Marcus cleared his throat next to me. “Point taken,” I said, dumping my clothes into his bag. He strapped the satchel over his shoulder and grinned.
“You ready for this?” he asked, clearly excited about the idea of going for a swim.
“Not even remotely.”
“Come on, Jackson, it will be fun,” April said.
“Nothing about this is fun.”
“Even getting me out in the middle of nowhere in my underwear?”
“I didn’t say it wasn’t without its benefits, just that it wasn’t fun.”
I looked up to see Marcus splashing into the water. April was hot on his heels. I grew up in the desert; the funny thing about it is that every kid in the desert knew how to swim. It was hot. Everyone had a pool or knew someone who did. If you didn’t, or you wanted to get together in a big group, you went to the rec center. Everyone swam all summer long. You go to places like California, and half the folks would drown in six feet of water. I stopped trying to figure it out a long time ago.
Marcus was nearly waist deep now, and April was only a few feet behind him. I guess it was time that I took the plunge. I wasn’t worried about the water itself. It looked clean and clear, and despite it being cold, I wouldn’t be surprised if a human hadn’t been in it for a hundred years. I was worried about what lived in the pond, and if we would have to face it before we made it to the first real challenge.
Nothing had jumped out at Marcus or April yet, and both of them were now treading water out by the rock face. Marcus had ducked his head under a few times, exploring. I could already see where we had to go. About twenty feet below us was an opening in the rock face. I was surprised at how deep this little pond actually was, but I guess a thousand years of the little waterfall had been enough to hollow out the ground.
There was also a small amount of current under the water. I could feel it pulling at my feet. Of course, it swept into the creepy underwater cave. Where else would it go? From outside, I knew the water had to go somewhere. That didn’t mean I had to feel good about being right. Despite how deep the pond was, constantly flowing water would have turned it into a huge lake without some kind of outflow. It looked like we were going to find out just how far under the rocks it went.
Marcus broke the surface and shook the water out of his dreads. “I’ll cast a breathing spell on all of us. This isn’t like Harry Potter. You’re not going to get gills and breathe water. Instead, think of it like a bubble around your head that will push out the carbon dioxide and pull in the oxygen from the water. All you have to do is breathe and speak normally.”
“Awesome,” April said.
She held out her dagger and cast a spell that made it glow with a white light. I pulled mine out to do the same. Marcus held out his staff, and the tip lit up. We were ready to go.
“Not to be a downer, Jackson, but I think you should go first.”
“Of course you do.”
“Not because you don’t want to, but because the scroll seems to recognize you. If one of us went first, the way might not even be open.”
“He’s right,” April said, swimming next to me. “Don’t worry, we will be right by your side the entire time.”
I let out a sigh and ducked my head underwater, testing Marcus’s spell. I could breathe normally, just like he said I could. With nothing holding me back, I kicked downward and headed for the entrance to the cave. Marcus and April swam next to me, and our lights illuminated the entrance. I cast each of them a quick glance, and they gave me the thumbs up.
“The hell with it,” I mumbled, and kicked forward into the cave.
CHAPTER 14
JACKSON
Cave was a generous word for the opening I swam into now. If it weren’t for Marcus and April being right behind me, there was a good chance that I might have lost my nerve. The opening had looked much larger as we tread water in the pond. In reality, it was about six feet around. If I had been standing, I probably could have touched all four sides of the cavern at once.
Without looking back, I pushed forward into the entrance. To think about going back now would only result in panic. The darkness would have been complete except for my glowing dagger. I would have felt much better with one of my swords in hand, but I didn’t want to risk them in the water. Sure, the blades were enchanted, but who knew if that included rust?
I continued to kick slowly into the cave, resting one of my hands against the wall and using it to push myself forward. If anything, I felt as if the cave was getting smaller, but that could have been my mind playing tricks on me. Lights sparkled in the water behind me, so at least one of my friends was still following me.
It took me a few minutes to realize what I was seeing. The cave had been shrinking so slowly that you could almost miss it. In the dark, you probably wouldn’t have been able to notice at all. The walls had easily shrunk in size to about four feet, maybe even a little bit smaller. Up ahead, it looked like there was a tight spot, and I could only hope that it would get wider after that.
Fear wouldn’t get the best of me now. I kicked forward hard and pulled myself along the wall. I hit the smaller hole, and my shoulders brushed the edges as I went through. Panic gripped my heart as the tiny passage continued for the next six feet, and then I emerged into a large open space. Slowly, I turned around, shining my light back into the hole.
April shot through the gap without a problem, but I could see Marcus squirming to get through, his bulk making the tight space an even tighter squeeze. April and I swam forward and grabbed one of his arms. We braced against the rock wall and pulled him the rest of the way through. We all tread water for a moment, and Marcus gave us the ok sign.
“Damn, that was close,” I mumbled to myself.
“Tell me about it,” Marcus said.
“I forgot we could talk in these things.”
“Well, try and stay quiet. Talking uses more oxygen, and there is only so much in the water around us.
