He stopped beside me. “How deep is it?”
“It’s just over fifty feet—and at the very bottom of it lies a tunnel.”
His head snapped around. “What?”
I nodded. “I have this really weird feeling the tunnel is how Saska got here.”
“The tunnel might be, but how did she get to the surface? Regular air witches can’t interact with the earth.” He knelt at the edge of the hole and peered in. “The air has a rather foul smell to it.”
My heart began to race a little faster. “Urine and blue cheese?”
He glanced up again. “The senses of a Sifft are stronger than I thought if you’re aware of the smell when the wind carries it away rather than toward you.”
A grim smile touched my lips as I knelt beside him. “The children had the same smell.”
And that not only meant this tunnel was somehow connected to them, but could also be connected to the plot to overthrow Winterborne.
Trey swore. “It could also mean the deadness in the earth is an indicator of them.”
I glanced at him sharply. “You heard my thoughts?”
His gaze met mine with grim wariness. “Yes.”
“But how? Are you telepathic?”
“No.” He hesitated. “The ceremony of Gaia created a connection between us.”
“Is that all it did?”
He hesitated again and half shrugged. “I don’t know. And I can’t hear them all the time.”
That was a relief, given some of my more recent thoughts about him. “But you must have at least some idea of what other problems might arise.”
“Indeed, but I can’t see the sense in worrying about things that may not happen.” He waved a hand at the trench. “Not when we have greater worries.”
In other words, he still didn’t want to talk about it. The man was frustration itself. I resisted the inane urge to call him all sorts of names—although the slight smile touching his lips suggested he’d caught them anyway—and said, “I don’t suppose you saw a rope in any of the storage units?”
“I had no reason to look. Wait here.” He rose and ran back to the speeder.
I leaned over the shaft, wrinkling my nose against the stink that was rising. Twined within the god-awful smell of urine and blue cheese was the aroma of rotting meat. Something had died down there, and I could only hope it wasn’t a child. That Saska’s freedom hadn’t come at the cost of another’s life.
Trey returned with both a rope and flashlight. His gaze swept the width of the excavation and uneasiness settled across his expression. “I don’t think I’m going to be able to get down that shaft. My shoulders are too wide.”
“That’s because it was created for someone my size, not yours.” I held my hand out for the rope, and after a moment, he gave it to me. “Besides, it’s not your task to be investigating such places, Commander. It’s mine.”
His expression was decidedly unhappy. “I’d rather be stuck down that hole than up here worrying about what you’re dropping into.”
“I’m Sifft, remember, and Nightwatch besides. I can both see and defend myself, and probably far better than either you or anyone else you might send down to investigate.”
“I understand all that. It doesn’t change the fact I’d rather it be me.” He turned on the flashlight and pointed it down the shaft. “I can’t see anything but dirt at the bottom.”
Meaning the death I still smelled was out of immediate sight. I looped the rope around my waist and shoulders, and then handed him the rest of it. “Don’t let me fall.”
“No.” He hesitated. “Be careful, Neve. Comms are still down at Blacklake and we’re too far out from Winterborne for Daywatch to come to our rescue if something goes wrong.”
I flashed him a smile. “Careful’s my middle name, Commander.”
He snorted softly, but his amusement quickly fell away as I hung my legs over the edge of the shaft. After a deep breath to gather as much fresh air as I could, I slowly lowered myself down, keeping my palms pressed against the wall on either side to help keep the strain off Trey’s shoulders.
“Don’t worry about my damn shoulders,” he said. “Just concentrate on listening for whatever might lie just beyond sight.”
“Why aren’t I catching your thoughts as easily as you seem to be catching mine?”
“Oh, you’re catching them. Most of the time, you’re just not aware of it.”
“That’s rather annoying.”
“Not really. Not from my perspective anyway.”
“Suggesting you have thoughts you’d rather keep secret?”
“We all have those, Neve.”
“Yeah, but I suspect yours might concern either this quest or me more than anything related to your life, be it at Blacklake or Winterborne.”
“How about you concentrate on what you’re doing rather than firing questions at me?”
I half smiled. “I’m female, Trey. We can multitask.”
“Believe me, I’m well aware that you’re female.”
“I’d never have guessed it from your actions of late.”
“Can we please have this discussion later?” he all but growled. “Tell me what you’re damn well seeing.”
“Right now, I’m seeing and feeling nothing but lifeless earth. And you really don’t want to know what I’m smelling.”
I continued to drop down into the darkness, and with each foot that passed, the stench got stronger, until my stomach was threatening to erupt up my throat. Damn it, I needed fresh air! I reached for the wind, and yet again, she immediately answered. Fingers of freshness spun around me, easing the sick queasiness in my stomach as they chased the worst of smells away.
I continued to ease my way down the shaft. The farther away from the surface I got, the deeper the darkness became. I’d never feared the ink of night, but there was something in this utter blackness that had trepidation racing across my skin.
“How much further?” Trey called down.
“Five feet. Get ready, I’m about to jump down.”
“Go for it.”
I released my grip on the walls and dropped to the tunnel’s base. Dirt listlessly filled the air; it was almost as if the life that had been drawn from it had made it unwilling to stir.
I drew my knife and blaster, holding both weapons at the ready as I carefully looked around. There was no movement in this place, no indicator that anything or anyone had been down here recently. Seven feet to the right of where I stood, the tunnel ended. To the left, it stretched on into inky darkness. The scent, whatever it was, was coming from the left rather than the right.
I hesitated, and then went right, slipping my blaster back into its holster so I could place a hand on the solid wall of earth. Initially there was no response, and then power stirred, a beat of life that held only a little distance to it. The earth might be inert at the tunnel’s edge, but life returned just over a foot away.
I spun around and walked back to the shaft. “Nothing in the immediate vicinity,” I called up. “I’m going to follow the tunnel for a few minutes, and see where it leads.”
“Don’t go any further than the length of the rope,” he said. “I can’t get down there to help if trouble hits, remember.”
“That restriction might not give us the answers we need, Commander.”
“I’m more worried about your safety than answers right now.”
It was a comment that had warmth stirring through me, even though I seriously doubted he’d meant it in the way my hormones were hoping. I walked forward cautiously, scanning the rough walls and dusty floors, looking for the death I could smell. The deeper I went into the tunnel, the stronger it got, but I reached the end of my tether well before I found its source. I hesitated, and then untied the rope. I might have orders to go no further, but Saska had said there were answers here to find, and find them I would.
I dropped the rope to the ground and proceeded on.
“Damn it, Neve,” came Trey’s voice. Whether it was real or in my thoughts, I wasn’t entirely sure. “I can send a full team in to investigate the tunnel. It’s stupid to take this risk when we have a more important mission at Winterborne.”