We’d also have to pray Gneil and the others had made it up there as well. From what Bekkit had said, the ritual for officially concluding the exodus had to be conducted by my high cleric. Since the Augmentary offered no options for me to end it at the moment, I had to assume that was true.
“That’s a lot of ‘ifs’,” whispered Ket when I ran through our options. She seemed distracted again, and was gazing up through the hole as if she could see all the way up to the top if she looked hard enough. “I think you’re right though. This is our only chance.”
She started to drift up toward the hole.
I peered up into the darkness, considering the climb. Ris’kin could definitely manage it, though carrying my gem would make things a little trickier than usual. However, Longshank would definitely struggle somewhat. Perhaps if the hunter hung on to my avatar’s back, she could probably get us both up there, though carrying the gem might mean making two journeys.
The Exodus timer flashed obnoxiously in my vision.
Time remaining for Exodus: 4 hours, 39 minutes, 21 seconds
“Let’s go.”
But Ket drew reluctantly to a halt. “We should wait for the others.” It sounded as though the words pained her.
“The others?”
Ris’kin had also stopped to wait, despite my urging her to begin the climb. Her ears twitched. A moment later, a series of heavy splashes from behind was followed by the clatter of something being tossed onto the stone shelf.
When we turned around, Longshank was examining a piece of driftwood. Though gnarled and twisted, it also looked fairly solid, and was a decent match for his old leg. He nodded up at the two figures standing over him and began to bind the new limb in place.
Swift and Cheer looked even more bedraggled than usual. Whereas Ris’kin’s fur and Longshank’s clothes were damp but not wet, the scavengers were dripping water. Given that there were no other entrances other than the one in the ceiling, it was apparent they’d swum beneath the water to get here, and had braved the current—and the fangfins—to look for materials that would help patch up our hunter.
Both of them glanced at Ris’kin, who also nodded at them. Swift’s eyes fell upon the gem tucked under my avatar’s arm. The scavenger rolled her eyes, then shrugged and dropped the other bits of wood she’d been carrying—presumably they’d been intended to repair the ark, but the savvy scavenger recognized immediately that they were no longer needed. Despite her obvious annoyance at her wasted efforts, I also detected some relief. I doubted she’d been looking forward to getting roped into sharing the load of the cumbersome ark.
Cheer had already donned her boots—which I now noticed had been left on the edge of the stone shelf—and was squeezing water from her hair. Longshank finished affixing his new driftwood limb, and Ris’kin and I reached out a hand to help him stand. He tested his weight on the leg and seemed satisfied.
I looked around at our small party. The three gnomes were wet, dirty, and tired. Separated from the rest of their tribe, they were nonetheless ready for whatever was about to be thrown at them next, and I was glad to have them here.
Ket alighted on Ris’kin’s left shoulder, and pride flashed from her through our bond. Then she took off again, leading the way up the shaft and into the mountain.
Fifty-Six
Unscorched
Corey
The ascent was steep and uncomfortable.
The muscles in our neck ached. Without the squirrel to watch her right side, Ris’kin tended to keep her head turned in that direction, the better to allow her remaining eye a wider field of vision in front of her. She was also chilly; it felt like her fur still hadn’t dried all the way through, the cold damp tunnels seeming to trap the water rather than air it out.
Though Longshank limped along with his usual stoic determination, I could see he was shivering beneath his still-damp upper-body armor. Bringing up the rear, Swift and Cheer’s chattering teeth provided a constant accompaniment that made it feel like we were being pursued by a pair of angry castanets.
The shaft opened out into another cave, just a little larger than the one below. At first glance it seemed we’d already hit a dead end, and I was preparing to retrace our steps and attempt the futile long way around when Swift disappeared through the wall.
A closer look revealed a crevice in the rock, almost invisible unless you were standing right in front of it. The rest of us followed the scavenger through it with ease, emerging into a wider passage.
I was already lamenting the loss of my god’s-eye vision. Though my Sphere was of course limited, in that ethereal form I’d still have been able to pass through the wall easily and discover the way out myself. Thankfully, I had reliable allies. Hopefully Swift, Cheer, and Longshank’s skills—and Ris’kin’s, of course—would get us to where I no longer could.
The entrance through which we’d just passed was similarly invisible from the other side, naturally concealed by folds in the rock. Natural chance, or a cleverly constructed secret exit? There didn’t seem to be any marks indicating that the stone had been worked, but perhaps that was the point.
We followed the passage upward past many twists and turns and branching tunnels. I would doubtless have spent far too long agonizing over which path to take, but each time we were faced with a choice, Ket led the way unerringly. She seemed in a sort of daze again, staring dreamily around her and flitting between different points to touch the rocky walls and ceiling. Almost like she was greeting old friends.
Every time I asked her if she was all right, she brushed the question off, saying only that we needed
