“She’s not going to make it.”
Once again I tried to protest that I would be fine but I couldn’t so much as wriggle. “Belis, maybe we should—” Rhiannon broke off.
“No.” Belis’s voice was quiet but firm. “We’ll do another mile then reassess the situation.”
“Belis, she can’t even stand.”
Belis grabbed my wrists, lifting them above my head, thendraped them over her shoulder. Then she bent and scooped up my legs, shifting my whole weight onto her back until I was wrapped around her shoulders. I tried to force enough strength into my fingers to grab on but she caught my right hand in hers, tucking it against my legs to secure me.
“You can’t walk a mile like that!” Rhiannon hissed.
“Watch me,” Belis retorted. She grabbed her spear from where it was standing upright in the ash. “Come on, we’ve wasted enough time.”
She started forward, settling into a loping stride. I stopped trying to fight whatever had paralysed me and focused on taking deep, steady breaths. The dust in the air irritated my chest but I tried to draw on enough saliva to keep my throat from drying out. In a few minutes we passed into an area where the air was clearer, though the rotten-eggs stench of sulphur worsened. I ignored it, counting breaths in and out. Belis kept moving, taking long, steady steps forward into the darkness. I could hear Rhiannon following just behind us, hear the susurration of her boots sinking into the piles of ash.
After a while I found I could open my eyes again, though I shut them quickly before I grew dizzy. Gradually the strength seeped back into my muscles, filtering down my limbs into the tips of my fingers and toes. I patted Belis’s hand.
“You can put me down now, I think I can walk again.”
“You’re sure?” she said, though she sounded out of breath.
“I think so. I feel much better.”
Belis knelt and I slid down off her back. I held onto her shoulder with one hand while I found my feet, letting the blood recede from my head.
“You’re recovered?” Rhiannon asked. I found a wobbly smile.
“Yes, thank you. I don’t know what came over me.”
“This land is full of foul airs and vapours. It could have happened to any of us.”
I nodded. It was kind of her to say so, even if it wasn’t true. I was the weak one. She and Belis had kept going. I was useless, slowing down my friends, reducing our already slim chancesof success. Belis had tired herself out for my sake. They should have left me.
I shoved my thoughts aside; self-pity wasn’t going to help anyone now. “How much further?” I asked. Rhiannon nodded ahead of us.
“I’d say just over that crest.” She sniffed the air. “I can sense the magic, it’s very close.” Belis gripped her spear.
“I’m ready. Mallt?”
I patted the knife sheathed at my hip and tried to look fierce.
“Good. You and I will lead, keeping Rhiannon behind us. Stay quiet as long as you can but if something attacks then act on instinct. I will try and keep larger beasts at a distance with the spear, so you’ll have to mop up anything that gets past me.”
I nodded. Rhiannon stretched out her hands, sparks flying from under her fingernails. She looked surprisingly calm.
“All right, then,” she said. “Here we go.”
Chapter 15
We scrambled up to the top of the crest and peered over the edge. The land sloped downwards in a bowl shape, the base blocked from view by a thick blueish mist. I could hear streams trickling over the ground, and if I squinted I could make out the gouges the water had raked through the rocks. Belis tapped my shoulder and pointed at the nearest creek.
“We’ll follow that to the bottom. Stay close.”
She padded off through the piles of ash. I skipped after her. We ran low to the ground, trying to stay below the line of the horizon. I could see the vague shape of my companions ahead of me as we stumbled down the hillside into the heart of shadow. The valley was silent except for the murmur of the water and the swish of our feet as we walked through the ash.
The streams wound back and forth across the valley floor, carving a complex network of channels into the earth. The gaps of dry land got narrower and narrower until we had to jump between them. I eyed the water suspiciously. The creeks should be shallow but the water seemed to soak up the light as if it was fathoms deep.
In the centre of the bowl was a single hill, perhaps fifty yards across. Belis paused on the last footing before it, waiting for us to catch up.
