“Oh, Matt! I do! I do!” She rocked forward and threw her arms around his neck. “I’m so sorry! I’m so, so sorry! If I had been a decent sister—”
“What’s done is done.” He grasped her wrists and gently pushed her back. “It’s time to stop the bleeding.” He turned her palms up and set her hands on her lap. “Will you trust me?”
She nodded. Tears dripped to her cheeks. “Do whatever you need to do.”
Matt laid his palms over hers and pressed down. His skin heated up. Darcy grimaced but stayed quiet. Soon, she began humming a familiar melody.
“‘Amazing Grace,’” Matt said.
She stopped. “Is that all right?”
“Perfect. Keep it up.”
Smiling, she continued humming, this time louder. As the tune echoed in the tiny chamber, Matt added words. “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.” His throat caught. He couldn’t force out another word. But that was all right. He had said all he needed to say.
After a few minutes, Matt lifted his hands. Red stripes still crossed Darcy’s palms. “Maybe a little more—”
“No, Dr. Bannister. I’m fine. Look.” She brushed her hands together. Dried blood crumbled and drizzled to her lap. “You healed me.”
He glanced at his own palms. The cuts, shallower than Darcy’s, had also healed.
“Thank you.” She grabbed his shirt, pulled him close, and kissed him tenderly on the cheek. “I hope that’s enough payment. I don’t have any money.”
He smiled. “A sister’s kiss is worth a lot more than money.”
“Speaking of sisters . . .” Darcy nodded at Lauren. “Have you rested enough?”
“Right.” Matt picked up the flashlight and fastened it to his belt loop. “We have to get out of here.”
Chapter 24
THE BOTTOM OF THE ABYSS
Darcy helped Matt refasten Lauren to his back. When they finished, they pushed against the closed “drawbridge.” With each thrust, the lip budged a few inches, allowing Matt to set a foot higher on the incline and push again. Soon, they were able to crawl up the slope, and their combined weights eased the projection down.
When it settled to its horizontal position, Matt rose and stepped to the edge. Above, no one appeared at the top of the pit. The sounds of battle had ceased, but who won? How many survived?
He shouted, “Can anyone hear me?” His words echoed once, then faded. “Hello? Dad? Walter?”
Only the whoosh of the breeze replied.
Matt picked up the rope and studied the sheer wall and the distance to the top—much too far to climb or toss a loop, especially with no one to catch it. “Looks like we’re stuck.”
A car horn blared a short burst—once, twice, three times, then three longer bursts, then three short ones again. After a brief rest, it repeated the same pattern.
“That’s an SOS in Morse code,” Matt said.
“Must be Thomas and Mariel,” Darcy said. “Maybe the drones are still around and Mariel’s calling for help. They’re afraid to get out of the car.”
“Can’t blame them for that. But if we could contact them, they might be able to find another rope and haul us out with the Mustang.”
“No use wishing for two old folks to face those drones.” Darcy shuddered. “I guess that sign on the door really meant what it said.”
“Abandon all hope ye who enter here? It’s from Dante’s Inferno.”
She nodded. “I’ve read it.”
Matt looked at their little cave. “I didn’t search for a way out the back side. It looked too low and narrow to get through, especially with Lauren on my back.”
Darcy shrugged. “Can’t hurt to look. This opening has to be here for some reason.”
“If we move, this door will close, but I guess we can open it again.” After retreating into the cave and removing Lauren from his back, Matt dropped to hands and knees and crawled deeper in. Although the ceiling angled lower, enough room remained for a belly crawl. Far away at the end of a dark tunnel, a glow flickered, dim but very real.
“I see a light.” He crawled back and sat with Darcy. “I’ll have to go first and drag Lauren after me. You can follow behind her and make sure she doesn’t catch on anything and nothing scrapes her head and face.”
“Will do.”
For the next couple of minutes, Matt and Darcy tied the rope to Lauren’s harness and legs, then tested it to make sure it would drag her feet first in a straight line. When they finished, Matt pumped his elbows in a crawling motion. “Just watch what I do and copy me.”
