Fountain of Secrets (The Relic Seekers) (8 page)

The sound was coming from the inner wall of the cave. She pressed her ear against the stone and the humming grew louder. The statues surrounded the entire castle grounds, but if she had fallen through the maze, only the statue closest to the maze should be nearby. That meant the catacombs should be this way, but there was only a wall. Holding the light steady, she examined the wall for a doorway, when she heard voices yelling and the sound of pounding hooves. Horses? The noise grew louder until it was deafening. She heard metal clashing and flung herself against the wall. A rush of wind brushed past her and the sounds faded.

She felt someone move behind her. Heart racing, she turned and saw a dark shape advancing. She tried to lift her flashlight, but her arm was numb. Two distinct feelings hit her then. Familiarity and darkness. She’d felt the darkness first, then a softening, almost a fondness, before everything went black.

“You can walk faster than that,” Adam called over his shoulder. He was ahead of her on the path. He climbed like a goat. She couldn’t ever remember seeing him fall.

“I have a blister. It’s these stupid shoes.” They were new. She’d lost one of her others down a hole yesterday. She’d taken a step when the ground gave way, and her whole foot went inside. Adam had immediately grabbed her and pulled her back. He had taken his T-shirt and wrapped it around her foot so she could walk home without cutting her foot on the sharp rocks or getting bitten by something poisonous. He’d teased her the whole way, calling her Mummy Foot, but she didn’t care. She would have laughed at him if he’d lost his shoe down a hole and had to walk home with a T-shirt wadded around his foot too.

Adam scrambled over a pile of stones, dislodging one. “Look out,” he yelled.

She darted aside and the stone rolled past her.

He sat down and waited for her. His sun-bleached hair and dusty khakis made him look as much a part of the desert as the dirt and rocks. He belonged here. She’d never known anyone like Adam. It wasn’t just because he was her only friend. She felt something for him that she couldn’t explain. Not love. Ten-year-old girls didn’t fall in love. Maybe it was awe. He was two years older, and she was sure that other than her father and Uncle John, Adam was the smartest person in the world. He scrubbed a hand through his hair. It needed cutting, but there were too many things to explore to waste time getting a haircut, he said.

“Hurry,” he called. “We’re almost there.”

“We’ll never get the shoe back,” Kendall said when she caught up. “The hole’s too deep. Besides, I didn’t like those shoes anyway. They were ugly.”

“I’m not worried about your shoe.”

“Then why are we going back to the hole?”

He put his hand over his heart, their private sign for
trust me.
She did, so she followed him to the hole.

“I was afraid your dad would be mad. He paid good money for those shoes. So after I took you home, I went back again to see if I could get it, and I saw something when I looked down in the hole.”

Her dad hadn’t complained about the shoe, a good, sturdy expensive one, which he made her wear since she was always exploring. Her dad didn’t notice much anymore. He was always distracted. Always worried.

“What’d you see?” Kendall asked. They’d reached the hole now. It was near the top of the cliff.

“Something shiny.” Adam squatted on the other side of the hole.

“Shiny,” Kendall said, feeling her heartbeat kick.

Adam gave her one of his wild grins, and his whole face lit up. “Careful,” he said. “I think the ground is stable, but lie down flat.” He demonstrated, lying down and crawling slowly toward the hole.

Kendall copied his movements, crawling on the opposite side.

“Shine your light down there and tell me what you see.”

It was dark inside the hole. The opening was too small to let in much light. Kendall aimed her flashlight. At first it was hard to see, and then she made out a shape. “I see my shoe.” She inched closer. “It’s a long way down.”

“Shine your light a few feet to your left.”

“OK.” Kendall did and she saw a glint. “I see it. What do you think it is?”

“Treasure.” Adam looked up, dark eyes glinting. “I think it’s a tomb.”

He had been right. It was a tomb. Her father and Uncle John had been shocked, and then excited, but not as excited as they should have been. Something was wrong. The next day, her father
had taken her and Adam to Italy. An important matter to attend to, he said, while Uncle John was on a business trip.

That’s where they’d had the fight.

“You can’t,” Adam said. “We’re supposed to stay put. This is serious.” They were in a small bedroom on the third floor of the castle they were visiting. Kendall’s father had gone to meet with the owners. Strange men. They looked like monks. Uncle John was attending to business in Rome. He was getting the jet ready to move his collection. People were always trying to steal Uncle John’s collection. It was the best in the world. She’d never seen it, but because she and Adam had never been allowed to see it, they had decided it must be the best. And they’d seen a lot of treasure over the years. Adam suspected it was hidden on their estate. He promised to show Kendall the next time they were there.

“I’ve never seen any place like this,” Kendall said. “I want to explore. I’m not going to touch anything.”

“No. You’re not going.”

“You can’t tell me what to do. You’re twelve, not twenty.”

“I’m older than you. It’s my job…,” he broke off. “I don’t want you to get in trouble.”

“Daddy won’t even know we’re gone. I’ve got to look at those statues. There’s something strange about them.”

“I know,” Adam said, frowning. “That’s why I don’t want you to go. Something’s not right about this place. It feels… odd.”

“Then let’s figure out why that is. I want to know what’s so important here that my dad would interrupt the plans to move your dad’s collection. And make them ignore the hidden tomb we found. I think this place has something to do with why they’re both worried.”

“Your dad’s going to be even more worried if we go tramping around this place.”

“We worry them all the time. You never let that stop you from sneaking off before. What’s wrong with you? You’re never scared.”

