“I’ve told you to wear shoes,” Tammy shook her head.
“I don’t like the shoes, but either way, that’s when the stone slid in and the door opened,” he explained as our eyes moved to his bare feet.
“That’s it then, there has to be another hidden area, no way someone would go to that much trouble just to have the stairs lead down to one little room,” Derek surmised, as he began pushing on the stones.
“Where did you learn to think like this?” I asked Derek, stepping in beside him, while pulling my sleeves down over my hands and began pushing the stones as well.
“It’s just webs,” he smiled.
“I know that. I just don’t want to get my hands all nasty,” I smirked. “Well, answer my question, who taught you to think this way?”
“Talk about changing the subject. It’s just common sense, and I pay attention to Jacob and Cates,” he smiled back over at me right as the wall gave way.
I screamed out, grabbing Derek’s shoulder, because the door didn’t just slide to one side; it split in two with the top half going back and up and the bottom half going back and down, with us hanging on to where the stone wall broke free at the top. We both lifted into the air like rag dolls, and the first thought that went through my head was the giant spiders, and I went wild. I let go and started slapping and kicked out, falling in the process, then went for the blade that Derek let me use. “Renee, what are you doing?” Tammy called out.
I screamed the words, “Kill it!” and the next thing I saw was Derek coming up off of the ground and felt something touch my arm. I rolled over ready to strike out with my blade and saw Fala lowering Derek to his feet. My head dropped back to the floor and my heart thumped hard in my chest.
“I was only trying to help,” Fala frowned down at me.
“I had no idea what had us,” I replied, taking his offered hand. “I done thought some spider came down and grabbed us.”
“You really are afraid of those things aren’t ya?” Derek asked as his grin grew.
“Just shut up. I’ve hated those things my whole life,” I cringed. “They just make my skin crawl.” I shook all over and started dusting myself off, more so to make sure there weren’t any little creepy crawlers hanging on.
“Surely you know there is no such thing as a spider big enough to pick up something our size, right?” Derek’s smile got wider as we both stepped out and over by Tanda.
“Yeah, well didn’t know about no shadow walkers, or werewolves either, but they’re damn sure real, aren’t they? No offence, sweetie, just making a point,” I said, touching Fala’s hand.
“If you two are finished, I think you should take a look at this,” Tammy said, as she and Tanda, peered into the room beyond the one we were standing in.
The three of us joined them and found the room to be much more inviting than the first. It wasn’t completely covered in the heavy webs, but they were draped over the furniture that filled the strange looking study of sorts. “What do you think it is?” Tammy asked, looking at me.
“I’m a country girl. I couldn’t begin to tell ya why someone would make a room like this down…well, in a place like this.”
Derek and Fala, both put a foot on the part of wall that had laid down, pushing on it to make sure it was solid, and wasn’t going to keep going to somewhere else unthinkable. They crossed the four-foot stone path first, and then we three girls followed one by one with them taking us by the hand, pulling us across with speed. We didn’t get five steps into the room when the wall began lifting itself off of the floor as the top came down to join it. Fala grabbed the bottom portion and pulled down with all of his might, as Derek swung his self over, yelling hurry to the rest of us.
Tammy froze, “There is no way that I will make it, just go.”
The wall was moving fast and more than halfway up, Derek had Tanda and was about to pull her over. “Don’t Derek, we’ll find another way out, drop her,” I yelled. Fala reached out and wrapped his arm around Tanda’s waist and set her back, while Derek dropped down to the floor in the room with us.
“Did you see how fast that thing closed?” he asked, shocked at the speed of the whole situation.
“That was real stupid. You guys could have reopened the door to get me out,” Tammy frowned, with one hand on her hip.
“I couldn’t leave you in here alone, what if it never opened again?” I replied, watching the thought take hold on her expression.
“One of us must have stepped on a trigger. Maybe if we can find it, the wall will open back up?” Tanda started tapping her foot on the tiles that covered the floor.
“Might as well check it out now that we’re here,” Derek added, looking at the painting on the wall behind the desk at the back of the room.
Chapter Twelve
Meanwhile, the others were making their way up the base of the mountain. Cates was in the lead, with Jacob now bringing up the rear. The terrain was treacherous; boulders hung precariously over their heads as they maneuvered around them, leaving small stones raining down on the earth below. Sydney was having the best time he’d ever had since he became a breeder. He absolutely loved adventure when it came to nature and climbing was one of the things he enjoyed--second to his love of sailing. He made the rest look as if they were struggling, while he eased around, knowing where to grip the stones and to place his feet. It was one of the reasons that Jacob had gone down and got behind him, because he had observed how he moved when he looked back to check on him and Garvin.
Jacob was getting the idea by watching Sydney’s placement and his trip up the side of the stone face became a better experience. Jacob and Cates had made their way up more mountains than Jacob cared to think about, but seeing a skill that he had never witnessed showed him that the others indeed had a great deal to offer in what he thought was an already well taught form. Cates moved well, with speed as well as accuracy due to the strength in his legs and his one massive arm. There were times when he dug into the earth with his nub elbow to lift himself up onto a large boulder that had no other way to go around.
