Beckon (21 page)

Chapter 38

Elina struggled against the ropes, but they were far too tight. Obviously these guys had done this before and knew the best ways to subdue and transport their prisoners. They had gagged her as well.

They carried her out of the cell and down into the darkness of the tunnel. There was no more lighting and no stairs carved beyond this point, so the two men moved slowly through the rough passage, lugging her between them. Vale stayed in the lead with the flashlight.

They carried her for nearly ten minutes, descending deeper into the cave until they came at last into a larger chamber. They set her down on the ground, a cold mixture of pebbles and mud. Elina watched her two bearers step back while Vale moved forward to a section of the wall where Elina could see what looked like wooden timbers. Another doorway built into the rock.

Vale picked up a large stone and pounded it against the wood. A dull, hollow thump rang out in the cavern. Then he stepped away. The other two men retreated even farther, taking cover behind a large rock.

At first nothing happened. And then came a long, low creak as the door swung open. Vale shut off his flashlight, plunging the entire chamber into blackness.

In the middle of the darkness, Elina saw two lights glowing. She peered more closely, her heart racing now. These weren't flashlights or torches she saw, but rather they emitted a soft, steady glow. Two orbs of pale-yellow light suspended in the darkness.

And yet Elina saw the lights were moving, floating closer until she could see they were in fact two lanterns of some sort, being carried by a pair of human figures walking toward them. It wasn't until they were much closer that Elina was able to determine what they looked like.

And then she wished she'd never seen them.

They were tall and gaunt and ghostly pale, their skin reflecting the light of their lanterns with an eerie luminescence. They moved with smooth, sure-footed strides through the dark cavern, naked except for the loincloths tied low around their hips. Their translucent white skin was covered with strange black markings, just as Jack had described. But in fact the N'watu were more terrifying by far than Elina had imagined from Jack's account.

Now she could see four of them, each one carrying a thick spear topped with a long, serrated tip that looked like it had been carved from some sort of bone or shell. And behind them, Elina spotted a diminutive shadow moving. Black against the darkness beyond.

The N'watu approached Elina and loomed over her with eerie, colorless eyes gazing down. Their skeletal faces were hideous—fierce and misshapen. If Carson hadn't stuffed the rag in her mouth and tied it there, Elina would have been screaming.

Then the fifth figure drew up behind them. The woman Jack had described, dressed in veils and dwarfed by her accompanying warriors, approached Elina. She bent down as if to inspect her, like a woman examining a cut of meat at a butcher shop. She hissed some muttered incantation over her, then straightened and faced Vale.

Vale bowed low in her presence. “Nun'dahbi.”

“Another outsider,” the woman's voice hissed. The sound was somewhat unnerving to Elina, at once beautiful and yet filled with venom.

“Yes,” Vale said. “She . . . she wandered into town—and she knew too much for us to let her go.”

“She will be missed. More will come searching.”

“No, Great Mother, they won't find anything,” Vale said. Elina could tell he was trying to exude confidence, but he looked nervous. “I'll make sure of it.”

“There were other intruders. You could not keep them away.”

Vale nodded in earnest. “We captured one of them, and the others are dead. They had discovered another entrance into the caves. A hidden entrance. But we will block that also so no one else will find it. Your home is still safe.”

Nun'dahbi paused. Elina could not see her face and so could not tell if she was satisfied with his assurances. “They are growing too numerous,” she said at last. “More and more they come.”

“Your home is safe, Nun'dahbi.”

“But for how long?”

Vale looked surprised. “I . . . I assure you,” he stammered, “we . . . we have everything under control.”

Nun'dahbi paused a moment—perhaps to let Vale stew in a bit of uncertainty, Elina thought. He might have been in charge up on the surface, but clearly he was the subordinate down here.

Then Nun'dahbi produced a vessel of some sort from the folds of her cloak and held it out in white, bony hands. It was a tall, dark-colored decanter that Elina could see held some sort of liquid. Vale bowed his head and reached forward to take the jar from her hands, but she clung to it a moment.

