The Dark Portal (The Gryphon Chronicles, Book 3)

by E. G. Foley

  So far, nothing.

  Still, the place was impossibly eerie with all the workers gone, the machinery quiet, the coal carts parked on the tracks, and the drip-drip-dripping of unseen rivulets of water trickling down the walls.

  Heart-stopping echoes of faint noises whispered to them from the distant ends of every tunnel.

  Following the coal cart tracks on a steep downward slant, they pressed on. The mine grew darker with each step. Just beyond the feeble glow of the dwarves’ few torches, it was as black as the coal the crews pulled out of here each day.

  Jake wished he could see better in the dark. Everyone else had excellent night vision. The dwarves were used to working underground. Helena was in her feline form and everyone knew cats could see perfectly at night. Likewise, Red was half-lion, with sharp eagle-eyes, and Derek was wearing the Vampire Monocle.

  He must have sensed Jake’s uneasiness, for he took it off and handed it over. “Here.”

  “No, that’s all right—”

  “Take it. I’ve got my Guardian instincts. Supernatural senses, remember? I should have thought of it before.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “You need to be able to see what you’re doing when it comes time to use the spell.”

  “Good point.” Jake accepted it gratefully and strapped the Vampire Monocle around his head, then fixed the camera-type lens over his eye. That’s better.

  At once, his surroundings appeared greenish-charcoal-gray instead of pitch-black.

  He could finally see his companions, too. He saw the feathers on the back of Red’s neck standing up, like they always did when he was in battle-mode, then he noticed Emrys somehow reading the map.

  “This way,” the head dwarf told them.

  They turned to the right, continuing on a smooth downward angle deeper into the mine.

  There was some sort of square wooden structure ahead. Leopard-Helena meowed in warning.

  A moment later, Jake, too, could smell the blood.

  He squinted toward the structure. “It’s the pit ponies’ stables.”

  And that splash of darker color on one of the stall doors was apparently blood.

  “That must have been where the pony was attacked,” one of the dwarf warriors said, pointing.

  Derek shook his head. “Daft keeping horses down here.”

  “We’re getting closer. Let’s find a good place to set the bait,” Emrys said in a grim tone.

  Red trotted ahead of them and quickly located a good spot for their ambush: a junction where two coal cart tunnels met, with a tall, round ventilation shaft high above it.

  Jake frowned at the four-way intersection. “Won’t this give them an easy escape? They’ve got four tunnels to choose from as their getaway path.”

  “Yes, but what interests us more for the moment is to see which direction the gargoyles will arrive from when they come to take the bait,” Derek said. “That should tell us where they’ve been hiding—which direction to look. Then we’ll know where to hunt them. Otherwise, this mine is vast. They could be anywhere.”

  “Oh.” Jake nodded. “That makes sense.” Also, the intersection was relatively close to the pit pony stables, where the creatures had already proven their willingness to attack.

  Derek gestured to the dwarf warriors to drag the slab of beef to the middle of the tunnels’ intersection, then they all climbed up the service ladders and clambered onto the metal catwalks halfway up the ventilation shaft. This gave them a good vantage point of the dark junction below.

  The dwarves and Red and Helena spread out around the metal walkway, but Derek stayed next to Jake.

  “Have that wand ready,” the Guardian advised. “And do me a favor, Jake.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Don’t miss.”

  Jake gripped the wand harder. Then they all conformed to a rule of silence, watching and waiting for their quarry to appear.

  Jake was surprised that no one else could hear his heart pounding like a kettle drum in the quiet. He fought the shivers that ran down his spine in an effort to stay motionless.

  Soon, time seemed to creep to a standstill. He could not tell how many minutes had passed. Half an hour?

  Waiting for the monster to appear was agonizing when nobody was quite sure what to expect. Little was known about gargoyles’ daily habits. The grimoire in the archives had simply said that they came in a wide variety of sizes and shapes, with varying degrees of intelligence and aggression.

  Some were meaner than others. Some displayed the reasoning power of the average human child, while others functioned as mere brute beasts.

