| |
“Giant tarantulas!” Sally shrieked. “Hundreds of them!”
Maddock and Lyn both raced up the rocky slope. When they reached Sally, Lyn doubled over in a fit of uncontrolled laughter. “Get it together,” Maddock said.
“They’re just crabs,” she said between gasps, “harmless land crabs.”
Bones ran up, pistol drawn. He stopped in confusion, staring first at Lyn and then at Sally. She bounced from one foot to another at the edge of a dense jungle of palms and underbrush. All about her, an array of hairy, multi-legged shapes jumped and twitched and clattered. Some were no bigger than rats, while others were the size of bulldogs. The smaller ones crawled about her feet as Sally danced and shrieked. The larger creatures stood their ground, or advanced slowly.
Lyn ran to Sally’s aid. “These are coconut crabs. They should be afraid of us.”
Maddock grabbed Sally’s backpack and pulled her away. “Look at those claws,” he said. “They could snap your bones like a pretzel stick.”
Lyn stepped forward and waved her arms. “Shoo, go away before I boil you and eat you.” She seized the largest crab just behind its body. The creature hissed. Flinging it at the other crabs, she kicked a third out of her way. “Come on,” she said. “This is just getting too weird.”
The woman dodged between two palm trees. As she did, a huge brown shape dropped from the fronds. Instinctively, Bones whipped out his Glock and blew the crab in half. As his shot echoed off the mountain, ten thousand birds rose shrieking into the air. Bones stared a moment at the claws that twitched at Lyn’s feet.
“I swear, it was going for your throat. Somehow I just knew.”
“Mama Lani must have called them,” Lyn said, quickening her pace.
“What? On the phone?” Sally asked as the others followed.
“Don’t discount it,” Maddock said. “Think about the torches. They would have known how many we’d need to get safely there and back. Theirs wouldn’t be the first culture that exacts a high price for sharing their knowledge.”
“Why give you the knowledge at all if they’re just going to kill you?” Sally said.
“I imagine the strong survive,” Bones said. “That way they weed out the unworthy.”
“Fair enough,” Sally said. “But that’s a far cry from a priestess or whatever she is having a way of controlling monster crabs. It’s impossible.”
Bones was about to share a few thoughts on what was and was not impossible, but Maddock beat him to it.
“You don’t need to believe it right now; just go with it. We’ll discuss it when we have more time.”
“Speaking of more, here come the crabs again,” Lyn warned, pointing to movement off to one side. “We need to get out of here.”
Maddock gazed about at the surrounding chaos of rock and jungle. “I’m not so sure I know exactly where ‘here’ is.”
Sally pointed at an opening in the palms and lianas. “It looks like a big rock, or a hilltop over there. Maybe we can see something from the top.” She shuddered and looked up. “Besides, nothing can fall in our hair if we’re standing on that rock.”
Bones squinted in the direction she pointed. “I’d like to look at that, too. It’s got kind of a strange shape.”
Maddock was intrigued by the rock himself. “We might be able to spot Lark from up there, if anyone’s up for another climb.”
Bones had already set off, picking his way between the trees and thick undergrowth. Sally and Lyn fell in right behind him. Maddock took one last good look at where they started before following the others.
The whole setup just smells fishy, he mused, pushing through the branches and leaves. Lyn has more going on than smuggling a boatload of pot. He worried briefly about Willis and the crew before remembering the small arsenal Lyn kept in the wheelhouse. They could hold their own, he knew. Maddock hustled over a patch of bare ground to catch up with the others.
Bones had halted in front of a sheer rock face. Creepers and lianas clung to its surface like a vertical garden. Whole trees jutted out from crevices and dark cavities in the looming cliff face. Something that looked almost like a path led up to its base. There, a black opening could be seen through a veil of leaves and vines.
Lyn balked. “You do not expect me to go in there. One filthy cave is enough for today.”
“Sounds like Maddock in Tijuana,” Bones said, trailing off at the end and casting Maddock a side glance.
Maddock walked up and pushed some of the vegetation aside. “This is no cave; this stone has been cut and laid by hand.” He peered closer at the rock. “And look here, some kind of symbol, a circle inside a triangle. There’s more, but it’s so badly weathered I can’t make it out.”
Bones stared up at the wall in awe. “It’s a temple. A giant temple built on the side of a volcano.”
