I wagged my tail, sending my laughter into his mind.
“Time for the main feature.” Connor was standing beside us. He looked at Shay. “I think you’ll need your hands for this.”
Guess the fun’s over. Shay licked my jaw and I laughed again.
Fun?
Of course. You didn’t have fun?
He was still watching me when he shifted into human form. I rested my chin against his palm, licking his fingers. Fighting with Shay at my side was more than fun. It was everything.
SEVEN
“SO THIS IS TORDIS,” Shay murmured as if we’d entered a holy place.
Haldis had always been imposing. Its maw-like opening acted as a warning, never inviting exploration. Tordis couldn’t have been more different. The claustrophobia-inducing, dark passageway into the mountain kept a secret carved into the silver-blue glacial wall before us. A secret that might have been the most exquisite place I’d ever seen. The ice-filled cavern wasn’t just beautiful, it was breathtaking. Each frost-covered surface captured light, reflecting it back into the space. The tunnel was bright, covered by a glimmering net of sunbeams, delicate as lace but far more captivating to the eye. The dancing web of light was broken only by a small, dark opening on the far side of the cavern.
Shay pointed at the crawl space. “Looks like that’s where we’re headed.”
“How do you know?” Ethan asked.
“Haldis was in an antechamber off the main cavern,” Shay said. “I’m guessing Tordis is the same.”
“Fair enough,” Connor said, despite Ethan’s deepening frown. “Let’s go.”
I lifted my muzzle, opening my jaws to let the frigid air slide over my tongue. Nothing. No alarming scents. No off-putting tastes that might alert me to danger.
Shay was watching me. “Any sign of mutant spiders, Cal?”
I barked and wagged my tail.
He frowned. “Really? Are you sure?”
It does seem awfully appealing for a Keeper lair. Sabine’s voice carried an edge.
I know. I glanced at her, then back at the cave. But I can’t pick up anything.
So what now? Mason asked, pawing at the ice.
We keep going. I trotted forward.
“I don’t like it,” I heard Ethan grumbling. “Something’s in here. It has to be.”
“Yeah…” Connor drew a long breath. “But if there’s no creature feature waiting…”
I twisted my neck around, impatient with their hesitation. I wanted to get Tordis and get the hell out of here. If the Keepers hadn’t left something hideous to guard this place, it was my best guess that our arrival had triggered some sort of alarm and soon this place would be swarming with nasties. Just like when we’d rescued my packmates from the dungeon below Eden. But in Tordis, I couldn’t see or smell anything that signaled we weren’t alone. Other than the bear, I hadn’t spotted any sentinels or stone gargoyles hidden in the clefts of rock, waiting to alert their masters to our intrusion upon the sacred site. Even so, I didn’t want to linger here-the best strategy was for Shay to grab the piece of the Elemental Cross that was hidden here and for us to get back to the Academy as quickly as possible.
I was about to growl at my lagging companions when Connor’s eyes, which had been flicking around the tunnel, suddenly went wide.
“Calla, stop!”
My growl became a whimper as his warning came a second too late. My front right paw came down and met-nothing. There was no longer an ice-covered floor beneath me. Gravity and my own forward momentum propelled me into the empty space. A hole that I still couldn’t see, even as I was falling into it.
Even my hind legs desperately scrabbling against the ice proved useless. My body tumbled over the invisible ledge.
I howled, but my cry of terror became a squeal when pain jolted through my limbs, traveling from my tail and rocketing up my spine. I hung in the air, kicking and snarling.
“Damn it, girl!” Ethan shouted. “Hold still.”
It finally registered that I wasn’t falling. The pain had resulted from Ethan catching me… by the tail.
My heart was pounding, my pulse deafening as it roared through my veins. Even as Ethan pulled me back up, each moment agony when he tugged on fur and tendons, I still couldn’t see where the floor had ended and the hole began.
And then I was back over the ledge. My weight collapsed against the frosted stone of the cavern floor. Ethan released my tail and dropped down, resting on his heels as he let out a huge breath.
I scrambled up, snapping my teeth at him.
“What the hell?” He glared at me.
Shifting forms, I returned his ferocious stare. “That was my tail.”
“Well, sorry,” Ethan said. “I guess I should have let you fall.”
I stared at him; an abashed smile finally won out over my humiliation.
Ethan shook his head, laughing. “Some thanks.”
“Yeah,” I said, knowing I should offer him a real apology, but my butt still hurt. “I guess I owe you.”
Connor scanned the cavern, eyes narrowed. “’Twas beauty killed the beast.”
“What?” I frowned.
“The cave.” Shay followed his gaze, shaking his head in frustration. “It’s the death trap. That’s why there’s no mutant spider.”
“Fascinating.” The scratch of Silas’s pencil on paper echoed in the cavern.
Connor glared at him. “You know, this would go a lot better if you didn’t talk.”
Silas ignored him, lost in his furious note taking. He inched up near the invisible lip of the pit, trying to peer into its depths. “Impressive.”
Ethan set off another flare, tossing it into the space where I’d fallen. For the briefest moment I could just barely make out the shape of the abyss. A perfect circle, probably four feet in diameter. The flare fell and fell and fell. Its red gleam finally disappeared, but there was no sound of it hitting any surface. Just silence that settled into my bones, making me shudder.
“Oh God,” I whispered, trying to press back the vision of myself falling. I glanced at Ethan, swallowing hard.
He just nodded. He lit another flare, chucking it ten feet ahead of us. It bounced once on the ground and then it too disappeared into another invisible chasm.
“Damn it.”
He did it again. This time hurling the flare twenty feet beyond our group. It didn’t hit anything, vanishing from sight almost instantly.
Mason whined. He and Sabine circled me nervously, their fur brushing up against my skin.
“Fantastic,” Connor said, crouching down. He turned his head back and forth. “How are we supposed to get through?”
“How many crevasses do you think there are?” Shay asked.
“No way to know,” Ethan said. “The flares hardly make out the holes. This cavern was built to trick the eye. Even with the change in light it’s tough to know how well we can mark them.”
“Let’s throw Silas in another one,” Connor said. “Maybe they aren’t all that deep.”
“Hey!” Silas moved away from the edge.
Shay took a knee next to Connor. “You guys brought ropes, carabiners, and pitons, right?”
“In case we had a climb in store,” Connor said. “You got a plan?”
Shay was already pulling the axes off his back. “I’ll have to climb, all right, but on my belly.”
“What do you mean you?” Ethan asked as Shay handed him an ax.
“How often do you guys climb?” Shay asked. He’d taken a rope from Connor and was looping it around his body.
“When we have to…,” Connor answered, his brow furrowing.
Shay grimaced. “That’s what I thought. That means I’m the most experienced. I’ll set the line.”