Peretti, Frank - Tombs of Anak by Peretti Frank

Author:Peretti, Frank [Peretti, Frank]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Juvenile Fiction, Action & Adventure, General
ISBN: 9780785744665
Publisher: Sagebrush
Published: 1987-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Mara was fading fast, and there was nothing they could do.

"The riddle, Mara," Dr. Cooper pleaded. "Please, just give us the answers!"

She smiled a weak, taunting smile and whispered, "So I must explain it? Then listen . . ."

Dr. Cooper leaned close to hear Mara's faint words.

Just then. Jay's fading voice came from around the hill, "Okay, Dad, we're coming!"

Bill heard it and muttered, "I told those kids to stay put.

Jeff waved a No signal with his light. "He knows better than that."

Dr. Cooper looked up. "What is it?"

"The kids. They must have thought you wanted them," said Bill.

But Mara's eyes suddenly grew wide and she gasped, "Your children!"

Jay and Lila hurried over the rocks, moving steadily down the hill.

"Yes, down here, down here!" came their father's voice.

"We can't see you!" said Lila.

"I'm all right. Just get down here before something happens! You're not safe up there."

They were heading down into a ravine. It looked familiar.

"What about my children?" Dr. Cooper asked Mara.

"/ was the voice of your son ..." Mara gasped.

"I know. It was a very clever trick."

She grabbed his arm in desperation. "The children are hearing your voice!" She gasped another agonizing,

rattling breath and continued, "I knew you would risk anything for your children, and you did. But now Anak knows it too! He is calling them!" Her head dropped to the sand as she formed the name in a dying whisper—"Anak ..."

She was gone.

Dr. Cooper sped over the rocks, followed by Bill and Jeff, their rifles ready to fire, their flashlight beams sweeping up and down the hillside. The Yahrim were singing louder now, wailing out a harsh, prolonged chant as if to frighten these men in their time of desperation. Dr. Cooper and his men tried their hardest to ignore them.

They reached the hiding place where Jay and Lila had been, but they were gone. They shined their lights this way and that, and finally found some tracks in the sand.

Jay and Lila were surrounded by the eerie singing and chanting of the Yahrim as they hurried along the trail, their hearts pounding, their hands shaking, their courage steadily draining.

They listened for the voice of their father, hoping they would still be able to hear it over the ghostly cries from the hills all around.

Then they heard it. "Come on—hurry!"

Jay hollered back, "Where are you?"

"Down here!" came the answer. "Follow the trail!"

Now Lih remembered this oath. She'd followed it before. She held Jay back.

"Jay," she cried, "this is the trail to that pit where I found the goat!"

"Are you sure?"

Lila didn't have time to answer. Dr. Cooper was calling them again. "You kids hurry up! Do you want to get killed?"

They got moving. Their father must know what he was talking about.

Dr. Cooper, Bill, and JefF raced along the trail, following the footprints of Jay and Lila.

Then Dr. Cooper dug in his heels and came to a halt. There, in the middle of the trail, was another set of huge, six-toed footprints. Some of the children's footprints were inside them.

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