  Jake was pondering the question of what kind lived in the Harris Mine and how they might have got here, when suddenly, a sinister, low sound came from the tunnel.

  The blood froze in his veins.

  The voice he heard next was not of this world. A chatter and a chirp with an occasional wary hiss, rather like some sort a demonic squirrel.

  This was accompanied by the low, rasping rhythm of claws scraping stone as it approached, drawn by the bloody, raw bait.

  Jake held perfectly still as the creature stepped into view in the dark opening of the northern tunnel.

  He stared through the Vampire Monocle in disbelief.

  He had seen gargoyles carved on old churches, but to see one standing there, alive…

  All he knew was that that thing did not belong to this world. It came from somewhere below, and it was hideous.

  Ape-sized and dark gray in color, the gargoyle had a grotesque face, a pug nose, and drool dripping off its up-fangs as it crept toward the bait. It had little blunt nubs of horns on its head and leering, wide-set eyes.

  It hopped closer, investigating the slab of beef.

  Jake flinched when it opened its mouth wide and ripped off a chunk of the raw meat.

  Derek nudged him with his elbow. Jake’s heart was racing. The Guardian gave him a nod as if to say, Go on. What are you waiting for?

  Jake tried to settle his frayed nerves. His hands were shaking so badly he feared he’d miss the nasty creature.

  Concentrate, he told himself. Though a little unnerved by the sight of the devil’s imp gnawing on the beef ribs, he shoved his revulsion away, bringing up the wand.

  Just as he was about to do the spell, a second gargoyle appeared, drawn to the bait; Jake floundered, unsure what to do. He glanced at Derek in question.

  The Guardian gave him a firm nod, silently indicating that he should get them both.

  Jake gulped. But as he aimed the wand at the gargoyles, the first gargoyle chased away the new arrival with a vicious snarl. It seemed the ugly beastie had no intention of sharing the banquet with his comrade.

  As the second one shrank back into the shadows, Jake pointed the wand, focused his mind on his target, and summoned up all the magical power in his blood.

  A bead of sweat ran down his face. Then he suddenly shouted: “Petrificus!”

  Energy crackled out of the wand’s tip like a miniature lightning bolt and hit the feasting gargoyle square in the belly.

  A direct hit!

  At once, the gargoyle started changing into stone. First its stomach turned to solid gray rock, spreading outward from there, traveling down the creature’s limbs and up to its ugly face.

  “Go!” Derek waved the dwarves into motion.

  Quick as a wink, they were racing down the ladders.

  “Hurry! You’ve only got thirty seconds!”

  “Oh, I need less than that.” With these bold words, a scruffy, dark-haired dwarf brought up his axe and struck the gargoyle statue in the middle.

  It cracked in half at the waist and fell in two pieces.

  “Ha, ha! Thank you very much.” Wallace took a bow while his hearty mates crowded round to cheer him and to get a closer look at the beast.

  “Lord, that thing’s uglier than my mother-in-law.”

  “Pshaw, it’s even uglier than yer wife.”

  “Hey!” The two dwa
rves pushed each other back and forth in harmless horseplay, while Wallace turned to grin and wave at Jake.

  “Well done, lad! That wasn’t so bad, was it? And you were so nervous!”

  “I think you really have to smash it!” Jake called down, but his warning came too late.

  Wallace suddenly yelped in pain and fell to the ground, bleeding profusely from the back of his leg.

  His friends rushed over to pull him clear of the two halves of the gargoyle, which had just come—separately—back to life.

  Helena roared, Derek vaulted off the catwalk, and Jake leaped to his feet for a better view.

  Meanwhile, the two halves of the gargoyle were flopping around, trying to cause trouble. The lower half was trying to escape, bumping into everything.

  But the upper half with the claws and the big, nasty fangs was furious, lashing out at anyone in arm’s reach.

  Wallace groaned as his friends dragged him farther back to safety. “I can’t believe it bit me.”

  “Jake, the spell! Again!” Derek bellowed from below, clearing everyone else back. “Out of his way, you lot! You’ll be turned to stone if it hits you!”

  “Petrificus!” Jake shouted, waving the wand again, and again, the lightning flew.

