Heroes Return by Moira J. Moore

loud,” she complained.
    I had a feeling shrieking like a child would be even louder, so I continued with my serenity breathing.
    “They will find us, Dunleavy,” Fiona said. “Don’t worry.”
    “I’m not worried,” I lied.
    “We just have to sit and wait.”
    “I’m good at sitting and waiting.” No, I wasn’t.
    Fiona chuckled.
    I hadn’t been trying to be funny.
    I swore the seat of my trousers had to be torn to shreds. I wouldn’t be decent enough to leave the cave. I would have to walk around in front of all those strangers, hanging out of my trousers. They’d lose any respect they ever had for me. They’d smirk every time they looked at me.
    “Do you hear that?” Fiona asked.
    Finally. “You hear them looking for us?”
    “I don’t—” She broke off. “There, that. Do you hear that?”
    I listened. I strained to hear something. “I don’t hear anything, but that doesn’t mean anything. My hearing may not be as acute as yours.” Shields tended to have duller senses.
    “Shh!” A few more moments of dark silence dragged by, then Fiona shouted, “We’re in here! We’re in the crystal cave!”
    Her voice seemed to echo in the dark. Once it finally faded, I listened for any new sounds. I still heard nothing.
    Could she be hearing things, hearing what she desperately wanted to hear? Maybe she was more frightened than she was letting on. Fear could do strange things to a person’s mind.
    “There it is again,” she said.
    I still heard nothing. Was I going deaf? Maybe it was my own mind upon which fear was working.
    “Over here!” Fiona shouted.
    “Who’s making that racket?” a voice thundered out.
    “Dane!” Fiona sighed, and I felt her rise to her feet.
    “You’re getting loud in your old age, woman.”
    “You’ve never complained before.”
    “What did you do with the rope?”
    I could see a glow then, and it was only then that I felt a little spurt of joy and relief. We were finally found. The glow grew stronger and came around a corner. It was Dane, Taro following behind.
    Thank Zaire. I gratefully climbed to my feet, which was harder than it should have been. My legs felt numb.
    Fiona threw herself into Dane’s arms, which seemed to surprise him. “What took you so long?” she demanded.
    “We didn’t think you were still in here.”
    “Why the hell not?”
    “The rope was gone. What did you do with it?”
    “We didn’t do anything with it. Can we just get out of here?”
    I was all for that.
    Taro crooked an arm for me to take. I was grateful for it. I was stumbling a little on my numb legs. “Are you all right?” he asked.
    I was then. Also extremely relieved. I had been really starting to worry. “Aye. Wouldn’t want to have waited any longer, though.” We followed Fiona and Dane, the latter of whom was coiling a rope as they followed it back to the mouth of the cave.
    “What was that about the rope?” I asked him.
    “The rope you tied to the peg was gone. That’s why we took so long. After an hour we came back, and found the rope gone, so we figured the two of you were out and about somewhere and we didn’t need to worry. But a few more hours passed, and we asked around a bit if anyone had seen you, and no one had. Dane decided to go as far as the crystal cave, because he knew Fiona had wanted us to see it.”
    “Did you get a chance to see it?” I hadn’t noticed him react to the cavern at all. “It is truly beautiful.”
    “I really don’t give a damn. I hate it in here.”
    I would tell him about the cavern and the machine at a better time. “I don’t know what happened with the rope. We had it with us all the way to the machine, but when we looked for it again, it was gone.”
    No one commented, but I supposed it was a mystery best left for another time. I was desperate to get out, too. In fact, once we were finally out in the afternoon air, I drew in a deep breath as though my breathing had been restricted before.
    And despite my sincere