felt no fear. He had gone through dimensional portals before, and this vertical plunge gave him the same tingly sensation, though this episode seemed to stretch out much longer than any of the others.
Picking up speed with every second, he fell on and on, much farther than he and Ashley had descended down the stairwell. Wherever the bottom was, it would be deeper than the level of Hades they had visited … if there was a bottom at all.
After another minute or so, a strong breeze, hot, dry, and stale, buoyed his body, slowing his descent. He pointed Excalibur downward, trying to find the source of the wind. A dark red light mixed with the sword’s glow to reveal a huge man standing underneath him. As he drifted closer, the breeze steadily weakened until it finally shut off. With the loss of the support, he plummeted once again, falling right into the giant’s outstretched arms.
Although the man grunted, he absorbed the impact with only a slight sag of his cradling arms.
“Let me go!” Walter shouted, thrashing his body, but the giant held firm, gripping Walter’s wrist in his enormous hand and immobilizing Excalibur.
The giant shushed him with a commanding whisper. “Be quiet, son of man!”
Walter immediately calmed his body. Something about this man’s voice forced instant obedience, like a father’s urgent appeal that would save the life of a child.
The giant lowered Walter to the ground and, softening his tone, released Walter’s wrist. “We must maintain silence. There are dangerous creatures here, and I do not wish to alert them to our presence.”
“Sounds good to me,” Walter whispered, moving the sword closer to get a better view of this huge man who was easily as tall as the Nephilim in the mobility room. The maroon-tinted light seemed to adorn his head in a scarlet hood, making his features indistinct. “I’m looking for a teenaged girl, a little older than me, about my height. I think she fell down the same hole, maybe a minute before I did. Have you seen her?” He considered mentioning Roxil, as well, but thought better of it for the moment.
The man shook his head. “I have only been here a few hours. I saw the shining sword as you descended, so I created your air cushion. I hope that I sufficiently eased your landing. I fear that my breath was exhausted a little too soon.”
“Thank you. It was enough. I’ve had worse landings.” Now sweating, Walter unzipped his jacket and searched for the source of heat. Hanging low in the rusty sky, a dark red sun shot out snaking tongues of fire from its perimeter and coated the blackness in a dim, bloody wash. Still, it was enough to illuminate a huge black ocean perhaps a hundred yards away. Far out in the surf, red spots of light floated, bobbing and weaving like ships’ beacons on a rough sea.
The giant leaned down and laid a hand on Walter’s shoulder. “I am very glad to see you, son of man, though you are not quite what I expected.”
Walter had to push up to keep from sagging under the weight of the heavy hand. As he guided Excalibur closer to the man’s head again, the glow washed over his collar-length hair and scraggly beard, but most of his face was still veiled by scarlet shadows. “Well,” Walter replied, keeping his voice low, “I’m not sure what you expected, but you’re not exactly who I was hoping to find, either.”
The man set a hand on his bushy brow, shielding his eyes. “I apologize for my rudeness. Since you are so young, I assumed you were not skillful with your sword, but I was probably assuming too much.”
“I’m okay with it.” Walter ran a finger along the blade’s engraved design. “Do you need me to do something?”
“I am searching for a way of escape, but there are unfriendly forces here, so it is too dangerous to roam freely. With you and your sword, we can travel more boldly. I am big and strong, but I do not think I can fight more than two of them at once.”
“Them?”
The man curled his finger. “Come. I will show you.”
“Wait.” Walter stretched his fingers tightly around Excalibur’s hilt. “First I need to know who I’m dealing with. Are you one of the Nephilim?”
“I have been called that.” The man raised his chin a notch. “I am one of the giants of old, but I prefer not to be associated with those who