“No.” Lyn backed away. “I mean it. You will not get me to go inside.”
Sally crouched low and crawled under the vines. “This goes all the way through. I see a faint green illumination on the other side.”
Lyn hugged herself. “Am I the only sane person on this island? Let’s go load my cargo and get the hell out of here. Even Maug is starting to look good.”
Sally wormed her way a little further into the opening. “I think we were supposed to find this place. Mama Lani sent us here for a reason.”
“Yeah, she hates our guts,” Lyn said. “Remember the crabs?”
“Maybe they were just herding us in the right direction.”
Bones started ripping vines from one side of the entrance. “I think we can fit through here.”
Maddock grinned at Lyn. “Why don’t you just stay outside and guard our backs?”
“And miss watching all three of you fall down some bottomless pit? No, I’ll come along.”
By the time Maddock crawled through the curtain of leaves, Sally had explored almost a hundred feet beyond. A pale green glow lit the interior. He watched her silhouette move against the shadowy background.
Lyn squeezed past the vine-covered entrance. “Couldn’t possibly be anything dangerous in here. No way.”
Bones grunted and came through behind them. “Where’s Sally?”
“She’s up there,” Maddock said. “I just saw her a minute ago.” He called out, but no answer.
Bones hurried into the dim passage. He tripped on a fallen stone, cursed and kept going. Maddock followed, avoiding most of the larger debris. They both halted at a green rippling pool. It glowed from within, throwing bizarre shadows across the vaulted stone ceiling. Sally’s pack lay right at the edge. Bones snatched it up; a few empty water bottles fell out and clattered on the rocks.
Once more, Maddock called. His voice echoed for several seconds before vanishing into the surrounding darkness. No answer, no sound but Lyn’s gasp as she approached the pool.
“I’ve seen something like this before.” She inched closer. “It was at Nan Madol—the stone ruins on Pohnpei.”
“Lemuria,” Bones said. “Holy crap! Are you telling me we’ve found another remnant of the ancient Lemurian Empire?”
Maddock peered around in the gloom. He ought to be more excited about this find, but he was concerned. “That’s great, but where’s Sally?”
Entranced, Lyn kept staring into the opaque green water. Her voice flat, almost hypnotic, she said, “Sally is gone—you will not see her again.”
“What the hell does that mean, Lyn?”
“I saw... I once saw a man fall into a pool like that. He never came out.”
Before Lyn could finish, Maddock had shrugged out of his shirt and kicked off his shoes. He grabbed Bones by the arm. “If I’m not back in three, get Lyn the heck away from here.”
On impulse, he almost dove in, but something strange about the green fluid halted Maddock at the edge. He sat and lowered his feet into the glowing surface. The ripples danced about, throwing the chamber into a glittering green chaos. He took a deep breath and slipped off the rim of cut stones.
The rock scraped his back as he slid below the surface. Maddock fell almost five feet before he could twist and grab a handhold. The green fluid was hardly more substantial than air. With no idea how deep this pool was, he climbed down the side. Blind in a sea of light, he had to grope among the rocks for every move.
After almost a minute, his feet reached a sloping bottom. Soft and springy, it crunched like centuries of leaf-litter in a virgin forest. I’m hunting rabbits in the dark, he thought. Well into his second minute, Maddock wondered if he should try calling. He didn’t dare inhale the fluid; any breath lost would be unrecoverable. He shuffled around trying to find his bearings. A moment later, something grabbed his foot.
Maddock jumped in surprise, lost his balance in the tangled mass, and fell. His outstretched hand grasped at the first object he touched. Smooth, round, rough-edged holes, he recognized it as a human skull. The rest could only be bones. A small voice: “Help me.”
“Sally?” Half his breath, gone in one word. His heart pounded, not in fear, but straining for oxygen. The grip on his ankle tightened. Maddock reached out, took the hand in his and helped her to her feet. She wrapped him with the strength borne of uncontrolled panic.
Maddock broke free and pushed her away, but she clung to his arm like a squid on a dying fish. Pulling her along, he plunged through the clutter of bones. The wall, he had to find it. Up, the only way out was to climb the littered slope and scale the rocky wall. No air. Maddock knew he was about to pass out but feared that breathing any of the green fluid would doom them both. His hand touched the rocky surface, he reached behind Sally and boosted her as high as he could.
