Torrent (31 page)

A barrage of bubbles rose to the surface around her.

“Hah, it does hold air in its lungs,” Simon said.

The attack must have convinced it to leave her for the moment, for Temi wrapped her legs around the stalactite and hewed at its base near the ceiling, like a lumberjack at some upside down tree. The stone reacted like wood, too, with shards being cleaved off.

“Amazing,” I said.

“It
is
a magic sword,” Simon said.

I didn’t care at that moment. I just wanted the tunnel blocked and to assure nothing would chase us as we tried to escape. Though I wasn’t sure the stalactite would do the job, if it didn’t fall just right…

“Try to angle it to collapse in this direction,” I called.

Busy hewing at the stone, Temi didn’t react. Maybe she didn’t hear.

Abruptly, she screamed in pain. She cursed and whipped the blade down, stabbing beneath her again.

I lunged forward, but there was nothing I could do to help. I had no idea what had happened to my bow, but it wouldn’t do any good anyway.

“Should we pull her back?” Simon asked.

“I don’t know. She’s close with the stalactite, and she’s still fighting it…”

A heartbeat later, Temi disappeared beneath the water. I didn’t know if she’d lunged down to attack or had been yanked under.

“I’m pulling her back,” Simon said.

I grabbed the rope to help him.

A crack rent the air, and the stalactite fell free, plunging straight downward. Piles of debris dropped with it, but the massive column tilted toward the alcoves and didn’t come anywhere near our entrance.

I cursed again and hauled on the rope. Stupid idea. What a waste of—

“She’s stuck.” Simon leaned back, pulling as hard as he could. “Or resisting. I can’t—” His foot slipped, and his head went under.

I grabbed him, catching his collar before he could be swept out of the tunnel. I wanted to help both of my friends, but it was all I could do to keep from being pulled out myself. I hauled on the rope, hoping that eyelet could hold all of our weights, and yanked on Simon.

He came up with a sputter. “I’m fine. Temi. Get her.”

We were farther up the tunnel now, with the water at my ribcage. I leaned back, preparing to yank hard, but this time the rope came back without resistance. My stomach sank. Had she cut herself free? Or had the monster swiped a claw across the rope?

I pulled faster. Water, or maybe tears, made my vision blurry.

By then, I was expecting a frayed rope end to come out of the water. I gasped with surprise and delight when Temi’s head popped up. She still had the sword too. Great splashes broke the water behind her. At first I thought it was the monster following her, but those were her kicks. No wonder there hadn’t been any tension on the rope—she’d been motoring like crazy back there.

“Let’s get out of here,” she said as soon as she had her feet beneath her.

“The monster?” I asked.

“I don’t know if it’s dead, but I hope so.” Temi flashed a grin, her teeth glinting with the reflection of the sword. “It got caught beneath the rocks, and I cut a lot of holes in it.”

“Nice,” Simon crooned.

We took long enough to untie our rope in case we needed it again, but that was it. We raced back through the chambers, all of which were filling with water, and headed for the tunnels the others had burrowed. My calf screamed with pain, thanks to the fresh holes punctured in it, but it supported my weight, and I didn’t let it slow me down.

I glanced about when we entered the lake cavern, shining my flashlight beam into the darkness, hoping to see Alektryon or Jakatra and Eleriss, Alektryon in particular. I had no way of knowing if he’d survived, but if he had, it would be fascinating to figure out how to talk to him. If he’d truly been alive back then… he could tell us so much about that time period. More than that, I hoped he’d survived because… I don’t know why, but I felt protective of him. If he made it out of the caves, which was no certain thing, he’d be lost in Twenty-first Century America.

As for the others, I should be relieved those pointy-eared crazies were missing, but I longed to know more about their people and their role in our history. If they’d been plucking warriors out of humanity’s past, what else might they have done? And why? A part of me wanted to rush to the Internet and start sifting through history, trying to tie their people to some of the mysteries of the past, mysteries that fringe researchers tried to link to aliens. Another part of me wanted to wash my hands of the whole week. How much easier it would have been if these caves had held nice normal relics from nice normal peoples who’d once lived in the area. Stories like that I could have written up and submitted to magazines and academic journals. But this? If I couldn’t bring teams down and show them proof, I’d go from being shunned to being mocked if I tried to explain what we’d seen tonight.

