The Lost Night (26 page)

She awoke to the realization that the rain had stopped. The low
light of another cloud-shrouded dawn illuminated the entrance of the cave. She sat up on the emergency blanket, wincing a little.

She looked around and discovered that she was alone. There was no sign of Darwina or Harry. She pushed herself to her feet and used her fingers to rake the hair out of her eyes.

The interior of the cave was still illuminated, but the glow was fainter now that the storm had subsided and morning, weak as it was, had arrived. She stretched and went to the entrance to search for Harry and Darwina.

There was no sign of Harry, but she saw Darwina perched on the edge of a grotto pool. Darwina waved the Amberella doll and chortled a greeting.

“Good morning to you, too,” Rachel said. She crossed the rough ground to
the edge of the pool and took a closer look at Amberella. The doll had evidently taken a swim in the pool. The bright red hair and pretty gown were soaked.

“Good thing she’s hollow inside,” Rachel said. “At least she floats. What did you do? Throw her into the pool to see if she could swim?”

As if in answer, Darwina chittered gleefully, leaned precariously out over the edge of the pool, and dropped Amberella into the water. Rachel smiled when she saw the gently swirling currents of the pool carry the doll into a slow, graceful circle and then under the falls. The cascading water pushed the doll down out of sight, but she popped back to the surface a short time later and continued on her serene journey.

Darwina waited attentively, hind paws gripping the ledge, to grab the doll out of the water when she came back around.

“That looks like fun,” Rachel said. She looked around. “Where’s Harry? Did you toss him into the pool, too?”

“Over here,” Harry said. He emerged from the darkness of the trees, walked across the clearing, and rinsed his hands in the grotto pool. “Ready for breakfast?”

“Starving. Where did you go?”

“I was making use of the amenities,” he said.

She felt like an idiot. “Oh, yes. I need to do the same.”

“Go ahead but don’t wander off. Stay within visual range of the cave.”

“Trust me, the last thing I want to do is get lost.” She glanced at the pool. “Is the water safe to drink?”

“It’s salt
water, not fresh,” Harry said over his shoulder. “I tried a sample earlier.”

“Really? How did salt water get this far inland on the island?”

“That grotto pool must be linked to some of the flooded caves on the island.”

She made her way toward a palm adorned with huge fan-shaped fronds that promised some privacy. When she had finished with her personal business, she went back out into the small clearing. She paused by the grotto pool to rinse her hands. She shook her fingers vigorously to dry them.

Amberella had almost completed another circuit of the pool.

When the doll glided out from under the waterfall, Darwina gripped the rocky rim with her hind paws and leaned forward, preparing to snatch the toy.

“Time for breakfast,” Rachel said. She turned to head back to the cave. “Catch Amberella and we’ll go chow down on some yummy energy bars.”

Darwina chortled.

The chortle turned into a hissing growl.

Rachel spun around in time to see that Darwina had sleeked out into full hunting mode, her fur flat against her small body, all four eyes glowing. Her fangs were showing. Not a good sign, Rachel thought.

Amberella had vanished. The water started to ripple and churn.

Darwina growled furiously and leaped into the pool. A long tentacle appeared. It
was wrapped around Amberella. A second tentacle reached out for Darwina.

“Darwina, no,” Rachel shouted. She raced toward the grotto pool. “Come back.”

But it was too late. The tentacle snaked out and caught Darwina. The dust bunny screamed. That was the only way Rachel could describe the terrible, high-pitched sound Darwina made.

Rachel reached the edge of the pool. Terrified that the creature would drag Darwina under, she did the only thing she could think of. She grabbed one tentacle in both hands and hauled mightily in a desperate attempt to drag the water beast out of the pool and onto dry land.

“Harry!”
she shouted.

The tentacle was slimy and so slippery Rachel was afraid she would not be able to hang on to it. But the creature seemed intent on snagging her as well. Two of its writhing limbs coiled around her upper arms and the struggle became a tug-of-war. The beast was heavy and powerful, but it was trying to hold on to three different prizes, two of which were struggling mightily.

More of the creature was visible now. A bulbous body appeared. The dome-shaped head was covered with dozens of slender, bobbing stalks. Each stalk was topped with what looked like a tiny eye. The dancing eyes glowed with paranormal energy. And then Rachel saw the beak that was the thing’s mouth.

She pulled hard, trying to use her weight as leverage, and wound up landing hard on her butt. The relentless tug of the beast was strong. She
was being dragged forward by inches. The heels of her boots gouged grooves in the damp ground.

“Damn it, Harry, where are you?”

Darwina gnawed furiously on the tentacle that shackled her small body. Dark blood spurted. Evidently the wound annoyed the beast and it flung its prey clear. Darwina sailed a short distance through the air and landed with a soft thud. She bounced back to her six paws and charged toward the nearest flailing tentacle.

The water beast was half out of the pool, clinging to the rocks while it fought to hang on to Rachel. The myriad eyes jiggled wildly.

Rachel saw a small, silvery disc arc through the air and slice effortlessly through one of the tentacles wrapped around her arm. Dark blood gushed from the wound. The beast jerked violently in response.

The severed tentacle fell to the ground near Rachel and twitched wildly. An instant later, the other tentacle unwound itself from her arm. She was free.

