Alex’s head buzzed from the discovery. Where better to hide one of the binding ritual elements than in a secret cave?
Without a second thought, she ducked under the surface, propelling herself forward and beneath the waterfall.
When she popped back up again, she was inside the cave.
Only a small amount of light filtered through from outside, and Alex had to wait for a few moments as her eyes adjusted. In here, the sound of rushing water was muted and a dank, musty odour hung in the air.
When she could see properly, she discovered the cave walls were no further apart than her bedroom back home. But unlike her bedroom at home, the walls here curved in, and the ceiling funnelled upwards, getting narrower and narrower, until it disappeared into blackness.
Alex’s fingers were almost numb from the cold as she swam around the perimeter, running her hand along the smooth rock walls, willing the secret space to reveal whatever it was hiding. Then, right at the back of the cave, she felt a crevice cut into the rock. The hole was rectangular and big enough to slide her hand almost all the way in before her fingers hit rock again.
Glancing up, she could make out several more holes, one on top of the other, before it became pitch black and she couldn’t see any further. Underwater, she pushed her feet against the wall and felt around with her toes. Yep. More holes, just in the right places for her feet. That meant more climbing.
Alex groaned out loud. The noise bounced off the walls and echoed spookily back at her, over and over.
Then, there was a loud splash, and a head burst from the water.
Alex screamed. ‘Leeuie! You nearly gave me a heart attack!’
‘You just disappeared under the water and when you didn’t come up again we thought …’ Leeuie took a shaky breath. ‘But you’re okay. That’s good.’ He took a few moments to catch his breath, and then said, ‘I’ll just wave at the others to let them know we’re okay.’
He ducked under the waterfall again. Alex felt extremely guilty for not even considering what the others might have been thinking when she had vanished underwater.
When Leeuie was back a few moments later, Alex told him about the ladder carved into the wall and her suspicion about yet more climbing. As she talked, she realised she was grateful for his company. Doing all of this alone was hard. And it wasn’t that having Leeuie there made it easier, exactly, but it did make it less … lonely. And frightening.
‘Hey Leeuie,’ Alex asked, keeping her voice light. ‘Don’t suppose you want to come up there with me?’
‘Only if you want the help,’ Leeuie said, his voice equally casual.
‘Yeah,’ Alex said, swimming towards the ladder. ‘The help would be good. Really, really good.’
She could practically feel the grin that Leeuie was trying to suppress. ‘Cool. No problem.’
Alex peered uncertainly into the gloom above. ‘So, ah, do you want to go first?’
Leeuie snorted. ‘I don’t think so! You’re the Fortieth Sun. This is your job, remember?’
The rock holes were rough and serrated, slicing into her freezing hands and feet as though Alex was clutching at cheese graters. As she got higher, the space grew smaller, until she felt like she was inching her way through a wormhole in the rock. The passage became suffocatingly narrow and Alex’s breathing came out ragged and fast. How much further could she go without getting stuck?
‘Are you near the top?’ Leeuie called. He didn’t sound like he was enjoying this much, either.
‘I don’t know, I can’t see —’ Her head thumped against solid rock. Blinding pain gripped her skull. She swallowed down a surge of irrational anger toward the ceiling. ‘Yeah, I’m here.’
She fumbled around above her and, just to her left, found a bigger hole. Careful not to hit her head again, she lifted herself up a fraction and peered through the gap. This crevice was much bigger than the hand and footholds, and she could see a tiny slice of light peeping through the other end.
She wriggled her head and shoulders through the gap in the rock and was stuck for one terrifying second before she pushed face-first through a veil of damp foliage hanging across the hole. She inched her way out and stood up. She stretched her arms and legs, then jogged on the spot, trying to work feeling back into her freezing limbs. If she’d thought being in the water was cold, being out of it was even worse. Moments later, Leeuie emerged behind her, blue-tinged and shivering.
They were in another stone cavern, but this one was right at the top of the waterfall. The liquid tumbling over the mouth of the cave was a constant rumble, hiding the entrance from the outside world.
Next to the sheet of falling water was a narrow ledge, leading out of the cave. Alex and Leeuie pressed their backs against the wall and edged along, past the tumbling water and out into the sunshine.
They blinked against the glare, getting their bearings. The rock shelf was wide enough for them to stand side by side, but only a few inches longer than their feet. Alex kept one hand firmly planted on the wall behind her as she peered gingerly over the edge. The lake below seemed absolutely miles away and, huddled together near the bank, the alpacas looked very, very small.
‘I think we’ve gotta jump,’ Leeuie said, shouting above the noise of the waterfall.
Alex nodded glumly. That was exactly what she thought, too. Jumping from this height would propel them to the bottom of the lake and they would be able to find the dots beneath the waves.
But what was it people said about jumping into water from ridiculous heights? Oh yeah. If you landed the wrong way, it was like smashing into a concrete floor.
‘Do we go together?’ Even Leeuie sounded a bit shaky. ‘Or one at a time?’
‘One at a time.’ Alex did not fancy accidentally bumping heads in midair and then tumbling unconscious to the bottom of the lake.
Leeuie glanced at Alex. ‘I’ll go first?’
Alex hesitated. It should probably be her but she couldn’t quite bring herself to say so. Leeuie took her silence to be a yes. He edged forward. ‘Okay.’
‘Leeuie!’ Alex blurted out. ‘I’m sorry about before. I promise I didn’t mean to push you out of the tree.’
‘I know,’ Leeuie said, glancing over his shoulder and giving her a small smile. ‘And I’m sorry I got mad and said you did.’ He moved his toes right to the edge. ‘One, two …’ His hands were balled into tight fists, knuckles strained white. ‘Three!’
He leaped from the ledge, limbs flailing as he hurtled toward the water. ‘AHHHHHHH!’
Alex forced herself to keep her eyes open and watch him all the way down. White foam erupted where he hit the lake. And then he was gone.
Alex waited. She hadn’t intended to count the seconds that he stayed under, but when she reached sixty, she started to panic.
She was about to jump herself when he finally burst through the surface, gulping and gasping, arms thrashing at the water. The breath Alex had been holding came out as a joyful gasp. He looked up. Even from this height, Alex could see him shaking his head.
He hadn’t managed to reach the bottom.
Alex edged toward the lip of the platform. Her legs shook, and she was finding it difficult to breathe. Leeuie had been under for a full minute and hadn’t reached the bottom. Alex didn’t even think she could hold her breath for forty-five seconds, let alone a full minute. She would have to get deeper into the lake, faster. And that meant …
She was going to have to dive.
Last summer, as a dare, Alex had dived from the high board at the local pool. Afterwards, she had pretended it was no big deal, but it had been so terrifying that she had gone straight into the bathrooms and thrown up. Twice.
‘Okay,’ she muttered. ‘No problem. Piece of cake. Easy-peasy.’ She focused on a trajectory away from the waterfall and, with the plastic sandwich bag clasped tightly between her hands, held her arms straight above her head so they — and not her skull — would break the water first. ‘On the count of three …’ she muttered. ‘One … two … three …’
She counted to six.
Then fifteen.
Then twenty-two.
‘Ugh!’ she scowled, frustrated. ‘Just go already!’
But her body wouldn’t cooperate. The part of her brain that controlled not doing stupid things was unwilling to let her dive from a ridiculously high rock platform next to a pounding wall of water.
Alex closed her eyes and concentrated. An image of Mum’s face filled her mind. Alex took a long, slow breath, holding tight to the picture of Mum in her head. You have to do this, Alex told herself. You have to do this for Mum.
So she did.