  He repeated the spell for both the upper and lower halves of the gargoyle. In seconds, the halves turned back into stone, then Derek took the sledgehammer from Emrys, and pounded them both into dust.

  Then the ugly gargoyle was no more.

  “Lord Crafanc! Will you help him?” Emrys called from beside his wounded man.

  Red glided down at once to give Wallace one of his healing feathers, using his beak to pluck it off his wing. The Gryphon offered it to Emrys.

  The head dwarf took it gratefully. Unlocking the healing powers in Red’s feathers was a simple process. Emrys was obviously familiar with gryphon magic, for he took the feather at once between his hands and started rolling it back and forth quickly between his palms, like someone trying to start a fire with sticks.

  White smoke started coming up from the feather. A burst of bright sparkles rose in the darkness as the red feather disintegrated into magical golden dust.

  Emrys sprinkled the powdered feather all over the torn flesh on the back of Wallace’s leg. The golden dust sank in, easing the pain from his face.

  “Uhhh,” said Wallace.

  Jake and everyone else waited anxiously to see what would happen.

  Several seconds later, Wallace started laughing. “Woo-hoo! Well, you don’t see that every day, now, do you?”

  Emrys flashed around a rueful smile. “He’s all right! Thank you, Lord Crafanc.”

  “Becaw,” Red replied, giving the head dwarf an extra feather in case somebody else got hurt.

  One of the other warriors gave Wallace a hand up. “Atta boy! On your feet, you lazy lie-about.”

  “Always have to learn the hard way, don’t you, Wally?” Another dwarf warrior clapped Wallace on the back.

  He grinned, the blood still wet on his clothes. “You know me. I just do it for attention.” He winked at Jake. “At least we know what to do now. When the lad says smash ’em, he means smash ’em. Into itty-bitty bits.”

  “Sure, I think we’re getting the hang of it!” his friend teased. “Better late than never. Before somebody gets his butt bitten off.”

  They laughed heartily.

  Jake could not believe the dwarves were back to joking around after what had just happened, but they clapped each other on the back, took a few discreet swigs from their flasks, and seemed ready to fight again.

  He shook his head, dazed. Mad, they were. Like wild, miniature Vikings.

  “All right, everybody, listen up,” Emrys ordered. “Now that we know what we’re dealing with, we’ll go deeper into the mine and set another trap—” His words broke off abruptly as he was interrupted by the sound of a long, rumbling growl.

  “Ahh, we’ve got company, boys,” one of the dwarves said under his breath.

  Indeed.

  Whether it had been the smell of the bait or the scent of Wallace’s blood, they had lured more gargoyles than anyone expected.

  Certainly more than they were quite ready for.

  The beasts began appearing in the shadows of all four tunnels around them.

  Now it was they who were trapped in the center of the junction—in about the same spot where the bait had lain before the first gargoyle had devoured it.

  Jake felt dizzy with fear as he glanced around, finding all four tunnels blocked by large gargoyles.

  “Don’t move,” Derek ordered softly. “We’re surrounded.”

  “How did that happen?” one of the dwarves asked angrily through gritted teeth.

  “Stealthy little buggers,” said another.

  “Hungry, too,” Wallace added.

  “Jake, to me,” Derek murmured.

  Everyone backed toward the center of the intersection, facing outward in all directions, the dwarves with the spears, Derek with his Bowie knives, Red hissing, Helena baring her fangs.

  Jake held the wand out before him as he moved to Derek’s side. Red crept into position on his right.

  “Fire at will, Jake. I suggest you clear the tunnel we arrived by first, or they’ll have us trapped down here,” Derek said softly.

  He gulped and nodded. “Petrificus!”

  The battle exploded.

  With his heart pounding in his ears and terror narrowing his senses down to tunnel vision, it was impossible to follow everything that was going on around him all at once. The gargoyles attacked; the dwarves swung their axes, chopping at the beasts to ward them off. Jake turned one monster after the other to stone; Derek smashed them into bits; it seemed to last for hours.

