“There,” Roy said, pulling the tension bar from the bands and letting the fence sag down enough that the three of them could easily walk in. He replaced the fence behind them without tightening the bands back up, so it still looked blocked off.
“If you don’t mind,” Steven said, “I’m going to count our steps as we go. I’d like to use the count later to figure out how far the tunnel went.”
“So what you’re saying,” Eliza said, “is don’t interrupt you while you count?”
“Yes, please,” Steven said. They all began to walk down the tunnel, Steven in the lead with the light, Eliza in the middle, and Roy bringing up the rear.
The tunnel began to narrow a little, but Steven noticed it was still big enough to drive a pickup truck through. After a hundred steps, it turned slightly to the right and continued. They walked another two hundred steps.
“This must have been a lot of blasting,” Roy said.
“Shh, he’s counting,” Eliza said.
“It stops up ahead,” Steven said, finishing his count as they reached the end of the tunnel. “Four hundred and seventy.”
“This is obviously how they got the liquor in and out,” Roy said, stepping up to two large steel doors on the left side of the tunnel. He grabbed the handles, but they didn’t budge.
“Not another dead end,” Eliza said.
“Afraid so,” Steven said. “Those doors don’t look like they’re going to move. I doubt they’ve been open in eighty years.” He ran the flashlight over the doors, looking for anything they might take advantage of. “No lock, nothing. Obviously access was granted from the inside. Smart.”
“Well, fuck,” Roy said. “Pardon my French.”
“I feel the same way, Roy,” Eliza said.
Roy pressed his head against the door, listening.
“Anything?” Steven asked.
Roy waved his hand at him to shut up. Steven and Eliza watched Roy for facial expressions that might indicate if he was hearing something. He’d pinch his eyes together as though there was something he was trying to focus on, but then he’d release them. Then his eyes would dart from side to side. It was driving Steven crazy.
“Well?” Steven asked again.
“Shh,” Roy said.
They paused for a while longer. Eventually Roy removed his ear from the door, but his puzzled look remained.
“I’m not hearing anything,” Roy said. “But I am feeling something.”
They looked at each other. “Trance?” Steven asked Roy.
“Yes,” Roy said, removing his blindfold from his pocket.
Steven and Eliza waited patiently why Roy remained in the trance. Steven could tell that Eliza had entered the River, but Steven knew his first priority was to watch Roy and keep him safe. After ten minutes, Roy reached up and removed the blindfold.
“Well?” Steven asked.
“There are rooms on the other side of the door,” Roy said. “There’s a passageway that leads up. I assume it goes up to the house, but I couldn’t see that – there’s something that blocks everything at the ground level.”
“But that’s not the real news, is it?” Eliza said.
“No,” Roy said. “The real news is what’s beyond these rooms. Another secret passageway, but this one is going down.”
Steven smiled. Bingo! he thought. We’ve found it. “The device?”
“Maybe,” Roy said. “It’s protected in the same way the ground floor is protected, but with something I’ve never seen before.”
“Me either,” said Eliza, “and I’ve spent a lot of time working with protection.”
“But it’s more than that,” Roy said. “On the other side of that protection, is something familiar. Family.”
“Family?” Steven asked. “What do you mean?”
“I mean our own flesh and blood,” Roy said. “Someone from our line.”
“How can that be?” Steven asked.
“I don’t know,” Roy said, “but it’s there. And it knows us.”
“Wow,” Eliza said, “this just keeps getting weirder and weirder.”
“What is it?” Steven asked Roy. “Who is it?”
“I don’t know,” Roy said. “But I know it’s there, and I know it’s family. And it wants to communicate with us.”
“Why didn’t you sense this before?” Steven asked. “When we were in the house?”
“There’s something at the ground level that blocks everything,” Eliza said. “We’re below that level.”
“You’re saying there’s someone under the house?” Steven asked.
“Yes, I am,” Roy said. “Eliza, I’m thinking a séance. It’ll make it easier for whoever it is to manifest.”
“Sure,” Eliza said. “Let’s sit.”
“Steven, keep the light on us,” Roy said. “We’re going to try and contact whoever it is.”
Steven’s mind was whirling with this revelation. He stepped back, keeping the light on Roy and Eliza, who sat cross-legged facing each other, and then held each other’s hands.
Don’t break the circle, Steven remembered his father telling him when he’d participated in a séance with him in Oregon. Whatever you do, don’t break the circle.
Steven watched as the two of them lowered their heads and they dropped into a state somewhere in the River but not as deep as a trance. Eventually Roy spoke.
“There is a presence here, that wants to speak to us,” Roy said. “Who are you? What do you want?”
There was a long pause. Steven noticed Eliza’s hand begin to move. It slid from Roy’s hand and landed in the dirt to her side. She began to move her fingers through the dirt, back and forth, as though she was trying to brush something away. Steven moved the light closer to her hand, so he could see what she was doing.
“Who is there?” Roy asked. “Tell us who you are?”
Eliza’s hand kept moving rapidly, back and forth. Then there was a break in the movement. Eliza’s back straightened, and her fingers moved in the dirt, this time with purpose. Steven moved even closer, to observe what she had drawn. It was a cross.
