by A. L. Knorr
The sun passed behind a thick blanket of clouds, and my eye was drawn to a very faint glow emanating from between a cluster of fallen pillars. They were fat and white and leaning at dangerous angles, but even from a distance I could make out the faded markings on the pillars’ tops. The clouds passed by and the sun came out again. The faint glow disappeared in the bright light. I was sure I had seen it though, however weak.
“I do.” I grabbed Antoni’s hand and squeezed it. I pointed toward the rubble of the temple. “We’re going there.”
We hopped down from the boulder and picked our way through a narrow gully between broken red bricks. Antoni and I made it to the temple ruin first and waited for the rest to catch up. The sun was too bright to see the glow. But if I stood in the gap underneath the tripod of fallen pillars and let my eyes adjust, it was there. It was like someone had lit a candle with a blue flame deep in the interior.
“Don’t tell me we have to go in there,” Jozef said as he and my mom approached. “That’s why you’re sniffing in that hole, isn’t it? You think the gem is inside this temple?”
“It does fit the description Lusi gave us.” Antoni threw me an anxious glance, but he didn’t say anything about me making a beeline for it. “It even has a few blue threads, you just can’t see them unless you wipe away the dust.”
“Well, what are we waiting for?” Nike said. “It’s not that big, let’s see what’s inside.”
Nobody voiced what I was certain was on everyone’s mind––what if the whole thing collapsed on us? Could Petra keep us from being crushed? I looked at the Euroklydon’s face, the only face among us that was completely uncovered. She seemed unconcerned about entering the ancient hazard. That made me feel a little better.
“I’ll go first,” she said, nodding at me as she passed. And just like that, she ducked her head and crawled into the low triangular hole.
I followed, then Antoni and the rest of the party.
“Oh!” Petra exclaimed ahead of me as my eyes were still adjusting to the dark. “There’s light coming from somewhere.”
“Cracks in the ceiling…uh…roof?” ventured Jozef from behind.
“No, it’s coming from down, not up.”
“It’s the gem,” I replied.
Silence met this statement, until Mom found her voice first. “Are you sure, Targa?”
“It is a blue glow, if that helps,” Petra volunteered as she’d begun moving again. She was a dark shape ahead of me, faintly outlined with a dim teal light.
“That sounds about right.” Nike’s voice echoed through the narrow space. Footsteps scuffed along stone and gritted on the sandy layer that covered everything.
“Our aquamarines don’t glow,” Mom protested.
Someone bumped into someone else and I heard Jozef apologize and Emun tell him not to worry.
“Maybe because they’re not big enough,” I guessed, thinking of the large column the gemstones had been cut from and its considerable size. In the drawings there had been a ring of blue around the column, but I had thought that was artistic interpretation, not true-to-life.
Petra picked her way through an increasingly narrow passageway, which dropped away beneath us.
“Anybody claustrophobic?” I heard Emun ask.
A chorus of ‘no’s’ followed from most of the party.
Then Nike asked, “Why, are you claustrophobic?”
Jozef replied with a falsetto, “No.”
Everyone laughed at his high-pitch denial, and some of the tension broke.
Antoni sang the opening line to the Ghostbusters theme song, low and thickly accented, which made us laugh even more. Emun picked it up and the two of them serenaded us as we made our way deeper into the temple. Petra joined in with not a bad beat-box.
When they came to the end, Nike piped up. “I’ve obviously missed out on a lot while I was asleep. I’ve never heard music like that in my life.”
“You have no idea,” laughed Mom. “Jozef will force you to watch The Godfather, mark my words.”
“Hey, that’s a classic film. It’s a must!”
The crawling in the darkness had lulled my brain into a kind of relaxed thoughtlessness where I felt the heat growing against my face and listened to the chatter around me. So when Petra stopped suddenly, I bumped into her.
“Sorry,” I said.
“No worries. I’m just not sure which way to go. Any suggestions?”
