Leviathan (Fist of Light Series) (15 page)

He candidly suggested what I could do with my readiness before flapping his way into view.

“Does everyone still have all their equipment?” Kathryne asked.

After a minute or so of patting ourselves down it was apparent that nothing had been lost, though Jas needed to pick his gun up off the ground and replace it in its proper place.

“Check,” Hector said.

“Perfect.” Jas wiped more sweat from his face, recently a habitual movement. “Then we should probably get moving. If anyone saw us, they'll start looking here. Best be gone when they show up.”

“I second that.”

“Agreed.”

Jas indicated the direction we needed to travel with one shaky hand. “Lead the way, Wonder Boy. Counting on you to find us an entrance.”

I wisely declined to comment on his condition, as he would likely only snap and deny any sickness had him in its clutches. As one we trekked through a cleared field, the stumps of demolished plant life glaringly evident. Traversing across the terrain was a rough and ragged affair. After a mile or so the work became more strenuous, our weighted down bodies becoming even heavier. We weren't at low altitude, so even that worked against us. But we persevered and all the while I scanned below with my limited ability in Earth, looking for indications of caverns below. Forty five minutes went by without change, and by tacit vote we took a break, trying to get our bearings.

“The sun can't be more than a handspan above the horizon,” Jas concluded grimly.

“Not much time to spare,” Herk said.

“What's this place going to look like? Unless they've really adhered to the archaic past, there should be mining equipment all over about the place,” I added before taking a sip of water from a canteen Kathryne passed around, ever prepared.

“Better be moving before the nightwalkers come out to play,” Hector said, a grim undertone coloring his words.

Passing back the canteen to Kathryne, I dragged a hand across my face and looked to see how everyone was holding together. Jas continued to look like he had recently come off a drug binge, but everyone else seemed to be in better shape. I determined to keep doubly aware of Jas, considering he might become more of a hindrance than help when things got messy.

“Let's go.” My sneakered feet began moving without conscious thought as I focused on ferreting out an entry point.

Another fifteen minutes of determined trekking and I found it. Where before the ground was hard-packed earth as far as my senses stretched down, this land wasn't. No more than thirty feet below the surface was a gigantic open space, large enough to house a small city in its depths. My metaphysical eyes tracked the length of the cavern, from the edge we were standing at to the center, but couldn't stretch any further. The place was massive, so massive that I couldn't sense the edge of it. Surprisingly, we hadn't come across any other tunnels for entrance or exit, but that played to our advantage, seeing as finding one would only serve to expose us to whatever guards positioned there.

Stretching my arms out I called for a halt, which was well received by Jas, who sat down heavily to catch his breath. “We made it.”

“
I'm going to need a little advice here, Jeeves.”

“How far down is it?” Kathryne sipped daintily from her canteen and dropped her bag to the ground, entirely unruffled and indefatigable.

“Thirty feet, tops. Still, it won't be an easy task. Generously, I'd say there's about thirty minutes of sun left before we're left in deep shadow and the hive begins to stir. If we have to make a run for it in pitch black darkness with angry vampires on our six, it won't be pretty.”

“I vote for a nap. We can continue our quest later. Every hero needs a rest once in a while.” Jas splayed his arms outward and shifted his attention skyward.

“Not happening,” Kathryne declared.

“You'll have time to rest when you're dead,” I joked.

Jeeves flashed in beside me, updating his consciousness to our current predicament. “You've made it this far, at least. But shifting that much dirt will be no easy task.”

“I've got that,” I told him, exasperated.

“Got what?” Herk asked, his stare piercing.

“Nothing. Just talking to my other self, thinking it through.” I offered him a self-depreciating grin. “Might as well get started, then.”

Kathryne grabbed onto my arm as I crouched down and got to it. “Be careful not to exhaust your power. We’ll need it.”

“I'll be careful.” Her smile widened, and the delicate yet deadly hand was retracted. “Might want to back away, it's going to get dusty. Make sure no one catches us by surprise.”

Jas groaned in protest but got back up and moved away from the dig location with the others. Hector positioned himself on the remains of a gigantic redwood and the others followed suit. Jas crossed his arms and got busy looking miserable, while Kathryne busied herself checking her cache of weapons and keeping an eye peeled.

“Can you put The Call on hold, please? I can't concentrate with that incessant tolling,” I asked under my breath so Hector wouldn't hear.

Jeeves snapped his fingers unnecessarily. “It is done. But you would be wise not to ignore the summons for much longer. No good will come of it.”

“Nagging isn't going to get anything done.” I tapped one foot impatiently on the hard-packed earth.

Crouching down, I extended my feelers into the earth, burrowing my senses through soil, sediment and packed dirt. Slapping my bare palms to the forest floor, I synced with the beat of the Earth, testing the waters. As usual, the process took longer than expected, a full five minutes of back wrenching torture while I awaited the first tendril of contact. That done, preparations were made to amass energy for the deed, whatever it entailed.

“What's the plan?”

“I rather thought you held all the answers.” Jeeves smirked.

My hands remained glued to the ground, though I fervently wished to scratch an itch. “All right, I'll admit that was deserved. Seriously, I'm at a loss here. Earth and I aren't on the best of terms.”

“That's no secret.” He chuckled at my expense but relented. “No matter the approach, moving that much soil and sediment is going to present difficulty. The best plan is one that can be readily imagined. How would you go about the task if you had unlimited access to any tools?”

