Dangerous Creatures (Book 3, Pure Series) (40 page)

              The light began to move toward me, and I held my breath and willed my heart to slow its beating.

              The light drew closer and closer and soon flashed brightly in front of my eyes. As it drew parallel with me, I could see clearly the outline of the person holding it.

              I drew in my breath sharply. "Terrance?"

              He had moved a little beyond me, and when he heard his name, Terrance turned so that his flashlight was shining directly into my eyes.

              I heard him gasp. "Katie?"

              "Yes," I said. "Would you mind lowering that thing a little?"

              "Yeah, sure," he said. "Sorry."

              Terrance lowered his flashlight, and I could see his lean brown face floating seemingly disembodied in the darkness.

              "Katie, I have to say this is a shock. You keep popping up in the strangest places. What are you doing here?"

              "I would ask you the same thing," I said, "except I already know. I know you're a member of the Order of the Hawthorne."

              In the glare from the flashlight, I saw Terrance's mouth drop open.

              "Okay, this just keeps getting weirder," he said. He glanced quickly back up the tunnel. "Look, I don't know how you got here, but you'd really better leave. When I say this place is not safe, that's really quite an understatement. You'd better come with me—the way out's back this way."

              "Terrance, I know you have the Star of Morning," I said. "And I know you've come here to destroy the Hunter. But you can't destroy him on your own. He's too powerful. You have to tell me how the sword works. I have to be able to use it, too."

              "Okay," Terrance said, "as strange as this is, I'm just going to go with it. I'm perfectly willing to talk about this. But we can't do it in here. It's far too dangerous."

              "I definitely don't mind leaving this place," I said. "Lead the way."

              Terrance and I hurried back the way he had come, and the tunnel turned sharply to the right once more. Once we'd made the turn, I could feel cool air rushing into the tunnel, and soon we were standing underneath a roughly hewn shaft that extended all the way to the surface. Unlike the shaft in the cave chamber, this one appeared to be natural, and I could see a sprinkling of stars in the dark patch of sky above us. There was also a rope snaking down the shaft to the cave floor.

              Terrance switched off his flashlight, and as he did so, I just caught sight of the hilt of a sword at his side.

              "I imagine that you'd probably make a pretty good climber," he said. "But we really don't have much time right now. If you wouldn't mind standing at my back and holding onto my neck, I can have us up the shaft pretty quickly."

              I did as he asked, and Terrance began to ascend the rope smoothly, as if he didn't feel my weight at all. Sooner than I would have thought possible, we had reached the top of the shaft, and I found myself climbing out into the open air.

              Terrance quickly unwrapped the rope from a boulder it was tired around and coiled the entire thing over his shoulder.

              He turned sharply then and raised his flashlight, switching it on. He stood very still for just a moment and then shut the flashlight off and turned back to me.

              "What is it?"" I asked.

              "It's nothing," he said. "Come on. We'd better put some distance between ourselves and this place if we want to talk in safety."

              It was fully dark now, but the stars were out, and there was a fair amount of light to see by. We ran through the night with Terrance leading the way until we came to a towering stack of boulders. Terrance climbed up onto the lowest one and then reached out a hand to me. Together the two of us climbed up the stack of boulders until we reached the top. There at the summit, the surface was flat—except for one side that rose up in a concave, oval shape that was something like a shield.

              "I staked out this place a little while ago," Terrance said. "I can see the main entrance to the Hunter's tomb from here." He pointed. "And I can also see anybody coming up this side of the ridge." Then he tapped on the shield-like outcropping. "And this keeps out some of the wind."

              He settled down with his back to the shield.

              "So what are you doing here exactly?" he asked. "And how do you know so much about what I'm doing?"

              I sat down also. "Well, to begin with, I'm the Little Sun."

              Terrance stared at me. "You're the Little Sun?"

              "Yes."

              "Also known as the ghost girl in all the wild rumors."

              "Yes."

              "Okay," Terrance said. "That explains a few things."

              "But I haven't been going around killing off vampires," I said. "Something else is responsible for that."

              "I had no idea you were the Little Sun," Terrance said. "Maybe that's something my contact would've told me. I was keeping an eye on you at school, but only because I know some strange stuff happened to you."

              "Your contact?" I said.

              Terrance smiled ruefully. "As you apparently know already, I am, in fact, a member of the Order of the Hawthorne. When I was first assigned to Elspeth's grove, I was supposed to meet up with my contact there. But he never showed up, and I never got the proper briefing on the situation. So I just continued to take my orders from headquarters and tried to accomplish my mission as best I could."

              "And what was your mission?" I asked.

              "This is a little unorthodox," Terrance said, "but in light of who you are, I guess I can tell you. My mission was to find out what was going on at the cave in the Old Grove, to find out who was running the activity there, and to neutralize the entire operation. I managed to do two of those three things."

              "And you found out that the cave was full of vampires and vampire treasures," I said.

              Terrance looked startled. "I don't know how you know that, but yes. I guess I should stop being surprised by what you've managed to find out."

              I drew in my breath sharply. "Then that was you."

