Chapter 19

 

BY THE TIME we got to Klickavail Valley, Deacon was waiting for us. He was standing next to Joe’s pickup, which was parked in the shade beneath a huge fir tree. “Sorry Emerald, but Joe’s nowhere in sight,” Deacon said as I ran over to him, with Murray right behind me. I gave him a feeble smile and checked the truck but both doors were locked.

As I pressed my face to the window on the driver’s side, not sure what I was hoping to find, Murray rested a hand on my shoulder. “See anything?”

I peered through the glass. Joe’s baseball bat, which he kept on the floor of the passenger’s side, was missing. “Oh hell. His bat’s gone and I don’t think he’s off playing baseball with the biker boys. He’s gone after Bear.”

Murray nodded. “Okay, then. You need to show us where the caves are. We have to get a move on. Dusk falls early in these mountains, and we sure don’t want to be still hunting for him out here after dark.” She checked her gun, then snagged an industrial-strength flashlight out of the back of her truck. Deacon handed her a roll of pale, greenish-looking tape.

“Here’s the tape you asked for, Murray.”

“Tape?” I asked.

She nodded. “Just shine the flashlight on it for a little bit and it will glow in the dark for over an hour. I thought we might be able to use it to mark our way in case the tunnels get confusing, so I asked Deacon to snag a roll on his way up here.”

Impressed by her forethought, I opened my pack and handed her Clyde’s jacket and George’s glasses. She examined them briefly, then gave them to Deacon to lock in the squad car while she brought him up to speed.

When she finished, he nodded and said, “While I was waiting, I talked to one of the bikers—a guy named Terry-T. Apparently, the boys are scared shitless about this patch of land. Not only have they heard weird things over on this side of the windbreak, but a few of the guys mentioned seeing shadows where there shouldn’t be shadows, and movements in the bushes like some big animal was roaming this part. Cougar, maybe, but they said it was bigger than that. Clyde’s death appears to have left a real mark on the enclave. A few of the men have actually hit the road.”

“Oh wonderful. Well, I hope our murderer wasn’t among them.” Murray shaded her eyes and glanced around the narrow strip of meadow. “I wonder how long Joe’s been out here.”

“Joe must have taken off shortly after I told him what happened.” I struggled to remember about what time that had been. “He probably left the fire station fifteen… maybe twenty minutes after I phoned him, so I’d say about ninety minutes.”

“Long enough to get himself into trouble, then. Okay babe,” Murray motioned for me to take the lead. “Let’s book.”

I led them past the outcropping and bramble patch directly toward the slope leading up to the sinkhole. Since the cave-in had effectively blocked the main adit, our best course was to hike up to the shaft through which Cathy and I’d made our escape from Bear. Frustrated, I started up the mountainside.

Damn it, why did Joe have to go and play the hero? Images of him lying somewhere in a pool of blood swirled in my mind. George might stand accused of murdering Clyde, but I knew damned well that he didn’t do it and I was terrified that whoever—or whatever—had killed the two bikers was now stalking Joe. Or maybe, it had already found him. On one hand, we had the Klakatat Monster, who had warrior-spirits protecting him. On the other, we had Bear, who—well, I didn’t know his story but he obviously didn’t want to be disturbed and I had the feeling he’d go to any lengths to protect his privacy.

As the slope became steeper, my heart raced along, adrenaline fueling my muscles as I forced my way up the side of the mountain. Going down had been much easier, by the time we reached the top, I was panting. I crouched, resting my hands on my knees as I struggled to catch my breath. Neither Murray nor Deacon had broken a sweat.

With a cough, I straightened up, pointing ahead to a huckleberry bush. “There, to the right of that bush. That’s where Cathy and I escaped. Bear must have found another way out. The ladder’s gone.”

“Or Joe found it,” Murray said. “He’d have to use an alternate route, since the cave-in blocked the main adit. You told him everything, right? Including where you escaped and how you got out?”

With a sinking feeling, I nodded. “Yeah, everything.”