We’d come to an intersection. Ahead of us lay a solid rock slab, a huge single monolith. To the right was a dark passageway full of jutting stones, crooked slabs of rock. To the left were what looked in the darkness like a set of well-worn steps. They descended and turned yet again.
Petra flicked off her flashlight and we waited for our eyes to adjust.
I could feel the heat before my eyes could see the glow.
“Left,” I said. “We have to go left.”
“You’re right. I see the glow now,” Petra added, and continued on.
The steps wound down in a large, squared-off spiral. After ten minutes of making our way down slowly in the dark Emun, was clearing his throat with nervousness.
Petra disappeared around the corner ahead of me, and a very impressed, “Wow!” floated back to the rest of us.
Taking the last corner, I saw what had impressed her. We’d entered a long room lined with pillars. Most of them were cracked, tilted, or even lying on their sides. The ceiling above us was compressed rock and earth. Ahead of us lay a flat-floored room covered in dirt, sand, rocks and rubble. Beyond the long room, which was more like a corridor between the pillars, was another pile of rubble, from behind which a strong blue glow was emanating.
Everyone spilled out of the stairway and stood in the huge corridor, staring.
“We found it,” Nike said, and there was a hitch in her voice. She came to stand shoulder to shoulder with me. I felt her hand on my lower back, warm and comforting.
Petra and I were the first to walk toward the glow, whose source we had not yet laid eyes on. It was then I noticed the gullies on either side of the walkway. Dark water reflected the light from Petra’s flashlight. Curious, I went to the edge and knelt for a better look. Putting my hand in the water made me laugh in surprise.
“It’s fresh groundwater!”
Mom came to join me to feel for herself, and Nike followed suit.
“It’s actually drinkable, how can that be?” Nike wondered aloud.
“It’s been filtered by the sediment. It’s moving a little bit,” I said. “Can you feel it?”
Both sirens nodded and then the three of us got to our feet.
The air was not exactly fresh, but it wasn’t as stale as you’d expect it to be being so far underground. I wondered if the air had circulated down here while Petra was blowing all that sand around.
We left many footprints in the dusty floor and as we drew close to the rubble at the end of the room, which I’d begun to think of it as a throne room, for reasons I couldn’t quite explain, the blue glow cast itself out to us.
I knelt in front of the rubble, near one of the gullies full of water. With a gentle sweep of my hand, I pulled the water from the gully up onto the floor. With a swirling motion, the water swept away a patch of the dirt, and when it drained back into the gully, I could see faded mosaics. I shone my flashlight beam on them and saw that the tile was arranged in a swirling wave pattern in many shades of blue tile. Here and there, aquamarine tiles glittered among the rest.
I stood again, and my stomach clenched as a wave of nausea and dizziness passed through me. Reaching for my water bottle, I took large swallows.
A low growling sound reverberated from the ruin around us, coming from nowhere and everywhere.
Everyone froze.
“Did you hear that?” Jozef reached a hand out for Mom and pulled her closer to him, as if she was the one who might need protecting.
We either nodded or murmured our agreement before the group fell silent again, listening.
“Mus
t have been rocks shifting overhead or something,” Antoni suggested uneasily. The sound hadn’t made me think of rocks rubbing against one another, but he could be right.
“That doesn’t really make me feel any better,” Emun replied, eyes lifting to the ceiling and moving along quickly, perhaps looking for a crack or falling dirt. But all overhead seemed solid and at peace.
Another, much louder growl, which clearly came from the direction of the blue glow, had us staggering backward and clustering together.
“Behind me,” Petra snapped. She had both palms out, fingers open, arms extended in front of her like they were weapons…which was exactly what they were.
The growl became a juicy, ripping roar. It almost sounded like someone trying to start a chainsaw. I couldn’t stop the involuntary yelp that tore from my throat, but I wasn’t the only one who cried out in horror.
From behind the rubble, snarling and snapping, jumped an honest-to-goodness, absolutely massive, actual flesh-and-blood two-headed dog.
Fifteen
Several screams and a couple of yells filled the cavern as the slavering beast landed on paws the size of dinner plates in front of us. Its heads lowered, it glared at us out of four red-brown eyes, lips peeled back from yellowish fangs.
