The Golden Symbol (18 page)

Without further problem, he crossed the rest of the tunnel and turned the corner. A huge cavern opened up before him, lit by streams of flaming lava. The lava was just far enough away that it didn’t hurt, but the air was still uncomfortably hot.

Gallus, Coren, and Trunt all had lit torches. They waved Jacob to them, and Trunt went back to start coaching the next person.

Gallus clapped Jacob on the shoulder. “Well done. That wasn’t so bad, right?”

Jacob snorted, inspecting himself. “My arm hairs are all singed.” He looked up at Gallus. “How does my face look?”

Gallus chuckled. “Pretty much hairless. Too bad your eyebrows and eyelashes will grow back—this is a great look for you.”

Jacob rolled his eyes, but smiled at Gallus’s joke, then sat, deciding to take a break while waiting for the others. The rock beneath him was warm, but not enough to burn him. From his visions, he knew that people lived just around the corner up ahead. He didn’t know how they survived with the constant heat down here.

His left heel began to burn, and in a rush to get rid of the unpleasant feeling, Jacob kicked his shoe off. He hadn’t been doing anything—why would his foot start burning like that? Then he saw—the rubber sole had melted almost completely away from when he’d stepped in the wrong spot earlier. The heat had taken that long to reach his skin. His sock was sticky from the rubber.

Jacob set his shoe aside, hoping it would cool enough to wear again. There was no way he’d walk with only one shoe in this hot place. In fact, with the lava so close, they shouldn’t even be alive.

He looked up at Gallus. “Why haven’t we melted to death yet?”

Gallus switched his torch to his other hand so he could see Jacob better. “The caverns here are protected by magic, as is the link.” He pointed to a drawing on the cave wall. It was the trident with the sun on it that the Shiengols had etched into the walls of August Fortress and had painted on their faces. “Judging by those, I’d be inclined to believe that the Shiengols used to come down here frequently. They probably had Makalos do something to the place so the heat wouldn’t be unbearable.”

He sat on the ground near Jacob and leaned back, torch still in hand. “I wonder what happened to make the Shiengols stop coming. Didn’t you say that Azuriah wouldn’t be welcome on this world?”

Jacob nodded. “He didn’t say why, though.” What could the reason be? Things must have gone wrong between the Shiengols and . . . who? The humans? The Fire Pulsers? Some other race or creature that lived here?

Sanso was the last one through. He jumped out of the tunnel, a huge grin on his face. “I haven’t felt this wonderful in years!” he said.

If the grin hadn’t been enough to show his excitement, Jacob would have been convinced by the bright green surrounding the Ember God. Of course Sanso would love the heat.

Jacob made sure everyone was ready, then faced the huge cavern in front of them. “Let’s keep going.”

He alternated between Time-Seeing and walking. The path the Eetu took through this first section of the cave was complicated, and the cave was riddled with holes. Upon closer inspection, Jacob and Gallus noticed that the holes seemed to be manmade. It was obvious they’d been chiseled and hacked at with metal tools. But why?

Looking around, they saw that the ceiling and walls had also been cut away. This room was once much smaller than it was now. Maybe the people were planning to move here and had to enlarge it?

Before entering the next area, Jacob turned to the others. “We’ll be running into humans pretty soon. I have no idea what their customs are, so I can’t warn you about anything. We should stay close together, just in case.”

Everyone nodded, and Jacob was glad to see that they were taking him seriously.

“And Sanso,” he said, “you stay in the back for now. I don’t want them to freak out by seeing you first.”

Sanso gave Jacob a half salute and Jacob took a deep breath, then walked through the short passageway to the next cavern.

Chapter Thirteen: Maldok

The first person they encountered in the cavern was a woman. She jumped when she saw them, then turned and ran. She was hideous, and for a moment, Jacob thought it was because she’d been burned at some point. But as they continued forward and met more people, he realized this was how they all looked, with thick, dark, almost leathery skin that was heavily calloused. Some sections of the skin were cracking.

They also had yellow eyes. Jacob couldn’t help but stare—it was really creepy. The skin made sense, given the world they lived on . . . but the eyes? Where did those come from?

Gallus and Jacob had decided ahead of time that Gallus would represent the group. Jacob really didn’t want to have to go through all of the introductions with him as prince, and now that he saw the people, he was glad he and Gallus had made that choice, because they acted more comfortable around Gallus than they did around the lighter-skinned people.

