by R. L. King
Verity levitated the second lamp across the room and turned it on, adding even more light. “Well,” she said. “This place is freaky. It’s not every day you find a hidden ritual circle in your basement.”
Eddie didn’t answer. He had the fuzzed-out expression that indicated magical sight, and was carefully scanning the circle. After a few moments, he summoned a shield around himself and tentatively stepped across it, looking as if he thought something would jump him or zap him. When nothing did, he walked closer to the altar/pedestal and began examining the manacles. “Looks like somebody was sacrificed ’ere for sure,” he said soberly.
“Probably more than one,” Ward agreed, coming up next to him. “I don’t see any signs of magic now, but this is a classic sacrificial ritual configuration.”
“I’m not even gonna ask how you know that,” Jason said. “Don’t mind me—I’m just gonna take some pictures while you three get your magic geek on.”
“You two,” Verity corrected. “Eddie and Arthur are the experts. I’m mostly just the magical muscle. You take your photos, and I’ll keep an eye out for anything that might want to cause trouble.”
By now, Jason had grown used to the fact that in situations like this, his small, slim younger sister was a far more effective protector than he was with his strength and his mundane weapons. It still bothered him a bit, but it was what it was, and he had a job to do. He pulled out the video camera and began pacing the room, filming the walls, the circle, and the pedestal.
“Is it safe to come in there?” he asked Eddie and Ward, who were examining it more closely and muttering to each other. Eddie had a notebook open and was scribbling furiously on a page.
“What?” Eddie’s head snapped up. “Oh—uh, yeah, should be,” he said offhandedly, then returned to his discussion.
Verity must have noticed her brother’s look of dismay, because she gripped his arm. “Don’t mind them,” she said with a grin. “When they find something interesting to study, they make Doc look like the kid eating paste in the back row of class. Just ignore them and get your shots.”
“Yeah…” Jason gingerly stepped into the circle, letting his breath out when he made it safely. He took some video of the pedestal, the manacles, and the bloodstains, then pulled out his two still cameras and got some shots with both.
“Okay,” Eddie said twenty minutes later, snapping his notebook shut and stowing it in his satchel. “That’s about all we can get from this room right now—I’ll want to take a closer look later, but we’d best get a once-over of the whole area so we can get back before ol’ Stone’s ’ead pops off from curiosity. We can always come back for another look.”
His words relieved Jason. As uneasy as he felt down here, once he’d finished documenting the area he had little else to do but stand around waiting for the others to finish. “I assume we’re gonna stay together.”
“Oh, yes,” Ward said with an amused smile. “This is a scientific examination, not a horror movie.”
Verity laughed. “From what Ian said, it sounded kind of like a horror movie to me. I’m just glad we missed the spiders floating in blood.” She pointed at the open arch to the southeast hallway. “I think this is the one Doc looked at. Want to start there?”
“Might as well,” Eddie said. “We’ll start there and work our way ’round counterclockwise, ending up at the odd one to the south. If any of the chambers branch, we’ll leave those until after we’ve checked out all the main ones. Sound good?”
Without waiting for a reply, he headed toward the indicated archway, a light spell flaring around his hand. “Let’s save the torches in case we need ’em.”
Once again, Jason brought up the rear, glancing over his shoulder to make sure they hadn’t picked up any ghostly stragglers. Every minute they spent down here without anything attacking them increased his tension; he knew Stone believed the echoes posed a threat only to members of his own family, but he wasn’t basing that belief on too much evidence. Jason couldn’t help picturing a whole flock of echoes lining the hallways, watching with spectral amusement as they waited for their hapless prey to blunder into their trap.
As Stone had indicated, the hallway extended back around twenty feet, with several bricked alcoves lining both sides. None of the alcoves appeared disturbed; whatever had caused the heavy carved door to break obviously hadn’t affected them.
Eddie and Ward held up their light spells, each examining one of the alcoves. Verity paced around, peering at the others and keeping an eye on the end of the hallway.
