He tried not to think how hungry he was. Since their discovery that they were cut off, the group had been on “halt rations” that had grown steadily skimpier. Glandurg was not eating at all and Wiz suspected that half of Danny’s ration was going to June.
They were even short on monsters. It had been nearly two days since the last attack. Wiz wondered if that meant they were headed in the wrong direction, but the new Moira seeker was pointing resolutely the same way.
Wiz went around the corner and came face to face with a cloaked, hooded figure. He drew back and Malkin’s rapier sprang free before they realized they were seeing a reflection. Motioning Malkin to stay on guard, Wiz advanced, staff ready, toward the mirror. As he drew closer he saw it was no mirror. Instead there was a rough reflective coating on the rocky wall of the tunnel.
Wiz touched the glistening surface. “Ice,” he called back to the others. “Ice under a volcano.”
“Perhaps our enemy likes it cold,” Danny suggested as the group came close.
Malkin arched an eyebrow. “Makes it easier to keep the zombies fresh, no doubt.”
Wiz drew his hand under his cloak to warm it. “Or maybe it just makes things more uncomfortable for us.” He looked around “Well, let’s get going. They say exercise helps keep you warm.”
There was more ice as they went along. Here it glistened as a thin film on the rocky walls, there it made a treacherous coating over the floor of the tunnel. Occasionally there would be a solid vein of ice, filling a crack in the stone like some strange glistening mineral. Now the air was so cold the adventurers could see their breath before them.
Glandurg seemed unfazed, but the others kept then-cloaks wrapped tight around them. Still the cold seemed to steal through to sap their very strength and leave them weak and shivering.
Nor did the tunnel cooperate. It seemed as though every few steps they had to crawl over a pile of frozen debris or climb a slope so steep they must go on all fours or squeeze between unrelenting walls of rock. Places with level footing were few and far between. Even without the ice and cold it would have been difficult. With them it was exhausting. They saw and heard nothing for the rest of the day, save the occasional drip, drip, drip of not-quite-frozen water. Still, their senses were alert and straining and that added to their fatigue.
Malkin was on watch, staring out into the dark, thiefs senses alert. She neither turned nor moved as Danny came up behind her, but he knew she sensed he was there.
“Anything?”
She didn’t turn, only shook her head slightly.
With a slight scrape he slid in beside her.
“How do you stay warm like that?”
Malkin flicked a bit of a smile. “I don’t.”
“I can’t sleep,” Danny said softly.
Malkin nodded, but said nothing.
“Malkin,” he said at last, “do you think we’re going to be able .to rescue Moira?”
“That’s what we’re here for. That and to settle some scores with this thing.”
Danny gathered his courage. “Yeah, but do you think we’re going to be able to do it?”
“Are you so sure she wants to be rescued?” Malkin asked slowly.
“Of course Moira wants to be rescued.”
“Moira herself might, but this thing has only Moira’s body. The will is the Enemy’s. I am not sure it will turn her loose that easily. The Enemy went through a great deal of trouble to get her. He obviously had some purpose.”
“Yeah. Bait.”
Malkin nodded, eyes never leaving the corridor. “Perhaps that too. But I think Moira, or Moira’s body, plays a greater role in the Enemy’s plans than mere bait.”
“What are you getting at?”
“That we may not be able to rescue her. But I do not think we can afford to leave her here.”
“Jesus,” Danny breathed. “That’s awful! Have you talked to Wiz about this?”
“He has problems enough and this is one he isn’t going to think clearly upon.” She turned to face him. “But we must think upon it, and decide what we’re to do, should it come to that.”