After Glow

by Jayne Castle

  “That would be Herbert Slattery, Greenie boss, right?”

  “Actually, I think he’s really Troy Burgis.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Listen to this. He claims he found an old map that was drawn by Vincent Lee Vance. He thinks it shows the location of Vance’s second headquarters. He says that what Vance actually found was the tomb of this Amatheon character. Problem is, there’s a huge wall of illusion shadow at the entrance.”

  “He really believes his own spiel about Amatheon?”

  “I got that impression, but I have to tell you the guy is a good actor. I honestly can’t say if he was putting me on or not. But he definitely wants to get into the chamber that Vance marked on the map.”

  “Did they grab you because Herb or Burgis or whatever his name is thinks you can de-rez the big trap?”

  “It’s a long story.” Lydia clamped a hand around the side of the cab to hang on as Emmett sent the truck humming down another corridor. “But the punch line is that I did it once before during my Lost Weekend. That’s why they wanted to get me back. Apparently I’m the only tangler who has been able to get into the chamber.”

  “And you’ve got amnesia about that whole forty-eight hour period,” he concluded softly.

  She smiled humorlessly. “Talk about your ironic twist, huh? I saw what no human has seen since the days of Vincent Lee Vance and I have no recollection of it. Just think, if things had gone a little differently seven months ago I’d probably be heading up the entire Department of Para-archaeology at the university today instead of working at Shrimp’s.”

  “I take it you didn’t offer to untangle this monster for Herb?”

  “Nah. He promised me the sun, moon, and stars if I’d get him into that chamber but I told him I couldn’t remember how I’d done it the first time. Then I explained that the knockout drug they used on me had given me a headache. I said I needed some rest before I made an attempt.”

  “That’s why you were in the cell when I came looking? You were supposed to be resting up for the big event?”

  “Actually, I was trying to buy some time. I had a hunch you would probably show up sooner or later.”

  He turned another corner and braked to a sharp halt. “Damn. Looks like the word is out that you’re gone.”

  Lydia sucked in her breath at the sight of the big double ghost that blocked their path. Through the chaotic, pulsing green glare of psi energy, she saw two figures moving on the other side of the UDEM. Hunters, she thought, working in tandem to increase their power.

  As she watched a third man appeared, adding his energy to the flaring, whirling firestorm.

  “Forget that.” Emmett threw the truck into reverse, braced one hand on the back of the seat, and turned slightly in the seat to check the corridor behind the vehicle. He stomped hard on the accelerator. “The first two are simple rez-patterns. I could handle them without any trouble. But the third guy is good. I’d have to burn amber to get rid of his ghost plus the other two and we can’t risk that yet.”

  She understood. Once Emmett used the kind of power that would melt amber the countdown would begin to the inevitable aftereffects. A bad case of lust would be the least of his problems. She knew that he could control that. But there was nothing he could do to hold off the desperate need for sleep that would soon overtake him. He could not afford such a severe expenditure of psi energy until they were in a location where it would be safe for him to crash.

  At the next intersection, Emmett glanced at the locator, spun the wheel, and turned sharply to the right.

  Alarmed shouts rang in the corridor. Greenies appeared. Two small ghosts flared. Emmett de-rezzed them, but instead of forcing the truck past the gathering crowd, he checked the gauges and made a left turn that took them down still another corridor.

  They didn’t get far. A fresh team was waiting in the next passage. Emmett slammed to a halt, reversed course again, and turned to the right.

  This glowing corridor was empty but psi power surged in waves down the hall, flowing around them like the currents of an invisible river.

  “Bad news,” Lydia whispered. “This looks familiar.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Herb brought me here.” She turned her head, searching for reference points. “This is the corridor that leads to the chamber where that wall of illusion shadow is located. Once we’re in there, we’ll be trapped in more ways than one.”

  Emmett checked the rearview mirror. “Guess that explains a few things.”

  “Such as?”

