Siren's Secret (32 page)

“Yes, yes! Most definitely. I think this is the next one.” Olivia climbed the first stone and pressed a star cone into the wall. Another block came out on top of the one she stood on and forced her off, back to the ground. Olivia jumped, her lamplight flickering precariously.

There was a light sound of something dropping, and they both turned. The duchess shook it off and pressed another key. “Not that one, this one.” A stone came out on the very bottom next to the two others, so that now they had two steps created.

Thump.

Again, the women spun toward the sound.

“What was that?” the duchess asked.

Olivia huddled next to her, holding out the lamp, hoping to expose the source. As she did, something dark fell in front of them. Too close.

Both women jumped back in surprise.

Then it uncurled.

Olivia’s lamp shook violently from her trembling body as she illuminated the venomous vermin. “Snakes,” the duchess whispered.

They took a slow step back.

Another fell in front of them and they jumped back, clinging to each other, as it lifted its swaying body curiously.

“No,” Olivia corrected. “Egyptian asps. One bite will cause swelling, hemorrhage, vomiting, paralysis, and death in approximately fifteen minutes.”

More thumps sounded behind them, and when something hit their heads, sliding against their hair, they didn’t need to guess what is was.

Bloodcurdling screams filled the chamber.

The two women scrambled up the first two steps to get away.

Olivia steadied her lamp to find the next block that would advance them. The duchess began to unbutton her leather coat.

“No, leave it on, Your Grace. It’s your best defense!”

Samuel’s sister laid her coat and spear against the curved wall of the first step. “Not likely, Professor.”

Olivia raised her light over the duchess. Across her chest and around her hips rested an assembly of knives. “What?” That’s why the duchess had insisted on keeping her coat on through the heat. “What is that?”

“A wedding gift from my brother Matthew.” She pulled a knife and nailed an asp to the wall. “I love getting married.”

Olivia stared in shock. Grateful shock. “You’re mad. Thank heavens!”

“I prefer
prepared,
Professor. Now, you were about to lead us out of here. I’ve only seventeen knives left, and if I’m not mistaken we are directly underneath the snake den.”

“Oh.” Olivia knew her voice sounded weak. She looked for the next option, holding up the lantern and trying to visualize backward. She locked another key into place, and another step took her higher. The duchess was still on the first stair, aiming at the most threatening targets. One asp suddenly slid up from nowhere and peeked over the stone at her feet, its small flat head and snout pointed toward her.

Then it got taller, its scales extending out like a hood.

“That cannot be good.” The duchess inched backward slowly, reaching for her leather coat to protect her legs as she climbed the next step.

“Careful,” Olivia warned.

The hiss was all the warning they got.

The serpent shot forward and attached itself to the bottom of the leather. The duchess swung her coat against the wall, then the stairs, then the wall. “Get off, you bastard!”

“Throw the coat!” Olivia ordered, cringing, chills covering her body as she shuddered with each violent thwack.

The duchess continued to swing the snake and the coat until finally the asp released with the final slam. Its body stuck to the wall, then abruptly fell.

Two more snouts popped up in its place.

“Try this.” Olivia handed her the pouch. “Open and spray.”

“What is it?”

“Spanish chili-pepper juice.”

“Brilliant!” the duchess said. She sprayed the serpents.

They hissed and rose up in fury, their flat snouts ready to spring. Alex scrambled up to the next stone step. “Brilliant, but not on snakes. Hurry. They’re slithering.”

Olivia swallowed her panic. They
were
slithering. Toward them! The duchess released three knives in succession, wielding them with enough force to send the first few flying backward.

“Your Grace, the path is going to switch directions. I need you to stand on the same step as me or the next block will knock your head off.”

Alex stood carefully trying not to alert the snakes, stepped up, and squeezed behind Olivia. There was barely enough room for both of them.

“Keep going, Professor.” Samuel’s sister reached for a new knife, climbing backward onto the next step.

They were about to continue upward when the room began to vibrate. Olivia pressed against the curved wall, waiting. The vibration increased until the earth quaked beneath their feet and male roars sounded from the room next door.

