Sidestepping the stream worked for a while, but the dry earth soon ended.
From wall to wall was water. Black, icy water.
Talen held the torch out. There was no way around it.
So be it. Sugar stepped into it. At first it only came to her ankles, but then it deepened and she found herself wading in spots up to her thighs, hoping with each step that the ground didn’t completely drop out from under her.
Her feet quickly began to ache from the cold. She had calluses built up from walking barefoot all summer, but they were not proof against the water and sharp points of the rocks.
She stumbled, caught herself, then stumbled again. She did not want to lose her grip on the tooth, and so let her knees take the brunt of the fall.
She landed on the edge of a stone underneath the surface of the water and cursed at the pain.
“Lords,” said Talen.
“I’m fine,” she said.
“No,” he said, “not that. Look.” He held the torch higher.
She pushed herself up and looked ahead. The pathway ended in a wall.
“Are you sure this is the right cave?”
“I’m sure,” she said. But then her courage faltered: maybe the thing climbed the walls. Furthermore, in many places the torchlight did not reveal this wall’s total height. Maybe the creature’s lair was up, not forward, and they’d already walked past it.
She took the torch from Talen and splashed forward. When she got to the wall, she held the torch up. The jagged wall stood perhaps twelve or fifteen feet high. Water dripped down from the ceiling. She could hear water splashing from above like a brook cascading over a small fall. She reached out and felt the slippery rock of the wall. There was no way they could scale it.
“There,” said Talen and motioned to the right. “We can get up that way.”
On her right the rock face was broken and free of slime. It looked like a narrow ledge joined up with the area above the wall.
“How are you going to get up that?” she asked.
“You go first, then pull me up with the rope.”
She looked at him. “I don’t know if your lame carcass is worth it.”
“Oh, it’s worth it,” said Talen.
She looked back up into the blackness. “It’s going to be up there waiting for me.”
“Maybe,” said Talen.
“And I can’t climb that holding the tooth in my hand.”
“No, you can’t. But I’ll hold the light for you.”
“Oh, that’s a big help.”
He shrugged.
“I’ll carry the torch in my teeth,” she said. At least then she’d have light when she got to the top. She put the hag’s tooth back into its case. Then she tied the case to her body. She didn’t take off the gauntlets. If something was up there she wouldn’t have time to retrieve the case and put them on. When she finished tying the case to her, she put the stem of the torch between her teeth, then began to climb.
If the creature caught them now they were lost.
There were plenty of foot-and handholds, but they were not as dry as they seemed. And her dripping clothes only added to the problem. But even if it had been dry, her feet and legs were still stiff and hurting from the icy water. Nevertheless, she rose. It was slick and slow going and she expected the monster to appear at any moment.
But then she reached the ledge. It was perhaps two feet wide and more than enough for her to sit on. She clambered over the edge, and then took the torch from her mouth and held it to see farther down the passage.
The ceiling seeped. Long stalactites and stalagmites had formed, looking like huge caramel teeth. Farther down, water poured out of a rent in the side of the corridor, then slid over the wall. Beyond that was blackness.
The ledge did indeed join that passage.
She untied the case, placed it on the ledge beside her, then threw down one end of the rope.
Talen tied the remaining torches into a bundle, and she hauled them up. When the torches were resting next to her, she held the light out for Talen.
“I can do it without a rope,” he said.
“It’s slicker than it appears,” she said.
“I can feel that,” he said. “Especially where you dripped.”
He climbed, gingerly at first, then began to proceed at a good pace. Soon he was almost to the top