Chapter 25—The Cave
Thanks for the reviews! This chapter's a bit shorter than usual, but it's worth it for the quick update.
"We're headed for that cave they found," I told Suds when he velocimorphed. He nodded and swallowed me up in his bubble. Everything turned an odd tinge of pink as we descended into the lake. After a couple minutes we reached the cave and managed to shrink the bubbles enough to fit through the small entrance. The cave was dimly lit, but our Phosphoros easily lit up the cave so that we could see it. The walls seemed to be worn smooth by age, and as we went I saw that after a few dozen yards it began to slope upwards again.
Another twenty yards later I saw a faint gleam up ahead at a point where the tunnel levels out. When we reached it we went straight, up again, and emerged in a large cave. It wasn't quite big enough to be considered a cavern, but was still pretty big. The small area the water took up was about a quarter of the room, and when we emerged from our Bubbaleones.
"This place is amazing!" Leo said, shouting so that he could hear his voice echo.
"Don't yell!" I hissed at him. "We don't know what is down here!"
Leo just rolled his eyes and set off, the rest of us spreading out to make sure everything was safe. The cave itself was about a hundred feet by one hundred and fifty feet. The walls were rough and cracked in some places, but none large enough for us to sneak through.
"Hey, guys!" I heard Emma yell from the far end of the cave. I took off and arrived at where she was.
"What is it?" Luke asked when he got there.
"I found something," she said, pointing to the wall in front of her.
On the wall was a large carving. It showed five orbs, each one of them a different color than the last. Each matched with the five colors of the Gifted, though.
"I think that's supposed to represent our Gifts," I said.
"What's that supposed to be, then?" Luke added, pointing to a larger orb, with all five colors combined. It must have represented the Gift.
I shrugged. "No idea."
"Check out over here," Mark said, examining a small part of the wall next to the orbs. We looked in his direction and saw four lines forming a rectangle about ten feet wide and seven feet tall.
"What is it?" I said.
"It must be a door," Mark said. "Maybe, if we each place a hand on our orb, we can open the door?"
"Yeah, but only four of us are here," Emma reminded him. "I think that Vinyl's at her house, relaxing."
Vinyl is the fifth Gifted. We rarely contact her, since she hangs out with a different crowd that we don't get along with.
We sighed and began to walk away, but I got an idea and quietly walked back. I placed my hand on the orb representing the Gift and let out a pulse of energy.
"Jake?" Emma said cautiously from behind me as all of the orbs lit up in a blaze of light. "What did you do?"
"I…I don't know," I said, stepping back. The secret I was keeping of the Gift must have allowed me to open the door. "I just placed my hand on the big orb. I might have triggered some master override or something."
"Whatever you did, it worked," Leo commented as the cave shook. Dust rained down on our shoulders before a loud hissing noise could be heard from the lines as air raced out and the door swung outwards to reveal a dark chamber.
"What is this?" I whispered as I held out Glimmer to brighten up the pathway. He lit up and Brisingr did the same from my shoulder. I slowly walked in and soon my friends accompanied me.
"Stop!" Emma said when we were about five feet in. I froze and she pointed out small circular holes in the walls.
"How did you see them?" I asked her.
"My Secondary Gift," she said with a shrug. All Gifted have a primary Gift, like my Strength, and a Secondary Gift. They are Sight, Hearing, Tracking, Sensing Lies and Understanding all languages. I have the ability to understand all languages. We didn't know who had the other Gifts, but now we have one more crossed off the list.
"How do you deactivate them?" I asked her.
"Simple," Mark said. "Press here," he added, pressing a small button that was almost impossible to see.
"How did you know that?" Leo demanded.
"Reasoning," he said. "If the switch to activate it is easy to hit and on the floor, then the deactivation switch would be hard to find. I barely noticed this."
"How do we know this will work?" Luke asked him.
"We press the other button and see what happens," I said, stepping on the floor button.
"Jake!" Emma screamed as the switch creaked. Nothing happened, though, so we cautiously continued. Emma stayed in the lead, keeping her eyes out for any more traps. We didn't, and eventually came upon another door, slightly smaller than the tunnel. It had a picture of the Gift and nothing else. Luke walked over to it and placed his hands on it, but nothing happened.
"Why isn't anything happening?" Luke demanded, storming up to me.
"I don't know. Let me try," I told him. I walked over to the picture and placed my hand on it. The door instantly responded, opening to reveal complete darkness.
"What do we do?" Luke said.
"Use Phosphoros and any other slugs that produce light," I told him. I held out Glimmer and Brisingr as Leo held out Burpy and his Phosphoro. Everyone else held out Phosphoros or Lumino Creatures as we walked forward into the room.
"This place is huge," I said.
"There's something on the walls," Mark commented, keeping his hand on the wall.
"What are they?" I said.
"Torches," Leo replied. Burpy lit his as I used Brisingr to light another. We continued around the room, lighting torches as we went until the room was completely lit.
"Wow," Emma gasped when we saw what the room was.
It was a hidden base.