He gave her arm a squeeze. He enjoyed the feel of her skin, enjoyed how soft and pliant it was.
She eased closer, pressing her chest firmly against his back. “Speaking of hiding… In case there are spiritstriders down here, couldn’t we have done that while waiting for the others to try and dig us out? I thought when you’re lost, you’re supposed to just sit tight and await rescue.”
“No one will know we are missing until next suncrest. And even if they come most fast, it will take days to clear the stones without delvers, if they are able to at all. Perhaps eightdays, if the rockfall went beyond the crystal garden.”
“Oh. And the food was?—”
He heard her mouth snap shut, cutting off whatever words she might’ve said, but he understood where her thoughts had gone. The food she and Ahgratar had brought was buried beneath the rubble. Lost, along with their thornskull companions. He and Callie had nothing except themselves, whatever she carried in her pack, and the few tools on his belt.
“We must go on,” he said, instilling the firm words with as much gentleness as he could. Because he knew, in the end, the gods wouldn’t do anything for them. Urkot and Callie had to keep moving forward, had to search, had to fight, had to survive, through their own strength and willpower.
The only thing that would get them out of this place was each other.
Eventually, the sound of the stream changed, becoming layered with an echoey hissing. Urkot discovered why when they reached the end of the tunnel.
There, the water flowed over a cliff, pouring into a deep crevasse.
Bracing his hands against the wall, he peered over the edge. Darkness shrouded the bottom.
Callie made a distressed sound and tightened her grip on him. “Um, the plan is to not go down there, right?”
“Right,” he agreed, easing back.
A faint air current flowed from somewhere above, caressing his hide and the hairs on his legs. He raised the crystal in his hand, scanning the walls of the pit.
“So what’s the plan now?” Callie asked. “Do we need to go back and follow the stream the other way?”
His gaze halted on an opening across the gap, several segments higher than their current position. He dragged his eyes up to the ceiling, which was another couple segments higher. Its stone was fraught with crevices and irregularities that would make for ample grips. It would be a long, slow climb across, but they had no other choice.
“We go on,” he said.
“You said we’re not going in the pit.”
“We will not. We go up and across.”
“Wait, what? What do you meanacross?”
Urkot pointed up at the opening on the other side. “There.”
Callie rose and leaned over his shoulder, her curls tickling his hide as she squinted to see. Urkot held the crystal higher. He often forgot that humans had poor vision in dim light.
“Oh fuck,” she rasped. “You want us to go up there? Like, across this gaping pit?”
“Yes.”
“But there’s no path! And it’s too far to jump, even for a vrix.”
“Not jump. Climb.” Urkot backed away from the edge and stepped onto the solid cave floor.
“Climb? Urkot, I can’t climb that. There’s nothing to even climb.”
The fear and uncertainty in her voice was like a thorny vine constricting his hearts, squeezing and piercing deeper with each word. Reaching an arm back, he offered her a hand. She took it;he felt her arm trembling before he helped her down from his hindquarters.
Once she was on her feet, he turned to face her, placing his hands on her shoulders. She met his gaze with wide eyes.
“You will not climb, Callie,” he said.
Her eyes flicked toward the chasm.
