Eve of Redemption (32 page)

“Sara?”

“What? No, I’m good. Come on, let’s go.” She forced her feet to move, and that action brought back the courage she had allowed to slip. She had trained for this war. They all had. She just hoped it was enough. She moved slower now, resisting the urge to hurry. If Dana and Ryan were in trouble, it would do no good for her to rush in without some idea of what she was facing.

The wall to her left drew her attention. Slime, just like on the ladder rungs, hung from a crack in the stone.

“Is that what I think it is?” Kyle asked.

“Yeah, I think so.”

“Wait, look at this.” Kyle pointed at the crack in the wall.

“It’s the stuff that was on the ladder. What about it?”

“Not the slime, the wall.” He moved his finger along the crack, then up and down, indicating parallel cracks.

Sara knew she was missing something.

“Stand back a little. Look at the whole thing.”

Sara was growing impatient with this whole distraction, but she did as he asked. Taking a step back, she focused on the slime and the cracks.

She gasped. “Those look like claw marks!”

Kyle nodded. “That’s what they look like to me. And I think the slime might be some kind of drool.”

Sara wiped her hands on her jacket. “What could do something like that? Even a bear couldn’t rip solid stone.” As if on cue, the primal scream again echoed down the tunnel, raising the hairs on the back of her neck. “That was closer,” Sara whispered.

“Yeah, it was. Still want to go on?”

“No.”

“But you’re going to anyway, aren’t you?”

Sara sent up a prayer to Ash-Shaytan and nodded. Her friends were missing, and poor Sam was…She wiped a tear from her cheek and forced the thought away.

Kyle sighed. “That’s what I thought.”

Sara took another look at the gouges in the wall and turned back toward the unknown end of the tunnel. She paused. “Is that light?” She lowered the lantern and moved it behind her. It
was
light. “I think we’re coming up on something,” she said.

“Put out the lantern,” Kyle said.

“No. We might need it again. What if we can’t get it lit?” The thought of being in the dark with whatever was screaming sent her into a near panic.

“Okay, put it down and leave it here, then. If there is someone up there, we don’t want to announce our arrival.”

Sara nodded and set the lantern on the ground. She took a few paces toward the light, and then glanced back at the lantern. Already it seemed such a tiny beacon in the darkness.

She motioned for Kyle to keep near her and crept forward. The light emanated from a good-sized cavern. She pressed herself against the cold wall, keeping as much to the shadows as possible. The light exuded an eerie quality that suffused everything it touched. Sara’s eyes scanned the open space, but aside from the strange light, nothing appeared out of the ordinary. The walls were rough and rose higher than the light reached. The tips of stalactites protruded from the hidden ceiling of the cavern. She felt a tap on her shoulder and turned to see Kyle pointing. She followed the direction of his finger and saw two objects on the far wall, about twenty feet above the floor.

“What are those?”

“I think they’re cocoons of some kind,” Kyle said. “But it’s the size that worries me. They’re awfully big.”

Sara started to say something, and then stopped. They were big. As a matter of fact, they were…”People-sized! Kyle, they’re almost the same size as you and me. You don’t think? Dana and Ryan!” Sara started to dash out into the cavern, but Kyle grabbed a hold of her arm and pulled her back into the tunnel.

“Hold up, Sara,” he hissed. “We don’t know what they are, and if they are people, we really don’t want to run into whatever did that. We need to think this through and not go jumping into who knows what.”

A sound in the tunnel behind them reminded Sara that they were not alone. Something was moving in the narrow passage and, from the sound of it, getting closer. A stench like rotting meat preceded it, causing both young warriors to gag and move out of the confines of the tunnel and into the cavern. As they stumbled across the rocky floor, the strange light began to throb, as though aware of the intruders. Sara gazed at the pulsing ceiling while Kyle spun around, wary of attack from any direction. He had every right to be fearful, Sara thought, as the smell of death grew stronger. She grabbed Kyle’s sleeve and pulled him farther from the mouth of the opening.

“Any idea what’s going on?” Sara asked.

“Not a clue. Did you really think I would?”

Sara shrugged. “A girl can hope. How did it get behind us?”

“Who knows, but I don’t get the feeling it’s friendly.”

A shriek from behind them startled both teens. Fur-clad warriors swarmed into the cavern from another tunnel. To call these things human would have been a terrible misstatement. Sara could tell at a glance that they were being attacked by the Horde of the evil god, El-Shaddai. The creatures were about her height, though more muscular, with massive teeth and claws and bodies covered in coarse brown fur. Swallowing her panic, she let out a yell of her own and muttered the prayer of battle to Ash-Shaytan. Incredible power flooded her body, a sudden surge unlike anything she had ever experienced. For a moment her vision faded, and the memory of her mother’s death filled her mind. The power that now flowed through her was like what she had felt in the vision of her parents’ murders.

Almost without thought, she pulled out her short sword and spun it before her. Beside her, she sensed Kyle do the same. She met the first attacker head-on and nearly took its head from its shoulders. The power that surged through her cut clean through the wicked blade before slicing with equal ease through her attacker’s throat. She’d never killed a living being before, but the dread she felt of these monsters left her with no remorse.
It’s them or us.
Beside her, Kyle fought with the same determination. Sara deflected two more attackers, wounding one and killing the other outright. A quick glance at the opening of the tunnel showed her they were still coming, however, they’d slowed their attack and become more wary of the soldiers of Ash-Shaytan.

