Her feet quickly began to ache from the cold. She had calluses built up from walking barefoot all summer, but they were not proof against the water and sharp points of the rocks.

She stumbled, caught herself, then stumbled again. She did not want to lose her grip on the tooth, and so let her knees take the brunt of the fall.

She landed on the edge of a stone underneath the surface of the water and cursed at the pain.

“Lords,” said Talen.

“I’m fine,” she said.

“No,” he said, “not that. Look.” He held the torch higher.

She pushed herself up and looked ahead. The pathway ended in a wall.

“Are you sure this is the right cave?”

“I’m sure,” she said. But then her courage faltered: maybe the thing climbed the walls. Furthermore, in many places the torchlight did not reveal this wall’s total height. Maybe the creature’s lair was up, not forward, and they’d already walked past it.

She took the torch from Talen and splashed forward. When she got to the wall, she held the torch up. The jagged wall stood perhaps twelve or fifteen feet high. Water dripped down from the ceiling. She could hear water splashing from above like a brook cascading over a small fall. She reached out and felt the slippery rock of the wall. There was no way they could scale it.

“There,” said Talen and motioned to the right. “We can get up that way.”

On her right the rock face was broken and free of slime. It looked like a narrow ledge joined up with the area above the wall.

“How are you going to get up that?” she asked.

“You go first, then pull me up with the rope.”

She looked at him. “I don’t know if your lame carcass is worth it.”

“Oh, it’s worth it,” said Talen.

She looked back up into the blackness. “It’s going to be up there waiting for me.”

“Maybe,” said Talen.

“And I can’t climb that holding the tooth in my hand.”

“No, you can’t. But I’ll hold the light for you.”

“Oh, that’s a big help.”

He shrugged.

“I’ll carry the torch in my teeth,” she said. At least then she’d have light when she got to the top. She put the hag’s tooth back into its case. Then she tied the case to her body. She didn’t take off the gauntlets. If something was up there she wouldn’t have time to retrieve the case and put them on. When she finished tying the case to her, she put the stem of the torch between her teeth, then began to climb.

If the creature caught them now they were lost.

There were plenty of foot-and handholds, but they were not as dry as they seemed. And her dripping clothes only added to the problem. But even if it had been dry, her feet and legs were still stiff and hurting from the icy water. Nevertheless, she rose. It was slick and slow going and she expected the monster to appear at any moment.

But then she reached the ledge. It was perhaps two feet wide and more than enough for her to sit on. She clambered over the edge, and then took the torch from her mouth and held it to see farther down the passage.

The ceiling seeped. Long stalactites and stalagmites had formed, looking like huge caramel teeth. Farther down, water poured out of a rent in the side of the corridor, then slid over the wall. Beyond that was blackness.

The ledge did indeed join that passage.

She untied the case, placed it on the ledge beside her, then threw down one end of the rope.

Talen tied the remaining torches into a bundle, and she hauled them up. When the torches were resting next to her, she held the light out for Talen.

“I can do it without a rope,” he said.

“It’s slicker than it appears,” she said.

“I can feel that,” he said. “Especially where you dripped.”

He climbed, gingerly at first, then began to proceed at a good pace. Soon he was almost to the top

“Ha,” he said. “Lame indeed.” But at that moment his footing slipped and he lurched to the side, then backward. He tried to grab the ledge with his bad arm, and winced. She reached out for him, but instead of grabbing her hand, he grabbed a thick handful of her hair.

His grasp caught her off guard and she was yanked toward him.

Talen shouted his dismay, his eyes wide.

They were both going to pitch over the ledge.

Then Sugar caught a seam in the rock on the ledge with both hands and pushed back. It was like a man trying to tug a donkey, except in this instance Talen was the man, holding on to a fistful of her hair, and she was the donkey.

He twisted, and for a moment she thought his weight would pull them over, or pull her hair out, but then he got a secure foothold. The change in balance was enough for her to reach up and grab his arm, and then with a mighty tug, pull him over the brink and onto the ledge.

Talen finally let go of her hair and pulled himself to sit with his back against the wall. He held his shoulder and grimaced.

Sugar felt her stinging scalp. “You couldn’t have grabbed my outstretched hand? Lords, I don’t know who’s going to kill me first-you or the monster.”

“I’m doing my best.”

The way he said it made it sound as if he were doing his best to kill her. She looked over at him and laughed. It was unexpected. Probably nothing but nerves. Yet it felt good.

Talen finally understood what he’d said and laughed with her.

“I guess we could look on the bright side,” she said. “If it wasn’t already aware, your yelling has certainly alerted the monster to our presence. So that will save us some walking.”

“There you go,” he said. “Now give me the torch. If I’m going to meet my death, it’s going to be with thawed toes.”

That was a good idea. They both turned and sat cross-legged facing each other with her holding the torch between their bare feet. Talen’s back faced the main corridor beyond.

The warmth was wonderful.

“That’s going to be a bugger climbing back down,” he said.

“No. Next time, seeing how poor a climber you are, we’ll just be sure to use the rope. I think I’ll tie it around your neck.”

He smiled.

Something sounded in the corridor behind Talen’s back.

Talen slowly reached for the torch and took it from her hand.

Sugar opened the case and withdrew the hag’s tooth. There was not enough room to stand up, and she doubted whether the monster could fit on this ledge, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t climb up just as they had.

They waited until the torch had burned through the rope and now was little more than a fire stick.

“I don’t think anything’s there,” said Talen.

“If something were,” she said, “then at least we could get this over with.”

“Well, we won’t get over anything squatting here,” he said.

She looked at him. He was not some strapping armsman. Not a formidable warrior. But she was happy he was with her.

“What?” he said.

“We’re going to have to light another torch.”

Talen nodded. He took one from the bundle tied with rope and lit it.

“Let me go first,” she said. “The last thing I want is for the monster to snatch you and leave me trying to strike it in the dark.”

“What are you going to do? Crawl over me?”

“Exactly,” she said.

When he saw she was serious, he lay on his belly. She crawled over him, careful to not to touch his ribs or shoulder, and then moved along the ledge until it joined the main passage and they could stand up.

Talen held the torch up and scanned the ground. “There,” he said and pointed to a spot on the tunnel floor. “And there.”

Sugar looked at the ground. There were a brief series of regular markings on the floor. They were partial footprints. Not a human’s. But something two-legged that was large and twisted its right foot slightly as it walked. “We’re in the right place,” she said. “That’s a comfort.”

Talen held the torch higher, illuminating the path beyond the stalactites.

The cavern walls here were much different from the ones below. They rose up to the ceiling in smooth lines with patterns carved into them.