Matt stopped. “Gates of red granite so huge they could hold back an army. Remember Alhazred’s poem.” There were raised glyphs carved into their mighty edifices. “It was all true.”

They could just make out a pinprick of light at the base of the portal.

“That light – it’s got to be Drummond,” Matt said.

“He’s waiting for us.” Abrams lifted field glasses to his eyes again.

“If he’s expecting us, he’ll be ready for us,” Adira added.

“Can you see anything?” Matt asked.

“No, no movement.” Abrams responded evenly and turned just as beside them the sea thrashed: something heavy rose and fell back below the surface. Matt had the impression of a whale breaching and then dropping back, but doubted it would have been anything as benign as one of the giant sea mammals.

Cautious now, they edged along the rock face bordering the sea – sometimes there were expanses of sand, and others the beach nearly disappeared entirely, forcing them to walk within inches of the inky water. Together they moved in a crouch, shoulders hunched, as if expecting something to land upon them at any moment.

As they hurried forward, Matt was sure he felt things shifting beneath his feet. He ignored it, hoping it was nothing more than movement in the silky grains.

“We’ve got company,” Adira said, matter of factly.

“Where?” Abrams had his gun in a two-handed grip, and had it pointed at the water, and then spun to aim it behind them. “I’ve got nothing back here.”

“It’s not up here, it’s below us – keeping pace with us under the sand.” Adira was keeping the barrel of her gun pointed at the ground.

“Under us?” Matt asked the question, but he already believed her. He also had his gun ready, and now pointed down at the sand. He had felt something under his feet before, and now, when he concentrated, he was certain he could still feel some sort of muscular contractions going on. It was if something was sliding, lengthening and contracting, worm-like, below him – and he didn’t think there was just one of them.

As from a signal given, more of the long-legged trilobites lifted from the sand and started scuttling toward the dark water. Whatever Adira, Matt and Abrams could feel, the bugs also sensed, and it seemed they were smart enough to get the hell out of there.

Matt spun at a soft, sticky sound behind him. He was in time to see something rise from the dark sand like a weird plant. It bloomed, opening a bulb-like end. There were no eyes, or any sensory organs he could see, just a puckered hole that was tightly closed.

Adira fired a quick burst at the thing, and as if on a spring it was quickly pulled back beneath the ground. The same sound came again, repeated from a different position, and more of the worm-like stalks rose slowly around them, like dark blooms opening to an invisible sun, the petals shivering as if tasting the air.