Sara knew from her training that El-Shaddai did not love his followers as did Ash-Shaytan. He relied on sheer numbers in battle. With a limitless pool of vermin to draft into his army, he had no qualms about how many died in his service.

The Horde encircled the two young warriors. Kyle placed his back against Sara’s. For the first time since he’d surprised her in the library, she was glad he stood at her side. In the practice arena, no four others could beat Sara and Kyle together. But they were facing a whole lot more than four right now. The Horde advanced, and Sara surrendered her mind to the power she had been given—the power of Ash-Shaytan. Her body moved fluidly, requiring little effort of her own. She noticed her heavy yet steady breathing and the light film of perspiration that beaded her skin, but these were mild distractions as her sword cut through the enemy. She felt Kyle pull away a few steps but sensed that he still covered her back. She took advantage of the increased space to spin more aggressively into the attacking Horde.

“Sara! Look out!”

Kyle’s warning broke her concentration. She turned just in time to see him jump in front of something. For a moment his body blocked her view, and then he stepped aside just enough for her to see a nightmare slithering from the tunnel they had come from. How it could have ever fit inside that tunnel she could not fathom. It’s bulk filled the opening and carried with it the horrible stench that had followed them. It looked like a giant worm, mottled and covered in a slime-like substance that she imagined was the rot of its own flesh. The thing radiated a dark dread that seeped into her consciousness.

Something from a discussion with Master Casius came back to her. She had been reading a book on the dark god’s magic and came across something called a “Death Ritual.” To perform the ritual, enemies of El-Shaddai were sacrificed and their souls were harnessed and infused into one of the Horde. They were reputed to carry with them the smell of the death from which they had been created. Sara had asked Master Casius how such a thing was possible, why Ash-Shaytan would allow something so horrible to happen. The old master had shaken his head, a sad look on his face.

“They had rejected Ash-Shaytan. He had no love for them.”

His words had seemed harsh to her at the time. After all, Ash-Shaytan loved all of his people, did he not?

“Sara, it has me!”

At first Kyle’s words made no sense. The beast was twenty paces away. Then she saw the thin strand of webbing coming from its face and wrapping around Kyle’s arm. She watched as his sword fell from his hand and bounced off the stone floor. Lashing out with her own blade, she sliced through the web and freed her friend. Kyle’s arm fell limp at his side.

“Kyle, are you all right? What’s wrong?”

“My arm’s numb, like it’s not even there.” Kyle’s face strained for a moment. “I can’t use it at all.” He grabbed his sword in his other hand as the Horde, which had backed off at the arrival of the monster, began to advance on them once again. Sara struck out at the nearest, severing its arm. She spun, whirling her blade until it was almost invisible, clearing a space around her and Kyle to give them room to fight. Another demon tried to slip in on her left and she turned to face it, knowing that was Kyle’s weak side. A sharp pain burst in her right leg. Glancing down, she saw a silver strand of webbing wrapped around her thigh. Almost at once, the pain faded and her leg numbed. She slashed down with her sword, releasing herself from the beast, but the web continued its deadening effect.

Sara caught motion from the corner of her eye and managed to deflect a blow from the demon that had distracted her. Her right leg hung lifeless now and dragged behind her, pulling her off-balance. She deflected another blow, but something hit her on the side of the head. As she stumbled on her one good leg, years of training kept her from going down. She fought to straighten her body, but pain sliced through her as another web wrapped around her chest, pinning her arms to her sides. She screamed in frustration and fear as the numbing effects of the web spread through her arms and torso. In mere seconds, she could feel almost nothing of her body. Her leg could no longer support her, and she crashed to the floor. She struggled to see where Kyle was, but the feet of the vast Horde all around her filled her vision. One of them grabbed her by the hair and pulled her to a sitting position. She glanced up just in time to see a stout club descending toward her. Following an explosion of light, she saw nothing at all.

T
he throbbing pain in her head drew Sara toward consciousness. She wanted nothing more than to push it away and sink back into sleep, but it refused to be ignored. A groan escaped her dry lips as she tried to sit up. The pounding in her head increased its tempo, and she thought she might be sick.
Bad idea,
she thought as she lay back.

“You all right, Sara?”

The voice brought her back from the edge of darkness. She forced her eyes open and scanned the dim room for its source.

“We’re locked up in a cell.”

Kyle? His name brought back the memory of the cavern and the demon Horde.

She fought down nausea and sat up on a narrow cot. Stone walls surrounded them, broken only by a heavy wooden door in the center of the wall across from her.

“Don’t bother with the door. I’ve already tried it.” Kyle sat on the floor to her right with his back against the wall and knees pulled up against his chest. A large purple bruise shone on his forehead. She reached up and touched the tender spot on her own head.
A matching pair,
she thought.

“Any idea how long we’ve been here?” she asked.

Kyle shook his head. “I woke up about twenty minutes ago, but I have no idea how long we were out. Long enough for whatever was on that webbing to wear off.”

Sara stretched out her leg and realized the numbing effect had indeed worn off. She stood up and stretched, working the kinks from her sore muscles before moving to the door and studying it. Their side of the door was smooth, with no handle or window—no way at all of opening it from inside.

She returned to the cot and sank down on it. “So, we don’t know where we are, why we’re here, or even what’s going on. We don’t know any more than when we started.” She wanted to lash out at something, but the small cell offered no target that would not do her more damage than she did it.