“I’ll try to call you again if I find out anything new.”
“You can try, but I have to go back to Hades now. See ya.” Walter closed the phone and put it back in his pocket.
“We might not be going back to Hades,” Sapphira said. “I think you and Karen might have stayed in this dimension the entire time. Since Roxil and Gabriel were in an energy state while you were there, I think the underground realm got shifted to this dimension somehow. But now that Gabriel is solid here in the land of the living, I’m not sure what to think.”
Walter set his hands in front of her, as if bracketing his words. “Look, I don’t care if it’s Hades or Harlem. All I want to know is if you can get us back to wherever Ashley is. The giants are obviously up to no good, so the world needs Ashley and her brains more than ever.”
As Sapphira lifted a hand, a new splash of fire arose from her palm. “I’ll give it a try, but I don’t know where we’ll end up. I thought I’d be able to travel wherever I wanted to, but it feels like the dimensions are playing musical chairs.”
Hanging on to a flickering lantern with one hand, Ashley reached for the trapdoor with the other, just inches away from her fingertips. Her duffle bag dangled precariously from a strap over her shoulder. “A little higher,” she called to Roxil as she stood on tiptoes.
“I cannot stretch any farther,” Roxil said, “and your shoe is pressing against my eye.”
“Sorry.” Ashley moved her foot. “Can you jump?”
“Dragons do not jump well. I can beat my wings to give you a boost, but it will be unsteady.”
Ashley braced herself, keeping her eyes on the door above. “Go for it!”
With a sudden shake, Ashley lurched upward. She raised her free hand and pushed the trapdoor open, and her momentum threw her into the vent tunnel. After rolling and skidding, she jumped to her feet, keeping the lantern upright throughout her landing. “I made it!” she called down.
Roxil’s eyes flashed from below. “Good. I will wait here while”
Ashley leaned into the trapdoor opening, poking her head into the mobility room. “Roxil? Were you going to say something else?”
She waited for a reply, but none came. Leaning down as far as she could, she listened, but the room below was quiet, and shadows obscured the floor. “Roxil?”
Again, no reply. The glowing eyes had disappeared. Ashley sat up and fiddled with the zipper on her bag. Was Roxil okay? Why wouldn’t she answer?
Pushing her hair out of her eyes, she scanned the area. The rope was gone, and there didn’t seem to be any other way to get down. She couldn’t check on the moody dragon even if she wanted to.
She stood and set her hands on her hips. What was she worried about anyway? Roxil was a dragon. She could take care of herself. Besides, she was probably just pouting.
After tossing the bag up onto the stairs above, Ashley leaped and set the lantern on the edge of the staircase landing, then leaped again and caught the edge with both hands. The crumbling rock made it hard to get a good hold, but, inching her fingers to the side, she finally found a solid place to grab. With a swing and a lunge, she propped her elbow on the ledge, then, grabbing another handhold on the first step, she wrestled her way up, swinging a knee to the landing, then a foot. Finally, she managed to get her whole body up to the stairs and sat heavily on the third step.
Wiping sweat and grime from her forehead, she laughed to herself. That was the easy part. Now several thousand steps into the mountain overhead awaited her already weary legs. She opened her bag and felt for the contents—the gravity brick, a water bottle, her photometer, and her handheld computer—all safely swaddled in her change of clothes. They would probably feel like anchors after a while, but they were too important to leave behind.
Picking up the lantern, she stood and began a slow, methodical climb, counting each step as she went. Based on the approximate average height of the steps and Larry’s earlier elevation reports, she could guesstimate the total number, maybe fifteen thousand or so. It might take all day, but at least she would know when she was getting close to the top.