to the right side of the little chamber. “I think that will get us down to it.”
“Down to it?” he said. “You mean into the water?”
“Yeah,” she said. “It’s our only way forward.”
“Then maybe we should turn back,” Haatim said. “There’s no telling where that would take us.”
“It will take us farther into the caves. If it’s a dead end, we’ll backtrack and find another way farther down.” She crawled forward to the hole and slipped into the water. “Come on.”
“Are you sure about this?” he said.
“You can swim, right?”
“Yeah,” he said. “Not great or anything, but yeah I can swim.”
She untied a length of rope she’d wrapped around her waist and handed Haatim one end of it. “Hold onto this and don’t get too far behind.”
“Wait,” he said, slipping into the water behind her. It was freezing cold, and he let out a shuddering breath. “How far will we have to swim?”
“I don’t know,” she said.
“How do you know it isn’t too far?”
“I don’t,” she replied.
“Then what am I supposed to do?”
She pursed her lips. “Take a really deep breath.”
Then she sucked in air and dove under the water. Haatim watched her disappear and tried to decide if he should follow her. He watched the length of rope slipping under and considered just letting it go.
But, he wasn’t sure he could make it back out of the caves if he didn’t follow her. They had taken a number of forks and changed course a few times and he knew there was a decent chance he would get lost if he took off on his own.
No, his best option was to follow Abigail…and maybe drown in the process.
He took a deep breath as the rope dwindled and dove under the icy water. The underground river was small and cramped and his flashlight did nothing to show him the way ahead. The water was too muddy.
He felt along the wall with his left hand and held the rope in his other. He couldn’t feel a bottom to the river as he swam, and he imagined it going down hundreds of meters below his feet.
After a few seconds he felt his lungs burning, but when he reached up above his head he felt only smooth rock. There were no pockets where he might suck in a quick breath of air. Stay calm, he told himself. It can’t be much farther.
He kept swimming, kicking his legs and pushing himself along the rocks. He felt the rope tension increase as Abigail reached the end of the rope ahead of him. He held on tight, refusing to let go and lose the one thing connecting him to her.
Seconds dragged by and he started to grow weaker as the cold and lack of oxygen shut his body down. He’d never been much for swimming and didn’t have the greatest lung capacity. His head started to pound, and he wanted nothing more than to open his mouth and gasp for air.
His entire body started to burn, and he knew he needed air. But the rock above him remained just as smooth. He couldn’t swim much now and mostly let the rope pull him through the trench. His vision narrowed to slits, and he couldn’t see anything in front of him, and all he could do was fight down the urge to panic.
I’m going to die alone down here, he realized. Down in a cave, and I’ll be stuck here forever. No one will ever know what happened to me.
He scrambled on, feeling his cheeks puff out and flailing with his arms. He could tell he was panicking, and all he wanted was a breath of air. He didn’t want to die in this cave, stuck hundreds of meters below the surface of the world.
Come on, come on, come on…
He felt a hand roughly grab his shirt and drag him forward. His head burst above the water, and on instinct he sucked in a huge breath of air. A long moment passed where he just laid there, clutching the rock and breathing.
“See? That wasn’t so bad,” Abigail said, sitting on the rock beside him. She looked relaxed and calm, just waiting for him to recover. ‘Told you we could make it.”
Haatim tried to think of something clever to say in response, but his mind wouldn’t work. The headache faded but didn’t dissipate completely, and his body still felt weak and cold.
“Yeah,” he offered finally.
“You good?”
“I’m fine,” he said, pulling himself up on the rock edge next to her. He was soaked and his clothes felt heavy. She gathered up the rope and tied it around her waist once more.
“All right,” she said. “Let’s keep moving.”
She slipped down another passageway and Haatim followed. He had to crawl on his hands and knees again, but it was much more difficult now. He couldn’t remember any other time in his life he’d been this exhausted. All he wanted to do was lie down and take a long nap.
They paused for a breather about fifteen minutes later. Abigail seemed to be perfectly fine as she crawled through the tunnels, so he knew the break was for him. He must look pathetic, exhausted, and weary. He decided if he ever had the chance to go spelunking commercially, he would decline.
“I can still hear water,” he said.
