“You have a map?” Ravi asked, brows flicking up.
“Yeah, Asura Arpita gave it to me.”
Joe had marked two routes on the map, both leading to the inner sanctum. One was a straightforward route, the other more convoluted. There was nothing on the map to indicate areas of danger, so we’d have to play that part by ear. Chandra hadprovided me with a crystal that glowed in the dark to light my way through the tunnels and read the map by.
“I’ll come to the entrance with you,” Kalani said. “I’ll guard it while you’re inside.”
“I’ll help guard it too,” Bina said.
“Are you ready, Leela?” Ravi asked. “Shall we go meet the serpent king?”
“You’re going in with her?” Dharma said.
“Yes. I have immunity, and I plan to use it.”
“Thank goodness,” Dharma said. “Not that I didn’t think you could handle it,” she added quickly, shooting me a smile. “But it’s good to know you have someone to watch your back.”
I said my goodbyes and followed Ravi around the mountain to an entrance hidden between two large boulders and covered by an overgrowth of bracken and mountain weed.
Ravi pushed back the prickly foliage and slipped inside, and with a final look at Bina and Kalani, I followed him into the gloom.
Chapter 18
LAIRS GIVE ME THE CREEPS
The tunnel stretched for several minutes without a break or an intersection, and it was wide enough for us to walk side by side. The crystal threw enough light for us to clearly see seven to eight feet ahead. Beyond that, the world faded to darkness. Ravi studied the map as we walked, his brow pinched in concentration.
My boot hit a rock and then crunched over smaller pebbles. He glanced down with a frown. Then up at the roof of the tunnel.
“What is it?”
“I don’t see any erosion or anything to show where the rock debris came from. The ground is hard-packed earth, so it’s just…odd.” He turned his attention back to the map in hand. “The junction will be up ahead. Two paths. The left will take us to the quickest route. But you see, there are several smaller tunnels connecting to it.” He stopped and showed me the map, tracing the path he was referring to with his finger. “The route to the right is longer and more winding, but it only has two intersections along the way.”
“What do you think, then? We take the longer route?”
“My gut says so, but…”
“What?”
“Never mind. Let’s just see when we get there.”
We reached the intersection a moment later, but there was only one route open: the path to the left. The one on the right was blocked off with rocks and boulders.
“What the fuck?” I stared at the barricade, my stomach clenching. But Ravi didn’t look too surprised.
“This isn’t a natural phenomenon,” he said. “But it explains the rocks we saw on the way and the wheelbarrow grooves that someone attempted to cover up.”
Realization hit me in the gut. “The Authority did this. Which means they must have had a map and knew that the longest route was the safest.”
Ravi’s jaw ticked. “Yeah, but they didn’t know you’d have me beside you. We can do this, Leela. We can do this.” He gently gripped my shoulders. “We move fast. We move silently. And we can make it without alerting anything to our presence.”
I nodded. “Okay, let’s do it.”
He crossed to the left path, the shortest and most dangerous route if the Authority’s actions were anything to go on, and sniffed the air, nose wrinkling. “If they hadn’t barricaded the longer route, I still would have known which to take by the stench of death coming from this one.”
“Great. Thanks for that.”
He grinned at me. “Always ready to please, Leela. Shall we creep our way to Vasuki?”