“I’m seeing double!” yelled Emun. “Is anyone else seeing two heads?”
My hands and fingers were tense, preparing to use the water in the gullies to at least slow down the beast if it decided to leap on us. Petra’s hip bumped against mine as I stepped up beside her. No one spared a look anywhere but the dog.
“Definitely two heads,” Nike confirmed, sounding awfully calm for the circumstances.
“Just like the mosaic doormat,” I said, sounding far less relaxed. I mourned silently that my voice didn’t work on animals.
“What should we do now?” Mom stood just behind me, in front of Antoni and Jozef. The sirens, the Euroklydon and the triton made a barrier between the mad-looking animal and those without supernatural powers.
“We have to get past him.” My eyes never left the dog, who for the time being was not moving forward. He was frozen in an aggressive crouch, like he was prepared to spring. “He’s on guard.”
“Him?” Antoni called from behind me. Then a few moments later there was a confirmation. “Yep, that’s definitely a him.”
The four eyes of the dog’s heads darted from me to my mom, from Nike to Emun. My own eyes narrowed, noticing this. The beast never sent a gaze in anyone else’s direction. I didn’t know if it was because we were in front, or if it was for another reason.
“Jozef.” I fought to keep my voice low and calm.
“Yes, Targa,” he replied in the same strained tone, somewhere off to my left and behind me.
“You, Antoni, and Petra, move to the right. Everyone else, move left.”
“Why?”
“Please, just do it.” My eyes were glued to the massive animal.
There was a shuffling sound as we began to move, always facing front. The dog gave a fresh growl and one head lowered and the other raised, but both heads kept their eyes on those of us who moved left.
“He doesn’t like Mer,” Mom said in wonder. “Smart girl, Targa. How did you know that?”
“It was just a guess. Mer move back.”
Mom, Nike, Emun, and I took several paces back. My heart was sprinting in my chest. I reminded myself that Petra had the most effective power in this situation. If the beast decided to attack, at least she was in front of Antoni and Jozef.
The eyes remained on us, even as Petra, Jozef, and Antoni moved forward a step.
The growling ceased the farther back we went. Then, remarkably, the dog sat on its haunches and closed its mouths. In such a posture, it looked harmless and relaxed.
“Will you look at that,” Jozef wondered. He looked back at Mom and gave a grin. “Boy, he really doesn’t like you guys.”
“We noticed,” Mom replied, tightly.
Petra knelt and put her hand out in a supplicating gesture. She made a low whistle and spoke in soothing tones. “Hey boy, it’s okay. We don’t mean you any harm.”
The dog finally tore his gaze away from us and looked over at where Petra knelt, Antoni and Jozef huddled behind her. He stared at Petra but made no move to approach. One of the heads began to pant, and a long red tongue lolled out of one mouth in a grin.
Jozef moved forward slowly, his hands down and open as well.
The dog gave a low whine in its throat, like a whistle of wanting. His thick black tail made a thump against the stones.
“You’re just a big softie aren’t you,” Jozef said as he moved in front of Petra.
“Be careful, Jozef,” Mom warned.
“I think he likes me,” Jozef replied, a smile in his voice. “I always liked dogs, though my father never let us get one because we traveled too much.”
I didn’t bother to point out that this was no normal dog. Not only was it equipped with two heads and two sets of powerful jaws, the only way it could be alive down here was by magic.
The dog gave another whine and went down on his elbows, his big brown eyes now on Jozef as he moved forward. One head rested its chin on the stone while the other remained perked, ears up.
Jozef was close enough to touch the dog now.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea, Jozef,” I said.
“It’s fine,” he replied. And without hesitation, he crouched before the dog and lay a hand on one of the heads. The massive head actually twisted to the side to sniff Jozef’s hands and the tongue snaked out and licked him.
“He’s a completely different animal, now. Look a that,” Nike said from where the three of us sirens now stood with Emun, our arms at our sides.
