His voice sounded close. Shea descended until one foot touched the ground. She turned to find Trenton propped against a wall. He looked terrible, cuts and bruises on his face, one hand clasped against his ribs.
She knelt beside him, looking him over. The way he held his arm to the side of his body and kept his breaths light and shallow made her suspect he had broken, or at least cracked, a few ribs. Not surprising given the height he’d fallen from.
“I’m fine, Shea.”
She ignored his words. “Can you move your arms?”
She gave him a serious look that said she wasn’t moving from this spot until he humored her. He rolled his eyes but moved each arm, demonstrating that they were working.
“What about your legs?”
He shifted, bending one leg then the other.
At least that was something. It didn’t mean he hadn’t cracked a bone, but he should be able to walk out of here at least. The more pressing concern was internal bleeding. For now, he was mobile, which was good because carrying him out of here would be very difficult. Not impossible, but it would probably take everything in her to accomplish it.
“Do you think they found the entrance?” Trenton asked.
“I hope so.”
Neither one wanted to think what would happen if they hadn’t.
Trenton looked up to where the sky used to be. “I don’t think we’re going to be able to climb out the way we came.”
Shea agreed. “I don’t think you’ll be climbing anywhere in the shape you’re in.”
His chuckle cut off in a wheeze of pain. “Somehow I think you’re right.”
She eyed him with worry. She didn’t know if she’d be able to carry him out of here and leaving him behind wasn’t a choice.
Trenton understood what she didn’t say. “You should go on without me. You’ll move faster.”
“That’s not happening.”
“You’re letting sentiment cloud your judgment. You and I both know we won’t make it out of here if you wait on me. Go, find the others and then come back for me.”
“I do that and there’s no guarantee I’ll find my way back. For all you know, this place is a maze.”
“It’s a risk you have to take.” He looked up at her, his eyes fogged with pain.
Shea met his gaze with a steely one of her own. She wasn’t leaving him behind.
“Did I ever tell you about the oath all pathfinders have to make once they pass their ceremony?”
He shut his eyes and huffed. “You rarely talk about that part of your life and then only with Fallon.”
He had a point. She had been closemouthed when it came to life before her adoption into the Trateri. She had been so focused on not inadvertently revealing something that might tempt the Trateri in the direction of the Highlands that she now wondered whether that energy might have been better spent elsewhere.
“Once we pass our last phase, we take an oath.”
Trenton closed his eyes and leaned his head back, his face one of resignation. Shea smiled knowing he could guess where she was going with this.
“We vow that those we lead into the wilderness will not be left behind—even if it costs us our lives. So, you see, I can’t leave you behind. It would violate my oaths.”
He snorted. “You’re not a pathfinder anymore. You’re Trateri remember? And we do what we need to survive.”
“I’ll always be a pathfinder. It’s not a piece a clothing you can put on and take off at your convenience. It is the bedrock upon which I am built. Just like now I am Trateri. Both form who I am, for better or worse. Split loyalty or not.” Shea needed to find a way to reconcile the two pieces of herself. It was the only way to survive with her sense of self intact. The only way she could live with herself.
“That still doesn’t change the fact that our resources are limited and our time is short. You can’t afford any delays,” Trenton said, his face a grimace.
“Then I suppose you’d better dig up some of that Trateri stubbornness and get your ass moving.”
Trenton aimed a glare her way. “I was trying to be conscientious of you.”
“Well don’t,” Shea snapped. “I can take care of myself.”
“You know Fallon is going to be livid if you don’t make it out of here,” he groused.
“Well then, I suggest you get your ass in motion, so we can avoid that turn of events.”
She grabbed him by the arm and helped him stand. He grimaced as he gained his feet, his weight leaning hard against her.
“Let’s get out of here,” he said.
*
“Do you hear that?” Shea asked.
It was faint, the bell-like sound falling and rising as if wind were playing a symphony.
“What is that?”
“I don’t know.” She listened and walked a few steps further, keeping one hand on the smooth rock of the passageway and the other in front of her. Trenton held onto the back of her pant loop as she tested the ground before her with every step.
She’d managed to make a torch out of scraps before they began their trip but had chosen to conserve its light until they really needed it. It had left them wandering blind and necessitated a slow and steady progress.
The sound now felt like it filled the chamber, vibrating in her bones as it rose and fell. There were tones that rippled and tangled together. It sounded very similar to the wind chimes the Airabel hung outside their wooden hunts, only here, the sound was purer.
“There’s a breeze,” Shea said as wind tickled the hair on her neck. “Could be a natural phenomenon.”
Wind rushing over a natural hole in the rock could create a similar sound. However, given the number of tones, she would say there were several holes of varying sizes for the wind to play. It gave her hope. Where there was wind, there was usually a way out.
“Come on, let’s keep going,” Shea told Trenton.
As they traveled, the music-like sound became louder and louder, echoing off the rock until the air vibrated with it. Shea could feel it in her chest as her entire body tuned itself to the sound.
She bumped into something and took a step back. The chimes came to a discordant halt. She reached out to feel for whatever had brushed against her, but her hand met air. With no sight, she couldn’t tell if what she felt was a danger to them or not.
Fumbling with the torch that she’d created and then stuck in her belt, Shea brought it around front before fishing the flint and steel out of her pocket where she’d placed them so she could find it easily.
“I’m going to light the torch,” she told Trenton.
“I thought you wanted to wait so you could preserve it in case we need it later.”
She had. “There’s something in front of me that I can’t make sense of. I’ll light the torch, figure out what’s blocking our path and then douse it again.”
Shea sensed the shrug he gave her and took his lack of argument as agreement.
With a few strikes of the flint, she got the torch going and held it up. The way in front of her was unobstructed.
Her eyebrows drew together in a deep frown. How was that possible? She had run into something. She was sure of it.
She stepped forward and her foot brushed against something. Shea brought her foot back and crouched down next to the object.