I worried my lip. “I don’t know how we’re ever going to sleep tonight, even if we do build fires against the tunnel openings. What if they bring their hordes back to attack us? I don’t want a hundred goblins swarming that cavern.”
I tried to think of what we could do. We could camp outside on the ledge, but that didn’t guarantee safety in case the goblins decided to come back en masse. Climbing in the dark seemed like a stupid idea, but was it any more dangerous than hanging around like a group of sitting ducks?
Thornhold seemed to sense my hesitation.
“I suggest we try Reggie’s spell. Then, if it brings down the rocks and leaves the cave intact, we can spend the rest ofthe night there near the exit. If there are aftershocks, we can scramble outside without worrying about getting crushed.”
I glanced over at Ray and Brynn, both of whom nodded. I didn’t like the idea, but majority ruled.
“All right. Let’s give it a go. Reggie, how long a period do we have between the time you cast the spell and the time it fires?”
“If I remember right, about ten seconds. I suggest that the four of you stay near the door. All cast it, then run like hell back to you. I’m sure I can make it in time.” He sounded frightened, but seemed entirely willing to take the chance.
“All right, let’s set it up. What do you need?”
As Reggie began to prepare the components for the explosion, it occurred to me that we would probably be better off staying outside after this. The mountains were most likely crawling with enemies, and next time it might not be low-level goblins that we found ourselves facing.
If anyoneever needed to roll a twenty on a twenty-sided die, it was Reggie. Unfortunately, the explosion ended up being—at best—a three. As we scrambled off the ledge, I thanked the gods that we’d gotten our gear together,just in case,because it ended up being ajust in casescenario.
One moment, we were all gathered at the entrance to the cavern as Reggie finished the spell. Ten seconds later, we—including Reggie—were running for our lives. The entire cavern began to come down the moment the spell hit, and the ledge itself began to crack under our feet.
“Run!” I screamed, pushing them toward the mountain path.
And we ran.
We managed to get off the ledge before the entire rock shelf fell away. Then the outer side of the mountain began to crumble, and an avalanche of rock and snow tumbled down the side. Worried that we’d have another avalanche to contend with—on the main path—I flipped on my watch light to try to pierce the darkness. We were still a few hours from dawn, and while the snow provided its own natural brightness, it was hard to see anything.
“We need help,” I said. “We can set up our gear out here, but it’s going to be cold the rest of the night, even if the mountain quiets down.”
“We don’t have much choice,” Thornhold said. “We can’t take a chance on hiking through the dark.” He paused, turning back to the mountainside where the ledge had stood. The rockslide had come to a halt, with just a few trickles of snow and pebbles left. After a few minutes, he turned back to me. “I suppose we’ll just have to take our chances. Let’s set up the biggest tent we have and huddle away from the cold.”
I nodded, thinking about how stupid we’d been. “Yeah, let’s do it.”
As we made camp, it hit me—this was life or death. We could have died in that explosion or the avalanche. Even though I knew that, the realities of our situation were being brought home in more ways than one.
Sighing, I went to work, helping the others as we set up a makeshift camp on the trail. With luck we’d see morning light, and now we knew better than to set off a potential death trap while we were in the mountains. We had a long way to go to reach the Summer Kingdom, and I wanted to get there in one piece.
CHAPTER 54: THE LONG CLIMB BEGINS
As we huddledin the tent, our body heat helping to warm each other up, I turned to Brynn. “I didn’t ask you. Are you okay after the goblin encounter?”
She shrugged. We had one of the watch lights on for the rest of the night so we could see. Everything that had happened made sitting in the dark emotionally problematic.
“Yeah, they scratched me a little, but they weren’t able to hurt me much. However, I can tell you this: I think they’re massing for an attack somewhere. I heard them talking about it, but I couldn’t make out who they were planning on attacking.” She huddled in her bedroll.
We had forgone setting someone out to keep watch. The night had taken its toll, and we decided to just take a chance and try for some rest. Luckily, the rest of the night went smoothly, even though it was cold.
Morning, we cautiously pushed outside the tent and looked around. There were still signs of the avalanche and quake, and the ledge was gone. I peeked over the edge, seeing a tangle of rocks and snow below. The cavern was entirely filled in, and snowflakes—which were drifting down—were slowly clinging to the new wall of rockfall debris that used to be the entrance.
“Well, that takes care of that,” I said. “If we come to more caverns, if there are any tunnels inside, we can’t chance taking cover. Meanwhile, the grade of the path is slowly increasing.”
“We can’t exactly start a fire right here,” Thornhold said.
“No, but there is something we might be able to do,” Ray said. “Reggie has a sparkfire spell. We could build a small fire inside the largest pan, then nestle a small container for hot water inside and still have some tea. If we use a couple of the smaller tents as tarps, we might be able to generate some heat inside.”
“That’s an idea. I don’t want to build a fire inside the largest tent because of the smoke buildup,” I said. “That’s a good way to invite carbon monoxide poisoning. Not many people realize that a campfire can be a source of it.”
“True enough,” Ray said. “If we were camping for more than a day or so, we could build an igloo, but that’s not practical for each day. I guess we’ll just have to camp on the side of the path. There don’t seem to be many travelers.”
