Fall; or, Dodge in Hell - Neal Stephenson Page 0,367

At all times this was happening not only in one place but in several, more often than not in the corner of one’s eye.

“There is a floor beneath it!” Pick affirmed. In the patches of light beaming out of the chaos they could see him wading out away from the wall of the fault. “Pluto caused it to be here, for this place was important to him and he passed through it often.”

“Passed . . . through it?” Lyne asked. He was cautiously following Querc, who was following Pick. The rest of the party did likewise. Prim understood how the conception had entered her mind of a luminescent, hissing lake in the darkness. The chaos was below as well as above them, so it was as if they were wading into a pool whose bottom could not be seen, but only felt by groping with the feet.

“There she is! Showing us the way!” Corvus exclaimed.

“She?” Prim asked. She had become distracted by a distinct whiff of pine forest.

“The light that moves!” Corvus said. His voice was changing midsentence—less human, more birdlike.

“Does anyone smell wood smoke?” Mard asked.

Corvus was now a giant talking raven again. Which seemed most impractical. “You don’t understand,” he said. “To get out of here we must have a guide star!”

Prim was now pretty sure she saw what he was seeing—and it was no star. It was indistinct, but female, with wings.

“Get me a rope end!” Corvus commanded. “And hold on for dear life!”

As it happened, ropes were practically the only thing they had left. Mard heaved a coil off of his shoulder, groped for its end, and held it up. Corvus snatched it in one talon as he flew by, then veered off in pursuit of the glowing will-o’-the-wisp. “Hurry! And stay together! All hands on the rope no matter what!”

As it turned out, the only one of those commands that Prim, for her part, was able to obey was the last. Keeping both hands on the rope was the only thing she could hold in her head during what came next. The notion of hurry meant nothing when time and distance had ceased to make sense, which became the case immediately when she tried to go where Corvus had gone. Staying together meant nothing at all. Not only did she not know where the others were, she did not even remember their names. All became pure chaos more than once. Sometimes there was nothing at all save the rope in her hand, and she had no way of guessing whether those times might have spanned centuries or mere heartbeats.

The first clear and steady sensation that came to her senses was that smell of lake water she’d caught whiffs of earlier. That, and the rope still in her hand. Light obtruded itself next, and it was steady light always in the same place. Hard ground was then under her feet. This had a natural unevenness, unlike the flat ledge made by Pick. Dark shapes interrupted the light: the silhouettes of a person and of a large bird.

All of those became constant enough that she was fairly certain of walking along a cave, headed toward its exit—which was the source of the light. And of the fragrance: the sharp scents of pine trees and burning wood, underlain by the heavier and more subtle aroma of lake water and of something that powerfully brought her in mind of Calla: leaves that had but lately fallen from trees and were lying damp and red on the earth.

All that surrounded her had now grown solid and real. There was no trace of chaos save the fog that was still beclouding her mind. But some of that was simple confusion as to where she was. The stony ground had many small ups and downs, but on the whole it ran gently downhill.

The cave broadened as they went along. The light that blazed into its entrance was as bright as the midday sun on the Asking, but far more inconstant; one moment it would shine directly into their faces, forcing them to fling up hands or arms to shield their eyes, the next it would be a darkness like the one they had just emerged from—yet with rays and glints stabbing and hurtling out of its midst. Prim noticed that the rope had gone limp in her hand. In a moment when a beam of light swept across the cavern’s floor, she saw it lying on the ground. Pick had dropped it.