"Her trail ends at the rim of this canyon," Jenna explained.
"Yes, on smooth stone. She's a hunter-she knows how to hide a trail. But I don't think she backtracked. Let's try pushing ahead, looking for the Tower ourselves."
Jenna agreed, and for nearly an hour they followed the stone ledge along the canyon, seeking signs that anyone had passed before them.
"There," said the dark elf at last, pointing to an almost invisible scuff where a branch had been smashed against a stone. "She went this way."
Dalamar started along the faint trail, noting a few crushed ferns where hasty feet had tripped. It was not long before he came to a pine tree standing at the rim of a small ravine. The brittle branches at the base of the tree were crushed, and when he knelt, he spotted dried drops of blood on the needles strewn along the ground.
"Hmm. She was determined to keep going, to get away from us."
"Well, we weren't very pleasant company," Jenna said, drawing a raised eyebrow from Dalamar.
"This way, then," the dark elf said. There was another crushed fern, then the footprint of a small moccasin in a muddy depression, and more signs of passage through the delicate undergrowth. The game path wound faintly among the lofty birches, meandering along the ravine, deeper into the forest.
Soon they came to a massive deadfall, a thick birch lying across the path. A bristling nest of stubby branches stood like a picket fence along the top of the log.
"Here's where she went down on a knee, broke those branches on the bottom so she could pass under it."
They struggled past the fallen tree. Squatting down on the other side, Dalamar could only see a stretch of muddy patches with a few deer tracks and some prints that belonged to either a small wolf or a large dog.
"We lost her," Jenna said.
"Or rather," Dalamar suggested grimly. "This is where Wayreth Forest found her."
Jenna looked shocked. "No, you go too far with your imaginings! Do you think… It couldn't be possible!" She pursed her lips, frowning.
"But it is possible," the dark elf said bitterly. "Give me a better explanation." He looked up at the treetops, the sky, and raised his hands.
"What about us?" demanded Dalamar, furious not with Jenna but with the forest, the Tower, the gods themselves. "Where is our entry?"
"Perhaps," she replied dryly, "the forest prefers her for some reason."
The dark elf snorted, planting his fists on his hips, and glaring at the murk of the wood. He was mocked by the mundane trees, the rotting vegetation, the utterly unremarkable surroundings. "We could look all day and never find Wayreth," he declared in disgust, "unless it chooses to let us."
"Such is the way of Wayreth," Jenna said with a shrug. "But my senses tell me that the wood is near-or at least, it was here."
"So do mine," Dalamar agreed.
"The Tower only responds to the Master's will, and to the gods."
"I remember, when I took the Test," Dalamar mused. "I learned that there were caverns deep under the Tower. Several of them extending beyond the periphery of Wayreth. It was said that Fistandantilus created them, as bolt holes and secret ways. One of them, the Nether Path, was supposed to provide a secret entrance into the forest. Do you know what they said about it?"
"I've heard of the Nether Path," Jenna acknowledged. She scowled thoughtfully. "But I always thought it was just a legend."
"Well, perhaps. But the legend claims that the Nether Path exists as a hidden cave. The mouth of the cave should be near to the path into Wayreth. When the forest opens to allow someone in, the Nether Path is always nearby. And according to the legend, the cave will always linger for some time, even after the forest has done its business and disappeared."
"Hmmm, interesting. But how does that help us? What kind of cave is it? There are hundreds of caves in these parts." She stroked her chin and looked around thoughtfully.
"Not right around here. I'd say, let's try the ravine," Dalamar said with a sudden eagerness. "Down there is where I'd look for a cave."
Both made their way over to the rocky rim. The gorge here was nearly forty feet deep, only half that distance across, giving it the look of a deep and savage wound in the surface of the world. The floor was littered with large rocks, with murky pools of water collecting on the low spots between.
Jenna quickly cast a spell, featherfall, and stepped off the rim of the gorge to float gently downward, coming to rest on a large, flat-topped boulder. Dalamar muttered a curse-that enchantment was not in the slender tome Palin had given him-and instead was forced to pick his way slowly, and carefully, down the cracked and broken slope. Halfway down, a rock broke free and he almost fell, scraping his knee as he jammed his leg.
"Careful!" Jenna snapped, looking up in annoyance and ducking out of the way of the debris.
The dark elf was in a thoroughly foul mood when, a minute later, he reached the bottom and found the Red Robe on the other side of a steeply angled fallen boulder. "See anything promising?" he asked, trying to keep the irritation out of his voice.
"There's an overhang just past those rocks. I can't see all the way inside from here. And there are quite a few shadowy niches under these big boulders scattered down here-we'll have to check all of them out."
An hour later, they gave up. They had found holes, niches, and many small caves, but nothing that promised entrance to Wayreth Forest.
"Out of the gorge, then, and back into the woods?" Jenna asked. Her face was streaked with grime, and tangles of her hair clung to her cheeks and shoulders. She wiped her forehead with the back of her hand, leaving a streak of mud.
"Yes, that is our only option," Dalamar agreed. "But we should hurry. Sooner or later the Nether Path-if it even exists-will vanish."
Fortunately, the ravine became a little shallower as they progressed along the bed, and they found a tumble of rocks forming a makeshift stairway leading back up to the forest floor, on the opposite rim. For the rest of the afternoon, they plodded through the pines. Darkness settled around them, deepening the gloom until Dalamar found it necessary to cast a spell of continual light on the top of a tall, straight pole he had been using as a walking stick, and with this to light the way, the two wizards continued.
The forest began to close in, becoming a vast, smothering presence, lit only by Dalamar's staff, which danced and bobbed with his long strides. Caves were harder and harder to detect, but neither wanted to give up the search. The dark elf found himself pointing his staff and staring at the light-less depths of the forest, willing some rise or depression in the ground, some limestone irregularity that might give them some hope of success.
Just when he was ready to quit, however, he was startled to hear Jenna give a cry and point toward an irregular surface ahead of them. They came to a stop between two fir trees, with the light from Dalamar's staff washing across the lichen-encrusted face of a low, broken bluff.
"We're close!" he said with certainty.
"Don't be too sure!" Jenna warned, using one arm to lean against the nearest tree trunk. "All these rocks and caves begin to look the same."
"The ones in the ravine were limestone," Dalamar said. "But this is older. See how the face is pocked and broken all along here? And those lichens-they suggest nothing has been disturbed here for ages."
"Well, now what?" the lady asked, squinting.
"Water," the dark elf said, thinking aloud. "We have to find where water flowed out of here-that's our best bet for finding a cave."
Resolutely he started forward, still holding the light high. The top of the bluff loomed out of sight. Huge slabs of rock had tumbled from the crest in eons past, forming an irregular surface, but the dark elf began to climb the nearest steeply canted slab, noting the thick crust of treacherous lichens underfoot.