Page 3 of Sealed By Fire (The Nature Hunters Academy 2)

“I’m going to treat you to the end of my blade if you don’t open the door by the time I count to three.”

“You still owe me a pint of mead.”

“One…”

“You’re just like your father.

“Two….”

“He was impulsive, too,” said the goblin.

“Thr—”

“All right, all right, keep your bracers on,” said the goblin. He fished around on his belt until he retrieved a large iron ring bearing many bent and brittle looking rusty keys. He appeared to be considering them carefully before he finally turned and inserted the most bent and brittle of the lot into the door’s keyhole.

Leaving his hand on the key, Zrag turned back to Ra. “Are you sure you want to cross the river alone. Styx can be a cruel mistress.”

“I’m fully aware of the dangers. I’ve been across many times.”

“Never alone.”

“Just do it,” said Ra.

The goblin shrugged. “Tell ol’ Charion hello from me.” With that, Zrag turned the key, and the resulting click echoed throughout the stone stairwell.

Ra pushed past the goblin and sped into the darkness on the other side of the door. He heard the creature yell at his back, “You’re welcome!”

Within a few paces, Ra saw the river, a ribbon of black stretching across the dimly lit cavern. It flowed straight under the castle and into the bedrock below. Because of the river’s danger, very few students knew of its existence.

Ra paused and knelt on the banks of the slow-moving water. He drew in a deep breath before placing a hand in. The man began to whisper words in a long-forgotten Coptic language. He felt the rush of heat as the river started moving in the opposite direction. Ra turned his head and watched the water flow from a tunnel carved into the far wall of the cavern. He tried not to fidget but couldn’t help tapping his foot and rubbing his chin.

After a few moments, a figure came into view deep within the tunnel. For a moment, it looked like a skeleton gliding upright across the top of the water. But soon Ra could make out the small boat the figure was piloting. All of a sudden, the skeleton and his boat were thrown into stark relief as the tunnel began to glow reddish-orange from deep within.

If Ra hadn’t known better he would have thought he was hallucinating as he watched the skeleton slowly gain flesh. Soon a naked man piloted the boat. As the man pushed the craft along, garments began to form on his body, so that when he finally bumped against the bank in front of Ra, the man’s form was covered by a long black cloak.

The ferryman held out a hand. “Payment,” he said in a voice that was raw with disuse.

Ra pulled the dagger from his thigh and ran it across the palm of his hand. Then he held the bleeding hand out over the man's outstretched hand and let his blood drip.

After a minute the man nodded and closed his hand into a fist. “It is enough,” he said.

Ra slipped the dagger back into its sheath and then took his other hand and held it over the cut. He called on the fire that lived inside him. The flame coated his hand, and he ran it over the wound. It closed, and the flesh was healed as if the injury had never been. Then he stepped into the boat and stood at the prow. “Take me to the resting place of the ancient pharaohs,” he commanded.

“You should be on guard, my lord,” the ferryman replied. “Unrest plagues the realms of the underworld.”

Ra kept his face blank. “It’s hell. When is there not unrest?”

The ferryman made a noise in his throat that might have been mistaken for a chuckle. With a slow thrust of his pole, he shoved the tiny craft back out into the river. The water swirled and gurgled and changed direction again, moving back to its original course. Now, the boat was back in the tunnel, gliding slowly toward the fiery orange passage to the underworld.

Ra quieted his mind and calmed the emotions that had been building in him since he’d first laid eyes on the human girl named Shelly. He pictured her and tried to recall every detail his eyes had been able to soak in during the brief moments he’d seen her before she was tossed into the underworld. He envisioned her golden locks, the fierce burning in her green eyes, her rose lips pursed in determination, and her delicate chin tilted up in defiance. Her body was long and lean, and the swing she had taken at Tucker showed she had a natural grace.

Ra needed to hold on to the image of the girl in hopes that he would be able to see her aura once he was in the underworld. He didn’t allow himself to even consider the possibility she was already gone. He rarely let his emotions rule him, and he wasn’t about to start now.

Ra’s jaw clenched as he said, “Hold on, fierce one.”

Ra wasn’tsure how long he was on the boat. Time didn’t pass the same in the underworld as it did in the topworld. He was restless, but he refused to allow any outward appearance of vulnerability. Any sign of weakness down here could prove fatal. Instead, he forced himself to project an air of confidence. Evil lurked in the shadows of the underworld, and he knew they were watching. The demon inhabitants here wouldn’t hesitate to use any weakness against him.

As his eyes roamed over the landscape around him, he couldn’t help but wonder if his ancestors regretted worshiping the god of the underworld above the others. Their faithfulness to Osiris had earned them their place in the afterlife. It was here, in the inferno, that they now spent their eternity.Is this what they had hoped for?

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