hand of hate 01 - destiny blues (17 page)

“Liar.”  
 

I had to do this. I took a deep breath. “No, I’m ready. Let’s go.”
 

Rhys lowered himself into the darkness. He flashed his light around to show me what it looked like.  
 

“Any bugs in there?”
 

He gave an encouraging tug to the line around my waist.
 

“Come on, girlie. Time’s a wasting. Who needs bugs? We’ve got monsters to find.”  The little-boy-chasing-pirates look on his face sold me. Plain and simple, this guy loved crawling around in the dark. I’d be as safe with him as anybody. And he was right about the monsters.    
 

I descended into the portal.  
 

#
 

The narrow passageway led downward. Loose rocks and scree made the trail dicey, and the low ceiling made forced us to crawl or walk hunched over. Rhys showed me the best handholds, and we made good progress. The cold sank right into my bones, and I wished I’d brought a jacket. I was glad for the rope connecting me to Rhys. 
 

Now that I was down here, the cave didn’t bother me. I couldn’t understand the allure, but I even turned off my headlamp. With Rhys leading the way, and Blix and Larry and the gang bringing up the rear with their eerie eye-glow, I felt like I was part of some strange underground safari. If worst came to worst and the lights went out, there was more than enough light from my weird little herd to guide me back to the entrance. A reassuring thought.  
 

We alternated between creeping, crawling, and sidling our way through the dry tunnels. The few tight spots we encountered had been harder on Rhys than me.     
 

“Sooo. Have you been here with Miss Cavewoman?”  
 

“Why do you ask?” I heard the amusement in his voice.  
 

“Just curious. Based on this custom rig of hers, I wondered if she would have the same problem as agent Porter.”
 

“This is official business. I wouldn’t bring her here.”
 

“But if you did. Would she make it past the entrance?”
 

“You jealous?” He grunted his way through another narrow spot. “Careful, you’ll need to step up to get through here.”
 

“Not at all. I’m a natural girl. I don’t need any artificial enhancements.” I squeezed through the narrow spot without grunting.  
 

“Okay cave girl. Turn on your headlamp and take a look.”
 

We reached a spacious chamber, about forty feet across. The cold air sharpened here, and I shivered in the draft.  
 

“I smell licorice,” I said. “Pretty strong.” I had gotten used to the muted scent of my own flock, so I hadn’t noticed the stink had gradually grown stronger as we edged our way along.  
 

A row of cat crates lined up against one wall of the cave, and each one, I assumed, contained a captured djemon made flesh. Rhys set the new crate down next to the others.  
 

“What are they doing here?” I crouched down to get a better look. Five pair of luminous eyes stared back at me from homely faces. Two of them hissed at me.
 

“This is where they stay. They can’t get out, and no one can get to them so they’re safe.”
 

“But you can’t leave them here. How can they live?”
 

“They’re not alive. Not like you think. They don’t eat or sleep. They don’t die. They exist to obey the demon master who named them. Until the government figures out what to do with them officially, they stay here.”
 

“What if their master calls them?”
 

Rhys shrugged. “So far, none have escaped. Either he’s forgotten about them, or they’re not strong enough to get out.”
 

I shivered. “I can’t imagine a worse thing than spending my life locked up in the dark. It seems so wrong.”
 

“You’re anthropomorphizing. These creatures are eternal, Mattie, like a rock or stone. Whether they’re sealed up in the cavern or in a crate doesn’t matter. And they’re too dangerous to be let loose. Come on, I want to show you something.”
 

I followed him into the next cavern, and where he pointed out murals of primitive graffiti painted on the walls all around us. In the light from our headlamps, a series of silhouetted figures and creatures danced across the sooty walls of the cavern.  
 

I stared in awe. “Oh wow, I’ve never seen anything like this.”  
 

“This one depicts the story of a major battle between the indigenous local spirits and the ancestors of the Senequois people. Here the tribal shamans are driving the spirits into the caves and imprisoning them beneath this hill.”
 

I sensed the chaos and fear of the tribesmen as they battled the strange spirit figures. The energy of the conflict was palpable. “They’re beautiful.”
 

We approached the cave wall, but Rhys cautioned me from touching the mural’s surface.  
 

“The images are incredibly fragile. These two here, are the shamans of the village. Medicine men.   They’re chasing the djinn back under the hill. This part here depicts the ceremony of celebration, after the tribesmen seal the cave, and to the left here, are warnings not to disturb the spirits within.”
 

“The colors are so bright.”
 

“You’re one of only a half-dozen people on the planet who has seen these images since the ancestors of the Senequois first painted them.”
 

“So where’s the sealed cave?” The temperature in the caves had to be close to freezing.  
 

“This way,” he said, and headed to the left.  
 

“Wait a second.  The djinn smell is coming from over there.” I pointed into the darkness in the other direction.
 

“I don’t smell anything.” He shrugged. “There’s not much over there. Let’s check the seal first.”
 

“You go. I want to check this out.” I was already halfway across the cavern when the cord on my waist pulled taut. I started to untie it, but Rhys stopped me.
 

“Nobody goes exploring alone. That’s rule number one.” He retied the knot I’d undone, and checked it again.  
 

“Yeah, but there’s something over there. I can smell djinn, Rhys. I just want to look.” I felt certain another entrance was close by. “Besides, this place isn’t that big. I won’t get lost.”
 

