Chapter 22 #2
“Oh,” she whispered, “if I could only close my eyes now.”
“The floor is too uneven.” He started down slippery steps, dropping several feet below.
He stopped at a narrow landing. The cave walls had given way to a black emptiness, and he grabbed Tashama’s hand as he examined a place in the rock where there was a low, narrow opening with only enough room for an average-sized man to crawl on his belly.
“I cannot.” Tashama balked.
“I won’t leave you behind, Tashama.” He lifted her chin. Her eyes moistened with tears. Her lips quavered, and he pressed his mouth to hers and kissed her hard. Squeezing the breath from her chest, he wrapped his arms around her. “Come, I’ll go first, but you must follow close behind.”
She nodded as a tear cascaded down her cheek. He kissed her hand, then knelt before the opening. Then he shoved the lantern in front of him and began the arduous crawl through the low passageway. After he had made it some distance, he called to her, “Are you all right?”
“My gowns.” She choked on the words.
The fear in her voice disheartened him as he longed to comfort her, but his only hope was in getting through to the other side, where they would be able to stand together. “Your gowns?” he asked.
“I can barely maneuver in them.”
He’d never considered the trek Tashama would have had to make dressed as she was. “Can you pull them up a bit?”
“There’s not enough room for me to twist even one of my arms back to do anything with them. My shoes keep hanging up on the hem of my skirts as I try to push forward.”
“Can you go back?”
“No!” The anguish in her voice indicated she was ready to break.
“Tashama,” Aleron coaxed, “we’ll continue as slowly as it takes us. I won’t leave you behind.” She lay her head on her arms as she sobbed aloud. “Tashama.” Her sobs drowned out his voice, and he waited until her sobs had quieted.
“Tashama, let us try some more.”
“I cannot,” she whispered.
“Reach out and touch my foot.” The tips of her fingers touched his felt boot.
His heart was warmed by the feel of her hand clutching his foot.
“Listen. I will crawl a little farther, then you’ll do the same.
I want you to touch my foot when you have reached me, then when you’re ready, we’ll begin again. “Tashama?”
“Yes,” she whispered.
He moved several inches down the path and took a deep breath as he felt her hand slip from his boot. When he felt he had gone far enough, he said, “All right, Tashama.”
Her skirts rustled as she tried to follow him, and then after several minutes had passed, she touched his foot.
“We’re doing just fine, Tashama.” He waited while she caught her breath. Her slender fingers touched the softness of the top of his suede shoes, and he hated to pull away from her, knowing she drew comfort from making contact with him in the tomblike passage.
“Are you ready?”
“Yes.”
He inched his way farther.
For over an hour, they crawled in this manner, and then she sniffled. He tensed. “It shouldn’t be much longer.”
“I cannot go much farther. I cannot. What if it dead ends? We cannot crawl backwards. Oh, Aleron, I cannot do it.”
“It won’t dead-end. There’s fresh air ahead. My flame flickered.”
“I cannot smell the fresh air.” Her tone of voice suggested the notion had lifted her spirits slightly.
“We can do it, Tashama.” He continued to crawl.
Only a few feet away, he discovered an opening, no more than a quarter-sized round, leading up through the caves, and through this, a tiny ray of light filtered.
He took a deep breath as he grew concerned about how Tashama would view the finding when she reached his location. He moved forward again.
When he paused some distance from the shaft of light, he waited for her to catch up, but when she didn’t touch his foot in the time he had calculated she should have reached him, he called out to her, “Tashama, are you nearly to me?”
She whispered back as she held her hand to the light, “The breath of fresh air.”
“Yes, but my flame flickered again.” Though he hated to deceive her, he feared he might lose her to the shaft of light. “There must be more fresh air in front of us. Come to me, Tashama. I feel better when you’re able to touch me.”
“The light feels good on my fingers.” She examined the way it bounced off her fingertips as she wiggled them through the light.
“Tashama,” he said in desperation as he watched her, “I heard the tinkling of a water sprite. There must be water ahead.”
She turned her small face toward him. “What did she say?”
“I cannot understand them. You must come this way and tell me what they say.”
“They’ll know the way out.”
After several tense moments, she touched his boot.
He sighed deeply. “You don’t know how much it means to me to be able to feel your touch again, Tashama.”
