Grip of the Shadow Plague (Page 44)

"I’d be careful how you shake that," Gavin said.

She stopped, holding the rattle still. Within a few seconds, the hail stopped, and the wind wasn’t gusting as hard.

"This is controlling the storm?" Kendra exclaimed.

"Influencing it, at least," Gavin said.

Kendra studied the staff with amazement. She held it out to Gavin. "You earned it, you should keep it."

"N-n-nope," Gavin said. "It’s your souvenir."

Kendra held the staff carefully, keeping it still. Over the next minute the storm went into a lull. The wind no longer blew as hard. The rain diminished to a sprinkle.

"Do you think the others are okay?" Kendra wondered.

"I hope so. Dougan has the key. If they don’t show, we may have to fight our way back to the stairs." Leaning on the spear, Gavin glanced over at Kendra. "The way things played out, I know it seems like I made a good call about the danger, but this is much worse than I’d guessed, or I would have been more forceful with everyone about you not coming. Are you hanging in there?"

"I’m okay," she lied.

"That was smart, shining the light in the coyote’s eyes.

Thanks."

The wind and rain picked up again, but still didn’t lash the mesa as furiously as earlier. Sheet lightning started flickering regularly, accompanied by growls of thunder. On the fifth flash, three men staggered through the doorway.

Warren, Dougan, and Neil crossed the room to Kendra and Gavin. Dougan no longer had his axe. Warren held the top half of his broken spear. Neil limped between them, supported by the other men.

"Ugly business out there," Dougan said. "Have you had any visitors?"

"C-c-coyote man dropped by," Gavin said.

"He came inside the room?" Neil asked, his face haggard.

Gavin nodded. "I had to repel him with the spear."

"Then Kendra and I won’t be safe here after all," Neil said. "In times past, the creatures who haunt the mesa would not have dared set foot here in the weather room. Then again, I know little about the rite we interrupted. We must have rendered all protections ineffectual."

"He definitely came inside," Kendra said. "He left this behind." She held up the staff. Neil frowned at it.

"It’s her souvenir," Gavin insisted.

"We need to get inside the vault," Neil said. "Anywhere will be safer than this mesa tonight." Dougan and Warren helped him toward the hatch in the floor. "Sorry I wasn’t much of a bodyguard," Warren apologized to Kendra. "They struck so suddenly, and I saw Gavin taking much better care of you than I could have. Gavin, I’ve never met a man who could top your dad in a brawl, but you would have given him a run for his money."

"Only thanks to all he taught me," Gavin said with a proud grin.

Below them gaped the hatch. A long, upright log with pegs in it functioned as a ladder. Shining flashlights into the void, they saw the floor about twelve feet below. Gavin descended the ladder first, holding Kendra’s flashlight. Then came Dougan, then Kendra, then Neil lowering himself with his arms and one leg. After Neil reached the ground, Warren did not follow, and they heard the sounds of a scuffle. Spear in hand, Gavin raced up the ladder with incredible speed.

After a few tense moments, Warren and Gavin descended the ladder.

"What happened?" Kendra exclaimed. "Are you two all right?"

"No coyote-on-a-stick," Gavin said regretfully. "He didn’t show up."

"But others did," Warren said. "The hawkman and a freakish oaf. I’m with Neil. We can’t leave anyone above ground. There are too many enemies abroad."

"Will a dragon be any safer?" Kendra questioned.

Warren shrugged. "Neither option is inviting, but at least the vaults are designed to be potentially survivable."

Kendra hoped Warren was right. She could not help remembering that only one and a half of the three people who had entered this vault last time had emerged.

Dougan removed the key from his bag. It was a thick silver disk the size of a dinner plate. The underground room had a spacious circular depression in the center. Water flowed into the depression but, instead of pooling there, continued to drain deeper. With Warren helping Neil, they all stepped down into the circular recess.

"This room was a kiva," Neil explained. "A site for sacred ceremonies."

Dougan pressed a small protuberance on the disk, and several oddly shaped metal teeth clicked out of the sides like blades from a pocket knife. When he released the button, the jagged teeth retracted. Kneeling in the center of the circular depression, he set the disk into a round indentation where it fit snugly. Then he pressed the center of the disk and twisted it.

With a jolting clack and a subterranean rumbling, the floor of the circular depression began to rotate. Dougan had taken his hand off of the key, but still the floor turned, and as it turned, it sank, as if they stood on the head of a gigantic screw. Ever rotating, they gradually descended into a vast chamber, where the irregular walls had the appearance of a natural cavern. Looking up, Kendra watched the round hole in the ceiling grow distant. The sounds of the storm faded. Announced by a final echoing thud, the turning floor came to a halt.

Chapter Twelve

Obstacles

Dougan squatted beside Neil. "How’s your leg?"

Brow crinkled, Neil probed his knee. "I think I tore a tendon. I won’t be walking normally anytime soon."

"Who injured you?" Kendra asked.

"I did," Neil said ruefully. "This was an old man’s injury, earned by running too far too fast over ground that was too firm."

"Call it a hero’s injury," Warren said. "You should have seen him bowl over some of the creatures who had me pinned."

"You can use my spear as a crutch," Gavin offered.

"We all stand a better chance of surviving if the spear stays in your hands," Neil said.

Gavin handed Neil the spear. "When trouble arrives, pass it back to me."

"If it would be better for the mission, I could stay behind with Neil," Kendra offered.

Warren shook his head. "If we could have left you safe up top, fine. In here, our best hope for survival is to stick together."

"Tammy mentioned a hulking beast covered by so many knives that they looked like feathers," Dougan said. He shone his flashlight around the vast chamber, showing the mouths of three different caves. "The beast should be down that passageway, the widest one. She said it prowled along behind to prey on stragglers."