Page 216

“It seems a reasonable hypothesis,” Ellie agreed.

More thunder boomed softly as they returned to the column. The bats shuffled and creaked above them. One of the monsters extended its wings in a stretch. Ellie froze, feeling desperately exposed on the open floor of the cave.

The knife was a dull green shape in the light of the torch as they gazed down at it.

“Why do I feel like there’s no way it could be this easy?” Adam muttered lowly.

Ellie grimaced as she looked at the artifact.

“Probably because it’s not,” she admitted in a whisper. “Perhaps we should…”

“Eh, might as well find out,” Adam cut in and picked the relic up.

The top of the pillar jolted up by two inches.

Ellie realized that the surface wasn’t stone at all. It was wood, disguised with plaster and dust. The pillar appeared to be hollow.More counterweights, she thought with a little burst of excitement.

Her wonder quickly shifted to unease at the creak of something turning under the false platform.

The ropes above her began to move.

Adam whirled with the torch, and the light picked out a row of weights bound with more rope, which were descending the wall of the cavern.

“Ellie…” he began uneasily.

The rest of his words were cut off as a cacophony of oddly resonant, out-of-tune bells shattered through the silence. Swinging clusters of clubs and hammers slammed into the surfaces of the stalactites. The stones rang out in dissonant tones.

With a rustling crash, a barrier dropped into place over the hole in the ceiling, blocking it.

“Drat,” Ellie blurted.

The cave exploded into a maelstrom of flying, screeching fangs.

Adam yanked Ellie across the guano-slick floor and tackled her into a nook sheltered by an overhanging rock.

Monsters wheeled through the cave in hungry panic.

“We’re supposed to fight our way out of this withthat?” Ellie shouted over the racket as she waved at the copper knife in Adam’s hand.

“Maybe there are more of them than there used to be,” he shouted back.

A pair of the enormous beasts swooped closer and crashed against their hiding place. Thick talons swung toward Ellie’s face. She lurched back to press herself against the wall.

The bat flopped away, screeching, and Ellie queasily remembered the injuries on the men in the woods.

Of course, she thought with distant horror. Those holes in the man’s skull made perfect sense. That was how carnivorous bats immobilized their prey.

Fear flashed up her spine, turning her sweat cold.

Their way out lay across thirty yards of cave swarmed with panicked flying mammals. Even if she and Adam dropped the torch, there was no way they could clear that distance without being attacked. Bats didn’t need to see in order to find dinner.

“We need to get a better look at our options,” Adam determined grimly.

He started to move out of their nook. Ellie hauled him back.

“Are you crazy?” she burst out.

“This isn’t a great hiding place, if you hadn’t noticed,” he retorted.