Darcy nodded. “I get the picture. Go ahead.”
“I’ll give the line a sharp tug when I get to the end.” Holding the rope in one hand, he squirmed into the tunnel. As the passage tightened, he lowered himself to his stomach and slithered through. Of course he had done this a hundred times in training, but never after the kind of torture he had just suffered. And Darcy? She had suffered far worse, and she probably never army crawled in her life. This wouldn’t be easy for her.
With every elbow push and leg thrust, the glow drew closer and brighter. After another minute, he pushed his head into a larger chamber, dimly lit by a lantern sitting on a flat-topped boulder, too dim to give away the dimensions of the room or any other details.
Extending his arms, he crawled down the wall about four feet until his hands touched the floor and his legs cleared the hole. He then climbed upright and picked up the lantern by a handle on top. It squeaked loudly, apparently rusted at the hinge where the handle pivoted.
The lantern cast an undulating glow on uneven stone, from a ceiling just over his head to the side walls—bare rock except for the hole he had come through. In the direction opposite the hole, the chamber led into darkness.
Matt set the lantern near the tunnel and jerked on the rope. A reply tug jerked back. Grabbing the rope with both hands, he locked his elbows and walked slowly backwards. He stopped at times while Darcy freed Lauren from a snag, but she glided smoothly for the most part. After a few minutes, Lauren’s feet appeared.
Matt dropped the rope and grabbed her ankles. He pulled, grasping higher on her clothes as she inched forward. Finally, her head came into view. He slid his arms under hers, lifted her out, and laid her on the ground.
One second later, Darcy’s head emerged. Matt helped her crawl the rest of the way until she stood.
“Any problems?” he asked.
“Not too many.” She brushed off her clothes and examined a scrape on her elbow. “I donated a little more blood for the cause, but I’m all right.”
She teetered to the side. Matt caught her arm and pulled her upright. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Just a dizzy spell. I’m probably dehydrated.”
“Let me check something.” He picked up the lantern and held it close to her neck. Although sweaty and smeared with dirt, her skin seemed free of injury. He pulled her collar down in the back, revealing twin puncture wounds, red and raw. His throat tightened, but he kept his voice calm. “Looks like a drone bit you.”
Darcy covered the wound with her hand. “I thought I felt something.”
“Maybe it didn’t inject any venom. I mean, it’s been a while. It probably is dehydration. We’ve been sweating like crazy.”
She massaged the wound. Her skeptical expression gave away her doubts, but she said nothing.
“I can try to heal you, but when I worked on my mother’s bullet wound, I had to push my fingers deep into the damaged tissue. I can’t heal what I can’t touch.”
“And venom flows all through my bloodstream, so . . .” Darcy’s voice trailed off.
“Yeah. It’s a long shot. But I have to try.” Matt set the lantern down and laid a palm over the two holes. As before, his skin warmed, as did hers, though not painfully so. Soon, the heat faded, and he lifted his hand. The two holes had sealed, leaving only pinhead-sized abrasions. “The bite looks a lot better.”
“Great. Let’s hope for no venom.” She lifted his hand and kissed his knuckles. “Thank you again.”
“You’re welcome.” He unclipped the flashlight from his belt loop. “I guess we’d better see where this room leads.”
She pointed at the lantern. “You can take that and save your batteries.”
“Whoever left it here might want it back.” He turned on the flashlight and pointed the beam into the darkness. “Abaddon mentioned that I need to get past some guardians, and I don’t want to make any of them mad.”
Another squeak emanated from the lantern, then words. “Do you know Abaddon, young man?” The flame flickered in time with the speaker’s cadence, and its voice crackled, more masculine than feminine.
Matt looked at Darcy. She gave him an I-have-no-idea kind of shrug.
“I do. We both do.” Matt crouched near the lantern and searched the curved glass for a face, but no eyes or mouth appeared, just a wavering, two-inch flame. “Who are you?”