“Look,” Garvin called out, pointing up. “There it is.”
“It is a castle,” Sydney said, getting a grip and leaning back.
“Keep moving,” Jacob called up, catching up to Sydney.
Thirty minutes had passed when Cates broke the top and pulled himself over onto a flat piece of grass-covered land. He waved back down for them to hurry, seeing the fog beneath them like a white rolling sea just waiting for one to fall into its endless swirling abyss. Cates stood and looked up at the some fifty feet of stone wall, shaking his head. “Glad we don’t have to go over that,” he said out loud, then leaned over in time to have Garvin’s head pop up. “You could have scared me right off of here. You little ones move fast,” Cates smiled, grabbing him by the hand and bringing him up, setting him down beside himself.
“Look how Sydney moves,” Garvin said, leaning over, watching him and Jacob come up the last few feet. “He moves like he is one with the mountain.”
“It looks like Master Jacob has picked up a thing or two following him.”
Jacob was holding on by one hand looking for another place to grab when the stone he was holding began to slip. Sydney heard the smaller stones cascading down and turned to see what was happening. “Swing to your left and grab the lower ledge,” he called out then head back down. Jacob saw what he was talking about and began swinging his legs. Sydney was moving with a speed none of the others would dare use on such a steep terrain, but it was Jacob’s life he was worried about, not his own. The stone came free and Jacob scrabbled to grip anything to keep from falling to his certain death when he felt flesh grip his wrist. “I have you. Now swing your legs,” Sydney called out, holding the stone above his head with the other hand.
Jacob reached out, took hold of the ledge that stuck out no more than two inches, dug his nails in, and let go of Sydney to better his grip with both hands. Sydney maneuvered his way right above Jacob and lowe
red himself enough so that he could have Jacob reach up and grab hold of his feet. At first Jacob refused, thinking he would pull them both down, until Sydney convinced him that he had been doing this sort of thing most of the youthful part of his life, and he would not put either at risk of falling. “I will lift my legs enough for you to get a good foothold on the rock just a bit more to your left, then you can climb the rest yourself,” Sydney explained, lowering one foot down to Jacob’s hand.
Sydney lifted, feeling the strain of Jacob’s weight on his finger tips that were holding the rough texture of the stone. Jacob pulled up with his other hand, swung out one foot, placed it on the firmly planted rock to his left, and relieved Sydney of his extra weight. “Thank you, my friend. You must show me this skill at a better time,” Jacob smiled up at the face smiling back down at him.
“My pleasure. I learned rock climbing in the foothills of the Guadalupe Mountains in New Mexico. Of course, we would have never tried this at night,” he laughed.
“Yes, but your eyes were not half as good and your strength was nothing compared. You are a fine soldier,” Jacob replied, pulling himself even with Sydney. “You saved my life, and I will not forget that. Not many would have placed themselves in the kind of position that you just did. I am grateful for your courage.”
“You would have never left me or any of the rest of us on the ledge. Who do you think I’m learning from?”
“I believe we are all learning from each other,” Jacob said as they moved up the face of the mountain side by side.
Cates grabbed Jacob’s hand, while Garvin took Sydney’s. Once they were all standing on solid ground, Cates nodded once to Jacob and put his hand on his shoulder, then nodded again and walked over to the castle wall. It was apparent that he had been more worried than even he had known, until seeing Jacob face to face. Garvin just shook his head, and pulled Sydney into a hug telling him how very proud he was of his bravery. He told him he couldn’t be more proud if he was his own son, getting a weird look from Sydney.
“It’s true. I do feel like you are my son,” Garvin said, nodding as if saying it twice so Sydney could see it as well as hear his meaning.
“I’m not saying that that doesn’t make me feel good, it’s just I look older than you,” he snorted. “I could be your older brother.”
“That is true, but I have lived on this earth for more than sixty nine years, and could have had many children had I not been…” he paused, “like this.”
“You are both in the mother’s womb if we speak of age,” Cates turned, leaning on the wall.
“And how old were you when your maker brought you over? It is easy to see that you are old enough to have had many babies,” Jacob smirked, walking over to the big man.
“And more than likely did. A man with looks as fine as mine lay with many a wench before and after battle, so I’ll excuse the remark about my age, tiny one,” he replied, reaching out, grabbing Jacob by the neck and bringing him into a head lock. “One handed, and I’m still faster than you.”
Jacob turned, bent his back over and walked up the wall, while taking hold of Cates’ wrist then kicked off flipping over the big man, taking him down to his knees with his arm bent at a bad angle. “I may be small and not near as fast, but I am agile,” Jacob laughed, releasing his wrist and helping him back up.
Cates smiled, shaking his head, dusting off his knees, then turned around and looked at the wall behind him. “I never did understand how you made such good use with something as flat as a stone wall.”
“I got tired of my teacher tossing me into them, so I learned to use them for something else.”
“Shall we make our way to the gates?” Cates stretched his arms above his head, looking somewhat lopsided.
“As long as we can take the road back down,” Garvin replied, following behind Cates and Jacob with Sydney right behind him.
