Lindsay Buroker - Torrent

“Watch down by your feet,” I called.

Temi was too busy swimming and fighting to answer. Water was pouring in from the ceiling in three or four places now, and I worried the whole chamber would disappear beneath rubble soon. Temi was almost swept past the stalactite, and I thought we’d have to pull her back and try again, but she jabbed toward it with the sword. She might have been trying to hook it to keep herself from flowing past, but the tip sank into the stone.

“She better not get it stuck,” Simon said, his head rotating, searching for signs of the creature. It hadn’t resurfaced yet.

Temi used the sword to pull herself to the stalactite. Her head jerked downward, and she yanked the blade out and plunged it into the water beside her.

A barrage of bubbles rose to the surface around her.

“Hah, it does hold air in its lungs,” Simon said.

The attack must have convinced it to leave her for the moment, for Temi wrapped her legs around the stalactite and hewed at its base near the ceiling, like a lumberjack at some upside down tree. The stone reacted like wood, too, with shards being cleaved off.

“Amazing,” I said.

“It is a magic sword,” Simon said.

I didn’t care at that moment. I just wanted the tunnel blocked and to assure nothing would chase us as we tried to escape. Though I wasn’t sure the stalactite would do the job, if it didn’t fall just right…

“Try to angle it to collapse in this direction,” I called.

Busy hewing at the stone, Temi didn’t react. Maybe she didn’t hear.

Abruptly, she screamed in pain. She cursed and whipped the blade down, stabbing beneath her again.

I lunged forward, but there was nothing I could do to help. I had no idea what had happened to my bow, but it wouldn’t do any good anyway.

“Should we pull her back?” Simon asked.

“I don’t know. She’s close with the stalactite, and she’s still fighting it…”

A heartbeat later, Temi disappeared beneath the water. I didn’t know if she’d lunged down to attack or had been yanked under.

“I’m pulling her back,” Simon said.

I grabbed the rope to help him.

A crack rent the air, and the stalactite fell free, plunging straight downward. Piles of debris dropped with it, but the massive column tilted toward the alcoves and didn’t come anywhere near our entrance.

I cursed again and hauled on the rope. Stupid idea. What a waste of-

“She’s stuck.” Simon leaned back, pulling as hard as he could. “Or resisting. I can’t-” His foot slipped, and his head went under.

I grabbed him, catching his collar before he could be swept out of the tunnel. I wanted to help both of my friends, but it was all I could do to keep from being pulled out myself. I hauled on the rope, hoping that eyelet could hold all of our weights, and yanked on Simon.

He came up with a sputter. “I’m fine. Temi. Get her.”

We were farther up the tunnel now, with the water at my ribcage. I leaned back, preparing to yank hard, but this time the rope came back without resistance. My stomach sank. Had she cut herself free? Or had the monster swiped a claw across the rope?

I pulled faster. Water, or maybe tears, made my vision blurry.

By then, I was expecting a frayed rope end to come out of the water. I gasped with surprise and delight when Temi’s head popped up. She still had the sword too. Great splashes broke the water behind her. At first I thought it was the monster following her, but those were her kicks. No wonder there hadn’t been any tension on the rope-she’d been motoring like crazy back there.

“Let’s get out of here,” she said as soon as she had her feet beneath her.

“The monster?” I asked.

“I don’t know if it’s dead, but I hope so.” Temi flashed a grin, her teeth glinting with the reflection of the sword. “It got caught beneath the rocks, and I cut a lot of holes in it.”

“Nice,” Simon crooned.

We took long enough to untie our rope in case we needed it again, but that was it. We raced back through the chambers, all of which were filling with water, and headed for the tunnels the others had burrowed. My calf screamed with pain, thanks to the fresh holes punctured in it, but it supported my weight, and I didn’t let it slow me down.

I glanced about when we entered the lake cavern, shining my flashlight beam into the darkness, hoping to see Alektryon or Jakatra and Eleriss, Alektryon in particular. I had no way of knowing if he’d survived, but if he had, it would be fascinating to figure out how to talk to him. If he’d truly been alive back then… he could tell us so much about that time period. More than that, I hoped he’d survived because… I don’t know why, but I felt protective of him. If he made it out of the caves, which was no certain thing, he’d be lost in Twenty-first Century America.

As for the others, I should be relieved those pointy-eared crazies were missing, but I longed to know more about their people and their role in our history. If they’d been plucking warriors out of humanity’s past, what else might they have done? And why? A part of me wanted to rush to the Internet and start sifting through history, trying to tie their people to some of the mysteries of the past, mysteries that fringe researchers tried to link to aliens. Another part of me wanted to wash my hands of the whole week. How much easier it would have been if these caves had held nice normal relics from nice normal peoples who’d once lived in the area. Stories like that I could have written up and submitted to magazines and academic journals. But this? If I couldn’t bring teams down and show them proof, I’d go from being shunned to being mocked if I tried to explain what we’d seen tonight.

A great crack sounded behind us, followed by a boom that reminded me of a wrecking ball at a demolition site. Simon, Temi, and I exchanged wide-eyed looks and picked up our pace. No, I wasn’t going to get my proof. The alcoves with the dead men and their artifacts were all underwater by now, and the entire place would collapse soon, leaving everything buried beneath the lake for all eternity.

• • •

Darkness had long since fallen, though the sky full of stars seemed gloriously bright after the lightless confines of the cave. In Temi’s hands, the sword had made short work of the boulder blocking the tunnel exit, but it wasn’t until we were walking alongside the lake that some of the tension ebbed from my neck and shoulders. Partially because of the darkness and partially because Simon had lost one of his sandals in the chaos, we’d decided to forgo midnight rock climbing and leave the kayaks to be found by daylight. The going was still rough, since we were following the shoreline and avoiding the trail, lest booby traps remained, but it was navigable by the starlight-and the silvery glow of the sword. The glow wasn’t as profound as it had been when Jakatra had held the weapon, but it was more significant than when the Spartan had gripped it. I wondered if magic swords were offended when people used them as canes. Judging by the sweat bathing Temi’s face, she’d tortured her leg far more tonight than she had in a long time. My own throbbing leg wouldn’t mind a cane of its own. Dry clothing would have been nice too. And a jacket. The crisp air promised frost.

The hoots of an owl drifted across the lake from the wetlands. I hoped that meant the monster was indeed drowned and buried, even if Simon would doubtlessly complain that he hadn’t had an opportunity to prop a foot on the body and have his picture taken with it.

“It’s so peaceful out here,” Temi said. “It’s hard to believe…” She waved at the granite formations behind us, their lumpy contours black against the starry horizon.