Russell Blake - The Goddess Legacy

“Damn. Didn’t see that coming,” Drake said, and tried one of the bricks, which came away in his hand, the mortar crumbling to sand at his touch.

“Looks like they didn’t do a very good job,” Reynolds said, and joined Drake in widening the opening while Roland and Spencer kept watch to ensure they weren’t interrupted.

After several tense minutes there was a gap in the wall they could manage, and Drake dragged himself through and then switched on his flashlight while he waited for the rest. Allie came next, and then Spencer, followed by the Frenchman and Reynolds, neither of whom looked thrilled to be spelunking.

Drake headed off into the dark, his flashlight beam piercing the gloom before him. The floor of the cave sloped gently upward as he proceeded, and glistening rivulets of water streamed along both sides of the passage like black veins.

At the fork, he veered left and then had to traverse the next stretch in a crouch as the cave’s ceiling dropped to no more than four feet high. When it increased in height again, he paused and waited for the others, the chamber now illuminated with the beams from their lamps, the air stagnant and dank.

Spencer reassembled the parts of the AKM into a working rifle with a folding wire stock, and slapped a magazine into place before chambering a round. Reynolds watched him with a deadpan stare, and Spencer leaned toward Allie and Drake to whisper to them.

“Strap on your pistols. If you wind up having to use them, there’s not likely to be any warning. Make sure there’s one in the hole, and check the safety so you don’t blow your foot off.”

Allie removed her pistol from her backpack and cinched the web belt that accompanied it tight. “How much further?” she asked Drake as she adjusted it.

“A long way. This is just the start if the map’s to scale.”

“I was afraid you’d say that.”

Drake pushed himself to his feet and surveyed the area before him, playing his flashlight beam over the brown rock. He caught Spencer’s determined look and set off with a nod, the others tailing him.

The passage slope steepened and they found themselves straining to make progress, the atmosphere in the cave now vaguely sulfurous. When they rounded a long bend, the distinctive sound of rushing water greeted them, its loud splashing echoing through the cavern. Drake edged forward and then abruptly stopped. His flashlight fixed on a wall of water cascading across the cavern before disappearing into a cavity in the floor.

“That’s not on the map,” Allie whispered.

“No. It’s probably new — since the idol was made,” Drake agreed. “So much for doing this the easy way.”

Spencer unwound a length of nylon rope and tossed one end to Drake. “Tie this around your waist. I’ll play anchor while you do your intrepid explorer bit.”

“Why don’t I do my ‘turn around and go back’ bit? Seems more sensible,” Drake said.

Reynolds checked the time. “We don’t have all day. We’ve already been in here an hour. Depending on how far this goes…”

“You want to try it?” Drake asked.

Reynolds gave him a grim smile. “That’s why you get paid the big bucks. Although we’re all getting wet if the passage continues.”

“No reason to think it doesn’t,” Allie said.

“Unless this stream, which has carved through the floor, has collapsed the ceiling further on,” Drake said. He tied the rope around his waist and hesitated a moment before the curtain of water. When Spencer had planted his feet wide and Allie had wrapped her arms around Spencer’s waist to add resistance if Drake fell, he shrugged. “Here goes nothing,” he whispered, and then ran straight through the water, his flashlight gripped tightly in his hand.

Spencer tensed, ready to absorb Drake’s weight if the cave floor was gone on the other side, but the rope remained loose. Drake reappeared through the torrent seconds later, soaked, and gave them a thumbs-up signal. “You have to jump to make it over the crevice the water disappears into, but it’s only about two feet wide,” he said.

“Are you sure?” Allie asked.

“I’m here, aren’t I? Come on. Piece of cake — really.” He ran toward the waterfall again and disappeared with a leap, and then the rope tightened as he pulled it from beyond the rush. “Just work your way along the rope, and jump right at the water. I’ll catch you on this side,” he said, his flashlight illuminating the stream from behind the fall.

Allie did as instructed and, at the water, held her breath, closed her eyes, and leapt through it. She slipped when she landed, and then Drake’s arms were around her, steadying her. She looked up into his face and blinked. “I’m fine,” she whispered.

“I know,” he said, and leaned in and kissed her. “But it seemed like a perfect time to sneak in a hug…”

She smiled and kissed him again. “Maybe there’s hope for you yet.”

The rest followed her through, and soon they were all standing on the far side of the waterfall. Drake consulted his soggy map for a moment and then nodded to himself and motioned with his flashlight. “Should be another passage soon, on the right. We already passed the dead end — at least, I hope so.” He looked over the dripping group. “Ready?”

“Let’s do it,” Spencer answered, rifle held casually in his right hand, pointing at the ground, flashlight in his left.

Hours passed as they ventured deeper into the cave system, and around three o’clock they paused for a rest in a wider section of the passageway. The air was now cool, redolent of wet stone and mineral deposits. The mountain seemed to weigh heavily on them even as they sat catching their breath. Drake took another long look at his map and shook his head. “We’re barely at the halfway point, if this is correct.”

“How far do you think we’ve come?” Allie asked.

“Probably a couple of miles,” Reynolds said. “All uphill.”

“At least the map’s been accurate so far,” Spencer said.

“And you have no idea what’s on the other end of this?” Reynolds asked.

Drake and Allie exchanged a look. “The script was incomplete. It ended with the words ‘beneath which’ and ‘holiest of holies.’ Your guess is as good as ours,” Drake said.

Reynolds grunted and rubbed his face. “At this rate it’ll be getting dark by the time we make it out.”

“If we’re lucky,” Spencer agreed, struggling to his feet. “Let’s go. This place gives me the willies.”

Allie nodded. “That makes two of us.”

Forty minutes later, Reynolds lost his footing as they were navigating a thin strip of cave with a sheer drop on one side. He went down and his flashlight tumbled into nothingness, clanking against stone many feet below, and it was only the rope they’d tied around their waists at Spencer’s urging, creating a daisy chain to prevent a catastrophe, that saved him from following it into the abyss. He stared down at the void for several long beats and then regained his feet, visibly shaken. Spencer eyed his torn pant leg and scuffed hands without sympathy. “You okay?” he asked.

“Yeah. Close one.”

“Try not to do that again.”

“Good thinking.”

Over the next three hours the floor continued to incline steeply, and they were forced to climb the narrow stretch on all fours, the only sound their labored breathing, everyone now tired from the long slog. Drake paused at the top of the slope and then turned to the others, his face stiff. Allie reached him and glanced over the edge, and her shoulders sagged as she gasped in dismay. Drake gestured at the passageway as the men approached his vantage point.

“Cave-in,” he said, gesturing dispiritedly to the tumble of rocky debris blocking their way, stretching high within the natural chamber to where part of the ceiling had collapsed, terminating their progress and leaving them nowhere to go but back.