Part 5 (1/2)

”Why not go under?”

”Under what?” Esk asked.

”Underground. We never vtay up when it iv uncomfortable above. In fact, we veldom vtay long above anyway.”

”I can't go underground!” Chex protested.

Indeed, it would take a giant tunnel to get her below! But the storm was looming closer, and a veil of pastel colors was drawing down. They were certainly in for it.

Esk spied a fallen trunk. Abruptly he strode over to it, his ogre strength surging. He picked it up and swung it against the trunk of a giant standing tree. It splintered. He picked up the largest fragment and broke it against the tree, then took several of the remaining pieces and wove them together, forming a crude platform. He jammed the stoutest fragments into the ground vertically, then heaved the platform onto them.

Then his strength receded, and he was normal again, and tired. ”You'll have to finish it,” he gasped. ”That's just the frame.”

”That is good enough!” Chex exclaimed. She swept up an armful of brush and heaved it onto the platform. ”That should stop the hailstones,” she said as she gathered more. ”When they melt, it will drip though, but I can stand getting wet. Thank you, Esk.”

Meanwhile, Volney was digging. Where he had been there was now a mound of dirt and a hole in the ground. He was fast, all right!

The storm struck. Yellow hailstones crashed down through the foliage and bounced on the ground, leaving little dents.

Chex got under her shelter. She had to duck her head and finally lie down, because it wasn't high enough, but it did provide protection.

Volney's snout appeared in the hole. ”Evk!” he squeaked. ”Here! There iv room!”

Esk scrambled for the hole as the hailstones bounced around him. They were becoming blue, now, and he knew that those were colder and therefore harder than the yellow ones. They would hurt!

He half slid into the hole. It descended for a body length, then curved, descended some more, and curved again. Hailstones were following him, rolling down. Then it rose, and debouched into a larger section; he could tell by the widening of the walls, but could not see anything in the dark. He moved into this, and came up against warm fur.

”There iv room for both,” Volney said. ”The stonev and water vtay below.”

This was a nice, cozy design! The vole had hollowed out a den that was bound to remain dry, unless there got to be so much melt that it filled the whole tunnel.

”But suppose a dragon comes?” he asked.

”Then I vtrike the vupport, and the tunnel collapvev,” the vole replied confidently. ”No predator ever caught a vole in a hole.”

And of course the dragons would not be foraging far during the storm, Esk realized. They didn't like getting battered any more than other creatures did. That meant that Chex should be safe enough too.

After a brief time the storm pa.s.sed on. Esk sought to return to the surface, but the tunnel was entirely blocked by hailstones.

”Have no convern,” Volney said. ”I will make a new ekvit.” In moments he did so, tunneling down, then around and up. The excavated dirt piled into one side of the main chamber, evidently intended for such storage.

Esk followed the vole, amazed by the velocity of the digging. ”How do you do it so fast?” he asked.

Volney paused in the darkness, turning within the tunnel though it was only his own body width in diameter. ”My vilver talonv,” he explained. ”Feel.”

Esk felt, cautiously, and found cold metal. It seemed that the vole donned the talons as a man would gauntlets. ”Where do you carry such things? I never saw them before.”

”I have a pouch for nevevvary toolv,” Volney explained. Then he turned again and resumed his digging. Esk had to crowd to the left to avoid the dirt flying on the right.

Soon they broke surface. A shower of melting hailstones came down. They scrambled up through them, and stood knee-deep on Esk, waist-deep on Volney, in the forming, colored slush. Much had fallen in that brief span!

Chex was under her shelter, almost hidden, for the stones were mounded above and around it. ”I was worried you would drown down there!” she called.

”No, Volney has a really cozy den below,” Esk said. ”He is a truly amazing digger!”

”No, only average,” the vole demurred. ”It is merely my volivh nature.”

Nevertheless, Esk was discovering Volney to be as interesting and useful a companion as Chex. This group of travelers was random, but seemed about as good as could have been chosen for such a journey.

They set up a three-way guard roster, with Esk taking the first watch and Chex the last, in deference to the amount of time she had spent the prior night. Esk doubted that any dragons would appear until the slush had subsided, but he didn't care to gamble, and neither did the others.

Volney disappeared into his hole, and Chex settled down on a nearby elevation she cleared of slush. The shelter was useless for the time being, because of the ma.s.s of dripping slush on top.

He walked up and down the path, keeping himself alert as long as he could. The stars came out and flickered at him through the waving foliage. It was pleasant, and he was not at all lonely. He knew he would have been, by himself. It was nice making new acquaintances who had a similar mission and dissimilar talents. Too bad they would soon find the Good Magician's castle and have to separate.

When sleep threatened to overtake him despite his efforts, he went to the vole hole and called down it. ”Volney! Volney! Are you ready for your watch?”

There was a subterranean snort as the vole woke. ”Ready, Evk.” The snout poked into the starlight.

Esk crawled down and around and into the den and curled up in the warm spot left by the vole. The den was rounded in such a way that the earth tended to support a curled body, and was really quite comfortable. He had hardly completed that realization before he slept.

When he woke, there was a warm body next to him. Volney was back, and Esk realized that the vole had finished his s.h.i.+ft and turned it over to the centaur.

He crawled out, and discovered it was dawn. Chex was picking fruits and setting them on the platform. ”No dragons!” she said briskly as she saw him.

Esk had a call or two of nature to answer. He nerved himself to do it in her presence, knowing that the sooner he navigated this social hurdle the better it would be. He started to take down his trousers.

”Don't do it here,” she said. ”We don't want the smell in our breakfast.”

Oh. Well, he had made the gesture, such as it was. With relief he retreated to a more distant site and did his business. He didn't have to actually do it in her presence; he just had to be able to if the need arose.

They ate, and drank some melt.w.a.ter Chex had saved in a pair of cups. Then Volney emerged, bringing out some tubers he had found somewhere underground, and they traded some of the remaining fruit for these. It was surprising how good the tubers were; the vole evidently had a fine nose for such things.

They resumed their walk along the path. When they reached the lake, Volney was taken aback. ”I can't crovv that water!” he protested.

Obviously he couldn't. Esk wasn't certain whether voles could swim, but it hardly mattered; the giant monster out there made swimming hazardous. If the vole tried to splash around the edge, the way Chex had, he would be half floating, because his little legs were too short to achieve good purchase beneath the water. The reeds would eat him alive. If he tried to tunnel under, he would simply encounter muck that filled in as fast as he dug. There was no question: water was a formidable barrier.

He looked at Chex. No, it didn't seem feasible for her to carry the vole. Volney was too big, and not constructed for riding. Also, how would he, Esk, get around the lake, if she carried someone else?

”I think we should construct a raft,” Chex said. ”There is driftwood at the sh.o.r.e, some fairly substantial pieces, and if we use vines to bind it together, and long poles to move it, it should serve.”

”A raft?” Volney asked. ”What is thiv?”

”It's like a boat, only clumsier,” Esk said.

”What iv a boat?”