The dog suddenly flopped over on his side and made a playful kick at Jozef, an apparent request for a belly rub. Jozef laughed and obliged. The dog began to groan with pleasure deep in his throat. The groaning became a sad whine as the dog groveled for more love, putting one head in Jozef’s lap while the other reached up to lick Jozef’s face. It was a pitiful display from an incredibly lonely animal and it moved my heart.
“How long have you been down here all by yourself?” Jozef asked the animal, his voice suffused with sympathy.
“He’s immortal,” suggested Nike. “There’s no easy way out of here for a dog.”
“The dog on those old mosaics was two-headed,” Petra reminded us. “He must be a remaining beast of Atlantis. He stayed when the city was destroyed, somehow surviving on his own.”
“If you’re right, then he’s been down here all alone for thousands of years,” said Emun. “With nothing but groundwater to sustain him.”
“Definitely a magical creature,” murmured Jozef in a goofy tone, talking more to the dog than anyone else. “Aren’t you?”
The dog gave another groan of pleasure as Jozef scratched his furry tummy.
“You know you can’t bring him home with you, right?” Mom said with a laugh in her voice.
Jozef looked up at her and made a pouty face.
“Great, so we’ve made friends with an immortal two-headed dog.” I clearly had to bring us all back to reality in this strange situation. “But I have to get to the gem. What’s he going to do if I…”
I moved forward a few steps.
Immediately the two heads found me and began to growl. The dog rolled back to his feet and he rose to a low crouch. Lips were drawn back, fangs exposed.
I took a few steps back and he stopped growling.
“This is a problem,” I said.
“It doesn’t have to be.” Petra had moved closer to the dog and was now patting him alongside Jozef. “I can contain him. He might lose his mind, but he can do it inside of a force-field he can’t get out of.”
“That’s awful.” Jozef looked over at Petra, alarmed.
“It’s better than killing him,” I said. “We wouldn’t want that.”
Jozef dipped his head in agreement.
“Go
ahead, then.” I looked at Petra. “Do the Euroklydon.”
Petra made Jozef move back. Standing up, she put her hands out wide, palms facing one another. A low hum filled the cavern. Petra nodded at me.
“You can go ahead now, Targa,” she said, but her voice was muffled, barely audible.
“Whoa,” Antoni looked from Petra to me. “Did she just speak? I didn’t hear a thing but her lips were moving.”
“I heard her,” said Jozef. “She’s inside the forcefield with the dog.”
“What if it turns and attacks her?” Nike voiced the same fear I was having.
Petra shook her head and mouthed, “He won’t.”
I took a few steps toward the blue glowing ruin and the dog leapt to his feet snarling and snapping. I could hear him, but just barely.
I kept walking and the dog took a run toward me, crouched and sprang. I couldn’t help but stagger back, not knowing where the edge of the force-field was. The dog hit the invisible barrier, fur and tongue plastering as if against glass. A slobber mark remained visible on the field as the dog slid down the side of its curved surface. The dog shook itself, confused and startled but unhurt. He rallied quickly and made another leap, but by then I was well beyond him. Nike, Mom, and Emun followed me. Antoni joined us when he realized it had worked.
“Shall I stay here then, with Petra and the pup?” Jozef called.
“Sure.” Mom answered as we navigated our way around the pile of rubble. “The pup. He’s completely enamored,” she muttered. “That’s not going to end well.”
“Poor Petra,” Antoni said, picking his way across the rough terrain.
“She’ll be all right,” Emun said.
Heat blasted against my face as I cleared the rubble and entered a chamber filled with the teal glow. The source of the blue glow came into view. It stole the words from my mouth and the breath from my lungs.
A colossal aquamarine crystal sat in the middle of the space. The center of the crystal was dim and shadowed, and the glow was brightest where the crystals were thinnest. Fingers of the bright blue gem––varying in widths from as narrow as a pinky to as thick as a pillar––extended out in all directions like a starburst. Though it threw a blue glow, the entire crystal was coated with dust.