“The men!” Her Grace cried out in panic. The tremors stopped. “Dear God.”

Silence.

Olivia tried to comfort the other woman, but her own fist clutched with terror. If something happened to Stafford, she would never forgive herself. They waited long moments, hoping to hear anything besides the hissing of snakes.

“Alex?”

“Yes?”

“May I call you Alex? It seems quicker than
Your Grace,
under the circumstances.”

“I gave you leave before, Professor. If we survive this, you may call me whatever you damn well please.”

“You’re just like your brother,” Olivia said, smiling with quivering lips.

She pressed the next key, and sure enough the block came out where she’d expected. She moved with more confidence, leading them up in a winding circle around the edge of the tower, while asps fell regularly past them into the center of the cylindrical space, occasionally coming close. They made good progress until they were three steps from the doorway—on the wrong side of the room.

The women paused, examining the wall with the flickering light.

“There,” Alex pointed. “Another direction change.”

Olivia looked at it. “It looks different. It’s not star-shaped, but circular. Though I don’t see any more star-shaped ones.”

“There couldn’t possibly be any more snakes,” Alex offered. “What could happen?”

“Very well.” Olivia pushed in the key. The step she was on began to move.

It recessed into the wall.

She lost her balance and quickly jumped to Alex’s level as Alex moved out of the way. Then the next step recessed, and they crawled farther down. The sound of a hissing frenzy became ominously louder as they were forced to go lower and lower.

“Make it stop!” Alex said.

“I can’t!” Olivia shouted, scrambling behind Alex, seeking a safe ledge.

Finally, it stopped.

“Wrong turn?” Alex gasped.

Olivia struggled for air. She looked at the wall. “I guess. Here’s another path.” She pressed in the key, and they began a new ascent.

Until … thump.

“Alex?” Olivia didn’t move, staring at the asp on the block in front of her.

“Use this.” Alex shoved the spear into Olivia’s hand in exchange for the lamp. “Swush it. Before it uncurls!”

“Swush
isn’t a word.”

“Of course it is. It means the act of swiping and pushing. Swush.”

“Oh.” Olivia stuck the spear out between the wall and the snake and pushed. Only her swush was more like a spank.

“Swush it, Olivia. Harder!”

The asp began to curl lazily around the pole of the spear. Olivia lifted and pushed harder, but the asp continued to slither around the spear until it lifted its head and fanned its hood. Both women knew what was next.

“Ahh!” Olivia threw the spear as far into the pit as possible, and though safe for the moment, she could not stop shaking. Even her teeth chattered.

She felt Alex’s hand on her shoulder. “Equally effective. Shall we continue?”

Though the duchess was trying to make her feel better, Olivia saw the slight wobble in her hand as she returned the lantern.

Olivia got them back up to the top, level with the door, and within two stones of escape. She paused. Strange that there was only one more key. Of course there was a final test. “Oh, hell. Get ready for anything,” she warned her companion.

Olivia pressed the final key and a stone came out under the door.

“We’ll have to jump,” Alex said.

“What if the rock isn’t stable? Or if it’s slippery? Or we overjump and fall to our death?”

“It’s only four feet. You could take a long step.”

Olivia wasn’t sure. She pressed her body against the wall, exhausted. Despite the cold, she was hot, sweaty, and her hands were clammy. “You can do it. You’re a Stafford.” It came out sounding like an accusation.

“Yes,” Alex agreed. “It is nice to know who you are.”

She pushed Olivia aside and stepped across with a little hop. “You are Olivia Katharine Hastings Yates—professor, explorer, adventuress, killer of angry asps, and puzzle mistress extraordinaire. I don’t think a few feet of air is going to keep you from achieving your goal. Now straighten up and move your arse over here.”

Alex put on her leather coat and reached out her hand. “Take my wrist … in case you do decide to stumble and fall thirty feet to a grisly death.”

Olivia reached across. “Thanks.”

She stepped across, false confidence in place, but
nearly
certain this would be fine. She stepped onto the stone at the same time that she heard a familiar sound.

