“You’re letting your imagination get the better of you, Gabrielle. Just take a breath. You’re not claustrophobic and you’re not superstitious. If Joie’s in trouble, we have to help her. The only way we’re going to do that is to stick with her and get her through this.”
“I’m trying,” Gabrielle said, pushing with her toes in an effort to break the paralysis.
Joie pushed forward as the ceiling lifted, allowing her to walk once again. Eventually the hall opened into a large chamber.
“Hey, you two, it’s much better in here. There’s a large gallery.” She shone her light around the area, noting the fingerlike formations surrounding a large abyss that yawned in the middle of the chamber. “Looks like a cathedral in here. Ice balls have formed everywhere here and the sculpted ice is fantastic below, layered in blues and greens.”
She peered down into the seemingly bottomless abyss, her heart drumming hard, a breathless anticipation, half for the discovery of a cave no one had walked in and half about a mythical man who refused to go away.
“Ice stalagmites are in abundance, Gabrielle, they’re everywhere on the floor, but that means the temperature here goes above freezing. We’re going to have to be careful,” she called back over her shoulder, all the while studying the deep hole.
The allure of the unknown was always on her when she came into a cave. The idea that she might be where no one had ever been was a feeling indescribable and she rarely tried putting it in words. She had to explore the unknown. She was driven to do so. She had acquired a good reputation and many countries allowed her permits to explore and map caves. She often brought out samples for researchers. That was Gabrielle’s department, not hers, but she assisted her whenever she could.
“There’s a few ice boulders here, scattered around the top. I’m going to dislodge them. We can’t have that kind of threat hanging over us when we descend.” She used her ice pick to clear away as many of the boulders as she could. Occasionally she could hear the cracks and creaks that told her the ice was weighing itself down and the pressure could send a large piece bursting forth like a rocket, to hurl itself across the empty space with enough force to kill one of them.
“Hurry up, Jubal,” she called. “What’s the hold-up?”
“Gabby’s having to take a moment. Just relax, Joie. Take a breath while I talk her through it.”
She couldn’t wait. Every cell in her body screamed at her to hurry. There was little time. The urgency settled deep into the middle of that terrible cloud of dread she couldn’t stop. She climbed into her rigging as she struggled to hold on to reality. He needed her. Something was terribly wrong. She had to get to him fast.
“Gabrielle! Jubal! I’m going to begin my descent.” Joie tested her harness and glanced back toward the tube. “Gabrielle! Jubal! Are you two okay?”
“Wait for us, Joie,” Jubal ordered. “Gabrielle has a bad feeling about this and so do I. I’m thinking we should regroup for a few minutes and talk this over. This could be more trouble than we want.”
Joie fought back hysterical laughter that bubbled up out of nowhere. “Talk it over? Nobody’s in more trouble than I am right now, Jubal. I can’t turn back. I have to make this descent or go live in a padded cell for the rest of my life. I am not kidding you.”
Jubal caught at Gabrielle’s leg. “She isn’t joking; she sounds on the verge of hysteria.”
“I can’t,” Gabrielle began to cry.
“Move your ass. Right now,” he ordered Gabrielle, and then raised his voice to make certain his youngest sister could hear him. “Joie, don’t you dare start that descent without us. You stay right where you are until we get there. If you don’t listen to me, I’m going to haul your ass back to the surface and take you out of here.”
Jubal rarely used that tone with either of his independent sisters, but it had the desired effect. Gabrielle scooted forward, driven by the fact that her brother obviously shared her growing fears for Joie.
Shaken, Joie pulled back from the abyss, shocked at herself that she would have started without Gabrielle and Jubal. She always put safety first. Always. She was an expert climber and caver. It made no sense that she was acting so insane. She was in dangerous