by Linsey Hall
Bree grinned at me. “Duh, nerd.”
I stuck my tongue out at her, then sprinted toward the basin once more, unscrewing the cap of the plastic jug. I wasn’t entirely sure of what I was doing—or if it would work—but it seemed like the most obvious thing right now.
When I reached the basin, I poured the entire gallon into it. The ground sucked it right up.
Shit.
“Did it work?” Rowan shouted.
“I don’t know!” I shouted.
“I think it did,” Lachlan said. “Look there.”
I turned to see him pointing at the tip of the leaf. The indention in the stone that formed the outline of the leaf turned green slowly.
Heck yeah. It was working.
“Hurry it up!” Rowan shouted. “Get back here.”
“See, now you’re giving her shit,” Bree said.
“You started too soon.” Rowan snickered. “Timing is everything in shit giving.”
I laughed as I sprinted to the buggy, leaping onto the edge of a tire and pulling myself up onto the back platform. By the time I turned back to the leaf, the entire thing was green.
“I think our job is done here,” I said. “Let’s move on to the sapling and do this in order.”
“Whatever this is,” Rowan said.
“Your guess is as good as mine.” I squinted toward the wall that was now only a couple hundred yards away. “But I think we’re completing a task or answering some kind of riddle that will open a passage through that wall.”
“Makes sense,” Bree said. “That’s how this stuff normally works, anyway.” She pointed to the right. “Go that way. The sapling is over there.”
Bree directed the buggy toward the sapling, and I squinted toward it, trying to make out the shape. The glyphs were so large that they were better when seen from the air, that was for damned sure. If Bree hadn’t been up there to figure this out, the task would have taken a lot longer. It was still nearly impossible to make out the shape from this angle, especially since the sapling was a lot bigger and more complicated than the seed.
“Quick thinking,” Lachlan said. “With the water.”
“Thanks. Hopefully they don’t all want water, though. We need it for ourselves.” I was already feeling parched from the heat.
We neared the sapling, and Bree jumped off before the buggy came to a complete stop. “I’ve got this one!”
I watched her sprint to the middle of the sapling. She could have flown, but sometimes it was smart to do things in the normal way. Sacrifices had to be made, after all, and walking across the scorching ground qualified as far as I was concerned.
Bree inspected the center of the sapling for only a few moments before returning, her face red from the heat. “Dirt, I think. It wants dark, rich dirt.”
“Where the hell will we get that?” Rowan asked.
Something tugged in my chest. My druid sense, maybe. Or the new connection I was feeling with the earth. I couldn’t explain it, but I knew.
“I have an idea,” I said. “Drive us about a quarter mile away, that way.” I pointed.
Bree jumped onto the front platform, and Rowan lay on the gas, directing the buggy.
“What are you going to do?” Lachlan asked.
“There’s good dirt under us. I can feel it.” I called on my power over the earth, opening a small crack in the ground. It reached deep, going dozens of meters down.
“Normally, dirt doesn’t form so far down, under rocks, does it?” Rowan asked.
“Beats me,” I said. “But I think you’re right. This is weird. It’s still there, though. I can feel it.”
“New power?” Bree asked.
“I think so. A connection with the earth. Knowing and understanding what’s around me, that kind of thing.” I felt the cold dark earth as soon as my magically created crevice reached it. “Bingo.”
“It’s here because the challenge wouldn’t be possible without it,” Lachlan said.
“Thank fates that Ana can do the heavy lifting, then.” Bree grinned.
I leaned over the edge of the platform, commanding the dirt to rise, a small clod of it drifting out of the earth and up toward my hand. It was even easier than the water. Practice made perfect, after all.
When the dirt hovered right in front of me, I grabbed the cool dark lump.
“Nice,” Rowan said.
I grinned and handed it to Bree. “You should do the honors.”
She took it. “Delighted.”