  “Why they left three kids to guard you instead of a couple of trained hunters. Hell, they’re not trying to catch us. They’re herding us in the direction they want you to go. Doubt if they were expecting me. I’m probably a complication they could have done without, but they wanted you to make an escape attempt.”

  She frowned. “Why would they do that?”

  “So that they could block all the routes out of here except one,” Emmett said.

  Another memory shimmered and coalesced with startling clarity in her mind. “Just like last time.”

  “What?”

  “Little creep.”

  “Who?”

  “Herb.” Fresh outrage flashed through her as more memories of her Lost Weekend came together. “I knew he was lying, I just wasn’t sure which of the details he gave me were true and which were false. But now I recall that I didn’t arrive in this sector by crashing through from Amatheon’s tomb. I escaped that way.”

  “What the hell?”

  “It’s all coming back to me now. Never mind, I’ll explain later. Keep going.”

  Someone yelled behind them.

  Emmett checked the rearview mirror again. “Maybe it’s time I gave those guys something else to think about.”

  He reached inside his robe and withdrew a dark, lethal-looking object.

  She stared at the weapon in his hand. “That’s a mag-rez gun. Where did you get it?”

  “Supply cabinet.”

  “Oh, yeah? And just what supply cabinet contains illegal weapons like that?”

  “The one Wyatt keeps in his office. Also known as his private wall safe.”

  “Guild bosses,” she muttered. “What can you do with ’em?”

  Emmett checked his mirror again. She saw his hand tighten on the gun. A new jolt of alarm went through her.

  “Emmett, you can’t use that thing in here. You know how dangerous it is to use any kind of firearms inside the catacombs. The bullets ricochet all over the place. What’s more, the psi energy you use to rez the trigger is unpredictable inside the walls. It could easily summon a lot of wild ghost energy.”

  “All of which will cause some major distractions,” he said coldly. “Which may be just what we need.”

  She heard a small rumble of protest and looked down to see that Fuzz was wriggling gently in her hands, trying to free himself. She realized that she was holding him very snugly. “Sorry, Fuzz. Guess I’m a little tense.” She relaxed her grip.

  Fuzz scrambled off her lap and perched on her shoulder. He was all sleeked out now, four eyes glittering with the ice and fire of a born predator. The same chilling heat burned in Emmett’s eyes, she noticed.

  By the time you see the teeth, it’s too late.

  She drew a deep breath. “Don’t worry, we’re going out of here the same way I did the last time. I’ll untangle the trap that guards Vance’s secret chamber.”

  “I thought you told Herb you couldn’t remember how to de-rez that wall of shadow.”

  “He lied to me so I lied to him.”

  29

  EMMETT DROVE THROUGH the doorway of the antechamber and braked hard. With a few deft movements, he succeeded in parking the big vehicle so that it blocked the entrance.

  Ghost light flared wildly in the entrance they had just driven through. The pulsing energy was so close that Lydia flinched. Emmett had summoned a large UDEM.

  “What are you doing?” she asked.

  “Setting
up a roadblock. It won’t hold them for long but it will buy us some time.” He motioned her to get out of the cab. “End of the line, let’s get moving.”

  Lydia scrambled out of the vehicle, Fuzz on her shoulder. Emmett followed swiftly.

  She heard shouts and yells in the long hall behind them. The ghost Emmett had set effectively blocked the entrance. It would take time and skill to de-rez it.

  They ran toward the great, crashing waves of psi energy that spilled and roiled along the far wall. Lydia thought she was prepared for the monster trap this time but the sight of that endlessly shifting darkness nevertheless made her mouth go dry.

  Emmett surveyed the scene and whistled softly. “Okay, I’m impressed.”

  Fuzz growled softly.

  “Herb said there was no record of any other trap like it in the official excavation records and on that point, I’m inclined to believe him,” Lydia said. “It would have been worth an entire graduate seminar course in P-A school.”