Murray took a long look around us. “There’s no sign that anybody’s watching us. Can you sense anything?”

I dreaded opening myself up to the energies out here on the mountain, but it was the most expedient way, and both Murray and I knew it. Deacon cleared his throat and stepped back, studiously watching the trees that dotted the slope. I closed my eyes and concentrated on the breeze as it played against my skin. As it lulled me into trance I sank to the ground, but nothing triggered an alarm. A rabbit was hiding behind a nearby fern, and I sensed a deer farther in, among the trees, but otherwise—nada. The area on the surface of the slope was clear.

“Nothing.” I squinted up at Murray. “There’s no one topside. Mur, I’m going to go out on the astral and peek in the caves.”

She glanced over at Deacon, who was doing a good job of pretending to be otherwise occupied. I could sense that he was… not exactly skeptical, but wary. “Are you sure? Remember what happened the last time?”

I still had a faint mark on my forehead where the last psychic blast had nailed me, but there was too much at stake for me to chicken out. Joe’s life might be in my hands, and I couldn’t turn away.

“Yeah, I’m sure. Shake me out of it if things get too weird.” I closed my eyes again and sent my consciousness down, delving into the tunnels, deep into the earth to see if I could pick up movement or life. The energy on the slope was older than that of the meadow, and the energy in the tunnels older than both.

Dense and stubborn, the waves of earth-mana ran sleepy. Haste would not waken the dreamers here, but only persistence—like tickles of water that constantly eroded away the surface layers of the rock millimeter by millimeter, that filtered in through the tunnels and trapdoors to wash ashore the treasures and mysteries secreted in this mountain.

Flowing on the astral currents, I reached out, searching for Joe.

And then—somewhere beneath the tons of rock and dirt, a flutter caught my attention. Joe! The shimmering spark that fueled his spirit beckoned to me. Living and warm, but fuzzy, as if he might be asleep or unconscious. A rush of relief washed over me. He was alive!

I couldn’t pinpoint where he was in relation to where we were standing, but when I thought about the configuration of the maze Cathy and I’d ran through, I figured it had to be somewhere to the left of the main cavern, near where I’d found the jacket. I was about to bring myself out of trance when I sensed something else, something close to Joe. I homed in on it. Big… ancient and definitely not human.

As I tuned into this new energy, a chaotic tangle of emotions flooded my mind—hunger, confusion, weariness. And then, once again, the image of the skull floated before me, only this time a sense of urgency emanated from it. Words that were not words formed in my mind, and I knew that it was asking me for help. Floundering, I struggled to sort out the vortex of emotions before snapping out of the trance.

“What is it?” Murray dropped to my side.

“Joe, he’s down there, but so is something else and it’s not Bear and it’s not one of the Warriors of the Mountain.” I gazed into her eyes, knowing all too well what I’d stumbled on.

Murray read me loud and clear. “The Klakatat Monster?”

I glanced at Deacon, then lowered my voice so he couldn’t hear. “Yeah, I think so. And I can tell you right now that it’s not happy. It seems to need help, though for the life of me, I don’t know what I can do for it. Something weird is going on down there and we have to get Joe out before it’s too late.” I pushed myself to my feet. “The ladder’s gone from up top, but is there another way we can get down through this chute?” As I headed toward the sinkhole, Murray grabbed my arm, holding me back.

“Let me check,” she said. Murray edged toward the shaft, dropping to her hands and knees as she neared the opening. She drew her gun as she approached, cautiously peering over the side. She motioned me over. “The ladder is back in place,” she said. “The question being: Is Bear down there waiting?”

“I didn’t sense him in the area, but don’t wager a bet on my impressions. They don’t come with a money-back guarantee.”

Deacon joined us. “If there is somebody down there, chances are they’ve heard us by now. I’ll go down while you cover me. We’re not going to find an easier way in, not without scouring this mountain.”

