Deep Trouble by Mary Connealy

Author:Mary Connealy [Connealy, Mary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-60742-242-6
Publisher: Barbour Publishing, Inc.
Published: 2011-08-31T04:00:00+00:00

Fifteen

That’s the rock formation.” Shannon jabbed a finger at the oddly shaped outcropping. It had a pile of stones at its base that could not have occurred naturally.

The world seemed to stop past that odd-shaped parapet and the small pyramid of fist-sized rocks as Shannon rode toward it. The rocks had been scattered and toppled a bit, but they were still a clear stack, and they didn’t belong there. No place for them to have fallen from. “My father said he left a cairn of stones just like that.” She spurred her horse, its shadow cast long in front of her with the rising sun at her back.

“Cairn?” Gabe asked. “What’s ‘at mean?”

“Uh, stack.”

“Why didn’t he just say stack then? Why didn’t he just—” Gabe sucked in a breath that sounded like part of the wind.

The world fell away at Shannon’s feet, and she jerked back on the reins so hard her horse reared and fought the bit. A gasp escaped even as her throat swelled shut. She swung down off her horse, only distantly noticing the others coming up beside her and Gabe. From each, a gasp to match hers and Gabe’s was the only sound… save the wind.

She wondered if every person who ever rode up to this place made exactly the same sound. Very possible because there were no words sufficient to express it.

She was only distantly aware of her companions dismounting in complete silence, absorbing the beauty of the canyon that opened before them. Time crept by, but there would never be enough time to absorb something this magnificent.

“The Grand Canyon,” Hozho spoke quietly, reverently. Her voice was too small to truly invade the silence.

More time elapsed as they stood, five in a row, their horses behind them. They breathed in the extravagant splendor, the impossible depth and breadth of what lay before them.

Finally, the vastness of it forced Shannon to speak, though it felt like sacrilege. “How can we ever find anything down there?”

“There’s nothing to find, Shannon.” Gabe, on her right, reached over and took her hand. “Surely you can see that this is a wild place. Too rugged. Who would go down there? There’s no city to be found. And who would build a city of gold in there? Gold would be a pale insult in the midst of that.”

She heard pity in his voice. That broke through what was a blissful moment. She had to almost physically tear her eyes away from the depths and rock sculptures, the towers and the layers of color: reds, browns, grays, whites, and blues. Impossibly majestic.

“Don’t you see, Gabe?” Their eyes met. “Of course it’s down there. This city has to be remote. It has to be hidden or it would have been found by now.”

“You have to give it up, Shannon.” His words weren’t so much bossy as they were a plea to her.

She remembered his arms around her. Remembered how close they’d come to being married.

Remembered Bucky.

“If you want to walk on streets of gold, you’re going to need to do it in the next life.

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