I itched, because all my hairs stood up on my arms, my thighs, the back of my neck. Even my bones tingled; my belly climbed up my throat. It was all I could do not to vomit. “Del—oh, hoolies—Del—”
“What is it? Tiger, what is it?”
I staggered back from the opening, trying not to retch. I also tried to wave Del off, but she followed anyway. “Don’t, bascha—wait—can’t you feel it?”
Maybe. Maybe not. But Del unsheathed Boreal.
It drove me to my knees. “I said wait—oh, hoolies, bascha—I think I’m going to be sick.”
But I wasn’t. I couldn’t be. There wasn’t time for it.
I got up, staggered a step or two, swung back around toward the cavern. “In there,” I gasped. “I swear, it’s in there—”
“What is, Tiger?”
“The thing we’ve been chasing. Sorcerer. Demon. Thing; I don’t know! I just know it’s in there. It’s got to be—and that’s where we have to go.”
Del looked at the cavern. Looked back at me.
“I know,” I said testily. “Do you think I like the idea?”
Del’s jivatma gleamed: pale salmon-silver. In answer, the dragon roared.
At least, it sounded that way; it was wind keening through the cavern, whining in cracks and crannies, then whooshing out of the opening to splatter our faces with stink.
“Come on,” I said unhappily, stepping into the cave. “Let’s get this over with.”
The weight of rock was oppressive. I stopped dead on the threshold.
“What?” Del asked; it fell away into dimness.
I waited, saying nothing. The feeling did not go away.
Del opened her mouth, then shut it.
Behind me yawned the sky. I wanted nothing more than to spin away from the cave and go out into the sky. To take myself from the dark. To walk on the dragon’s spine in the cold, clear air with the sun on my face. Even the Northern sun.
Still Del waited. Somewhere, so did the hounds.
I sweated. Shoved hair out of my eyes. Sucked a breath and spat, cursing myself for the weakness.
“Do you need light?” Del asked.
I looked at her sharply, saw comprehension in her eyes. She knew. She remembered, even though she hadn’t been there. She recalled the result too well.
“No,” I rasped.
“All I’d have to do is sing. My jivatma will give us light.”
I glanced at Boreal: thin silver promise in dimness. Light spilled into the mouth of the cavern from the day beyond, but it died too quickly to gloom. It lent the cavern an eerie insubstantiality, a sense of things unseen. The walls were pocked with shadows.
Light would alter everything. But we couldn’t afford it now. “No,” I told her curtly. “Let’s not offer any more magic to the hounds.”
She waited a moment. “Do you really think—”
“I haven’t the faintest idea.” I was snappish in discomfort. “I just figure it won’t hurt anything not to take any chances.”
Breath boomed in the dragon’s throat. The sound was deafening as air rushed by us toward the entrance. The roar sounded almost real, though both of us knew it wasn’t. It was nothing more than wind and smoke being blown or sucked out of the cave into the vast freedom beyond.
“Will you be all right?” Del asked.
“Leave it alone,” I snapped. I took a step toward the darkness, then came to an abrupt halt. “It’s gone.”
“Gone?”
“That feeling … it’s faded. A moment ago I could almost taste it, and now it’s faded away.” I frowned, turning in a slow revolution. “It was here … it was here—” I stabbed a finger downward, “—filling up this place … it was like a cistern choked with sand, spilling through all the cracks—only what I felt was magic—” I shook my head, frowning. “Now it’s all gone.”
Wind whined through the cavern. With it came the stink, and the wail of a distant hound.
I shut my hand on my sword hilt and slid the blade into freedom. “To hoolies with those hounds.” And led the way into darkness.
Thirteen
Down the dragon’s gullet—or so Halvar might have said. The ceiling dropped, the walls closed in, the darkness was nearly complete. Except for a sickly red glow that crept out of the depths of the dragon to illuminate our way.
A lurid carnelian light that reminded me of new blood.
The fear, for the moment, was gone. Movement provided the opportunity to set it aside, to think about something else. But I couldn’t quite forget it. It waited for me to remember so it could creep out again.
The throat fell away into belly; we left behind the gullet and entered a larger chamber. Del and I stopped short, then tightened grips on hilts.