Secrets in the Dark (27 page)

“
Not today,” Doug told
her. “But I’m definitely coming back here sometime!”

“
How do we know if there’s
something dangerous in the other tunnels,” Faith asked, voice
shaking.

“
Fangface can show the
tunnel we should check next.”

I was amazed I could still
get my jaw to work, it had dropped so far open. “You call your
bat
Fangface
?”

Brady grinned at the bat
clinging to the side of the cave. I could swear the bat was
grinning back.

That had to be a trick of
the flickering candlelight, right?

Brady said, “I decided,
since we’re in a magic place and none of the other rules seem to
apply, I should accept that vampires might exist. I saw a vampire
movie where the executioner called the main vamp Fangface. It
was
funny.”

He called out, “Hey
Fangface. Can you check out the tunnels and show us the best
one?”

Olivia snorted. “You expect
it to understand all that?”

“
Sure,” Brady said. “I’ve
decided that’s one of the rules in this place.” He smiled widely as
the bat gave a squeak and flew into a passage on the
left.

Doug told him, “Let’s
finish checking this room. There might be a something interesting
on the walls or the floor.”

We worked our way around,
watching Fangface flying in and out of the three open tunnels on
the left of the cave. We found a fourth tunnel on the right side of
the cave, but it was not much bigger than a closet.

It didn’t take long to
explore the main cave. I was disappointed. There was
no sign of Ghalynn, and worse, no sign he’d ever
been there. What were we supposed to find here?

Fortunately, we didn’t need
to wait long for Brady’s bat to come back. Brady called, “Hey
Fangface. Which way should we go?” The bat squeaked, flew around
Brady’s head and flew back to the first tunnel. Brady followed, and
we crowded after him into a dark narrow passage.

The tunnel went on a long
way.

Mostly I didn’t mind. In
fact, I really enjoyed some parts, like where the roof of the
tunnel sparkled in the light of my candle like it was covered with
hundreds of stars. But occasionally, it grew so low and narrow I
had to bend almost in half or turn sideways to make it
through.

The worst was a thankfully
short section where we all had to drop belly down in the dirt and
squirm forward like worms to keep from smashing our heads into the
low ceiling. I’d heard of claustrophobia before but never
understood it. Now, I was stuck with Brady and Faith in front of
me, and Olivia and Doug behind me. I couldn’t turn around if I
wanted to.

What if the tunnel keeps
getting smaller? Could we get stuck?

“
Next time I’m bringing my
bike helmet,” Faith grumbled, just in front of me. “I’m going to
crack my head open on these stupid rocks.”

All
of us were bumping against the rough uneven surface. I could
tell that by the grunts and yelps which accompanied our slow
forward progress. Good thing we were only twelve, not sixteen. I
wouldn’t want to do this if I was any bigger.

That thought made me pause.
Would we still be coming to Chimera when we were
sixteen?

“
What’s the hold up, Kat?”
Olivia shoved at my foot.

I started moving, but
continued to think about coming into Chimera for four more
years.

Well, why not? It’s
interesting here.

Just ahead of me, Faith
disappeared from view. I hurried forward, and emerged into a small
circular cavern.

Chapter 30

That’s a Clue?

A Clue to What!

“
Hey!” Olivia exclaimed
as
she crawled out behind me. “Look at
this. Brady, what does it say?”

Brady was walking back and
forth in front of the cave wall, holding up his candle. The wall
was covered with pictures and symbols. He kept muttering, “This is
different. This is really different.”

He finally turned and said,
“Parts of this seem like clues. The kind you get in a scavenger
hunt. Did anyone bring a paper and pencil?”

He grinned when Faith held
them out. “Hey, Doug, hold the berries up so I can see to write
this down, okay? It’s going to take a while to figure this out.
I’ll have to write it down and take it home to work on it.” Doug
held up the baggie, while Brady handed his flickering candle to
Olivia.

As Brady lowered his head
over the paper, I wandered around, occasionally lifting my candle
and shining it into different parts of the cave.

It didn’t take long to
circle the small space, and I could tell Brady wasn’t done yet.
“There’s nothing else in here. Why don’t some of us go through one
of the other tunnels?”

Olivia and Doug said they’d
go too. Doug handed the berries to Faith. She held them up close to
the wall, while Brady continued to hastily scribble down the
symbols.

We made our way out of the
long winding passage. I’d forgotten how bad some of it was. At
least it felt better to be in front. I wondered how Doug liked
being stuck in the middle this time.

When we finally made it to
the main cave, we took the second tunnel. This one was shorter than
the first, but it also led to a small cave. It was even smaller
than the first, and there was nothing written on the walls. I
started to leave, but Shadow went to the far side of the cave and
meowed.

“
Shadow thinks there’s
something over there. Why don’t you check it out?”

“
On it,” I told Doug
shortly, knowing I sounded rude.

Like I would ignore
Shadow!

I stomped across the cave
until I stood next to her.

I would never have noticed
it if Shadow hadn’t meowed again, then disappeared into what looked
like a small crack. I called her, but she didn’t return. I checked
the small crack more carefully. The tunnel actually continued past
the cave, after making a tight, nearly one hundred eighty degree
turn.

This made the tunnel
invisible unless you looked at it from just the right angle. “Hey,
check it out.”

Olivia moved up next to me.
“Why am I looking at the back wall of the cave?” She looked at me
like I’d lost it.

I thrust my arm into the
hidden passage. Her eyes flew wide. “How…?” My arm must look like
it vanished into thin air. I laughed. “It’s a hidden passage.
Shadow wants us to see it.”