“These look like burial or interment chambers,” Ward said, leaning in closer. “I don’t see any markings or writing on this one, with either magical or mundane sight. Do you, Eddie?”
“Nope. I think you’re right. My guess is they used these to hold the bodies from whatever sacrifices they were gettin’ up to out in the ritual room. Odd that they separated them, though—would have been easier to do some sort of mass interment.”
Jason snapped photos of several of the alcoves, but didn’t bother to get them all since they were essentially identical. As he walked up and down the hallway taking video, the chill that ran through him had nothing to do with the cold. Nobody had told him about Stone’s relatives conducting ritual human sacrifices, even though not only Eddie and Ward but Verity apparently knew it and had for quite some time. He knew it wasn’t fair to blame Stone for things his ancestors had done more than a century ago, but he still couldn’t help feeling…wrong about it. Almost as if he shouldn’t be here, his presence violating the dignity of these unfortunate victims yet again.
“Should we break one of these open?” Verity asked. “See what’s inside?”
“I think we know what’s inside,” Ward said gently. “As much as I’d like to verify our hypothesis, ethically I’m not sure we should be breaking open burial chambers to satisfy our curiosity.”
“Let’s keep going,” Eddie said. He sounded disappointed, but also resolute, as if he agreed with Ward. “Maybe we’ll get lucky in one of the other ’alls and find one that’s already crumbled. Brickwork like this can get a bit fragile as time goes on, so if there’s been any sort of seismic disturbance…” He let that trail off as he exited back into the circular chamber.
The next two hallways, to the northeast and northwest, looked identical to the first one: roughly twenty feet long, lined on both sides with more sealed brick alcoves. All of them were intact, to Eddie and Ward’s obvious dismay. Jason dutifully took photos while the mages scanned for magical anomalies, any carvings or writing, or anything else out of the ordinary.
“I guess it’s good these don’t branch,” Verity said. She still looked interested in the proceedings, but Jason noticed that, like him, she appeared to be getting impatient with Eddie and Ward’s slower progress as they paused to study everything along the hallways. “How many of these little chambers have we found so far?”
“Thirty-two,” Eddie said, looking up from his notebook.
Thirty-two. Jason suppressed an involuntary shudder. If the mages were right and each one of the niches contained a body, that meant Stone’s ancestors had murdered nearly three dozen people to power their unholy rituals. That also assumed they were correct that each alcove housed only one body, and they still had one remaining hallway to examine before they checked out the one with the formerly sealed vault.
Verity touched his arm. “You okay?”
He started to say he was fine, then glanced at Eddie and Ward at the other end of the hallway and shook his head. “I’m not sure. This is…why didn’t you tell me about this? About Al’s relatives performing human sacrifices?”
She looked down. “I don’t know. It wasn’t really my thing to tell, I guess. I know he’s really upset about it—ever since he found out last year, he’s had trouble coming to terms with it. I don’t think he wants anyone else to know. The only reason Eddie and Arthur do is because he asked them to research his family line and they turned up some bad stuff.”
&nbs
p; When he still looked troubled, she touched his arm to stop him as Eddie and Ward continued on to what was presumably the final hallway of alcoves. “There’s something else, isn’t there?”
“Isn’t that enough?” he asked with some bitterness. He didn’t want to say what else was on his mind aloud, but he knew perceptive Verity wouldn’t let him alone until he did. “But yeah, there is.”
“What is it?” She nodded toward the hallway. “We should go with them—I’m supposed to be helping with security if anything jumps out.”
“I know. We can go in a sec. But…V, if there really are a bunch of bodies buried under this house…somebody needs to know about it.”
Her expression suggested she’d already thought of that. “Yeah. It’d be like one of those mass Native American gravesites they discover sometimes back home. I’m not sure whether after all this time it would be considered a murder scene or an archaeological find, but either way…”
“Either way, the authorities have to be notified.”
“Doc’s not gonna like that.”
