he crawled up. I can’t budge. A stone presses down on me.’ He was on the edge of hysteria. ‘I am so sick. I cannot see! Am I blind? Lingstra Dwalia, am I blind?’
‘No. It is dark, you oaf. Don’t dare to vomit on me. You are crushing me. Give me room.’ I heard a struggle of shifting bodies.
Vindeliar whimpered, ‘There is no space for me to move. I am crushed, too.’
‘If you cannot be helpful, be still. Chalcedean?’ She was gasping for air. Vindeliar was not a small person and she was trapped beneath him. ‘Kerf?’
He giggled. It was a terrible sound coming from a man’s deep chest in the darkness.
‘Stop that! Dwalia, he’s touching me!’ Alaria was outraged and terrified.
Kerf giggled again and I felt him tug his arm from under me. He lifted it, giving me a tiny bit more room, and I surmised that he embraced Alaria against him. ‘Nice,’ he said in a throaty voice and I felt him lift his hips against her.
‘Stop,’ she begged him, but his reply was a throaty growl followed by a low chuckle. The muscles of his upper arm were pressed against me and I felt them tighten as he snugged Alaria closer to him. His breathing deepened. Beside me, he began a rhythmic shifting that shoved me solidly against the wall. Alaria began to weep.
‘Ignore him,’ Dwalia ordered her coldly.
‘He’s trying to rape me!’ She squeaked. ‘He’s—’
‘He doesn’t have enough room, so ignore him. He can’t get his own trousers down, let alone yours. Pretend he’s a little dog, infatuated with your leg.’ Was there a cruel satisfaction in Dwalia’s voice? Did she revel in Alaria’s humiliation? ‘We are trapped here and you are squawking about a man touching you. Scarcely a real danger.’
Alaria responded with a frightened keening that kept pace with Kerf’s thudding against her.
‘The girl, Bee. Did she come through? Is she alive?’ Dwalia demanded.
I kept my silence. I had wriggled my sore arm free, and although my injured shoulder protested, I was groping to discover the confines of our prison. Stone beneath me. To the left of me, Kerf’s body. To my right, a wall of stone as far as I could grope. When I reached up I could brush my fingertips against more stone. It was worked stone, smooth as a polished floor. I explored with my feet. More stone. Even if I’d been alone in this space, I could not have sat up. Where were we?
The tempo of the Chalcedean’s jerking was speeding up and with it his open-mouthed gasping.
‘Alaria, feel around. Did the girl come through?’
‘She … must … have. Oh! I dragged myself through by … holding on … to her.’ Alaria’s voice was going smaller and higher. The Chalcedean continued to heave himself about. ‘It’s disgusting!’ She wailed. ‘He’s mouthing my face. He stinks! Stop it!’ She shrieked but the Chalcedean began to grunt under her.
‘Can you feel her? Is she alive?’ Dwalia persisted.
I lay still. Despite Kerf’s passionate rocking, I felt her groping hand. I held my breath. She touched my face and then my chest.
‘She’s here. She’s not moving but her body is warm. Vindeliar! Make him stop this!’
‘I can’t. I’m sick. I’m so sick.’
‘Vindeliar, you’d best recall that I and only I give you your orders. Alaria, be silent!’
‘So many of them were in there,’ Vindeliar groaned. ‘They were all pulling at me. I’m so sick.’
‘Be sick silently!’ Dwalia snapped.
Alaria was gasping in horror. She did not speak again but I heard the small weeping sounds she made, and the deep groan of the Chalcedean when he finally reached some sort of satisfaction. She tried to wriggle away from him, but I felt his arm muscles tighten and knew he held her there. It was as well for me. I did not want her to roll off him and onto me.
‘Feel about, as much as you can,’ Dwalia commanded. ‘Can anyone feel an opening in this tomb?’
It was a poor choice of words. ‘Tomb,’ Vindeliar repeated and gave a trailing moan of despair.
‘Silence!’ she wheezed at him. ‘Feel about over your head. Is there any opening?’
I heard them moving in the darkness, heard the scraping brush of fingers against stone, the scuff of boots scraping more stone. I remained still.
‘Anything?’ Dwalia demanded of the darkness.
‘No,’ Alaria responded sullenly. ‘Only stone, everywhere I touch. I can barely lift my head. Have you any room next to you?’ The Chalcedean’s muscles had gone slack and, by his stentorian breathing, I deduced he had fallen asleep. Madness was, perhaps, a mercy in some situations.
‘Would I allow Vindeliar to lie on top of me if I could be anywhere else?’ Dwalia demanded.
A silence. Then Alaria suggested, ‘Perhaps you should take us back to where we were?’
‘Unfortunately, as the Chalcedean emerged, he pushed me to one side and shoved Vindeliar on top of me. He now lies on top of the portal stone. I cannot reach it from where I am.’
‘We are packed like pickled fish in a cask,’ Vindeliar observed sadly. More softly he added, ‘I suppose we will all die here.’
‘What?’ Alaria demanded in a half-shriek. ‘Die here? Starving to death in the dark?’
‘Well, we can’t get out,’ Vindeliar responded morosely.
‘Be silent!’ Dwalia ordered them, but it was too late. Alaria broke. She began weeping in gasps and after a few moments, I heard Vindeliar’s muffled sobs.
Die here? Who would die first? A scream started to swell inside my chest.
That is not a useful thought, Wolf Father rebuked me. Breathe. Quietly.
I felt panic swell in me and then be quashed under his sternness.
Think how to escape. Do you think you could enter the stone alone? Could you reach under the Chalcedean and open the passageway to return us to the forest?
I’m not sure.
Try.
I’m afraid to try. What if I get stuck in the stone? What if I come out alone somewhere?
What if you stay here and starve? After, of course, the others go mad and attack one another? Now, try.
When I had slid off Kerf, I had landed on my back. I wriggled to one side. I had to roll onto my sore shoulder to do so. And it was that hand and arm that I had to try to wedge under Kerf and Alaria’s combined weight. I tried to do it slowly, sliding my hand under the small of his back where it did not press so hard against the stone. I made a small sound of pain and Alaria’s sniffling
