Free Journey to the Lost Tomb (Rowan and Ella Book 2) by Susan Kiernan-Lewis Page A

in late June made her feel like she was walking through a blast furnace.
The buildings were built so close together that they stopped any relieving
breeze that might have reached the area from the river. Ella hadn’t taken two
steps down the street before her blouse was sticking to her and her jeans were
chafing. She stopped to twist her long hair up into a ponytail but felt no real
relief from the heat. Best to just find
the damn book and get into the nearest air conditioned taxi. She hurried
down the street, clutching her handbag to her side against any possible
opportunistic pickpocket who might see her as a vulnerable victim.
                She
saw Yeena’s shop on the corner. It was shuttered and closed, which put an end
to any internal struggle she had been waging about whether or not to get more
answers from her. It did seem odd for the teashop to be closed in the middle of
a bustling, active day of selling for the other shops.
                When
she came to the end of the street Ella noticed that although she had started
out pushing through the dense crowd, there had been nobody on the sidewalk for
the last several minutes. Straight ahead was obviously what Yeena had referred
to as the bakery . While it had little
resemblance to the cheery and bright boulangeries that Ella had visited in Paris, a hanging wooden sign depicted an illustration
of a loaf of bread.
                She
stood out front, hesitating to go in. Yeena had said behind the bakery. Ella walked to both sides of the shop and could
not see a way to get to the back. She went to the front again and stood by the
grimy window featuring an empty showcase. She wondered if she needed to go
inside to find a back door? Before she touched the doorknob, she knew the
bakery was closed. In frustration, she turned and looked down the street from
where she had come.
                Should I just go? she thought. A quick
look at her watch confirmed that she still had plenty of time. She took a
breath to try to relax and walked back to the east side of the little shop once
more.
                And
there it was. She could see how she had missed it at first. The darkened
conduit was obviously not used as a thoroughfare.
                Could this really be what Yeena meant? Ella approached the fissure and realized that it was indeed wide enough for her
to slip through and when she poked her head in, she could see light at the end
of the stone corridor. Amazed that people might actually be able to use this
crack in the wall as a way to get to their favorite hidden coffee shop, Ella
scooted sideways into the entrance and kept her eyes focused on the light that
promised to be an opening of some kind not five yards ahead of her.
                I hope you appreciate this, Rowan, she
found herself thinking. She heard scratching sounds and quickened her steps at
the thought of a couple of disturbed rodents falling on her head. There was no effing way anybody came to a
coffee shop this way! It was absurd! She began to feel panicked and claustrophobic.
At the very moment when she decided she would just reverse her steps and forget
this whole mad caper, her foot hit a slanting stone that pitched her forward.
Struggling to stay upright, she clawed at the sides of the stone opening but
her feet continued to slide as if the floor of the space was physically giving
way. As she felt herself falling, she was overcome by an all-encompassing
dizziness that robbed her of her sight and catapulted her other senses into
overdrive. The smell of rotting garbage assailed her nostrils as panic drilled
into her chest. She flailed her arms out to clutch at the walls but they were
slippery now and she could do nothing to prevent her fall. As she fell into the
darkness below, the slanting floor steepening sharply as she slid, her mind
shut down and accepted the all-encompassing darkness.
     
                Rowan
patted Maddie’s