The bear-elk charged.
Pierce caught Fiona, hugging her close, but it was too late to escape. He pulled her down, covering her with his body. Gallo was there, too, huddling with them.
They would face the end together.
Kenner made it to the suit, but before he could even begin to figure out how to climb inside, a swipe of the creature’s massive forepaw sent it and him flying across the cavern. Both splashed into the pool and were instantly erased from sight. The light from the suit’s headlamps continued to shine, illuminating the waters from below, but the rest of the chamber was plunged into a ruddy darkness.
The cavern floor vibrated with each heavy step that brought the bear-elk closer.
Then silence.
Pierce felt the creature’s hot breath against his back. It was right above them. He squeezed Fiona and Gallo tighter and waited for the end.
56
Fiona’s weak voice reached through the silence. She had been speaking all along, but only now could Pierce hear what she was saying, or rather, chanting.
He did not recognize the words, but he intuitively understood that she was speaking her native language. He had wondered if she might be praying; now he was sure of it.
The sound was oddly soothing, and it was only after listening for several seconds that Pierce began to wonder why they were still alive. He could still feel the creature’s breath, knew that it was very close, but it wasn’t attacking. He raised his head, and in the dim light, he saw the large snout just inches away. Its nostrils flared with each breath, but there was no menace in its eyes. Instead, it seemed curious.
Still chanting, Fiona shifted under him. One of her hands wriggled free and reached up as if to stroke the snout. The bristly folds of skin covering its teeth pulled back slowly as its mouth opened.
“Careful,” Pierce whispered, knowing it was already too late to make a difference. Fiona already had her hand in the creature’s maw.
As she reached in, Pierce saw that she held something. It looked like a strip of wood, about six inches in length, with a rough texture. She deposited it on the animal’s tongue and withdrew her hand. “It’s okay,” she murmured, somehow folding the words into her chant. “It’s just a granola bar.”
Although the morsel was the equivalent of a crumb for the enormous bear-elk, it worked its jaws several times, and then tilted its head forward, nuzzling the trio.
“Sorry, fella,” Fiona said. “That’s all there is.”
After a few more insistent nudges, the creature seemed to lose interest. It turned away and padded back to the corner of the cavern where it had been when Pierce arrived.
“What the hell just happened?”
“She can explain later,” Gallo whispered. “Let’s just get out of here.”
Pierce felt no inclination to argue. Moving slowly to avoid upsetting the delicate peace, he rose to his feet and then lifted Fiona in his arms and glanced into the fissure for one last look at Echidna.
A section of its tentacles had curled in, but through the snake-like tendrils, he could see Kenner’s motionless form, or rather what was left of it. His clothes were dissolving, his skin starting to slough off as the hot acidic water slowly digested him. The tentacles were not just holding his dead body under though, but shifting and rippling in peristaltic waves to draw him further down.
Pierce wondered if this was the beginning of the process that created the hybrids. There was an entire ecosystem underground, with microbes, fungi and lichen, and even plants and animals adapted to life underground, all of which could have served as prey for Echidna. Perhaps she also consumed the carcasses of unlucky animals that fell through cracks in the surface and were washed into the Underworld. Echidna did not merely devour these creatures, she assimilated their genetic material into her own reproductive system, creating weird, and random, new life forms.
Maybe in a few weeks or months, a new hybrid would form—part-Kenner and part-who-knew-what.
Was it everything you hoped it would be, Liam? Pierce shook his head and turned away.
“He’ll leave us alone,” Fiona mumbled into his shoulder. Her voice sounded distant, as if she was drifting off to sleep. “Bears and elk are important totems for my people. I told him we were friends.”
“Did you?”
“Uncle George, am I in trouble?”
“Trouble? What would make you think that?”
“We’re in Yellowstone. You’re not supposed to feed the bears.”
Pierce laughed, a little louder than was probably wise. “Just this once, I think we can make an exception.”
57
They stepped across the threshold a few minutes later, and Lazarus rushed to meet them. “You made it.”
“Told you I would,” Pierce replied.
“Anyone else in there we should be worried about? Or anything?”
Pierce shook his head. “Not today. But Fi needs medical attention, stat.”