A large group of people gathered, watching the newcomers, and Jacob found himself wondering how long it had been since they’d had visitors. Apart from the Lorkon, of course.

“I’d like to speak with your leader,” Gallus said to them.

No one said anything—they just stared.

“Who’s in charge here? Do any of you speak English?” Gallus then switched to another language, probably asking the same questions, but still, no one said anything.

Gallus turned back to his group. “Uh . . . this mission is going to fail unless we figure out a way to communicate with them.”

Sanso rolled his eyes and stepped forward.

The people gasped when they saw him.

“Here we go,” Jacob whispered. He met eyes with Gallus, who looked just as annoyed as Jacob felt. What was Sanso doing? He was going to ruin everything!

The people were scattering, holding up their hands in fright, protecting their children. Sanso said something in a completely different-sounding language. It was so foreign, Jacob couldn’t even begin to tell what languages from Earth it might have been like. It was slippery and crackly. The Ember God used mouth noises along with vowels and consonants.

But as he talked, the people paused to listen. In fact, Jacob was relieved to see that their emotion colors were changing to light blue—calm.

“Whatever you’re doing, Sanso, it’s working,” Jacob said.

Sanso flipped his hair out of his face. “Of course it is. I’m royalty here, even if they hate me.” He turned back to the group, then motioned to Jacob.

The people all lowered their heads, then dropped to one knee.

“Sanso . . .” Jacob said with exasperation. “We weren’t going to tell them who I am.”

“Oh, weren’t we? Oops.” Sanso didn’t look one bit sorry. In fact, he was grinning. “You’ve got their attention—you might as well say something.”

Jacob took a deep breath of the hot, humid air. It had a sour taste, and he tried not to grimace. He faced the people, then told them what was going on back on Eklaron.

Sanso translated a sentence at a time. When he was done, several people in the group responded, some with anger, others with excitement. The Ember God turned to Jacob. “They’re familiar with the Lorkon—they’ve experienced plenty of pain and anguish at the hands of those idiots.” He said something to the group, received a reply, then translated again. “And they’re eager to do whatever it takes to help you.”

“Okay, good. Tell them we need to know how to get to the Fire Pulsers.”

“I already did—they don’t think we should attempt it.”

Jacob tried not to look annoyed. “But to kill the Lorkon, we
have
to see the Fire Pulsers.”

“Yes, I know that.”

“Then say it!”

“I did. Perhaps we need more time to convince them.”

Jacob opened his mouth to disagree, but paused. Sanso was right—the people might eventually grow accustomed to the idea, but if forced, they would definitely not help. “Why don’t they want us to try?”

Sanso shrugged and turned to the people. He held a quick conversation with one of the men in the group, who was mostly bald, with lots of cracks on his scalp. Sanso bit his lip, didn’t say anything for a moment, then asked a question of the man. The man answered and Sanso looked at Jacob.

“They say we’ll all die. They’re at war with the Fire Pulsers right now.”

Gallus cursed under his breath. “Great. Just great.”

But Sanso was grinning. “I do, however, have a cunning plan.”

He turned back to the man, and it looked like they were negotiating. Whatever Sanso’s idea was, Jacob hoped it worked.

Sanso nodded, the colors for satisfaction flowing around him. He spoke again to Jacob and Gallus. “They won’t allow one of you to go—you’d die far too easily as soon as you reached the surface. And honestly, your original plan to have your whole group attempt it was stupid. So I told them I’ll be the one going, not you. They’ve agreed that if you all stay here, they’ll show me the way.”

Jacob looked at Gallus and Jacob saw his feelings mirrored on the man’s face. This idea made them both uncomfortable.

“Let me talk to Gallus about it,” Jacob said. He motioned to Coren to join them, and the three of them stepped away to where Sanso couldn’t hear.

“He’s doing it on purpose,” Gallus said. “He manipulated us into bringing him here.”

Jacob didn’t respond, but looked at Coren.

“I agree—there must be some ulterior motive, some reason for him to want to leave us with these . . . people.”

Gallus nodded. “And to approach the Fire Pulsers alone. But for what reason?”

They both looked at Jacob, and he took a deep breath. He bit his lips, trying to find the best way to say what he was thinking. “We need to give him the benefit of the doubt.”

