The Howling Delve - Jaleigh Johnson [122]
Kail wiped his eyes clear and saw darkness, illuminated faintly by Meisha's fire globes drifting below. The light filtering through the cube cast eerie green glows on the walls.
Gathering the rope about his waist, Kail pulled until it came taut three times. He hoped Meisha's slighter weight would make the climb easier.
A tense moment latet, a cap of black hait broke the sutface, and Meisha crawled up beside him onto the stone ledge.
"What a wonderful experience," the Harper said, flicking the substance off her fingers. Slime plastered her hair to her forehead, and her eyelashes stuck together in dark clumps.
The othets followed slowly, until only Garavin and Borl remained. It took the combined strength of Kail, Morgan, and Dantane to haul the pair through the cube, Borl with his muzzle and nose tied shut with cloth. By the time the dwarf was clear of the creature, he barely breathed. Kali quickly unfastened the cloth that kept the dog from breathing in the slime, then turned to Garavin.
"Help me clean him off," Kali ordered. "The slime will corrode his skin if it's left alone."
They laid the gasping dwarf down onto the stone platform. Garavin dredged up a grin for Morgan as the thief tried to wipe away the slime.
"Laerin would be chuckling if he could see ye playing nursemaid," the dwarf said.
Morgan offered one of his halfhearted gtunts. "Don't get used to it," he said.
"All right, finish up," Kail said. "We have to keep moving." He pointed to a tunnel angling away from the shaft. "Level ground, Garavin," he said. "Easy going."
"If it lasts." Dantane said, always the voice of dissension. He nodded to the dwarf. "He won't make another climb like this."
"I'll be looking after myself just fine, young one," said Gatavin sharply. He got to his feet unaided, but leaned heavily against the tunnel wall.
Kali exchanged a glance with Morgan. Garavin never lost patience with anyone. For the taciturn dwatf to do so now frightened Kail more than a little.
"We'll rest here," Kali said. "Dantane's right. We don't know how long any of us will last if we encounter another long climb."
The others moved away to give the dwarf some room. Kail guided his friend back to a sitting position and settled beside him.
Garavin leaned heavily on him for support. When he looked at Kail, his pupils had dilated to two piercing black holes surrounded by a mound of wrinkles. He seemed to have aged a decade in the space of a moment.
"What happened, Garavin?" Kali asked, keeping his voice low. "Was it really Dumathoin on the bridge?"
The dwarf closed his eyes and breathed. The rough wheeze was barely audible. "It was… a power I've never felt before, lad-or could ever hope to feel again."
"Did the power consume you from the inside?" Kail asked urgently. "Can you recover?"
"I think so," said Garavin. "To live on-feels like Dumathoin's plan for me." He looked at Kail. "But we-none of us, have the guarantee of living through this passage."
"Don't worry, I'll see to that," said Kali.
Across the tunnel, Meisha listened with half an ear to their conversation, and used her remaining attention to direct the light globes down the tunnel to scout ahead.
"Stay back here, Talal," she called out to the boy, who'd wandered halfheartedly to follow the globes. She heard the scrape of feet on stone and Talal's voice, echoing back to them.
"The tunnel slants down!" he called out. "Spikes on the walls, but the bottom's clear."
Through her exhaustion, the words came to Meisha sluggishly. Spikes on the walls.
Memories of her own trek through the caverns came rushing back from a buried place in her mind.
With an incoherent shout of warning, Meisha came to her feet. She ran in the direction Talal had wandered, knowing even as she skidded down the slant that she would be too late.
The boy's foot touched a pressure plate identical to the one Shaera had encountered on her ill-fated journey farther up rhe
Climb. Meisha heard Morgan shout as the thief recognized the danget,