Thorn Fall (33 page)

I groaned as the reality of how many people were in danger washed over me. “Why did I get rid of that bait box?”

The question was in English, so Alek wouldn’t understand—he merely glanced back and forth from me to the sky in the direction of the drone—but Simon gave me a sympathetic shrug.

“Because you were hoping it wouldn’t show up here?”

“Because I wasn’t thinking.” I pointed at the sword, still thrusting out of the rock wall, the visible part of its blade glowing. It didn’t usually glow when Temi wasn’t holding it, but if anything, it was shining even more brightly than before. Maybe it was eager for some monster blood. “We’ll have to hope the sword is enough of a draw. It’s attracted the
jibtab
in the past.”

Alek nodded, though I had spoken in English. “Go down. Help Artemis. Distract it with your whip so she can sneak close with the sword. Simon and I will find a way to keep it from escaping.” He patted the rock rim with his bare hand.

“Uhm, what?” Simon asked. “I heard my name surrounded by a bunch of gobbledegook.”

“You’ve been volunteered to keep the
jibtab
from escaping the cave,” I said.

“What? By whom? Mr. Sexypants?”

“Yes, it’s possible he’s figured out what your nickname means, and he’s taking revenge on you.”

Alek’s eyes glinted, but he pointed at Simon’s backpack and said, “Fire,” in English.

“Great, a Greek pyro,” Simon said.

“It’s either stay up here on rear guard or climb down into the hellhole with us.” I glanced over my shoulder toward the noise, which was growing ever louder, though I don’t know why I bothered. It wasn’t as if I could
see
the
jibtab
.

“Up here isn’t so bad,” Simon said. “Puke and crazy people aside.”

Another teenager shrieked and ran for the portal. “Nirvana,” he cried and leaped into it. He was swallowed up, just as the other one had been. Never to be seen again, I guessed. If we didn’t have other problems to deal with, I would have stationed Alek in front of the portal to keep people out. But we needed him here.

I took a deep breath, then sat on the rim. “Alek, lower me back down, please.”

He put a hand on my shoulder first, giving me a solemn nod. I clasped his hand for a moment, then grabbed the whip and descended into the hole. I tried not to feel like one of his Spartan brethren who had been given an impossible mission and who didn’t expect to see home again, but something about his nod had made me feel that way.

I yanked out Temi’s sword on the way down, and it went dark in my all-too-mundane human grip. Again, I tried not to find that ominous. It didn’t work.

Thanks to the sword’s refusal to glow for me, when I reached the end of the whip, I dropped into darkness. I couldn’t see the ground well, since my body was blocking most of the intermittent light from above. I misjudged my landing, and my feet hit hard. Pain lanced up from my heels before I dropped into a backward roll that nearly turned into a somersault. The sword flew from my grasp, skidding across the stone floor. I bit back a groan—or maybe a whimper—and didn’t try to get up right away. Wouldn’t it be great if I had come down here to help and ended up being nothing but crippled monster bait in the middle of the floor?

“All you all right?” Temi asked, kneeling beside me.

“Probably. I just need to sit here and feel sorry for myself for a minute.” I grasped my ankles, rubbing them and hoping the sting would wear off. I hadn’t heard anything pop or felt anything twist, so I didn’t think they were sprained.

“Do we have a minute?” Temi found the sword, and its soft silvery glow lit the chamber again.

“Probably not.” The monster’s drone wasn’t audible yet from down here, but that didn’t mean much. The sirens sounded a lot fainter, too, along with a series of gunshots that had started up. “I hope we didn’t do the wrong thing in bringing the sword back down here.”

Temi looked up, though we couldn’t see the portal from here. Just Simon peering down at us. Alek was probably already in a fighting stance, his sword out, whether it would be useful against the
jibtab
or not. My whip would be even less useful, but Alek had dropped it down, and I picked it up, regardless. We had a big pile of rock and a couple of smaller piles to use for cover. I didn’t know how effective either would be against a flying assailant. I didn’t know how effective our used army gear would be at deflecting those thorns, either. We both still had a lot of skin that wasn’t protected by the Kevlar.

