Aurora Dawson's Arc

Chapter 7 of 7

The shuttle set down on the volcano's lower flank at dawn. Cole cut the engines and looked at Aurora. He flew air support and search and rescue, and he had not wanted to come back here. "I'll keep it hot," he said. "You hit trouble, you climb out fast." Laezah checked the straps on Aurora's pack. Aurora and Dom stepped onto black rock still warm from the mountain's heat. Orange light leaked from the cave mouth ahead. They went in deep. The tunnel narrowed, then opened into a wide chamber. Aurora stopped. Two lava tubes cut through the floor below them. One ran dry and dark. The other glowed, thick and slow, pushing heat up at her face. A ledge of crumbling rock split the two. One wrong step and she would drop into the burning channel. "Careful," Dom said. "That edge won't hold." Then the air changed. A dark shape rose from the glowing tube. It had no body she could name, only shadow against the fire, and it spoke inside her head. "You chase what should stay buried." Aurora had met a being like this before, under the sea, guarding the green jewel. That one had warned her. This one felt colder. "We're trying to protect the relic," Aurora said aloud. "Before heat cracks it." The shadow turned, slow. "The flowing tube hides the chamber you want." It paused, and she felt it choosing its words. "Loosen the stone hanging above. The lava will turn to the dry tube. The way will open." It told her no more. Aurora felt the gap in it, the thing it left unsaid. "It's hiding something," she whispered to Dom. "Maybe," Dom said. "But it's the only way through." Aurora looked up. A thick stone spike hung from the ceiling over the glowing tube. She loved this part, the reach and the risk. She found a crack in the wall and climbed. Her fingers caught rough holds. Heat pressed up from below. Halfway up a flake broke loose and dropped, hissing into the lava. She froze, then kept going. She reached a jutting knob near the spike. She tied off, gripped hard, and swung. Her boots hit the stone spike once. Nothing. She swung again and kicked with both legs. The spike cracked. On the third swing it broke free and crashed into the glowing tube. The lava slammed against the fallen stone. It backed up, then spilled sideways into the dry tube. The glowing channel drained. Steam roared up. Aurora clung to the wall until the heat eased, then climbed down shaking. The shadow was gone. Where the lava had flowed, a dark opening now showed in the rock, leading deeper. "You did it," Dom said. Aurora stared at the new passage. The entity had helped her, but it had hidden why. Whatever waited inside, it had not wanted her to know. She stepped toward the opening.