Jason didn’t answer. That was the crux of his dilemma. Verity was almost certainly correct: Stone wouldn’t want to let anybody know about any bodies they might find buried beneath his home. There would be no way to keep such a find quiet; once it got out, the place would be mobbed with police, reporters, researchers, and herds of curious lookie-loos trying to get a glimpse of the “murder house.” Shining that kind of public light on Stone and his affairs could cause him a lot of trouble, especially if any smart reporters started putting together the other pieces of his life.
But on the other hand, if there were remains in those nooks, they belonged to innocent human beings who’d been slaughtered by a monstrous family to serve their lust for power. Sure, Stone hadn’t had anything to do with it directly, but how much did that matter?
Verity took his hand. “Come on,” she said gently. “Let’s go. Maybe we’re wrong. Maybe there aren’t any bodies at all.”
“Oi, you two!” Eddie called from somewhere down the final hallway. “Come ’ave a look at this.”
They jogged over, avoiding the circle. Eddie and Ward stood back from one of the alcoves halfway down the hall. The light spells they held up illuminated the hallway itself, along with the outside of the nook.
Jason didn’t have to ask what they’d found; it was easy to see. Unlike all the other niches so far, this one’s brickwork had crumbled, uncovering the top two feet of space that had blocked whatever was inside.
“What’s in there?” Verity asked, excited.
“Didn’t look yet. Waited for you two.” It was obvious to everyone that it hadn’t been easy for him to wait even that short a time. “Get some photos, will you, Jason? Then we’ll shine the light inside and see what these things are ’idin’.”
Heart pounding, Jason quickly snapped off two photos each with the SLR and the digital, then stood back and trained the video camera on the black opening. “Okay, ready. Go for it.”
In the glare of the light spell, both Eddie’s and Ward’s faces showed both excitement and fear. Slowly, as if realizing this was a kind of reveal, they moved their glowing hands past the broken brickwork and lit up the space inside.
“Bloody hell…” Ward whispered.
Jason leaned in closer with the camera, and his grip tightened on it. “Shit…” he murmured.
He’d hoped they would find something other than human remains in the alcove; what he saw drove that hope away instantly. That part didn’t surprise him. But—
“Were they…chained up in there?” Verity peered over Eddie’s shoulder, face pale and eyes wide.
“Sure as ’ell looks like it.” The normally cheerful Eddie looked serious to the point of grimness.
For a moment, they did nothing but stare. The alcove, formed of the same stone floor and living rock walls as the rest of the chambers down here, extended back from the entrance around four feet. Attached to the rear walls with stout bolts were a set of heavy manacles, rusting now but still substantial.
Trapped in each of the manacles, skeletal hands and forearms dangled against the wall. Below them, the rest of the skeleton lay in disarray, barely held together by the decaying shreds of clothing.
Something cold began to grow in the pit of Jason’s stomach. “Wait a minute,” he said in a monotone. “Nobody would bother burying a body chained to a wall like that. If they shut them up in there like that, does that mean…”
“That they probably weren’t dead when they were interred,” Ward said. He sounded every bit as grim as Eddie had.
13
Jason sagged back against the opposite wall, letting the hand holding the camera drop. “You’re saying…they bricked people up down here alive?”
“Why would they do that?” Verity demanded. She’d gone even paler, and was still staring into the alcove with horror. “I thought they used all these people for human sacrifices, on that altar out there. That’s bad enough, but—”
Eddie took a step back, swiping his hand over his forehead and letting out a long breath. He exchanged a somber look with Ward. “I’ve got a theory…but I’m gonna keep it to m’self for the moment. We need to talk to Stone first.”
“Eddie…” Verity began.
He shook his head. “No, luv. Stone needs to ’ear this.”
“Should we go back, then?”
“Let’s take a look at the rest of his hallway, and the other one,” Ward said. “I’m not certain I want to come back down here any time soon once we leave.” He pulled a bottle of water from his satchel and took a healthy swallow.
