“Wading?” Hawk suggested pleasantly.
“Indians are supposed to be able to see in the dark,” David reminded hawk.
“I did see in the dark. I followed Shawn—” He broke off, apparently aware before Shawna realized herself just how angry David was. Why?
Because he had assumed that she had led Hawk here, that she had known about the break in the flooring within the cave.
She wanted to shout at David, to tear into him. But the water was rising, and Hawk remained trapped below.
David set the lantern by the hole, pushing himself quickly to his feet. He spun around suddenly, grasping Shawna’s wrists. “Get rope. There’s sure to be some in the front tunnels. Get backhere as fast as you can, or I shall take you apart piece by piece myself, I swear it.”
She wrenched free from him with an energy born of pure fury, somehow maintaining complete dignity as she did so. “I’ll get rope because I’d do anything in my power to save Hawk.”
She squared her shoulders, plucking up the lantern and hurrying down the tunnel as fast as she could go. As she hurried along, she heard David say, “I’ll have her yet, I swear it! She’d best get back?—”
“I can swim,” Hawk reminded his brother. “If the currents don’t sweep me from the opening.”
He probably could rescue himself, Shawna thought, hurrying down the mine shaft. He was strong, and resourceful, and now David was with him. Whether she did or didn’t find rope, Hawk would escape. But she remembered passing a heavy coil of rope when they had entered the outer tunnel, and as she ran through the shafts, she could picture it exactly in her mind’s eye.
She paused at a fork in the tunnel. The main entrance to the mine was just to her left, yet she had to pause to catch her breath. She leaned a hand against the stone wall of the tunnel, inhaling deeply. Skylar was at the entrance to the main shaft, and Shawna wondered if she should tell her quickly what was happening. But as she paused, she heard a tap.
Tap.
Then, in a deep, low, unearthly tone…
Her name.
“Shawna…”
A whisper she might have imagined. She started to spin around.
But she smelled something before she could turn. Before she could look.
Something cold and wet and clammy landed over her face before she could see anything.
A sickly, sweet smell seemed to overpower everything else, and she felt herself falling, and falling, and falling...
And once again, the darkness was absolute.
A knife flashed in lanternlight in the tunnel. But before it could touch Shawna’s flesh, the hand that wielded it was drawn back.
“Fool! What are you doing?”
“She is to die?—”
“Not here, not now! Take her.”
Arms reached out for Shawna, but the tunnel shaft was suddenly flooded with light from the entrance to the main shaft. “Hawk, Shawna! Hawk, Shawna!”
“Someone is coming! Hurry!”
“Leave her!”
“We must have?—”
“We’ll find another opportunity. Come on, we cannot be caught! We’ve got the other lass, but he wanted M’lady MacGinnis very especially. We’ll take her when the opportunity is better! We must not be found here!”
The two figures hurried down the shaft of the tunnel.