Maddock’s chest heaved, fighting to breathe—anything. The universe of green that had surrounded him began to fade. He felt the rock slip from his fingers. What was it again he had to do?
Lying on a bed of soft grass, breathing the cool dawn breeze wafting from a garden of ten thousand flowers, Maddock watched a flock of scarlet birds cross the sky. There was something... The flowers swayed on their tall stems and a swarm of tiny insects buzzed about the garden. He sat up. A handful of the little bugs clung to his skin. Maddock brushed them off, but like flies they returned. Tiny feet, scratching, itching. They crawled in his ears, buzzed about his lips and landed in his eyes.
Maddock slapped and jumped, but they only flew off to return tenfold. He rubbed his arms and face, crushing them by the thousands. Something bit his foot. Centipedes as big as garden snakes swarmed about his ankles, eating the tiny carcasses he’d crushed.
Dancing, jumping, he shook the creatures from his legs and trampled them beneath his feet. In an instant, a dozen large rats sprang from the undergrowth and began devouring everything they could find. Maddock couldn’t think. The rats jumped waist high, crawling up his back. He knocked one squealing into the air only to see it land in the jaws of a large black wolf. Just as six more wolves faded into view, an enormous orangutan swung down from above and seized him about the waist. Something. He had to do something... climb, that was it. Rough tree-bark beneath his fingers, Maddock followed the orangutan up into the shadowy branches above.
“Come on, Maddock. Wake up.” He heard the voice but couldn’t figure what was so urgent. Someone smacked him in the face, then again—harder. Maddock let his eyelids flicker open. A world of green twilight, Bones knelt over him. In the background he heard a woman’s voice. “The still girl isn’t responding.”
Maddock remembered, he had to find Sally. His voice came as a whisper “Did you get her?”
“I think this one will live,” Bones said. “You with us, buddy?”
“I’m not sure. Did you get Sally?”
“Yeah, she came crawling out like some kind of creature from the green lagoon.”
“She’s alive?”
“Unconscious.”
“How—how’d I get...?”
“You don’t think I would have left you in there? Really—you thought that old pal?”
Maddock’s head spun. There? In the garden with the animals? No, in the pool, the pool without water, looking for Sally. “Bones, that’s not water in there.”
“No crap it’s not water. Were you breathing it?”
Maddock sat up and tried to stand. The hall spun as he straightened. Bones grabbed him by the arm. “Not so quick, buddy.”
“I’m good.” Maddock tried a few steps. “Yeah, I must have been breathing it. Bunch of nasty bad dreams. It’s deadly. I thought I was a goner. Where’s Sally?”
“Over here.” Lyn waved at him from the edge of the pool. “She’s breathing, but that’s all.”
Maddock knelt at her side. “Let’s get her out of here, get her in the sunlight.”
“I found a way to the top while you were drooling and mumbling,” Bones said. “Up here, it’s the quickest.” He scooped Sally from the stony floor and started up a steep flight of stone steps. Lyn followed.
Each step was almost two feet high with only a sliver of tread, no wider than a man’s hand. Above, daylight glowed from a narrow crevice. Maddock admired the stonework as they made their way toward daylight. “Whoever constructed this wasn’t following any building code that I know.”
With the young woman in his arms, Bones didn’t look back. “The Lemurians aren’t human. They’re slender and very tall.”
“They aren’t human?” Lyn said. “Like you believe there’s some weird skinny guys around?”
Bones kept climbing. “No. They left this place over ten thousand years ago. Sometimes maybe they visit, but most Lemurians have retreated to their Kingdom of Agartha, hidden beneath the North Pole.”
Maddock waited, counting steps, but it seemed that Lyn was lost for a reasonable response to Bones’ last statement. After about fifty of the tall steps all of them puffed and sweated as they climbed. By seventy-five, Maddock felt his thighs burning, but Bones just kept treading upward toward the daylight. At step one hundred and twenty-two, Bones hefted Sally up through a narrow stone slot and turned sideways to squeeze his own shoulders through. Lyn had a similar problem for a different reason. Maddock tried not to notice, but sometimes it couldn’t be helped.
From the top, half the island stretched out before them. A strong trade wind swept down from the north, rippling the Philippine Sea far below. Lyn scanned the shoreline while Bones and Maddock knelt over Sally. The young woman was still breathing, but unconscious.