“If all looks clear, I believe we may, Garvin… I believe we may,” Jacob laughed, checking to make sure that all of his weapons were still in place.
The wall around the castle was breathtakingly large, in height as well as in length. It seemed that more time passed getting around two sides of the massive enclosure then it did climbing the face of the mountain. But they were now looking down the front of the castle wall for the first time. The front stood out in an archway giving several feet of wall to hide beside, which is exactly what they did. All four ran swiftly to the ‘L’ shaped bend. Jacob got down on his stomach and peered around from the bottom of the gate looking up, while the others stayed as close to the wall as they could. Jacob stood joining them, shaking his head, then began making his way around the edge. The castle was protected by a wooden gate that filled the archway from top to bottom, with beams as thick as tree trunks. Two oil burning lights, hanging from the entrance post lit up the front of the gate in a dim light, and each post had a black wrought iron bench that circled it.
“Where do we look for the note?” Garvin whispered, barely loud enough to be heard.
“Spread out, but stay low and in the shadows,” Jacob replied with the same type of tone.
The gate made a creaking sound and all four dove out of sight; two went back to the side of the wall, and the other two slid down in the shrubbery on the other side, teetering on the edge of the mountain. The only two that could see who was coming out of the gate's entrance were Cates and Sydney from their place among the shrubs. It was a slender young man with long dark hair, looking around as if he was frightened. He stepped out, slowly, closed the smaller door on the enormous gate just enough to not be noticed, then dashed out and slid something under the bench by the left light post, and made his way back in much faster than he came out.
“Must be close to midnight,” Cates whispered, getting to his knees and looking back behind them. “Two more big steps...” Then he just shook his head.
Cates waited until he saw Jacob look around the corner before he ran back to where he and Garvin were; a few seconds later Sydney joined them with the silk wrapped contents in his hands. “We saw the boy put it under the bench,” he said softly, handing it to Jacob. They decided it would be best to make their way back down the rocky outcrop by the road that led back down before opening the note and taking the chance of getting caught.
***
The painting was of a man, sitting in a high-back chair with his legs crossed, wearing clothes like the photos that I had seen in the history books with Napoleon Bonaparte in them. The red jacket went up to the bottom of his ears with white ruffles that spilled over. Brass buttons adorned both sides of the jacket, and the tops of the shoulders were covered in golden emblems of some kind. His hair was short and slicked forward, with small curls about his forehead; his eyes looked out to the side, staring straight at us.
“Wonder how old he was?” I said, as if any of us would know.
“No one signed it,” Tammy said, examining the painting closer. “Nothing, not even a scribble.”
“I can’t say the desk is empty, but it’s not papers in here,” Derek said, looking down into the drawer that he had just pulled open.
Because he never gave us any more information, Tammy and I turned around to see as Tanda leaned over the front of the desk, and stepped back just as fast. Bones filled the drawer, almost to the top. And not just any bones. Small, tiny bones that Tammy said looked like finger bones of small individuals, or worse, children. Once Derek heard the word children he closed the drawer, and opened the one to the right of him, and found the same thing. “Whoever that is in the painting, was one sick son-of-a-bitch if this was his desk.” Derek slammed the second drawer shut.
“Here, a fake wall,” Fala called out from the far left side of the room.
“What do you mean fake, Fala?” I asked, watching Derek go to him, while the the rest of us stood back.
“It is not solid stone, like the others. It is only painted to look as if it is.”
“It’s wood,” Derek looked back amazed after tapping it. “Wonder what
’s behind it?”
“You really think we should go further, instead of trying to get that real wall to come back down so we can get out?” I inquired, walking over, running my hand over the wooden wall that truly looked just like the stone.
“We came down here to explore this place, so let’s explore.” Derek put his back to the wall and pushed, to no avail.
“Why go through the trouble to make it look like the other walls to have it just push open?” Fala asked, looking strangely at Derek.
“So, you think there’s some kind of switch?”
“I do. If my strength did not move the wall…” Fala paused, glancing over at me, then back at Tammy and Tanda. “Then there is no way that you will move it…no offence.”
“You’ve been hearing that ‘no offence’ term too much,” Derek smiled, dusting off his backside. “And you’re right. So why ya just standing there big boy? Look for a switch.”
Fala stood a foot taller as a smile of pride gleamed in his eyes. To be told he was learning from the others was one thing, but to be told he was right and treated as an equal was bringing back the proud Indian that his birth had meant him to be. Fala’s tribe had been contained to the forest by the coast, and his home had all but been taken over by the crazed mind of his Chief’s wildest family member. The very one that placed the others at constant arm’s length into harm’s way, had driven the heart and soul from his people. Until we showed up and became entangled, getting him and his fellow men as a gift, of sorts, from the Chief, and eldest, of his werewolf clan. Had it not been a show of disrespect to turn down his offer, I would have refused and missed out on gaining a dear friend…not to mention, when the time came he was a huge part of letting a handful of hungry foxes loose in a chicken coop. And we were the foxes.
Bloodbreeders: Lies Beneath London Page 10
