Dragonspell - Donita K. Paul [69]
The cats sat and watched them in various uninterested poses. Kale shivered at their cold stares. The house cats back in River Away had been friendly. These felines looked evil and brooding as if they observed intruders so they could report back to their master. Fingers of dread clutched her heart. She cleared her throat to ask Dar if it was possible for cats to be spies for Wizard Risto.
A druddum hurtled around the corner and slammed into a resting cat. A screech rent the air, followed by an instantaneous battle. Hissing and caterwauling echoed off the stone walls and down the corridors, ringing in Kale’s ears. She gladly quickened her steps to keep up as Dar stepped up the pace.
They reached the crude wooden ladder to the entrance of the dungeon. Kale’s arms ached from carrying Leetu’s body. Although the emerlindian’s slight figure shouldn’t have been heavy, her dead weight strained the o’rant girl’s shoulders. Kale wondered if the kimen and doneel were equally taxed.
Dar motioned to put their burden down. Once they placed Leetu on the ground, he arched his back and rotated his shoulders. Kale watched with a smug smile. He was sore too. The kimen danced over to the ladder and with no visible effort skimmed up the steps. Her clothing hid her legs.
She looks more like she’s floating up those steps instead of climbing them.
“The way is clear,” Seezle announced from her perch at the top. “Bring your friend up.”
Kale and Dar looked at each other, then down at Leetu’s motionless body. Dar’s strength surpassed Kale’s, but his compact body wasn’t suited to carrying the long, fragile emerlindian. Kale was taller than any of her companions.
“I’ll carry her,” said Kale. “Help me get her onto my back with her head and arms hanging over my shoulder.”
Dar wrinkled his brow, tilting his head as he looked at Kale with a speculative eye. “Are you sure?”
Kale nodded. “I’ll pretend she’s a bag of potatoes I’m bringing up from the storeroom in the tavern.”
Dar chortled. “She’s a lot lighter than those big bags of potatoes.” He grabbed hold of Leetu’s arms, efficiently pulling her to a sitting position. Kale bent over, and between her lifting and Dar’s shoving, they got Leetu’s limp body draped over Kale’s shoulder.
Kale couldn’t straighten up. Dar guided her over to the rickety ladder.
“Do you want me to push from behind?”
Kale heard a suspicious bubble in his words. “Are you laughing?” She huffed and shifted her burden a little to the center of her back.
“No, of course not.” Dar adjusted the moonbeam cape covering Leetu.
“Do you require my assistance?”
“No!”
I can do this, and I can do it quick. I want out of this fortress. I’ve had enough of smelly, dark holes. I’ve had enough of adventures. Oh how I wish this were really a sack of potatoes. And I wish this were the tavern basement.
She put a foot on the lowest rung and shifted her weight upward. The branch forming the crossbar under her foot creaked. She swiftly stepped up to the next rung. The thought of grawligs and bisonbecks and mordakleeps and Wizard Risto lurking outside the dungeon entrance, waiting for them to come out, crossed her mind. She closed her eyes and hung on to the rough wooden ladder as her mind reached to the area above. No one but Seezle stood anywhere near them.
Kale forced herself to move a foot up to the next rung.
Adventures like this should be done by people who like adventures like this. I don’t like them at all.
And once I get out of here, I’m going to see Paladin. I’m going to talk to him and tell him how I feel. I’m not good at this questing. I’m going to leave Leetu and Dar with Paladin, and I’m going to The Hall.
Maybe after I go learn about o’rants in a part of the country that is peaceful and filled with o’rants and nobody ever, ever goes questing,