Secrets in the Dark (38 page)

I thought of howling,
snuffling creatures. Of Olivia almost crushed by falling rocks. Of
Faith slipping when she climbed to the upper cave. Of huge ugly
trolls. Of turning my friends into statues. Those were all good
reasons to stop.

Then I thought of never
entering Chimera again. Of never knowing whether this mystery would
end. Of letting down Ronny, who no longer seemed strange to me.
Who, I realized, had become a friend. I looked at her, and saw the
sadness and worry on her face.

I heaved a sigh and stood
up. I knew what I had to do, or I’d never be satisfied.

“
I plan to keep
looking.”

My statement brought the
arguing to a halt. I felt all of their eyes on me, and there was a
very long moment of silence. I was grateful but not really
surprised when Olivia and Faith both stood up. We were The Three
after all.

“
I’ll go,” Olivia said and
smiled at me.

“
Fine,” Faith said
shortly, sounding grouchy but resigned.

I was a lot more pleased
than I expected when Brady and Doug both stood up.

“
I can’t let the
girls
have all the fun,”
Doug said with a grin. Like he thought being a girl was
a bad thing! I wanted to smack that grin off his
face.

Brady cleared his throat
and said, “I’m fascinated with the translations I’ve made so far.
In fact, I finished some of the information from the cave wall.
Doug will be glad to hear it mentions going to the lake.

Another babble of voices
broke out, but stopped when Brady held up his hand. “I’ll quote it
for you. It’s kind of a poem, I guess.”

The quest shall lead from cave
to lake,

Search well for what lies
hidden there.

Know only pure intent may
take,

But guard well all that you
lay bare.

All shall be lost with one
mistake.

“
So, we’re going to the
lake in January,” I said. “I guess we’ll find out where we have to
go after that once we find Ghalynn’s clues and anything else he hid
there.”

I wasn’t just talking about
going to the lake and they all knew it. I was asking them to stick
it out until we’d found every clue Ghalynn had left.

No one spoke.

A little desperately, I
said, “Promise you won’t quit until we solve this. Not until we
figure out what happened.” I held out my hand. It was trembling — I
was so afraid they’d tell me no. At least my voice trembled less
than my hand when I asked, “All for one…?”

Now the silence was
miserably uncomfortable. I felt faint and realized I was holding my
breath as I watched them stand there and stare at my hand. Faith
was looking at it like it was a poisonous snake.

My heart felt like it was
sinking down to my toes. They weren’t going to help me.

Then they were all reaching
out, laying their hands on mine. I heard their voices speaking over
each other, “I swear it.” “Till the end.” “—got your back!” “…one
for all!”

I looked up and saw my
brother Chris enter the room. He wrapped his arm around Ronny and
gave her a tender smile. For once, it didn’t make me feel twitchy.
Then they reached out and laid their hands on top of ours. Chris
smiled at me as
he and Ronny repeated the
promise, “All for one and one for all.”

I thought about how this
year had started. I’d been afraid everything was changing too much.
That I was losing my brother and my two best friends. But now,
instead of just three hands joined together, there were
seven.

Note to self — Sometimes
change isn’t so bad. But I will never admit that to Mom!

Chris reached over and
rumpled my hair. “Thanks for your help, Kitty-Kat.”

Ugh!!!!

I gritted my teeth and
growled, “How many times do I have to tell you not to call me
Kitty-Kat!” Of course he just grinned, unrepentant. He even had the
nerve to
wink
at
me.

Now that
was
something
that
definitely
needed to change!



The story continues
with
Secrets in the Deep

Look for it in late 2013

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

K D Blakely started her
first novel when she was seven years old. It was never finished,
but that was the beginning of a lifelong dream to be a writer. Over
the years, she started a number of books, but this is the first one
she has actually finished. For that, she gives a lot of credit to
her friends in the Stonehenge Writer’s Group! Check them out
at
www.stonehengewriters.wordpress.com

K D Blakely lives in
Northern California with her two cats. One is named OhNo — for very
good reasons. Somehow, K D Blakely and her other cat, Girly Girl,
have managed to survive numerous OhNo caused

cat-tastrophies…

She hopes you will visit
her at
www.kat-tales.net
,

or follow her blog
at
http://kattalesdotnet.wordpress.com

TSYE