The Curse of Deadman's Forest Read Online Free PDF Page B

cellar of the keep. He knewthis because at one point there was a crack in the stone the ladder was attached to, and his light pointed into the cellar itself while the rungs continued down another five meters or so.
    Finally, the boys were able to stop their descent and put their feet firmly on the ground of the cavern. “Gaw!” Carl said, pointing his torch about the large enclosure, which had a tunnel leading out from it. “Would you look at
this
?”
    Ian, however, was impatient to get to Theo. Shining his light on the surface of the dial, he saw that the shadow pointed straight ahead to the tunnel. “No time for ogling,” he snapped, grabbing Carl’s collar. “We’ve got to reach the shore ahead of the cyclone!”
    The two boys dashed into the stone corridor as fast as their legs could carry them. The tunnel led them in a straight line but the grade of the floor gradually dropped them lower and lower. Ian could feel that they were running downhill and only hoped that the sundial was correctly navigating them to Theo and Jaaved.
    They’d gone only a few hundred meters when they passed a fork in the path, and Ian paused impatiently while flashing the beam on the dial’s surface to make sure they were still on course. To his relief, the shadow pointed straight ahead, and Ian put his faith in it and dashed on.
    The farther they traveled, the damper the air became, and Ian began to make out the briny scent of the ocean.
    “It’s leading us straight to the channel!” Carl said, and as if to confirm this, there was a noise that sounded like the pounding of waves onto the shore.
    But then they heard something else and Ian’s heart sank. It was a scream that sounded as if it came from a long way off, and he would have recognized that voice anywhere. “Theo!” he shouted, his heart racing with the terrible thought that they’d be too late, and he urged his legs to move faster still.
    Carl kept pace with him—he was the only boy in all of Dover who could, in fact—and together they rushed through the tunnel, straight toward a small pinpoint of light not far off.
    Struggling for air, Ian could see that a hundred meters ahead was the mouth of a cave, opening directly onto the sea. He could make out daylight and the sound of surf mingled with something much more ominous. It was like nothing Ian had ever heard before, like a train and a great howling wind mixed together. And just above that noise he distinctly heard Theo’s terrified scream.
    Gritting his teeth and putting every ounce of energy he had into his final sprint, he reached the end of the tunnel, which deposited him and Carl directly into the back of a very large cave overlooking the shore some ten meters below.
    The boys dashed into the heart of the cave only to stop short. In front of them was a huge swirling mass of black wind that all but blocked out the sun. It was so powerful that the current coming off it immediately knocked both of them off their feet. Sand and shells vaulted through the air around them, peppering the walls of the cavern with loud thwacks, and water pelted Ian so hard it felt as if he were being hit with rocks.
    “Theo!”
Ian shouted, struggling to his feet. He had to hold his arm over his eyes to protect them from the wind, water, and debris. He struggled to remain standing while straining his ears for Theo’s voice, but nothing came to him save the roar of the cyclone bearing down on them.
“Theeeeeeoooo!”
he shouted again, panic welling within his chest when he could not see or hear her.
    Ian was forced to turn his face away from the brunt of the wind, and saw that Carl had also managed to gain his footing and was hugging the wall of the cavern, making his way toward the ledge. “I hear her!” he called to Ian.
    Seeing his friend have an easier time of it against the wall, Ian staggered to the side of the cavern as well, moving as quickly as he could against the elements. The cave was growing very dark while the cyclone