we don’t know exactly where we are,” Dylan finished.
“Wow,” Destiny said. “That’s almost like magic.”
“Yeah. Almost.”
Milo looked around again. If he had to hazard a guess, he would say that they were still underground, in some sort of big chamber. High above them, he could see a patch of star-strewn sky through a hole in the roof. The night was clear, and the stars gave sufficient light to see.
There was no way out through the top, though. At least not without magic, and he wasn’t willing to risk that again until he’d made a few tweaks to his new wand. The walls were sheer rock and the ceiling at least five hundred feet above their heads. No, they were going to need another way out.
Dylan pulled a flashlight from his pocket and waved it around the room. There were a number of openings that led off from the chamber. It was just a matter of deciding which one to take. He closed his eyes and tried to orientate himself. Back on Earth it would have been easy, he could lock into the ley lines that crisscrossed the land and pinpoint his exact location.
Not here.
There was nothing. Okay, maybe a low level buzz of magic somewhere, but nothing he could latch on to.
He opened his eyes, found both Destiny and Dylan staring at him. He shrugged, and said, “I just needed a moment to think.” Then he headed off to the nearest tunnel entrance. He peered into the darkness but could make out nothing. Dylan came up behind him and waved the flashlight down the tunnel. Smooth, curved ocher walls that looked like they’d been gouged out of the ground with some sort of machine.
Could there be other intelligent life forms on the planet? It hadn’t occurred to him before now. On the surface, there was no sign of any form of civilization. There were definitely indigenous life forms; he’d seen bird-like creatures in the sky, though so far, he hadn’t come face-to-face with any animal life.
Maybe the tunnels had been made by some sort of giant worm.
Or maybe there had been intelligent life forms, but something had wiped them out.
Though he would have expected to have come across some sort of evidence on the surface.
“What are we going to do about her?” Dylan said quietly.
By her, he presumed Dylan meant Destiny. And right now, he had no clue. She was still standing in the same spot but turning slowly to look around herself. Then she stood still and tilted her head, staring up at the sky high above them. She reached up as though to touch the stars.
A smile tugged at his lips as he watched her. There was something so…ingenuous about her. A sense of wonder in everything around her. Most of the “people” he mixed with were somewhat jaded. Hell, he was probably the most jaded of all.
“You like her,” Dylan murmured.
“No, I don’t.”
“You’re smiling. Not sure I’ve ever seen that before. Makes me a little uneasy.”
“Fuck off.”
“I would if I had any clue which way to fuck off to,” Dylan said. “But that doesn’t answer my question. What do we do with her? Can you send her back?”
He shook his head. “I won’t risk it.”
“Probably for the best. Right now, I think we’re still in the clear. No one actually saw us. But if she goes back, then we’re blown, and that would not be a good thing. Kinross isn’t going to be too happy about us nosing around.”
“We could say we got lost.”
“You think he’ll believe that?”
He rubbed a hand over the scar on his cheek. “Maybe it’s not a problem. Destiny won’t tell if we ask her not to.”
“Who is she anyway?” Dylan glanced at her. “Why is she a prisoner?”
“She told me she was born on the Trakis Four. She doesn’t know who she is, but she believes she has a mysterious duty to perform and they’re keeping her safe in that cell until she can do it.”
“Bizarre.”
Definitely. “I suppose we could— Wait, shh.” It was very faint, but in the distance, he could hear the sound of feet. A lot of feet, heading in their direction from down the tunnel. “Turn off the flashlight,” he said.
Dylan turned it off and they stood for a moment. “Time to get the hell out of here.”
At least that decided for them which way they should go. Not this way. He glanced around and spotted another tunnel, almost opposite where they stood. That looked as good as