“No way,” Ethan said. “You may have the most experience, but you’re also precious cargo. We can’t risk you.”
Shay smiled. His canines were sharp. “How many of your friends, and mine, do you want lose because we got stuck here? You or Connor will take forever to get across. I know how to do this. I’ll be fast.”
I’d begun trembling at the thought of Shay crawling between crevasses none of us could see. I also wondered if he realized he’d just numbered Ren among his friends.
Connor ran a hand through his hair, agitated. “How can you be sure about that? We don’t know how far this trap goes.”
“See how the cavern narrows about fifty feet out, leading right to that crawl space?” Shay pointed to the far end of the glittering space. “I’d put good money down that the trap ends there. Tordis is on the other side of that next passage.”
“You don’t know that,” Connor said.
“Yes, I do.” Shay lowered his gaze, suddenly quiet. “I can feel it.”
Connor snorted. “Well, at least the Force is with you.”
“Shut up,” Shay growled. “Let’s get started. Give me the pitons.”
Adne tossed him a backpack.
“We shouldn’t endanger the Scion,” Silas said, turning to Adne. “What about opening a door?”
“A door where?” Adne said, gesturing toward the invisible death traps. “Even if we found a ledge out there, who knows how wide it would be? Someone could step through the door and fall right in a hole.”
“Which is why I’m going out there,” Shay said. “I need to get to the gap on the other side of the chamber. If this setup is like Haldis, this is the trap; the other side should be clear sailing.”
“If you fall before you get there-” Ethan began.
“The piton will catch me and you guys can haul me back up,” Shay cut him off, hammering one of the pitons into the floor with the blunt edge of his ax and knotting the rope around it. “I’ll make my way across, set the rest of the pitons, and secure the line at the other side. Then you guys hook safety lines on and get across quickly. No one will fall. Or if they do, they’ll only drop a few inches before the line catches them.”
“I don’t know…” Connor looked uneasy.
Adne sighed, kneeling down to help Shay locate the remaining cams and carabiners. “It’s a good plan, Shay.” She met Connor’s warning glare. “You know it’s a good plan. And the only plan. Pascal is counting on us and we’re already well over time. We didn’t plan for that second group of Guardians.”
“Fine.” Connor handed Shay another rope. “Attach this one too. We’ll hang on to it in case the piton gives.”
Shay gave him a hard look. “My piton won’t give. I’m not a moron.”
“Just take the second rope,” he said.
Managing not to take a swing at Connor, Shay secured the second line to his body and moved a foot from the spot where I’d slid over the edge. He dropped to his hands and knees. I wanted to call out for him to be careful, but I worried that I’d only undermine his confidence.
Fifty feet doesn’t sound like much of a distance, but watching Shay making steady progress through the cavern verged on painful. He had an ice ax in one hand, at times swinging it down and burying it in the ground in front of him as he inched forward. He placed the cams at regular intervals, threading the rope through. A zigzagging path began to emerge as he crossed the cavern. Even with the rope outlining our route, the crevasses remained impossible to see. To the naked eye it looked as though a deranged, or very drunk, climber had charted his nonsense course along a flat surface. Only the memory of the floor dropping out from under my paws reminded me that I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
Shay suddenly swore, the sound echoing through the ice-coated chamber.
I screamed. Shay was falling. And then he wasn’t. He’d swung his ice ax up, burying it in the side of a crevasse he hadn’t found soon enough. He hung from one arm, but the safety line he’d placed had already pulled taut. Just as he’d predicted, he only dropped a few inches. But that didn’t stop my heart from trying to break free of my rib cage.
“You okay?” Connor’s call was strangled.
“Yeah,” Shay yelled. He also sounded a bit breathless. “This part is going to be a problem. These two holes are only separated by about three inches.”
“Damn,” Adne said. “That’s narrower than a balance beam.”
“And I’m no gymnast.” Mason’s laugh was tight. He and Sabine had both switched back to human form when Shay began his crossing. Wolves might have good reflexes, but if we were strapping into climbing gear to make the passage, we’d need to be human.
Shay placed a piton, securing himself to the side of the crevasse. “I’m going to carve out some holds here,” he shouted. “We’ll have to climb across the side at this point.”
“Climb?” It felt like cotton had been shoved down my throat. Scurrying along the edges of the pits was one thing, voluntarily dropping down into one was another.
Mason leaned over, elbowing me. “That was pretty damn sexy-did you see what he can do with his shoulders? Shay’s the wolf to beat, I think. I may need to give Nev better odds.”
I growled at my packmate, but Mason just laughed.
True to his word, Shay was chopping at the wall with his ax, creating small fissures in the rock where a foot or a hand could be placed. He moved forward, placing another piton, making more holds. He’d almost reached the dark gap in the shimmering ice wall. Finally he found the other side of the crevasse and climbed up, setting a piton and hauling his body over the lip of the pit, the force of his push propelling him straight into the crawl space. Then he tumbled out of sight.
“Shay!” Connor yelled. “You all right?”
I held my breath until Shay’s head poked out of the darkness.
“I’m good!” He was on all fours, unable to even kneel without hitting his head on the roof of the tunnel. “The ceiling’s low, but we’ll all be able to squeeze in. And there’s light on the other side. I’m pretty sure we’ll find the hilt where that glow is coming from.”
“Nice work!” Connor called. He was already threading a line through Adne’s belt. “You cross first,” he said to her. “If something jumps out at the Scion in that little cave while most of us are still crossing, you get him out of here.”
She nodded, biting her lip.
“The line’s secure over here,” Shay yelled, waving and pointing at the final cam he’d fixed into the far wall. “Get started!”
Adne moved stiffly, as if she had to force herself toward the edge of the first crevasse. I didn’t blame her. I didn’t want to go anywhere near them either. Silas picked up the rope and was about to hook himself in when Connor snatched it away.
“You’re last,” he said.
“What?” Silas’s eyes bulged.
Connor grinned, handing the rope to Sabine, who started after Adne. “This seems like a thrill-a-minute episode in your marvelous history, doesn’t it? I think our crossing deserves your best writing endeavors.”
Silas stared at him before slinking backward. To his credit he did begin to write again immediately, though I couldn’t have guessed whether he was describing the cavern or lodging another complaint against Connor.
I hung back with Silas, not because I craved his company but because I wanted to wait until I absolutely had to make the crossing. Adne was already on the other side, squirming past Shay into the narrow tunnel. My stomach clenched as I watched Sabine swing down into the crevasse. Her lithe form seemed to take naturally to climbing as she easily found Shay’s holds. Ethan was behind her, followed by Mason.
“You’re up.” Connor was clipping a carabiner onto my belt and sliding the safety line through it.
I managed a nod. Words, even thoughts, wouldn’t surface as I moved to follow Shay’s rope. I’d never really thought I was afraid of heights, considering I’d spent my life in mountains. Somehow this was different. The slopes around Haldis were soil and rock. Even when it was snow-covered, it was familiar. This cavern, hidden in the heights of the Alps, full of ice and light that wove a wickedly beautiful web in which to snare its prey, made my blood as cold as the mountain air I breathed. The cave’s deception unnerved me in ways I’d never experienced. I didn’t want to go farther into its depths. I wanted out.