Rowan drove us back to the huge carving of the sapling and dropped Bree off. My sister sprinted toward the center and bent to lay the clod of dirt into an indentation.
Immediately, the inscribed lines in the ground began to turn green. Bree sprinted back toward us, climbing onto the front platform to watch the show. It was even easier to see the shape of the sapling like this. Within a minute, the sapling was completely green.
“I like this,” Bree said. “Like we’re bringing life back to the valley.”
“There’s more life here than there appears to be,” I said. Even though the land was parched and the only water was riddled with salt, Death Valley was full of life. “Different than what we’re used to, but full of it nonetheless.”
In the middle of the day, most of it wasn’t out and about. It was too hot and full of monsters. But at night, this place came alive.
“You’re right,” Bree said, a thoughtful tone to her voice. “This place is full of hidden secrets.”
“Enough of your philosophizing.” Rowan pressed on the gas. “We’ve got two more glyphs to light up.”
“Head to the left,” Bree said. “The tree is that way.”
Rowan directed us toward the tree and stopped at the edge. She turned the buggy off and climbed out. “This one is mine.”
She sprinted toward the middle. It took her only a second to interpret what the offering at the middle should be before she ran back.
“Fire!” she said.
“I’ve got this.” I climbed out of the buggy and ran toward the offering place. By now, it was clear that each of these offerings was meant to be one of the elements. Water, earth, fire. I’d bet that the next was wind.
As I neared, I called upon the flame that now resided inside me. The ball of fire burst to life in my hand, and I knelt by the burned-out indention in the stone, laying the fireball within. Immediately, magic sparked on the air.
By the time I reached the buggy, the tree was fully green.
After Bree drove us toward the pile of wood—the final glyph, the last stage of a tree’s life—Lachlan ran to the glyph to check it out.
As expected, he returned with one statement. “Wind, I think.”
“I figured.” I hopped out of the buggy and ran to the offering place. The indention in the middle of the stone looked like it’d been blasted out by a gust of wind.
So I repeated it, using my power over the elements to blast the center of the offering place with a fierce breeze.
When the magic sparked on the air, I cut off my own power and returned to the buggy.
“Nice work,” Lachlan said.
“Thanks. I think I’m really starting to master my magic.” A grin spread over my face, impossible to stop.
“Hey, check it out!” Rowan pointed.
The wall that blocked us from our goal began to shimmer again. A hole formed, an archway that was wide enough for the buggy to pass through.
“Heck yeah.” Bree grinned. “Let’s go.”
Rowan stepped on the gas and drove us toward the wall. As we neared, a chill ran over my spine. “There’s something different about this.”
I climbed over the back platform railing and crossed the two bench seats in the cockpit, then joined Bree on the front platform. Lines creased her forehead as she inspected the stone archway. It was rough-hewn and natural looking, a break in a wall that led to a totally new place.
“Uncle Joe never talked about anything like this,” Bree said. “And we sure as heck have
never seen it.”
I shivered. “No kidding.”
Rowan slowed the buggy. “Should I go through?”
I looked at Bree. Her face was paler than normal, but she nodded. “We don’t have much choice.”
She was right, but I didn’t like it. There was something weird about this new challenge, and I had a feeling that there was something seriously wrong with it.
5
The sense of foreboding didn’t disappear as Rowan drove us through the arch. When we arrived on the other side and the whole valley looked almost the same as when we’d left it, I was almost surprised.
Except that the air felt different, I realized. Like we were in another realm. Death Valley but not.
“I was expecting something worse,” Rowan said.
“Perhaps it has yet to reveal itself,” Lachlan said.
I thought he was probably right, but like Bree had said, we didn’t have much choice. This was the only way to get to Hider’s Haven and getting to the haven was the only way to save our friends and hopefully learn who’d abducted the rest of them.
“Keep going,” I said. “We’ll keep a wary eye out but be ready to hit the gas.”
