Dairine
recovered first. Raising one eyebrow, she said coolly, "And what
are you doing here?"
Roshaun wasn't fazed. He gave the
clearing a contemptuous glance and replied, "Thought you might
need a little...backup."
Dairine folded her arms.
"Well, you were wrong. We've got things under control
here."
"Under control?" Roshaun repeated in
a tone that bordered on incredulous, his eyes sweeping over the
scattered contents of Kit's backpack and the remains of Dairine's
sandwich.
Kit decided to intervene. "Look Dairine, a
little backup might not be a bad thing to have. But before we make
any hasty decisions, who's your friend?"
The girl
stepped forward before Roshaun had a chance to answer. "I,"
she began, flicking her hair over her shoulder in a manner that Kit
had only ever witnessed in shampoo commercials, "am
Alyra."
"My sister," added Roshaun.
"I
got the better half of the genes," said Alyra airily.
"I
can see the family resemblance," interrupted Kit dryly. He
turned to Roshaun. "Are you planning on coming with
us?"
"Yes," Dairine interjected, sounding
rather haughty herself, "are you?"
"Not if
you don't want me to, darling," quipped Roshaun, smirking.
"I
thought I told you never to call me that," Dairine
snarled.
"Must have slipped my mind," Roshaun
shot back.
Kit cleared his throat.
"What?"
said the others in unison, then looked at each other in surprise.
"Look guys," Kit began, ignoring the way that
the three of them were glaring at him, "we need a game plan.
Every minute we spend arguing is another we don't spend rescuing
Nita."
"I was not aware that Nita needed
rescuing," Roshaun remarked, startled out of his snobbishness.
Dairine sighed. "Boy, have we got a lot to tell you. And none
of it's good."
Nita led the way down the dark passageway, with Ronan following close behind her. The walls were damp and covered in moss that glowed, not a bright, radioactive green, but a softer, soothing color. Something about the moss, and the sickly sweet odor that seemed to exude from it, put Nita slightly ill at ease. She said a few words in the Speech that conjured a little white light for her to hold in her hand. As she spoke, she had the eerie sensation that the walls were leaning in to listen. She felt an icy hand on her shoulder and had to suppress a scream, realizing that it was only Ronan.
"Nita, look," he whispered. Ahead of them, the passageway was beginning to curve upwards. The ceiling got lower and lower as they went, until they had to stoop, then crawl. Nita was beginning to feel claustrophobic. She shivered every time her arm brushed the glowing wall, but they had to keep going. For what seemed like hours they crawled along the tunnel, the walls creeping almost imperceptibly closer to them with each foot they advanced. At long last, they thought they could detect natural light, and the sound of water. It was faint, but present. Without realizing it themselves, Nita and Ronan sped up.
The passageway grew steeper, but they no longer cared, because at the end lay sunlight. The sound of rushing water grew louder until it obliterated all other noise. Foot by foot, inch by inch, they dragged their tired bodies along the tunnel, until finally they reached the end. Nita would have gasped if she had breath, because in front of them was a curtain of white water.
"It's a waterfall!" she yelled over her shoulder to Ronan.
"I can see that!" he hollered back. Then, abruptly, she heard his voice inside her head, much clearer than she could hear it over the deafening sound of the water.
We'll have to jump, he said.
Nita looked at the water, then back at him. She knew that he was right, but she was afraid. Together, she said.
Together, he agreed.
Carefully they crept out onto a slick, narrow ledge. Ronan held out his hand, and Nita took it, and smiled a dangerous smile. With screams that were equal parts delight and terror, they leapt together into the fury.