“That’s my feeling as well,” Maddock said. He turned to Miranda. “Is it my turn again?”
She scowled at him, and then answered with action rather than words, raising her foot above the obsidian blades.
As soon as she transferred her weight onto that foot, there was another loud click, and another section of blades, about five yards long, retreated into the floor. Simultaneously, the blades in the cleared section they had not chosen, shot out of the floor. There was one other change, which Angel noticed first. “The guidestone is gone.”
Maddock turned his head to look and saw that the golden plate had indeed disappeared, but even as he was processing this news, Bones called out. “Found it. Right there.”
The guidestone — or more likely a second one exactly like the first — now shone out from a different wall, almost perpendicular to the newly cleared section.
“There’s our answer,” Maddock said. “Go where the guide dog is looking.”
“Unless it’s some kind of trick,” Bones said. “What if they change the rules halfway through the game?”
“The Death Lords were cruel,” Bell said, “but not particularly devious. The tests described in the Popol Vuh were rather simplistic. Of course,” he finished, “Anything is possible.”
“Way to inspire confidence, doc,” Bones grumbled, but he pushed past Maddock and Miranda, oriented himself away from the newly revealed guidestone, and stepped out onto the blades….
Which promptly vanished, along with the golden plate that had shown the way.
They proceeded cautiously, following the gaze of each new guidestone as it was revealed. As they moved through the maze of blades, the temperature dropped noticeably until it was chilly enough to raise gooseflesh on their arms. The frigid air was issuing from one of the doors, which not surprisingly, was exactly where the guidestones seemed to be leading them.
“This must be Shivering House,” Bell said as they reached the doorway. His speech was abrupt, clipped, as if he was having trouble breathing again. “Also called Cold House.”
“You think?” Bones said, grimacing. “Feels like being in a meat locker.”
“What did you expect from something called ‘Cold House’?” Miranda said.
“I figured it would just be chilly and damp. You know, like a cave.”
“As much as I hate to admit it,” Angel began, “my brother’s got a point. That’s not a natural cave-y cold in there. If feels like… well, a meat locker.”
Maddock sniffed the air. He earlier noticed a faint chemical odor, like cleaning fluid. It was stronger now; strong enough that even a mere whiff of it made him cringe. “That smell. Ammonia. It’s a natural refrigerant.”
“Natural?” Angel sniffed and then winced. “You’re kidding, right?”
“It’s true,” Miranda said. “Ammonia is a naturally occurring organic nitrogen-hydrogen compound. It was a very low boiling point, several degrees below zero, but at certain pressures it stays in a liquid state, acting as a very efficient refrigerant.”
“You’re a chemistry expert now?” Bones remarked.
“I know a lot about explosives,” she replied, for once without a trace of sarcasm in her voice. “Especially ammonium nitrate, which is made from, among other things, guano. Like you find in caves sometimes. But figuring out how to use it to chill the air… ” She shook her head. “We didn’t figure that out until the 19th century.”
“You were saying something about ancient technology?” Bones said. “I keep hearing about how advanced the Maya were. They could have come up with something like this. Especially if they had some help from—”
“Don’t say it,” Angel pleaded. She hugged her arms to her chest. “There’s a Hot House, too, right? Sooner we get through this, the sooner we can warm up. Let’s save the wild speculation for later, okay?”
“Sounds good to me,” Maddock said. He turned to Bell. “Any helpful hints from the Popol Vuh?”
“The Cold House is described as a place of unimaginable cold, with rattling hail. As far as how to survive it goes, I’m afraid all it says is that the Twins dissipated the cold. It doesn’t say how.”
Maddock took a cautious step through the doorway and onto a ledge about four feet wide that ran parallel to the wall behind him. Directly ahead, the floor fell away at a forty-five-degree angle, sloping down into a hazy fog that completely shrouded the lower reaches of the cavern. The ceiling overhead was thick with a forest of dangling protrusions — icicles of frozen water that had formed atop mineral stalactites. The ledge, like the stalactites, was covered in a thin layer of ice.
“Well, I don’t know about hail,” Maddock said as the others filed in behind him, “but it’s definitely going to be cold. There’s nowhere to go but down, into that.”
He pointed down the slope and immediately felt his foot start to slide. He threw his hands out, flailing to arrest his fall. Bones’ caught him before he could hit the icy floor or pitch headlong down the slope, but not quite soon enough to preserve his dignity.
“Slippery,” was all he could think to say.
Angel edged close to the precipice and shone her light down, sweeping it back and forth across the slope. She trained the beam on one spot about ten yards to their right and few feet down. “That looks like a paw print. Maybe that’s the direction we should go.”
“Once we start down that slope, there’s no stopping,” Bones said. “How are we supposed to get down there without getting ourselves killed?”
Maddock straightened. “I’d say, very carefully.”
CHAPTER 29
Crossing the still warm cooking stone reminded Alex of the firewalk he had done, except this time, the potential reward wasn’t just some abstract sense of accomplishment or empowerment. When this was done, he was going to literally change the world.
He felt an almost overpowering urge to keep moving.
“This is Dark House,” Carina said as he stepped down onto the floor of the cavern.
“Well, that’s a clever name,” he retorted. He played his light across the pitted floor of the chamber. “Who would have expected a cave to be dark? Oh, wait. We did. That’s why we brought flashlights.”
“Your lights won’t help you find a way through the darkness,” Isabella said. There was still a hint of contempt in her tone, but Alex thought she mostly just sounded beaten.
“I suppose you’re the only one who can guide us?”
Carina spoke quickly. “We don’t need her. I learned the same stories she did. I know what we have to do. We must trust the darkness.” She stared at Isabella, as if looking for confirmation. The latter raised an eyebrow but said nothing. “Turn off your lights. All of you. In a few minutes, the path will be revealed.”
“That sounds like a really lame idea,” Alex replied. He turned to Isabella. “If she’s right about that, then we probably don’t need you anymore.”
Isabella shrugged. “Do as you will.”
Alex laughed. “All right, then. Lights out, everyone.”
He maintained his confident façade right up until the moment the last light winked out. The darkness was like nothing he had ever experienced before, a void so ominous that he almost dropped to his knees to avoid falling.
This was much, much worse than dancing across hot coals.
“Carina,” he sang out, unable to completely mask the quaver in his voice. “How are we coming on that path?”
“Patience,” came the hissed reply.
“Not my strongest personality trait.” As he said it, he thought he heard a muffled grunt in the darkness. Cold adrenaline dumped into his veins, and for an instant, he could see monstrous shapes emerging from the absolute darkness.