Shadow Cave (37 page)

I
tapped my pen against the paper and soon became lost in thought.
I took each part of the statement and dissected it on a clean sheet of paper
.

The
talisman.
It could have meant anything, I realized; a weapon, a substance, an item
...
there were hundreds
,
if not thousands
,
of possibilities.
Whatever it was, they had believed it to be the equivalent of Kahn
’
s kryptonite.
Based on the phrasing, I made the assumption that the talisman was an item rather than a weapon per
se
.

Next I printed the words
‘
of the portal
.
’
The portal could have meant a lot of different things too, but I scrawled the words
‘
meadow
’
and
‘
Africa
’
below the heading.
It was entirely possible that Kahn knew about the portal that had brought me here
...possible
but not probable, I surmised.
If he knew much more about the portal other than the fact that it existed he would have guards posted in the forest, I knew.
The section of woods where I had entered the land was unprotected.
The clearing that led to Faith
’
s house was where Lerna
’
s town fence ended.
So basically, anything beyond Faith
'
s massive front yard was rogue territory.

I frowned and wrote
‘
key to his downfall
’
in the final heading.

“
Interesting choice of words
,
”
I murmured as I scanned my notes once more.
Could it be my key?
No, too obvious, I decided, and quickly discarded the scenario.
Or was it?
The key was an object and it was certainly a very powerful one at that.
It could have been the talisman that the men had spoken of.
The talisman of the portal…it fit.
The more I thought about it, the better it fit.
But how?
I shook my head and frowned at the books in front of me.
It would take more time that I had to figure out the answer to that question, I admitted.
Besides, I had not come here to kill an evil immortal sorcerer
, and
that was assuming that I could in the first place
—
which I doubted.
After all, there was self
-
confidence and then there was stupidity.
The line between the two was often very fine and blurry.

But if the key that was in my purse was the key to Kahn
’
s downfall, then that would explain why he was after me.
My next question was
‘
how
.
’
How had he known that I had come to Terlain to begin with?
H
ow did he know that I was in possession of the key?
H
ow had he known that the key would lead to his downfall?
And how would it lead to his downfall anyway?
Of course, that was based on the assumption that the four strangers had been talking about the key; the literal key that was in my purse
, rather than a
figurative
key
.
I dropped my head onto the desk and groaned when I felt the headache coming on.

H
ot stab
s
of pain went through my temples when I tried to lift my head from the desk.
The room blur
red
and shift
ed
until I was squinting to see two feet in front of me.
My ears began to ring and the sounds around me became muted before gradually fading away.
I gripped the front of the desk hard and tried not to feel like I was being
en
closed in my own private capsule of pain.
The meadow
, I thought dimly.
The last time I had felt like this was when I had dreamed of the meadow
, right
before I had
awakened
to the auction.
All of a sudden I had the sensation of being sucked into a void.
The library was gone in the next instant and so was the pain.
I was back in the meadow, lying on my side in the grass.

“
Oh my God
,
”
I whispered in a shaky voice.
I climbed to my feet and turned in a complete circle.
It was just as it had been the last time, except that I was alone.
I was too stunned to grasp the implications of what had just happened
,
w
hich was just as well, I supposed.
I scanned the area again, but more slowly this time, taking note of every detail.
The emerald seeing stones hung all around me and the only sound that I heard was my own ragged breathing.
Details, I commanded myself.
I tried to pick out anything that was out of the ordinary.
As strange as it sounded to me, I was forced to admit a second later that everything seemed perfectly ordinary
, save
for the fat gemstones hanging from the trees and the fact that I had just been sitting in a library ten seconds ago.
Nothing unusual about that at all
, I snorted.

My eyes strayed to the boundaries of the meadow.
From where I was standing, it was hard to see what lay beyond the meadow.
I wondered if I could leave and took a step forward.

A twig snapped somewhere behind me and I whipped around in time to see the shadow of the man emerge from the trees.

“
Who are you?
”
I cried out.

