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?”