“I should be able to reach it if it stays down here with us,” Temi said.

The ten-foot ceiling wasn’t ideal—I had hoped for even tighter quarters—but, yes, there weren’t any spots in the chamber that she couldn’t touch with the sword.
If
the creature came down here.

“Wish I hadn’t kicked that box through the portal,” I muttered.

“I was thinking about that. What if Jakatra brought it here and set up the portals in the hope that the creature would be lured through and into a world where it could be taken care of more easily?”

I found myself reluctant to assign noble actions to Jakatra. “If so, why didn’t he leave a bigger tunnel entrance? For the
jibtab
to fly through?”

“We haven’t seen it—we don’t know how big it is. Maybe he thought it would be enough.”

“All right, then why did he stick the sword in the ceiling and open the portal? And why did he
attack
you?”

“I thought Alek attacked
him
. Or whoever that was,” Temi said. “We still don’t know.”

“Alek was protecting you,” I said.

“Maybe he thought he was, but it wasn’t necessary.”

“Jakatra should have stopped the fight and said something if it was just a misunderstanding. And what about the sword?”

“I don’t know,” Temi said slowly. “But maybe someone else put it there. Maybe the portal authority elf, someone he couldn’t defy.”

It didn’t add up for me. Someone had put that sword there, knowing full well what it would do, and someone had nearly killed Alek. But I didn’t want to argue further, so all I said was, “I’ll let you ask him the next time you see him.”

“It’s coming,” Simon called down.

“Coming down here?” I asked. “Or just coming in general?”

“Kind of hard to tell the trajectory of something invisible.”

“Right.” I started to crouch behind the biggest rubble pile, having a vague notion of snapping the whip at it from behind cover, but walked to the wall beneath the hole instead. “Temi, want me to boost you up so you can stab it as soon as it flies through?”

“That might be a good idea. Surprise attack.”

“Yeah. If we stand here, it shouldn’t be able to see us as it’s flying in.”

I wasn’t nearly as strong as Alek, but I did my best to provide a platform she could climb up. She ended up on my back more than on my shoulders. I braced my hands on my knees and my lower back against the wall, hoping we wouldn’t have to remain like that for long.

She must have given the sword some silent order, because it went dark even though she still held it in her hand. The helicopter-like drone of the creature was audible now. If it did indeed come down the hole, it wouldn’t be long now.

“I wonder if any of those nuts up there will remember any of this,” I said, thinking of the people who had recognized Temi but dismissed her as a fallen star. “Simon’s website notwithstanding, it would be nice to get credit for killing that thing.”

“You think that will help you get some of the respect of your peers back?” Temi asked.

“Hell, no. Some professor would probably call me and accuse me of illegally using ancient relics to battle monsters.”

She snorted. “Then what does it matter if you get credit for this?”

“I was thinking more of you, actually. It seems like… people don’t want to forget about your past. Maybe if you gained some fame as a heroic monster slayer…” I would have shrugged, but it was hard with shoes digging into my shoulder blades. “People might forget about the other stuff.”

Temi was silent, maybe dismissing the conversation to focus on the battle. The drone of the creature continued to grow louder.

“I never cared about the people, the press,” she said, having a response, after all. “Not much, anyway. Yes, it hurt, the things people said. Still say. But when they were saying good things, that wasn’t what made me happy. It was playing. Playing and winning. Being the best at something… Competing. I know it’s just a sport, but it’s like a battle, too, pitting yourself against someone else, but in a way that nobody gets hurt. No blood. No swords. Just… the exhilaration of the fight.”

“I get it. I hope we can figure out a way to end all of this so you can play again.”

Temi nodded. “If you and Simon need any help… I mean, I know you two would be the ones to do the research and figure things out, but I would be absolutely fine with not fighting any more of these monsters. I’ll do it as long as I have to, as long as there’s a need. I have to. But…”

“I know. As soon as there’s more time, we’ll focus on figuring out who’s behind everything.” Something that might be possible if he or she or they came from Earth. If they were from somewhere else… I was less certain how much help all the research teams in the world could be. “We’ll figure it out,” I added, hoping I spoke the truth.

“Good.” She sounded like she believed me, had faith in my words.