I moved quickly, wanting to
be in front this time. We shuffled through the narrow, twisting
tunnel, frequently ducking low spots. Shadow waited patiently for
us to catch up. She was having a much easier time in the tight
spaces. Occasionally there were forks in the passage, but Shadow
seemed very sure of the path we should take.

We’d
be lost without Shadow!

“
Make sure you stay with
us,” I called after her when she disappeared around a curve. There
was a nervous twitching in the pit of my stomach when I thought
about trying to get out of here without her. Just trying to turn
around in this narrow place would suck. I tried to look back the
way we came and struck my shoulder against a sharp rock.
Yeah,
major
suckage!

We suddenly entered a
long, narrow cavern, and I let out my breath in a gust. The floor
was messed up. Like someone had dug something up. Or maybe, like
something had been
buried.

Enthusiasm made my voice
sound like I’d just taken a hit off a helium balloon. “Doug, we
have to bring a shovel next month. Something could be buried in
here!”

“
I always wanted to dig
for buried treasure.”

“
Think whatever it is will
be safe here for a whole month?”

Olivia laughed. “Who’s
gonna find it? We haven’t seen anyone in here.”

I stooped down to pet
Shadow, who was sitting by my feet looking pleased with herself.
Anyone who said cats can’t smile doesn’t know cats! I had the
feeling a lot of time had passed and I was starting to worry about
getting home late. That would be bad! I couldn’t violate my
no-more-being-grounded-ever rule so soon. “I think we better head
back.”

“
No, wait. We should try
digging now,” Doug said.

Olivia sounded offended.
“Are you kidding? I am
not
digging in the dirt with my hands!”

Of course not.

“
We’ll bring shovels next
time,” I assured her.

“
Fine.” Doug’s huge sigh
would have been great, if he were trying out for Drama
King.

I turned to Shadow and
asked her to lead us back. At least going out felt shorter than
going in. When we reached the main cave, Brady and Faith were
waiting for us.

“
How’s our time?” I
asked.

“
We need to go. We’ve been
in Chimera four hours. It’s going to be pretty late when we get
back.”

“
Did you finish writing
everything down?”

“
Got it all.”

As we turned to leave, Doug
filled Brady in on the hidden cave. Brady was appropriately
enthusiastic about the idea of buried treasure. But I’d had time to
think about it while we made our way out of the second tunnel. I
said, “Ghalynn isn’t here. And we didn’t find anything to show he
ever made it here. Next time, before we start digging, we should
check the other tunnels for any sign of him.”

Doug said,
“
I
think we need
to go to the secret cave and dig up the floor. It looks like
something was buried in there!” When he saw the mutinous look on my
face, he added, “Ghalynn might have buried something
there.”

That cheered me up. Though
we hadn’t found Ghalynn, we’d made some good discoveries — the
writing at the end of the first tunnel, and maybe something buried
in the second tunnel. As we hurried from the cave, Brady and Doug
were already planning what we should bring to dig up the cave next
month.

What if something
is
buried there? That
would be so cool!

“
Hey Brady, where’s the
Rejects?” Doug asked. We hesitated at the mouth of the cave as
Brady checked the map by the light from the berries. “No sign of
them.”

Maybe Polly convinced them
it’s too boring in here. Maybe they won’t ever come back. One can
wi — um, hope.

Brady looked at his watch
and said, “We need to hurry! According to my calculations, it
should take us seventy-two minutes to get to the tree. It will be
nearly dark when we get home.” He shoved the berries and the map in
his pocket.

After that, we didn’t talk
much, saving our breath to hurry. Thank goodness it was mostly
downhill. I didn’t know how the others felt, but I wanted to prove
Brady wrong. Seventy-
two
minutes? Only Brady would estimate to the
minute.

When we got in sight of the
tree, I asked how long it had taken. “Sixty-eight minutes,” he
said.

So much for his
seventy-two minutes!

I’d just started to smile
when he said, “That leaves us just four minutes to say goodbye to
our animals and get through the tree.” My smile died and my teeth
ground together instead.

How irritating was
that?

Everyone said goodbye to
their animals, but Brady and I took an extra minute to thank ours
for their help. I leaned over and ran my hand down Shadow’s back.
She purred and arched her back under my fingers.

When it was my turn to step
into the tree, I sucked in a deep breath. Going back through was
different than going back through the tunnel in the cave. That had
seemed quicker. But going home through the tree always felt longer.
Sometimes it seemed really long. This was one of those times. I
felt myself start to shake, wondering if there would ever be a time
I wouldn’t get out.

Stumbling into the cemetery
felt soooo good. I checked my phone, and saw we still had a little
over an hour before Olivia and Faith’s dinner curfew. I called
Ronny and asked her to meet us at Johnny’s. She said she’d be there
in five minutes.



As we got seated, Ronny
said, “So, tell me what happened today.” She leaned forward,
looking so hopeful I wanted to be anywhere else. I hated knowing we
were going to disappoint her again. “Was
there any sign of Ghalynn?”

We took turns describing
what we’d found. Brady rummaged in his backpack and pulled out
several pages of notes from the cave wall. He showed them to Ronny
and they spent several minutes looking over them while she shook
her head in confusion. “I cannot make this out. It looks like
Runic, but none of the symbols are in the right order. And I do not
recognize any of these pictures. Are you sure it was written
exactly like this?”

I was afraid Brady would
feel insulted by her question. Even in the short time I’d known
him, I was sure he’d made an exact copy. In fact, I’d be willing to
bet it was a precise to-scale replica. Fortunately, Brady didn’t
seem bothered. “It’s an accurate duplication of everything on the
wall of the cave.”