Chapter 329
Though the ride seemed to last forever, it was less than an hour when Lurid shouted back, "We're here! There's a flat place around the side, but you're still going to have to climb a little."
Climb. Could it get any worse?
The helicopter touched down none too gently and the passengers lurched. Katelina clutched Jorick and mashed her eyes shut. She didn't want to see her death.
The noise of the blades died. She was sweating under the heavy coat and her heart pounded in her ears, which meant she was still alive. She opened her eyes to find that everyone else was, too. Verchiel swung the doors open and a blast of icy air slammed into the cabin. Katelina huddled behind her hood, but no one else seemed affected.
Lurid slipped out of the cockpit, one hand held up to block the wind from his face. "I'll stay here with Nevaeh. You guys have fun."
Why had Lurid been determined to go if he didn't plan to set foot in the temple? Was it part of a sinister plan between the treasure hunters?
Jorick gave a small shrug and Katelina struggled out of her seat belt. Verchiel and Cyprus hopped out of the helicopter. Wolfe and Sadihra followed.
Sorino returned the giant pack to Neil and sent the trembling guard out the door. Then, he motioned Kai to follow and plunged outside himself.
Katelina stood clumsily and a wave of dizziness washed over her. She grabbed the bench's support pole and gasped for air. She couldn't breathe! As her panic worsened, her breaths became erratic and fast, and soon she was clinging to the pole and on the point of hyperventilating.
Jorick caught her. "Katelina. Katelina. Calm down. You're fine. Just calm down."
"I. Can't. Breathe," she gasped. "Jorick. I - I can't-"
"Yes, you can. If you can talk, you can breathe. Just relax." Despite his words, worry and regret were etched in his features.
Lurid leaned against the wall, his arms over his chest. "The air is thinner here."
Jorick's eyes darkened. "Yes, I know, but if Sorino brought Kai, then she should be fine. He wouldn't risk his pet's health."
"It affects everyone differently," Lurid said. "You can leave her in the helicopter if you want."
"No!" Jorick barked the word with enough force to make Katelina flinch and, for a moment, she forgot she was dying. "She'll be fine."
"She should rest," Lurid said.
Jorick practically wrenched her away from the pole and dragged her towards the hatch. "She can rest outside."
The door yawned open, ladderless, revealing a craggy piece of snowy rock and a loose collection of waiting vampires. Verchiel grinned at them, then sauntered over and offered his hand. "Need some help down?"
Katelina tried to shake her head; Lurid was right, she should stay inside, but Jorick only scowled and half handed her to him. Verchiel gripped her under the armpits and lowered her to the ground. Her head swam. She gasped for breath and stumbled against the helicopter.
"Whoa there." Verchiel caught her. "If you breathe slower that won't happen."
"But I can't!" she shouted hysterically. The cold wind blasted her, taking away what little air she had.
Jorick hopped down and took her from Verchiel. "I'm sorry," he murmured. "But I can't risk leaving you alone with Sorino's partner." Concern flashed over his features. "The idiot is right. Relax and slow your breathing or you'll pass out."
A soothing, calm sensation rippled over her. There was nothing to worry about; not really. Just look at Kai, he was fine. He wasn't gasping and dying. She should just relax.
She shook her head and pushed off the influence, though as she glanced at the host of vampires she wasn't sure whose it was. Despite her resistance, it had worked, and with her slower, deeper breathing the dizziness receded and her vision cleared.
She leaned against the helicopter and willed herself to relax while the vampires explored the immediate area. "I'll go ahead," Sorino announced and took a coil of rope from Neil.
Verchiel abandoned Katelina. "I'll go with you!"
"And so will I," Cyprus said with a final, dark look at Wolfe.
Sorino didn't reply, only crunched across the frozen ground towards a sharp slope. Katelina chanced looking up and shuddered. The rock face, broken here and there by scrubby plants and trees, rose in chunks to tower impossibly high. If they expected her to climb that then they were insane!
"We don't need to go that high," Jorick said quietly. "Sorino believes the entrance is close."
There was nothing else to say, so she let Jorick lead her to a large rock where she perched next to Kai and repeated to herself that she was fine, despite the thin air and the freezing, screaming wind. With each minute that passed she felt a little bit better, until she thought she might be able to walk on her own.
Verchiel suddenly bounded around an outcropping and dropped in front of them. He straightened and brushed snow from his coat. "We found it, but the entrance is partially buried. Sorino said to bring the pack, but the rest of you might as well come, too."
Jorick scooped Katelina up and Verchiel led them a round-about way that didn't require any real climbing, though she was sure it took longer than a more direct path. When Jorick put her down her dizziness and shortness of breath returned. She leaned on a rock and watched as Sorino swung the axe into what looked like a pile of ice and stone debris. Neil manned the shovel, and Cyprus heaved large pieces of broken rock aside as if they weighed nothing.
