“Wait,” Aahz said, stopping to pant for a moment. “The air’s bad in here.”
I realized when he said that that I was also having trouble getting enough air. Now not only was the roof about to fall and crush me, I was going to die from lack of air.
“Almost there,” Tanda said from behind me. I could hear the rustling of the map. Aahz nodded and pushed upward, taking one step at a time.
I used the shovel as a sort of crutch. Step. Clunk. Step. Clunk.
The sound echoed down the tunnel behind us. If this plan didn’t work, I couldn’t imagine having to go back to the suite using this tunnel. I’d try it if I had to, but I sure didn’t want to.
Step. Clunk. Step. Clunk.
We kept climbing. Forever. How could this be? Had we gotten turned around and were headed back to the suite?
My lungs burned like the time I had stayed underwater too long in the pond when I was a kid. My eyes stung with the dust, and I could feel the grit in my mouth.
“We’re here,” Aahz said, his voice barely a whisper. I glanced back. Tanda was a few steps behind me, her face covered in dust, mud caked around her mouth and nose. She looked as if she was about to pass out.
Ahead of me Aahz slid back a wooden panel and stepped through.
Cool, fresh air hit me like a hammer as I stepped up to follow him. In all my life I couldn’t remember anything feeling that good before.
We were in a good-sized room, at least fifty paces across, that was completely empty of every stick of furniture. It was simply four walls of stone, a stone floor, and a stone ceiling. From the looks of it, the door we had come through was the only door in the place. And there were no windows. Where the wonderful fresh air was coming from I had no idea.