              "Me?"

              "You're the one who rigged the cave to explode," I said. "That was your idea of neutralizing the operation?"

              "Yes. And I thought it was a pretty effective solution. The entire structure has collapsed now. No one's digging those vampires out—not for a long time."

              Terrance glanced at me. "You seem upset by that. May I ask why?"

              "I was in the cave at the time," I said. "You very nearly killed me."

              "So that's how the explosives got tripped early," Terrance said. "That was you."

              "Yes."

              "Sorry about that. I didn't mean for anyone innocent to get hurt."

              "You couldn't have known," I said. "It's not your fault. I guess it's just one of the hazards of being—me."

              "All the same," Terrance said. "I should have been more careful."

              "So then what brought you here?" I asked. "If your assignment is in Elspeth's Grove?"

              "Well, the biggest part of that assignment wrapped up a little more quickly than I had anticipated. And our numbers have been shrinking over the years—there aren't many of us to go around. I knew the situation with the Hunter had reached the critical point, so I volunteered to come out here."

              "And then you stormed Rusalka castle and stole The Star of Morning," I said. "You certainly seem to be ideal for the job."

              Terrance gave me a small smile.

              "So how does the sword work?" I asked.

              Terrance looked puzzled. "How does it work?"

              "I heard it's not just an ordinary sword," I said. "I heard it can be used that way, but its real power comes from something else."

              "I see what you mean," Terrance said. "And you're right."

              He paused.

              "Terrance, I need to know," I said. "I have a right to know. The Hunter's after me—because I'm the Little Sun. I need to be able to stop him."

              Terrance looked at me for a long time.

              "Yes, you do have a right to know," he said at last. "But be careful with this information. We can't afford to let it fall into the wrong hands."

              He drew the sword from its scabbard and handed it to me. "I usually keep this hidden. But tonight I was planning to use it."

              I looked the sword over. It was a plain blade with an equally plain hilt. But though the sword was plain in appearance, there was something powerful about it. I could tell it was no ordinary weapon.

              "The Star of Morning isn't just a sword," Terrance said. "It's also a key."

              "A key?" I said.

              "Yes. The whole set up at the tomb was actually a trap. The Hunter was lured there by the presence of his wife, who's sort of in suspended animation."

              "That much I know," I said.

              "Well, the Hunter's wife is actually resting right on the trigger to a weapon. There's an island of rock floating on water down there. The island is the trigger. The Hunter's wife is on a stone slab, and there's a second slab next to hers that was originally occupied by the Hunter. He was chained there, and then this—"

              Terrance tapped on the sword.

              "This was inserted into a mirrored slot between the two stone slabs. And that primes and starts the weapon. The waters around the island rise up, and then the stars are called down. Anything on that island will be incinerated—except for the Hunter's wife. That energy shield around her is very powerful—it protects her. I think she's actually going to be there forever."

              "What do you mean the stars will be called down?" I asked.

              "That's a poetic way of putting it, I suppose," Terrance said. "But that's how it was described to me. The water around the island isn't actually water—it's some sort of electromagnetic agent. And the sword is like a megaconductor. It attracts all of the energy in the area—in the ground and in the air up into the upper atmosphere. It generates a massive lightning strike—only it's a regular bolt of lightning times a million. Supposedly it looks like the stars being called down to earth. I imagine it's quite spectacular to see."

              "So we have to get the Hunter onto his slab and place the sword in the mirrored slot," I said. "Does he have to be chained, too?"

              "I don't believe so, no," Terrance said. "Technically, he doesn't even need to be on the slab. As long as he's on that rock island when the power goes on, he'll be blown up right where he stands. The whole place, including the island, is lined with a special kind of rock—basically the strongest rock there is—and that concentrates the energy even further."

              "It's simple to describe," I said. "But not so simple to do. So, is that what happened to the Hunter the first time?"

              "Yes."

              "Then why didn't he stay dead?"

              "There are stories," Terrance said, "that even though he was chained to his slab, he somehow managed to free himself from those chains. Supposedly he made it off the island in time, and he missed the full force of the weapon. He still got enough to be burned to ash, but he wasn't completely incinerated. And these ancient vampires are powerful—not to mention the fact that he had a very strong revenge motive. His ashes slowly knit themselves together over the years."

              "So the weapon didn't work completely the first time?" I said.

              "No. Someone slipped up somewhere."

              "Does that mean the Hunter will come back again, even if this works?"

              "I don't think so," Terrance said. "No vampire is completely indestructible. And the weapon should work if he's in the right place."

              Terrance smiled grimly. "And if the sword doesn't work for some reason, I have this."

              He walked over to a nearby boulder and pulled out a box that was concealed behind it. He opened the box and tipped it toward me.

              I peered in. There were several stacks of what looked like square packets of clay. The box looked to be half empty.

              "What's that?" I asked.

              "C-4."

              "C-4?" I said. "As in the explosive?"

              "Yes."

              "Where did you get it?"

              "It's part of my supplies from the Order. I've got blasting caps, too. A fiery explosion can be very effective against vampires."