“Dale?” Livvy said, moving up next to him, trying to see his face.
She heard SK move behind her.
“Dale, what is it?” he asked.
He was staring straight ahead, a hand to his chest. He didn’t turn to look at either of them.
“I…” he tried and then cleared his throat. “I don’t know.”
They’d all gotten banged up in the accident. Had he sustained a more serious injury?
“Are you having pain in your chest?” Livvy asked, slipping into doctor mode.
“What?” Dale said. Then he shook his head and dropped his hand. “No. It was just…” He shook his head again. “It was nothing.”
Livvy was about to ask why he had stopped.
“Do you hear that?” SK whispered.
They all froze.
It was drumming, barely audible, in the distance.
SK pointed in the direction they were headed.
“You have good hearing,” Livvy whispered.
“I can’t believe there’s anybody else here now,” Dale whispered. “Let alone several somebodies drumming.”
He turned to Livvy. “Are you sure this is the right direction?”
Livvy looked back in the direction they’d come, up at Spider Rock, and then forward. “I’m afraid so,” she said.
They listened for several seconds until the sound stopped. Somehow, that was worse.
“We can’t wait here,” said SK quietly. “We need to get what we came for and get out.”
“All right,” Dale said. “We’ve got to cross a small stream over there where the bushes are the thickest. Then we can start the climb on the other side.”
Just hearing the word climb made Livvy’s heart beat faster.
“Wait,” said SK. “There’s a stream? How deep?”
They both turned to look at him. What might seem small to her and Dale could be waist high for SK.
“It won’t be running deep now,” Dale said. “We haven’t had much rain. It’s worse in the spring, with the runoff. Really, it’ll be fine.”
The drumming started again. They all heard it clearly this time.
“Okay,” said SK. “Let’s go.”
After several minutes of trudging in the dark, Livvy heard water.
The bushes near the stream were tall and thick, more like small trees. Dale ducked and stepped through, moving sideways when necessary. Livvy did her best to push straight through and hold the branches so they didn’t rebound and hit SK. He must have realized.
“I’m all right, Liv,” said SK. She felt his hand on the small of her back. “Keep going. I’m right behind you.”
After a few more minutes, all three of them had emerged from the thicket to stand at the edge of the stream.
“Must have been a lot of rain higher up,” said SK.
It was impossible to tell how deep it was but it was rushing by.
“Great,” said Livvy. “There’s no other way across?”
Dale shook his head. “It runs the entire length of the canyon. It’s what created the canyon. We have to cross it somewhere.”
They looked upstream and down but Livvy knew they wouldn’t see much, not in the darkness and not through the thicket. Maybe they should have brought the truck. Then again, the fact they’d left it at Spider Rock had probably saved them from being heard by whoever was doing that drumming.
“It’s not going to get less deep while we watch,” said SK.
“I’ll go first,” said Dale. “It’ll be cold,” he said over his shoulder.
He took the first few steps, holding his arms out for balance. As he approached the center, he took a sudden step down and nearly lost his balance. The water was over his knees and he looked unsteady but in two more steps, he was rising again. Instead of crossing to the other side, though, he stopped and turned around. Then he beckoned to them.
Livvy looked at SK. He wouldn’t be up to his waist but close. She thought of how she’d feel if she were up to her waist in moving water. Even though her hip felt fine, she wished she’d brought the cane. He’d have been able to use it for stability.
She extended her hand.
“Together,” she said.
SK took it.
“Together,” he said.
She and SK took their first steps into the muddy brown water. It wasn’t just cold. It was freezing. Dale hadn’t moved though. He waited, his hand thrust out, reaching for them.
Livvy took small steps, not that she tried. The ground below her feet was full of rocks, not sediment. It took every bit of concentration she had not to twist an ankle or slip. She dared not turn to look at SK lest she topple over but she felt the tight grip of his hand. She continued to move slowly and then suddenly there was the step down. She wavered–and that made SK waver. There was a sharp tug on her hand and she turned just in time to see him submerge.
“No!” Livvy yelled, grabbing his arm with both hands.
She tugged with all her strength, leaning back into the flow.
Finally, his head popped up and he took a breath.
Livvy heard splashing and then felt Dale grip her jacket at the shoulder and pull her through the deep section. She pushed with her legs, trying to find level ground, and pulled SK close, pinning him to her hip. He coughed.
In a few lurching steps, they were away from the middle.
“It’s okay, Liv,” he managed between coughs. “Let me touch the bottom.”
She hadn’t realized how high she’d been holding him. She eased her grip and felt him take his own weight, the water up to his mid-thigh now. But he didn’t let go of her. With Dale still grabbing her at the shoulder and SK hugging her at the hip, they awkwardly made their way to the other side and up onto a muddy bump of land.
SK knelt down, breathing heavily.
“Are you okay?” Livvy breathed, kneeling down next to him.
He nodded. “Yeah,” he said, hoarsely. “Thanks.”
She squeezed his hand and looked up at Dale, who had his hands on his hips, also breathing hard. “Thanks,” she said.
