“Ceralt!” shouted one of the males, arun toward his leader. “The lanthay are gone—and the entrance as well!”
“Gone?” echoed Ceralt in shock, amid the gasps and exclamations from all those in the cavern. “They cannot be gone! You and the others must have taken a wrong turning!”
“There is no other turning!” the male protested, stopping before Ceralt. Hannil, too, stood with those of his males who had gone to the lanthay, then the second High Rider looked toward the first. They both nodded in mutual decision, then moved off in the direction from which the harried males had run. All knew they went to see the thing for themselves, and many of the males hurried to accompany them. The females gazed upon one another in fear, tears and sobs quickly coming to them, yet tears and sobs avail naught. The decision was easily made that I, too, would accompany Ceralt, yet not so easily seen to. Telion’s hand took my arm as I began to pass him, forcing me back from the heels of Lialt.
“What do you think to accomplish there?” he demanded, his light eyes cold. “Do you go to say how evil a place this is, now that we may no longer leave it? Do you wish to see yourself beaten savagely, a victim to the fear of men entrapped? Will you never learn your place is among wenches, far from the doings of men?”
“I merely wished to see the thing for myself,” I replied, attempting to loosen the pain of his hold. “To repeat a warning when the attack has been launched is the doing of a fool. Far better to seek out weapons and stand prepared.”
“Weapons are not for females,” Telion grated, loosening his hold though his eyes remained bleak. “I shall see the thing for both of us, then perhaps speak of what I see. Or fail to see. One may hope those men are indeed in error.”
He took himself after the others at no great pace, reluctant to learn an unpalatable truth. I remained where he had stopped me, considering following, then shrugged and crouched instead. Ceralt’s fate was not yet upon him, this I knew without having the why of it; following to see a thing I already knew as truth would be idle.
The males returned with far less vigor than they had shown when leaving, proving our difficulty more thoroughly than with words. The females hugged one another and wept their fear and desolation, and the males gathered in the center of the floor to gaze upon one another in anger.
“We are trapped,” said Hannil to Ceralt, putting all blame upon the second male. “Where now do we seek Sigurr’s Altar, now that we languish in his maw? What now of the journey so necessary to our people? What now of our own lives, lost beyond redemption?”
“Our lives are not yet lost!” snapped Ceralt, all patience with the male gone away. “To take the lanthay could be the work of any, yet to take the entrance as well must be the work of the dark god! Had he wished our lives they would already be his, our bodies struck down more easily than the removal of so large a cavern entrance! That we live must mean that we shall achieve our goal!”
“Yet at what cost?” snarled the other male, his dark eyes wild with fear. “Should Sigurr demand the living death of each man here as his price for that which we have come, who shall deny him? You? The Serene Oneness? Why then was it not the Serene Oneness to whom we spoke our need? Why must it have been Sigurr?”
“The why matters not,” growled Ceralt, gesturing a dismissal with one hand. “Surely it was the Serene Oneness himself who demanded our approach to the dark god. Who else may write upon the Snows? Who else would see the thing so far in advance of its happening? We need not trouble ourselves with why, merely with how.”
“I shall not trouble myself in any manner,” said Hannil, drawing himself up in an attempt at dignity. “Perhaps Sigurr will know those who come unwillingly from those who come to do some mischief. My riders and I no longer count ourselves among you.”
With such words did the male take himself off, followed at once by those two who had been with him in his tent, more slowly by those others called his riders. These latter looked upon Ceralt as though wishing they might remain, yet their words undoubtedly belonged to the craven Hannil. Ceralt’s eyes followed them away, then his gesture brought his own males closer, so that they might continue their discussion in lower tones.
“Jalav, what are we to do?” whispered a voice, and I turned my head to see Famira bent beside me. She attempted a crouch such as I had taken, yet her balance was too unsure to keep it. She knelt, instead, upon the rock of the cavern floor, and raised large, anxious eyes to my face.
“There is little any may do,” I replied in answer to her plea. “We remained when we should have fled, now Mida must see to our safety.”
“Within the bowels of Sigurr?” pressed the female, no scorn to her manner. “Is Mida truly that strong?”
“I have stood behind her shield for many kalod,” I shrugged. “I shall not doubt till that shield fails me.”
“How are they able to sit there so calmly?” the female demanded, low-voiced, her eyes upon Ceralt and his males who now sat in a close circle, undoubtedly discussing the dilemma and all manner of ways of solving it. “I cannot bear to merely sit here, awaiting the Serene Oneness knows what! I have eaten naught since arising, yet the thought of food is as ashes in my mouth! Is there naught we may do save sit and speak of what has happened?”
“I had thought the next thing to be done would be obvious,” said I, rising to my full height to glance about the cavern. “Naught may be done concerning what has happened; however I doubt the thing was done without reason. As Ceralt has said, we yet have our lives; does it not seem likely that we are left as we are that we may search out another passage from this cavern, one we would not have sought had the entrance been kept as it was?
“Of course!” breathed Famira, rising to her feet to stand beside me, her eyes now bright. “Jalav! We must tell the men at once!”
“While they find themselves so seriously enmeshed with the problem?” I snorted, looking toward the males. “See you there as well; even Hannil and his ilk sit apart, speaking words meant for males alone. Females are not welcome in their midst.”
“They cannot refuse to listen to reason!” insisted Famira, her pretty face stubborn. So soon had she forgotten the doing of Cimilan, to teach her her place as a female. “As you do not care to disturb their talk, I shall do it for you.”
Quick as thought she had left my side, marching in determination toward the males. She had gone perhaps three paces when Cimilan discovered her imminent arrival and quickly rose to his feet, stepping away from the males to halt her upon her way and keep her from the others. She attempted speech to him, he interrupted and disallowed the thought, she again attempted to speak, and then did he interrupt for the final time. His dark eyes gazed sternly down upon her as he spoke, undoubtedly reminding her that she was bound to obey him else be punished and before the others. He turned her about and sent her upon her way with the flat of his hand to her seat, not ungently yet with more force than Famira cared to face again. Her fists clenched as she glanced over her shoulder to see Cimilan reclaim his former place, and then she was again before me, tears of anger in her eyes.
“He would not hear a single word,” she choked, looking up to meet my eyes. “How do you know them so well, you who know men so little and so poorly?”
“It is all one with the balance of their actions.” I shrugged, putting my hand to my life sign. “How else might they continue to think themselves masters, save they keep their thoughts from their slaves?”
“Well, are we to stand here and await the revelation to strike them?” she demanded. “Can we not look about on our own, finding that which is to be found and showing them their foolishness?”