his footing slipped and he lurched to the side, then backward. He tried to grab the ledge with his bad arm, and winced. She reached out for him, but instead of grabbing her hand, he grabbed a thick handful of her hair.
His grasp caught her off guard and she was yanked toward him.
Talen shouted his dismay, his eyes wide.
They were both going to pitch over the ledge.
Then Sugar caught a seam in the rock on the ledge with both hands and pushed back. It was like a man trying to tug a donkey, except in this instance Talen was the man, holding on to a fistful of her hair, and she was the donkey.
He twisted, and for a moment she thought his weight would pull them over, or pull her hair out, but then he got a secure foothold. The change in balance was enough for her to reach up and grab his arm, and then with a mighty tug, pull him over the brink and onto the ledge.
Talen finally let go of her hair and pulled himself to sit with his back against the wall. He held his shoulder and grimaced.
Sugar felt her stinging scalp. “You couldn’t have grabbed my outstretched hand? Lords, I don’t know who’s going to kill me first—you or the monster.”
“I’m doing my best.”
The way he said it made it sound as if he were doing his best to kill her. She looked over at him and laughed. It was unexpected. Probably nothing but nerves. Yet it felt good.
Talen finally understood what he’d said and laughed with her.
“I guess we could look on the bright side,” she said. “If it wasn’t already aware, your yelling has certainly alerted the monster to our presence. So that will save us some walking.”
“There you go,” he said. “Now give me the torch. If I’m going to meet my death, it’s going to be with thawed toes.”
That was a good idea. They both turned and sat cross-legged facing each other with her holding the torch between their bare feet. Talen’s back faced the main corridor beyond.
The warmth was wonderful.
“That’s going to be a bugger climbing back down,” he said.
“No. Next time, seeing how poor a climber you are, we’ll just be sure to use the rope. I think I’ll tie it around your neck.”
He smiled.
Something sounded in the corridor behind Talen’s back.
Talen slowly reached for the torch and took it from her hand.
Sugar opened the case and withdrew the hag’s tooth. There was not enough room to stand up, and she doubted whether the monster could fit on this ledge, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t climb up just as they had.
They waited until the torch had burned through the rope and now was little more than a fire stick.
“I don’t think anything’s there,” said Talen.
“If something were,” she said, “then at least we could get this over with.”
“Well, we won’t get over anything squatting here,” he said.
She looked at him. He was not some strapping armsman. Not a formidable warrior. But she was happy he was with her.
“What?” he said.
“We’re going to have to light another torch.”
Talen nodded. He took one from the bundle tied with rope and lit it.
“Let me go first,” she said. “The last thing I want is for the monster to snatch you and leave me trying to strike it in the dark.”
“What are you going to do? Crawl over me?”
“Exactly,” she said.
When he saw she was serious, he lay on his belly. She crawled over him, careful to not to touch his ribs or shoulder, and then moved along the ledge until it joined the main passage and they could stand up.
Talen held the torch up and scanned the ground. “There,” he said and pointed to a spot on the tunnel floor. “And there.”
Sugar looked at the ground. There were a brief series of regular markings on the floor. They were partial footprints. Not a human’s. But something two-legged that was large and twisted its right foot slightly as it walked. “We’re in the right place,” she said. “That’s a comfort.”
Talen held the torch higher, illuminating the path beyond the stalactites.
The cavern walls here were much different from the ones below. They rose up to the ceiling in smooth lines with patterns carved into them.
“This is stone-wight work,” Talen said.
“Do you think this monster is one of them?”
“I don’t know.”
At her feet, covered in thick dust, were different-colored stones set in a geometric pattern. She wondered where the bat dung was. A cave