I gave Marcus the ok sign and started to swim forward. I had no idea where we should go now. The cavern was huge. Our lights didn’t illuminate anything but water around us. Our one reference point was slowly dwindling into the distance behind us. I upped the amperage to my light and thought I saw something dash off into the shadows. It had to be my mind playing tricks on me. So far we hadn’t seen so much as a fish. There was no way anything was living down here without food.
The wider light didn’t reveal too much under the water. I decided to kick upward to see if there was room at the surface now. I pointed up and started to kick, Marcus and April coming up behind me. Every now and again I swore I saw a shadow turn at the edge of our lights, but I couldn’t be sure it was anything. It could have just been our three lights moving around as we swam.
We broke the surface, and I smiled. The roof of the cavern was twenty feet overhead. So we could continue forward on the surface, at least for now. Marcus and April looked around, but our vision was still limited. Marcus thrust his staff upward, and light flashed out in all directions. Behind us, I could see the wall that we had come out of. In front, I thought maybe I could make out an island in the center of the massive cavern. It was tough to tell just how far away it was in the fading light, but I would have guessed it was a mile. Why did no one know about this place? It was awesome.
The water was still a clear blue around us. I could see to where my light stopped shining. Looking down through the water, I didn’t see any more movement, and that put my mind at ease. Without land close enough to get out of the water, any kind of altercation down here could turn deadly.
“Head for the island.”
“Lead the way,” Marcus said.
April spun around in a slow circle, looking down into the water. “Let’s try and make it quick. I think there is something in here with us.”
I felt myself stiffen even as Marcus laughed. “Good one, April.”
“I’m not kidding, Marcus. Our lights are keeping whatever it is back for now, but that wo
n’t last forever.”
“All right, let’s move forward slowly. We don’t want to agitate whatever it is unless we have to.” Of course, it wouldn’t be that easy. I mean, who would go through the trouble of making this cavern not to fill it with hideous monsters? Personally, I thought the swim down here had been enough. I didn’t even want to think about swimming back through that tight entrance, especially not with something chasing me.
Breaking into a smooth stroke, I kept my head above the water and looked forward into the light I was casting in front of me. So far I had seen a few shadows at the edge of the light, but nothing too scary yet. April and Marcus were flanked out to my sides, and we were making good time toward the island.
I caught my first glimpse of a tail about halfway toward the island. The creatures were getting bolder now, probing the light to see if it would hurt them. When the light didn’t affect them, they started to get closer to the edges. I could hear the water churning but had yet to see one of the full creatures emerge from the darkness.
April let out a startled gasp. I turned to see that she had stopped swimming and was watching the edge of the light around her. She looked at me, and I could see the terror on her face.
“We need to go faster,” she said with just a hint of panic.
“What was it?”
“Fuck if I know, but we need to get out of the water.”
“We could probably push some air magic out behind us, but it’s going to hit whatever’s down there,” Marcus said.
“If they start getting any bolder, maybe we can kill one of them and they’ll back off.”
“Yeah, or get hungrier with blood in the water,” April said.
“Let’s try to keep calm and keep moving forward. If anything attacks, we hit the jets. When we do it, we have to stay together.” They both nodded at me but continued to scan the water around them.
The first creature swam through the light in front of me, and I almost couldn’t tell what I was looking at. It was big, but again, it was hard to tell an exact size when there was nothing next to it for reference. I would have guessed that it was close to twenty feet long. It was probably only three or four feet wide, but that was enough. I could see teeth poking out of its massive jaws. It moved fast; it was out of my light in less than a few seconds. Based on the sounds in the water around us, I had to guess there was more than one, and they were getting more agitated as we continued to get closer to the island.
One of the creatures broke the water in front of me and started coming directly at me. I tried not to let it intimidate me, but it was hard to do with a four-foot circle of razor-sharp teeth charging directly at you. This time, the eel wasn’t breaking away from its attack. I stopped swimming forward and sent out a lance of power.
The magic struck the eel from the side, taking off most of its head. Blood poured into the water, and the sounds of churning water around us grew more intense. Five or six of the massive beasts darted out of the darkness and struck the sinking corpse. More of the eels came forward and continued to pull chunks of flesh away from the body. Already two more eels joined their dying friend as they fought over the food.
The blood in the water was driving them crazy. A feeding frenzy was already taking place, and it wouldn’t be long before they turned their attention back toward us. “Let’s get the hell out of here!” I spared my friends a quick look to make sure they were ready. “On three.” I counted down the three seconds in my head and shouted “Now.” I pushed air magic out behind me and shot forward like a rocket. The island was growing closer rapidly, and I could hear April and Marcus to the sides of me.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a huge shape start moving in from the side. It was so large, I almost couldn’t fathom it. The eel was keeping up with us. In fact, it seemed to be gaining on us. Coming from the side, it wasn’t being hit by the current we were generating with our magic. It was going to be close if we would make it to the island before it reached us.
