Whyborne
I didn’t know how long we lay there amidst the squirming, crawling mass of umbrae. Eventually the frantic alarm seemed to die down. There came the hiss of displaced air, and the soldier gave off attempting to breach the seals and glided back to the depths of the nest.
When I was certain it had left, I heaved up, shoving aside the workers. Their slime slicked my clothing and skin, and I shuddered. “Are you all right, Christine?” I asked.
“I’m fine.” But her voice shook on the words.
“That was foolish of you.” Incredibly my dropped lantern hadn’t gone out, so I went to retrieve it. “You should have run.”
She sat up shakily. I disliked her pallor and the way she winced when she tried to use her injured arm. “I’m not abandoning you! Honestly, how could you even think I’d agree to such a thing?”
“Because there isn’t any other choice.” I went to the open doorway and gently laid my hand on the barrier even I couldn’t see. “I’m trapped in here, as surely as the umbrae.”
“But why? You aren’t an umbra.”
“No.” I shook my head. “But you heard Turner. You saw how the workers react to me.”
Christine scowled at the seemingly empty air. “It doesn’t make sense, though. You said the carvings and the buildings remind you of the temple you glimpsed at the bottom of the sea. But these umbrae surely didn’t build it. Or this. I mean look at them.” She gestured at the nearest, which drifted across a wall, like a stingray gliding over the bottom of a sandy bay. “Whatever race created the city and trapped the umbrae inside surely wasn’t quite so...alien.”
“I don’t know.” I rubbed tiredly at my eyes. “I don’t know what the link is between the umbrae and the ketoi. But there is something here...I can’t really say what for certain, but I feel it against my mind. I think the umbrae communicate by some sort of telepathy.”
Her eyes widened in alarm. “Like the dweller with the ketoi?”
“Yes.” I dropped my hands. “When we were in Egypt, Griffin ended up psychically linked to the umbra there, and...oh dear.”
Christine’s eyes widened. “Do you think that has something to do with the voices he’s been hearing?”
“Voice,” I corrected. “I...I don’t know. If there is some remnant of the link still active...blast. And the dreams he had, of being the daemon of the night. What if they weren’t dreams but memories? Its memories?”
“Dreams?” she asked in alarm.
“It doesn’t matter—I’ll explain later. Curse it all, why didn’t I put the pieces together earlier?”
She snorted. “Why on earth would you? It isn’t as if you knew what the creatures down here were. Why would you connect the umbrae in this frozen wasteland with something we encountered amidst the burning desert?”
“I suppose.” I wasn’t so certain, but argument would be pointless at this juncture. “When we were running from the daemon, er, umbra, beneath the lightless pyramid, I tried to injure it with fire. It...screamed, and I felt the sound in my head. As did Griffin. It made sense for him to do so because of their link, but me? At the time, I didn’t think anything about it.”
“You were rather busy trying not to die. I suppose you can be excused,” she replied dryly. “Do you think there’s any connection between the dweller’s ability to touch the minds of ketoi and hybrids, and whatever is down here?”
“I haven’t the slightest idea.” I spread my hands out. “And even if I did, it doesn’t change the basic facts. I’m trapped here and I can’t leave.”
“At least there’s air moving. Perhaps there’s another entrance we might find?” she suggested.
“We don’t need to be finding anything. You have to leave, Christine.” I swallowed. “I know you feel it would be disloyal, but Griffin and Iskander are still in danger. They need your help.”
She shook her head. “All of which is well and good, old fellow. But I’m not going far on my own with this arm.”
“Blast!” I should have known something was wrong simply because she hadn’t yet stood up. I hurried to her side. “Take off your coat and let me see.”
“No—I think it’s stopped bleeding, finally.” She shifted her weight with a wince. “If we peel everything off, it will only start up again. But there’s no way I could climb up a rope, even if they left one for me. And the mouth of the ice cave is likely to be near the foot of the glacier. I’m not certain I could make it that far without assistance.”
I sank down beside her, feeling helpless. “What shall we do? We can’t just sit here and wait to die.”
“Don’t be absurd,” she said briskly. “As I said before, the air is...well, not fresh exactly, but moving. Surely there’s another way out.”
“If so, why aren’t the umbrae using it?” I asked dubiously.
“How should I know? Perhaps they are.” She scowled. “Assuming we can believe anything that liar Jack said, the natives have been smart enough to avoid this area. Before Hoarfrost camp, who would even have been here to know? The umbrae could be leaving all the time, foraging on the mountain, then returning.”
“True,” I admitted.
“And if it isn’t the case, we know the glacier sheered off upper portions of the city. If it nicked any of these underground passages, we may have a way out.”
“Only if there’s a tunnel.”
“If there isn’t, you’ll melt the damned ice!” she snapped. “I don’t care how long it takes—you and I are both getting out of this hellish prison. Do you hear me?”
I couldn’t help but smile. “I do.”
“Then let’s go.”
I helped her to her feet. “I can manage on my own,” she said gruffly.
“Very well. But let me go first, and for heaven’s sake, stay close to me. It seems my presence will serve to keep them docile, but if you stray too far I’m afraid they’ll realize they’re being invaded.”
“A good point,” she allowed. “They aren’t very bright, are they?”
“I don’t suppose they have to be. Even the one in Egypt merely followed the compulsion laid on it by others.” I shrugged. “How intelligent is an individual ant, after all?”
“Not very...oh.”
The deepening of her pallor alarmed me. “Christine? Are you all right?”
“I just had a thought. About the image on the door, and what Turner thought it signified.”
“The Mother of Shadows.” I’d almost forgotten in all the panic and fear.
“We’ve seen soldiers and workers. And you said Griffin heard a voice.” She gestured vaguely at the creatures as they crawled over and past one another. “What if they have a queen?”
Ice touched my veins, as if the glacier had found its way inside me. “Oh dear,” I said.
“Indeed.” Christine nodded toward the depths. “And with that cheery thought to inspire us, let’s try to find our way out of here, shall we?”