Child of Fire

I looked up from the rocks I’d been navigating. Hammer had vanished. Cursing furiously, I tried to rush toward the spot where I’d seen him last. I hoped he had entered a cave or fallen down a well. If he had turned invisible or something, I really was out of my league, and I was headed in the wrong direction.

But I kept going forward, hopping from rock to rock, occasionally looking up to see if he had reappeared from behind some low hill of stones.

I jumped over a rock and stumbled across a flat pile of stones. It was a collapsed wall, and I could see a piece of gray, pitted wooden furniture jutting out from behind the rocks. Beside it was a small pile of broken crockery. I was standing on the collapsed castle.

I hopped the last few rocks to the spot where Hammer had vanished. Nothing. I couldn’t see a thing there, except for a strip of faded red cloth and a smashed grandfather clock that had spent decades exposed to the weather. I looked all around. If he had turned invisible, he could come right up behind me and burn me to a cinder before I even knew he was there.

I noticed an open spot between two of the rocks. I leaped toward it.

And there it was. I was standing at the top of a stone stairwell that led down into the earth.

I leaped onto the stairs and started down. After about ten feet, the smooth gray stone walls became jagged cave. It quickly became very dark, and I didn’t have any sort of light. Again I was reminded of Annalise’s warning, and again I shut it out. She had just saved my life. I wasn’t going to let this guy go.

I slowed a bit. The light became more dim. I could still see, but not well. How much farther?

I reached the bottom of the stairs. There were two tunnels, one off to my left, another to the right. I listened for the sound of Hammer’s footsteps, but I couldn’t hear anything except the ocean.

Damn. Which way? One tunnel went almost directly south, the other went west-northwest. The latter led toward a section of the collapsed building; the former led away from it. There were good reasons for choosing either.

I noticed a glimmer on the wall. It was the silver wire. It ran just below the ceiling and vanished into the darkness of the northwest tunnel. I reached up and ran my fingers over it, feeling the rusted U of iron that held it in place against the stone.

I followed it. As I moved into the darkness, I put the ghost knife into my pocket and slung the gun over my back. I trailed my left hand along the wire, making sure that it didn’t turn down some unseen tunnel or vanish into a rock wall. I held my right hand in front of me and stumbled down the cave.

The floor was about as flat and smooth as a path in the forest, which was better than I expected. I wasn’t sure if it was man-made or not. I had no way to know; I was just grateful that I didn’t have to climb over jagged rocks in the dark.

The ground sloped upward, then turned downward again. Before I went below the edge of the slope, I turned around and looked at the entrance to the tunnel behind me. The golden sunlight of the afternoon still glowed there. I turned around and went down into the dark.

Moving through that tunnel was slow work. It annoyed me that I couldn’t hear anything but ocean sounds echoing off the stone. I wanted to hear footsteps or the sounds of Hammer cursing as he bumped his head in the dark. I wanted evidence that I was on the right path.

I followed the tunnel as it curved to the right, then to the left, and sloped down. I thought I might be somewhere under the house, but it was pointless to try to map my progress. I just kept my hand on the wire and continued.

I suddenly stepped in hot water. I yelped in fear and jumped backward, striking my head against something. I listened carefully. The ocean sounds were very loud.

I stepped forward. The water sloshed over my shoe and retreated, then washed up again. This was the ocean. The waves were washing back and forth along the tunnel. I waded into it for a couple of steps, getting wet up to my knees. Why was the water so hot? Maybe there was some sort of volcano nearby.

I waded out farther. The water was hot, but it wasn’t scalding. I told myself that some people spend a lot of money to submerge themselves in swirling hot water. The tunnel angled down and I quickly reached the point where it went under the water.

Damn. Had Hammer really gone this way? I didn’t want to drown down here in the dark, but this was where the silver wire led. I also hated the idea of letting Hammer go because I didn’t have the nerve to follow him. I took a deep breath, then another, then I ducked my head under the water and pulled myself along the rocks through the tunnel.

I didn’t open my eyes. What was the point when I couldn’t see anything out of the water, either? But I remembered all those little gray worms. I imagined them all around, trying to wriggle under my skin.

I tried to clear my mind. Too much imagination was not in my best interests right now. I kept moving, pulling myself along the bottom of the tunnel. My chest grew tight. If I didn’t find air, I was going to have to turn around very soon.

No. I was not going to turn around. I was going to reach the far side or I was going to drown here and rot. If Charles Hammer came this way, so could I.

Unless Hammer had magic that let him see in the dark and breathe underwater. Or unless he took the south tunnel, because this one had been blocked by the collapsing castle.

I didn’t want to think about that, because it was already too late to turn back.

My lungs were burning. I held on even though I knew it was too late. I had gone too far. I had gambled and lost.

I reached for the next rock, but it wasn’t there. I panicked, letting air bubble out of my mouth. Then I found a handhold a little farther away.

The cave was sloping upward again. I pulled myself along the rocks, praying that I wouldn’t slam my head against a stone and drown myself.