Thorn Fall (31 page)

“Let a man learn how to fight,” he said, his voice having the singsong quality of someone reciting a poem, “by getting in close where fighting is hand to hand, inflicting a wound with his spear or sword, taking the enemy’s life, foot planted alongside foot, and shield pressed against shield, breast against breast, embroiled in the action, let him fight man to man.”

“What was
that
?” Simon asked. “I’ve never heard him say that much before in an entire day.”

“A poem. Tyrtaeus?” I guessed, trying to think of Spartan poets who had lived around Alek’s era.

He nodded, his eyes gleaming with pleasure. Pleasure from the fact that I recognized the passage or from the fact that he had survived his wrestling match, I wasn’t sure.

“A love poem?” Simon asked.

“No, it was about killing people. I think he’s telling us that he enjoyed wrestling with… whoever that was.”

Alek was still holding my multitool, and he held the pliers aloft, his face sobering. A scrap of dusty black material dangled from the tool’s grip. My own face must have sobered as I stared at it, then stepped forward to remove it.

“Black leather,” I said.

“I didn’t realize all elves ascribed to that fashion trend,” Simon said.

“I… don’t know that they do. Alek? Did you ever see what that female elf was wearing? Green Eyes?”

“I saw her only briefly, but she wore a cloak,” he said.

“So we’ve only seen Eleriss and Jakatra in black leather?”

Temi scowled over at me and propped a fist on her hip. “What are you implying?”

“That our buddies aren’t our buddies after all?” Simon asked.

“Jakatra…” I started.

“Wouldn’t attack Alek,” Temi interrupted. “Or any of us. Why would he when he’s been helping us?”

“Is he helping us of his own volition? Or is Eleriss making him help us?” I had no idea as to the social hierarchy of the elven world, but I had always gotten the impression that Eleriss outranked Jakatra.

“I spent a week with him. I know him better than you do. He saved my life. Multiple times. Eleriss wasn’t around. He could have let those animals knock me out of the trees if he didn’t care. He’s not someone who would stab you in the back.”

“Just in the chest?” Simon suggested.

Temi turned her scowl on him.

“I did not fight a female,” Alek told me.

“You’re sure?” Female elves might be as quick and agile as the males. Maybe as strong too.

“Positive,” Alek said, his tone dry. He walked over and picked up his sword, returning it to his belt scabbard.

“Oh, right. I guess you’d probably notice… lady parts in close quarters like that.”

“What are you talking about?” Temi demanded. She sounded frustrated that she couldn’t follow the conversation. I would definitely have to work on getting Alek up to speed on English.

“He said it wasn’t a woman.”

“Eleriss said something about the green-eyed elf having a helper,” Temi said.

“That is true.” I lifted my hands. “All right, we won’t jump to any conclusions yet. It doesn’t matter right now anyway. We need to find a way out of this cave. That sword is probably still close enough to the vortex that the portal is open up there, and who knows what it’s making people do?” I shuddered, the memory of the falling man flashing through my mind.

Temi pointed to the blocked tunnel. “That way?”

“Actually…” Simon gazed at the ceiling. “Judging by where the cave entrance was, how far the tunnel sloped upward, and the fact that we know the sword has to be close to the portal for it to remain open… there may be less rock to go through in that direction.”

“Yeah, but that’s solid rock,” I said, “not loose stones.”

“A few feet verses twenty meters though.”

“We can’t even reach it.”

“Temi can stand on someone’s shoulders,” Simon said.

“Are you volunteering? Because Alek looks like he needs a hospital bed and a transfusion, not a person standing on him.”

Simon pointed to me. “You’re still looking sturdy.”

Sturdy? He was never going to get a girl using adjectives like that.

Temi was alternating between eyeing her sword and the ceiling. “Are you
sure
it’s only a few feet?”

“Tell you what,” Simon said, poking into his backpack again. He put away his homemade grenade and pulled out a different tin, something about the size of a tuna fish can. It might have
been
a tuna fish can once. Now it had a fuse sticking out of the top. “See what you can do, carve out a nice niche up there, and when you can’t go any farther, you can tuck this up there…” He pulled out a roll of duct tape. “And we’ll see if we’re close enough to blow us the rest of the way out.”

“You want to blow up the ceiling over our heads?” I asked.