A great crack sounded behind us, followed by a boom that reminded me of a wrecking ball at a demolition site. Simon, Temi, and I exchanged wide-eyed looks and picked up our pace. No, I wasn’t going to get my proof. The alcoves with the dead men and their artifacts were all underwater by now, and the entire place would collapse soon, leaving everything buried beneath the lake for all eternity.

• • •

Darkness had long since fallen, though the sky full of stars seemed gloriously bright after the lightless confines of the cave. In Temi’s hands, the sword had made short work of the boulder blocking the tunnel exit, but it wasn’t until we were walking alongside the lake that some of the tension ebbed from my neck and shoulders. Partially because of the darkness and partially because Simon had lost one of his sandals in the chaos, we’d decided to forgo midnight rock climbing and leave the kayaks to be found by daylight. The going was still rough, since we were following the shoreline and avoiding the trail, lest booby traps remained, but it was navigable by the starlight—and the silvery glow of the sword. The glow wasn’t as profound as it had been when Jakatra had held the weapon, but it was more significant than when the Spartan had gripped it. I wondered if magic swords were offended when people used them as canes. Judging by the sweat bathing Temi’s face, she’d tortured her leg far more tonight than she had in a long time. My own throbbing leg wouldn’t mind a cane of its own. Dry clothing would have been nice too. And a jacket. The crisp air promised frost.

The hoots of an owl drifted across the lake from the wetlands. I hoped that meant the monster was indeed drowned and buried, even if Simon would doubtlessly complain that he hadn’t had an opportunity to prop a foot on the body and have his picture taken with it.

“It’s so peaceful out here,” Temi said. “It’s hard to believe…” She waved at the granite formations behind us, their lumpy contours black against the starry horizon.

“Except for the fact that even in the dark you can tell the water level has dropped a good foot.” I nodded toward the gently lapping waves. “I bet those caverns have been completely filled in already. We’re lucky we got out, given how much someone delayed us.” I cleared my throat and pinned Simon with a stare.

“What?” he asked innocently. “Don’t act like I’m the only one in the world who would stop to scrape gold flakes out of a lucrative vein, especially when someone in the group is carrying a sword that cuts through rock slicker than a fork chops Jell-O.”

“It wasn’t
quite
that easy,” Temi murmured.

“That is city land. You know the rules about excavations,” I told Simon, though I was just giving him a hard time. After all, I’d been the one to suggest digging a few ounces out earlier.

“Hey, we need to recoup our expenses. That Greek beefcake swiped my tablet, and you and Temi are going to need stitches. And let’s not forget the van repairs I put on my credit card. I think the city owes us a few ounces of gold for our trouble, especially if that creature ends up being dead and doesn’t eat any other tourists. Besides, it wasn’t like we were going to be able to come back later. Did you hear that final boom?”

Temi smiled at me. “It’s hard to argue with that logic, isn’t it?”

“That
logic
will either get my debt paid off or it’ll land me in jail. I haven’t figured out which yet.”

“It’ll be interesting to follow along and see which of the two it is,” she said.

“You say that now, but he’s perfectly capable of landing you in jail too.”

“You ladies need to have more faith in me,” Simon said. “I practically saved your lives down there.”

“You saved our lives?” I stopped in the middle of a swath of waist-high grass. “Temi, did you notice him doing that?”

“I suppose he helped with the rope for both of us.”

“Hm, from my point of view, his role seemed more… decorative.”

“Decorative?” Simon lifted his chin. “No, no, I’m the mastermind, you see. I assigned the grunt work to you two ladies, since you’re so capable of doing it.”

“Uh huh. Tell me this, Simon.” I pointed at his feet. “Is it difficult to be a mastermind when you’re only wearing one sandal?”

“Not at all. Masterminds don’t use their feet very often. Though I do wonder when it fell off. I kept it all through that swimming jag. Think the monster ate it?”

“Those of us who are clad in
appropriate
footwear can only imagine,” I said.

“Indeed,” Temi murmured.

“Oh, well. I’ll buy better sandals next time. Perhaps something with leather instead of rubber.”

“Careful,” I said. “I’m not sure our business can afford such largess yet.”

It took us an hour and a detour through the wetlands around the end of the lake before we drew close to the parking lot, a parking lot unexpectedly bright with headlights and flashlights. I couldn’t tell who they belonged to, but the Jaguar was in the middle of things.

“Is that the police?” Temi asked.