Biting my lip, scenarios flashed through my mind as I pondered his words, trying to fit the appropriate approach to the situation. It would take a year for me to single-handedly dig down with a shovel and all our tactical nukes were sadly out of stock. That said, the task before me was looking grim. Then, in a flash of inspiration, I had it. Images of gigantic drilling machines flashed through my mind, and it was suddenly obvious how the effect could be duplicated. With the structural components of the drill given life by Air and the Earth made pliable, it could be done. Enacting the latter portion of the design first, I rode along the senses of Earth below me, pouring energy into softening a straight stretch of ground below.

“A viable option.” Jeeves nodded in approbation.

The effort took more out of me than anticipated, but there wasn’t any point in crying about it. I dusted my hands off, stood up, then implemented the rest of the plan. Closing my eyes and raising arms high, I visualized the design, the massive grooves of the drill, the long shaft and sharp point, designed to move sediment up and out of the hole. Power flooded through my veins, filling me with a liquid fire, warmth that suffused every portion of my body. The miasmic purple drill vibrated powerfully, beginning its initial twirl, weight bearing down on the softened earth. Crossing my fingers against anyone hearing the commotion, I increased the speed. The makeshift drill did the rest, carving into the buttery ground, spewing dust and clods of dirt in all directions.

Before long the construct had burrowed its way almost completely through with no problems other than the required funneling the earth out when the drill was completely submerged. My right hand spun quick symmetric circles around and around, the other focused on tugging sediments up and out. Vibrations pounded through the Earth and each one had me wincing; it would only be a matter of time before someone came to investigate. The size of the place would be a detriment in this case. Hopefully, our bypass would go largely unnoticed until we’d finished what needed doing. I glanced sideways when flashes of movement caught my attention.

“Might want to move this thing along, Caleb,” Jas urged as a small detachment of guards rushed our position.

“I'm working on it,” I muttered.

The shadows hadn't lengthened enough for any of the vampires to come outside and play, but it was now apparent that mortal guards had been employed. They were desensitized, though, probably hadn't seen action in ages. They never expected anything like this to take place on their home turf, and that played right into our hands. Walling off the quick bursts of trained gunfire and the plight of my friends, I poured even more energy into the task, tackling the job with a vengeance. Snarling, the last few feet were bulled through in seconds. Frantically, I demolished the construct, although some of the tendrils of Air were repurposed into pulsing purple ropes.

Gazing around me, I snatched up the bag of plastic explosive with a tendril of air and then flung it down the gaping hole, checking to see it went through before trying to chance it myself. Besides knocking against the wall a few times, the bag came through undamaged. I allowed myself a small breath of relief before getting into the swing of things once more.

“Time to move!” I announced as I turned to face down the combatants.

I
was too late, though, and shouldn't have worried, Kathryne and the team had already taken care of the overcurious human guards. Jas' rapier dripped blood and Kathryne was busy wiping her blade on an unmoving man's shirt. For his part, Herk punched his fist into an open palm a few times, looking like he was eager for the next round. All in all, five men had been taken out. Shivering at the cool practicality of my friends, I turned away from the gruesome sight. Killing humans was different from destroying Darkness, whoever started the fight. The too-red blood and gaping mouths, glassy eyes, it all was too
real
.

Jas brought me back to reality with a quick slap to the face and some words likely inspired by a military movie. “Get ahold of yourself,” he snapped.

“I'm fine,” I lied, not very convincingly.

It was only then that I realized I was lying on the ground, delirious, my breathing amped up to kill-or-be-killed mode. Going from a crouching to standing position, I wiped sweat from my brow and put shaking hands underneath armpits, effectively stopping their tremors. The episode shuddered to a stop as fast as it began, gone in a flash. Gritting my teeth, I could only attribute the overreaction to the recent rehabilitation of my emotional centers.

“That was a neat trick.” Hector patted me on the back and peered down the hole.

“Thanks.”

“Well? Isn't it about time we were going?” Jas asked, understandably impatient.

Exhaling tentatively, I motioned to the others. “Everyone else first. The bag is already down there ahead of us. It’s about three feet across, so everyone should be okay. Here,” I pressed thick yet miasmic ropes into their hands.

Kathryne looked at her rope dubiously, then assessed the drop, considering.

“They'll hold. I've already attached them up here.”

“I'll go first.” Jas acted with all due haste, jumping into the dank earth without hesitation..

A slight tug was felt through my mental representation of the rope, but there wasn't near enough weight to tear it. Jas called up from below and Hector shrugged noncommittally before following him down. Before long, we were all standing underneath the earth in pitch blackness, though my eyes cut through most of it. I worried about the others, excluding Jas, but they didn’t seem to be having too much trouble. Looking up, no light filtered down from above, though some brightness could be seen in the rapidly darkening sky. I latched onto the tendrils of air hanging suspended in the air and pulled them down, thinking it wouldn't be very smart to discard power when it was in such short supply.

“You're filthy,” Kathryne said, a slight frown adorning her features.

“Women,” Jas and I said in unison, chuckling.

“She doesn't even deem to notice until we're in the dark.” I chuckled.

“Typical.” Jas clucked his tongue in mock disappointment.

“Don’t we have something to do?” Kathryne grumbled, unwilling to contribute any more fuel to the fire.

Instead, lances of pain shot through me as a series of quick jabs pounded precisely into pressure points. Winces of discomfort emanating from Jas told me that I wasn't the only one getting the harsh treatment from an angry Kathryne. Wisely, we both shut up pretty quick and got down to business without much audible complaint.

We spun around in the darkness, an all-consuming blackness that my eyes had trouble penetrating. Frowning, I extended my senses towards the center of the unknown, looking for a sign that
something
lived down here. Immediately, my pea brain was assaulted with a plethora of pulsating darkness, accentuated by prominent auras of more powerful vampires. Turning in the direction indicated, I fiddled with my weapons in preparation for what was to come.