Jason took a last look at the unfortunate pile of bones in the alcove before following the others. “It’s like that Poe story.”
“‘The Cask of Amontillado,’” Verity said. “Yeah. Except that guy only bricked one guy up in the wine cellar. Eddie,” she called, “I know you didn’t want to break any of the rest of these, but we should check at least one other. Maybe they’re not all like that.”
“Oh, so you think we just got lucky and found the one that is, then?”
She didn’t answer.
“I’ll put big money that there’s more than one,” Jason said. “At least now we know where the ghosts are coming from. I’d be pretty pissed too if somebody sealed me up in a hole while I was still alive.”
The sudden sound of something crumbling and hitting the ground, followed by Ward’s yelp of surprise, jerked their heads up.
“Arthur?” Verity called, hurrying down the hallway. “You okay?”
“I’m fine.” Ward sounded a bit breathless. “But—look at this.”
By the time they reached him, Eddie was already there. The two of them were staring in shocked horror at one of the alcoves at the end. As with the other one they’d found earlier, the mortar holding the bricks together at the top had eroded away, releasing the bricks and revealing a smaller hole. The broken pieces lay in the passageway.
“Did that just happen?” Jason demanded. “Just now?”
Ward nodded. “Just as I reached the end. They shifted and broke free.”
A chill ran up his spine, horror-movie visions of shuffling animated skeletons filling his mind. “Holy shit. Is something in there?” He gripped his baseball bat.
“I don’t think so,” Eddie said. “Don’t get yerselves all wound up about the walkin’ dead or summat. I don’t ’ear anything else. Probably just weak mortar breakin’ loose. ’Appens sometimes in places like this. It was likely ready to go, and Ward knocked it free walkin’ past. You eat a big breakfast today, Arthur?”
Ward ignored him, still staring at the alcove. “This one looks a bit different to the others.”
Jason and Verity hurried to join him, examining the final nook on the right side.
“You’re right,” Eddie said. “The bricks are a darker color. Maybe this one was done later.”
“Is there another body in it?” Verity asked.
Ward stuck his hand with its light spel
l in through the hole, which was much smaller this time, and peered after it. “I don’t see any bones or manacles,” he said after a moment. “It looks like there’s something on the floor, though. A box, perhaps? It’s hard to see.”
“Back up,” Jason said. “And hold that light up.” He shoved the video camera into Verity’s hands and drew the baseball bat all the way out of the makeshift sling he’d fashioned so he could carry it on his back. When neither Eddie nor Ward objected to his obvious intentions, he began poking at the bricks near the hole. He worked tentatively at first, but then applied more strength until he’d knocked out enough of the crumbling structure to make rough-edged hole around two feet in diameter. He stepped aside and re-holstered the bat. “Try that.”
Eddie and Ward moved back in, both holding light spells. “It is a box,” Eddie said. “Metal. Looks pretty ’eavy.”
“Should we bring it out?” Verity asked. “Doc will want to see it, I’m sure.”
“Yeah, probably.” He offered a self-deprecating grin. “Muscle was never my strong point, though, nor Ward’s neither. Care to do the honors?”
They backed off, and Verity took her place in front of the hole. She concentrated a moment, and everyone remained silent as she slowly levitated the substantial metal box up and out. Even so, she nearly dropped it before settling it to the floor. “Wow, that thing weighs a ton. I wonder what’s in there—gold bars or something?”
They all gathered around to peer at it. It was around three feet long by two high and two deep, made entirely of metal with more metal straps reinforcing its structure. Various symbols and sigils were etched into its top, sides, and front. A fist-sized padlock, its shackle as big around as a child’s finger, held a stout clasp shut. Although the whole thing showed minor rusting, it appeared in remarkably good shape for a box that had spent the last two hundred-plus years in a damp underground cavern.
“It might just be the box itself.” Ward crouched next to it, examining it with his light spell and then his expression fuzzed. “Interesting. It’s got both a heavy mundane lock and some kind of magical one.”