“Not the police.” Simon pointed. “Those are Humvees.”

“Uh.” I stopped on the trail. “Who wants to go tell those nice National Guard folks that the fun is over and they can go back to their units?”

Simon bumped Temi’s arm. “Put out the sword, or they’ll see us.”

“I don’t know how.”

“Drop it,” Simon said at the same time as I grabbed it from her.

The glow disappeared as soon as it left her hand, but a flashlight from the parking lot swept across me, then came back, shining in my eyes. An urge to flee filled my legs, but that would make us look guilty, and those fit men in boots and camouflage could surely outrun a guy in socks and two girls with injured legs.

“You out there,” a man with a deep voice called. “Come here. Slowly. And keep your hands up.”

Simon and Temi lifted their hands. I couldn’t do that without lifting the sword too. How were we going to explain it? Worse, if they searched us, how were we going to explain the gold in Simon’s pocket? It didn’t look like much in its ore form, but I couldn’t count on them not knowing what it was. They’d think we’d stolen it or mugged someone out here, or who knew what?

“You too, lady,” the man growled. “Hands up.” Several more men and a couple of women had joined him at the edge of the parking lot. At least nobody was pointing guns at us yet, though they all had them…

I thought about tossing the sword in the lake, but there were too many flashlights shining on us. Everyone would see it. Sighing, I lifted the weapon along with my hands.

Temi went first down the trail. Maybe they’d see her limp and feel some sympathy for us. I was doing a pretty good limp of my own right now, though I couldn’t imagine these guys giving us the friendly treatment and escorting us to the hospital.

“…that a sword?” someone asked.

“Yes, do we…”

“Just some dumb kids.”

Yes, dumb kids, that was us. And it seemed like a promising angle to play up. These people were out here searching for monsters, so maybe they’d wave us away…

“What are you guys doing out here?” the original speaker asked when we were standing on the pavement a few paces from them. It was too dark to read his nametag, with all the lights being shone on us instead of the other way around, but I figured he was a sergeant, since he was older than the ones holding the flashlights and seemed to be in charge.

“We were going to camp,” I said, “but it got too cold, so we’re going home.”

“Yes, I imagine it’s quite cold when you’re soaking wet,” the sergeant said, lifting bushy black eyebrows.

A shame that jeans didn’t dry very fast…

“Yeah,” I said when neither Simon or Temi spoke. “We fell in.” That might have been a plausible excuse if we were ten, but I doubted they’d buy it.
Maybe
if they knew we’d been in kayaks, but considering how we’d illegally obtained them—and then left them on the other side of the lake—I wasn’t going to bring them up.

“You kids know there’s a curfew in Prescott?”

“No, we just got here. We’ve been on a road trip.” I pointed to the Jag. “From New Mexico.” At least the plates backed up the out-of-state claim. “We heard there’s nice camping in the mountains around here.”

The men exchanged looks. Maybe I shouldn’t have added that, not when the White Spar had been so recently devastated.

“You brought a sword?” the sergeant asked. “And a whip.”

“You guys have guns,” Simon pointed out.

Leave it to him to stay silent until he could say something lippy. I would have elbowed him if I wasn’t still holding my hands up.

“The woods are dangerous,” I said. “There are badgers and rattlesnakes and things.”

One of the younger men was squinting at Temi, and I had a feeling she was about to be recognized. I wasn’t sure whether it’d help us or not.

“Should we take them to the police, Sergeant?” someone asked from one of the Humvees.

“I know that kid.” The younger man pointed, not at Temi but at Simon. “He’s the one with the blog.”

Oh, hell.

Other men started nodding and saying, “Oh,
them
,” to each other. I tried to decide if that tone of voice suggested we wouldn’t be taken to the police or that they were more likely than ever to drop us in Lieutenant Gutierrez’s lap tonight.

The sergeant and the young man who’d identified Simon stepped away and shared a quick conversation of whispers. I caught Temi eyeing her car. At some point, she’d lowered her hands and slipped out her keys. We’d have a much better chance of outrunning soldiers in a Jag than on foot, but someone would get the license number, if they hadn’t already. When she met my eyes, I gave a quick head shake. I wasn’t ready to start a life of fleeing from the law. Chances were it wouldn’t be nearly as glamorous as it was in the movies, and even if I was on the lam in Bolivia, I’d probably
still
be expected to pay my student loans.