“On it.” Rowan pressed the pedal, and we rolled forward, picking up speed. Slow enough to spot oncoming danger that might pop up, but not so slow that it was boring.
The sun pounded down as we went, and eventually I climbed into the cockpit to fish around for a couple gallons of water. I handed them around and we chugged.
Bree lowered a gallon jug and wiped her mouth. “I’ve gotten too used to Scotland already. It’s hot as blazes here.”
I swallowed and handed my jug to Lachlan. “No kidding. I’m losing my desert lizard skin.”
Lachlan shot me a confused look.
“You know, like sea legs. But for the desert,” I said.
Lachlan chuckled and drank.
Once I’d finished the water, I climbed back onto the platform and clipped off my safety harness once again.
The valley narrowed up ahead, with a great crevasse right in the middle. It plunged deep into the earth, a death trap if I’d ever seen one. There was a thin strip of land on either side, butting right up to the steep mountains that bordered the valley.
“Left or right?” Rowan asked.
“No idea,” I said. “Never seen anything like this.”
“Right it is, then.” Rowan directed the buggy toward the right, avoiding the deep gorge right in the middle. As we passed close by the mountain, I caught sight of a few caves scattered here and there.
“Cliff dwellings?” Lachlan asked.
“Maybe. Not as fancy as the ones in New Mexico, where they’ve got huge villages, but they’d do in a pinch.”
“There’s a big one up ahead.” Rowan pointed over the steering wheel, indicating a cave that was at ground level. The black maw opened up to the sunlight but revealed only darkness within.
“Uh, guys…” Nerves sounded in Bree’s voice. “Do you see the heads nailed around the outside of that cave?”
The hair on my arms stood on end as I squinted, trying to spot the heads that Bree could see with her eagle eyes. Eventually, I could. “Ah, crap. Now I do.”
“Me too,” Rowan said. “I was hoping you were screwing with us.”
“Would I screw around about severed heads?”
“Yeah,” Rowan and I said in unison.
“Fine. I would. But I’m not, as you can see.”
“Unfortunately.” I looked at Rowan. “What do you say? Want to try to speed by it?”
“We can try, but when has that ever worked in the valley?”
“Just about never,” I said. “But there’s a first time for everything.”
“I like how you think.” She pressed her foot on the gas, and Mini Mouse sped forward.
I glanced at Lachlan, who stood with total confidence on the back of the speeding buggy. He looked like he’d been born to ride Death Valley.
Had to admit, I liked that.
I turned back to the cave. We were nearly there, only a hundred yards away now.
“Shit, I hear footsteps,” Bree said. “Big ones.”
As soon as she said it, a massive giant appeared at the mouth of the cave. He was fifty feet tall if he was an inch, with a squashed face and dirty hair. Small horns protruded from the tangled mess, and his worn-down teeth looked like he used them to chomp bones. He wore a bright white robe edged in red, along with leather sandals.
Chills raced over me, and not because of his size. “He looks like a freaking Roman.”
“The Fates,” Lachlan said.
It couldn’t possibly be a coincidence. A Roman giant shouldn’t be here. This place was full of Native American mythical monsters, not Roman.
The giant opened his mouth and expelled a massive blast of fire and smoke right at us.
Ah, shit.
Rowan stomped on the brakes, and I flew into the safety bars in front of me, pain flaring in my ribs. The fire plowed into the ground in front of us, heat searing my face. The car stopped dead, right before we were burnt to a crisp.
Fire breath. That was the giveaway. He had to be Cacus, the fire-breathing giant who had fought Hercules.
Bree’s magic swelled on the air, and thunder cracked. Lightning shot from the sky immediately, striking the giant on the head.
He laughed.
Then seemed to grow a couple feet taller.
“Crap, not doing that again!” Bree said.
“Don’t shoot him with fire, either,” Lachlan said. “He might like it.”
“I’ve got a plan!” Rowan jumped up, leaving the keys in the buggy. She pointed to some enormous boulders that sat perched precariously on the mountainside between us and the giant. “Knock those onto him.”