“I’m
sure
we’re close to the surface. We can take cover in the mouth of the tunnel there. The part that didn’t collapse. If it didn’t collapse with the first rock fall, it must be structurally sound.”

“Uh huh.” I imagined the four of us packed into a space not much larger than a coffin with tons of collapsed rock burying us from either side. “Let’s just—”

“Listen, it’ll be fine. I’m sure. Eight feet of stone to the surface—max. Even if it all collapsed, it wouldn’t fill this chamber. We could climb out over it.” Simon glanced at his phone, and I wondered if something was filling him with urgency. Had he received another message from his brother? “Don’t I always beat you at chess? I’m spatially gifted.”

“Last time, you beat me because you spilled Mountain Dew in my lap and moved the pieces while I was cleaning up.”

“I did
not
move the pieces. That was your imagination. And your poor spatial memory.”

“Fine.” I waved to the ceiling. “Try digging over there, on the far side. We’ll give it a few minutes, then we’re doing the tunnel.” I jerked my thumb at it. I might see how hard those rocks were wedged in there while Temi cut into the ceiling with the sword.

“Anyone else think we should have taken our chances and gone through one of the portals?” Temi asked.

“Maybe so. I wonder if they all went to the same place. And why they were open in the first place. To distract us?”

“Maybe our elf friend was hoping we’d be intrigued and go through,” Simon said, “Or that we’d think the sword was on the other side of one and figure we
had
to go through.”

“Good thing Temi could feel it in here.” I waved toward the ceiling. “Willing to try it?”

“All right.” Temi walked to the far side of the chamber. “Who’s my stool?”

Simon started after her, but Alek stopped him with a hand. “I more tall,” he said in English.

“You don’t have to be a hero, Alek,” I said, concerned with all the blood he had left on the floor, not to mention what was still oozing down the side of his face.

He gave me an odd look. Spartans probably
did
have to be heroes. It must be in the DNA.

While he hoisted Temi onto his shoulders, I pulled off my own backpack. My first-aid kit seemed inadequate for the amount of blood Alek was leaking, but I could at least bandage his torso. Judging by the stain on his jacket, that was the worst wound. Unsporting of his wrestling opponent to pull out a dagger.

“I wish I’d had time to put together my thermic lance,” Simon said, watching as Temi took the first few cuts at the ceiling, trying to dig in off to the side so rock wouldn’t crumble onto her and Alek’s heads.

“I don’t.” I pulled out the roll of bandages. “As far as I know, the sword doesn’t burn oxygen. Fire would. I don’t particularly want to run out of air in here.”

“Oh, we’ll poison ourselves with CO2 before we run out of air,” Simon said cheerfully.

“Good to know.”

I followed the wall over to Alek, avoiding the rubble falling from the ceiling. He was supporting Temi, her feet on his shoulders, his arms up to grip her calves and keep her from losing her balance. Temi couldn’t have had a lot of leverage from her position, but the sword
did
cut into the rock easily, as if it were melting away the stone.

“I’m going to take off your jacket and lift up your shirt, Alek.” I held up the bandages and some scissors.

He nodded.

“Or maybe cut it off,” I added after I had unzipped the vest, camo jacket, and revealed the T-shirt beneath it. The fabric, drenched in sweat and with the side soaked in his blood, was going to be hard to keep out of the way. “Simon, want to give me a hand?”

“Taking off Mr. Sexypants’ clothes? Not really.”

“Get over here, anyway.”

Though he sighed theatrically, Simon came over and held up Alek’s shirt. With the sword moving around overhead, the glow fluctuated, and I ended up pulling out my flashlight and holding it between my teeth.

“Someone stuck a dagger in your side, my friend,” I said around the handle, grimacing at the puncture wound. He would need stitches at some point. I pressed a wad of gauze against the cut and shook out the bandage one-handedly. “Simon, apply pressure, please.”

As he did so, a head-sized rock hit the ground behind him, and he jumped. I would have too. I wasn’t sure about this plan at all—or his self-proclaimed wonderful spatial awareness.

“Heard from your brother?” I asked.

“No reception since the cave-in.”

“Think he’ll be smart enough to stay in the car?”

“He’s not the type to join geriatric hippies at the bong. But… he might be worried and come looking for me.” Simon bit his lip. “I wish he hadn’t come down here. I don’t need a babysitter.”

