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Then she recognizes her er is woled fro bark woke her Her left foot, wedged against the wall, had fallen asleep She sta the drea in it Best to let it rest for now

"Cohts along a tunnel that sloped steadily doard The barest lu on knobs of rock The growth gave off just enough light so that she could see her feet and hands and the di before and behind her Their guide was a htly dressed, as thin as a reed The tunnel ended abruptly at the lip of an abyss where a flimsy woven ladder vanished into the chass down?" asked Laoina

The guide lit two torches before bringing out rope A series of ladders linked ledge to ledge down a cliff face so vast that the low from the torches only made the cavern and rock wall bulk oht It was a laborious task to lower the dogs froht their ith torches, swaying at the ends of rope, that spat pitch and burning flakes of ash at erratic intervals Alain diddespite the pain ithand Adica took her turn as well, bracing, paying out line, catching the big bodies and letting theh that two people couldn’t stand one beside the other Her arms ached and her back was a belt of pain by the ti her eyelid The only s, perhaps aware of their predicahed as little

But Alain would never have left the dogs behind Nor would he ever abandon her

As soon as they were all safely to the bottoh their light was a forbidden luxury Laoina whispered prayers, and Alain spoke softly to the dogs in his own language Deep within the earth, the sweat cooled on her body and she shivered as a breeze brushed her face As waron’s breath and just as sulfurous, that breeze ht-headed To think even for a moment of the mountain of earth above her was to panic How could air alone hold up heavy rocks and the weight of spans of earth? Surely itdown on top of her head Fuht flashed into existence and winked out, disorienting her

In the instant when one of those lightning flashes illu before the cliff face as though he prayed He h and sweet

Light flooded the chas furiously, blind As abruptly, the light vanished The dogs barked A body bumped into her

"Holy One" The honorific sounded e, even squeezed by fear as it was now He slipped an armband over her hand and up past her elbow

"He says, you ive this to what creature comes to the summons, and tell them of Horn’s wishes" Laoina’s voice shook as she translated Adica had never heard her sound so frightened "Then they ain"

"What creature--?"

He scurried aithout answering She heard hi up the ladder

"He abandoned us," whispered Laoina hoarsely

"What does he fear?" asked Alain out of the darkness

The air eddied around thes set in round wind blew hot in her face, and she coughed until her eyes watered Light bloolow came in part fro softly on Alain’s arm

"Skrolin," she whispered

"Look!" Laoina stood clearly visible in the soft light The beads woven in her braids gleamed eerily She pointed toward a low tunnel so smoothly faced and perfectly ovoid that fear kicked Adica in the gut This was no natural tunnel Sorowled, standing stiffly, ears alert A bubble of light expanded out of the tunnel No human creature held that lamp, and no flame known to hulobe the creature carried, dangling froed, but Alain caught theth, straining and cursing

Adica had seen so many marvels that one more could not jolt her She had known since she was a child that e and unknowable creatures walked the Earth, and that hulimpsed the skrolin in the tunnels when the Cursed Ones had kidnapped her, but she had never seen one as close and as clearly as she did now