  Emmett reached out to pluck Fuzz from her shoulder. “I’ll take care of my buddy here while you do what you have to do.” He glanced toward the entrance. “But whatever it is, please do it fast.”

  “Don’t worry, now that we’re in here, the Greenies will keep their distance until I do something with this thing.” She moved slowly toward the cascading night.

  “Guess the thought of being caught in this monster’s backlash is what you might call a major deterrent.”

  “Yes.” She shivered and turned quickly toward him. “Emmett, if I’m wrong about this, if I can’t untangle it again, I honestly don’t think anyone standing this close will survive. It would be best if you moved into one of those alcoves along a side wall. The quartz will block some of the energy.”

  “Forget it; Fuzz and I know you can handle this. But it would be nice if you hurried things up a bit.”

  “Right.”

  She turned back to face the trap and concentrated on the silent waterfall of dark energy in front of her. She probed gently, feeling for the patterns within the patterns of pulsing, seething psi-power. There was no way a single tangler working alone could possibly summon enough energy to de-rez the entire trap at once. Herb had told her that the Greenies had attempted to use two tanglers in tandem in one desperate experiment but the results had been disastrous. The effort had provoked dangerous, unpredictable changes in the complex rez patterns.

  The answer was obvious, once you saw it, she thought. If you could not tear down a wall or go around it, you had to tunnel through it.

  She was vaguely aware that the shouts and cries at the entrance of the chamber had ceased. A great hush had fallen. She sensed the intensity of the observers. No doubt Master Herb was there somewhere among the watchers.

  “A couple of them have guns,” Emmett said quietly. “I think the idea is to wait until you de-rez this thing, then they’ll take down my ghost and try to kill us both before you can reset the big trap.”

  “Sounds like a plan.” If the Greenies managed to murder them both before she could reset the giant snare, they would achieve their goal of getting into the secret chamber.

  “Lydia, listen to me, once the trap comes down, take Fuzz and run, as fast as you can. Don’t stop, no matter what happens, understand?”

  She knew then that he intended to use the mag-rez gun to buy her some time. Once the bullets started ricocheting off the walls of the antechamber and wild, chaotic ghost energy started flying around, a lot of people, including Emmett, were going to get hurt, burned, or killed.

  “The trap’s not coming down, Emmett. Get ready to follow me.”

  He flashed her a quick, questioning look but he said nothing.

  She chose the section of the energy wall that was directly in front of her and then set about coring through the dark rush of power.

  She caught the pulse of the resonating energy pattern in one small spot and gently dampened it. Not the simplest work she had ever done, she thought, but in an odd sort of way, it wasn’t the most complicated, either. The trick was to not think about the great mass of nightmarish energy that could be so easily triggered with one misstep.

  A section of night opened, slowly at first and then widening more quickly. She caught a glimpse of familiar green light coming from the mysterious chamber on the other side of the barrier.

  She worked carefully until she had a tunnel wide enough to accommodate the three of them. Then she cleared the section of flooring so that they could walk through the churning passage.

  “Let’s go,” she said.

  Emmett, who had been watching the crowd at the entrance, turned. “It’s still there—” he started to say and then broke off, grinning with appreciation, when he saw the opening. “Well, damn, lady, that is one really good trick. I never knew an illusion trap could be handled that way.”

  “There’s never been any reason to try such a technique until this monster came along. Ready?”

  “Go,” Emmett ordered.

  She moved into the tunnel and was immediately enveloped in a strange, rushing silence. Dark energy crashed and rolled overhead and on every side except for the strip she had cleared along the floor. It was as if she were caught inside the hollow curl of a tremendous ocean wave. A great sense of exhilaration swept through her, making her almost giddy.

  She glanced back and saw that Emmett had followed her into the passage. He was moving quickly but she could not hear his boots ring on the floor. His mouth opened and she knew that he was speaking to her but even though she was only a yard from him she could not hear a word. When he realized that the psi energy was cloaking all sound, he grimaced, shook his head, and closed his mouth.