“We don’t know these people. They might be bad. Your dad locked the door from the outside. I’d say that means he’s serious.”

Kendall grinned. “We don’t need the door. There’s a secret entrance in that wall.”

“Is that one of your hunches?” He scowled, but he wasn’t questioning her claim. Adam was the only person she could be honest with about her gift. He just thought it got her into too much trouble. “You see too much.”

“I can’t help it. So come on. We’ll just go peek at one of the statues.”

He scratched his head. He still hadn’t cut his hair. “Just to the statues, then back.”

Kendall pushed a circle in the wall and a hidden door slid inward. “I told you.” They stuck their heads into the dark interior. It was like a tomb, and just as tricky to maneuver. They got lost more than once, and Kendall could feel Adam getting mad. “Stop it,” she said when they’d reached their second dead end.

“I’m not doing anything,” he muttered.

“I can feel you shouting at me.”

“It’s not my fault you can read minds.”

“It’s not mine either. I didn’t ask for this stupid gift.”

“We should go back,” he said.

“No. I want to know what’s going on. There’s something wrong with my dad. He’s scared. I don’t like seeing him scared. There’s something wrong with your dad too. There has to be a way out of here,” she said. “We just haven’t found it. You’re good at finding hidden entrances. You try.”

Adam grumbled under his breath and ran his hands over the wall above her head. He was several inches taller than her. “I feel something.” He pushed and a door swung open. Fresh air. They were in a garden with fountains and a maze.

“Let’s try the maze,” she said.

“No. Just look at the statue and let’s go back.”

This wasn’t like Adam. He was the bravest person she’d ever known. He’d saved her a bunch of times. Once from when she’d fallen in a tomb, and another time from a black mamba. If there were real superheroes, they must be like Adam. But she wasn’t letting anyone, not even a superhero, keep her from exploring.

They walked through the garden, and then Adam pointed. “I see a statue over there.”

“I’d rather go this way,” Kendall said, starting toward the woods. “I feel something.”

“You and your stupid hunches,” Adam muttered.

“You’re just mad because we didn’t get to explore the hidden tomb in Egypt.” They found an old graveyard, and Kendall heard something calling her. “Shhh,” she said, listening. “Do you hear that?”

“I hear the bugs and the trees.”

“You don’t hear whispering?”

“No.”

“I do.”

“It’s all in your head.”

“Maybe.” Kendall started walking along an old path that led from the graveyard into the woods. “Look there. It’s a church.” The church was old and it had stained glass windows. Her dad loved stained glass. He’d given her a piece for her birthday once.

Adam moved ahead of her. He tried the door handle. “It’s open.”

“Then let’s go in.”

“I don’t want to,” he said.

“Come on, you know you want to.”

His eyes were narrowed. He was angry with her. “You’re going to get us in trouble and expect me to bail you out.”

“Then act like a chicken and stay out here, but I’m going in.” She opened the door and went inside. “Where’s the seats?” she asked.

“Doesn’t look like a church to me,” Adam said, sticking his head inside the door. “It looks more like a temple.” He took a few more steps until he was standing right behind her.

There was writing on the walls, and in the front of the church there were three big stones. “This is strange. I’ve never seen stones like this in a church. Reminds me of Stonehenge. I wonder what this means.” There was writing on the stones. It wasn’t in English. Didn’t look like any language she’d ever seen. She tried sounding out the words. She reached the end and felt strange inside. Like she might float to the ceiling.

“Kendall, we need to leave. Now!” Adam’s voice came from behind her. She turned to him. His face was tight and his eyes looked scared. She’d never seen Adam scared. Not even when he saved her from the snake. His eyes widened and she looked back at the stones. The letters were glowing now. She took a step back and a light burst out of the stone. She felt like a wave had crashed into her body.

Kendall woke and saw the shadow hovering over her. Her wrist stung, but she was too weak to move away. She heard heavy footsteps running toward her, and beyond the shadow she saw two glowing eyes rushing at her. She opened her mouth and screamed.

T
WO HOURS EARLIER…

“Wake up!”

Jake groaned and rolled over. His skull felt like it had split down the middle. Each breath sent a stabbing pain to his ribs. Several of them were broken. He shook his head and tried to remember where he was. The rattle of keys and the armed guard reminded him.

“You, come with me,” the guard said in broken English. An Iraqi.

Jake pulled himself to his feet. His stomach burned from the bullet still festering inside his gut. He’d been shot while helping the girls escape. The girls… God, what had happened to the girls?

“Is this him?” the guard asked.

Jake looked at the man standing behind the guard. He’d never seen him before. The stranger wasn’t Iraqi. American maybe? Rich. That much was obvious from his clothes.

“That’s him,” the stranger said. He was British.

“Who are you?” Jake asked. He looked like a GQ model with a bad attitude.

The man didn’t smile, just looked at him with dark, stormy eyes.

“Your savior,” the guard said, with an ugly sneer.

Jake woke from the dream of Iraq to someone pounding on the door. He looked at his watch. Eleven p.m. Must be Kendall. He shouldn’t have left her alone. The vision of her parents had been tough on her. No damned wonder, witnessing your own birth. Seeing a mother you’d never met. He got up and opened the door. “Want to sleep in my bed—”

“No, I don’t want to sleep in your bed.” Nathan pushed past Jake.

“Dream of the devil,” Jake said. “You got a good reason for pounding on my door in the middle of the night?”

“Where’s Kendall?”

“Not here,” Jake said, scratching his chest.