Page 45 of Stealing Mercury
The earth closed in around his waist as he burrowed his arms deeper into the freshly loosened soil. The reassuring sensation of Lo’s grip closing on his ankle kept him searching blindly for any sign of Carn long after his air had run out.
No! His mind raged as his body panicked at the lack of oxygen and he began the work of digging his way free. The moment he surfaced he sucked in a lungful of air, breathing deep. His gaze skittered across Lo and settled on Samantha. She lay at the edge of the collapse, one arm wrapped around Lo’s leg. “Spread your weight out.” Samantha strained with effort.
Mercury wanted to crawl up Lo’s body and drag her away from the danger, but fear pinned him in place. He copied the arms and legs spread position that Lo, who’d likely already gotten this instruction, had assumed.
Mercury growled up at Samantha. “Get away from the edge.”
“I will, if you’ll climb back up,” she bargained.
He had no plans to give up on Carn so quickly. He just needed to know she was safe.
“You need the rope.” She edged back, as if she fully expected him to obey.
“She’s right.” Lo’s eyes were dark with worry.
“Move slowly,” Samantha shouted down. “And keep your weight as spread out as you can.”
When he looked around, he saw nothing but freshly disturbed ground. Vines. Rocks. Branches. They all twisted up from the fallen earth like the skeletons of the restless dead. Carefully, he climbed upward, Lo moving beside him with equal care. When they reached the top, Samantha shoved the pack into his hands.
“He’s alive,” said Lo. “I can hear him.”
“Conscious?” Mercury dug into the pack for the rope.
“I don’t think so.”
Despite the answer, Mercury called out using both standard and low sound. There was no response. Not even a moan.
Samantha put her hand on his arm. “We have collapses like this in the dunes outside Haverlee. The dirt had to go somewhere. There’s probably a void below us. Carn could have ended up in one.”
He looked back to Lo. “Can you tell how far below you heard him?”
The other Dog shook his head. “Not close.”
“There’s a lot of earth to dampen the sound. It may not be as far as we fear.” At Lo’s skeptical look, Mercury indicated for him to back away.
“I’m lightest. I should be the one to go down.” Samantha’s fear laced voice came quick and breathy.
“No.” He valued her concern, but he needed her safe and that need fueled the one clipped word.
She bristled as if she would argue but seemed to think better of it. “Okay. But we’ve got to get him out of there.”
He started tying one end of the rope around his ankle and passed the other end to Lo who started tying the other end around a stubby but sturdy looking tree. Mercury headed over the edge, belly crawling as the torn earth shifted and settled beneath him.
A tug on the rope let him know when Lo joined him. He didn’t stop until the rope pulled tight against his ankle.
Lo scrambled over his back. “He’s further down, but—” Lo rolled over and down below Mercury, gripping his hand with complete faith as he threw himself beyond the rope’s reach. “There’s something here.”
Lo dug one handed into the side of the ravine just below where Mercury lay at the rope’s end.
“What is it?” Mercury couldn’t see anything, but Lo’s efforts had sharpened to focus on a small area.
“A passage, I think.” Lo’s head and shoulders disappeared into the dirt, or so it seemed from Mercury’s position. He tightened his grip on Lo’s hand. He breathed a sigh of relief when Lo reappeared. “Take my ankle.”
Lo turned and Mercury grabbed the offered ankle, stretching his body to give Lo as much distance as they could safely manage. They both knew if it came to it, they’d simply lose the rope and go back to working without it. They were not prepared to lose another brother.
Lo scrambled back out. “There’s a cavern below. It’s large and I can hear Carn breathing. Roughly.”
Mercury waited, knowing there was more. If it were that simple, Lo would already have gone into the cavern.