“Wake up,” Bones urged. “Do it for Corey.”
She twitched her foot. Maddock saw one eyelid flicker.
“Did that seriously work?” Maddock asked.
“Got to be coincidence.”
“We need you Sally,” Maddock said. “Wake up.”
Sally sat up with a start. “The Lady. I have to get to the Lady. It’s already too late.”
Bones held her back, but Sally struggled to stand. “She’s dying and there is no one to replace her. Let me go, I’ve got to get back.”
“Easy.” Maddock took her arm and steadied her. “Tell us who you saw. Why did you go in there?”
“I followed the Lady to her garden.” Sally closed her eyes. “Greenery everywhere, with flowers that bloomed like the world had been made anew. Then the snakes came, thousands of them.” Sally opened her eyes again. “They just swarmed all over the poor Lady. They pulled her down. It was horrible, her face screaming from a writhing ball of scales, with a hundred snakes springing from her hair.” Her voice lowered to a whisper. “That’s when they came for me.”
Bones grabbed her by both shoulders and stared into her eyes. “There was no lady, no snakes. Where do you think we are right now?”
“I’m, I’m...” She looked around. “God, I don’t know. Where are we? How did we get here?”
“Mama Lani, remember?”
Sally stared off at the sparkling horizon. “Oh my God, I’ve lost my mind.”
“No,” Maddock said. “You just misplaced it for a while. What you saw was an illusion. You’ve suffered from hallucinations, but it’s temporary.”
Sally visibly relaxed, closed her eyes, and let her arms sag. And then her eyes shot open.
“What is it?” Maddock asked. Sally looked down and he followed her gaze to where she held her hand pressed against her shorts pocket.
“It’s here,” she whispered.
“What is?”
“The Lady couldn’t have been an illusion. She gave me this.” Sally dug into her shorts pocket and pulled out a carved figurine. “She said it’s the ‘key to Maug,’ whatever that means.”
Maddock accepted the small statue and held it up for Bones to see. Clearly female in every way, it featured large pendulous breasts, wide hips, and exaggerated pudenda. Its legs tapered to a single point and its bulbous head bore no trace of eyes or mouth.
“Venus figurine,” Bones said. “Can I take a look? There was this hot anthropology professor I dated for a while. Even took one of her classes. She didn’t look like this, though.” He turned the figure over, inspected the legs, and handed it back to Sally. “This one is carved from ivory or bone. It could be as much as thirty thousand years old.”
Lyn stared at him for a full five-count.
“Don’t look so surprised. He’s much smarter than he lets on,” Maddock said. “And he loves doing that to people, so don’t give him the satisfaction of acting too impressed.”
“Screw you, Maddock.”
Maddock turned to Sally. “Where, exactly did you find this?”
“The Lady, in the pool, she called, and I just stepped in. It felt like—like falling for miles.” Sally grinned at Bones. “You’d have jumped in too if you’d seen her. She gave it to me.”
“I did jump in, but I didn’t inhale.”
“Well I inhaled,” Maddock said. “Whatever is in there, it’s a powerful hallucinogen.”
Lyn looked over the statuette, examined Sally’s face, and said, “The oracle at Delphi. She was young, virginal, and she smoked some weird stuff down in her cave. At least, she was in this romance novel I just read.”
“Volcanic cave,” Maddock answered. “Just like this one. It makes sense, but back there, you said you’ve seen something like this before?”
“A few years ago, I delivered some cargo to the Island of Pohnpei. Its capital is Kolonia, the only real town on the island. A couple of guys in this bar, we got to talking. One of them, a big guy like Bonebrake there. I kinda liked him. Well, this guy starts going on about these ancient ruins, lost city and all.”
“I’ve heard of it,” Maddock said. “Nan Madol, mostly a tourist trap.”
“That’s the one. People come there every year looking for alien astronauts. But this guy, his plane leaves in the morning and he’s all fire-ants to see the place before he goes home. So this is in the evening, midsummer night. We’d had daylight well past nine o’clock, still the shadows started growing longer. There were mentions of ghosts and no one wanted to take us out to the ruins.”
Lyn glanced at the rolling hills and jungle below them. “Speaking of growing shadows. We better head back to the boat. There’s a long haul ahead of us and I can finish the story then.”