فصل 05 - بخش 02

“I don’t know about this,” he said.

Sarah clucked like a chicken.

“Shut up,” said Aidan. He dropped onto his belly and wriggled forward. The fit was tight; his shoulders scraped against the tunnel walls. He could not turn around now even if he’d wanted to—which he did. But he hated the thought of chickening out in front of his sister. So, fighting back his fear, he wriggled forward, aiming the flashlight ahead.

Sarah crouched at the entrance, watching her brother slowly move deeper into the tunnel; she almost felt sorry for him. After a minute all she could see of Aidan was a shadowy blob moving deep in the narrow tunnel, like a cork in the neck of a bottle.

Suddenly, the blob stopped. Aidan’s silhouette flickered as he waved the flashlight around.

“Whoa!” he called. “You’re not going to believe this!”

“What?” shouted Sarah.

But Aidan was gone; he’d apparently pulled himself into a larger space. Sarah could hear him clambering to his feet.

Sarah took a deep breath, dropped to her stomach, pushed the backpack into the tunnel, and began wriggling after it, pausing to brush spiderwebs from her face. From ahead she could hear Aidan shouting something, his words lost in a jumble of echoes. Finally, she came to the opening into which Aidan had disappeared. She poked her head through.

“No way!” she said. Aidan was standing proudly inside a much larger tunnel; it looked big enough to drive a truck through.

“What do you think?” he said, shining his light around. The tunnel stretched so far in both directions that the flashlight beam simply faded into darkness.

“What is this?” she said, her voice echoing off the hard stone walls.

“Mister Magill’s private dungeon,” said Aidan.

Sarah pulled herself forward and got to her feet.

“Seriously,” she said. “Why is this here?”

“It must be a mine,” said Aidan. “Or it was a mine. It’s old. No lights. No equipment. Who knows how long this has been here.”

“Still think I’m crazy?”

“You don’t really want me to answer that.”

Sarah dragged her heel on the dusty floor, drawing a line from one side of the tunnel to the other.

“What are you doing?”

“Marking our entrance,” she said, pointing to the small hole in the wall they’d crawled through. It would be easy to miss.

“Now what?” said Aidan.

“We look for clues,” said Sarah.

“Clues?”

“There has to be something. Magill got us this far. Somehow he’ll let us know what to do.” She pointed to her right. “We’ll start this way.” Shouldering the backpack, Sarah started into the tunnel, swinging her flashlight back and forth, the beam painting bright lines across the dark stone. She’d gone no more than fifteen feet when she stopped suddenly, her flashlight aimed at the tunnel ceiling directly overhead.

“There it is,” she said.

Aidan, joining her, looked up. Sarah’s light was shining on the image of a star, drawn in faded white paint. Next to it was an arrow, pointing in the direction they’d been moving.

“Let’s go,” said Sarah.

“Wait,” said Aidan.

His sister looked at him impatiently and snapped, “What?”

“I just…I’m wondering if this is a good idea. We’re getting farther and farther from where we came in.”

“We’re also getting closer and closer to whatever Magill’s leading us to.”

“Yeah, but…”

“But what?”

“I just don’t like this, that’s what.”

“So what do you want to do? Stay here?”

Aidan looked back into the blackness of the tunnel.

“No,” he said. “Not alone.”

“Then come on.” She turned and started walking again, Aidan following unhappily. They walked for several minutes in silence, Sarah sweeping her flashlight beam continuously over the walls and ceiling, Aidan glancing back often, the only sound in the tunnel the echoes of their scuffling footsteps. After about fifty yards the tunnel was intersected by another, branching off to the left. On the ceiling they found another painted star and arrow, this time pointing to the left. With her heel, Sarah drew an arrow into the dusty floor, pointing back to where they’d come from.

The new tunnel was slightly smaller, but still cavernous.

“How far do you plan on going?” said Aidan.

“That’s up to Mister Magill.”

“But I mean, if we don’t find something…at some point we’re going to turn back, right?”

“Listen,” she said, swinging her flashlight beam toward Aidan’s face, “if you don’t—”

Aidan screamed.

Sarah jerked violently, nearly dropping the flashlight.

“Do not do that!” she said. “What is wrong with—”

“I saw eyes!” interrupted Aidan, breathless, terrified. “We have to get out of here now.”

“What are you talking about? What eyes?”

“Yellow eyes. Right when you moved your flashlight, I saw them. Over there!” He shined his flashlight ahead. They both looked, but the flashlight revealed only the empty tunnel, fading into blackness.

“There’s nothing there,” she said.

“There was. I’m telling you. A pair of yellow eyes, close to the ground.”

“You imagined it, ’cause you’re scared.”

“Okay, listen,” said Aidan. “We’ll both turn off our lights.”

