Milla had to let Crow go then, as Gill tried to grab her around the knees and push her over into the hole. Milla jumped clear and followed up with a kick that knocked Gill out.
"Odris!" she shouted. "Attack!"
"But Adras has gone down there," said Odris, pointing at the hole. She didn't attack.
Milla scowled in anger. Crow and Clovil circled her warily. Ferek had retreated to join Inkie. Gill was groaning on the ground.
"Why?" asked Milla. "We had an agreement."
"Can't trust a Chosen," said Crow. He drew a long, sharp knife. Clovil looked at him, then hesitantly drew his own knife.
"What about Ebbitt?" said Milla. She didn't take her eyes off either knife-wielding opponent. "And your Crone? Your leader?"
"What they don't know won't bother them," Crow replied.
Clovil glanced across at his leader. Milla saw the uncertainty there.
"Someone will tell them," she said. Crow smiled and edged forward, his knife weaving slightly from side to side.
"I could let you go," he said, "if you promise to just get out of here. We'll take you to the heatways.
You aren't a Chosen. I've got the one I wanted. That Tal. Once a Chosen, always a Chosen."
"We have to help Adras," said Odris. "He hasn't come back up."
Milla thought about it for a moment. She could feel Odris's desire to fly down to see what had happened to Adras.
Inkie moved. For a fraction of a second, Milla was distracted.
In that moment, Crow reversed his knife, revealing a Sunstone in its pommel. The stone flashed white. Milla and Odris cried out and shielded their eyes.
At the same moment, even more of the floor opened up. Milla fell back, flailing her arms and legs. Accompanied by a torrent of sand, she slid down into darkness, Odris fleeing after her.
Behind them, Milla heard a panicked shout and saw someone else tumble into the sandslide above her.
It was Gill. She had been caught, too, and she, Milla, and Odris were all plummeting down.
CHAPTER SEVEN
There was no way to break their fall, though Milla did manage to turn herself around so she was sliding feetfirst. And she called up light from her Sunstone.
As she spun and slid along with a large quantity of sand, she saw they were on some sort of steep ramp. A very long, steep ramp. Already she'd lost sight of the trapdoor above them, though it had probably closed again.
Gill was twenty or thirty stretches behind her, upside down and screaming as she tumbled.
Odris was ahead, on her back, her arms and legs spread out wide. She appeared to be enjoying the ride.
"Odris! Slow me down!" Milla shouted. For once, the Spiritshadow obeyed. She made herself puffier and flew back against the sliding sand. Milla put her feet on the Spiritshadow's shoulders and felt herself slow. A few seconds later, she caught Gill as the Freefolk girl slid past.
An immediate headlock indicated that Milla hadn't grabbed the other girl out of kindness.
"Where does this go?" Milla demanded. The rushing sand was very noisy, as well as uncomfortable. They would be minus some skin by the time they got to the bottom.
Gill coughed and spluttered, unable to answer. She'd gotten a lot of sand in her face. Milla contented herself by keeping hold of the girl. Questions--and answers--could wait till they got to the bottom.
They didn't have long to wait. The ramp suddenly grew steeper and Odris groaned at the extra effort of slowing them down. Then suddenly they shot out into open air, high up in some vast cavern.
"Odris!" Milla shouted again as she fell off the Spiritshadow's shoulders and lost her grip on Gill. She was falling, and the ground was a hundred stretches below. Milla concentrated on keeping her eyes open. Icecarls always faced death with their eyes open.
Odris grabbed her a second later. She had Gill in her other hand, but the combined weight of both girls was too much for the Spiritshadow to fly. They continued to fall, too fast for comfort.
A few seconds later, they hit.
Not solid stone or sand, but warm water. All three went under with a huge splash, and all three came back up again.
Milla spat out a mouthful of water and swam a few strokes in a circle, looking around. She could see Gill coughing and spluttering, but she was all right. Odris was puffing herself up, climbing out of the water into the air.
There was no sign of Tal at first. Then Milla saw a bright Sunstone light, fifty or sixty stretches away and higher up.
"Over here!" shouted Tal. "Hurry!"
Milla spat out even more water and started to swim. Her furs were heavy and already waterlogged, but she had learned to swim that way, in the warm pools around the Smoking Mountain.
