Jimmy pulled his foot back. “It’s cold,” he whispered.
Martin said to Baru. “City boy. He’s seven thousand feet up in the mountains and he’s surprised the lake’s cold.”
Martin waded into the water, slowly, so as not to splash. Baru followed. Jimmy took a deep breath and followed, wincing every step as the water reached higher. When he stepped off a ledge, he plunged in up to his waist and opened his mouth in a silent gasp of pain. Upon the shore, Laurie winced in sympathy. Arutha and Roald kept watch for any sign of alarm on the bridge. All three crouched low, behind the gentle slope down to the water. The night was quiet, and most of the moredhel and human renegades slept on the far side of the bridge. They had decided to wait until the hours just before dawn. It was likely the guards would be half-asleep if they were humans, and even moredhel were likely to make the assumption that nothing would occur just before sunrise.
Faint sounds of movement in the water were followed by a gasp as Jimmy ducked his head underwater for the first time and came right up again. Gulping air, he ducked back under. Like the others, he worked blind, feeling along. Suddenly his hand smarted as he stuck himself on something sharp among the moss-covered rocks. He came up with what seemed a noisy gasp, but nothing at the bridge indicated he was heard. Ducking under, he felt the slimy rocks. He located the thorny plant by sticking himself again, but he didn’t jump up. He took two more punctures getting a grip on the plant and pulling, but suddenly it came up. Breaking the surface, he whispered, “I’ve got something.”
Grinning, he held up a plant that gleamed almost white in the light of the little moon. It looked like red berries stuck onto the branches of a rose branch with silver thorns. Jimmy turned it in appreciation. With a tiny “Ah” of triumph, he said, “I’ve got it.”
Martin and Baru waded over and inspected the plant. “Is this enough?” asked the Hadati.
Arutha said, “The elves never told us. Get some more if you can, but we wait only a few more minutes.” Gingerly he wrapped the plant in a cloth and stowed it in his pack.
In ten minutes they had found three more plants. Arutha was convinced this was enough and signaled it was time to return to the cave. Jimmy, Martin, and Baru, dripping and chilled, hurried to the crevice and entered, with the others keeping watch.
Inside the cave, Arutha looked a man reborn as he inspected the plants under the faint light of a small brand Roald held aloft. Jimmy couldn’t keep his teeth from chattering as he grinned at Martin. Arutha could not take his eyes from the plant. He marveled at the odd sensations that coursed through his body as he regarded the branches with their silver thorns, red berries, and green leaves. For beyond the branches, in a place only he could see, he knew a soft laugh might be heard again, a soft hand might touch his face, and the embodiment of every happiness he had known might somehow be his again.
Jimmy looked at Laurie. “Damn me if I don’t think we’re going to do it.”
Laurie threw Jimmy his tunic. “Now all we have to do is get back down.”
Arutha’s head came up. “Dress quickly. We leave at once.”
As Arutha breasted the rim of the canyon, Galain said, “I was about to pull the ropes up again. You cut it fine, Prince Arutha.”
“I thought it best to be down the mountain as soon as possible, rather than wait another day.”
“That I cannot argue,” agreed the elf. “Last night there was some argument between the chief of the renegades and the moredhel leaders. I couldn’t get close enough to hear, but as the dark ones and humans don’t get along very well, I judge this arrangement soon to end. If that happens, this Murad may decide to cease waiting and begin looking once more.”
“Then we had best get as far from here as we can before light.”
Already the sky was turning grey as false dawn visited the mountains. Fortune was with them in part, for on this side of the mountains they would have shadows to hide within awhile longer than had they faced the sunrise. It would be only a little help, but any was welcome.