It’s a trick, he thought. Orrus has managed to hypnotize me. He tried to rouse himself but couldn’t. He remained stuck in the dream and in the cavern.
“Where are you?” Orrus’s voice seemed to come from the air around Rob.
“I don’t know,” Emily repeated.
Rob turned to his right and found her there. She stood, her scaled skin glowing incandescently in the darkness. He wondered if that was how he could see in the pitch black of the cave, and if that was how he could see. When he looked at his own body, Rob found that he glowed as well.
“Are you alone?” Orrus asked.
“Rob is with me.”
Consternation tightened the cultist’s voice. “He should not be there with you, Emily.”
“I’m scared.”
“You’re above fear.”
“Not now. Now I’m afraid.”
Rob looked around, but Orrus was not there with them.
“Emily, you shouldn’t have him there with you.”
“I want him with me.”
“You shouldn’t—”
“No,” Emily said, shaking her head. “Rob is going to be here.”
“I’m going to be here,” Rob said. At least there, however they had gotten there, he could protect her. “Shove off and leave her alone, old man.”
“You don’t know what you’re doing, or what you’re risking,” Orrus said.
“I know you may be risking my sister’s life, and I may be the only one here who cares about that fact,” Rob growled. “Deal with it.”
“Emily, look around,” Orrus said. “Do you see the demon?”
“No.”
“Look for it. I can pull you back when you need to come out.”
Rob reached for his sister and closed his hand over her cold, scaly flesh. “Em, we shouldn’t be here.”
She looked up at him. Pain and fear were writ upon her features. “I have to find a way to stop this, Rob. The nightmares are growing worse. I…I see what the demon does. I saw it tear a hand from a man’s arm and give it to a woman. I have to know what the demon is and what it wants.” She paused. “Please.”
He relented, hurt to see his sister in such a bad way. The heavy weight of the pistol in his pocket reassured him a little. “All right, Em. We’ll have a go at this.” He drew the pistol.
“Look around,” Orrus said. “The demon has to be there somewhere. We need to know where you are. And we need to know what the demon seeks.”
“All right.” Emily looked around the barren earth, then pointed to the left, up an incline toward another tunnel. “That way.”
Rob trailed his sister through the underground chamber, quickly realizing it was even more vast than he’d first thought. He also understood that they were lost. There were no markings of any kind.
“Now down,” Emily said, turning and jogging to the right.
Rob followed her but lost his footing and skidded down the steep incline the last twenty feet. Bruised and battered, he heaved himself to his feet and struggled to get his breath back.
“Are you all right?” Emily asked.
“I’m fine.” Rob blew out a breath. “It was just steeper than it looked.”
“I know. Everything looks different here.” Emily took off again.
Doggedly, Rob followed. He didn’t know how far they’d come. “I think I know where we are, Em.”
“Where?” She paused and searched in all directions again. She looked frantic.
“If we haven’t left London”—And when did you ever think you’d say something like that? Rob asked himself—“then we have to be under it.”
“So?”
“Londinium. That’s where we have to be.”
Londinium was believed to be the ancient Roman city built on the north side of the River Thames. Rob had been fascinated by the archeological finds during the recent excavations. Just before the demons had arrived, archeologists had found a whole new section of the ancient city beneath the ruins of the aboveground sections.
Emily led the way through a twisting tunnel. This one held writing.
“Em, wait.” Rob turned to the wall, once more amazed at how well he could see.
“I’m letting you borrow my sight,” Emily said as she rejoined him. “That’s how you’re able to see in the dark.”
Rob looked at her. “You can see in the dark?”
“Yes,” she answered as if that were nothing.
Of course, seeing her pull fire from thin air was even more impressive. Rob didn’t pursue that line of thinking because it only made his scientifically trained mind hurt. Then again, the whole idea of demons did as well. Thinking of them as aliens from another dimension was only slightly easier because there were problems with that, too.
“Do you see the writing?” Rob pointed at the wall.
“Can you read it?” she asked.
“It’s Latin. Of course I can read it.” Rob studied the words. “This is called the Passage to the Land of the Dead.”
“Not exactly cheery, is it?”
Rob was sorry he’d drawn her attention to it. “No, it isn’t.”
“At least we won’t find Gollum down here,” she said brightly, and for a moment she was like the old Emily that Rob remembered. “Let’s hurry on, then. The sooner we’re done with this, the sooner we can be home.” She gave his hand a squeeze, then continued in the direction she was headed.
Only a few moments later, Rob discovered why the tunnel had been called the Passage to the Land of the Dead. Once they left the tunnel, they came out into a cavern filled with crypts. A small lake filled the center of it.
Gaping holes covered the surrounding walls. All of them held moldering skeletons. Some of the skeletons wore textile clothing, but others wore primitive armor. Many of them had bronze shields and weapons lying next to them.
“This place is an archeologist’s dream.” Rob walked over to one of the crypts, knelt down, and studied the skeleton and the weapons he found there.
“I don’t like it here.”
Hearing the anxiety in his sister’s voice, Rob looked up. “It’s all right, Em. These blokes are all done for.”
“They say the dead walk in London these days.” Emily wrapped her arms around herself as if she were suddenly chilled.
Rob had heard those stories, too. They’d been told
