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Through half lidded eyes, I watched her, face deathly white, step around the air in front of her. She flinched once, twice, then in a rush hurried to the opposite side of the sarcophagus.
"Find the groove," I said.
"I have it," she replied.
"On the count of three." I placed my finger beside mine.
"One."
The ground shifted beneath me, but I didn't move my hand.
"Two."
Latika let out a squeak. "There's more of them."
"Hold firm," I ordered. "Three." I pressed my finger firmly into the groove. Again, I felt a click, but then something more. A vibration which moved from my hand, up my arm into my shoulder. From there, it spread through my entire body.
"The lid is rising, " Kerina shouted.
I glanced up, dropped my hand to my hip and stepped back.
Sure enough, the carved stone lid rose slowly, a hair at first, then steadily more. The glow of power only illuminated an endless darkness inside.
I swore to myself. Latika might not be able to haunt me; I might have killed us all.
"Dex was right," I muttered, although I wasn't sure what I referred to, in particular. Maybe something, maybe nothing. What would Dex do if he were here? I knew the answer to that at least. The Keeper would step closer and look into that endless nothingness until something revealed itself. He was curiosity itself, while I had always been cautious.
Where is that caution now?I asked myself.
"Step back," I ordered. "Back to the tunnel entrance."
Hands out to either side, I stepped back, eyes half on the still rising lid, half on the women I drove toward the door ahead of me.
"This is why you should never open sarcophagi you find in a cave on the side of a mountain," Kerina remarked.
"Good advice," I said over my shoulder. "I'll remember that for next time." If there was a next time.
The ground under my feet shook. I almost missed a step, but caught myself at the last moment. I turned just as the floor beneath me cracked. I leapt to the side as the crack widened.
"Bain—" Kerina and Latika stood on the other side of a widening, jagged slit in the stone.
"Get to safety," I ordered. "Get out of the cave."
Latika half turned, but froze.
"Vermin," she whispered. "Hundreds of them. Thousands."
"No," Kerina snapped. "There are no rats there, only—cows."
Cows?
I shook my head. "Did you say—"
She kept her eyes on the entrance, but threw up a hand. "Don't say anything. I'm scared of cows, all right?"
What could I say to that?
"There's nothing there." Except the gap in front of me, which seemed all too real and steadily growing. I poked at the edge with a booted toe and frowned. Where there should be nothing but air, I found hard ground.
