"That hurt," Valiha said.
Robin slapped her again.
Valiha put her huge hand around Robin's neck, lifted her off the ground, and held her at arm's length. Robin kicked a few times, then held completely still, gurgling.
"The next time I pick you up," Valiha said, with no particular menace in her voice, "I will squeeze until your head comes off." She set Robin down, held her shoulder while she coughed, did not let go until she was sure Robin could stand on her own. Robin backed away, and Chris thought it was fortunate her gun had been safely stowed in Valiha's pack. But Valiha did not seem to bear her any malice, and the incident was never mentioned again, nor did Robin ever again so much as raise her voice to the Titanide.
He thought they must be past the halfway point. It was the fifth time they had slept. But this time, when he awoke, Valiha wasn't there.
They started to climb.
One thousand two hundred twenty-nine steps later they found her. She was sitting with her legs folded under her, glassy-eyed, rocking back and forth gently. She looked no more intelligent than a cow.
Robin sat and Chris collapsed next to her. He knew that if the tears started now, he might never stop weeping, so he fought them back.
"What now?" Robin asked.
Chris sighed and stood up. He put his hands to Valiha's cheeks and rubbed them gently until her eyes focused on him.
"It's time to go again, Valiha," he said.
"It is?"
"I'm afraid so."
She stood and let him lead her. They made twenty steps, then thirty, then forty. On the forty-sixth step she sat down again and began to rock. After more coaxing Chris got her to her feet and they made sixty steps. When he got her up the third time, he was optimistic, hoping to make one hundred steps, but what he got was seventeen.
Two sleeps later he awoke to the sound of Robin crying. He looked up, saw that Valiha was gone again. He put his arm around her, and she made no objection. When she was through, they got up and once more began to climb.
It seemed that no one had done any talking in years. There had been arguing and once he and Robin had come to blows. But even that could not be sustained long; neither had the energy for it. He limped for a while after the fight, and Robin sported a black eye. But it was amazing what a little adrenalin could do. "It looks like the floor is dry," Robin whispered. "I can hardly believe it."
They were concealed behind the gradual curve of the spiraling wall, looking out and down at what had to be, incredibly, the end of the line. All along they had expected to find an acid lake, with Tethys safely submerged in it. Instead, they saw what appeared to be a high-water-or high-acid-mark only ten steps from where they stood, then a section of bare floor. Tethys herself was invisible around the curve.
"It's got to be a trap," Robin said.
"Right. Let's turn around and go back."
Robin's lips drew back, and her eyes blazed for a moment; then she relaxed and even managed a faint smile.
"Hey, I don't know how to say this... it feels like we've been at each other's throats forever ... but if this comes out badly... what I mean is-"
"It's been fun?" Chris suggested.
"I wouldn't put it that way. Hell." She put out her hand. "It's been good knowing you."
He held her hand in both of his briefly.
"Me, too. But don't say any more. Every word is going to sound awkward as hell later if we do survive."
She laughed. "I don't care. I didn't like you when we started out, but don't feel bad. I don't think I liked anybody. I like you now, and I wanted you to know that. It's important to me."
"I like you, too," he said, and coughed nervously. His eyes left hers, and when he forced them back, she had already looked away. He released her hand, aware of things he would like to say and unable to say them.
He turned to Valiha and began talking to her quietly. He had become better at that, speaking of nothing in particular, letting the melody of his voice soothe in a language they held in common. Gradually he began working meanings into what he said, repeating them, telling her what she must do without stressing it enough to activate her ever-present fears. He spoke to her of getting out in the sunshine again.
A strange fatalism had overcome Valiha during the last kilometer. She stopped less frequently but moved more slowly. She seemed drugged. Once Chris would have sworn she was asleep. She had a hard time keeping her eyes open. He supposed it was Titanide fear, or whatever they used in place of fear. Now that he thought of it, he had never seen any of the Titanides displaying what he thought of as fear, not in the face of the wraiths and not even down here in the dim stairway. She apparently did not fear Tethys in any way Chris could understand. Instead, there had been first a repulsion, like a physical force acting to keep her away from Tethys. She had been unable to give an explanation of many of her acts; when he and Robin were not impelling her downward, she simply went up, with the inevitability of heated air rising. That force had faded, to be replaced by a physical and mental numbness. Her mind worked sluggishly, her senses were dulled, and her body almost seemed to be shutting down.
"In a moment we ... Valiha, listen to me." He had to slap her to get her attention. He had the impression she barely felt it. "Valiha, we have to do this part of the trip quickly. It's only a few hundred steps. I don't think we'll have time to sit down and rest like we've been doing."
"No rest?"
"I'm afraid not. What we'll do is hurry down the last steps, stay close to the wall-stay close to me, and I'll be near the wall-and into the tunnel. Once we're there, we'll be on our way up and out. Do you see, Valiha? To start going up, we have to go just a little bit down, just a little bit, that's all, and we'll be okay. Do you understand?"
She nodded, but Chris was far from sure she did. He thought of saying more but realized there was little use. It would work, or it wouldn't. If he were betting, he would have to put his money against them.
They started the final descent hand in hand. It did not take long to come around the curve of the corridor and into the presence of Tethys, who sat unmoving in her acid bath, just as Crius had done. In fact, there was no way Chris could tell the two apart. He hoped the things he could not yet see were also the same. He would not know until they actually emerged on the floor of the chamber.
"What took you so long, Wizard?"
The voice hit Chris like a physical blow. He had to pause and take a deep breath. Until that moment he had not realized how keyed up he had been. His heart was pounding, and his breathing was shaky. Luckily Valiha was still moving. The three of them continued to approach, with only ten steps in front of them.
"I knew you were up there, of course," Tethys said. "I understand you ran into some trouble. Now I hope you aren't blaming me for that because it was none of my doing, and you can tell that to Gaea."
Tethys's voice was identical to the voice of Crius. It was the same flat drone, without humanity: indistinct, without source. And yet there was a contemptuous, hectoring quality that chilled his blood.
"So you brought Gaby with you. I was beginning to wonder if we'd ever meet. She's not too good to do business with Crius, is she? Are you, Ms. Plauget? And yet we've never seen her down here. I wonder why?"
Robin leaned in front of Valiha, and her eyes were wide.
"Chris," she whispered, "the damn thing's nearsighted."
Chris frantically signaled with his hands, afraid to talk and break the spell. Tethys would not mistake the voices.
"What was that?" Tethys asked, confirming his fears. "Why don't you speak up? Is it polite to keep me waiting for so long and then whisper secrets when you get here? I hate secrets."