Then there was sudden movement toward the boy and he leaped back and up, instinctively, almost climbing a rock face. Something struck his lower leg, and he could hear the snapping of jaws. Jimmy turned in midair and, using his native abilities, tucked and rolled with the fall, coming down on something that wasn’t rock. Without hesitation, Jimmy lashed out with his dirk, feeling the point dig into something. He continued to roll off the back of the creature while a reptilian hiss and snarl filled the cave. The boy twisted as he came to his feet, pulling the dirk free. The creature spun, moving quickly, almost as quickly as Jimmy, who leaped away from the creature, blindly, and struck his head against a low-hanging outcropping of rock.
Stunned, Jimmy fell hard against the wall as the creature launched itself again, again missing by only a little. Jimmy, half stunned, reached out with his left hand and found his arm wrapping around the thing’s neck. Like the legendary man riding the tiger, Jimmy couldn’t release his hold, for the creature could not reach him as long as he held fast. Jimmy sat, letting the animal drag him around the cave, while he stabbed repeatedly at the leathery hide. With little leverage, his blows were mostly ineffective. The creature thrashed about, and Jimmy was battered against the rock walls and scraped as he was dragged about the cave. Jimmy felt panic rising up inside, for the animal seemed to be gaining in fury, and his arm felt as if it would be torn from his shoulder. Tears of fear ran down the boy’s cheeks, and he hammered at the creature in terror. “Martin,” he half shouted, half gulped. Where was he? Jimmy felt with sudden certainty that he was at last at the end of his vaunted luck. For the first time he could remember, he felt helpless, for there was nothing he could do to extricate himself from this situation. He felt himself go sick to his stomach and numb all over and, with dread certainty, felt fear for his life: not the exhilarating thrill of danger during a chase across the Thieves’ Highway, but a horrible numbing sleepiness as if he wished to curl up in a ball and end it all.
The creature leaped about, banging Jimmy against the wall repeatedly, and suddenly was still. Jimmy continued to stab at it for a moment, then a voice said, “It’s dead.”
The still-woozy thief opened his eyes and saw Martin standing over him. Baru and Roald stood behind, the mercenary with a lit torch. Next to the boy lay a lizardlike creature, seven feet in length, looking like nothing as much as an iguana with a crocodile’s jaws, Martin’s hunting knife through the back of its skull. Martin knelt before Jimmy. “You all right?”
Jimmy scuttled away from the thing, still showing signs of panic. When it penetrated his fear-clouded senses that he was unhurt, the boy shook his head vigorously. “No, I’m not all right.” He wiped away the tearstains on his face and said, “No, damn it all, I’m not.” Then, with tears again coming, he said, “Damn it. I thought I . . .”
Arutha came through the fissure last and took stock of the boy’s condition. He moved next to the boy, who leaned tearfully against the rock wall. Gently placing his hand upon Jimmy’s arm, he said, “It’s over. You’re all right.”
His voice betraying a mixture of anger and fear, Jimmy said, “I thought it had me. Damn, I’ve never been so scared in my life.”
Martin said, “If you’re going to be scared of something at long last, Jimmy, this beastie is a good choice. Look at the jaws on it.”
Jimmy shivered. Arutha said, “We all get scared, Jimmy. You’ve just finally found something to be truly fearful of.”
Jimmy nodded. “I hope it doesn’t have a big brother about.”
Arutha said, “Did you sustain any wounds?”
Jimmy took quick inventory. “Just bruises.” Then he winced. “A lot of bruises.”
Baru said, “A rock serpent. Good-sized one. You did well killing it with that knife, Lord Martin.”
In the light the creature looked respectable, but nothing near the horror Jimmy had imagined in the dark. “That’s the “bad thing’?”
Martin said, “Most likely. As bad as it looked to you, imagine what it looks like to a three-foot-tall gwali.” He held up his torch as Laurie and Arutha entered. “Let’s see what this place is like.”
They were in a narrow but high-ceilinged chamber, mostly limestone, from its look. The floor climbed slightly as it moved away from the fissure that led outside.
Jimmy appeared ragged, but went to the fore, taking Martin’s torch and saying, “I’m still the expert at climbing into places I’m not welcome.”
They moved quickly through a series of chambers, each slightly larger and located higher up than the others. The connecting chambers had an odd appearance and strange feel to them, somehow disquieting. The plateau was large enough that they moved for some time without much sense of moving upward, until Jimmy said, “We move in a spiral. I’ll swear we’re now above the place where Martin killed that rock serpent.”
They continued their progress until they came to an apparent dead end. Looking about, Jimmy pointed upward. Above their heads by three feet was an opening in the roof. “A chimney,” said Jimmy. “You climb up by putting your back to one side and feet to the other.”
“What if it widens too much?” asked Laurie.
‘Then it’s usual to come back down. The rate of descent is up to you. I suggest you do it slowly.”
Martin said, “If the gwali can get up there, we should be able.”
Roald said, “Beggin’ Your Grace’s pardon, but do you think you could swing through the trees like them, too?”