“I don’t hear the water sprite.” She cocked her head to the side. “Are you sure that is what you heard?”
“Yes, just like at the lake. Are you ready?”
“Yes.” This time her voice showed resolve.
He moved much farther ahead this time as he could hear her struggling to keep up with him. He smiled as he felt her touch his boot much more quickly this time, and after allowing her a shorter rest, he continued again.
For nearly another hour, he made the crawl with encouraging words concerning the sounds the water sprites had made, while she, so desirous of finding them, followed him in earnest. Then, as the narrow opening spilled out into a cavernous structure, he stared into the cave.
“We’re here, Tashama.” He looked for a way to get to the floor of the cave, some 60 feet below them.
“And the water sprites?”
Her hand wiggled his foot. He smiled. “I hear running water nearby and can smell the fresh water flowing from above ground into the cave.”
“Let me see.” She pushed the sole of his foot to get him to move.
“The climb down looks awfully dangerous. Let me find a way out of here, then I’ll guide you.”
She waited while he pulled himself from the narrow passage that widened at the mouth, then she crawled forward. When she arrived at the opening, she took a deep breath. Aleron clung with his fingernails, gripping the moss-covered rock below her, the tips of his boots poked into willow footholds.
She stared in disbelief. “Oh, Aleron,” she whispered. “However did you manage to climb out of here?” A rock jutted out from the passageway, and she reached up and touched it. He, meanwhile, contemplated how to bring her out of the passage safely.
“I don’t have much to hold onto here.” He climbed toward her. “I’ve contemplated having you climb onto my back, but I’m afraid you might pull me from my meager holds. I’m not sure you’ll be strong enough to pull yourself up by the handhold above your head. That’s how I came out in the first place.”
“I will have to try, will I not?” She sat at the edge of the opening. She dangled her feet over the edge, then turned slightly to grab hold of the rock. Placing her weight on her arms, she dangled precariously against the wall.
“Your toes will not reach the next step. Try to reach for the next handhold to the right of your shoulder.”
She looked at the rock, then reached down as her toes slipped against the rough surface, and her arms wearied. “I cannot hold on much longer.” Her breath came quickly.
“To your left now. There’s a place for your left hand just beneath your left shoulder.”
She looked down, then reached for the next rock, but nearly lost her grip with her right hand as she scrambled to get her footing.
He pushed her left foot into a stirrup-like formation.
“We must keep going, Tashama. You do not have the strength in your arms to make such a climb, and you’re already shaking quite a lot. I will guide you.”
“Okay.” She waited for him to find the next best move. Then, as he found it, he reached for her leg and tugged in his direction.
She crouched to relocate her foot to the new location as he sighed deeply. “And your right foot, just a little below that.”
For twenty minutes, they made the climb down, then as they neared a curtain of emeralds, Tashama sensed the arrival of the elves.
She turned her head in their direction as they entered from across the cavernous room.
“The Elorians say the dragon wasn’t at home for the first time in a hundred years at this time of day.
He was chasing a female when they arrived.
And the passage through to Karthland was blocked. ”
“Blocked?” the prince said.
“Yes, they found the passage that led into this cavern, but they say Valmor and Loran are not far behind. The Elorians will follow the path we have taken and return to Ramoria. They don’t fear small spaces like I do.”
“And us?”
Tashama inclined her head to the elven leader. “He senses there is a waterfall and an underground lake nearby. I must see this water sprite that has spoken to you so often.”
The prince and she continued along the curtain.
The elves crossed the cavern to where they had been and began the climb up the cliff.
Their fine agile bodies maneuvered the cliff like spiders clinging to their web.
She nodded to the leader and then ducked into a smaller room.
Dripping water made her smile. She ran across the moss-covered stone and knelt beside the bubbling water.
“Water nymph, what word have you for me?”
The nymph darted from the water. “He comes for you.” She fluttered about the prince’s head. “And for him. Loran is angry that you have made him take chase for so long.”
“How can we escape him?”
“There is no escape to Karthland from here, if that is what you seek.”
Tashama sat on her skirts. “What do you mean?”
“You will have to go the way you came.”
“We cannot.”
“Or face Loran, who follows close behind.”
Tashama shook her head.
“Or come for a swim with me.”
“But the prince cannot swim.”
“Then teach him. It is in your power to do so.”