Eve of Redemption (47 page)

“What’s that sound?” Ryan whispered. Sara listened but heard nothing.

“Just the wind,” Kyle said, his voice low and uncertain.

“There is no wind. Nothing’s moving.” Ryan’s gaze drifted all around them.
He’s right,
Sara thought,
there is no wind.
She heard the sound now, too. Distant but strong, like a gale whipping through tree leaves, out of place in their current surroundings. The water of the lake lay so still and calm, as did the mist that covered it, that the very idea of wind seemed absurd.

“Are we moving faster?” Sara peered over the side of the boat, muscles tense, expecting to see something in the water waiting to grab her. There was nothing, though the wake from the boat was stronger than what she would expect from the little effort the master put into paddling. Something was moving them along. A current? In a lake?

Sara straightened, feeling like eyes in the mist watched her, waiting for her. The sound grew louder. She no longer had to strain to hear it. “That’s not wind.”

Again, the chuckle. The spirit master seemed to be enjoying himself.

“That sounds like rushing water,” Kyle said.

The sound of the huge wings approached again, moving in quickly. Sara stared in horror as the spirit master raised his arms, the sleeves of his robe sliding down to reveal one flesh and one bony arm. The downdraft from the wings nearly capsized the boat as something swept in and lifted the spirit master in the air. In less than a second, he disappeared into the mist.

“What just happened?” Sara’s eyes strained to see, but the fog blinded her beyond a few feet.

“He’s gone,” Ryan whispered.

“Yeah, and we’re left out here alone.” Kyle’s voice held more anger than surprise or fear.

The boat moved faster now, and the sound of rushing water grew louder. Sara’s hair fluttered in the breeze.

“What’s that?” Ryan’s voice was almost comically soft given the circumstances. Sara looked to where he pointed and saw a large shadow in their path. As the boat approached the shadowy form, a second one appeared to its right. The boat moved fast, headed between the two objects.

“What are those?” Kyle murmured.

“Towers,” Sara said. “They’re towers, like on the Keep. This is El-Shaddai’s temple! It must be. The one destroyed by Eve.”

“It can’t be,” Ryan said. “According to the book, that was wiped out.”

“Sunk in the lake, maybe?” Kyle asked.

The rushing water almost deafened them as they passed between the towers. Sara grabbed a tight hold on the sides of the boat as it lurched forward. The tiny vessel spun sideways, then jerked forward. “It’s a waterfall,” Sara said, more to herself than to anyone else. “It’s a waterfall! We’re going over!”

If Ryan or Kyle answered, their voices were lost in the crashing of the water. Sara’s stomach leapt to her throat as the boat tipped forward. The fall was brief, only a couple of seconds, but the impact of hitting the water below knocked the air from Sara’s lungs. The thundering water forced her below the torrent. She struggled to pull herself to the surface, unsure which way was up. The churning water spun her in every direction at once, leaving her disoriented. Her lungs screamed for air, and panic froze her mind.

Finally, her head popped above the surface. She gulped for air before the water pulled her back into darkness, like some gigantic sea creature was swallowing her whole. Her left arm slammed against something hard, and she screamed out, losing what little air she had managed to take in. Bright fireworks of light flashed across her vision. The current spun her about, battering her body and sending her careening off the submerged walls. Her fingers fought to find anything to grab hold of, but the rock was slippery and her strength spent. Her empty lungs demanded air, but there was none to be had. Her mind grew numb, and she knew death was close.

Death. That’s who the spirit master reminded me of.

Sara felt weightless just before she crashed into a hard surface. She rolled like a rag doll before coming to rest, lying on her right side. She gasped at the jarring impact, and air entered her deprived lungs. Stale air, to be sure, but the sweetest air she had ever breathed. She didn’t know how long she lay there, gasping and retching. She thought she was coughing up her lungs. At last, her coughing subsided, and she found herself on a stone floor, her wet, pain-wracked body shivering in the cold.

“Sara?”

A male voice brought her back to herself. She heard the sound of wet footsteps sloshing toward her. She managed to open her eyes and tried moving her aching body. She groaned with pain but rolled onto her back and sat up.

“Sara, are you okay?” Kyle’s voice came to her in the gloom.

“I don’t know. Every inch of me hurts. How about you?” She glanced over to see him moving out of the shadows, dragging his left leg.

“I’ll live.”

“Is Ryan with you?”

He winced in pain as he sat down beside her. “No. He isn’t here?”

“I lost him when the boat went over the falls.” Sara heard the note of panic in her voice and fought to get herself under control.

“Maybe he ended up in another passage. There must be a lot of them in this place.” Kyle looked around. “Are we really under the lake? That’s radical.”

Sara had no idea where Kyle got some of his phrases, but radical was as good a word as any to describe the experience. She looked around, taking in the damp walls. The sound of rushing water filled the room from where it continued to flow down the stairway from which she and Kyle had been spit. Strange crystals embedded in the walls cast an eerie glow, illuminating the room.

“Yeah, I guess we are. Shouldn’t this whole place be flooded? The water flows all around it—what keeps it from coming in here?”

Kyle shrugged. “Who knows? Nothing has made any sense since the Horde attacked. I guess this is what we were being trained for, though the training seems to be lacking in a lot of areas.”

“The attack caught everyone by surprise. They weren’t ready for it. The masters probably thought they had more time to get us ready. Anyway, we’re here now.” Sara wrapped her arms around herself to keep warm. “You know what’s weird, though?”

