“You two okay?” Simon asked from farther back than Temi.
I exhaled in relief. When I’d heard his cry, I hadn’t been sure he’d made it inside.
A deep rumbling snarl answered him.
“I wasn’t talking to you,” he said his voice sounding farther away.
I blinked slowly, realizing he’d turned around and was addressing the creature.
“Don’t get cheeky just because it can’t reach us for the moment,” I said. “We have to go out that way at some point.”
“I’m sure it can’t understand me,” Simon said.
Remembering the way the predator had targeted our headlights with its rocks, I wasn’t as certain. If someone had engineered it into existence, they could have made it bright and taught it to understand English too.
A hint of light returned to the tunnel. The monster must have moved away from the entrance.
I patted around, hunting for the fallen flashlight, but the effort was in vain. With that slope, it would have kept rolling until it hit a level spot. I imagined it plopping out of a cavern ceiling to land at Jakatra’s feet. Lovely way to announce our presence.
Shadows moved above me. A light winked to life, nearly blinding me. I raised my arm to block it and looked away.
“Sorry,” Simon said, turning the flashlight toward the wall, “but here’s your bow.” He leaned around Temi to hand it to me.
I accepted it, glad to have a weapon again. There wasn’t any room for anyone to pass anyone else, so I was stuck leading. Temi handed me her flashlight, and after conking my head on the ceiling a few times I gave up on crouching and crawling in favor of sliding down the slope.
In the distance, water dripped. Time oozed past as we continued downward. I shivered as the air grew chillier, or maybe it simply seemed chillier. All of the rock climbing had left my hair and clothing sweaty, and they clung unpleasantly to my cooling body.
“How deep did you say the cavern was?” I asked as we continued to scoot down the slope.
“About seventy-five feet,” Simon replied.
“Haven’t we gone that far yet?” It felt like we’d gone seven hundred.
“It’s possible our friends missed the target,” he said.
“If so, one would think they’d figure that out quickly, and that the tunnel would take a few hard rights or lefts, followed by a bunch of squiggly curves as they searched for the right spot.”
“Just because that’s how you drive through the Walmart parking lot doesn’t mean that’s how they’d drill their hole.”
Temi snorted.
“Ha ha,” I said, then didn’t speak for a while. The drips of water in the distance had turned to a steady trickle and sounded closer.
I scooted down the slope faster. It sounded like there was going to be a cave down here. It wasn’t that I’d doubted Simon exactly… but I’d been skeptical of some undiscovered grotto so close to town.
The light played across something metal up ahead. I tensed, but it was only the clip on the flashlight I’d lost. It lay on a flat stretch of stone in a tunnel that crossed ours, creating a T-intersection. The other passage was identical in size and shape to this one.
“Then again,” Simon said, “maybe they do drive their tunnel-maker the way you drive the van.”
I sat down in the intersection and waited for the others. I fought a jittery feeling of unease at the lowness of the ceiling and the knowledge that we couldn’t stand and run if we needed to. We’d have to crawl out the same way we’d come down, except much more effort would be required for ascent.
“How’s your knee?” I asked Temi. “Regretting your choice to join us for this foray into the underworld?”
She was also taking the opportunity to sit, her legs stretched out to one side. “Given that the monster can’t get down here, I’d rather be here than waiting up by the kayaks. Though perhaps a hotel in a far away city would be acceptable as well.” She adjusted her leg and grimaced at some stab of pain or another. “A hotel with a masseur. And a hot tub.”
Simon, hunkered behind her, blinking a few times at whatever images her words conjured in his mind. I widened my eyes at him. I still didn’t think he had a chance, but he might never get a better straight line for offering her a massage. He opened his mouth to speak, then closed it, his shoulders slumping. Temi was rubbing her knee and didn’t notice.
“Shall we split up?” I asked. “Or check both sides together?”
“I feel that this would be the appropriate time to pursue group activities and bond as a team,” Temi said.
“Enh, the monster is stuck outside,” Simon said, “and I don’t really think Eleriss and Jakatra will kill us at this point. There shouldn’t be anything down here to bug us. I’ll check to the right, and you girls can go left. One’s probably a dead end anyway.”
He crawled off in his chosen direction before we could object. He was probably right, so my only objection was to his stupidity when it came to women. Temi had massages on her mind and wanted to stick together, so what was he doing? Fleeing in the other direction.
“Except whatever they’re looking for,” Temi murmured.
“What?” I asked, not certain I’d understood.
“He said there wasn’t anything down here to bug us, but we don’t know what those two are looking for.”
“Oh,” I said, imagining ancient weapons and booby traps. I was almost tempted to crawl after Simon, but even if we both had tendencies toward rashness, I thought he was smart enough to avoid some centuries-old land mine. “I’m sure he’ll be fine.”
I glanced at Temi, wondering if I might catch her gazing back with concern for Simon, but after a pause, she nodded and waved for me to lead the way.
Without the slope to aid us, we didn’t advance as quickly. I kept the flashlight trained on the passage ahead of us, and it gradually curved to the right. That was it for variations in the scenery. The tunnel otherwise remained the same perfect circle. I guessed Eleriss and Jakatra had run into some particularly hard stone or a terrain feature they’d had to go around.
It was still chilly down here-even if they’d burned through the rock to make the tunnels, the walls had since cooled-but traveling horizontally took more effort, and I had to pause a few times to wipe sweat out of my eyes. It occurred to me that with the only exit guarded, we were stuck down here until the riders left with their sword, and the monster took off after them. If something happened to them, and they didn’t-or couldn’t-leave, how long would that creature wait out there? We had no chance of outrunning it on foot, or in kayaks, not when it could cover ground as rapidly as our van.
I wiped my eyes again. I needed to stop thinking about this stuff.
“Can I ask you a question?” I asked to distract myself-and because it’d grown apparent that the tunnel would go on for a while.
“Yes,” Temi said.
“Why didn’t you ever email or write home after you left?”
Out of all the things I could have brought up, I don’t know why I chose that. Maybe it was one of those things, like putting one’s will in order. I wanted it resolved… just in case. Besides, I’d keep feeling awkward when I was alone with her until I knew what she thought about back then.
After a long moment, Temi said, “My parting with my parents was so… uncomfortable that it soured me on everything back home. I didn’t keep in touch with anyone.”
So because her parents had been jerks about her dreams, she’d decided to ignore her best friend for the next ten years? It sounded like a half-truth. Maybe I should have let it go, but I wanted to clear the air. Somehow it seemed easier here, where I didn’t have to look her in the eye because I was busy crawling down a tunnel. I wondered if that made me strange.