Then Eliza’s fingers returned to their motion, and the cross was obliterated by the dirt she was moving back and forth.
“What do you want us to do?” Roy asked.
Eliza’s arm continued to move, the dirt wiped this way and that. Again her body stiffened, and her fingers moved rapidly.
“Come,” Steven said aloud, reading what Eliza had written. Again her fingers moved, wiping away the message, and her body slumped.
“How?” Roy asked, still speaking in the séance. “How can we reach you?”
Eliza sat upright again, her fingers drawing letters in the dirt. Steven saw a couple of letters, but was surprised by a force of cold slicing through him. Eliza’s finger stopped moving and she fell backwards, but Roy tightened his grip on her hand, and kept her from falling.
Steven knew what the cold was – it was the dark lady. He felt it sink into him and he thought he might drop to the floor. He reached out to steady himself, but finding nothing nearby to grab, he slowly lowered himself to the ground to avoid a fall.
Roy wrapped up the séance, keeping Eliza’s hands tightly in his. Once he was done, he gently let go of her, and she opened her eyes.
“Thank you,” she said. They turned to look at Steven. He was curled up in a ball, shaking.
“It was her, wasn’t it?” Eliza said.
“Yes,” Roy answered, “but Steven didn’t have the protection of the circle. Let’s get him out of here.”
◊
Steven regained consciousness as Roy and Eliza carried him out of the tunnel. He slept in the back seat of the car as they drove back into town.
“Turn up the heater, please,” he said.
“It’s on full blast, kid,” Roy said. “We’re both melting up here.”
“So fucking cold,” Steven said, both uncomfortable and irritated that he had gone through the ice-cold experience of a dark lady attack fo
r a second time.
“We should return to the house before it gets too late,” Eliza said. “What do we tell the others?”
“We tell them we went into town,” said Roy, “and we tried to dig up information, but we didn’t learn much.”
“What if they become suspicious?” Eliza said.
“Just ask them about what they discovered while we were gone,” Roy said. “People love to talk about themselves, especially Russell. They won’t care about where we’ve been.”
Roy parked the car just past the chain, before the main gate, and the three of them walked the long route back into the house. They found the other three in the dining room.
“Well, that was uneventful,” Roy said upon entering. “Did you guys turn up anything?”
“No,” Russell said, “but we had a visitor. Percival.”
“Damn, sorry I missed that,” said Roy.
“What did he have to say?” Eliza asked.
“Nothing substantial that we didn’t already know,” said Myrna. “He rambles like a lunatic. We told him we knew all about the door, but he wouldn’t fess up to blocking it.”
“How about you?” Jonathan asked. “You uncover anything new?”
“Nada,” said Eliza. “Stuff we already knew.”
Jonathan watched Steven as he sat at the table. He was still shivering.
“Steven?” Jonathan asked. “Everything OK?”
“I think he’s still recovering from the big chill this morning,” Roy said. “Been off and on the whole time we were gone.”
“I’m going to try and warm up,” Steven said, rising and walking toward the hallway.
“Take another hot bath,” Roy said.
◊
After Steven had soaked in a hot tub for another half an hour, he dressed and Roy and Eliza joined him in his bedroom.
“Let’s all enter the River for this,” Roy said. “I don’t trust these people.”
They all jumped in.
What happened in the séance? Steven asked.
Nothing, Roy thought. It was a blank. I know someone was there, and I could feel their desire to communicate, but nothing came through.
Eliza’s hand was writing in the dirt, Steven thought. Eliza looked surprised.
It did? she thought.
You weren’t aware of it? Steven asked.
No, I have no recollection of it at all, she thought. What did I write?
When Roy asked who it was, you made a cross, Steven thought.
A cross? Roy asked. Unusual.
And when you asked what it wanted us to do, Eliza wrote ‘come,’ Steven thought.
I thought I heard that, Roy thought.
That was me reading out loud what Eliza had written, Steven thought.
And so I asked how we could reach it, Roy thought. Did Eliza write anything after that?
Two letters, a D and an A, Steven thought. Her hand was moving erratically; the dark lady’s attack had started. Steven turned to Eliza. By the time you finished the A, you slumped back and Roy held you up by your arms.
I felt her attack, Eliza thought. But I don’t remember any of the writing.
Doesn’t matter, Roy thought. Whoever it was, they found a way to communicate with us, through you.
Only Anita put a stop to it, Steven thought.
What do you suppose “DA” meant? Eliza thought.
It has to be short for something else, Steven thought, something you would have finished writing had she not attacked us.
If we can figure that out, Roy thought, we’ll have our way down into that room.
And to wherever that room leads, Eliza thought.
I thought you said it goes down further, Steven thought, and that way is protected, like ground level.
It is, Eliza thought, but not physically. We can’t explore it while in the River or in a trance, but I suspect if we can physically get into that room, we’ll be able to progress beyond it.
All right, Roy thought, then our goal must be to get into that room. Back to the ‘DA.’ It’s short for something. What?