Thump.
Then something else slapped at their linked wrists.
Thwack.

Olivia jumped backward. Instinctively. Away from one danger and into another.

Her body dropped and air rushed her ears with an all-too-familiar …

Woosh.

Samuel pushed himself to his knees and checked on Worthington and the others, his heart pounding rapidly. They had dropped only about four feet, but it had effectively scattered the group. Soldiers scrambled to secure their weapons.

Samuel pointed to an opening on the other side of the room, about four feet high. “There,” he said. “A passage.”

They began to crawl through hurriedly, as no one was certain the floor wouldn’t drop again.

What awaited them was a long, wide, rectangular resting chamber with approximately fifteen-foot ceilings, benches, wall art, and little side tables made of stone—probably meant to hold candles or lamps. Guards went to work setting up torches on the walls as they had in previous rooms.

Samuel and Worthington hurried in the direction where they’d last heard the women—only there was no door.

Worthington cursed as he searched the space. It seemed as though they were at the end of the tomb.

“It has to be another puzzle,” Merryvale said.

“Samuel,” Worthington called, his face grim. “Over here.”

Samuel joined his brother-in-law. Around the west end of the room were murals of the puzzle rooms they passed through showing both solutions and their morbid failures.

Samuel studied the ancient art the duke indicated. The image showed one person escaping up a maze of circuitous stairs, while another was knocked off the stairs and depicted midair, falling into the pit of eager vipers’ jaws, while a third was being devoured.

“Please tell me we did not leave our women in
that
room,” Worthington said.

Samuel swore, nearly pulling out his hair. “We have to go back.”

Merryvale stood with them, unable to express the magnitude of his fear. “Asps!”

“Gasp?” Worthington asked. “Yes, it’s—”

“No! Egyptians asps! Poisonous. Venom. Certain death,” Merryvale said, his words filled with horror.

“I got that part!” Joshua shouted, furious. “But thank you for clarifying.”

Before Samuel could intervene he caught the sound of an eerie wail echoing through the chamber. Several guards tensed, whispering that the tomb was haunted. Others froze as the wail became louder. It was getting closer. He frowned, rubbing the hairs at the back of his neck, recognizing something familiar.

He had just worked out the mystery when the tower-room art he and Worthington studied exploded in front of them.

Bits of wall splintered forth violently.

He lifted a hand defensively, but it did not stop the creature flying at him or prevent him from being knocked flat on his ass.

Then darkness surrounded him.

Some things just were not fair. One, the women getting the snake pit room. Two, nearly getting out, only to be attacked by
two
asps simultaneously.

Jumping was instinctive. And it eliminated the asp between their arms. Unfortunately, when Olivia dropped, the snake plopped on her shoulder, some part of it slinking under her chin and against her neck, before fortunately sliding off her back.

Their light clattered into darkness, hitting a couple stones before landing with a thud, softened by the layer of snakes curling about.

Fortunately, the duchess did not let go. Olivia blessed her tough American stock. She truly doubted another Englishwoman of her acquaintance would have saved her. She swore that, if she lived, she’d rethink her prejudices about Americans.

The duchess meanwhile had leaped through the doorway, providing an anchor for Olivia’s weight. There was one more asp, stunned by its own fall, making its way toward them.

“The floor is slanted,” Alex said, reaching her free hand under Olivia’s armpit. “Slippery. Can you get your other arm over the edge?”

“Yes, but … don’t move,” Olivia whispered. “It’s coming.”

“I know,” the other woman said through clenched teeth. “So do it now. If it bites me, you’ll die as well.”

Olivia pulled herself up, getting traction against the wall while Alex held her, and managed to get her other shoulder over the edge.

“Stop,” Alex hissed.

Olivia didn’t move. She knew asps responded to vibration more than sound. The women clung to each other in their precarious position, trying not to move. In the dark, they had only sound to tell them where the danger lay.

They did not like what they heard.

It was the sound of slither over leather. Olivia’s heart pounded. The asp was exploring the duchess’s back.

For long moments they held, their grip getting slick. Finally there was no more sound.