Eve of Redemption (50 page)

He crept down the stairs until he felt the chill in the air warning him he was getting close. He noted that the spiderwebs were still intact, a sign that the shadow was as disembodied as it appeared. He slowed down, using the air temperature to keep pace with the specter. He had traveled about sixty feet from the room in which he and Sara had been resting when the stairs ended at a long passageway. He peered around the final bend in the spiral stairway and watched as the shadow moved steadily away from him. The entity itself had no defined shape or form and changed like a cloud of inky smoke. He waited until it had moved a good distance down the passageway before slipping from his hiding place and following it. As far as he could see, the stone passage left no place for him to hide if the shadow turned, but it appeared intent on its mission. He took a moment to gaze at the walls. Except for the crystals, he detected no irregularities in the smooth stones.

Kyle realized he no longer saw the shadow in front of him. He squinted into the gloom. The air felt warmer as well. He increased his pace, the soles of his soft boots making no sound on the dusty floor. He reached the end of the hall, expecting it to fork off in one or both directions, but it proved a dead end. He stopped at the wall that blocked any further progress. Where had it gone? Had it passed through the wall? He ran his hands across the stones, hoping to find a secret latch or something. If the wall held secrets, it kept them to itself.

Disgusted with himself for losing his quarry so easily, Kyle spun around and started back the way he had come. His footprints were easy enough to see in the thick dust.
Wait,
he thought,
what is that?
He squatted and studied the footprints. They were his—there was no question of that. A chill that had nothing to do with the ambient air pricked goose bumps on his skin. In the center of each of his own footprints was another set, much smaller, like a child’s.

He knew the dust had been undisturbed when he’d come through. Whoever did this had been behind him. Standing straight, he peered into the gloom. The foot of the staircase should have been visible, but it was lost in the distance. Nothing else moved. He was alone down here, so who could have made the other set of prints?

Kyle felt the now-familiar chill in the air and froze, every nerve and muscle on alert. The chill became an almost painful cold, and he knew without any doubt that something was creeping up behind him. Stifling a terror-filled scream that a day earlier he would never have admitted he had in him, Kyle spun, knife flashing. The knife met no resistance, but he had been right.

Something had been creeping up on him.

TINGLING IN SARA’S nearly numb right arm brought her back to a pain-filled consciousness. She pried open sticky, bleary eyes and looked around. Confusion wafted through her fogged mind before recognition set in.
We’re in the castle. Eve’s castle. Where’s Kyle?

Sara pulled herself to her feet. She put one hand against the wall to steady herself as a wave of dizziness hit her, but it passed after a moment. She blinked and looked around again. She saw no sign of Kyle, but that didn’t alarm her. He was prone to instinctive action, letting his curiosity as much as common sense, drive him. It was one of the things that had caused her to distance herself from him. He probably got bored or sleepy and went out to look around while she slept.

For a moment, she only sat there, staring into the gloom. Her entire body ached. She was alone and scared.
Sam’s dead. Master Casius is probably dead. What about Dana? Ryan?
Tears flooded her eyes. She just wanted her parents back. She wanted her life back. For a brief moment, a memory tickled the edge of her consciousness, a memory of a happier time she couldn’t quite remember. “This is stupid,” she chided herself as she wiped the tears from her eyes. “I’m here now and have to keep focused.”

She stretched her aching muscles and moved to the doorway. She carefully stuck her head out into the stairwell and looked in both directions. There was no sign of Kyle, but the torn webs told her he had continued down the way they had been going. She thought about calling out to him, then thought better of it and followed the signs of his passing. She arrived at the bottom of the stairs and paused to study the long hallway. Footprints, that she assumed to be Kyle’s, continued straight ahead. There was no sign that anyone else had been down here in a long time.

She began to take a step, then paused. Something felt wrong.
Who am I kidding?
Everything feels wrong. Why should this be any different?
She studied the dusty passage. One set of footprints, leading away from her. There was plenty of dust, but what about spiderwebs? The stairway had been full of them, but the passageway was clear. Even the corners in the ceiling looked clean.
Strange.

Sara had two choices—go back and wait for Kyle where he had left her, or follow his obvious trail. Never having been one to wait around, she chose to go on. She followed the lone set of footprints until she came to a spot where another set joined them from the other direction. She studied the new set of prints and saw they were identical to the first. Kyle must have backtracked for some reason. Studying the disturbed dust, she came to the conclusion that Kyle had returned to this point before turning and going back the way he had come, away from the staircase.

Sara continued down the dim passage, feeling like she was being watched. She had learned to trust her instincts. All indications told her she was alone in the passage, but she couldn’t shake the feeling. She continued until all the prints ended at a wall. Was this why Kyle had turned back? But why return? She studied the prints at the base of the wall. They were scuffed, but she was pretty sure he came back to this point.

