Heartlight (14 page)

She ran to join the crystal, who indicated some subtle depressions in the snow.

“They look like footprints,” panted Kate. “Probably Spike’s.”

“That’s right.”

“What’s so important about that? I thought you made a big discovery.”

“The odd thing about these footprints,” explained Ariella, “is they don’t leave this area. I’ve searched all around, and there is no sign of Spike leaving here. Since he isn’t here now, that leaves just one alternative.”

“I get it!” exclaimed Kate. “So Spike went down into the tunnel—and made it deeper!” She paused thoughtfully. “But why would he go through so much trouble? Unless—”

“Unless he was going after your ring. Spike only digs when he’s forced to, or when he’s sure he’ll find something valuable. Otherwise, he wouldn’t dream of lifting an arm to dig. I’m sure he was trying to find your ring . . . and keep it for himself.” Ariella’s eyes darkened. “He wasn’t always like that. But ever since he lost his family in the great ice wall collapse, he’s been totally different. So full of bitterness. I’ve tried to bring him around, but it’s hopeless. I’m ready to give up.”

Kate pondered the gaping hole in the snow. “Grandfather said something once about PCL—about its special properties—oh, yes! He said PCL can melt through anything frozen! So if the ring was somewhere in the snow, it would have melted straight down—”

“And left a small hole behind!” finished Ariella. “That must be what Spike was following.”

“As well as a green tint in the snow,” added Kate. “I saw some of it myself down there.” Her brow furrowed in concern. “But following Spike isn’t going to be so easy. Digging straight down is one thing, but climbing straight down is another.”

“No problem,” declared Ariella. “Just follow me.”

The six-armed crystal moved to the mouth of the tunnel and positioned herself just as if she were going to sled down it. “Climb aboard and I’ll show you.”

Doubtfully, Kate sat on top of her.

“Give me a push!”

“But—”

“Trust me. Now, push!”

She followed the crystal’s command, and they slid over the edge. To Kate’s surprise, instead of falling straight down the tunnel, they began to float slowly downward, as Ariella curved her back like a perfect parachute. Gently they drifted deeper and deeper into the great bed of snow, twirling slowly as they descended. As they passed the point where the tunnel narrowed and dropped precipitously, the circle of light shrunk into nothingness above them.

“How far down does the snow go?” asked Kate, even as the tunnel grew totally dark.

“No one knows,” came the reply. “The People of the Snow have always asked that question. Many years ago, before I was born, a few brave explorers tried to find out. But none of them ever came back.”

“What’s that sound?”

A low, slow rumble rose to them from far below. It grew ever louder as they drifted downward, seemingly magnified by the blackness, until it soon filled the entire tunnel with its reverberations. Gradually it grew into a roar, louder than all the pipes of a great cathedral organ sounding simultaneously.

“What’s that—”

Splaaash!

They landed on the surface of a surging river. Suddenly Ariella became not a parachute but a raft, with Kate as her unwilling passenger.

“Ariella!”

Round and round they spun, as the swirling torrent carried them deeper into the caverns of this underground river, raging as it had raged for centuries beneath the silent snows of Nel Sauria. Irresistibly it flowed, far below the mountains and glaciers of the surface, ultimately to empty into the Bottomless Blue.

Onward they rode in the utter darkness of the cavern. At one point, the roof hung so low to the river that Kate was knocked backward and was suddenly submerged. Ariella grabbed her by the arm and struggled to hold on, as the cascading waters pummeled them. Numbed with cold, Kate tried desperately to breathe, but all she got was water. Finally, they bobbed up again and she filled her hungry lungs with air.

“Help!” she sputtered, but the din of the terrible torrent swallowed her words.

In the blackness, they could not tell that the river had now joined other rivers and that the cavern had widened immensely. Mighty stalactites, pinnacles of ice stretching hundreds of feet down from the ceiling, filled the darkened cavern like finely polished teeth.

Then, through the crashing waves, a dim light appeared. Weak and waterlogged, Kate thought it was only her imagination. She felt heavy enough to sink, too weak to struggle any more. Would she ever see Grandfather again? It seemed Ariella had saved her from one death only to join her in another.