“Do not fail me.” Her tone was soft but strident.

Vale looked up sharply. “I . . . I have never failed you, Great Mother.”

The faceless veil issued a soft hiss, a sigh perhaps. Or perhaps it was a laugh. Elina couldn't be sure. But after a moment Nun'dahbi released the jar into his grasp.

“See that you don't.”

Then she turned away and with a brief gesture of her clawed fingers waved him off.

Vale skulked away, clutching the jar in both hands as two of the N'watu lifted Elina by the ropes and carried her through the doorway into the tunnel beyond. She could hear a heavy, wooden groan as the door swung shut behind her. Elina found her pulse racing as she struggled against the ropes.

They carried her through the passage. Elina could see one lantern ahead of her and one behind, both casting a pale glow against the jagged walls and ceiling.

Before long they came into an open space, a larger cavern. Situated about the chamber were dozens of lanterns like the ones the two warriors carried. Their glow lit the cave in a mesmerizing yellow light. Elina struggled to stay focused and aware of her surroundings. The room was about a hundred feet across and the floor was smooth and flat, almost artificially so. Not like a natural cavern. The walls as well were too straight to be natural formations, with openings cut into them leading perhaps into other rooms.

They came to the edge of a precipice that plunged into darkness. She glanced, wide-eyed, down at the abyss.

They moved along the edge of the pit until they came to a wide, stone slab and laid her on it. Elina noticed now that several other warriors had joined them, and she fought through her fear to try to count them. Nearly a dozen of them but still the woman, Nun'dahbi, was the only female Elina had seen.

She was lying on some sort of table in a large oval-shaped chamber. Recalling her training, Elina tried to get her bearings. In the middle of the chamber was the large, round pit. Elina guessed it was twenty or thirty feet across. And on the ledge she could see the outline of a large structure—a stone base supporting a thick log that extended out over the mouth of the pit.

Nun'dahbi strode into Elina's view, carrying a staff with beads and feathers dangling from the top. She swept it over Elina's body from head to foot and back again, muttering a gargled series of incantations. She motioned to some of the men standing around her, and they brought a few lanterns closer, setting them on the edges of the table. Another man brought a small wooden bowl, the size of a coffee cup, and set it beside Elina's head. She squirmed and rolled on the table, determined to make whatever procedure they might have planned as difficult for them as possible.

But apparently Nun'dahbi would have none of it. She hissed something at her men, and four of them stepped up to place their long hands firmly on Elina's body and hold her still. For all their lean and bony appearance, these men seemed to possess great strength. Elina felt like she was being held by iron restraints.

Nun'dahbi leaned close over Elina's face. Behind the veil, Elina could see vague, pale features and colorless eyes gazing down at her. The woman reeked of human stench. Elina's breath came in sharp, rapid bursts, and she could feel herself choking on the rag.

Nun'dahbi whispered another unintelligible phrase and then slowly lifted her veil.

Elina's heart pounded hard inside her ribs.

The woman's face was as hideous as it might have once been beautiful. Her skin held no pigmentation whatsoever, though it was perfectly smooth and without blemish, like a layer of white latex stretched over a human skull. Only her thin lips and eyelids held any color, painted as black as her fingernails. And she was completely hairless. No eyebrows or even eyelashes that Elina could see.

She picked up a stick out of the bowl. It was long and slender like a quill of some kind, and Elina could see the tip dripping with a viscous black liquid.

Nun'dahbi issued a sharp, guttural command, and two more of the men grabbed Elina's face. Cold, hard fingers clamped onto her jaw and skull, holding her immobile as the woman leaned close.

Elina screamed through the mouthful of rag, choking and sobbing as the woman etched marks across her face, whispering unknown words that only Elina could hear.

Chapter 39

Jack, Dwight, and Javier followed the tunnel deep into the mountain. Dwight had taken the lead, carrying his flashlight in one hand and a revolver in the other. As they descended, the tunnel became rough and harder to navigate.