The man stepped into plain view then
,
and I gasped and froze where I was standing.
He had no face
...he
had no body either.
He wasn
’
t a shadow, because shadows were wispy and see through.
This man was solid
,
and cold
,
and black as night.

“
What the hell are you?
”
I demanded.
I don
’
t know why I expected him to answer me.
He had no mouth
,
at least not that I could see.
I backed up slowly without much thought as to what I was going to do.
My mind was racing though
,
and all I could think was that I hoped he couldn
’
t hurt me.
I dared to take my eyes off of the shadow man for a moment and a flash of copper to my left caught my eye.
A bell.
There was a bell in the distance beyond the meadow.
I spun around and ran toward it
,
only to be knocked flat at the edge of the trees.
I forced myself to catch my breath and get back up.
I reached out to touch the air at the edge of the meadow.
I should have been able to walk right out, but my hands met with an invisible but solid wall.
My arms tingled as a mild shock was delivered.
Shit
, I thought,
I
’
m trapped in here with whatever the hell that thing is
.
For the tenth time in two weeks, I kissed my own ass goodbye for good measure.

I leaned over as far as was safely possible and squinted to see the bell.
Most of the inscription was impossible to make out at that distance
,
but
‘
1784
’
was visible at the top of the bell.
To the left of the bell was a dilapidated old building with a sign hanging crookedly in the dingy window
...
‘
Triniti Supply
.
’
I would have jumped for joy had I not been reasonably sure I was about to die.

“
I got you
,
”
I growled triumphantly.

The thing behind me began to screech.
It was a terrible
,
ear-piercing sound.
It flew at me then.
I covered my ears and ducked.

“
Wake up! Wake up!
”
I screamed.
I felt the pull a second before the shadow figure collided with me.

Awakening in the library was akin to breaking the surface of the lake seconds before drowning
...
or waking from a particularly horrifying nightmare.

From the looks of the other library patrons that were directly around me I had made some noise while I was
‘
out
.
’
I looked around and smiled apologetically at everyone.

“
Night terrors.
I
’
m fine
,
”
I explained and exhaled sharply.

Had the shadow man been Kahn, I wondered?
Either way, it was
a
warning that had been delivered loud and clear.
I didn
’
t wait for my heart to stop thudding crazily in my chest
, but instead
grabbed the pen and struggled to remember the number that had been inscribed on the bell.
1789?
No, that was wrong.
I frowned and closed my eyes, concentrating.
It had been 1786?
No, 1784.
That was right
—
1784.
The sign in the window was easier to recall.
‘
Triniti Supply
.
’
The
name
was hastily jotted down
and the paper
hugged
to my chest.
He had not intended for me to see anything beyond the meadow
—of
that I was certain.
But
the why and how didn
’
t really matter
—
knowing how to locate the meadow meant that
I had him now
, although
the
timing of the incident
had to be
significant.
I had been contemplating the key
,
and that must have made
Kahn nervous.
Even though I was scared, I tried to remind myself that if
there was no
chance,
then there would also be no
reason
for the sorcerer to bother with a mere mortal like myself
.
Perhaps I was a formidable enemy in my own right after all.

“
Annabelle?
”

“
Hi, Mark.
”
I stretched.
“
What time is it?
”

“
Just after three.
”

“
We
’
ve been here two hours then?
”

“
Yes.
If you need more time, that
’
s ok
ay
too, but…were you screaming a minute ago?
”

“
Yes.
Yes I was.
”
I gathered the books in my arms and headed to the front desk to return them to the librarian.

“
And you were screaming because…?
”

“
I saw a spider.
”

“
A spider
,
”
he
repeated in disbelief.

“
Yes, a spider.
I hate the things.
”

“
You don
’
t seem like the type to be afraid of spiders.
”

He had obviously never been to Africa.

“
Well, I am.
Was there anything that you wanted to do today?
We still have a lot of daylight left
,
”
I observed as we walked down the street to the car.

“
Actually I did have something in mind.
Are you up for a little skating?
”