“It’s flowing underneath and around us,” she replied. “But the air doesn’t taste as stale anymore, so I think there’s an exit somewhere up ahead. Unless I missed my guess, we aren’t far away from the waterfall we found.”
They kept moving. Haatim felt a black tarry mixture on his hands, and the rocks were slick and difficult to maintain balance on. Abigail’s clothes were covered in the gunk as well, which was at least a little reassuring.
“Remind me to stay behind next time you suggest I go somewhere with you.”
“I gave you the option. Plus, Frieda didn’t want me to let you out of my sight.”
“I don’t think this is what she had in mind.”
Abigail shrugged. “Probably not. But, hey, it’s a new experience, right?”
Haatim only grunted in response.
The sound of rushing water intensified and seemed to envelop them as they crawled until it sounded like they were walking in the middle of a giant river. Haatim tried to shout a question up at Abigail, but she couldn’t hear him.
Finally, they broke out of the passageway into a taller cavern. It was maybe eight meters in diameter with a four-foot-high ceiling. Haatim still had to slouch over, but it was infinitely better than crawling.
There was also some ambient light, and as they moved forward he saw that it was coming from the other side of a wall of water.
“What’s that?” he asked.
“The waterfall,” she said, reaching out and running her hand through it. “Told you we were close.”
He looked underneath where her hand parted the water and saw trees and sky beyond. It was the most beautiful thing Haatim had ever seen and he thought he might cry.
“Here, hold me,” she said, leaning forward toward the wall of water. Haatim wrapped his arms around her hips as he leaned out, sticking her head through the sheet.
She came back in a second later, soaked hair plastered to her face. She brushed the strands away.
“What did you see?”
“Check for yourself,” she offered.
Haatim leaned forward toward the water. He felt Abigail’s hands on his pants, keeping a grip on him, and he stuck his head through.
He found himself looking down a steep cliff and felt water flowing around his head. It was crashing into a deep pool about thirty meters down.
He pulled back in and shook the water off his face. “Long way down.”
“Definitely,” she said. She started walking to other direction, hunched over. “Too far to jump.”
Haatim turned to look at her. “Jump?”
“Yeah,” she said. “Would beat having to crawl all the way back out, you know?”
“True, I suppose,” he said. He hadn’t really thought about crawling back out, and the idea made him even more exhausted. “Still, jumping sounds a little insane.”
“Ill-advised,” she agreed with a shrug. “Though ‘insane’ might be a bit exaggerated.”
She started walking along the walls, scanning them over and feeling the rock with her fingers. She stuck her flashlight between her teeth.
“What are we looking for?”
“I don’t know where else we can go,” she said. The words sounded funny spoken around the flashlight. “And this cavern is huge. We need to find a passage.”
“What if there isn’t one.”
“There has to be,” Abigail said. “This is what the demon was after. If it isn’t here, then we’re going to have to backtrack and try one of the other passages we skipped.”
“OK,” Haatim said. He hoped it was here, having no desire to do any more backtracking.
He went to the other side of the room and began scanning those walls, searching for any holes or crevices that might be big enough to slide into.
He found something strange after a few minutes of searching, a hole, but it was only as big as his fist. However, when he touched it, he felt the wall crumbling beneath his fingertips.
“I think I found something,” he shouted across the room.
“What is it?”
“I don’t know,’” he said. He heard Abigail start moving across the room toward him. He kept pulling out chunks of the wall and tossing it aside. It felt like a disgusting sludge. “I don’t know what this is.”
“No idea,” she said. “But it smells terrible.
“Do you think there is methane gas in here?”
“We wouldn’t be able to smell methane,” she said.
“True.”
“And I don’t have a chemical meter to measure the air, so I have no way of knowing.”
“Methane is flammable, right?”
“And explosive. That’s the only reason we’re using flashlights instead of lighters,” she said, grinning sarcastically at him.
“OK, OK,” Haatim replied with a chuckle.
“Methane won’t be a problem for us unless it gets to at least ten percent of the air around us. Then it becomes firedamp and can explode. As long as there’s nothing to light it, though, we should be safe.”
“All right,” Haatim said. He kept scraping at the stuff on the wall, dragging it out of the way, and revealed a small passageway leading farther into the earth.
Abigail knelt down and shone her flashlight into the hole. “Looks like a tight fit.”
