Deep Trouble Read Free Page A

last level was unclimbable. Her head was swimming, her thoughts were scattered, and her eyes were a little blurred—whether from injuries or tears or terror, she just couldn’t say.
    He did seem to be real though. Not vanishing. Not a mirage or a figment. It was vastly encouraging really.
    He made short work of scrambling up the first level. “Now, where next?”
    “You have to walk along that ledge.” With a shudder, Shannon thought of that narrow, crumbling ledge. “And climb up to the next level on the left side.”
    He started along a ledge that wasn’t more than six inches wide, though he could have stepped off the ledge into the structures built on that level. About two steps in he turned to face the wall and slid along on his tiptoes. “How did you say you got up there again?” He was so close to the wall his voice was muffled against rock.
    She leaned out and wobbled on the ledge. Pulling back, she rolled onto her stomach and poked her head out. The height was still dizzying, but with no risk of falling, she could handle it. Besides, she felt a lot better lying down.
    He inched along until he came to the first opening. On the lower levels there were definite walls built with stone, a very clear structure. “What is this place?” His voice echoed because he was speaking into the opening.
    She leaned farther out to see him cross the open space cautiously. “I’ve had a very bad day.”
    She almost started crying again. Really, where did she begin? And besides, since she’d kept a very big secret from the expedition members, she was in the habit of not talking. “I came here with a group… exploring.” Searching for gold… exploring, they were kind of the same.
    “I saw sign of riders heading out. Six of them?”
    “Six when we came in. Only five rode away. They turned on me and left me here and stole my horse and all my supplies.” Shannon heard her voice rising as her panic built. She quit talking before it all turned into hysteria.
    He reached the left side and began climbing without asking for more direction until he was only two levels below her. He looked around then up at her, and she pointed back to the right.
    This ledge was even narrower, and the structures there were more rugged and partially collapsed, making it easy for people to convince themselves it was just a jumble of rocks. If they didn’t want to believe their eyes. But the lower level forced one to accept that a human hand had erected this strange home.
    She thought she heard grumbling as he inched along, but he was clinging to the rocks, and that deadened the sound some so she couldn’t be sure.
    “Who built these?” He was getting closer. She could hear him easily now.
    “I don’t know. They are long deserted from what I can tell. Very ancient, I think. A lot of the stone is crumbled away to dust.” Including any natural place to climb to her level from the lower one he was just now reaching.
    He stepped across a wide spot where the ledge was completely caved off, and just as he shifted his weight, a bit more of it crumbled away. But he made it and started climbing again until he was only one level below her. He looked up, and she saw his brow soaked with sweat and a tight expression on his face, possibly caused by his recognizing he had a very good chance of falling to his death at any moment.
    She knew how he felt.
    He squared his shoulders and firmed his jaw and gave her an encouraging nod. “Where next?”
    “I don’t know.” And that was the absolute truth.
    His brow arched so high it disappeared into his Stetson. “Then how’d you get up there?”
    “I had a ladder. The people who stranded me here shot it to pieces.”
    The man looked around his feet.
    Shannon leaned out farther to try and see the damage. Her head went foggy and she teetered—yes, even lying flat on her stomach—and almost fell the rest of the way forward. A gasp brought his head up.
    “How badly are you hurt?”
    “I’m fine.”
    “Uh,