Pure (Book 1, Pure Series) (35 page)

           
Galina smiled.
 
"Then I will go now.
 
I will see you soon, my child.
 
Just remember to relax."

           
I watched Galina walk away.
 
When she was lost to my sight, I closed my eyes and decided to let my mind wander where it chose.
 
I thought of William and the clear fire…William and the clear fire….
 
For just a moment I felt something like a spark light within me.
 
My eyes flew open, and the spark went out.

           
I quickly closed my eyes again and tried to will the spark to return.

           
Try as I might, I couldn't find the spark again.

           
I decided I was trying too hard, and I stepped out of the stone ring.
 
I started to walk, attempting to let my mind drift once more.

           
I found that I was walking in the direction of the abandoned monastery.
 
I figured that I might as well go see it.
 
I was curious to have a look at the tunnels.

           
As I walked, I hoped for something to jump out at me – something that would prove to me that I could do what I needed to do.
 
I was finding it hard to believe that I had special powers and a non-human grandfather.
 
I couldn't see myself commanding a magic sphere and defeating a horrible creature like Gleb.

           
I reached the edge of the woods and came out by the monastery.
 
The building was large and sprawling and parts of it were crumbling.
 
It had clearly been abandoned for some time.

           
I wandered around the monastery until I found a way in – an open archway that had apparently once contained a door.
 
Inside, it was dim and dusty, and I passed several long hallways lined with bare cells and empty rooms.
 
I didn't find anything of any greater interest than some moldering cloth and a few nesting birds.

           
Luckily, I stumbled upon the chapel.
 
Behind the altar and beneath two faded icons was a square panel.
 
I pushed on it, and the panel fell backwards.
 
I ducked my head inside.
 
The opening was a little wider than my shoulders, and it was a little over two feet high.
 
There was plenty of room for me to wriggle through, and I did so.

           
Once on the other side, I was able to stand up with no difficulty.
 
A normal-sized hallway stretched in front of me.
 
It was dark in the tunnel, and I wished that I'd brought one of GM's flashlights.
 
I was going to give up on exploring the tunnel when I happened to spy a table nearby.
 
On the table were several candle stubs with holders and a box of matches.

           
The candles and matches gave me pause.
 
They weren't dusty, so presumably they had been used recently.
 
Was this tunnel in regular use?
 
Whether or not someone else was using the tunnel, I decided I might as well use what was available.

           
I lit a candle and blew out the match I used.
 
I waited till the match was cool before I set it down.
 
Fortunately, it only took a few seconds.
 
I didn't want to start a fire.

           
I started forward into the tunnel, glancing back at the open panel through which I had come.
 
It occurred to me that as easy as it had been to wriggle through it, I would hate to have to scramble back out that way if someone were chasing me.

           
I shook my head to clear it.
 
There was clearly no one around at the moment.
 
It was silly for me to think anyone would be after me.

           
As I moved along the tunnel, it remained the same height, but it soon slanted downward sharply.
 
The candle threw enormous, distorted shadows on the walls as I walked, and my heart began to beat faster.
 
I pictured my mother crawling along this tunnel after she'd sealed Gleb in the crypt, making her way toward the Pure Woods.
 
Walking through the tunnel made it seem real to me – there was a feeling all around me that this tunnel had witnessed horrible things.

           
Eventually, I came upon a chamber that split into two tunnels.
 
I hesitated, unsure of which way to go.

           
Suddenly, I had the feeling I'd been plagued with before – that I was being watched.
 
I whirled around quickly, and the candle flickered dangerously.
 
I froze.
 
I'd be lost if the candle went out.

           
The flame righted itself again, throwing its grotesque shadows on the walls once more.
 
I scanned the darkness around me, but I couldn't find any sign that I was being followed.

           
I turned back to the two tunnels and examined the walls around them.
 
But the walls were blank – there were no markings that indicated where the tunnels might lead.

           
As I stood before the tunnels, I heard a noise coming from the right one.
 
Was it possible that the clear fire could make a noise?
 
The noise came again – it was hard to identify – it was resonant, yet muffled.

           
I hurried into the right-hand tunnel.
 
The tunnel grew wider and wider, and soon I was in another chamber.
 
The walls of the chamber were lined by tall metal bars on either side.
 
I soon realized that the bars were broken up by stretches of wall – the bars seemed to form little rooms.
 
But the rooms were boarded up behind the bars.

           
I remembered that I'd once seen a program on TV about a cathedral, and the cathedral had had little barred alcoves that held special monuments for the graves of the more prominent people who were buried there – the bars had been added in modern times.
 
These bars looked just like the ones on the program.
 
I figured that I was looking at the same thing here.
 
I shivered as I realized that I was surrounded by graves.
 
I wondered why someone had gone to the trouble of boarding them up.

           
I heard the muffled noise again – it sounded like a smothered cry coming from behind one of the boarded up alcoves.

           
I crept closer to the alcove where the sound had come from.

           
"Hello?" I said.
 
