I winced. “I don’t like trustin’ to luck. I’m bringin’ everything I can.”
“We can’t bring too much with us, Clint. That’s a long hike, with a war at the end.”
“Sure ’nuff, but I ain’t goin’ to a war unarmed. May not be able to smuggle a rifle past the entrance staff, but might could do some other stuff.”
Rokhaset shrugged. “I have seen the power of some of your . . . gadgets, Clinton Slade. But the problem will be to have the chance to bring them to bear. Still, if it does not slow you down, there is no harm in bringing whatever you think might aid you.” He reached into a pouch in his woven harness and extracted two octagonal crystal vials and a blue crystal, broken in half. “The mikhsteri H’adamant—the diamond elixir. Save it until you arrive at the entrance to Nowëmosdet, for we do not know how long it will last for a human, in this age of the world.”
Jodi and I took a vial each and stowed them away in side pockets of our packs. Rokhaset then handed Jodi the broken crystal. “Keep this with you; it is attuned to its other half, and with it I can follow your progress and time the arrival of my forces to coincide with yours; perhaps we shall even meet in the domain of the Lisharithada and see victory together.”
“I sure hope so.” I shook his stony hand again, then turned to my fiancée. “C’mon, Jodi. Let’s do this thing.”
11. Three-Hour Tour
“You sure they’ll let us take this stuff in?” Jodi asked.
“F’cryin’—Jodi, stop askin’ the same question again every few minutes. I wore a pack the last time I went in, no one said nothing.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know, but I’m nervous! Me, okay, I’m not carrying anything all that bad except a couple nasty iron bars, but you—oy, if you trip—”
“It’s not nitroglycerine, Jodi. It won’t blow up without the right trigger. I could carve little doggie statues out of it if I wanted to. No one’s gonna search me—unless y’all look so nervous that they think there is somethin’ wrong, and then we’re in big trouble. I got a permit for my gun, so that shouldn’t be a problem. Not that I wanna use either if I don’t have to, seein’ as how big noises in caverns could lead to cave-ins which would ruin our party right quick.”
“Right, right.”
Leaving had been hurried. We had to pack everything we could fit into a reasonable space—we couldn’t afford to draw too much attention—and picking and choosing while arguing with Grandpa, Mamma, and everyone else about why we were going and no one else hadn’t been easy. Easier than the goodbyes, though, since none of us knew if we’d see them again. Even Father had gotten pretty choked up, which doesn’t happen, and so that’d set me going, which got Jodi to start in, and I guess pretty much everyone ended up with sniffy noses and red eyes before it was all over and we drove off.
Fortunately for our hoped-for future, Jonah had asked what I was going to do about my car. Given that we were planning on violating federal law in breaking off on our own and all that, it would probably be pretty stupid to leave my truck parked overtime in the lot. Father and Adam would be coming after us about an hour later to pick up the truck and bring it home; if we lived through this, we’d come back home with Rokhaset and the others, rather than suddenly show up back at Mammoth anyway.
Mammoth Caves wasn’t hard to find, at least. Major parks get good publicity like signs and all, which I appreciated, as it wasn’t going to be likely we’d find anything like that down in the caves. In fact, we’d have to move fast through areas we only knew from tour maps and photos at first. While lagging behind might get us the chance to split off from the tour group at the right point, we didn’t dare take the chance that someone might catch us. Put bluntly, if someone did try to catch us, Jodi and I would have to stop them instead.