Before we could agree or discuss, she jumped out and ran for the demon. I unclipped my harness and scrambled into place behind the steering wheel.
“Ah, hell,” Bree muttered. “She wants to be bait.”
The giant took it, immediately. He lumbered toward her, clearly wanting to grab her up and maybe make a snack of her. But Rowan was fast. She darted circles around him, drawing him closer to the spot where I could use my earth magic to get the rocks to fall on him. Hopefully they weren’t too big.
The giant was stubborn, though, or lucky. He never got right where we needed him, and Rowan looked like she was tiring.
“I’ll help her.” Lachlan stepped forward, the pine scent of his magic filling my nose.
Immediately, the air cooled. Fog began to form around the giant, Lachlan using his weather magic to obscure the beast’s vision.
Soon, the area around the giant was completely surrounded by white. Lachlan kept the fog tight around the giant, so it was easy to see where he was, but the giant was blinded.
He roared, his rage shaking my bones, and spit a blast of fire and smoke that cut right through the fog and nearly turned Rowan into his dinner.
“Crap!” Bree’s wings flared behind her back, silver and bright. She crouched, then took off into the air. “Rowan! Back to the buggy!”
The giant was nearly to the spot right under the boulders, and Bree flew right for him. She was going to give him an extra little push. With her super strength, it’d probably do a hell of a job.
I called on my earth magic, getting ready to command the boulder. It flowed through me, strong and fierce.
The boulders proved to be difficult, though. They were massively heavy, which made it harder, but finally, I got a grip on them.
Just as Bree neared the fog-shrouded giant, she shifted in the air, flying with her feet out first. She kicked him square in the chest, sending him flying backward.
I used my magic to shove the boulders right off the cliff. They rolled down toward the giant, smashing into him and throwing him to the side.
Rowan was nearly to the buggy, now. She leapt up onto the front wheel and scrambled onto the platform.
I cranked the ignition. “Let
’s go!”
The buggy leapt forward when I pressed on the gas. Bree flew to join us and landed on the back platform with Lachlan. We zipped past the fallen giant, who was already rising to his feet.
“Faster!” Bree shouted.
I pressed harder on the pedal, begging the vehicle to pick up the pace.
We sped away, the tires eating up the ground, and the giant’s roar of rage followed us.
By the time we could no longer hear him, the adrenaline had faded and my muscles were trembling like crazy. I slowed the buggy a bit as we drove across a larger swath of land. The mountains were farther apart and the crevasse in the middle of the ground was gone—no doubt it had been there to force us near Cacus’s cave.
We had a moment of safety and quiet in the wide-open desert, and everyone collapsed, sitting on the platforms at the front and back.
Eventually, Bree and I traded spots, because she wanted to drive.
“What the hell was that?” Bree demanded. “How did the Fates get into Death Valley?”
“We don’t know it was them. But I think that was Cacus, the giant from the Hercules tales.” I’d read about him in my research into Roman myth once I’d realized that we were fighting the Fates. “So yeah, we don’t know it’s the Fates, but I bet it is.”
“Somehow, they’ve gotten into Death Valley,” Lachlan said.
“They know we’re here,” Rowan said. “Or they’re trying to get to the Protectorate members who are hiding out in the haven.”
“Maybe both.” I frowned. “Roman myth often intertwined with Celtic myth, because the cultures were so close for so many years, always fighting over the same land.”
“You mean, while the Romans tried to steal Celtic land,” Bree said.
I grinned. “Yes, that’s what I mean. Thieving bastards. Anyway, I think maybe they found a way to join up with Native American myth. At least, enough to get into the valley and cause problems.”
“Fate knows they shouldn’t be here,” Lachlan said. “Cacus, in Death Valley?”
“Not for long. Not if we defeat the Fates,” I said. “If they created the magic that brought him here, getting rid of them should get rid of him.”