“I’m not familiar with that expression,” Coren said.

Jacob was about to explain, but Gallus started talking first. “It means that we should let Sanso go ahead and try out his idea, with us acting as if he’s being honest—to trust him one more time.” A muscle in Gallus’s cheek twitched. “Your Highness, I don’t know that we can allow that.”

Jacob was quick to respond—he’d been expecting that answer. “I agree. If it makes both of you this uncomfortable, we shouldn’t do it. We’ll find another way to get the blood.” He waited a moment, hoping one of them would come up with a better idea.

Coren rubbed his neck. “But what else can we do? We don’t have a clue as to what it’s like up there. For all we know, the Fire Pulsers would roast anyone who approaches. And . . . well, at least they wouldn’t be able to hurt Sanso.”

Jacob nodded slowly, then glanced at Gallus. “Gallus?”

The black man still looked doubtful, but he was rubbing his chin, thinking. “Jacob, if we let him go, how would you feel about Time-Seeing and watching him while he’s gone?”

Jacob nodded. “I was planning on doing that anyway.”

“All right.” Gallus sighed. “If he betrays us, what can we do to defend ourselves?”

Gallus had a point. If Sanso was planning something bad, there wouldn’t be a lot of protection for Jacob’s group. Except . . .

“I’m wearing my Shiengol robes.”

“I noticed,” Coren said, looking at Jacob’s armor with disdain. “Why that Shiengol had to ruin beautiful armor is beyond me.”

Jacob chuckled. “Yes, well, the additions multiply my powers. I’ll watch for Sanso’s return, and if he brings enemies with him, I’ll form a shield between us to give us a slight advantage. It’ll protect us from any attacks for maybe thirty seconds, which I hope will be enough to run away.” Jacob waved at the cavern people. “And I’m sure they’d help.”

Both seemed okay with the idea, so they returned to Sanso.

Jacob spoke to the Ember God. “We’ve decided to allow you to follow through with your plan to meet the Fire Pulsers alone.”

Gallus put his hand on Jacob’s shoulder. “But Sanso, if you try any sort of trickery, we’ll be ready for you.”

His expression was enough to make Sanso look away uncomfortably. But then a wicked grin crossed the Ember God’s face.

“I won’t betray you,” he said. “Unless, of course, someone approaches me who’s willing to pay more.” He held up his hands, laughing. “You shouldn’t worry.
Everyone
wants to get rid of the Lorkon.”

Sanso turned back to the cavern people, and Jacob assumed he was telling them that he was ready to go or something. He couldn’t pay attention. This guy
really
wasn’t making it easy to trust him. The arrogant attitude was enough to frustrate anyone, but that, coupled with stupid jokes? Jacob would be glad when they got back to Eklaron and Earth and he didn’t have to work with Sanso anymore.

Sanso then left, following the bald man, and Jacob sat on the ground and Time-Saw, watching as they went into another, smaller cavern.

The bald man led Sanso to the side of it, avoiding what looked to Jacob like a river of boiling water. He took Sanso to the wall and pointed up. They talked, then the man put his hand on Sanso’s shoulder briefly and headed back. That was fast—the way to the Fire Pulsers wasn’t very far.

Jacob watched as Sanso climbed the wall. Several times, he slipped and almost fell. Jacob knew Sanso was aware of Jacob watching him because each time it happened, he turned and smiled, as if to cover his embarrassment. He was facing the wrong direction, but Jacob knew he was smiling at him. That was weird.

Then Sanso crawled up into a craggy hole. It was barely large enough for him, and several times, he had to twist around in weird, uncomfortable-looking positions just to keep going. After a few moments, he reached the top. He pulled himself out and rolled away from the hole, breathing deeply.

Jacob was instantly glad none of his group had gone—the hole was surrounded with black tar that was boiling. It was similar to what Jacob had gone through to get to Renforth’s world, but obviously much hotter. Sanso was half lying across the stuff, but he didn’t even seem to notice it, though his shirt caught fire from the extreme heat.

Sanso finally saw the fire, patted it out, and stood. He examined his surroundings, getting his bearings.

On top, the sky was covered with dark red clouds. They were so ominous that Jacob didn’t want to be anywhere near them when and if it started raining. He could tell from Sanso’s hair that there wasn’t a breeze. And if there had been, it would’ve been really hot.