Starry Eyes(59)

“He got you pretty good.”

“Am I going to need antivenin?”

Lennon chuckles. “California kingsnakes aren’t venomous.”

Right. I know this. I think. “Are you sure?”

“It’s one of the most popular snakes we sell at Reptile Isle. I’ve handled a couple hundred of these. Been bitten by several too.”

“You have?”

“And much worse. I know exactly what you’re feeling now, and I promise it will go away. We need to get it disinfected, but you aren’t going to die. I have a first aid kit in my pack.” He glances down the tunnel as if he’s wary of something. And that’s when I remember the shadow troll Lennon thought he spotted in the cavern.

Lennon is clearly thinking the same thing.

“Get me out of here,” I say in a shaky voice.

His headlamp shifts back to my face. His stoic features are chiseled and stark under the light shining down from his forehead. “Can you stand?”

I can. And after testing out my foot, I find that I can walk, too. I guess he was right: I’m not dying. But I’m in an intensive state of anxiety, forced to rely on Lennon’s light to see. My muscles are so rigid, I’m in physical pain. And I can’t see directly in front of my feet, which slows me down.

“I found the way out,” he says. “It’s just down this tunnel.”

“You saw the ropes?” Our landmark near the northern exit.

“No, but there’s sunlight. See it?”

I do. Even better than some stupid ropes. A literal light at the end of the tunnel. It quickens my awkward steps. I can do this. We’re getting out of this hellhole, with its attacking snakes and lurking, nonexistent shadow trolls.

The exit is a lot smaller than the entrance we used to get in here. Only one person can fit through at a time, and Lennon has to clear away an old spiderweb before we can pass. But when we emerge into late-afternoon sunlight—so warm, so golden—I’m so happy, I could kiss the ground.

However, there isn’t a lot to kiss.

“Oh, wow,” I say, squinting.

We are standing on a narrow cliff bathed in afternoon light. Only a few meters of land stretch between the wall of mountain we just exited and a fall that would kill any living creature. We are far, far above a sprawling, tree-lined valley. Mountains rise all around us. Some of them are granite; some are green and covered in trees.

It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.

I’m awed. Completely and utterly awed.

And then I glance around the cliff, and that awe shifts into wariness. The ground we’re standing on is little more than a balcony that stretches around the side of the mountain. A few trees and shrubs are growing, but nothing substantial. No creek. Certainly no easy path down into the valley below that Lennon promised. A giant bird soars above the trees, circling until it disappears into the canopy.

“How do we get down from here?” I ask.

Lennon is silent. That’s not good. He walks around the cliff, heading past a lonely pine tree, and scopes out our landscape. Maybe the path into the valley is hidden. But even so, we are really far up.

“Shit,” Lennon mumbles.

“What?” I ask.

When his eyes meet mine, I know it’s bad. “I think we went the wrong way.”





17




* * *



There are few worse words to hear right now. All I want to know is (A) How “wrong way” are we, and (B) how do we get back on track?

Lennon whips out his phone to study the book he’s saved. His eyes flick over the screen, and then he whimpers softly. “I knew it. This isn’t the right exit. We got turned around somehow. I knew it felt like we were going up. I just . . .”

“Where are we?”

“We’re at the eastern exit. We need to be south, which is lower in elevation. A lot lower.”

Do not panic.

“Is there a map of the cave?” I ask.

“If there were a map of the cave, we wouldn’t be standing here, would we?”

Jeez. No need to get snippy. I’m the one with the snake bite. And speaking of snakes, I glance back at the dark, spiderwebbed exit. “I’m not going back in there. Forget it.”

“I don’t think we have to,” he says, flipping to another screen to reread a passage. “This cliff goes all the way around to the exit we should have used. It’s just . . .”

“Just what?”

He takes his compass out of his pocket. “It’s roundabout. The other exit was a straight shot to the path in the valley. It’s about a mile down from here to the northern exit, as a crow flies. But that’s more like two or three miles, hiking around this cliff. Then another mile down into the valley.”

“So, we’re talking, what?”

“Two hours. A little longer. It won’t be an easy descent. It’s not an actual trail.” Lennon looks down at my bloody ankle. It’s starting to swell.

I glance around the cliff. How could a place that’s so beautiful make me miserable?

“Hey, look,” I say, spotting something dark on the mountain wall, several meters away from where we exited. Maybe Lennon’s wrong. Maybe we are in the right place. That could be the southern exit there.