Greg Weisman - Rain of the Ghosts

But Maq was already wandering off down the beach. Julia was already forgotten. For all I knew, I was already forgotten within what passed for the old bum’s mind. Embarrassed, I ran off after him, proverbial tail between my legs.

Then at the last moment, Maq turned and said, “Wait. She owes me a quarter.” We both looked back. But she was gone.

The rain had finally stopped, and the moon, which had broken free of the clouds, shone brightly down upon Rain, Charlie and ’Bastian in the clearing. Everything smelled wet and clean and vaguely of bananas. A flamenco guitar played softly in Rain’s head. She felt on the verge of yet another something new.

Charlie, on the other hand, was still having trouble fathoming the old. How did we manage to get back here unscathed? The thought of Callahan still scared him, and the memory of the flight overwhelmed him. So he focused on the little things: “I can’t believe Miller, Dusanek—anyone—didn’t ask us about the plane.”

Rain smiled wryly. “Why would they? It’s not like we could have possibly flown in on it, right?”

Charlie chuckled involuntarily. No. Who would ever believe that?

Both kids were still damp and shoeless, and mosquitoes buzzed around their ears. But ’Bastian was free of those plagues. He wandered toward the edge of the cliff. Rain turned to face him. “So your grandmother really brought you here … to the N.T.Z.?”

“It didn’t have a name back then.”

Charlie couldn’t hear ’Bastian and was still lost in his own musings. He waved a couple bugs away and looked skyward. “The rain’s stopped, and it’s not so late. If we hang out long enough, I bet a party’ll materialize.”

“Then we better get to it,”’Bastian said, as he knelt beside a vine-covered section of the sandstone slab at the cliff’s edge.

“Get to what?” Rain—followed by a meandering Charlie—approached him.

’Bastian reached toward the wiry green-brown strands, but stopped himself before his hand passed through them. The two kids stood over him. “Move the vines,” he said. “They weren’t here, and I remember…”

Rain crouched down and tore the vines free of the slab, revealing a circular indentation in the stone. ’Bastian nodded. “Like my abuela always told me: ‘To unlock a door, you need two things…’”

Rain immediately understood. “‘A key…’” she said, removing the entwined snakes from her arm, “‘… and someone who knows how to turn it.’” She placed the armband in the indentation. Perfect fit. Then she twisted and removed the snake charm as she would the key to her locked bedroom door. She stood and stepped back as the sandstone block began to glow… to her and ’Bastian, at least.

The stone began to grind and move. Charlie backed away cautiously. ’Bastian did the same. The slab slid over to the side, revealing a set of stone steps descending down into the cliff and darkness.

In sarcastic unison, ’Bastian and Charlie said, “Gee, never saw that coming.” Rain smiled at her companions and led them forward, padding down the cold stone stairs. ’Bastian followed, but so did Charlie who walked right through the Dark Man, unaware. ’Bastian pulled up short, visibly annoyed to anyone who could see the dead. Then grunting to himself, he took up the rear.

The stairway was circular and close. Damp sandstone walls made it necessary to walk single file. The moon shining down from the entrance above and ’Bastian’s soft glow were the only sources of light. Rain began to feel apprehensive again as the guitar in her head picked up the tempo. “It’s getting pretty dark in here.”

Suddenly, beside her, a torch flared to life, startling all three of them. Rain glanced back at Charlie, smiled weakly, then continued down. He hesitated, staring at the flames. “Now that’s service,” he said. And then, “I’d like a cheeseburger.” He paused, waiting.

Behind him, ’Bastian was growling impatiently, “Come on, kid, move it.”

But Charlie couldn’t hear him. Rather, he reacted to the lack of a magically materializing cheeseburger with a shrug and a “Worth a shot.” He followed after Rain. “You ask for one.”

She ignored him. She reached the bottom of the staircase and stepped down into a darkened hold. Another torch, to her right, flared to life. Then one by one, consecutive torches flamed on all around the stone room, shedding rich, flickering firelight on the ancient chamber. Now, Rain could see where she was: a wide expanse, cut into the cliffside. Along the wall to her right were one, two, three… nine stone seats carved out of the rock. Along the left was a long empty shelf, also carved out of the wall. And before her, there was no wall at all. Just a wide terrace, open to the elements, revealing nearly the same view of the ocean that one could see from the sandstone block at the edge of the N.T.Z.

Charlie and ’Bastian stepped off the stairs to either side of her. All three were pretty darn impressed. Charlie even whistled. “Now, this took some work.” His whistle and his words bounced along the stone walls, echoing through the chamber. Fascinated, he walked past Rain to explore the room.

’Bastian shook his head in wonder and glanced back up the staircase. “What do you figure, we’re about thirty feet below the clearing?”

Rain turned to him. “Have you been down here before?”

“No. Never. Didn’t know it existed.”

“So what do I do?”

“Rain, over here.” It was Charlie. He was standing at the far end of the left wall. There were nine indentations in the otherwise smooth-carved rock shelf. The last one, the one he stood next to, looked vaguely skull-shaped. He ran his hand along the shelf, passing the other indentations: a deep widening groove, an oval ring, a larger more circular ring, a shallow cup, a semi-amorphous cross, a thick equilateral triangle, a small cylindrical hole. And finally another circular indentation matching the one from the N.T.Z. above. Rain and ’Bastian moved in to look. And Charlie said, “Looks like another keyhole to me.”

Rain was still holding the snake charm in her hand. She took a deep breath and placed the armband in the indentation. Immediately, the charm began to glow—hot yellow, orange and red.

“It’s glowing,” Charlie said.

Rain stared at him. “You can see that?”

Charlie’s eyes remained fixed on the snake charm. “Yeah, of course.”

Our trio took a step back as the glow raced from the charm to the shelf and up the side of the wall behind it. The entire wall seemed to catch fire, flaring brighter and brighter until all three were shielding their eyes and Rain could feel the heat speed-drying her clothes and hair. Then the light waned until all that remained was a set of flaming letters. Words. A message:

Rain’s eyes were wide, scanning quickly, trying to take it all in. On her left, ’Bastian was doing the same, but to her right, Charlie was clearly frustrated. “Wonderful. It’s in Spanish. Translation, please.”

Before she could respond, the flaming letters burnt out, but the words remained charred into the back wall. Rain’s brain tried to keep up, to adjust to all these changes. Gearing up to translate for her friend was the least of her problems: “Uh… It says ‘Welcome.’ ‘Welcome, Searcher, to the Cache.’” She looked around the stone cave. Loosely waved an arm at it. “I guess this place is ‘the Cache.’”