“Everything?”

Sara laughed. It felt good. Then she remembered that Ryan was lost somewhere, maybe dead, just like Dana and Master Eleazar. “Why are we the only ones here? I mean, why us? The Keep was full of masters who were a lot more qualified to do this than we are. Where are they?”

Kyle thought about it a moment. “I think we were just lucky, you know? We were in the tunnels below the Keep when the attack came. We had to fight our way out, but we ran into minimal resistance. Had we been in the Keep itself, we would probably be dead by now. Besides, some of the masters or other trainees must have made it out. The spirit master brought us here, so…” Kyle’s voice faded, as though he had done a poor job convincing even himself.

Sara pulled herself to her feet. She reached a hand out to Kyle. “Come on, let’s see if we can figure out what we’re supposed to do now that we’re here. If Eve really is in this castle, I don’t think she’s going to come looking for us.”

Kyle grabbed her hand and struggled to stand, still favoring his left leg. The floor shook, and they grabbed hold of one another for support. “Now what?” Kyle asked. Dust and crumbling mortar rained down on them. “We need to get out of here.”

The idea of all this stone burying her in a watery tomb didn’t appeal to Sara, but she had come this far and had no intention of turning back. Besides, where would they go? Back into the lake with the rusalka and whatever else lay in wait? She would rather take her chances inside. She spun around. The only way out appeared to be the staircase that had been turned into a waterfall. Tapestries hung from the wall, whatever scenes they once displayed now indecipherable due to rot and mold. She ran to one and tore it down. It came away easily, crumbling in her grasp, but it covered nothing but stone. She ran to another, then another. On the third, she hit the jackpot—a wooden door set into a slight recess in the wall.

“Over here, Kyle. I found a door.”

He was beside her in a moment, and she pressed down on the latch with her thumb and jerked the door open. It proved heavier than she’d expected. As it swung open, a hot blast of air hit her. She gagged at the putrid odor that accompanied it.

“Oh, that stinks,” Kyle said. “Smells like something died in there.”

Sara refused to be hindered by the stench. “I’m open to options.” She watched as Kyle looked back toward the water-filled opening that had dumped them in the room, then back at the door.

“I guess we don’t have any, do we?”

“Not that I can see.” She turned back to the door. Now that the original surprise had faded, the stench had as well. “Well, let’s get on with it,” she said, stepping into the darkness.

R
aquel’s feet slid as she sped around the corner of yet another dilapidated building. Behind her she could hear Tiny’s ragged breath as he struggled to keep up. She assumed Martinez was back there with him but didn’t bother verifying that assumption. If he was there, great—if not, oh well. He would just have to fend for himself.

The beasts that stalked them were persistent, if not fast. The trio of Rebels had managed to keep well ahead of them, but each time they stopped to give Tiny a chance to catch his breath, they only had a couple minutes before they were once again forced to flee. Raquel had more than once considered standing and fighting. She hated running away. But the enemy was too many and her companions too few. Right now, running made sense.

Raquel paused at the edge of the building and peered out at the street beyond. Like the rest of the city, it appeared deserted. She heard the sound of pursuit, but it came from behind them. If anything awaited them here, it remained hidden.

Across the street, a glint from a fourth floor window caught her eye. She waited a few seconds and saw it again. A light? If someone was up there, they might be able to offer help. On the other hand, they might not be friendly.

Tiny came up alongside her. He followed her gaze. “You see something?”

Raquel pointed to the window as the light flashed again. “In that window. Something’s going on up there.”

“I saw it. What’d ya think?”

“I’m tired of running.”

“Yeah, me too.”

“No telling who’s up there,’’ said Martinez. ‘’Might not like us barging in.”

Tiny clapped the big cop on the back. “You’ve gotta learn to live a little. Besides, we’ve gotta fort up somewhere and make our stand. That looks as good a place as any.”

“We could end up surrounded, trapped in there with who knows what.”

“If you’ve got a better idea, I’m all ears.” Tiny’s face clearly said the idea better be good, but Martinez shook his head.

Raquel led the way across the street. The trio stuck to the shadows that covered the front of the building until they came to a rotted door that hung from the bottom hinge. Raquel pulled the piece of wood open far enough to slip inside. Dusty light filtered in through the dirty, broken windows, but it wasn’t enough for them to identify any of the shadows that lurked inside. Behind her, she heard the men pulling the door closed behind them. If they were lucky, nothing had seen them enter.

Who was she kidding? Luck didn’t exist here.

She allowed her eyes to adjust to the dim light. The room they were in was big. Some kind of warehouse, she guessed. A row of windows lined three sides. Shadows filled the room, any one of which she expected to come to life and attack them.

“We have to get up to the fourth floor,” Martinez whispered. “The back seems to be the best bet for finding stairs.”

They made their way to the back of the building. The room grew darker as they moved farther from the windows. The shadows turned out to be crates that had been stacked without apparent purpose throughout the first floor of the building. Raquel couldn’t shake the feeling that something about the place just wasn’t right. It all seemed generic, staged even. Now that she thought about it, the entire city had seemed that way. No real detail, just props. Except for the monsters. They were real enough.

Raquel let her senses guide her, and she soon found a stairwell. If there had once been a door covering the opening, it was gone now. The stairs themselves were concrete with a metal handrail. Generic.