I started to slow down, and the giant monster turned toward me as April and Marcus continued toward the island. I didn’t want to kill it if I didn’t have to. At the same time, there was no way I was going to end up as dinner. With the beast honed in on me, I started forward again, pushing myself even faster. Soon the water would be too shallow for it to strike. With speed I didn’t think was possible, it darted forward. I wasn’t going to make it.
The creature’s jaws closed where my feet had been seconds before. It spun around and made another lunge for me. This time, I angled the air magic down, shooting myself out into the air. I felt like a seal on Shark Week as I heard the jaws snap closed behind me. I came down hard, landing on the rock ground in a few feet of water. Marcus and April rushed forward and pulled me the rest of the way out of the water and onto the island.
We had made it. All of us were safe and onto the next part of the quest. Eat that, Nicholas Cage! We made this thing look easy. Ok, maybe easy was an overstatement. I finished catching my breath and looked over at my friends. Damn, that had been closer than I wanted to admit. Seriously, who in the hell thought of stuff like this? Hey, let’s put an island in the middle of a dark underground cave, and we will fill the water with giant eels.
I cast my light out over the water and could see the eels were still feeding out in the water. I truly hoped that when whatever was going to happen on this island was over that we didn’t have to swim back out.
Standing, I cast a spell over myself, heating my skin. I smiled as the water evaporated, leaving me dry. It was a handy little trick and made rainy weather a non-issue. Marcus and April did the same, and then Marcus passed us our bundles of clothes. All of us got dressed, and then I looked at Marcus with a smile on my face.
“Think we have time for some food?”
“You really don’t ever stop eating, do you?”
“Nope.”
“I know where you can get some catch of the day.”
“Whatever, just break out the goods.” He tossed me a box of PowerBars. “Really, this is it?”
“Until we know how much longer we are going to be gone, we need to ration what we have. It’s not a never-ending supply in there.”
I plucked four of the calorie-dense bars from the box. April took one, and Marcus grabbed two before putting the box back into his bag.
“So what now?” April asked.
I pulled out the scroll and looked at it. Nothing had really changed. The words from below the original quote were gone. Maybe we had made it to that step. What exactly was the heart of cinders, and where would we find it? I tucked the scroll away and turned to face my friends.
“I think we need to find the heart of cinders.”
“Well, that’s super helpful,” Marcus said.
April laughed at him. “Well, we kind of knew this wouldn’t be easy.”
A roar echoed across the cavern, coming from further inland. The walls almost seemed to shake with the intensity of it.
“Do I even want to know what that was?” I asked.
“Probably not,” Marcus said.
April looked over at us with a twinkle in her eye. Man, she loved a good fight. “Don’t worry, we got this.” She started to walk down the path from the water into the heart of the island.
I watched her for a few moments before getting my feet in gear. Marcus jogged for a little bit to catch up with me.
He nudged his shoulder into mine. “Do you ever feel bad that your woman is braver than you are?” he asked, laughing.
“Not at all. It’s a whole different kind of relationship when you’re attached to a warrior woman.”
He looked up at April and back at me. “I don’t know if you’re lucky or totally screwed.”
“Lucky for sure,” I said, nudging him back.
“If you two girls are done gossiping, we have work to do,” April shouted over her shoulder.
She was right, as usual. I kicked off into a jog to catch up with her, Marcus kept pace with me, and soon we were all wal
king together again. We managed to take another few steps before a roar shook the cavern. Whatever was coming, it was big and angry. I had no idea what to expect, but I was happy that I wouldn’t be facing it alone.
CHAPTER 15
JACKSON
The cavern we were in was clearly magical. Outside of the fact that a small pond produced enough water to fill a huge cavern, the cavern itself was too big to exist naturally. Looking across the island, I couldn’t see the walls of the cavern in any direction, regardless of how far I sent out a light. Not to mention there was no sunlight down here, yet the island was simply teeming with plants.
As we left the sandy shores, grass started to grow from the rocky ground. Palm trees sprouted not too far beyond that. It felt as if we were walking through a tropical island at night. None of the plants looked special or out of place except for the fact they were growing in the semi-darkness of the cavern. We walked for what seemed like miles, seeing nothing but the trail in front of us. The roars that greeted us upon our arrival had stopped.
After three hours of steady marching, I called for a break. I needed to eat and get off of my feet for a bit. We had to have covered close to ten miles, and there was no end in sight. I could tell the others were just as tired as I felt, the excitement of our escape from the water wearing off. Now we all just wanted to face what was in front of us and get back home. The fight against the demons was too important to have the three of us sidelined. Right now our friends were dying, and as cool as our quest was, we needed to be with them.
Marcus pulled out his magical cooler, and it supplied us with six cans of tuna and a loaf of bread. Some veggies would have gone a long way to making the meal better. Just as soon as I thought of them, he produced a red onion and a few tomatoes. That would go nicely with the mayonnaise and mustard that he had. I got to work on the tuna, April started on the bread, and Marcus pulled out our bags to set up camp. After we ate, we would take a quick break. One of us on watch while the others slept for a bit. Then it was time to get back on the trail.
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