Dale only nodded and smiled.
He was wet from the knees down, as was she. Her arm was also wet, where it had submerged, but SK was drenched, head to foot. The freezing water looked like it had penetrated to his skin.
“Oh gods, SK,” Livvy said. “You’re soaked.”
Still breathing hard, he got to his feet and took off his jacket. “I’m afraid so” he said. “If we don’t move, we’ll all risk hypothermia.”
Livvy got up as Dale turned and headed into the thicket. Livvy paused for a few seconds and watched SK ring water from the sleeves of his jacket.
“It’s okay, Liv,” he said. “The best thing to do is keep moving.”
It wasn’t okay and she knew it but they did need to keep moving. She followed Dale. No sooner had they gotten several feet from the water when she realized the drumming was much louder. Dale was cautious as they emerged into open space away from the stream. The drumming was coming from somewhere in the dark off to their right. There was singing that went with it.
“I think that’s Hopi singing!” whispered Dale. He put a finger to his lips for silence and then listened intently. “Definitely Hopi,” he declared after a few moments.
“How can that be?” asked SK. “On a Navajo reservation?”
“I’d like to know,” Dale said, sounding irritated.
“Look,” said Livvy. “We’re about to freeze to death and we still haven’t started up. Whatever they’re doing, whoever they are, I don’t think that’s where the tablet is going to be. Whoever has it is going to be up there somewhere.”
She looked up the slope and then to the seemingly impossible cliffs above them. Dale and SK did the same.
“She’s right,” said SK as he rang some water from his shirt. “No doubt it’s related but that’s not really why we’re here.”
“Related?” asked Dale.
“It’d be quite a coincidence if it wasn’t.”
Livvy took it as a good sign. The vision with the crystal had been accurate. At least they were on the right track.
Dale listened to the singing and drums for a few more moments and then looked upslope. “Do you have any idea how high?” he asked.
“None,” she said. “But I’ll know it when I see it.”
“I’m going to have to use my phone,” said Dale. “Whoever is doing that drumming may see it but the footpath is too treacherous.”
He didn’t wait for a response.
The climb to the base of the cliffs had been steep but not treacherous. Where the dirt and scattered vegetation turned to rock, though, Livvy could see what he meant. Depressions in the sandstone, some barely there, traced two vertical lines almost directly up the sloping rock. It was like a shallow set of stairs but without a handrail.
“Gods,” Livvy whispered.
Dale lightly stepped into the first one, on the left, then the second one on the right. They were carved into the rock face, flat on the bottom, but not quite deep enough to get your whole foot into it, just the front half. Dale bounced as he leaned forward. He stopped after several steps and shone the phone light back down toward Livvy.
She turned to SK, who was tying his jacket around his waist.
“Maybe you ought to go first,” she said. “If I fall, I don’t want to take you with me.”
He smiled at her and pushed damp hair back from his forehead.
“You’ll be all right, Liv,” he said quietly. “Stay next to Dale, stay next to the light, and stay close to the rock.”
Suddenly she realized his legs might be too short to go from one foothold to the next.
“SK, are you going to be able to make it?”
“I’m already picking out my route,” he said, looking up toward Dale. “It looks like the folks who created this may not have been a lot taller than me and definitely shorter than Dale. I’ll be using everything on this rock. Some of these will be handholds and I’ll be able to fit two feet where he’s putting one. I like to call it four wheel drive.”
He must have seen the puzzled look on her face.
“I’m going to crawl,” he said.
The light went off and Dale closed and opened his phone.
“Let’s go,” said SK, taking her at the waist and turning her toward the cliff. “Think about each step and commit to it. Don’t look down. I’ll be right behind you.”
He was obviously comfortable with rock climbing. She wanted to ask him how but he held her firmly.
“Left foot first,” he said. “No delaying.”
She wasn’t delaying–well, not successfully anyway.
She looked at the first foothold and put her left foot there.
“Good,” he said. “Now right.”
They went like that–Dale moving faster and pausing to give them some light–for at least half an hour.
“It levels off up here,” she heard Dale say.
She looked up but Dale had disappeared.
“Thank the gods,” she whispered.
The cliff had become so steep she could nearly touch it without leaning forward. She heard SK breathing hard just below her.
“Almost there,” he said. “How you doing?”
“Good,” Livvy chirped in a squeaky voice.
SK chuckled a little.
“Good,” he said.
Almost there, she thought. Let’s get this over with.
She looked at the next foothold and stepped on it–then sank.
“No, Liv, wait!”
CHAPTER SEVENTY-ONE
CELESTINO HAD BEEN about to descend to the lower level of the kiva, when the top hatch opened. He paused, goggles in hand.
The shamans around him took no notice and continued their song. Even though there were no women here, the words admonished them to prepare food and gather water. The song for a rabbit hunt, or makwatu, wasn’t exactly appropriate for what he was hunting but Celestino had told them to sing it anyway. The drums accentuated the more spirited words as the inflections rose and fell in time.
