Beckon

been torn limb from limb.”

Jack nodded slowly. “Kind of looks that way, doesn’t it?”

Ben turned away as Jack knelt beside the skull and lifted it, inspecting it for gashes or other marks of violence. He saw none. The surface was smooth, free from any bit of flesh. Like it had been picked clean.

“Jack.” Rudy’s voice was so soft that Jack at first didn’t heed it. “Jack.”

Jack looked up and saw Rudy standing on the edge of a rise, shining his flashlight down into the cavern on the other side.

“What?”

Rudy’s voice sounded grim. “I think you should see this.”

Jack drew up beside him. “What is it?”

Rudy pointed down into the cavern. “It looks like there’s more.”

Jack could see more white slivers glowing in the light near the bottom of the pit. He picked his way slowly down the rocky slope as his stomach tightened and his hands grew cold. He had never been this close to death before, and he fought his rising fears. Fear of never finding a way out of this cave and of whatever might be lurking in the stifling blackness. Fear that he would end up like these corpses, lost in the dark and the mud.

And a cold, paralyzing fear that one of them might be the remains of his father.

He reached the bottom and stopped in his tracks. The shapes of white bones littered the ground amid the rocks and mud. Maybe dozens of them. Parts of an arm and a leg, at least two skulls, and what looked like collarbones and more ribs. His jaw tightened as he swept the light across the rocks.

Rudy’s voice came from the top of the rise. “What do you see?”

Jack willed himself to move farther down into the chamber and saw still more pale fragments. More skulls.

“Yeah, there’s more down here,” he heard himself say, like he was having some kind of out-of-body experience. “I’m guessing… maybe a dozen or more.”

Jack’s legs froze and he could go no farther. He moved the light ahead and upward and his eyes widened at what he saw. Then he turned away and retched the contents of his stomach into the mud.

Moments later he could hear Rudy and Ben shuffling down the incline.

“You okay?” Rudy said.

“Not really, no.” Jack wiped a muddied sleeve across his mouth and then pointed his light up again ahead of them. As he did, he could see Rudy take a step backward.

The light chased off distorted shadows, unveiling bit by bit a tangled mass of pale bones, stacked high against the far wall of the chamber. Gaping skulls and misshapen spines and legs and arms, all twisted and contorted and heaped into a brutal white edifice. As if someone had just bulldozed them into a pile.

Rudy’s breath came in throaty gasps. “There’s… got to be… hundreds…” His voice trailed off.

Jack stared at the grotesque mound. “What is this place?”

Ben squatted down and hung his head for a moment. Then he looked up again and wiped his hair out of his face. “It’s a bone pit.”

Chapter 09

Jack tore his gaze away from the hideous sight and turned to Ben, who wore the vacant expression of a sleepwalker. “What do you mean, a bone pit?”

“Remember…” Ben hesitated a moment as if searching for a way to explain it. “The legends about how the N’watu would give Sh’ar Kouhm an offering of souls to appease her.”

“So it is true?” Jack grimaced. “They really were making human sacrifices?”

Ben rubbed his eyes. “They were just a bunch of old ghost stories. I never took them seriously.”

“Well, apparently they were based in some kind of fact,” Jack said. “We’re standing in front of it.”

Rudy took a few hesitant steps closer to the pile. “There’s so many of them.” His light flitted across the mass of bones. “Look at them all.”

Jack felt as if he’d stumbled across a subterranean Nazi concentration camp. Hundreds of victims killed and their bodies just dumped into this pit. His nausea was quickly turning to anger. His face flushed with emotion. “What did they do to these people? How could they do this?”

“Beats me,” Ben said. “I wasn’t there.”

“Well, you seem to know a lot about them. You said this was all a Caieche legend.”

“Look, man.” Ben stood, and his tone grew sharp. “The N’watu were here way before any of us. My people weren’t responsible for this.”

“Hey, there’s something here,” Rudy said, pointing his light at the base of the pile. “I see something in there.”

But Jack was preoccupied with Ben’s comment. “I didn’t say your tribe was responsible. I’m just struggling with the idea that someone—anyone—could do something like this to other human beings.”

Rudy was still talking. “It looks like it’s a…”

“Oh, really?” Ben snorted and spread his hands. “Welcome to the human race, kid. Let me tell you, this is nothing compared to what happened to thousands of Indians at the hands of—”

“Don’t lecture me about suffering! You know how many Africans died in the holds of slave ships?”

“Both of you, shut up!” Rudy’s voice rose. “Get over here and take a look at this!”

Jack took a breath and tried to calm himself. Clearly the gruesome discovery had put them on edge, and he needed to get a handle on his emotions. He made his way over to where Rudy was inspecting the bone heap. Rudy turned and held up a small, metallic object.

Jack aimed his flashlight at it and gasped. “Is that a—?”

Before Jack could say anything further, a section of the bone pile burst outward, knocking them both off their feet. Rudy yelled and scrambled away. His light flashed back and forth, and Jack caught a glimpse of a jagged shape occupying the space where they had been standing—just a fleeting, skeletal shadow before it slipped out of view again.

Rudy scrambled backward on his heels and elbows, kicking and shrieking. Jack saw flashes of a dark shape following him. And he could hear a sort of growling hiss along with the same clicking sound they’d heard earlier.

The thing pursued Rudy with jerky movements, and only when it paused momentarily was Jack able to finally train his own light on it. In that brief second, he saw it more clearly. It was crablike in appearance and enormous— about the size of a large dog—with what looked like a bony, armored shell. And it had multiple segmented legs like a crab, with two longer ones jutting forward. Then it reared back as if up on its haunches, with its front legs coiling like cobras ready to strike.

The creature flicked forward again, out of the light. Rudy’s scream jolted Jack out of his daze, and he jumped to his feet, looking around for something to use as a weapon. Just then another dark shape flashed through his beam.

It was Ben. He looked like he was carrying something. Jack thought it might’ve been a rock, but it was all happening too fast. Between Rudy screaming and the lights zipping back and forth across the cavern, Jack only managed to discern a flurry of movement and sounds. There was a loud, rattling hiss and three heavy thumps before his light caught up with the action again.

Jack found Rudy lying on his back, chest heaving, and Ben kneeling a few feet away with a large rock in front of him. Under the rock was a motionless, contorted mass of limbs.

Jack shone his light on Rudy. His pant leg was torn and a trail of blood dripped down his calf.

“You okay?” Jack said, but Rudy’s eyes looked as round as saucers and he gasped for breath. Jack raised his voice. “Rudy!”

Rudy blinked and snapped his head toward Jack. “I’m… I don’t know.”

“You’re bleeding.”