Page 76 of Empire of Shadows

“Are they very terrible?” Ellie pressed.

“I suppose they’re not too bad,” Bates replied. “If you don’t mind feeling like your legs are on fire for the next twenty-four hours.”

The notion was somewhat alarming.

“What do they look like?” Ellie asked.

“Like…” Bates’s voice trailed off as he raised his hand to point, only to realize there was nothing left to point at except a fat gray smudge on the floor of the cave. “Er, big gray bugs. Shall we?”

He led the way up the slope. His boots crunched on the stones.

“More breadcrumbs,” he noted, pointing out a further trail of torch debris.

They followed it along the shore of the subterranean lake until Ellie came to an abrupt halt.

“Oh!” she exclaimed.

The wall ahead of them was marked by a painting executed in thick lines of dark charcoal and red ochre. Angled wings extended to either side of the dark figure. Black smears against the stone framed a snarling visage with pointed ears and enormous, dagger-like fangs.

“Oh hey,” Bates said. “It’s Bat Guy.”

“Bat Guy?” Ellie echoed.

“I’ve seen him around, though usually when they draw him full size he’s got this big pair of…” Bates’s enthusiastic explanation trailed off. He glanced over at her awkwardly. “Well, he’s definitely a Bat Guy and not a Bat Girl, is what I’m saying.”

“I see,” Ellie returned as she pinched the bridge of her nose. “Perhaps it’s meant to represent Camazotz, one of the guardians of Xibalba that took the form of a giant bat.”

She gave the painted monster a closer study. The thick lines of its expression were admittedly a little intimidating.

“Maybe he’s guarding this tunnel,” Bates suggested. He nodded to a narrow, shadowy gap beside the painting.

“Another tunnel?” Ellie shot back, unable to completely keep the excitement from her tone.

Bates flashed her a grin.

“Only if you insist,” he offered.

?

Ellie crouched through the low opening. After that, the tunnel thinned to the point that she had to crawl after Bates, following the vague shape of his boots. His form blocked the majority of the lamplight as he carried it ahead of them.

They emerged into a slightly wider space, though the ceiling was still low enough that Ellie had to crouch to avoid hitting her head on it.

“Make it through okay?” Bates asked.

“Fine, thank you,” Ellie assured him.

She brushed off her shirt, which was now muddy as well as damp.

A fragile film of rippled stone suddenly cracked beside her. It dropped to the ground and shattered.

“Fiddlesticks!” Ellie exclaimed as she stumbled back.

“Fiddlesticks?” Bates echoed incredulously—and then whirled at a sudden eruption of squeals and flapping wings coming from around the bend in the tunnel.

“Down!” he shouted, shoving Ellie to the ground and half-covering her with his body.

A storm of fist-sized black forms roiled out of the tunnel, screeching with alarm and whirling around the cavern like tiny missiles.

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