After a moment, she nodded and pulled back. Deacon slid his legs over the edge and, with gun in one hand, used his other hand to steady himself on the ladder as he disappeared into the dark hole. After a jittery thirty seconds, we heard, “All clear.”

Murray agilely swung onto the ladder and, quick as a mountain goat, descended into the black cave. I waited until she was clear, then hesitantly slipped onto the rungs. As I scurried down to join them, memories of Cathy’s and my frantic race out of this cavern flooded back. I dreaded facing the dark tunnels again, but the image of Joe loomed large in my mind and I pushed away my fears.

The chamber was as I’d last seen it—though the boxes were closed, and the sleeping bags were rolled tight. A backpack sat atop one of the boxes, and Murray poked through it. She pulled out a piece of paper, along with a handful of cash.

“Well, what do we have here?” Poking around in the stuffed backpack, she pulled out bundle after bundle of stacked bills. “Holy crap, look at this—there must be seventy or eighty thousand dollars here! And what’s this?” She examined the paper. “It appears to be a copy of a recent court order, releasing somebody named Ian Hannigan from jail.” She handed it to Deacon. “That name sounds familiar. Where have I heard it?”

It sounded familiar to me, too. “Wasn’t it on the news not long ago? I can’t remember where but…”

“Could be. I can’t seem to place it though. Okay, Deacon, head topside and get down to the squad car. Call the station and find out everything you can about this guy, then hightail it back here.”

“Should I just use my cell phone?” he asked.

Murray shook her head. “Use the radio—it’s too easy for people to tap into cell phones and I don’t want anybody listening in on this.” She pulled out the roll of glow-in-the-dark tape. “I had a feeling this might be handy. I’ll use strips of it to mark our path, so keep your eyes peeled when you get back. And Deacon—step on it?”

We watched as he shimmied up the ladder. When he’d disappeared out the mouth of the sinkhole, I turned to Murray. “We have to get to Joe,” I pleaded. “I think he might be hurt.”

Murray nodded. “I’d really like to go through this stuff, but we’ll come back for it. Which way do we go?”

I led her down the tunnel through which Cathy and I had escaped, stopping along the way as my walking stick, kicked to the side of the passage, came into view. I retrieved it, feeling more confident now that I had some sort of weapon in my hands.

Mur’s flashlight cut a swath through the darkness, accentuating the shadows that played against the wall as we crept through the tunnel. Time seemed to be going much slower than it had my first time through, and I began to appreciate just how long this passage actually was. Every few yards, Mur stopped to tear off a strip of tape and slap it against the rocky walls. She shone her flashlight on it for a few seconds, and then we moved on. Once, I thought I could hear the faint fall of footsteps echoing somewhere up ahead, but it could have been water dripping or rocks trickling off the roof of the cavern.

“Did you hear that?” I whispered, leaning closer to Murray.

She sucked in a deep breath. “I’m hearing a lot of things—whispers and voices and footfalls. These tunnels have a lot of history bound up in them and I’m not sure I really want to know all of it.”

As we moved farther into the mine, the energy began to thicken until it felt like we were walking through pea soup. We crept closer together, and even Murray’s strength seemed to diminish as the power of the caverns took hold. Just another foot, I told myself. We’ll just go another foot and maybe Joe will be there. But I knew he wasn’t. Joe was somewhere down the tunnel from us, past where I’d found Clyde’s jacket.

Finally, we came to an opening on the left. I recognized it—it led into the main cavern where Bear had first appeared. I pointed it out to her. “Joe isn’t in there. He’s farther along this tunnel. Whatever else is down there, I dunno.”

She nodded and, silently led off again, with footsteps that barely seemed to graze the passage floor. I used my walking stick to steady myself as we picked our way through a scattering of loose rocks and pebbles that littered the tunnel floor. At one point, Murray held up her hand.

“Be careful, there’s another fissure directly ahead. It’s small, but I think the lip is thin. If you get too close, you’d probably break through and who knows how deep it is to the bottom.” She shone her light on the shaft that fractured the surface of the floor, and carefully marked it with the tape so that Deacon wouldn’t chance falling in. The last thing we needed was a repeat of Cathy’s fiasco, especially with a fissure as deep as this one seemed to be.

