chapter Twenty-Five
Bliss couldn't recall ever seeing a sky so black or stars so bright, with the moon hanging so low over the trees. The drive had been long and wearisome, and as they'd been warned, the hike was steep and treacherous. They had locked Arthur's van and left it at the base of the mountain, off the road, hidden in a copse of trees. Ahramin led the way as they walked through the woods, following a road up a long valley, over a pair of hills. Edon tried to keep up with her pace; Rafe and Malcolm followed them, with Lawson and Bliss at the rear. In the moonlight she could see that Lawson looked troubled. He had not spoken very much on the drive, and now she saw he had retreated deeper into himself, his brow furrowed, as he put one foot in front of the other, trudging along. They reached the crest of the first hill and looked down at the valley below, and Bliss heard Lawson suck in the air through his teeth. She turned to him and saw his face pale under the moonlight.
"What's wrong?" They were looking down at a strange formation on the ground below, with the body of a snake, an oval shape at its head.
Lawson squinted and shook his head. "I have a strange feeling. Mac," he whispered to his brother up ahead. "What is that thing? It looks familiar, like I've seen it before."
"You have," Malcolm confirmed, making his way back to them. "An old diorama of it, anyway. There's one in Arthur's show cave. It's a serpent mound." He explained what he knew, that the serpent mound was of Native American origin, built more than eight hundred years ago by an unnamed Paleo-Indian tribe. Its shape was made to celebrate the solstices, the body of the serpent aligned with the positions of the summer and winter suns.
The Indian burial mound was a man-made hill covered in dense grass, and Bliss could see that the serpent had three parts. It started with the tail, a winding spiral in three arcs that straightened near the head, which was triangular and made to look as if the snake had its mouth open. Inside the serpent's jaw was an oval pit dug into the earth. In the center of the excavation was a black rock.
"That's not it ... there's something more," Lawson said. "That serpent mound ... I'm pretty sure it's an entrance to the passages. The wolves must have found it and dug it out."
Malcolm whistled. "The dark roads? The Via Obscuris? Here?"
Lawson nodded. "The portal was supposed to bring us close to it when we crossed from the underworld ... Marrok had a feeling it would be here. It looks like he was right. Do you notice the circle and stone inside the snake's mouth?"
Bliss and Malcolm nodded.
"I'm pretty sure that conceals an entrance to the passages. The earthwork was a warning, built to ward off anyone who might disturb the site, to keep the portal closed."
Ahramin led them down the mountain toward it. Their footsteps crunched on the dirt and gravel. It was slow going; the path twisted and turned, and the slippery grass made it hard for them to keep their balance. Bliss felt her legs ache from the strain of keeping herself upright on the down slope. There was no sign of movement in the trees, no sign of wolves. If Lawson was right and the serpent mound concealed an entrance to the passages, what did it mean? Wasn't Romulus searching for this? Could it mean that the hounds were nearby? Bliss was more and more worried that Ahramin was leading them into a trap.
The silence was broken by a loud, rasping cough and Bliss startled.
"I'm okay," Malcolm said, turning around. "Sorry to scare everyone."
They picked their way through tall grasses that flanked the narrow path that wound down the steep incline, and they found themselves surrounded on both sides by high stone walls that shadowed the night sky. The cliffs were easily a hundred feet high, but only a dozen feet apart. The path between felt like an alley between skyscrapers, dark and tight. It was hard to move and impossible to see around the next corner. The serpent mound was at the end of it, Bliss realized, the gorge forming a natural protection.
If the wolves were here, they had chosen a good hiding place. Anyone who approached would need to wade slowly through the narrow passageway. The crackling shale floor slowly disappeared beneath a thick coat of watery muck. Bliss felt her feet sinking into the mud and was glad she'd worn boots that laced tightly. She heard Lawson curse as he tried to walk but found that his boot was stuck. When he pulled up his foot, he was shoeless.
"Everything all right back there?" Edon whispered from the vanguard.
"Miserable place for a midnight walk," Lawson muttered.
Bliss couldn't agree more. She was knee-deep in the coarse muck, unable to move as freezing water poured over her legs. It flowed through the mud and dripped down the loose shale walls. There was only the sound of water dripping.
Then Malcolm dry-heaved.
She exchanged stricken glances with Lawson, who stood frozen, still holding his shoe. "No one move," Lawson whispered as he pushed his way toward her through the mud, retrieved boot in hand.
Bliss held her breath as Lawson looked right, then left. What was it he'd told her earlier? Hellhounds faded in the sunlight. They were easier to see in the dark. She squinted. She couldn't see anything. "Where are they?" she asked.
"I don't know ... I can't hear them. Malcolm?"
The youngest boy shook his head, wiped his mouth with his sleeve. "I'm not sure. I thought I felt something ..."
"Where's Ahramin?" Lawson demanded, noticing they were missing one member of the group.
"She was here a moment ago ..." Edon replied. "You don't think ..." He shook his head, his forehead crinkling with worry. "No ... she couldn't ... she wouldn't ..."
Before anyone could answer, there was a scramble in the darkness. A roar, a growl, a flash of teeth in the dark. "There!" Bliss cried, seeing the dark girl appear out of the shadows. Lawson leapt, turning into a wolf to chase her down, but someone else got there first.
There was a flash of white, and Ahramin lay on the ground, paralyzed. Edon ran to her but he was shot down just as easily.
Bliss looked around as she and Rafe shielded Malcolm behind them. All around them, in the darkness, dark shapes began to emerge from the shadows. But the beasts did not have the telltale silver and crimson markings of the hellhounds.
"Wolves," she breathed. They were hiding in the earth, blending in with the black mud of the riverbed. She could see them now as they moved out of the darkness. Their lupine forms changed into human features, until they stood in front of them as boys and girls in ragged clothing. She could see their resemblance to Lawson and his brothers.
The group parted and a boy walked between them. His hair was platinum - Bliss realized he had been the white flash they had seen - and his eyes were strangely colorless, not quite silver or white, but clear. Marrok, the white wolf. He made his way to where Ahramin was lying next to Edon.
Lawson was kneeling by them, breathing heavily, but Marrok did not see him. He went straight to Ahramin and looked down at her with contempt. "Why, Ulric, you were right. It is Ahramin of the Hounds. Romulus's favorite huntress."
Bliss gripped Malcolm's hand tightly, but no one said a word; they were all trained on Marrok.
Ahramin struggled against the invisible restraints that held her. "Marrok - please. I wore a collar then. I understand your anger, but you must listen to me," she begged, coughing and gurgling.
"Why? So you can seduce me again? So you can lie and trick me into spying for the masters like you did in the underworld?" He placed his foot on her chest, but he didn't appear to be bearing down on her; he was merely making sure she was still unable to move.
"I was only doing as I was told. It was not my fault, just as you had no choice when you slew your own kin when you escaped."
In answer, he spit on the ground by her feet. Marrok turned to his wolves. "Ulric, Blaez, take this garbage away. Before she alerts the hounds to our presence." Then he looked around, as if noticing the rest of them for the first time.
"Marrok, my friend," Lawson said, a tense smile on his face.
"Ulf!" Marrok said. "What took you so long? And what are you doing with this traitor?"