Artemis Invaded by Jane Lindskold Page A

mechanism—whatever it is—won’t work unless the rock is pushed back into place. See? When the rock is pushed in, that little jutting bit will press into the middle of the spiral.”
    â€œMakes sense,” Griffin said, slogging through the tall grass toward the next site. “If they went to all this trouble to hide whatever it is we’ve found, then they wouldn’t want it left open.”
    Now that they knew what they were looking for, finding the second and third keyholes proved relatively easy. One took the dark green triangle, the other the orange-red square. However, inserting the keys and locking the mechanisms caused no miracles to happen. They inspected the temple and found it unchanged.
    â€œIt’s closing in on evening,” Griffin said, “but, if Adara is willing, I’d like to go back into the cavern and see if anything has changed on the other shore.”
    Adara grinned. “Willing? The only question is whether you two come with me or I go on my own. I’ve checked with Sand Shadow and she says the horses and Sam the Mule are doing well. She’s killed a mountain deer and will share part with us. She’s even put our haunch in a bag to chill in the pool near our camp, so the bugs won’t get at it.”
    â€œThen,” Griffin said, his heart pounding with excitement. “What’s keeping us? Let’s go!”
    Interlude: Searching
    Like swirling water
    I trace the edges
    Of nothing

 
    5
    Lights from the Sky
    Adara had never claimed to have as good a sense of smell as Honeychild, not even as good as Sand Shadow, but it was her sense of smell that told her, even before they had slipped behind the rocky shelf that hid the entrance to the cavern, that something had changed. The air now reeked of rotting vegetation, mud, and slime, mingled with a suggestion of dead fish. When they passed through the opening into the cavern, they saw why.
    â€œThe water’s gone!” Griffin exclaimed, holding his candle high. “Well, mostly gone … It’s still draining away.”
    Adara pointed. “And look … There’s a path. I never even imagined it was there because the stalactites were so close to the surface of the water that I couldn’t canoe through that area.”
    â€œWhatever the surface is made from,” Terrell said, going to where the path began and kneeling to touch the surface, “may look like rock, but it isn’t. There isn’t a trace of slime or weed or even mud on the surface. The surface is already almost dry.”
    â€œDo we trust ourselves to it?” Griffin asked.
    Adara shrugged. “There’s not enough water left for my canoe and certainly not for the raft. The ledge around the rim is even less inviting, since now you’d fall into that sludge, rather than into cold water. So it’s either use the path or climb down and slog.”
    â€œI vote ‘path,’” Terrell said. “I’d been wondering how the seegnur hoped to get to safety if the only way to the other shore was using small boats—and we saw no evidence that any were kept here.”
    Griffin nodded, but he seemed uneasy. Adara didn’t blame him. The engineering involved in what they had activated had her thinking of the seegnur as she had when she was a small child—godlike creators, makers of worlds—rather than the relatively understandable mortals whose quarters they had examined back at the Sanctum.
    â€œI’ll take point,” she said, “and warn you if anything seems unstable. I’ve let Sand Shadow know what we’re doing. She’s bringing her dinner closer so she’ll be within contact range if anything goes wrong.”
    The men followed without comment, first Griffin, then Terrell. With the indirect lighting from the candles carried by the men, Adara could see easily. Periodically, she looked down to assure herself that nothing remained