“Want me to wait here?”
“Up to you but…” She trailed off, peering into the hole. She ducked down farther, trying to get a better view.
“What?” Haatim asked. “What is it?”
“What is that?” she asked, turning her head sideways and shifting the flashlight.
“What is what?” Haatim asked, kneeling down next to her. He squinted, trying to make out a shape that was about seven meters ahead of them. He felt a breeze from up ahead as air flowed past him. “Those look like shoes.”
“And legs,” Abigail added. “It looks like there’s someone—”
Haatim heard a distinct scratching sound from farther down the tunnel. It was hard to figure out exactly what it was, but he knew one thing it reminded him of:
Lighting a match.
He saw a spark from up ahead as the match was dropped to the ground near the feet of the person. Air was flowing down the tunnel in their direction, he knew, which meant flames would be as well. Without thinking, he grabbed Abigail’s shoulder and jerked her back toward the waterfall.
“Come on!” he shouted, tugging and scrambling across the wet stones. She slipped to her knees but he picked her up and kept moving.
He glanced over his shoulder and saw the roar of the fire as it exploded out of the tunnel. It filled the entire room behind them. In only a second it was already catching up, and he could feel the heat smoldering around his body.
And then he dragged Abigail through the waterfall and into the empty air beyond. He felt his stomach drop with the sensation and heard an explosion of steam as fire burst through the wall of water above them.
He felt as though he was suspended in air, watching water droplets scatter in the air around them. He heard the huge sound of the waterfall filling his ears and overwhelming his senses and closed his eyes. They fell sideways, and Haatim attempted to align his body for the best possible position to hit the water below.
And then he slammed into the water and everything went black.
Haatim awoke sharply, his entire body crying out in pain. He was coughing and sputtering and felt delirious with exhaustion and weakness. He was lying on a bed of rocks and sand along the edge of the water, maybe thirty meters downstream from the waterfall.
He had no idea how much time had passed, but it was late in the afternoon now so at least an hour or so. He looked around but couldn’t see his companion anywhere nearby.
“Abigail?” he said, climbing to his feet. He wobbled and felt stabbing pain in his side where he’d smashed into the water.
No reply.
“Abigail, are you out here?”
He couldn’t see her or hear anything moving nearby. Just silent trees and the waterfall nearby. He wondered if maybe she’d been washed farther downstream, and he hoped she was OK. He started moving that direction.
He heard something behind him and glanced back just in time to see a form come diving out of the waterfall near the top edge. Abigail flew down in a graceful dive, splitting the water smoothly. She swam up near him on the beach and dragged herself ashore.
Haatim could tell that she was exhausted. “I went back to the other entrance,” she explained. “At the top with the runes.”
“Did you find anything?”
“The runes were destroyed. Someone had smashed through them, but I have no idea how. I found where the knife that Belphegor was looking for was being kept, but it’s gone. Whoever just tried to kill us took it with them.”
“What is the knife for?”
“I don’t know,” Abigail said. “But a lot of people are after it, so it can’t be good.”
“What do we do now?”
“Now,” she said. “We go talk to the Council.”
The trip back to Raven’s Peak didn’t take very long. The walk back to their borrowed car was the worst of it, and Haatim wondered if his legs might give out during the hike. He actually fell asleep on the drive back to the city, and Abigail had to wake him up when they were there.
By the time they got back there were dozens of rescue helicopters and hundreds of people filling the streets. Most of them looked like they were from out of town and part of various relief efforts teams after a natural disaster.
“What’s going on?”
“This is what the Council does,” Abigail explained. “Containment, isolation, and eventually story-building and propaganda. They’ll spend millions of dollars on false articles and police reports to back up their story of what happened.”
“That’s insane.”
They reached a blockade just inside of town, and two men carrying Assault Rifles came to their windows. Abigail rolled down her window as they approached. “State your name and business.”
“Abigail Dressler,” she said. “My business is my own.”
The man recognized her name. “We’ve been looking for you. You’ll need to report to the tents.”
“Is Frieda here?”
“She is,” the man replied, gesturing his gun toward the center of town where a hastily constructed tent stood. “And I’d suggest you head there right now. She isn’t very happy with you.”
“She never is,” Abigail said, rolling up her window and driving in toward the tents.