I wasn’t that sure about that, but I kept my mouth shut. For once, Simon wasn’t cracking jokes. He might be annoyed at his family’s assumptions, but more than that, he looked concerned that his brother might be in trouble out there.

“Mom would kill me if he got hurt because of me,” Simon added softly. I almost didn’t hear him over the rain of rubble clattering down, the pile growing around us.

“I’m sure she would forgive you.”

He shook his head. “You’ve never met her. You don’t know how much…” He stared at the wall over my shoulder, and I concentrated on tying off Alek’s bandage. “He’s the one she loves, that everyone does. I’m just the geeky screw-up. Until I prove I’m not, anyway. But you know that saying about it being hard to prove a negative? It’s kind of like that. Sometimes, no matter what you do, it can’t change opinions people have had for a long time.”

“I know.”

“I’m not sure how much farther I can reach,” Temi said. “I haven’t found the stars yet.”

“The stars are elusive,” Simon murmured.

“What?”

“Make a little niche. I’ll have you tape my bomb up there.”

“And now we get to the part of the plan I’m really questioning,” I said.

Simon let Alek’s shirt fall down, wiped his hands, and retrieved his tuna can and a lighter. “You need to put it up as high as you can, but still be able to reach it to light it. Everyone else should take cover in the little tunnel.”

“Meaning you?” I asked.

Temi and Alek wouldn’t be able to until they had lit the fuse.

“Meaning us,” Simon said. “I’ll be fine. Don’t worry. The rock up there is fairly stable. That explosive isn’t strong enough to bring down all of Bell Rock or anything.”

“That’s good. I’d hate to be the one responsible for destroying a national landmark.”

“I think it’s only a county landmark.”

“Ah, that makes things much better then.”

“Ready,” Temi said as more rock plunked to the ground.

Alek took the can, regarded it curiously, then handed it up to her. Temi rose on her tiptoes, stretching up into the hollow the sword had carved. I couldn’t believe Alek didn’t wince under the weight digging into his shoulders. But then, he hadn’t winced at having a dagger plunged into his side, either. I wondered anew if that had been Jakatra, or if black leather was simply trendy among elves. Nobody had seen the green-eyed elf woman’s assistant. Maybe he had also stolen a Harley from Montana grannies and dressed himself in appropriate clothes for the road.

“It’s placed,” Temi said.

“Here’s the lighter.” Simon tossed it up, and she caught it.

“How long will we have after I light it?”

“A few seconds.”

“Comforting,” I said, imagining us all stumbling and tripping over each other as we raced for the tunnel.

“No kidding,” Temi said. “For future reference, longer fuses would be better.”

“Not to mention a remote detonation device,” I added.

“You guys do know these bombs were constructed by flashlight and in a tent, right?”

“Again, let me state how comforted I am.”

“If I had access to a proper lab…”

“Ready?” Temi asked.

I grabbed Simon and hauled him to the tunnel. As much as I hated the idea of hiding there while Temi and Alek were still out in the open, it meant we wouldn’t get in the way when they ran over.

“Ready,” I said, my back to the rockfall inside the tunnel. I closed my eyes, hoping Simon was right, hoping the explosion wouldn’t be too big, wouldn’t bring the mountain down on us…

“Go,” Temi barked.

A thud sounded as she jumped to the ground. Alek could have beaten her there, but he waited, pushing her into the tunnel first. She laid the sword flat against the ground so it wouldn’t stab anyone. Alek plastered himself into the hole, throwing his arm around my shoulders, and leaning in to protect my head. I might have objected to this preferential treatment—even if I had agreed to his bodyguard offer earlier—but there wasn’t time. The explosion came first.

The boom wasn’t as loud as I expected, not after the cacophony of the first rock fall. At first, I didn’t even think it had done anything.

But rocks started falling, pounding to the ground with ear-splitting cracks and thuds. Dust flooded the chamber. I couldn’t see much around all of our bodies, but I could feel the fine particles flowing into my nostrils. I might have sneezed, but I didn’t hear it over the hammer of the rocks. The earth shivered beneath us, and I grimaced, afraid we were setting off a cascade of rock falls, and that we would indeed be buried alive.

“Holy shiaaat,” came a distant call, not from any of us.