in his eyes. “I can’t fall from this position.”
“Thank you. The light helps.”
Keeping his feet braced against the rock, he inched down the wall while Ria and Leo waited at the top. His grunts and heavy breaths braided with the click and shudder sounds of the rope letting him down, deep, and then even deeper into the dark.
Once he hit the bottom of the shaft, he looked up, his face a wild pattern of shadows and lines in the weird light. “This is an enormous space.”
Ria paced back and forth a foot from the edge, waiting for Cotton to send the rope and lever back up.
“You go next,” said Leo. “So you don’t get left at the top.”
“Thanks.” She meant it, passionately.
She had to adjust the harness to fit, trying to make sense of how the parts worked together. She was so much smaller than Cotton that she ended up with a long expanse of strap trailing down by her feet.
“Tuck the extra length around you,” said Leo. “You don’t want to get tangled in it.”
The lever was harder to manipulate than she’d expected. It was an awkward motion and she felt her own weight working against her, making it hard to lift and release. Worse, it was a frustratingly slow way to drop. It wasn’t the height. She was used to falling, but not in tiny increments. Not in a way that required so much thought and patience. As she reached what she estimated was about halfway, she figured out how to lock the release open—and down she went in a rush of speed and drop. She hit the ground hard, but instinctively bent her legs, saving her knees from the impact. Her hands burned with the hot sting of the rope, but she laughed with the heady feeling of success.
Then quickly, she undid herself from the harness, so Leo could have his turn. Finally, once Leo stood beside them, Ria turned to see where she was.
The dips and swells of the rock were more gradual than they’d seemed from above. The smell of the place was heavier. Thick with something she recognized, but couldn’t name.
“It’s slippery.”
Moving slowly, she slid her shoes across the slick rock, little by little.
One wall, to her right, was a mostly smooth surface. To her left, there was a collection of rocks. Not quite big enough to qualify as boulders, but close. She’d started to climb one when something flickered on the other side.
It was the reflection of her helmet lamp. There, nestled amid the rocks, was water. That’s what she’d smelled. “There’s a pool!”
They joined her at the edge, leaning over the rocks until three lights shone into the still, dark water.
“There must be a stream coming from that way.” Leo pointed into the nothingness to the right. “Which means there’s more cave.”
“We might be able to use the stream as a guide,” said Cotton. “Wherever there’s water, the rock will be worn away. But this is definitely more pond than stream.”
“Let’s see how deep it is.” Leo held up a rock the size of his fist. He dropped it. The rock immediately disappeared.
“Did that tell you anything?” She laughed.
“It’s deep,” said Cotton.
“How very scientific.” Ria ran her fingers through the water. “It’s also cold.”
“That’s to be expected.”
She shone her light in, but it didn’t go far before it turned too fuzzy to be more than a soft glow. “I’m going in. To check the depth. So you can make the map more accurate.”
“You’ll be cold if you’re wet. We’re a long way from sunshine.”
Leo was right. She was plenty warm from all the effort of climbing, but the air was cool and the water was downright frigid. But, she couldn’t be beside a pool and not go in. Even if they determined the depth of it, numbers wouldn’t mean much to her. She had to feel it.
“I’ll keep my clothes dry.”
It made sense to strip. She didn’t want the extra weight of her clothes in the water, or to be wet afterward, climbing back up the rope.
She removed her shoes and sat on the rock to peel off her socks. Beneath her feet, it felt cool and slick. As she started to pull down her leggings, Cotton shoved Leo. “Turn around.”
They both did. Her sports bra and spandex underthings wouldn’t be as revealing as a bikini, but Cotton and Leo didn’t live at the pool. Their lights shone against the shiny walls and they became two mismatched silhouettes to her. Ria left