“I have no name.” The flame popped and sizzled. “I am a humble guardian in service to Abaddon.”
“Do you just sit here in this chamber all the time, or are you mobile?”
“I am as mobile as the one who wishes to carry me. Otherwise I stay here to guard this access point.”
“Guard it? How can a lantern guard this place? Anyone could just walk right past you.”
“So you think.” The flame shot through the top of the glass to the ceiling. Eight fiery appendages stretched out and created a mesh that blocked the way deeper into the chamber.
Matt straightened and backed away. “Okay. I get the picture.”
The flame shrank until it returned to its original size. “Since you know Abaddon, you may proceed, but you should carry me so that I can give you further instructions soon.”
“Just a minute.” Matt dropped to his side next to Lauren and, with Darcy’s help, put the harness back on. When they had refastened everything, he climbed to his feet, Lauren again on his back.
The flame crackled. “Is the girl on your back dead?”
Matt nodded. “She died just a little while ago.”
“Collecting dead people is a strange hobby.”
“No, I don’t collect dead people. We came here to resurrect her.”
The flame curled as if forming a question mark. “Do you know how?”
“Not exactly. I have some instructions from someone who’s been here. I know about Abaddon’s book and the eggs.”
“That will not be enough, but if you will carry me, I will show you the way.”
Matt reclipped the flashlight and began gathering his towline. “We’d better hurry.”
When he and Darcy finished looping the rope, Darcy slid her arm into the coil and carried it on her shoulder. Matt picked up the lantern. “Now what?”
The flame grew until a slender flickering protrusion rose out of the glass and pointed into the darkness ahead. “That way.”
As they walked, the lantern’s glow slowly shrank back into the glass, though it still illuminated the passage—nothing but a tunnel of rock with a dark recess here and there. If any of those alcoves led anywhere important, this guardian didn’t seem interested in mentioning them.
After a few moments, Matt spoke to the flame. “Is there a way to the surface? We have to check on our friends.”
“That is a strange question.”
“Why?”
“You just arrived, and you cannot resurrect the girl at the surface.”
“Right, but . . .” Matt suppressed an exasperated sigh. How could he recount everything that led up to their arrival? Maybe something short would do. “We . . . uh . . . I guess you could say we fell.”
The flame curled again. “With a rope and a dead girl?”
“It’s kind of hard to explain.”
“You need not explain, for it is none of my business, but I will again warn you that no resurrection is possible at the surface.”
When they neared a fork in the tunnel, the lantern’s flame hissed. “Stop here.”
A pair of five-foot-wide passages with head-high arches angled away to each side. The passage on the left sloped downward, and the one on the right ascended.
The fiery arm lifted from the glass again and pointed to the right. “That way is certain death.” It then shifted to the left. “That way . . .” The flame crackled. “Maybe you will survive, but your chances are low with the burden you carry. Still, it is the only way to resurrection.”
“But does one of them lead to the surface?”
“Perhaps this one.” The pointer indicated the right-hand passage again. “A predator lives there. No one who has ever gone that way has survived to tell me where it leads, but I have heard screams of terror and crunching bones, so I recommend avoiding it.”
“Is there a safe way to the surface that you know about anywhere? We’re willing to travel a long distance.”
The flame shrank and quivered. “If you are willing to travel straight up, then you may ascend the walls of the abyss. That is the only way I know. But if you do, leave me here. I am not foolish enough to want to go.”
“We can’t climb. Especially not with Lauren on my back.”
The little flame seemed to nod. “The abyss is likely far more dangerous than is the predator.”
Matt glanced at the knife still sheathed at Darcy’s hip. That wouldn’t be enough unless this lantern really didn’t know what it was talking about. It obviously had never been in that passage to see what lay within. “Have you heard the predator recently?”
“No. I have not heard it in a very long time. Few explorers travel through here.”