As we skirted the cavity, testing each step as we went, I paused, listening to the sound of water trickling along far below in the darkness. Images of vile creatures hiding in the depths raced through my mind, courtesy of J.R.R. Tolkien and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Edgar Rice Burroughs. Shuddering, I caught up to Murray. The corridor turned sharply to the left.

Mur peeked around the edge. “Are we on the right track?”

I leaned against my walking stick, resting my weight on it as I let myself spiral down again, searching for Joe, searching for signs of life. There—ahead—he was nearby. I was starting to pull out when a surge of energy hit me. I reeled, as did Murray. Whatever it was had caught her in its wave, too.

She flashed her light around, searching for the source. As she turned to look behind us, I cautiously stepped around the corner, sensing that whatever it was, was there, waiting for me. In full-living silhouette, one of the Warriors of the Mountain faced me, near enough to touch. I inhaled sharply. Just then, Murray rounded the bend. I heard her stumble back with a gasp.

“You are walking on sacred ground.” The words reverberated through the tunnel, but whether they’d been spoken aloud or were just echoing in my mind, I didn’t know.

Shaking, I forced myself to stand my ground. “What do you want from me?”

The shadow-shape flared ever so slightly, and once again, I heard the thundering voice. “Clear this place of the intruder’s presence.”

Intruder? Who was he talking about? Joe?

The spirit must have been peeking in my mind because he said, “The man reeking of death and destruction who woke up the mountain with his anger and greed. We must protect the lore-keeper from him, but we cannot touch him. He doesn’t hear us. We need your help.”

The lore-keeper. The lore-keeper of the mountain—of course! Everything made perfect sense to me now. And then, before I could say another word, the shadow vanished and everything came into focus again. Breathing heavily, I leaned against the tunnel wall. “Shit. Did you catch any of that?”

Murray shone her flashlight at me. “Yeah, I heard it all right, but I can tell you right now, the roof would be tumbling now down if he had been speaking aloud. Who’s the lore-keeper?”

“Don’t you know?” I asked her, surprised that she hadn’t made the connection. “The Klakatat Monster… he must be the creature that embodies this mountain—he’s like an elemental, directly from the earth. A shaman or seer. Don’t you see—he’s not dangerous, but the Warriors of the Mountain are, and they’re his protectors. They told me as much in my vision, but I didn’t realize that’s who they were talking about.”

She studied my face for a moment, then said, “I’m sorry I doubted your vision the other day. The spirit said the intruder was the ‘man reeking of death.’ He’s got to be talking about Bear. But why don’t they just get rid of him?”

I’d been wondering the same thing myself, but then everything crystallized. “Murray, want to make a bet that Bear is head-blind? I’ll bet that he doesn’t realize the Klakatat Monster is real, but that he’s playing off of the legend because people are so scared. Head-blind or not, Bear’s stirred up plenty of trouble.”

“You could be right,” Mur said. “Just because he doesn’t know it really exists, doesn’t mean he’s above using the legend for his own ends, and it doesn’t mean he’s not a catalyst to waking the creature.”

I squinted, rubbing my forehead. “I’ll go you one further. I think that the Warriors of the Mountain can only hurt people who can sense them. Even though they can manifest in our world, they primarily exist on the astral. And not everyone can perceive that energy. The Warrior just said they can’t touch him. Now, I can be hurt by them, and so can you—but only because we have the ability to tune into them.”

She nodded slowly. “That makes sense. And since the Klakatat Monster is a lore-keeper, an oracle and not a warrior, he doesn’t have the ability to protect himself. But Bear can hurt him because the creature is still part of this world—more so than his guardians, living between two realms, two dimensions.” She paused, thinking. “If Bear somehow manages to see the creature, he could shoot it. And I have no doubt that he would.”