“And that’s going to accomplish what?”

“Then I’ll turn mine back on. But this time we’re both looking straight ahead.”

“Aidan…”

“Just turn off your light, okay?”

Sarah sighed and switched off her flashlight, as did Aidan. They now stood in total blackness.

“I really don’t see what—”

“Shh!” Aidan hissed. “Just wait.”

Ten seconds passed. Twenty.

Aidan turned on his light, the beam filling the long tunnel.

Nothing. Cobwebs, some dust swirling in the air, but no yellow eyes.

“Satisfied?” she said.

“No. I saw something.”

“Or not,” said Sarah, starting into the branch tunnel. Aidan had no choice but to follow; the last thing he wanted now was to be alone. After a few minutes they came to another branch tunnel, and then another, but there were no star-and-arrow markers so they kept going straight. At the third tunnel, branching right, they found a marker directing them to the right; at the next branch they went left. Aidan glanced back constantly as they moved deeper and deeper into the dark labyrinth.

“Sarah,” he whispered. “This is too far.”

She didn’t turn around. “We are not turning back now,” she snapped. “Anyway, I think we’re coming to some kind of room.”

She was right; in a few yards they entered a high-ceilinged, roughly square chamber, its floor strewn with rocks large and small. Tunnels branched off in all four directions. Sarah drew her heel mark into the dirt to indicate how they’d entered.

Aidan was shining his light around. Suddenly, he froze.

“Oh, no,” he whispered.

“What now?” said Sarah.

Aidan, his hand shaking, was aiming his flashlight at the floor. “Look,” he said. “I told you I saw eyes!”

Sarah’s eyes followed his flashlight beam. She swallowed. The dirt floor was covered in animal tracks. Large ones.

“Are those dog footprints?” she said, her voice low.

“If they are,” said Aidan, “it’s a big dog. Or many big dogs. We need to get out of here.”

“These could be really old.”

“I saw eyes, Sarah!”

Sarah flashed her light around the chamber. The beam swept across something in the corner. Sarah’s eyes widened.

“Aidan! Look!” Her words echoed down all four tunnels. Her beam was fixed on a rock in the corner. On it was the star-and-arrow sign. The arrow pointed down.

“I really think we need to leave,” said Aidan, his eyes still on the animal tracks.

Sarah paid no attention. She was walking to the sign.

“It’s here,” she said.

“What’s here?”

“It’s pointing straight down. There’s no tunnel or anything. It has to be here.”

“Sarah, there’s big animals down—”

“Right here,” she said, digging her heel into the dirt.

“We need to—”

“Dig,” said Sarah, dropping to her knees.

“Sarah, we don’t—”

“You start there,” she said, pointing. “I’ll start here. We work toward each other.” She propped her flashlight on a rock, then found two flattish rocks. She handed one to Aidan and began digging, starting directly below where the arrow pointed. She dug down about six inches and continued toward Aidan, who was digging unhappily but rapidly, making a shallow trench perpendicular to hers.

When their trenches connected, he said, “What now?”

“Dig deeper,” she said, attacking the dirt again. Aidan sighed and did the same. After a few minutes they paused for breath. Sarah was about to resume digging when Aidan put his hand on her arm.

“Did you hear that?” he whispered.

“What?”

“Like…breathing.”

They both listened intently.

“Dig,” she said. “Quickly!”

“You did hear it!” he said.

“Just dig!”

The dirt flew in all directions. They had now made a roughly circular hole about a yard across and more than a foot deep. Sarah glanced up to check the position of the arrow.

Clank!

Aidan’s rock had hit metal. He pounded it twice more.

Clank! Clank!

Now they both dug furiously, scooping up loose dirt with their hands and hurling it aside. They uncovered a rectangular metal plate about the size of a sheet of paper, with words engraved on it. Sarah brushed off the dirt and shone her light on it. Together, she and Aidan read the words.

Use it wisely, or leave it be. Use it wrong, and death to thee.

“Maybe we shouldn’t touch it,” said Aidan.

“What are you talking about?”

“Death,” said Aidan. “It says death.” He started to rise. Sarah grabbed his wrist, stopping him.

“No,” she said. “Listen to me, Aidan. We were meant for this. And this is meant for us. Look at what we’ve gone through to find this. He wanted us to find this.”

“He wanted someone to. Not us.”

“But it is us,” she said, still holding his wrist. “We’re going to find out what this is. And whatever it is, I promise: we’re going to be wise about it.”

Aidan looked at his sister. Then his gaze shifted slightly, over her shoulder. He slowly lifted his flashlight. Sarah watched as the color drained from his face.

“Aidan?” she whispered. “What is it?”

Then she heard the growl.