Just then a blast of heated air struck them, as though a great furnace door had opened in their faces. In the same instant, the world suddenly grew bright—and Kate realized they were falling, tumbling over the edge of an enormous waterfall.

IX: The Bottomless Blue

At the top of the waterfall, Kate spied the vague outline of a twisted root dangling over the edge. She stretched for it, grabbing hold just as the great falls emptied into the basin below.

As she caught the root with one hand, she felt it sliding through her palm. She twisted in the torrent and reached for it with the other hand, as the force of the cascade bounced her like a ball. The root held fast, but her grip was tenuous.

“I’m slipping!” screamed Ariella, who was clinging desperately to Kate’s waist.

“Hold on!” cried Kate above the thunderous roar.

A sudden wave crashed against them. Kate was hurled to the side of the waterfall, where she struck a rock wall and lost her grip on the root. She tumbled down to a narrow ledge protruding from the mountainside.

Amidst the spray, she lay still for a moment. Slowly, she lifted her head, then scrambled to stand. Her ankle throbbed painfully.

“Ariella!” she called.

Her eyes followed the course of the frothing falls as it descended, falling freely for thousands of feet. Finally, it merged with a towering cloud of vapor rising from its base, and she could see no more.

Ariella was gone!

Kate slumped in a heap on the rocky ledge, mortified at her fate. She had meant to risk her own life, but not Ariella’s—and now she was lost. The ring was lost. Morpheus was lost. Everything was lost.

Tears swam into her eyes, mixing with the mist of the waterfall. Suddenly she felt a searing pain in her hand.

“Ow!” she cried, jumping to her feet. “That rock is hot.”

Then, for the first time, she looked beyond the spray to the landscape stretching before her. So great was her shock that for a moment she forgot about everything else. She stepped along the ledge away from the waterfall in order to get a clearer view.

There was no Bottomless Blue!

Instead of the wide blue ocean that Ariella had described, Kate could see only a roasting red desert beneath a rust-colored sky. From horizon to horizon stretched a single reach of baked rocks and burned soil. No liquid whatsoever moistened this searing cauldron, but for the seething stream of lava Kate saw Pouring from one volcanic cone in the distance. Into the burning basin flowed several powerful waterfalls like the one next to her, but none was more than a mere cloud of steam by the time it ultimately reached the desert floor.

Kate lifted her eyes from this desolate landscape to the glowing red disc above her head. Trethoniel dominated the sky. It radiated powerfully, even majestically. Yet . . . it seemed somehow different from here.

“Uhhhhh.”

She whirled around. What had made that sound?

There, lying in the shadows of the rocky ledge, lay the bent form of a snow crystal. She ran to see if it was—

“Spike!” Kate couldn’t hide her disappointment. “I thought—I thought maybe you were Ariella.”

“Uhhhhh,” moaned the crystal, struggling to sit up. “I’m just as glad to see you, Alien.”

Moving closer, Kate could see that a portion of his lower body was missing, and a long crack wound its way up the columnar crystal’s back. She reached to help him, but he swatted at her angrily.

“You keep your distance. It’s your fault I’m here. If you hadn’t talked about your precious ring—oh! That hurts! My only mistake was listening to you, Alien.”

“I didn’t mean—”

“And you’ve killed Ariella, too, haven’t you?” Spike tried again to sit upright, but slid back unsuccessfully. “Ah! These sizzling rocks are going to melt me in no time. I’ll disappear just like the ocean did—if it ever existed. I never should have listened to those stupid fairy tales!”

“Don’t you want some help?” asked Kate. “Maybe I can help you if you’ll let me.”

“Not on your life. Don’t touch me.” He groaned painfully. “What’s the use? I’m not going to last much longer—in this heat.”

“Are you really melting? Does that mean Ariella—”

“So she did come with you! You’ve killed her, Alien! Killed her for sure. Even if she made it to the valley floor alive, she’s been burned to a crisp by now. Those hot rocks down there . . . this place is one big oven. Snow People can’t survive in heat like this.”

Kate’s eyes again filled with tears. “I didn’t mean to hurt her,” she said sorrowfully. “I didn’t mean to.”

“That doesn’t help her much, does it? You did it to her—just like you did it to me.” A look of genuine sadness filled Spike’s long eyes. “It’s one thing for me to die; I probably deserve to melt, anyway. But Ariella! She stood by me after everyone else had given up trying. And I never got to tell her . . .”