Jack found himself praying desperately as he plunged further into danger. It was a strange sensation. Before meeting Elina, he hadn't even thought to pray. Not earlier in the caverns. Not even when he was being chased by the N'watu. But now . . . now he was heading back into the pit. Back into the danger he'd escaped from just one day before to try to save a woman he hardly even knew. And he wondered if there really was a God who would help him. Or at least give him some answers. Was this the right course? Or would they have been better off staying on the surface and contacting help?

But he knew Elina didn't have the luxury of waiting for the authorities to arrive. He also knew every step was leading him back into the horrors to which he had sworn he would never return.

Dwight held up his hand and shut off his light.

“What's the matter?” Jack said between breaths.

Dwight whispered, “They're coming. I hear voices.”

Jack squinted into the darkness. He could see a faint shaft of light drifting across the tunnel up ahead. “What's the plan?”

Dwight flicked his light back on and inspected their surroundings. The cavern passage was low and wide and marred by numerous rock formations that had slowed their progress.

“Take cover off to the side,” he said. “We can ambush them when they come by.”

Jack's pulse was racing as Dwight explained the plan in Spanish to Javier. Jack had never fired a weapon on another human being before. Now he wasn't sure he'd be able to. But he heard himself saying, “Fine.”

They found a couple of rough boulders against one of the cavern's sides and took cover behind them. Jack crouched in the darkness, watching the light approach and now hearing voices as well. It was Vale all right, and Carson, but Jack couldn't make out what they were saying.

Minutes crept by, and finally the men came into view. Jack couldn't see well enough to shoot at any of them. And on top of that, he was having doubts about killing anyone in cold blood. No matter how much he felt they deserved it.

“Aim for the head,” Dwight whispered. “Perilium begins the clotting cascade almost immediately, so hitting them anywhere else may not do the trick.”

Vale and Carson were discussing something about the prisoners. Jack thought they were trying to decide whom to sacrifice next. The big man was following close behind.

Suddenly Javier leaped from cover and started firing his shotgun toward the flashlight. Which immediately blinked out, plunging them all into darkness. Jack could hear Dwight yelling and firing his revolver as well. He stood, aimed in the direction he thought Vale was, and pulled the trigger. The blast kicked the shotgun back into his ribs.

It was over in seconds, and the rumble echoed off along the tunnel. They emerged from cover slowly, and Dwight swept the area with his light. They spotted one man—the big one—splayed across a rock. Rivulets of blood dripped down from his head into the mud. In front of him was Frank Carson lying on his back, staring up. His chest and shoulders were soaked with blood, his gun still clutched in his grasp. But there was no sign of Vale. Dwight moved his beam across the rocks and found a trail of blood leading back up the tunnel. But they couldn't see any movement.

“He's still alive,” Jack said. “He got away!”

“He won't get too far.” Dwight was staring at the ground a few feet away.

At his feet Jack saw a shattered glass jar. Its yellowish liquid contents were seeping into the mud.

Dwight bent down and lifted one of the pieces of dark glass. “This was a week's worth of perilium for all of us.” He looked up at Jack. “What have I done?”

“We can find another way,” Jack said. Though even as he heard his own words, he knew they rang hollow. “How much is left up at the lodge?”

“Vale keeps it under lock and key. Maybe a few vials. They always give us just enough to last until the next feeding time.”

Jack took the flashlight and cringed as he inspected the bodies. “The big guy's dead. Half his skull is gone.” He came to Carson and saw him blink. His bloodied chest was moving. Perhaps already recovering from the wounds. “Let's just take his gun and get going.”

Javier pried Carson's revolver out of his fingers and checked the bullets. Then he leaned over him.
“Cómo cambian las cosas en un par de semanas.”

Jack looked at Dwight. “What'd he say?”

Dwight just grimaced and shook his head.

They continued on. Jack had walked only a few paces when he noticed Javier was not with them. Suddenly a gunshot cracked the darkness behind him and Jack spun around. Dwight shone the light behind them, but all they saw was Javier walking toward them, sticking Carson's smoking revolver into his belt.

He didn't say a word.