"Perfect timing," Morek said, quickly gathering his things as if he couldn't wait to get away from the girl. "Will I see you later?" he asked her.
She offered him a bright smile. "After I get washed as well. My group is sitting over there." She pointed. "You can see when we are back and join us."
He nodded, and then the three of us joined the rest of the men of Lysara's group.
We headed deeper into the cave, following a male guide who was carrying a torch.
The water source turned out to be a clear pool fed by an underground spring, and it was illuminated by several torches mounted on the cave walls.
Following the girls' advice, I pulled a washcloth out of my pack, wet it in the cold water, and then rubbed a piece of soap on it. I took off my shirt and started on my armpits. Codric did the same, but Morek seemed to have other ideas.
The guy stripped down completely, grabbed a bar of soap from his pack, and then dove into the pool with a whoop, the soap clutched in his hand.
"Idiot show-off," Codric muttered. "He'll freeze his ass off and get sick."
"Come on, you two," Morek taunted from the pool, pretending that he was doing great and somehow keeping his teeth from chattering. "The water is great."
"Yeah, I bet." Codric kept rubbing the washcloth over his chest.
When two more Elucians followed Morek's example, stripping and jumping into the pool, Codric and I exchanged glances.
We couldn't let these Elucians best us. Our pride wouldn't allow us. We had to prove that Elurians weren't as soft as they all thought.
Before I could talk myself out of it, I started stripping down. Codric muttered a curse under his breath and did the same. I grabbed a bar of soap and dove into the pool.
The cold hit me like a physical blow, driving the air from my lungs. Every muscle in my body seized up, and for a moment, I thought I might die. But then survival instinct kicked in, and I forced myself to move, to swim, and to prove I could handle it.
Codric's splash beside me sent a wave of icy water over my head, and when he surfaced, his teeth were chattering so hard that I could hear them over the splashing of the other men who'd followed our lead.
"This was a terrible idea," he managed to say between chatters.
I couldn't argue with that assessment. We washed as quickly as possible, but by the time we climbed out, I couldn't feel most of my extremities. The cave air that had seemed so warm before now felt like a freezing wind against my wet skin.
"Look at those softies," Morek laughed as we frantically dried off with washcloths and scrambled into clean clothes. "Can't handle a little cold water?"
"That's not water," Codric said, his teeth still chattering. "That's liquid ice."
We practically ran back to our fire, both of us reaching for our sleeping bags and wrapping them around ourselves. I huddled as close to the flames as I dared, trying to control the shaking.
"Poor baby," Kailin said with a barely contained laugh. "You look cold."
"Your observational skills are as astute as your talent for understatement," I managed to say through chattering teeth.
Morek returned with his usual swagger and a bright smile on his face. Sitting down on top of his sleeping bag, he braced hiselbows on his knees. "Crazy story time!" he announced, seeming completely unaffected by the icy plunge.
I looked at him skeptically. "What do you mean?"
"On the second night of the pilgrimage, it's tradition to share stories based on our hallucinations. One person starts, then the next person continues the tale, and so on."
That sounded suspiciously like something he'd just made up. I glanced at Kailin for confirmation.
"I've never heard of this tradition," she said, but there was amusement in her eyes.
"My cousin told me about it when he came back from his pilgrimage last year. We even played it a few times." Morek shifted to get more comfortable. "I'll start. Once upon a time, there was a mountain goat who wanted to be a dragon…"
32
KAILIN
