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Lights flash on, and I squint. It looks like they have some portable work lights set up, similar to the ones used for nightwork on the roads or construction sites. That’ll be handy, since one thing I forgot about caves is that they’re dark.
But the lights aren’t what I’m here to see, and I turn around, looking for the—
There it is.
Wow.
I head toward it, my gaze crawling over every inch. The photos told me it would be spectacular, and oh, it really is.
A hand clamps down on my shoulder, preventing me from getting to the pretty, and I whine and squirm.
“Easy,” Micah says. “You were about to walk into the crate.”
I blink and glance down, and sure enough, there’s a wooden crate right in front of my left leg. That would have hurt.
“Thank you,” I say over my shoulder to Micah, but he doesn’t let go.
“Just a quick look, remember?” he prompts. “And how are you feeling after your first teleport? Any queasiness, headache?”
Frowning, I tear my attention away from the puzzle door and turn toward him. “Nothing like that. I feel fine.” I try to remember the seconds after we teleported, when it was still dark. Did I feel ill then? “I don’t think it affected me at all.”
“That’s great news. It’s going to make all of this so much easier.” He sounds relieved. I guess it might have been uncomfortable for me if teleporting made me feel sick but I had to do it twice a day to get here. “Anyway… this is it. The crates have all the components that we think are needed. They’re numbered, and we think that’s supposed to be the order of use. But I can show you that tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow,” I affirm, dodging around the crate and making for the wall. Door. Whatever. I need a good look at it before he makes me leave, and I suspect that’s going to happen soon.
Up close, even in the not-ideal lighting, the puzzle is… perfect. I can’t think of another word. It’s huge, of course, but even on a small scale, it would be perfection. The intricacy, thejoyof it… My eye tracks the patterns, looking for the starting point, but then an anomaly leaps out at me. Oh ho. The designer of this liked tricks, it seems.
This is going to be so much fun.
I finally let myself reach out and touch. The metal is cold under my fingers, slightly pitted with rust in places. Not badly enough that it’s going to be a problem, but still. It’s a crime that this wasn’t taken better care of. Sure, being in a cave in the middle of nowhere would make maintenance harder, but I’m here, aren’t I? As long as people can get here, there’s no excuse.
“You should be ashamed,” I chide, and footsteps come up behind me.
“Why?” Micah asks, suddenly a lot closer than I thought he’d be. I resolutely keep my focus on the wall.
“Look at the state this is in. Why hasn’t someone been cleaning it, or at least set up a dehumidifier in here?”
He makes a sound I can’t interpret, and I take my hand off the wall and turn to look at him. His face gives me no clues—demons are so damn hard to read. They either want to murder you, or they feel nothing. I’m never sure which it is.
“Well? Nothing to say in your defense?”
“In my defense,” he begins drily, “we had no idea this was even here until two weeks ago, when Isaac, my five-year-old brother, decided to go for a walk and find the cave an imaginary dragon was living in.”
I blink. “There’s a dragon living here?” It’s a nice enough cave, as caves go, but not exactly luxurious. Or even comfortable.
He shakes his head, and this time I’m pretty sure his dark eyes are amused. “No. Isaac heard a story—a made-up story—about a dragon who lived in a cave on a snowy mountain, and because he’s five, he figured it might be true.”
That sinks in, and I shudder. “But you said it’s over an hour walk through the snow to get to the village from here.”
“We were all very panicked at the time. Fortunately, we found him—in this cave. Which we didn’t know existed before then. Our village has only been here for the last fifty-two years, and the area was mostly abandoned before that.”
I look around the cave again, and finally spot what might be the entrance. It’s more of a crack than an opening, barely wide enough for an adult to squeeze through, and the only reason I see it is because a small flurry of snow happens to blow in at precisely the right moment. Now that I’m paying attention, the wind is howling a bit out there.
But… “This isn’t enough rust damage for fifty years. Someone must have been looking after it.”
He pinches the bridge of his nose. “It’s a really long story. Why don’t I take you to the village and tell you over a meal? Are you hungry? It’s nearly dinnertime.”
I think about it. I skipped breakfast because I was so excited, and it’s been hours since then, so I guess I should eat. “I forgot to throw out the leftovers in the fridge,” I remember. Oh well. Truthfully, they were leftover from like two weeks ago and were already too funky to eat. I’ll just clean the fridge out properly when I go home.
