Finally, they began a last, steep ascent toward Roofshadow's entrance. Peering around a corner, they found the last tunnel completely dark. As they moved quietly forward they caught a glimpse of starlight-the way out, at the far end of the corridor. Fritti had not seen the sky in so long that he felt silly with excitement. Despite the oppressive wet heat of the mound, a chill arched down his backbone and curled his tail. He bounced forward joyfully; for a moment he felt there was grass beneath his feet again, and cool wind in his fur. He heard Roof-shadow call his name, softly but urgently. He paid no heed.
Then, the starlight disappeared.
At once something struck him, catching him completely unaware. Roofshadow's admonitory call became a yowl of fear. Something was on top of him-some snapping, biting thing.
"Nuzzledark! Don't allow the other one to essscape!" slashed a voice in the dark, and he heard Roofshadow cry out again. The thing atop him drove for his throat with spiny teeth, and as he twisted desperately he felt furless skin squirm beneath his claws. Tooth-guard! He struggled to pull loose from the grasping creature, and managed to sink his own teeth into flesh for a heartbeat. He was rewarded with a hissing squeal of pain from his attacker. He drove his back legs up and heard the gasp of lost air. In the moment's respite he pulled free, and then dashed back toward where he had last heard Roofshadow's voice. His eyes were finally adjusting to the profound darkness, and he saw another form rear up just in time to avoid the worst of the blow, which still sent him spinning. He came to rest against the cringing mass of Roofshadow.
"Ssssslitbelly! Help Nuzzledark with the prisssoners." Fritti could now make out the owner of the voice, its elongated, hairless body crouched beneath what was to have been their escape hole. Its eyeless head nodded approvingly.
"Sssso," it said. "Asss expected, you return to your point of entrance. How niccce. Ssssince you are ssso interested in traveling, now we shall take you to sssee our domain, yesss?"
The other two dark shapes now flanked Roof-shadow and Tailchaser, and one of them said: "Why do we not end their livesss here, Massster Hisssblood?"
The Toothguard lord let a long second of silence hang in the dark, damp air.
"You should know better than to quesssstion me, Sssslitbelly-esspecially since you yoursself have proved ssso inefficient. These creaturesss have causssed uss all great problemsss, and we shall have to work hard with them to repay the bargain. They will live awhile longer becaussse I wisssh to learn certain thingsss. However, I can learn nothing from you. Do you sssee my meaning?"
Slitbelly was gagging on his answer when a dark shape hurtled out of the tunnel from behind Tail-chaser and Roofshadow, knocking the two Tooth-guard sprawling like sticks. Not waiting to discover the identity of their mysterious benefactor, Fritd and the fela sprang to their paws and raced back up the corridor. Behind them they could hear snarls and cries, and the sounds of vicious combat. Above it all, the mad voice of Hissblood was screeching: "Sssstop them! Sssstop them!!"
Time expanded into one dark and everlasting moment as Fritti and Roofshadow fled through the lightless outer halls. Away from the Toothguard, away from Roofshadow's tunnel, away, away-they could think of nothing else. Tailchaser was bleeding from new wounds, and his shoulder throbbed and flamed with each stride.
They raced through nearly complete darkness, relying on their whiskers and keen hearing: these shafts were almost devoid of the luminous earth that lit most of Vastnir. They stumbled against stones and over roots in the floor; several times in their panicked flight they ran into earthen walls, rose, and ran on.
Eventually they had to slow down. They were completely lost, and had passed an uncountable number of branch tunnels in the darkness.
"I think we will be trapped here forever!" gasped Roofshadow as they loped along.
"If we keep our left sides to the wall, and keep turning outward. eventually we must come to one of the exit tunnels-at least I hope so," wheezed Tailchaser. "Anvway, it's the only thing I can think of."
Faint sounds whispered up from holes and cross tunnels. Some were the distant noises of Vastnir rising from the main chambers. Some, though, were unidentifiable-moans and whispers, and once the sound of something large splashing in a deep pit. They walked carefully around the pit, and by unvoiced agreement did not speak of the noise that had wafted up from its depths. They kept turning outward, and the noises of the mound became fainter and fainter with each bend.
The air seemed to be getting chill; when Fritti commented on it, Roofshadow pointed out that they were approaching the surface, leaving the unnatural heat of Vastnir. It did not feel like the cold of winter to Fritti, though. It was a deep cold, but damp and moist. It felt as though they were running through a thick fog. The air near the opening of Roofshadow's tunnel had not felt this way. He saw no sense in arguing, however, and restrained his objections.
Moving down what seemed to their ears and whiskers to be a broad, high-ceilinged corridor, Tailchaser heard a different sound: something that-though faint-sounded like the padding of soft footfalls. He mentioned it quietly to Roofshadow, and they slowed to an almost silent walk, straining their ears. If they were footfalls, they must be quite far back to be so nearly inaudible. The twosome increased their pace slightly.
The hallway, such as it was, narrowed suddenly. They found themselves in a low tunnel so suddenly that Tailchaser cracked his forehead against the roof. This tunnel wound and dipped, then rose again, as if it had been dug among large rocks or other massive obstacles. Fritti and Roofshadow crouched low to the ground and reduced their pace to a near-crawl. Finally, the burrow opened out into another wide, well-planed chamber.
They had progressed several steps when Tailchaser noticed a difference.
"Roofshadow!" he hissed excitedly. "There's light!"
There was, although it was noticeable only in contrast to the dense blackness through which they had passed. The glow came from around a corner at the far end of the massive hallway, faint and indirect. It did not seem to have the same quality as the luminous earth.
"I think we're near the way out!" said Roofshadow, and for a moment Fritti thought he could see the gleam in her eye. They broke into a fast walk, then a run-able now to see the obstacles, massive tree roots and stones, which loomed black against the faint gleam at the end of the great hall. The air was still chilly, but drier; dust was everywhere, so much dust.
He had bounded ahead of Roofshadow, who reared suddenly, crying: "Tailchaser! Something is foul here!" Then one of the black shapes between them rose up, and with the movement the air was suddenly full of a sickly, spicy odor. Roofshadow squeaked-a strange, throttled noise-and Fritti stumbled to a halt.
Both cats stood as though paralyzed. A dry voice, like the sound of branches rubbing together, issued from the dark shape.
"You shall not pass," it said. The words were faint, as if spoken from a great distance away. "You are the Boneguard's now."
"No!" boomed a new voice. Unbelieving, frozen with an odd, exalted terror, Tailchaser saw the sunken eyes and malformed face of Scratchnail suddenly appear out of the darkness behind Roofshadow. The gray fela, overwhelmed, sagged in place and lowered her head.
"I took them from Hissblood and his Toothguard. These two are minel" Scratchnail growled, but moved no closer.
"You have no claim," whispered the odd, sighing voice. "No one may interfere with Bast-Imret. I do the bidding of the Lord of All" The Boneguard moved, swaying slightly with a leathery, folding noise, and the Clawguard chieftain quailed, reeling as if he had been struck.