Then stood staring at the dark mouth under its wide stone ledge.
“Does everyone see it?” she asked.
“Straight ahead. Good work, Sash.” Riley gave her a light punch on the arm. “We’d have gone the wrong way.”
“Maybe someone wanted us to,” Sawyer suggested. “Bran and I should go in first, get the lay of it.”
“You get one really stupid man remark,” Riley commented, and made a check mark in the air. “Make another, and I punch your pretty face.”
“Then I’ll take mine as well, and say he has a point. All five of us go in straightaway,” Bran continued, “there’s no one out here to get help should something go wrong.”
“You’ve got two minutes.” Riley held up her arm, tapped her watch. “On my mark.”
“Into the belly then.” Bran moved forward with Sawyer.
Not the belly, Sasha thought. The mouth.
The belly lay deeper.
They stepped under the ledge and in. Dark spread ahead, light shone behind, as if they walked out of day into night.
Each pulled out a flashlight, swept the beam.
“Got your dripping jaws right here.”
Sawyer shined his light over the thick stalactites dripping with moisture. Over time the wet had formed a small pool behind the tooth curve of stalagmites.
The rhythmic plop of water against water echoed like a quiet heartbeat.
“Tight quarters here,” Bran noted, “but—”
“Yeah, it opens up. No way of knowing how far back it goes.”
“Not from here.”
Sawyer scanned the ar
ea, shifted his weight. “What are the chances of talking them into staying out while we go back?”
“None. And more, I think however it goes against the instincts, it must be all of us, whatever the risks. Whether the star is here or not, I think it must be all of us.”
“Yeah, I know it. I’ll give them the come-ahead.” But he’d only started back when Riley ducked under the ledge, came in with the others behind her.
“Time’s up. There’s your jaws, Sasha, as advertised. Devil’s Breath. I’m betting that pool throws off a mist, and when it carries outside the mouth of the cave, you’ve got your breath.” Leading with her flashlight, she circled the mouth. “Little low in here for you tall people. More headroom as you go back, at least initially.”
She moved through the bars of stone, crouched by the pool. “Not deep, fairly clear. Nothing in there I can see.” She glanced over at Sasha.
“All right.” Though she dreaded it, Sasha moved to the pool. “I don’t see anything, in it or from it.”
“Okay. Is everybody up for heading in?” She shook her head as Annika waved her flashlight in a circle, watched the beam.
“It’s—”
“Yeah, pretty.” She pushed up, and as Bran had already started back, the others followed.
The walls stood no more than six feet apart, but the roof of the cave rose
until the men could walk comfortably upright. Noting Sawyer kept Annika close, Sasha decided she didn’t have to worry about their playful teammate.