But it would have to do.
Khaliq didn’t think. He ran, sprinting over the immense tower of heat radiating from below. He shut his eyes for a moment and prayed that he didn’t simply run off the edge. Once he felt the searing temperature lessen, he opened his eyes and slowed again. Khaliq took the slope in stride and jogged down to the other side. After leaving the bridge, he placed his hands on his knees, taking deep breaths. He looked up and stopped, holding in his air.
The shadows.
They moved.
Once again, he swore he caught sight of movement from far away.
No, he decided. It’s just the light playing tricks on you.
Chapter 98
Zahra
The light emanating from the tunnel was blinding, growing brighter as they neared it. Zahra was shocked at just how bright it was. Their eyes had adjusted to their near-black world some time ago, and their flashlights had barely helped to light their progress.
Now, they could see clearly without artificial light. This form of illumination from the next hallway wasn’t stagnant, either. It moved, shifting between yellow and red.
Something else emanated from the entrance ahead, too.
Heat.
And the smell of rotten eggs.
Blinking against both waves of light and heat, Zahra shielded her face with a hand and stepped through the opening. Her eyes immediately teared up in response to the smell. Still, she kept moving, hearing Baahir shuffling along behind her.
His hand suddenly grabbed at her jacket, and gripped it tightly. It was a garment Zahra was going to have to remove as soon as possible, as she was already drenched with sweat.
She gazed back at her brother, who was already staring off into the void past Zahra. His eyes had evidently already adjusted. The look on his face said it all.
Zahra fought through it and dropped her hand away from her face.
“Woah.”
This wasn’t just some subterranean place of worship, or even an extension of the laboratory they had found earlier. The cavern — the largest one she had ever seen — was an entire, underground city.
We’re in the Kingdom of Anubis, she thought, spying a network of pathways that ran up the walls and connected to more of the hidden corridors and rooms off of the great hall in front of her.
Roads and buildings had been carved out of the black earth as well. Everything — all of it — had been constructed from the igneous rock.
And right in the center of the space, along the far wall, was a massive statue of Anubis. It had been carved directly into the rear wall of the cave.
From hellstone.
“Hellstone,” she repeated, this time out loud. “This place is made entirely of hellstone.”
Baahir placed his hand on her shoulder. “This is it, Zahra.”
She nodded. It was the source of their mother’s vase.
The source of so much death.
It was easy to see what was responsible for the light. Snaking its way through the center of the kingdom was a river of magma. The empire had been designed around it. Zahra could even see bridges built over it in some areas. She’d been around lava flows in the past and knew the heat they could generate. Apparently, that heat was also able to incubate a nasty little virus too.
“Are we sure this air is safe to breathe?” Rabia asked.
Baahir nodded. “It should be. Khaliq said the virus is only active after it’s been hydrated. Water works well. So does—”
“Blood?” Ali asked.
“Yeah, blood works best.”
To their left was a staircase cut from the wall of the cavern. It descended sharply, coming to an end nearly sixty feet beneath the team’s boots. Even from here, Zahra could see that there were sections missing from the steps, having crumbled long ago. She rested her left hand on the top of her grappling hook. Zahra couldn’t fathom not needing it again soon.
“I still don’t get something. Where did it come from?” Zahra asked no one in particular. “How does something so sinister just… naturally form?”
“How does any virus or disease come to be?” Ali asked in response. Zahra turned and faced the man. He shrugged, continuing. “Sometimes things just happen. And it’s a natural phenomenon, something Anubis must have discovered.”
Rabia lifted her rifle and looked through its scope. She panned back and forth twice before lowering it. “The way is clear.”
“I would assume so,” Baahir said.
She gazed at him. “You should never assume things like that.”
He held out his arms. “We’re in a place that no living man has stepped foot in for centuries. I think it’s safe to think we won’t run into anything hostile…except for Khaliq, of course.”
Rabia began their descent. “An even better reason to choose caution.”
Zahra waited for Rabia to get six steps away before falling in line behind the sniper. But before she did that, she slipped out of her well-loved leather jacket. With nowhere else to put it, Zahra tossed it aside, relishing in the immediate temperature shift. Her black tank top wouldn’t offer her much in the way of protection, but at least she wouldn’t succumb to heatstroke.
Baahir was next to move, and Ali brought up the rear.
The stairs were in bad shape. The first of the handful of compromised sections came only ten steps into their journey. Rabia stopped and knelt, examining a ruined step.
Zahra cringed when Rabia suddenly went airborne, leaping over the busted step. She landed effortlessly on the other side, caught her balance, and gave Zahra a swift nod before heading off again.
Zahra said a quick prayer to her mother, then followed suit. She landed — a bit harder than Rabia had — but she was still alive.
Zahra blew out a long breath. She descended two more steps and turned just in time to see Baahir attempting the same move. Zahra could immediately tell that Baahir had timed it wrong, and she went up to meet him. The Egyptologist had overshot, nearly missing his landing point altogether. Zahra braced herself, reached out, and grabbed her brother by the shoulders. She pushed against his momentum, steadying him.
“Thanks,” he said, looking slightly embarrassed.
Zahra patted his shoulder. “Maybe you should take a page out of Rabia’s book and be a little more careful?”
Before Baahir could react, she gave him a sly smile and turned around. Rabia had gotten farther ahead of them, and Zahra hurried to catch up. It was only when she was back within their six-step buffer that she slowed and got back into time with the sniper. Rabia paused to examine the next broken section of stairs that curved down toward the floor.
“How does it look?” Zahra asked, already seeing that, now, two of the massive steps were missing.
“Not good,” Rabia called back. She stood and faced Zahra. “The third step is cracked too, and will need to be skipped.”
“So,” Zahra said, hands on hips, “it’s a three-step jump?”
Rabia nodded. “Yes, I’m afraid so.”
“Did she just say, ‘three steps?’” Baahir asked.
“Yep,” Zahra replied, looking over her shoulder. “Three steps.”
Baahir’s head fell back, and he looked skyward, closing his eyes. He was nervous — they all were — even Rabia. Zahra didn’t care whether she showed it, but there was no way the sniper didn’t feel even a pinch of trepidation.
Rabia threw her rifle around her back and tightened the sling as much as she could. She jiggled it and did a couple of in-place test jumps. The weapon sloshed around but seemed to be manageable. She met Zahra’s eyes. All Zahra could do was give her a thumbs up. Rabia returned the thumbs up and set her feet, one foot behind the other.