Haatim saw dozens of people inside and heard a general din of conversation. Some people were treating injuries and others directing the unloading and distribution of supplies. Abigail parked the car nearby and rubbed her temples. Haatim could tell that she was exhausted, and she still looked a little scared; though, of what, he couldn’t guess.
“Is my father going to be here?” Haatim asked.
“It is possible, but not likely,” Abigail replied. “Not for something like this. The Council has strict rules about the gathering of its members. They never put more than a few in one location.”
Haatim climbed out of the car. “Which one is Frieda?”
Abigail smiled wryly at him. “Trust me, you’ll know when you see her.”
They walked into the tent. Haatim saw a well-dressed woman with a white skirt and blouse barking orders. She had high heels and a mole on her cheek, and despite it all she looked incredibly pristine amid the chaos.
“Ah,” he said. “I see.”
As soon as Frieda noticed Abigail she came striding over. “Where have you been?”
“Following another lead,” Abigail said. “Took a little longer than I’d hoped. What’s the story you’re planning to roll out?”
“Militants,” Frieda replied.
“Militants?”
“It was short notice,” Frieda said. “There is a radicalized group of militants in the area, and we are utilizing them. As far as anyone will know, there was a chemical released into the air, and one of the side-effects that will be leaked is hallucinations. Four men are being charged with terrorist activities.”
“It’s going to generate a lot of press.”
“Yes, it will,” Frieda said. “We’re intending to oversaturate the market.”
Which meant they were planning on leaking so many false reports and accusations that there would be no way to verify any real stories. Everyone from aliens to government plots would be offered in explanation, so most people would dismiss any outrageous reports outright.
“Wow…” Haatim said, shaking his head.
Frieda wheeled on him, as if noticing him for the first time. She pointed a finger at him. “And you. You were ordered to leave the city.”
“I couldn’t just go and let these people die.”
“When I tell you to leave a place, you leave it, got it?”
He started to object again, but her look silenced him. “Got it,” Haatim answered. Frieda didn’t seem like the kind of person he should argue with.
“What do we do now?” Abigail asked.
“You will both have to stand before the Council and explain everything that happened. Haatim’s father is going to try and raise a few claims against you, Abigail.”
“OK. He wants to reprimand me?”
“No,” Frieda said, frowning. “It’s serious, Abigail. He’s planning to get you discharged from the Order.”
Abigail had a stunned expression on her face, mixed with fear. “What?”
“He’s already gaining allies and rallying support against you. He only needs to get half of them, and he’s almost got that number already.”
“He can’t do that.”
“Do what?” Haatim asked, but both women ignored him.
“He can,” Frieda said. “And he is.”
“That won’t happen, though, right? He won’t be able to rule against me? That hasn’t happened in hundreds of years.”
“After what you did here today,” Frieda said. “It’s doubtful. You saved a lot of lives. But, with Aram it is impossible to say. He has a lot of influence, and most members of the Council support him.”
“You can’t let that happen,” Abigail said.
“I’ll do everything in my power,” Frieda said. “I promise.”
“What are you talking about?” Haatim asked again.
“We need to go,” Frieda said. “There is a helicopter waiting and we need to get moving.”
“Can’t we get cleaned up first?” Haatim asked.
“There isn’t time. It’s going to be wild, these next few days. I hope you’re both ready.”
Abigail had a sad and resigned look on her face. “Me, too.”
Frieda smiled sadly at her. “Chin up. You’ll get through this.”
“Through what?” Haatim asked. Frieda ignored them and ushered them outside to where a helicopter was idling. There were helmets waiting, and after only a moment they were airborne, heading off toward the horizon.
Haatim thought it was one of the most beautiful sights he’d ever seen, watching the mountains stretch beneath him. He watched for a moment, just relaxing, before turning his attention back to Abigail and Frieda.
“So my father is going to try and get Abigail kicked out of the Order?” Haatim asked as they flew.
Both women were silent for a long minute. “Not exactly,” Abigail answered finally.
“Then what?”
Frieda was the one who responded. “Hunters serve for life. There is no way to leave the Order while someone is still alive.”
“What does that mean?”
“Your father is going to try and prove Abigail can’t be trusted. If he succeeds, she will be executed.”