They wracked their brains, looking for something inside the house that would start with the letters D and A, but came up with nothing.
What now? Eliza thought.
We can go join the others for dinner, Roy thought. Let’s think on it. Maybe something will come of it.
If the group wants to do another focus or trance or anything, I’m not going to participate, Steven thought. I’ve had enough of the deep freeze for today.
Let’s all shy away from doing anything with them in the River, Roy suggested. But keep thinking about what the ‘DA’ might mean.
They exited the river. Steven felt the stab of pain in his neck, more pronounced than normal. Roy noticed the look on Steven’s face.
“Her attacks have weakened you,” Roy said. “Your natural defenses aren’t as strong as normal.”
“All I want for dinner,” Steven said, rubbing the back of his head, “is warm soup.”
“I saw some in the pantry,” Eliza said. “I’ll go down and get some started for you.”
◊
At dinner the group discussed various theories people formed about Percival, the device, and Anita. Russell’s theories were the wackiest, and Roy wanted badly to shoot them down, but since it was in his best interest to have the other three consumed with their own ideas, he indulged Russell and let him talk. He even encouraged him at one point, for which Steven kicked him under the table.
“I’m telling you, Percival is the key to this,” Russell said. “The next time he shows up, we need to physically pin him down and make him talk.”
“Sounds like a good idea to me,” Roy said.
“Percival is a misguided zealot,” Myrna said. “Anita is the key. We’ve got to figure out her role in all this.”
“Count me out,” Steven said. “I’ve had enough of her.”
“Perhaps we should all just turn in for the night,” Jonathan said. “We’re not really getting anywhere with all this.”
Steven once again looked at Eliza. She met his gaze and then looked away. He looked at Roy, who closed his eyes and nodded.
“That’s right, stop trying,” Roy said. “That’s always your suggestion.”
“What do you mean?” Jonathan asked.
“I mean,” Roy said, “whenever anyone comes up with an idea, you always opt for not doing anything. Are you the rat, Jonathan?”
“I can’t believe you’d suggest that,” he said, pulling back.
Myrna turned to Jonathan. “It’s true what Roy says about you recommending inaction.”
“I only suggested we turn in for the night,” Jonathan said.
“It’s 7:30,” Roy said. “I think you’d rather we just stopped working on it.”
“And you were the person who got us all involved,” Russell added.
“I’m as upset about this as any of you,” Jonathan said. “I want it solved.”
“You don’t seem to do much to solve it,” Roy said. “Quite the opposite.”
“You can’t prove any of this,” Jonathan said. “You’re stabbing in the dark. I’m going to bed.”
Eliza sat quietly through the entire exchange, and now she watched Jonathan as he turned and walked out of the room. Once Jonathan was far enough away, Russell moved over to Roy.
“You think it’s him, don’t you?”
“Like he said, can’t prove it,” Roy answered. “But it’s a hunch.”
“He’s the one who set this all up with Percival,” Myrna said. “He’s the most likely one.”
“I’ve known him for over thirty years,” Eliza said. “I just can’t believe it was him.”
“He’s very good at masking his intentions,” Russell said, pacing the room. “I think he’s known about the entire plan from the beginning.”
“Why would he go along with such a thing?” Eliza asked.
“Money,” Russell said.
“I don’t think Kent Percival ha
s much to offer,” Eliza said.
“Maybe not,” Russell said, “but the estate has plenty of money. It could be a conspiracy.”
“The estate?” Eliza said. “What, you mean the lawyers?”
“We only know what he’s told us,” Russell said. “The real situation might be completely different than what Percival said. They might be behind it all. The story about James might be bullshit too.”
“What, some big conspiracy to drain us of our powers?” Myrna asked.
“For what purpose?” Eliza asked.
“Perhaps they’ve found a way to transfer them to others,” Russell said. “Make themselves more powerful. Perhaps that’s what they offered Jonathan. More power.”
“This is all just wild speculation,” Eliza said. “I’m tired, and I think I’ll turn in for the night.”
“I’m done too,” Steven said. “I’ve had a rough day.”
Russell continued his theorizing as the group left the dining room and migrated upstairs. Soon enough they were all segregated into their individual bedrooms. Roy stepped in to check on Steven.
“A good night’s sleep and you’ll feel better,” Roy said.
“Couldn’t resist dropping the hammer on Jonathan down there?” Steven asked.
“Russell got me so worked up it all popped out on Jonathan,” Roy said. “Bunch of whiners.”
“We need to keep our energy focused on solving the ‘DA’,” Steven said, “not on bullying the others.”
“That wasn’t bullying,” Roy said, “it was just leveling things a little.”
“It served no purpose,” Steven said. “Don’t let that famous anger of yours get us into more trouble than we’re already in. Just stay cool.”
“‘Famous anger?’ What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You know what it means,” Steven said. “I’ve seen you go from zero to ninety in two seconds. And Russell and Jonathan are just the types that set you off – a blowhard and a liar. So keep the comments to yourself until we can get the rest figured out, or something will go wrong. Now they know what we’re thinking – that’s not the poker you taught me to play.”
Eximere (The River Book 4) Page 11
