I put the key in my pocket and rummaged in Morwen's bundle. I was sure I still had some meat pies, and I didn't like the idea of traveling with a hungry dragon. I found the food and offered it to the dragon, who brightened up a little and accepted.
"We ought to keep going," Shiara said as the dragon sat back against the wall of the tunnel and started eating. "Suppose that quozzel thing comes back?"
"I don't think it could really do much to us," I said. "It didn't look very dangerous."
"You can't always tell by looking," Shiara said darkly. "And if that marmalade mess wants the stupid key badly enough, it'll think of something."
"Marmalade is orange," I said. "The quozzel looked more like blackberry jelly to me. And I still don't think it's going to come back. Not while the dragon is around."
"Well, you'd better carry that key in your hand," Shiara said. "I think it's important, and it might fall out of your pocket or something."
"All right, but you'll have to keep the lamp. I don't think I can manage the sword and the things Morwen gave us and the lamp, and still hold the key." I dug the key out of my pocket again. Maybe it did belong to the quozzel, but the more I thought about it, the less likely that seemed. And if the key had something to do with the sword, I wanted to hang on to it.
"You won't have to juggle things until we start walking again," Shiara said, but she kept the lamp.
Just then the dragon looked up. "I'm done," it said. "Where do we go now?"
16
In Which Things Get Very Dark for a While
Wee started walking again. I don't know how far we went or how long it took us. The tunnel forked and we turned right, then it forked again and we went left. We walked through a large cave with walls like black mirrors, and a damp one that dripped water onto our heads, and an unpleasant slimy one with gray moss on the walls. I was very glad that Telemain had told us which way to go. We would have gotten lost very quickly without his directions.
A few times I thought I heard squishing noises behind us, but I wasn't sure enough to say anything. I was a lot more worried about remembering all the things Telemain had told us than I was about the quozzel.
Just when I was beginning to think we had taken a wrong turn somewhere, we came to another cavern.
This one was long and narrow, full of orange light and very hot. The tunnel came out halfway up one wall, about a hundred feet above the floor of the cave. A narrow path ran along one wall from where we stood to a dark opening on the opposite side of the cave.
"Are you sure we're going the right way?" Shiara asked, eyeing the path dubiously.
"I am now," I said. "This was the last cave Telemain mentioned. Once we're on the other side, it shouldn't take long to get to the castle."
"We have to get to the other side first," Shiara pointed out. "That doesn't look very safe."
"The Caves of Chance aren't supposed to be safe," I said. "I'm surprised we haven't run into something a lot more dangerous than the quozzel."
"I suppose-Nightwitch!" Shiara shouted, a minute too late; the kitten was already halfway across the narrow path. Shiara sighed. "Well, now we have to go across."
Shiara insisted on going first, because Nightwitch was her cat. I didn't argue much. I went next, and the dragon came last. I had to hug the wall to keep from losing my balance and falling, which was hard to do with the key in one hand, Morwen's bundle in the other, and the sword under one arm.
The dragon didn't have nearly as much difficulty as I did, even though it was a little too large for the ledge. It just dug its claws into the rock and kept coming.
When we finally made it to the other side, Shiara and I were covered with black rock dust. We took turns brushing each other off while Nightwitch sat far enough back to avoid getting any of it on her and the dragon looked superior. Evidently rock dust doesn't cling to dragon scales, which was very nice for the dragon but didn't do much to improve Shiara's temper.
"How much farther is it?" Shiara asked as we started off.
"I don't know," I said. "But it shouldn't take much longer."
"I hope not," said the dragon. "I don't like this tunnel."
"Why not?" Shiara asked.
"It isn't finished," the dragon said.
I looked around. The tunnel was a lot rougher than the others we'd come through, and there were rocks sticking out at odd angles from the walls and the roof and even the floor. Every now and then it narrowed into a crooked little passage. If the dragon had been much bigger, it wouldn't have been able to fit through sometimes. We still saw side passages once in a while, but they seemed smaller and farther apart than they had in the first part of the tunnel.
"It does look sort of incomplete," I said. "I think somebody-" "Daystar, look out? Shiara yelled. A large rock fell out of the ceiling, just missing my head. Along with the rock came a shower of pebbles that didn't miss.
I heard a creaking noise and felt more pebbles.
"Get back!" I shouted. I dropped Morwen's bundle and shoved Shiara.
Shiara stumbled backward. Nightwitch yowled and made a tremendous leap right onto the dragon's nose. The dragon jerked in surprise, and Nightwitch made another jump and vanished into the darkness behind it.
I heard more rumblings, and I shoved Shiara again, just as the roof came down on top of us.
When I woke up, it was very dark and I was lying face down on the tunnel floor. Somehow I'd managed to keep hold of the sword and the key. I could feel them, one halfway under me and the other digging into my left palm. I ached all over. I tried to move, but my legs were pinned under something heavy, and I couldn't drag them free. I pushed myself up a little and stared into the darkness. "Shiara? Nightwitch? Dragon?"
No one answered. They couldn't all have gotten caught in the cave-in.
I'd been closest to the falling rocks, and only my legs were pinned. I started wishing I had the lamp, and then I remembered that the key glowed when I touched the Sword of the Sleeping King. I pushed up farther and felt around under me for the hilt, and something very moist and heavy hit me in the middle of my back.
I slammed back into the floor and almost lost consciousness again. The thing on my back bubbled, "The k-k-key! Let go, drop it, gug-give it to me!"
Instinctively, I shoved my right hand farther under my chest, groping for the sword.
My fingers touched the hilt, and the key started to glow. It wasn't quite as good as the lamp, but at least I could see. I heard a muffled shriek, and the weight left my back very suddenly. An instant later, I saw the quozzel bending over my hand, and I tightened my grip on the key.
The quozzel bounced angrily. "You're still alive! I don't want you alive.
I want that k-k-key. That's why I fixed the rocks."
I shook my head to clear it. "You made the tunnel cave in? Just to get a key?"
"Of c-c-c-course!" the quozzel spluttered. "I'm supposed to take c-care of it. I'll get it, too. All I need is m-m-more rocks."
The quozzel wobbled backward, toward the caved-in part of the tunnel.
I rolled onto one elbow and looked back over my shoulder, trying to see what it was doing.
A medium-sized rock came crashing down beside me. The quozzel made an angry whistling noise. "H-hold still"
"So you can drop rocks on me?" Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a long pile of something that seemed to end in a tangle of red hair.
Shiara hadn't been buried under the rocks, then. Unfortunately, she didn't look like she would be able to help me with the quozzel anytime soon, and I still didn't know where Nightwitch or the dragon was. I twisted sideways, moving off the sword as much as I could with my legs pinned, and started working the Sword of the Sleeping King out of its sheath. It's not easy to draw a sword when you're lying on top of it, but I thought I might need it if the quozzel came any closer.