"Is somebody there?"

           
The muffled cry grew louder, and the boards began to shake as if someone were pounding on them from the inside.
 
The shaking boards banged against the iron bars, causing them to rattle.

           
I took a step back.

           
The cries continued to issue from behind the boards.

           
Soon more cries rang out in the chamber, coming from the other alcoves.
 
All around me the bars began to rattle, and the cries grew louder and louder, melding into one fierce howl that swirled around me.

           
Something was behind those bars.
 
And it was trying to get out.

           
I turned and ran back the way I had come, fearful all the while that whatever was behind the bars would break free.

           
In my haste, I dropped the candle, and it flickered out.

           
I was still in the chamber, and the howling and rattling seemed to press in on me.

           
Something touched my hand, and I cried out, stumbling backward in my terror.
 
I was completely disoriented in the dark, and I put out my hands in front of me.
 
I felt my fingers brush against the cold metal of one of the barred alcoves, and I cried out again.

           
"You're safe," a voice whispered in my ear.

           
I spun around in the blackness, and I nearly fell down.

           
"You're safe," the voice repeated.
 
A warm hand closed around mine and pulled me away.

           
My heart leaped.
 
Could this be William?
 
Had he come to rescue me just as he had done in the cave in Elspeth's Grove?
 
I stumbled along after my mysterious savior and prayed that it was William miraculously returned to me.

           
After what felt like an eternity of running blind through the darkness, I spied the square of light up ahead that surely marked the panel through which I had entered the tunnels.

           
"Out you go," whispered the voice, and the warm hand released mine.

           
I wriggled out through the opening and tuned to face my rescuer.

           
He wriggled through after me and stood up.

           
I was startled.
 
"Aleksandr?"

           
He gave me a wry smile.
 
"You sound disappointed."

           
"No," I said.
 
"No.
 
I'm just surprised.
 
I'm glad you're here.
 
You came along at exactly the right moment."

           
I looked at him searchingly.
 
I suddenly felt strangely suspicious.
 
"Why are you here?
 
Did Galina send you to check on me?"

           
An odd light crept into his strange, cinnamon eyes.
 
"No.
 
She doesn't know I'm here."

           
Something about his tone made me feel uneasy.
 
"Aleksandr, what's going on here?
 
What were those things down in the tunnels?"

           
"Katie," he said.
 
"I have to tell you something very difficult, and I don't know if you'll believe me.
 
And if you don't, I'll have to make you believe me.
 
And to do that I'll have to show you something that humans usually find frightening."

           
Aleksandr's use of the word 'humans' sent a chill through me.
 
I waited tensely.

           
He watched me for a moment.
 
Then he continued.
 
"Katie, Galina can't be trusted.
 
What happened here confirms that to me.
 
I don't want you to see Galina anymore.
 
And if somehow you do see her again accidentally, promise me you won't eat or drink anything she gives you."

           
I began to back away from him.
 
"What's going on?"

           
Again the odd light was in his eyes.
 
"I can see that you don't believe me.
 
I'm sorry about this, Katie.
 
But it's important for you to stay away from Galina Golovnin."

           
I felt panic welling up within me.
 
"Why are you acting this way?
 
Why don't you want me to see your mother?"

           
"Well, to begin with," Aleksandr said, "she isn't my mother."

           
I watched as Aleksandr's shape shimmered and then changed.

           
Suddenly, standing before me was a tall man with bright green hair and a bright green beard.
 
Both hair and beard appeared to be made of grass.
 
His skin was unnaturally pale, and his eyes were a green even brighter than his hair and beard.
 
Where Aleksandr had stood, there now stood a stranger.

           
A shiver slid down my spine.
 
"Aleksandr, how did you do that?"

           
The man started toward me.

           
"I am not Aleksandr."

           
I started to back away again.

           
The man stopped.
 
"I see I have upset you, Katie."

           
"How do you know who I am?"

           
The man laughed.
 
"We are better friends than you know.
 
I am the one who dropped the photo on you in the Old Grove."

           
I blinked at him.
 
"You did what?"

           
"I dropped the photo on you.
 
I was trying to give you a clue without scaring you.
 
I saw Gleb and his keeper out there on Sunday burning a huge fire – the one the two human boys were arrested for.
 
That night the keeper was burning that particular photo from one of the stolen yearbooks – the photo with you in it."

           
"Why was he doing that?" I asked.
 
I'd stopped backing away, but I was starting to feel shaky.
 
I didn't understand what was going on.

           
"It was part of a ritual, to get Gleb to track you and catch you.
 
Gleb and his keeper are the ones who burglarized your school.
 
They stole the records to find a student with the last name 'Wickliff' who had a person with the last name 'Rost' as a guardian, and then they stole the yearbooks so that they could obtain a photo of you.
 
The photo was then burned, and Gleb caught the scent of the people in it.
 
But Gleb, being the poor old kost that he is, was terribly literal – he had to grab people in the order in which they appeared."