Dragonspell - Donita K. Paul [116]
The natural light of the magnificent cavern glowed dimly through fine black powder as it settled. The gravel and dust lay over everything, blanketing the former brilliance. Only a half-light showed Kale the small cave surrounding her.
When she stopped coughing against the gritty air, she reached into the cape and pulled out Metta and Gymn, one in each hand. Metta raced to perch on Kale’s shoulder as close to her neck and under her chin as she could get. Gymn lay limply in the palm of her hand. She stroked his backbone and let out a sigh of relief when his tail twitched.
“Fainted again,” she said to Metta. “He’ll be all right.”
Kale said it more to reassure herself. She felt battered. Her arms and legs ached. Gymn would heal her bruises. She examined herself and found only scratches under a black coating of dust.
I’ll be all right. Nothing is broken. I just have to find the others.
I hope no one is hurt.
Looking around, she examined the small, separate cave created by the landslide. The rocks formed a new barrier almost completely surrounding her. She spied a small tunnel yawning open to the rear. Disoriented from her tumble down the slope, she could not think where it might lead.
To the others, I hope.
Kale tucked Gymn away in the cape. She crawled on hands and knees through the opening. Metta hummed an encouraging tune in her ear. Long and straight, the tunnel took them to another, larger cave.
Kale stood and stretched, feeling her aching muscles.
This stone room looked much like the one they had camped in for several days. Great clouds of black dust had blown through the tight tunnel.
Kale took stock of her situation. She had the moonbeam cape and her two dragons. She had food, among other things, tucked in the cape’s hollows. She wasn’t badly hurt, nothing Gymn couldn’t fix.
Not too bad. She swallowed the lump in her throat. I wonder where the others are.
43
THE MAZE
Leetu? Kale reached for the emerlindian with her mind.
Gymn peeked out of the cape, then darted to her shoulder to sit next to Metta.
Leetu?
“Are you safe? Metta and Gymn?”
Yes, we’re fine, and you? The others?
“Wizard Fenworth is unconscious. Librettowit has a nasty cut on his forehead. Lee Ark has a broken arm. A boulder hit Brunstetter on the head, and he’s dizzy. Otherwise he’s all right except for cuts and bruises. Shimeran and Seezle are dirty but whole. Dar is too dirty to speak intelligibly. He’s limping around. And he favors one side as if he has some broken ribs. He’s muttering about his soiled clothing, not his injuries.”
Kale almost smiled, imagining the doneel’s disgust at the sooty dust on everything. But she pictured the old wizard, pale and still. Fenworth?
“Librettowit thinks he tried to stem the landslide, and it was too much for him. I can’t find any broken bones. He seems all right from what I can see. Gymn could tell us more.”
Kale remembered the horror on Fenworth’s face as he looked up at her. She shivered at the memory.
The black barrier had collapsed, and somehow Kale had made it happen. Now her comrades were hurt.
But if Fenworth had not been able to move the mass in three days, how could she have been responsible? She shook aside the unsettling feeling that her thoughts had sent the black rocks and gravel cascading down upon them all.
Where are you?
“Still in The Cavern of Rainbows. But when the black barrier collapsed, the walls shifted. Several tunnels out of here appeared.”
Should I try to come to you?
“Yes, if you can. We need Gymn to help with the injuries.”
Kale knew exactly which direction to go to find the others now. She could feel Leetu’s presence. However, choosing the right tunnel proved difficult. There were so many.
Blue lightrocks studded the walls of some of the tunnels. Other tunnels were pitch black. Some were twice as high as Kale was tall. Some were barely big enough for her to squeeze