The Nether Scroll - Lynn Abbey [82]
Tiep needed another look to be sure of what he'd seen. When he tried to get it, Rozt'a's fist landed in the middle of his back and he was crossing the threshold into the tunnel between the pool chamber and the egg chamber before he caught his balance again. It was pitch dark in the tunnel. Druhallen had their light and Druhallen wasn't with them.
Rozt'a must have guessed that Dru's name was primed on the back of his tongue, because when she hit Tiep again, it was with her open hand. She seized his shirt and didn't let go.
"Not a sound!"
There was a dogleg in the tunnel. It hadn't been a problem when they'd had Druhallen's
spell illuminating their path, but they missed it going out. Tiep, who was shoved in front of Rozt'a, slammed into the stone chin and nose first. He smelled his own blood and his thoughts were echo and pain when they got to the pool chamber.
"Hide!" Rozt'a hissed and pulled, rather than shoved, him along the chamber's right-side wall.
Tiep spun out of her grasp. "Where's Dru?" He danced sideways. There was no light moving in the tunnel. "Where's Druhallen? We can't leave Druhallen."
His voice had risen; he expected a smack on the jaw, but Rozt'a's hands were shaking too much for her to deliver a punch, deserved or not.
"Hide! We've got to hide."
She was terrified. Tiep's foster-mother who'd laid open more men than Tiep could count was terrified. For the first time, the possibility that they were in serious trouble-doom-and?death trouble-entered Tiep's mind. Short of diving into the briny pools Tiep didn't see any hiding places, and he'd have to know exactly what they were running from before he jumped into one of those.
"Where? There's no place to hide."
Rozt'a's eyes, fortunately, were sharper and so were her wits. She'd spotted an empty shadow in the chamber's walls. It was more a fold in the rock than a cave and it was a dead-end passage-a very dead end if anyone came along with a lamp or light spell. But it was the best they were likely to find.
"Keep your head down-your face'll glow like the moon down here," Rozt'a whispered, sounding more like herself, more in control and command. A moment later she added, "We're kneeling in rock dust… we're kneeling in dust! Rub some on your face and into your hair."
Tiep was used to listening to Rozt'a in emergencies. He didn't know why he was smearing himself with dirt, but he rubbed vigorously and was attacking his ears when the rock began to rumble and vibrate. Tiep thought he was already as frightened as a man could get but, as rock icicles crashed to the cavern floor, he discovered untapped reserves of dread. The pale light in the central pool grew so bright Tiep could feel it as he crouched beside Rozt'a with his eyes closed and his dirty face pressed against his knees.
While the light brightened, the vibrations intensified until they were throbs that loosened rock. Tiep and Rozt'a bounced against each other as if they'd been huddled in the back of some scrap-collector's cart. He thought he might have screamed; he was sure that Rozt'a had. Then a rumbling pulse more powerfully than the rest combined lifted them off the stone and held them suspended.
Like a fool, Tiep opened his eyes. The light was so hot and bright that he couldn't see anything except his bones. Tiep closed his eyes-he thought he'd closed his eyes-but the bone vision lingered. He thought he'd died, thought that he'd gone beyond death, beyond his body, and hoped it would be over soon.
It was. The throbbing ebbed rapidly, along with the light and the heat-which had surely been imaginary because when feeling returned, Tiep found himself entirely unhurt, except for bruised knees and a ringing in his ears. Their luck had held.
"We're alive!" he whispered to Rozt'a.
They didn't have to rub themselves with dust now. The smell of granite was inside Tiep's nostrils