Kate turned away from Spike and peered over the side of the ledge. A sheer rock face dropped precipitously below them. The ledge itself, while it bent upward for some distance along the ridge, stopped completely at the waterfall. There was no route to climb down, no way to reach Ariella.

“If you’re thinking about saving her, forget it!” snarled Spike. “She’s long gone. You’d better—ow! Uhhhhh . . . I’m getting weaker . . . by the second. You’d better think—think about saving yourself, Alien. You’re trapped here, too. I hope I live long enough to see—to see you melt.”

Kate turned again to the crumpled form of the snow crystal lying on the ledge. He looked as miserable as an abandoned child: alone, lost, and frightened.

Then, to her surprise, she spotted a faint outline of something on the rock wall above him. Was she hallucinating? It looked like some sort of carving, a petroglyph made by some ancient hand.

She moved sideways to see if a different angle made the image any clearer. There, indeed, she saw carved into the stone the unmistakable shape of a six-sided snow crystal.

“What are you staring at, Alien?”

“A carving in the rock! It looks like Ariella!”

“You’re seeing things.”

“No, I’m not. It’s there!” She started to run her finger along the deep indentation, but the heat of the rock repelled her. “Somebody carved it. I’m sure of it. That means somebody else has been here! Maybe one of the explorers Ariella spoke about. Either they came here the same way we did—or there’s some other route.”

“Give up, Alien! Your brain is already—already melting. You’ll never get . . . out of here, and neither will I. We’re both going to—ah! oh!—roast to death! Already . . . I feel weaker, weaker all the time. I’m never . . . never . . .”

With that, he fell silent.

Kate wiped the perspiration from her face. She had to find a way out of here. She studied the line of the ledge as it climbed along the rocky cliff. No doubt this cliff was just on the other side of the mountains from the snowfields where she had landed. But it seemed like another planet. Perhaps the ledge was actually made by someone . . . someone long ago. Perhaps it was once a trail! To the waterfall, perhaps? But why would anyone have gone through so much trouble?

She gazed at the broken body of Spike, lying motionless against the rock wall, as the striking smell of melting crystal tissue reached her nose. It was as fresh as a spring rain, and as bracing as the bath Ariella had given her. Such a smell was utterly at odds with the desert dryness surrounding her. Again her eyes followed the long contour of the ledge until it disappeared beyond some weathered rocks.

Kate moved closer to the body. He might be alive, even though it didn’t look good. If she couldn’t help Ariella, and she couldn’t help Grandfather, at least maybe she could help somebody.

Clumsily, she lifted the limp snow crystal onto her back. He was heavier than she had thought, like a slab of tightly compressed ice from the very bottom of a glacier. She struggled to lay him across the small of her back, just as she had once seen a fireman do with an unconscious man. With one arm she held his head, with the other his broken base.

Hunched over from her heavy load, Kate started to walk along the ledge. Maybe, just maybe, if she could transport Spike over to the snowy side of the ridge, she could find someone who could help him. To her delight, she discovered that the ledge continued upward beyond the rock outcropping she could see from the waterfall. Still, it was very rough going: The would-be trail was strewn with broken bits of stones and unforgiving pits. In the sweltering heat, Kate frequently had to stop and lift one hand to her brow—without losing her hold on Spike—to wipe away the perspiration that stung her eyes.

Her ankle pained her with every step, and she tried to favor the other foot. As she lifted her load over one particularly large stone, however, she twisted it slightly.

“Ow!” she cried, dropping Spike’s body and collapsing on top of it. She burned her hand again on the hot rocks as she fell, and her ankle throbbed painfully. Tears brewed, blurring her vision, but she forced them back.

She picked herself up and tried again to lift her cumbersome load. With considerable effort, she placed Spike’s body back in position and continued to trudge slowly onward.

Recalling some words Grandfather had once chanted as they hiked over a difficult trail in Scotland, she began to repeat them over and over.
Light as a feather, strong as an ox. Light as a feather, strong as an ox.
At first the words made her feel slightly stronger, but soon they seemed as heavy as the body on her back, and she stopped saying the chant.