“You’re right,” I said slowly. “Ten to one, the Klakatat Monster’s spirit wanders the Dream-Time that all the native cultures and aborigines talk about, while its body rests and sleeps here under the mountain. From the Dream-Time, it watches the world go by, and remembers. But, if somebody wakes it up…”

Murray took over. “Then what’s happening in the world starts to affect it. Like becoming part of the action instead of just watching a movie. And once that happens, it becomes enmeshed in events that it’s not supposed to be participating in. And my guess is that being awake both confuses and hurts the creature. Especially when somebody like Bear is perpetuating a good share of violence right here in its home.” She smiled sadly. “It’s hard enough being psychic as a human. Can you imagine being a hundred times more sensitive than we are?”

I sighed. “I’ll tell you right now, that ‘monster’ has never killed anybody, regardless of the reputation that local legend’s given him. He’s not capable of violence. That’s why the Warriors are worried. They can’t protect him from someone whose head-blind, like Bear, and he can’t protect himself. This probably doesn’t happen often. And when it does…”

Murray nodded. “We’d better get moving.”

“Yeah, I want to find Joe and get him out of here before there’s any more trouble.”

We’d gone about another fifty yards when she stopped. The tunnel ended at an archway, opening into another chamber. Nearby, lay a pile of rocks, but they looked as though they’d been stacked, rather than falling haphazardly.

We cautiously approached. Murray examined the edges of the arch while I began poring over the pyramid of rocks. “This is natural stone,” she said. “It wasn’t chipped out. The tunnel was excavated, but it looks like the miners broke into a cave here. There aren’t any signs of activity—”

“Mur—” I broke in, as I knelt by the rock pile, my stomach flip-flopping. “We aren’t exactly alone.”

She whirled around. “What do you mean? Did the spirit come back?”

I flashed the light on the bottom layer of rocks. In the dim beam, we could see ivory fingers thrusting out from the stones. I hesitantly reached toward it. Smooth bone. “Oh boy. Somebody was here before us, all right, and they decided to stick around.”

Murray sucked in a deep breath. “Shit, another body.” She leaned down and took a closer look. “Skeleton. Been here a while, probably, from the look of things. See? There’s the head of a mining pick over there. The handle must have rotted away. I’ll bet this is one of our miners who originally came down here.”

“This is either a grave, or an extremely effective method of death. What do you think? He had some semblance of psychic ability and the Warriors got him when he delved too close to the Klakatat Monster?” I shuddered as we sidestepped the rocks and headed into the cavern.

“Probably. One way or another, he never found his way out of the mine, that’s for sure.”

As soon as we passed through the entrance, I gasped, holding my breath. The stench of ammonia overwhelmed me, and rustling sounds fluttered from high up on the ceiling. I exhaled slowly and breathed through my mouth.

A shaft of light penetrated the gloom from a small sinkhole overhead, slicing down to illuminate the center of the chamber. The entire room sparkled. Limestone formations, fragile and delicate, reminded me of sea foam, caught forever in freeze-frame. Near the center, a table-sized rimstone pool rippled in the light, filled with cave pearls and dripping water from the broken shaft overhead.

Speleothems stretched from floor to ceiling, long strands of calcite twisting into thin columns. They were nowhere nearly as grand as the ones in the Carlsbad Caverns, but the tenuous pillars were stark and beautiful, with helectites protruding from the surface. Flowstone covered the farthest wall of the chamber, while a thin ridge to our right led up to a ledge overlooking the chamber.

“Oh my God, it’s so beautiful.” For a moment, the dazzling sight wiped my mind clear of all thought.

Murray nodded, her eyes dancing. “Em, this is rare for Washington, I can tell you that. There are some limestone caves here, but not many. I doubt if this cavern has ever been mapped by any spelunker or geologist.”

I shook out of my reverie and looked for Joe. The ground squished beneath my feet and I frowned. Mud? In here?