A sudden chill sent goosebumps up her arms. She spun around, reaching for her dagger.

“Hello, Sara.”

Kyle stood less than three feet from her, a stupid grin on his dirty face. “Kyle! You scared me!” She held her dagger up before her. “I could have killed you.”

His grin broadened. “I doubt that.” He held his own dagger up.

She wanted to back away, but the wall behind her prevented it. How had he snuck up on her like that? “Where did you come from?”

Kyle tossed his head to the left. “Over there. There’s another passage.”

“I didn’t see it.”

“Neither did I, at first. But that changed.” Something in his voice sounded off.

She was growing more uncomfortable by the second. His eyes looked strange, almost like they belonged to someone else. “Changed? How?”

“I found the other passage. C’mon.” He turned and walked away. Sara hesitated, not sure whether to follow him. The wall against her back reminded her that she really didn’t have any choice. They walked back to where Kyle’s original footprints had been joined by his return tracks, at which point Kyle abruptly turned and disappeared into a dark opening in the wall.

Sara gawked in amazement. She was certain that door had not been there before. A quick glance at the dusty floor distinctly showed Kyle’s footprints leading into the opening at least twice. How had she missed these prints the first time? They were obvious, as was the door in the wall. Sara knew her mind was still muddy with exhaustion, even after the brief nap. Still, she couldn’t have missed this. She followed Kyle’s tracks to the dim opening and peered inside. It was nearly identical to the first, with light crystals spaced at wide intervals along the walls and curtains of spiderwebs hanging from every surface. The appearance of the webbing made her more than a bit nervous as she thought back to the creature that had captured them in the tunnels beneath the Keep. Kyle, however, seemed not to worry as he moved through them, cutting a path for her to follow.

Sara stepped into the passage. The chill she had felt when Kyle had slipped up behind her pervaded this space. It was not the natural chill of a subterranean passage. She was familiar enough with those from her time spent in the Keep. This was like a living thing that surrounded her, a part of the air through which she passed. She shivered as she imagined something alive and sentient passing through her body while she passed through it at the same time. If Kyle felt it, he showed no sign. He continued to pass through the spiderwebs like they were not even there. But something about him was off. His walk was not the smooth, rolling gate with which he’d strutted around as long as she’d known him. It was stiff, like his knee and hip joints had locked up.
He’s probably just sore from all we’ve been through
. However, he had been fine when they had stopped to rest, and if anyone was in even better shape than she, it was Kyle.

They had not gone much farther when Sara saw a bluish glow on the webs. A door stood before them, pulsing with light like a heartbeat.
The heart of the castle
. An inscription was chiseled in the stone in a script Sara did not recognize.

“Enter ye into the land of the dead.”

Sara turned toward Kyle. “What?”

“That’s what it says. Enter ye into the land of the dead.”

“How do you know what it says? I’ve never seen that language before.”

Kyle shrugged. “I must have seen this somewhere. You’re not the only one who reads, you know. I spent my share of time in the libraries of the Keep.”

Sara didn’t remember ever seeing him in the library, but she didn’t feel like arguing. She placed her hand on the door, fingers spread. It was warm beneath her touch.

Warm. Pulsing. Alive.

She pulled her hand away. An audible
click
sounded, and the door swung inward just enough to clear whatever latch had held it.

“It didn’t do that when I touched it,” Kyle said.

Now that the seal was broken, strange noises could be heard from the room beyond. Though muted by the heavy door, the sound brought a feeling of dread to Sara’s pounding heart. She was close, she could feel it, but she doubted she was strong enough to finish this. Her goal lay ahead, and yet she found herself unable to push the door open. Icy sweat covered her body, freezing her in place.

“Well? Are you going in?”

She wanted to say yes, that she was going in, but the words remained locked in her throat. Kyle reached out and pushed the door farther open. The shrieking of voices in such misery as could never be imagined slammed into her. The land of the dead, the inscription had said. Yes, the dead awaited, and these particular dead held the promises of hell. Sara took a step back, ready to turn and bolt, when Kyle grabbed her arm and shoved her through the door. A putrid blast of air slammed into her. Sara’s shriek was drowned out by the cries of those who had come before her. She spun to get out just as the door slammed in her face. The living door continued to pulse as her hands slid over it, searching for some way to get it open, but she found none.

Kyle had betrayed her, and now she was trapped.

J
osiah cursed as he spun back toward the door, where the sound of the monsters’ approach could be heard quite clearly.

“Such language, Josiah.”

Red stood at the edge of the broken platform. No, not at the edge—over the edge. She was standing in mid-air, staring at him with a look much too serious for a girl her age. “Where’ve you been?”

“Where’s who been?” Hank asked.

“Not you,” Josiah said.