“We stick together. There are a few cracks in the wall over there. They lead to the bat cave. You won’t be able to get through, Mattie. The fissure is too small, even for you. Come on. We’ll check the seal first, and we can check those cracks on the way back. That’s what we’re here for, remember?”
 

Focus, Mattie.
“Okay, you’re right. Lead on, captain.”
 

A short time later, we reached yet another locked grate. Rhys searched his key ring again for the correct key and unlocked the grate, then slipped the lock into his pocket.
 

“This is the last gate, up ahead.”
 

“Why are you taking the lock with us?”
 

“I wouldn’t want to get locked in here by accident.”  
 

After all we’d been through to get here, the thought that we might not be alone worried me. We passed through the entrance and the path widened enough to allow us to walk side-by-side. We arrived at the seal a few minutes later. An irregular chunk of concrete and metal looked to have been poured into a crevice less than a foot wide. Rhys took off his gloves and ran his hands over the rock face, searching for cracks.  Rhys grunted, apparently satisfied.  
 

“Is the seal intact?”
 

“Appears to be. If the seal hasn’t been breached, the influx of djinn into the Shore didn’t come from here. But we are back to square one with where those djinn are coming from.”
 

“You mean maybe they got kicked out of someplace else and moved here?”
 

“I don’t think so. This whole area has been a magnet for spirits since before the first humans arrived. It doesn’t make sense to me that a new population would move in. At least without someone noticing. Let’s take a look at what you smelled in the main cavern.”
 

After re-locking the grate, we returned to the main cavern. I followed my nose to the far wall of the cave, and stopped beneath a fissure some ten inches above my head.  
 

“Here. This is where the odor is most intense. It’s almost overwhelming, really. You can feel a draft blowing through here, too.” I took my glove off, and held my hand in front of the gap. “Can’t you smell it?”
 

“We can’t get through. I explored this chimney with a scope a few years ago. The crack leads downwards for eight feet or so, and opens into to a fair-sized cavern. Other than a big colony of bats, there’s nothing there. I never found any other exit.”
 

I was itching to get into that tunnel. “Boost me up, Rhys. Let me try.”  
 

“Nobody goes anywhere alone. In case you hadn’t noticed, there’s no rescue crew or cell phone service down here.”
 

“No, no, it’s okay. I just want to look. I’ve got to, Rhys. Come on, give me a boost.”
 

I pulled on his collar until he bent down and I stepped into his hands. I gripped the edge of the tunnel as he boosted me up, and brought me high enough to see inside.
 

The stench of anise, bat urine, and guano smacked me back. Rhys was right about the crevice; the rock floor slanted sharply downwards. The entrance was tight, but definitely doable. Now that I was here, I couldn’t stop myself. I had to see.  
 

“Higher,” I said and he raised me up another half a foot. I leveraged my elbows over the edge of the crack and pulled myself forward far enough to squeeze my shoulders through. “Give me a push. I know I can make it.”
 

I thought for a minute he wasn’t going to, and I started to wiggle forward on my own. Then strong hands grabbed my legs and pushed my hips through.  Blood rushed to my head. I was nearly vertical. I was lying on my stomach in the tunnel, Rhys’s hands on my ankles.
 

Rhys tugged at the line around my waist. “This cord isn’t strong enough to hold your weight. If you fall, I’m not sure it will hold you.”
 

“I have to look, Rhys; there is something in here. I have to.”
 

“I’m serious Mattie. No fooling around.”
 

“I smell a boatload of djinn in here, Rhys. Of the two of us, I’m the only one that can fit through and see if they’re in here. Isn’t this why you brought me?”
 

After a long moment, he patted my boots. “You win. Keep three points of your body in contact with the surface at all times.”
 

As I inched forward, the tension on the cord around my waist increased. The smell of licorice and ammonia was choking. Rhys gripped the sole of one boot, but from my vantage point, I couldn’t see the cave floor. The end of the tunnel was still a foot away. My hands stretched out in front of me, and I figured I would need to get my face close to the entrance in order to see the floor of the cavern. Once I did that, my hands wouldn’t be able to push me back.  The light from my headlamp reflected off the cave wall opposite, some hundred feet away. I noticed a few bats flying around, but unless I inched toward the mouth of the tunnel, I wouldn’t be able to see anything else.  
 

“Let go, Rhys. I need to get closer.”
 

Instead, his grip on my boot shifted and he began pulling me back.  
 

“If I let go, you’re going to fall. You won’t be able to get back and that cord isn’t going to hold you.”
 

I had to see what I already knew was inside that cavern waiting for me. I felt an irresistible pull, which had nothing to do with gravity, and everything to do with compulsion. I had to scratch that itch.  
 

“No!” I kicked away his hand. Immediately, the startled bats went crazy. They swarmed the cave, seeking to escape; several flew into the tunnel and banged into me. The crevice was too narrow to protect my face with my hands; the best I could do was turn my face into my shoulder until the bats settled down.  
 

Rhys yelled at me, which only made things worse. The stench was awful, but I needed to check out the cavern floor. Without Rhys holding my boot, gravity dragged me closer to the entrance. I was so close.  
 

I inched forward. My hands and elbows cleared the lip of the tunnel, and dangled uselessly into the thin air in front of me. It wasn’t until my chin reached the edge that I could see the bottom. Satisfaction bloomed within me. I knew it. Even through the swarms of bats, the entire floor of the huge cavern was covered with thousands and thousands of djinn.