“Matt,” Darcy said, “we don’t even know if it’s possible to get to the surface, so it doesn’t make sense to face a dangerous predator. Besides, you came here to find a way to resurrect Lauren. You were going to leave everyone behind anyway without knowing what would happen to them. Mariel and Thomas are smart. They’ll figure out what to do.”
“Blaring an SOS in the middle of nowhere isn’t exactly my idea of a good strategy.” Matt turned on his flashlight and aimed it into the predator’s tunnel. Leaving that mystery unsolved felt like abandoning a fellow soldier on a battlefield, but it would be stupid to fight a battle that had no clear benefit. They had to help Lauren.
“You’re right.” He nodded at the lantern. “Thanks for the advice.”
“Just do not curse me when you face the dangers. I leave you to your journey. But first, kindly return me to where you found me. I sense that something is happening there that I must attend to.”
“I’ll be right back.” With the lantern in hand, Matt jogged to the tunnel site. He waved it from side to side, scanning the walls. No hole appeared. “Where is our tunnel? Did I take a wrong turn somehow?”
“We are in the right place,” the flame said, sizzling more than ever. “I feared this outcome. Since Abaddon departed with his destroyers, all accesses to this domain are closing. My responsibilities have ceased to be.”
Matt set the lantern down. “What will you do?”
“I will also cease to be.” The flame withered. “I am a servant without a soul. I have completed my duties, and now I will disperse and be no more.”
The flame shrank and winked out. Matt cast the flashlight beam on the lantern. Cracks ran along the glass and metallic fuel holder. Then, it crumbled to dust. Liquid spilled and sank into the stone.
Matt exhaled. What a bizarre ending to a guardian’s existence, but there was no time to dwell on it, especially if accesses were closing.
A pebble dropped from the ceiling. He pointed the flashlight upward. Above, a jagged crack ran along the stone. As one end of the crack slowly crawled toward a side wall, the gap widened. More pebbles fell, along with sand and grit.
Matt turned and hustled back, his flashlight darting from floor to ceiling to walls. The stone seemed stable here. No use telling Darcy about the lantern or
the closing accesses. Why spread fear? All they could do was keep moving forward.
When he rejoined her, he aimed the light into the left-hand tunnel. “We’d better get going.”
After shifting Lauren’s body to a more comfortable position, he ducked under the arch and followed the beam into the passage.
Darcy stayed close behind. “Matt, I didn’t want to say anything while that guardian was around, and it might not be important, but . . .” During the pause, her words echoed in the darkness.
“Go ahead.” Matt waved the light back and forth, illuminating the narrowing rocky passage, now about four feet wide. “It doesn’t look like anyone’s around to hear you.”
“I’m worried about the drone bite. I’m getting dizzier, and I’m not thinking straight.”
Matt stopped and shone the light on her chest, close enough to illuminate her pallid face. No cracking sounds emanated from walls or ceiling. Maybe it would be safe to pause for a moment. “Your thinking was pretty sharp just a minute ago.”
“I get flashes. Sometimes I feel like a genius and then I’m in a fog, like my brain is on a roller coaster.”
“Well, I want to heal you, but like I said before, I can’t heal what I can’t touch, and my power can’t go inside a person unless I have a source of energy poured over me, like dragon fire, but I have to be wearing something flame retardant.”
She looked at the harness on his back. “Like the cloak?”
“Right. I wore that when I healed a baby. Karrick blasted me with fire while I . . .” Matt’s mind drifted to the chamber where he left the lantern. He whispered, “The guardian’s flames.”
“I’ll get him. You wait here.” Darcy opened her hand. “I’ll need the light.”
He tightened his grip on the flashlight. “There’s something I didn’t tell you. When I took the lantern back, the tunnel we crawled through was gone. The lantern said accesses to this place are closing, and then he just crumbled and disappeared. Then the ceiling started cracking. I think the way we got here might collapse.”
“You mean this passage itself might be closing, like squeezing us out from a tube of toothpaste?”