Evidently sensing that it had taken on more than it could swallow, the water beast flung its remaining prey aside. Amberella flew across the clearing, the jeweled skirts of her Restoration Ball gown sparkling in the weak daylight, and landed in some green foliage.

The creature started to scramble back into the pond, but Harry got there first. He had a stout tree branch in one hand and swung it like a baseball bat. The branch connected with the bulbous body, knocking the bizarre animal off the rocks and onto the ground.

Rachel watched, horrified, as the
creature flopped about frantically, gills heaving, for what seemed forever before it grew weaker and went limp. The psi-light winked out of the bizarre eyes, and the unmistakable aura of death silenced the atmosphere.

“Monster,” Rachel whispered. “Just like the ones I see in my dreams.”

Harry dropped the tree branch and retrieved the disc-shaped knife. The
adrenaline and psi were still heating his blood. He was going to have nightmares about this in the future, he decided. It had been a near thing.

He looked at Rachel. She watched him, dazed and maybe numb from the shock of battle. She was trying to catch her breath and steady her nerves.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

“Yes.” She inhaled deeply. “Yes, I think so.”

Darwina appeared from a clump of bushes. She was once again fully fluffed. She chortled in triumph, waved Amberella, and scurried across the clearing to show Rachel her prize.

“You know,” Rachel said, “all things considered, it would have been easier to just buy you a new Amberella.”

Harry crouched and used some damp grass to wipe the black blood off the
gleaming blade. He would clean it properly later. When he was finished, he pulsed a little energy into the disc. The razor-sharp cutting edges retracted into the medallion.

He sheathed the knife, straightened, and crossed quickly to where Rachel still sat on the ground. There was a lot of mud on her pants, and he knew she would be bruised where the tentacles had gripped her arm, but she looked unhurt.

He reached down. She took his hand and allowed him to pull her to her feet. She slapped some of the mud off her pants.

“I told my parents that Amberella was an excellent role model,” she said.

“She’s not the only kick-ass female in the vicinity,” Harry said. “Is mud-wrestling with creatures from the Obsidian Lagoon a popular sport in the HE community?”

“Not that I recall.” She brushed off her hands. “I see that knife of yours functions in a heavy psi environment. Most high-end technology doesn’t.”

“One of our labs is dedicated to producing useful gadgets that ghost hunters, Underworld exploration teams, and guys like me can carry into places where the fancy gadgets don’t work.”

“Is there a lot of money in that sort of thing?”

He smiled. “Oh, yeah.”

“You’ve had some experience throwing that thing,” she said neutrally.

“Yes.”

She raised her brows. “You managed to sever one tentacle without accidentally amputating
my arm in the process. That’s precision work.”

“Practice, practice, practice.”

A knowing look illuminated her eyes. “Your ability to handle that knife is linked to your talent, isn’t it?”

“Yes.”

They walked to where the dead water creature lay on the ground.

“What is that thing?” Rachel asked. “I’ve seen monsters like it in my dreams, the ones where I’m running through the prehistoric sea to escape the human monster.”

Harry studied the dead creature. It looked smaller in death but no less weird.

“In the past two hundred years since the First Generation colonists arrived on Harmony we’ve barely begun to catalogue the flora and fauna of the planet, not to mention the underground rain forest,” he said. “There’s no telling what’s waiting for us in the oceans.”

“I know.” Rachel’s expression tightened into a troubled frown. “But this creature feels somehow wrong.”

“It definitely qualifies as strange. Looks like some kind of cross between a decopus and a Siren-fish.”

“All those eyes,” Rachel said. “When the creature was alive, they were all lit up with psilike tiny lanterns.”

“They aren’t real eyes. As I recall, Siren-fish generate a tiny current of energy through those eyelike appendages. It’s how they attract their prey.”

“I know. I saw one once in an aquarium,” she said. “But this isn’t a Siren-fish and it’s not a decopus, although it has characteristics of both species. This
poor thing feels unnatural.”

“That poor thing just tried to drag you down into the grotto pool and eat you.”

“Yes, well, everything has to eat.”

“Another HE saying?”

“Fact of life.” Rachel looked at him. “There have always been tales of monsters and demons prowling the Preserve.”

“Legends and myths but no hard evidence. And this thing wasn’t prowling the Preserve, it was living in a flooded cave.”

“You and others from the Foundation have spent more time, all told, inside the Preserve than anyone else and you’ve got records that go back to Harry One. Have there been any reports of severe mutations aside from the psi-infused flora?”

“As far as the experts know, there isn’t a lot of wildlife in the Preserve. What there is of it seems normal enough and it comes and goes easily through the fence.”

They both looked at Darwina. Aware that she was the object of their attention, she preened.

“Like dust bunnies,” Rachel said.

“Like dust bunnies,” Harry agreed. “Also plenty of standard-issue birds, insects, rodents, and other small animals.”

“But nothing like this?”

“No,” Harry said “Nothing like this.” He looked at the dark woods that crowded the edge of the clearing. “But most of the Preserve is still unexplored and unmapped. Same goes for the cave
system. This place is like the deep ocean trenches as far as the biologists are concerned. Unknown territory.”

“The question is, where did I encounter other beasts like this one?” Rachel asked. “I’m no expert on marine biology, but—”

She stopped and looked mutely at the dead creature.

“You’re thinking what I’m thinking, aren’t you?” Harry asked quietly. “You’re not an expert on marine biology but you know someone who might be—Calvin Dillard.”