“I know Joe’s somewhere near here. I can feel him.” As I circled the rimstone pool, I caught sight of someone sprawled on the ground behind a small stalagmite. The baseball bat was lying next to him. “Joe! It’s Joe!”

As she raced to join me, her light bobbing wildly, Murray slipped and went sprawling in the mud. “Oh hell!”

“What’s wrong?”

“This crap we’re walking in is a layer of bat guano and pee.”

I cringed and tried to keep my mind away from what might be crawling around down there in the bat-poop soup. As she struggled to her feet, her light flickered toward the ceiling and we heard a rush over our heads. I looked up in time to see a colony of bats. Murray hurriedly pointed her light toward the ground in order to keep from spooking them.

As I knelt beside Joe, I could tell he was breathing, though his breath was raspy. He was laying on a dry part of the floor, away from beneath where the bats made their bed. Either he’d tripped and hit his head on the corner of a stone, or he’d been targeted by a falling rock.

I cradled his head in my lap as Murray felt for his pulse. “A little weak,” she said, “but he’s alive.” She pulled out her water bottle and splashed some water onto a bandana that was tied around her neck like a scarf. As she gently washed Joe’s face, I tried to wake him up.

“Please, Joe, can you hear me? Wake up, hon. Please wake up!”

His eyes began to flutter and I could feel him struggling for consciousness. I spoke in soft whispers. We had to get him out of here before the Warriors got antsy. And I sure as hell didn’t want to be here should Bear show up.

Murray touched me on the shoulder. “Deacon should be here by now,” she said. “I’m getting worried. Will you be okay if I take a peek out in the tunnel? I won’t go far, but I want to see if he’s on his way.”

I took the bandana from her and continued to coax Joe back to wakefulness as she hurried over to the cavern entrance and peeked out. As her light faded, leaving my dim one in its place, goose bumps puckered up on my arms. Something… or someone… was watching us. I scanned the cave, squinting into the darkness. Nada. Nothing in sight, but the feeling was growing stronger.

Joe groaned and began to struggle. I helped him, bracing his back as he rolled to a sitting position and rested his head in his hands.

“Sweetie? Honey? Are you okay?” I kept my voice low, not wanting to disturb the bats or other denizens of the cave.

He coughed, and his cough ricocheted off the walls. Wincing, I tensed, ready to leap up and drag him out of the way should a stalactite or boulder decide to dislodge from the ceiling, but the echo faded away without dislodging any rocks.

“I twisted my ankle. Man, the last thing I remember is slipping in the mud and trying to crawl out of the cave. I guess I blacked out.”

Maneuvering the light so that it illuminated his right ankle, I pulled up the leg of his jeans. Yep, black and blue and looking painfully bruised. “You aren’t going to be walking out of here on your own,” I said.

“Shit. I came out here to play hero and you end up having to save me.” He stared at the ground, deflated.

I grunted. “You are a hero to everybody whose life you’ve saved on the job. But Joe, what the hell did you think you were doing? Bear is dangerous. He’s serious trouble. I called Murray. I was going to let the cops handle it.” Both angry and relieved, I pulled him into my arms and kissed him, trembling at the thought of how close I’d come to losing him.

He wrapped his arms around me and held me tight. “You’re one to talk. I just couldn’t stand the thought of that bastard attacking you. Chalk it up to testosterone, if you want.”

I snorted, then gently brushed his lips with my finger. “Shush, that doesn’t matter now. Murray and Deacon should be back any minute and they’ll help me get you out of here.”

Just then, a figure burst into the room at a dead run.

Bear! He took one look at us and leveled a gun directly at me. “Don’t move or I’ll shoot,” he said. He motioned to Joe. “You—tough guy. Stay where you are or I’ll kill her.” With eyes stone-cold sober, he said, “Get your pretty little ass over here. If either one of you tries anything funny, the other one gets a bullet in the brain.”

Knowing all too well that he meant every word, I slowly untangled myself from Joe and stood up, wondering what Bear had in store. I had the sinking feeling that this time, he wasn’t going to take the chance that we’d escape.