Braden’s mouth moved, shaping a word. “Loose arrows.”
Arrows flew once again. Aimed at the sky and the creatures bearing down on them.
Then he was past, his horse plunging into darkness. His men followed close behind.
*
A cough echoed around Shea.
“Trenton, are you alive?” she asked. She didn’t dare move, unsure of how much room she still had on her perch.
“Barely.”
She let out a sigh of relief. As much as the man was a pain for his insistence on shadowing her even when she felt it unnecessary, she would have missed him if he’d died.
“How badly are you hurt?” she asked.
A groan echoed up to her. “Battered and bruised, but otherwise okay.”
Shea debated whether to trust that assessment, knowing he’d probably say the same thing even on his deathbed. “Nothing broken?”
It would have taken a miracle for him to have survived that fall without a broken bone or two.
“I’ll be fine.”
In other words, yes, but he didn’t want to admit it.
“I’m coming down to you,” Shea said.
Her eyes began to adjust to the dim light. There must be an opening somewhere. True darkness in a cave is a black so deep and pervasive, that even the best eyes in the world wouldn’t be able to see a hand in front of their face. No light meant no sight. Since Shea could see, dim though it was, it meant light was filtering through.
She slung her leg over the edge and carefully felt her way down. It was slow going and left her muscles clenched at the anticipation that the next grip would be her last.
“Almost there,” Trenton said as Shea inched her way down. “Few more feet.”
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.”
