Then, with a loud crack, we landed on something firm, our hands still connected. The blur of light began to recede and I squinted. All around me was a low rolling mist, and I realized we were standing in the middle of what looked like a field, though it was shrouded in shadows from the twilight around us.
Another moment and the wheel of light vanished.
“We’re here,” I whispered to Angel and Raven. “We’re in the Underworld, the world of the dead.” Now, we just had to find Viktor and bring him home.
Chapter Twenty-Three
As we slowly unclasped our hands, I was already looking around, trying to pinpoint our whereabouts. We were standing in what appeared to be a barren, dusty landscape. There was no grass on the ground, no trees that I could see, but there were foothills and rock formations everywhere, forming canyons around us. The soil beneath our feet was so hard that I doubted if I could have broken the surface with a shovel. I looked around. We were standing at a juncture of trails leading through the tall mesas. It looked as though some octopus of a river had carved its way through the area long ago, then dried up to leave the steep walled ravines of dirt and stone.
My stomach fluttered as I turned. There was a stillness to the air that was disturbing. It felt almost as though I couldn’t breathe and I suddenly gulped, fearing I was suffocating, but the warm, dry air slid through my lungs and then out again as I exhaled.
“Cripes, this place is creepy,” Angel said. Even though she whispered, her words shattered the silence, ricocheting off the canyon walls. She clasped her hand over her mouth, eyes wide, then mouthed, “I’m sorry.”
I glanced around to see if we had attracted any attention. We were in a perfect echo chamber. Somehow, the canyons seemed set up to capture any sound and magnify it. But nothing stirred, nothing moved, and I slowly relaxed.
Viktor had to be close by. Morgana and Cernunnos had told us he would be within a quarter-mile’s radius, which meant he could be behind one of the rock formations, or he could be holed up in a cave, or on top of a mesa. I motioned for Raven and Angel to fan out, but mouthed for them to keep in sight.
As I scanned the area, I noticed that about twenty feet up on a nearby cliff, a dark spot seemed to indicate a cave opening. I stared at it for a moment, then crossed over to Raven and Angel. I tapped Angel on the shoulder, then pointed up toward the cliff, mouthing, “Can you sense anything?”
Angel closed her eyes. A moment later she shuddered and stumbled back, a look of panic on her face. She pulled out a notepad from her pocket and a pen and began to scribble on it.
Viktor’s there. The energy here is so magnified that I almost felt like I could read his thoughts. But there are…things…all around. And the ghosts. There are ghosts everywhere. I can sense them moving past us. Most of them seem clueless that we’re here, but there are some angry, ancient energies in these canyons.
I stared at her note, then looked back at the cliff face. We would have to get up there somehow, and there didn’t seem to be a path. Raven noticed what I was doing and took Angel’s notepad, writing, “Maybe there’s a path inside? There’s a cave at the bottom, too.”
I followed her direction and saw a dark splotch against the base of the cliff. Nodding, I motioned for them to follow me. As we moved forward, I unsheathed my short sword. Raven held out her hands, the energy crackling off of them. I wasn’t sure what spell she was prepping, but whatever it was, I expected nothing less than fireworks from the sparks flying around her.
We came to the base of the cliff, skirting around various rockpiles as we moved forward, and sure enough, there was a narrow cave entrance. Only one could enter at a time, and I motioned for both Raven and Angel to stand behind me. I had brought a flashlight that was on a headband, and I slid it over my head and turned it on. It would give us away, but we had no choice. I wasn’t about to walk into a dark cavern in the Underworld, not without knowing what we were getting into.