“Am I that obvious?” I joke and help her lift the big trap door by the iron ring that marks it.
“A little,” she says with a grunt when we push the door open. “I’m not that great at reading magic. Never have been but I’m an oracle, not a reader. I only picked up on you because you’re pretty powerful, so I wasn’t sure. I might have poked around a bit if I hadn’t been so distracted with Dustin’s disappearance.”
“Dustin is your husband?” I guess.
Dina goes down a few steps and then flips on a light switch. “Yeah, he’s always been…absent. Coming and going. That man was like having a cat,” she mutters. “You all come on down here, we’ll need to hide before those goons come looking for us.”
“How can we trust her?” Charlie asks when I start to go down the stairs.
“She warned us before not to join the business club which is just code for the cult, and from the looks of her diner out there it doesn’t look like she’s on friendly terms with them, plus,” I grab him by his cloak so he has to be down to my level, “there’s also the fact that Jaak maybe exploded her husband so I think we owe her some trust.”
Charlie nearly falls headfirst down the stairs. “You did what to her husband?”
“Everything all right back there? We really should hurry.” Dina comes back to look at us.
Charlie and I both nod. “Peachy,” I say. “We’ll be right down. Won’t we?” I ask, looking at Charlie.
“Yes, on the double. Absolutely all for going into the mysterious basement.”
I roll my eyes at him and head after Dina. I know when Charlie and Jaak have made it in when I hear the door shut behind us. Dina motions for us to follow her down the basement hallway. At least, I think it’s a basement. The walls are stone, so they’re more tunnels now that I think about it. We head off to the left and then take another left immediately in silence.
“We’re going to go on up back towards Main Street. These tunnels will take you right to the Chamber of Commerce.”
“What are these?” I ask, putting my hand to the wall. “Why are they here?”
“Back in the day the first settlers used to use them in the winter to pass all kinds of things between the businesses. There’s even some tunnels that go to homes that were used for deliveries. These tunnels run all over town but no one uses them much anymore.”
“Does the doomsday cult use them?” Charlie asks.
“No, they can’t enter them.”
Jaak chuckles. “Are these wards I see here?” he asks. I stop and look back to see him press his hand to the rock wall. The second he touches it the wall lights up like the Fourth of July. Rainbow-colored lights undulate in front of me and then there’s the writing. All kinds of writing in a language I can’t understand.
“It’s beautiful,” I say. I tentatively put a finger to the wall and almost jerk my hand back but I can’t, it’s like putting my finger in a live socket. Power shifts and surges in the rock, it paralyzes me from the sheer force of it. In the blink of an eye I feel small and insignificant, far too young in the grand scheme of things.
I take in a deep breath and force my hand back in time to slap Charlie’s hand from touching it. “That packs a punch. You don’t wanna do that, trust me.” I look towards Dina. “What language is this?”
“I can’t say. It’s the work of the witches that settled this place. They weren’t from around here and they refused to teach anyone their language, so none of us can read what it says but I know what it does.”
“And what’s that?” I ask.
“It keeps that damn cult in its place. Contains them and refuses to let them use their full power. If these tunnels weren’t here they would have already destroyed the world. We’re lucky they’re bound here the way they are.”
“When you say bound do you mean spiritually or physically?”
“It should be in all ways, physically, spiritually, magically…” Dina’s voice trails off and she gives me a sidelong look. “Why?”
I rub my forehead. My secret about Dina’s husband has reached a head. There’s no way around an uncomfortable conversation other than through it. “Well, we saw them in the woods near our town.”
“The cult town,” she says.
“The other cult town,” Charlie supplies from over my shoulder.
Dina nods. “Right, theothercult town. You saw the mages there? My husband was with them, but they’re dead now. No mages can be away from this town for more than a day before they die.”
“The mages have a kill switch?” I look at the walls and jerk a thumb at them. “From these?”
“Yeah, it’s their curse. They join and get immense power and status but they’re forever bound to this town. My husband joined when I begged him not to. I stayed with him like a fool, but that’s over now. I can only imagine misfortune befell them if they went to your woods and never returned. I’ve heard whispers from them when Dustin held meetings in our home. Whispers about a Chosen One…is that you?” she asks. There’s hope in her voice, so much hope that I hate to say no.