"Hurry!" Tal yelled again. He sounded scared. Milla looked around, wondering why. Gill was already swimming as fast as she could toward Tal. Odris was floating above Milla, unconcerned.
What could Tal see that she couldn't? And what did Gill know about this place that was making her swim so fast?
"Spiders!" Tal shouted. "Hurry!"
Milla focused on her Sunstone, making it brighter, and swung her hand behind her, sending the beam of light flashing across the water. It was met by many sparkling reflections, clusters of bright eyes.
Water spiders. Lots and lots of water spiders.
Milla twisted in the water and started swimming as fast as she could. There were too many reflecting eyes behind her. The whole place was thick with water spiders. She remembered Ebbitt talking about them. They were about half her size, their bulbous bodies were thick-skinned and hard to damage, and they could walk on the water as well as swim in it.
They were also very poisonous.
Milla turned to take a breath and saw a ray of Red light shoot over her head and strike somewhere behind her. She heard the hiss of steaming water and a weird clacking noise, like the grinding of bone planks in an iceship as it ran over rough ground. It took her a moment to realize that it had to be the noise of the spiders' multijointed limbs.
They were racing after her, legs skimming the surface. Tal was trying to keep them at bay with his Sunstone. She saw more Red Rays zap overhead, and more steam spouted up behind her. But the clicking was louder, too, and she redoubled her efforts, kicking harder and pushing all the strength of her shoulders and arms into her stroke.
Somewhere along the way she overtook Gill, who was struggling, her arms and legs flailing, all rhythm lost.
Milla slowed momentarily, and looked back. Red Rays of Destruction from Tal's Sunstone crisscrossed the water, sending up gusts of steam. She could feel the heat of them passing overhead. In their light, she could see hundreds of water spiders. A solid line of them, skittering and dancing on the surface. Constantly edging forward, hesitating as Tal's rays struck them, then coming forward again.
"Odris!" called Milla. She couldn't see the Spirit-shadow, but she shouted anyway. "Help Gill!"
Something erupted from the water near here, and Milla almost struck at it before she realized it was Odris.
"Too dangerous up there," said the Spiritshadow, indicating the Red Rays flickering off and on above their heads. She reached out and grabbed Gill, who shrieked and went under for a moment, then reemerged, coughing, as Odris lifted her partially out of the water.
Milla grabbed Odris, too. The Spiritshadow had formed her back half into one energetic tail, which was propelling her far faster than Milla could swim.
That was only a fraction faster than the water spiders. They reached the ledge where Tal was kneeling in deep concentration, his Sunstone ring bright Red, rays bursting from it every few seconds. Adras leaned down and pulled Gill out, and Milla leaped up, using Odris's shoulder as a step.
"Too many!" Tal gasped. He waved his hand across the whole front of the ledge, creating a continuous Red Ray that touched the water so that a curtain of steam rose all around the ledge. Water spiders clacked and there was a multitude of splashes as they fell back.
For a moment or two more kept cra
wling up, even as Tal shot them down.
The ledge was narrow, a crumbling shelf in the cavern's side. It went back only five or six stretches. There was a corridor beyond it, through the cavern side, but the way was barred by a portcullis of golden metal--a heavy grille of cross-hatched bars, set too close together to crawl through.
"Odris! Adras! Help me open this!" Milla shouted. She strained at the portcullis, trying to lift it. But it didn't budge.
The two Spiritshadows flowed across to join her. But when their hands met the golden metal, their shadowflesh went straight through. They couldn't get a grip on it.
"Aarrggghh!"
It was Tal screaming.
Milla spun around to see a huge, bloated spider leap on top of Tal. He fell back and its eight hairy legs wrapped completely around him. A second later it struck at his chest with its two huge fangs, venom dripping as it pulled away.
Milla rushed at the spider and kicked it in its disgustingly swollen abdomen, until its legs uncurled and Tal rolled out. Then she spun on her heel and kicked it again, knocking it back into two other water spiders.
"Adras! Odris! Help!"
Without Tal's Red Rays of Destruction to keep them back, the water spiders swarmed the ledge. Milla stood over Tal's body, kicking and punching, and the Spiritshadows stood at her shoulders, their massive arms whirling to knock the spiders back into the water.