I nodded.
“Can you hold it together?”
“Yeah.”
“Are you sure?”
“Pretty sure.”
We returned to the domed room.
“Hey, how’s it going?” Diesel said.
“We shall all die together in this hellhole, this stinking pit of misery,” Hatchet said.
“What’s with the rats?”
“They doth like me.”
We were on the far side of the room from Hatchet, and I wasn’t going any closer. Maybe if Hatchet was Pied Piper to hamsters I could manage, but these rats were as big as barn cats.
“Is that one of your special talents?” I asked Hatchet. “You attract vermin?”
“Apparently. They followed me here from one of the tunnels.”
There were four tunnel entrances in the room, plus the tunnel we just left. I tipped my head back and saw that the light was coming from a crack in the domed ceiling high overhead and reflecting off what looked like quartz crystals embedded in the walls of the cave.
“Have you tried all the tunnels?” Diesel asked.
“Yes. ’Tis a maze. I always return to this room. Some are booby-trapped. None are lit. And I cannot see in the dark.”
“Is there more water?” I asked him.
“Nay. None that I have found. Just the way we came.”
“And you came from Alpha Delta?”
“I did not. My sire doth open the back door to the Sphinx. It was all in the little book of sonnets. Where the key must fit in the wall to begin the journey to the stone. I was prepared to take the leap of faith. And I knew to find the stone and the stone’s tablet here.”
When Diesel and I found the first stone several months ago, we found a small tablet hidden with it. There was a power play between Diesel and Wulf, and Diesel got the stone but Wulf got the tablet. The tablet was written in an arcane language, but supposedly if the tablet could be translated it would lead to another stone.
“So why are you sitting here?” I asked Hatchet.
“When I returned to the secret entrance, it was closed and would not open. There was only silence. So I came back here to escape through one of the tunnels, but there is no escape I can find.”
“I’m surprised Wulf would entrust you with the stone,” I said. “I’d think he’d be the one to take possession of it.”
“He could not identify it,” Hatchet said. “Only you or I can id
entify the stone, and there are many stones here, as you can see. They could not all be brought back. It made sense that I would be the one to retrieve, and he would be the one to keep watch.”
“We tried to get into the Sphinx, but the back door was jammed,” I told Hatchet. “The lock was smashed and the tip of what looked like your sword was wedged into it.”
“I left my sword with my master,” Hatchet said. “I fear harm has come to him at the hand of the she-devil Anarchy.” He touched the gash on his head. “I met her here. She came from one of the many tunnels. She said she destroyed my liege lord and I was now her minion, but I refused. We fought, and she took the tablet and stone and ran into a tunnel, choosing unwisely.”
“Which tunnel?” Diesel asked.
“The tunnel marked N. She was perhaps ten feet into the tunnel when it gave way and she dropped out of sight.”