  When one tall, horned gargoyle with crazed, glowing eyes put its head down and charged at Jake like a possessed bull, he froze for a fraction of a second that he could ill afford; then he fumbled with sweaty, shaking hands and only managed to drop the wand.

  He cursed and bent to pick it up, and would have had his head bitten off if Red had not pushed in front of him and roared in the charging beast’s face.

  It skidded to a halt.

  The ugly bull gargoyle stood as tall as Red; the two creatures had a staring contest. It only lasted about three seconds, but to Jake, it felt much longer. Then, to his astonishment, the bull gargoyle turned tail and ran from the Gryphon.

  “Petrificus!” Jake got it in the back while it fled, having recovered his wand.

  The nearest dwarf used the blunt end of his axe blade to knock the statue down and pound the parts to gravel.

  Someone screamed.

  “He got me!”

  “Hang on, Joffrey! We’ll get you a gryphon feather!”

  “Petrificus!”

  “This one’s mine!”

  Smash!

  Another gargoyle statue crumbled under a blow from Emrys’s sledgehammer.

  Jake looked around, chest heaving. “Is that it? Is that all of them?”

  He could hear the hurt man whimpering in the dark. Red hurried to give him a feather, then suddenly, a feline roar from above made Jake look up.

  He was just in time to see a gargoyle with ugly, stunted wings dropping down toward him from the ceiling.

  But Helena leaped off the metal catwalk and slammed the creature aside, driving it against the opposite wall with the force of her jump.

  They both tumbled to the ground. The stunned gargoyle got up and ran, galloping away on all fours.

  The leopard-governess ran after it in blind fury, chasing it down the tunnel with the single-minded purpose of a cat who had already got a taste of its mouse.

  “Helena, come back here!” Derek ordered. “Everyone needs to stick together! Blast that woman. Shapeshifters!”

  “She can’t help her instincts,” Jake blurted out, feeling like his life had just flashed before his eyes.

  “Come on,” Derek ordered everyone.

  They all ran down the tunnel aft
er Helena, already hearing the snarls and growls of a ferocious fight echoing from the darkness ahead.

  Strangely, they also heard the unmistakable sound of running water.

  “Oh, perfect,” Derek muttered.

  At the end of the tunnel, they arrived in a large, hollowed-out cavern with an underground river cutting through it.

  The high, sloped walls of the craggy cavern had rough-cut rock ledges here and there, and a rock dome ceiling some forty feet high.

  There were all sorts of ladders leading to higher tunnels above, with barrels and mining equipment clustered around the walls of the ground level. The rushing water was noisy, reverberating through the cave.

  Through the Vampire Monocle, Jake scanned the cavern until he spotted the governess-leopard on a rock ledge twenty feet above them. She had caught her gargoyle in her jaws and was shaking it violently by the back of its neck, just like a cat with its prey.

  “Helena, really!” Derek scolded her.

  She flung the gargoyle from her jaws, tossing it against the rock ledge.

  Jake lifted the wand to turn it to stone, but the gargoyle recovered with surprising speed; it jumped up, shook itself, then launched at Helena in a counterattack.

  Derek grabbed his arm and stopped him. “Wait for a clear shot. You might hit her.”

  Jake obeyed, but he glanced around the cavern and saw fit to warn the others of what the monocle showed him. “Stay on your toes. I’m counting six more of them in the shadows.”

  “I see seven,” Emrys countered in a low tone.

  It was true. They were everywhere. This was starting to look more like an infestation than a mere pest problem.

  But after the group had successfully fought off the first wave back at the intersection of the tunnels, these ones did not seem too keen to attack, other than the one Helena was battling.

  “If she gets hurt, they’re goin’ to be all over her,” Emrys said grimly.

  “I know. Helena, that’s enough!” Derek yelled. “Get out of there!”

  He had no sooner shouted the warning than the gargoyle swiped at her ribcage with its claws. The cavern echoed with the shrill, sudden scream of an animal in pain.

  Derek was instantly in motion, both Bowie knives in hand. He dashed across the wooden footbridge over the river, scaled the ladder with effortless speed, and leaped up onto the rock ledge, turning to put the wounded shapeshifter behind him.