Franklin descended the ladder, paused to close the door, and then hopped to the floor. He looked amused at the chanters around him but his little smirk disappeared when he saw Celestino.
Celestino motioned him toward the second ladder and they both went down to the lower floor. When the hatch was closed, there was almost no sound from above.
“Where’ve you been?” Celestino asked.
“Taking care of business,” said Franklin as he removed his coat and tossed it to the bench.
Although it was possible the Pahaana might have some ‘business’ of his own, something in the way he’d said it raised Celestino’s suspicions.
“I assume Victor found the tablet,” Franklin said.
“No,” Celestino said, not going into the details. Instead, he held up his goggles. That was all the explanation he’d be giving.
CHAPTER SEVENTY-TWO
LIVVY FELT HERSELF sliding. She’d missed the foothold. In the dark, without the light from Dale’s phone, she’d completely missed it. She flung herself toward the cliff face and threw out her hands grasping for anything to keep from falling. Her left hand latched onto something and her right knee scraped against the rough rock and landed hard. She came to a stop with the side of her face against the cliff, pressing flat against it.
There was utter silence except for her panting.
A light came on.
“Olivia?” said Dale.
“Stay where you are, Liv,” SK said.
He sounded very close, almost behind her.
“SK?” she said, her voice wavering. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” he said, his voice calm and quiet. “But better than that, you’re fine. I’m going to tap your right foot.”
She felt his hand on her right foot.
“You feel that?” he asked.
She did but found she couldn’t answer. In fact, she could barely breathe.
“I’m tapping on the bottom of your foot because it’s sticking out,” he said. “You’re kneeling in the foothold instead of standing in it. So, the bottom of your foot needs to be where your right knee is.”
He waited. The light went off and came back on again.
“Liv?” he said. “Do you hear me?”
“Should I come back down?” Dale asked.
“Yeah,” said SK. “Why don’t you do that. A couple of steps. We could use more light. We’re taking a little break here.”
She could hear Dale moving up above and SK to her left. He grunted with effort and she felt something brush the outside of her left knee.
“Liv,” he said, from a different place. “Can you turn your head and look at me?”
She felt his hand touch hers. His voice came from directly to her left but she had landed facing right.
“Liv, turn your head and look at me.”
He waited.
“Concentrate on my voice,” he said. “Turn and look at me.”
Concentrate, she thought. Concentrate. Slowly, scraping her nose against the cliff face, she turned her head.
“Liv,” SK said. “You’ve got to open your eyes.”
Gods, she wanted to but she didn’t want to see where she’d landed.
“You’re all right,” SK said, quietly. “Trust me. It’s okay to open your eyes.”
She slowly opened her left eye.
“Good girl,” SK said.
The light went off and then back on.
“You’re all right,” he said.
He laid the side of his head against the rock like it was pillow talk and she opened her other eye. He smiled at her.
“Here’s what we’re going to do. I’m on the left track and you’re on the right. We’re going to go up side by side. I think there’s enough room for the front of both your feet in the step. Keep holding on with your left hand to the track above my head.”
He glanced upward and Livvy followed his gaze. Her left hand was clutchi
ng the edge of the footrest above him.
“Your next step is right in front of your knees,” he said. “But I want you to reach your right hand over your head and find the step above you. You don’t have to look that way or look up. You just keep looking at me. Move your right hand along the rock face and feel above your head. Can you do that?”
She nodded stiffly. Slowly, she moved her right hand, keeping it against the rock but moving it higher. Finally, she felt a foothold. It was flat and she gripped it hard.
“Good,” SK said. “Now use your hands and left foot to stand up straight. You want to get off your right knee and put your foot where your knee is.”
She started to glance down.
“No,” said SK, gently. “Look at me.” She snapped her eyes back to his face. “Your foot will find it. Trust me. You know where it is. Think about it and visualize your foot going where your knee is. Take your time and go when you’re ready.”
The problem was she didn’t want to take her time. She wanted to be done. The light went off, then on again. She pulled with both hands, slid up the face of the cliff, and put her right foot onto the step.
“Good girl,” SK said, stepping up the left set of footholds to keep up with her. “Now, your left foot is going to move over next to your right foot. They’ll be on the same step, together.”
She nodded again.
“Take your time.”
She took a deep breath, staring into his eyes. He nodded at her. She moved her left foot, trying not to rush. The front of both shoes barely fit together in the tiny step but they fit.
“There you go,” said SK. “Good.” He looked upslope. “I think we’re good, Dale. You’ll have to move so we can come up.”
SK looked back at her and she felt some of the pressure in her lungs release. The light went off for several seconds but then came back on again, a bit dimmer.
“All right,” said SK. “When you’re ready, you’ll step up to the next foothold. It’s in front of your shins. Small steps. Easy steps. Take your time.” He paused and smiled at her. “Can you do that?”
She did her best to smile back. “I can do that,” she whispered.
Olivia Lawson Techno-Shaman Books 1 -3 Page 75