I hoped I could be worthy of that faith.

“You guys ready?” Simon called down. “It just flew through the black mist. I saw the disturbance. It’s not stopping to shoot at people.”

Good. I hoped that meant that it was coming straight for the sword. And that we were ready for it. I also wished we had thought to bring a fog machine if its invisible body “disturbed” mist.

The lights continued to strobe from above, the stark white highlighting the cave in flashes, as if someone were taking pictures. Temi shifted her weight, her shoes gouging into my back. If the Kevlar couldn’t keep feet from hurting me, how was it going to stop those stingers?

The drone intensified, and all of the meandering thoughts fled my mind. Soon, the noise was so close I could feel it reverberating through my body like a drum beat. Then it changed, echoing strangely. I gripped Temi’s ankle—that was it. It was in our hole.

Less than a second passed before Temi leaned out, slashing with the sword. Her toes dug into my back, and I bit my lip to keep from crying out.

A squeal erupted right in my ears. From my position, I couldn’t see if she had hit it, but in the next instant, she had jumped off me.

Wanting to get out of the way—and to avoid being hit—I scrambled to the side. Temi blasted into motion in front of me, her feet a blur of movement. The sword flared to life again, leaving silvery streaks hanging in the darkness as she slashed its wicked edge through the air. No, not just the air. Twice while I watched, the blade glanced off something, its path deterred by an invisible body.

Remembering that I was supposed to help, distract it somehow, I ran along the wall, angling toward the rubble pile. I flung myself behind it and pulled out my whip. From back here, I could see the fight better, but, as with Alek’s battle, I could only guess at the other combatant’s location. It was even worse because the
jibtab
darted in and out, trying to strike Temi, then flying back. At first, I thought she might have some sense of its location, but the blade swiped through empty air far more often than it struck flesh.

I cracked my whip a few times, aiming near the ceiling, hoping I might luck into a strike. Then Temi would at least know for certain where her enemy waited.

But the
jibtab
recovered from our surprise attack before I struck it—if it had been surprised in the first place. The first round of thorns burst out.

“Duck,” I yelled, dropping behind the rock pile. Dozens of
tink
sounds raised a racket in the chamber as Temi dove in behind me.

I buried my face against the rubble, inhaling dust and hardly noticing. I was trying to remember if the
jibtab
had shot in rounds the last time we had faced it and if it had to stop to fling its ammunition or if it could fly around, to reach a target that was hiding.

A thorn slammed into the back of my helmet, and I had my answer. The force knocked my face into the rocks. Another stinger hit the back of my shoulder. The Kevlar kept it from piercing into my flesh, but the hard thud still hurt.

“Move,” I barked, struggling not to panic. I scrambled around the debris, trying to find cover again.

Instead of running, Temi turned and leaped toward the creature. More
tinks
erupted, needles clanging off rocks—and probably her vest, too—and my heart lodged in my throat. If she took one in the face…

A squeal sounded, the noise I had come to realize represented pain for the
jibtab
. Good, but how many blows would it take before it was brought down? The last monster had been nearly indestructible, even with the sword.

I looked around. The whip was useless. I had to do something more helpful. I sneezed, then cursed myself. That was
not
helpful.

“Stupid dust,” I growled. Then an idea sprang into my mind. If Simon had seen the creature’s movement in the mist…

“Gonna make a mess, Temi,” I called in warning, then dug into the rubble pile.

It was hard to separate the dust from the rocks, but I found handfuls of fine powder on the ground near the bottom. I flung them into the air. The heavier particles simply dropped back to the ground, but some dust lingered. I ducked behind the smaller rubble pile and dove into my backpack. I had an extra shirt in there and yanked it out. Too bad it wasn’t a bellows. It would have to do. I found more dust to hurl in the air and fanned it this time, trying to fill the chamber with the fine particles.

“Simon?” I called. “You up there? If there’s any dust around, throw it down here.”

Even though I worried I wouldn’t be able to make a difference, wouldn’t be able to cloud the air in the entire chamber or work fast enough to matter, Temi must be seeing something, the disturbances Simon had mentioned, because the squeals became more frequent.