She closed her eyes and concentrated on her breathing.
"That should be enough," Sorino said. She opened her eyes to see him fold the axe and reattach it to Neil's pack. He opened a zippered pocket to produce a flashlight, which he handed to Kai. "Shall we?"
Katelina straightened up and trudged slowly towards them. With no light of her own, she'd have to stick close to the pair.
To her untrained eyes, the temple opening looked like little more than a fissure in the rock. Sorino slid inside, followed by Kai. As Katelina squeezed through, she noticed what looked like the remains of rough carvings around the edge of the door. It was more of the funny writing that was on the scroll. Sanskrit.
Even with the flashlight's blue-white beam, it was dark inside the temple. Kai moved the light around to reveal a large, cavernous room that looked more like a natural cave than a manmade structure. It was only the doorway in the back that looked artificial.
"I was expecting something more," Verchiel commented as they reached the yawning doorway. "Some gold maybe."
Sorino chuckled. "You've watched too many movies, my friend. I doubt we'll find much treasure here."
"It's probably been picked clean." Cyprus gestured to something near the wall. Kai flashed the light towards it and a mound of old bones shone back, pale and dusty. Katelina shuddered and drew back a step, as if afraid they might spontaneously come to life. Though she knew better, the thin, close atmosphere of the cave made anything seem possible.
Sorino walked carefully to the door, his eyes moving from wall, to ceiling, to floor and back again, as if expecting Hollywood -worthy traps. Kai followed. When no spears shot out of the wall, no rocks dropped on his head, and the floor didn't open up, Katelina decided it must be safe. She took Jorick's hand and tottered after them, still fighting the clinging dizziness.
The next room was long and narrow. Though the walls were rough she could see what looked like pillars along the sides. A door was again cut in the back and like its predecessor there was nothing else. Though she hadn't expected stacks of gold like Verchiel, she had expected something besides cold, dark stone.
The third room was huge and its ceiling was too high for Kai's flashlight to reach. The floor, though smooth and obviously once well worked, was littered with bits of rock and dirt from untold ages.
"Now what?" Sadihra asked as she surveyed the space. "There are no more doors."
She was right. The back wall was dominated by a platform and what looked like a dusty throne, and though the sides of the room were flanked by distinct pillars with worn, but ornate bases, the walls were blank and empty.
"And there's no body," Cyprus added.
Sorino seemed unruffled by their comments. He moved to the nearest wall and ran his hand lightly over the surface, as if seeking a secret door. Except for Wolfe, the other vampires silently followed suit. Katelina stood next to Kai and wondered if they knew what they were looking for. No one answered her silent question, so she watched as Kai bounced the light from one thing to another; a pillar flared with tarnished gold for a moment, a patch of floor looked like it might be a colorful mosaic under all the dirt, and the oddly shaped throne sat like a hulking monster, waiting for someone to approach.
Katelina was drawn to the chair and she stopped before it and wiped away a patch of dirt to reveal black stone. She dusted more of it clean and discovered that the side of the chair was decorated in relief carvings of ravens, while the headrest was made to look like a fan of black feathers. Even the arms were chiseled to look like they were covered in fine feathers. The temple of the Raven Queen indeed.
Her efforts stirred a cloud of dust that made her sneeze. The sneezing took her breath away and she collapsed, gasping, into the chair. As she repeated her mantra of calm, she promised herself that if she survived, she was never going near a mountain again.
Something in the atmosphere changed. Tension settled thick and heavy, and she caught her breath in time to see the others standing rigid and ready. Their eyes roved the darkness and their heads were tilted, as if to better catch some sound. She strained her ears, but heard nothing. Not even the roar of the wind reached them deep inside the cave-like temple.
A hundred Hollywood movies came to mind and she had a sudden panic about traps. What if sitting in the chair had triggered something? Was a giant rock rolling down to smash them? Or perhaps a sudden flow of lava was pouring through hidden channels to burn them to a crisp.
She leapt up on shaking legs and started towards Jorick, but he motioned her to stop and held a finger to his lips. Though her eyes bounced from one dark corner to the next, she couldn't see anything in the heavy gloom.
"Right there!" Neil cried with panic.
Kai's flashlight snapped to the center of the room and Senya stepped into the pool of light, as if she'd been formed from the nightmares of the darkness. Her dark bobbed hair was a sharp contrast against her pale skin, and the eye shaped medallion around her neck winked golden. Her smile was cold and sharp, like the blade she held in her hand.
Katelina's knees turned to water and it was only terror that stopped them from collapsing. How had Senya found them?
The former Executioner surveyed them coldly. "The others will be here in a moment. I suggest you make it easy and hand the Heart over now."
Jorick scoffed. "That's not likely to happen."
"What a pity," she replied, though her eyes showed no remorse. "In that case we'll have to take it from you." She dropped into a fighting stance. "Preferably from your cold, dead body."