  Fuzz crouched on Emmett’s shoulder, his fur standing out all over his body in a halo of gray fluff. All she could see were his four gleaming eyes. The giddy sensation grew stronger. She started to laugh at the little furball and then she noticed the wild red-gold snakes dancing and writhing in front of her face. Her own hair was also responding to the enormous amount of ambient psi energy in the air. So was Emmett’s. All three of them looked like they’d just touched a live wire carrying enough power to light up a small town.

  The wall of energy was unusually thick. The tunnel she had created was at least twenty feet long.

  Emmett paused midway and turned to look back over his shoulder. Lydia followed his gaze. Through the opening in the other end she glimpsed figures dashing around in the antechamber. The Greenies had managed to de-rez Emmett’s ghost. Any second now one of them would brave her tunnel to give pursuit.

  “I’ll close it,” Lydia shouted and then realized Emmett couldn’t hear a word she was saying.

  She sent a psi probe back to de-rez the entrance of the tunnel. It closed quickly. Swirling night sealed the opening and cut off the green glow from that end.

  She did not doubt that soon Herb or one of his strong ephemeral-energy para-resonators would take the risk of trying to repeat her success. But even knowing now that it could be done, they would use extreme caution around this extraordinarily powerful trap. She and Emmett and Fuzz had a little time, she thought.

  She was about to congratulate herself when she noticed that the tunnel seemed to be narrowing slightly. Only then did she realize that she was tiring. The effort to hold the passage open against the pressing weight of an untold amount of psi energy was drawing down her reserves.

  She beckoned quickly.

  “Run!” she screamed although she knew Emmett could not hear her.

  Nevertheless, he seemed to understand what was happening. With one hand around Fuzz to secure him to his shoulder, Emmett broke into a run.

  Lydia whirled and raced toward the far end of the energy tunnel.

  The tunnel continued to narrow. It seemed to her that she could feel the pressure of the energy bearing down on her, no longer exhilarating, but oppressively heavy. She fought back with a burst of psi power. The whirling waves drew back slightly but not for long.

  The opening at the far end wa
s closer. Just a few more paces.

  Almost there.

  Lydia plunged out of the collapsing tunnel with Emmett right on her heels. Her foot caught on an object on the floor. She tripped and went down hard. Emmett stumbled over the same obstacle but managed to stay on his feet. He reached down, grabbed Lydia by the collar of her shirt, and hauled her away from the entrance of the collapsing tunnel.

  There was no need to reset the trap, she thought. The passage she had opened was rapidly closing itself, just as it had the last time. Emmett stopped a safe distance away from the cascade of endless nightmares. Together they watched in amazement as restless, seething energy refilled the void Lydia had created.

  A wall of illusion shadow once again separated the two chambers.

  “You okay?” Emmett shoved the mag-rez gun into his belt.

  “Yes, I think so.” She started to get to her feet, struggling to recover her breath. “Sorry about that. My memory seems to be coming back in bits and pieces. I remember now that the wall resealed itself when I escaped. I didn’t have to try to reset it.”

  In fact, she had barely made it through.

  Fuzz scurried over to her. She picked him up and examined him closely. He appeared to be fine.

  “Looks like you aren’t the only person to have come this way.” Emmett motioned toward the object that she had tripped over on the way out of the tunnel.

  She followed his gaze and saw a grinning skull and a bundle of pale bones. The skeleton was still partially covered in the tattered remains of a red-and-gold uniform that she recognized from pictures in history books and the scenes painted on the walls of Restoration Hall. The burnished glow of the famous amber-and-gold signet that had once been pinned to the chest of the jacket was undimmed after a hundred years.

  Nearby lay a second skeleton garbed in a similar style. An amber pendant necklace had fallen through the rib cage.

  “I remember them,” Lydia said softly. The chill that went through her was disturbingly familiar. “They were here last time. Meet the remains of Vincent Lee Vance and Helen Chandler.”