Daisy's Decision (Icehome)

No response.

I bite back a sob of self-pity and look around as I sit up. I clutch my bad arm against my chest—I can’t fold it, so I just hold it awkwardly. What little light that seeps in tells me that I’m in some sort of rough-hewn tunnel about twenty feet deep and just as wide. There’s a low whooshing sound and I suspect it’s the pipes and the machinery that run the swimming pool above. There’s not enough light to see by, so I don’t know how far the tunnel extends. Don’t care, either. I just hurt and I want my mate to kiss me better. Awkwardly, I get to my feet and bite back more tears as it sends fresh pain through my arm. Shuffling to the wall, I can see a door that leads to the underside of the pool. I try the doorknob but it won’t turn. With frustration, I bang my good fist against the metal and it makes a clanging noise.

I’m trapped.

“O’jek,” I cry out. “Please!”

No response.

I call his name for hours, until my throat is hoarse and I want to scream with despair. The waterfall must be drowning me out. Either that, or O’jek has left the cave. We fought, after all. Maybe he decided he was done with me and left the cave. Hot tears slide down my cheeks at the thought. I’ll die down here if that’s the case. No one will ever know what happened to poor Daisy. They’ll just wonder every now and then and go on with their lives.

Full of despair, I collapse against the wall.

After a while, I call for O’jek again, but my voice is scratchy and hoarse, and screaming makes me so thirsty that it’s painful to swallow. I give up and nap fitfully, leaning against the door. Every time I brush against my bad arm, it sends pain shooting up my side.

I wake up to a primal cry of despair from above.

O’jek. He’s here.

I whimper, getting to my feet. “I’m here,” I try to yell, but my voice is a dry rasp now. Oh no. He’ll never hear me. Frantic, I look for something to throw, and grab one of the broken rocks scattered on the ground. “I’m down here!”

I grab one rock and lob it at the back of the waterfall, but I don’t even come close to reaching it. I’m down too far. Frustration makes me sob and I pick up another rock with my good arm and fling it at the door. It makes a satisfying loud CLANG and hope flares inside me for the first time in hours. I pick up another rock and throw it, and another, making as much noise as possible.

“D’see?” I hear O’jek call above. “D’see — answer me!”

I manage a croak, pain tearing at my throat, and throw another rock.

A shadow falls over the waterfall. I hold my breath, terrified that O’jek is going to fall, too, but a few pebbles trickle down from above, and then stop. “D’see?”

“Here!” I manage to croak again, the sound far too low, and I throw another rock at the door. “I’m here!”

And then I burst into more tears, great ugly gasping sounds escaping my chest.

“D’see! Come toward the light so I can see you, my heart. Please.” There’s a frantic note in O’jek’s voice. I stagger toward the hole and squint up at it, clutching at my arm. I can just barely make out his head, the waterfall misting close by. When he sees me, relief crosses his face. “I will throw down rope—”

“I can’t,” I croak up at him, and gesture at my arm. “I think I broke it.”

I don’t know if he hears me, but he simply nods. “If you cannot climb to me then I will climb to you. Wait there.”

For some reason, I want to laugh at that. Where does he think I’m going to go?

CHAPTER 17

DAISY

O’jek disappears from the hole for so long that I worry something has happened to him. When he returns again, I’m so relieved that I start crying once more.

“Do not cry, my heart,” he tells me as he works on the rope. “I am making a ladder and then I will be at your side shortly. Be patient. Be brave.”

“Just don’t leave me!”

“Never. I will never leave your side,” he promises.

It seems to take forever, my arm (and my head) throbbing painfully with every breath. When the rope starts to snake down from above with loops tied throughout for handholds, I start crying again. And when O’jek reaches the bottom and cups my face, pressing frantic kisses to it, I cry even harder.

“My mate, my mate,” he breathes over and over again. “I could not find you. I did not know where you had gone. My heart felt as if it had stopped in my chest.”