Hand of Fire (The Master of the Tane) (29 page)

  
              “Hey!” Dor yelled.

  
              Tam stared at him wide-eyed as he dangled below her like a piece of live bait. She gave another quick heave, using all her strength that remained. Dor pushed with his foot, still planted firmly on the bump, and their combined efforts catapulted him through the hole, right on top of Tam. As he landed, his right shoulder smashed against the floor with a sickening thud. The pain would have been unbearable had he not blacked out, the exhaustion and pain of the moment too much for his weakening body.

             
Tam edged herself out from under Dor’s motionless body and took one last, hurried look at the stairs below. The rats were in a fury clawing over each other in an attempt to reach the hole above and the warm flesh that still called to them. Their razor sharp teeth gnashed up at her making Tam’s stomach lurch at the thought of what would have happened had Dor not found the opening in the wall. Their bones would have been left picked clean in only a matter of minutes. She retreated back away from the hole. It was all too much. She had to get away from there.

  
              Laying Dor gently on one of the blankets, she made a makeshift litter and started dragging him deeper into the passageway. It was slow going. Dor was much heavier than she had realized and the ceiling was so low that she had to stoop. The light, although dim at first, was beginning to increase along with the tremendous amount of heat that seemed to swell with every step. She stopped and wiped the sweat from her forehead. The temperature was quickly becoming unbearable. She removed her leggins and then moved back to Dor and pulled his off as well. The sweat was coming now in great beads that covered her body in a glowing sheen.

 
              “Out of the cook pot and into the flames,” she sighed sitting down to rest for a moment suddenly feeling very tired. Dor stirred. She kicked his leg gently. “Wake up,” she sighed. “It’s your turn to carry me.”

  
              Dor let out a moan and then slowly opened his eyes. The pain he was dealing with was evident on his face and Tam felt a little guilty for her comment. “Where are we?”

  
              “Well, we’re alive,” she said opening her water pouch and taking a swig. “For now anyway,” she added wiping her lip and then passed the pouch to Dor.

  
              Dor sat up slowly, cringing as he did so. His throat was dry and burning and the water, although warm, felt good as it trickled down. He stared at Tam for a moment thinking how pretty she looked with her hair matted against her face that way while sweat flowed down her face and dripped from her chin. He found himself admiring the curve of her mouth and the color of her lips.

  
              “What are you staring at,” she said flatly, jerking Dor away from his thoughts. “Are you sick?”

  
              His face flushed. “Uh no,” he said thinking he must be for staring at her like he was. “I was just thinking,” he stumbled on, “that I should thank you for saving my life...again.”

  
              Tam caught her breath for a moment. What was this? He was actually thanking her. Dor, the great scout and hunter was thanking her for saving his life. Something suddenly happened that had never happened before in her life; she was at a loss for words.
He must be delirious from the pain and the heat
, she thought wiping the sweat from her eyes.

  
             
I can’t believe I was looking at her like that
, Dor’s mind raced as they both sat silently staring at each other.
I must be delirious from the pain and this heat
.

  
              The silence dragged on for a long moment until Tam saved them both by finding her tongue again. “You’re welcome,” she blurted.

  
              “What?” Dor asked hoping the red in his face would be passed off as coming from the heat.

  
              “You’re welcome,” she repeated stumbling over her words, “for saving your life.”

  
              “Oh yes,” Dor said closing the water bag and handing it back. “I owe you, again.”

Tam said nothing. She just stared at him, the water bag hanging loosely in her hand.

Dor suddenly spoke, his voice all business again. “Now, instead of just sitting here melting, I guess we better find out where this leads.”

  
              Tam nodded slowly, unsure of what had just happened. Dor brushed past her peering down the tunnel and retaking the lead position. Grabbing the blanket he left for her, Tam turned and fell in behind him.
Must have been the heat
, she thought coming back to a full sense of their situation.

  
              It didn’t take long for them to discover the reason for the light they now had and the almost suffocating heat that seemed to intensify with every step. The passageway ended at a gigantic, circular cavern that shot straight up into darkness above and dropped below into a turbulent sea of molten lava. The heat was deathly, plastering them both in the sweat that was draining their bodies of life giving fluid.

             
“We have to get out of here fast,” Dor said wiping the sting from his eyes.

  
              “How?” Tam asked feeling a sense of despair that was slowly taking over her mind. “We can’t go back the way we came.”

  
              Dor looked down but immediately realized that there was no way they could survive getting any closer to the lava; the heat was just too intense. Scanning the cavern above, he could see that the sides of it were rough cut rock unlike the corridor walls they had recently left. His finger pointed up. “We have to go up. We’re in the belly of the mountain. There must be an opening above us.”

  
              Tam’s eyes followed his finger to the darkness far above and then dropped back to Dor’s shoulder that hung uselessly at his side. “But you only have use of one arm,” she blurted. “You can’t climb like that.” She suddenly felt the tears welling up again. After all they had been through, after escaping the troll, the snowstorm, the cave and the rats they were going to die there anyway.

  
              Dor sat for a moment trying to think. She was right, he couldn’t climb with one arm but he knew that to stay where they were was certain death. They couldn’t go back. Even now the sound of the screeching rats had not diminished, still reaching their sensitive ears. There was no telling how long they might wait for their prey to reemerge.

Dor suddenly stood and took away Tam’s belongings.

                 She looked at him in surprise. “What are you doing?” she asked as he grabbed the blankets out of her hands.

  
              “I can’t climb out of here, you’re right about that. But you can.”

  
              She stared at him for a moment before she finally realized what he was saying. “Oh no, Dor,” she said yanking back the blankets. “We didn’t come all this way for you to suddenly give up and play the hero. I won’t do it.”

  
              “You have to Tam,” he urged tugging back on the blankets. “There’s no way I can climb out of here with this arm. And I won’t let you sit here and die just because I can’t make it out when you can.”

  
              It was all too much for her. All this time, she had been able to press back into the deepest parts of her mind the idea that they might not make it out alive. Now it was reality, but only for Dor and the thought killed her inside.

“I can’t,” she suddenly sobbed, her tears mingling freely with her sweat. “I don’t want to leave you here to die. You’re the only friend I have left.”

                 Dor looked at her tenderly, remembering all of the times he had teased her and made her feel bad. Now it was all coming back to haunt him.
What a fool I’ve been
, he thought. He reached out and touched her hand. She held tightly to it. “Listen to me, Tam,” he said, his voice soft and gentle. “You have to go...”

  
              “No!” she screamed throwing her other arm around his neck.

  
              Dor twitched from the pain but brushed it aside not wanting her to let go. “Listen to me Tam,” he said softly into her ear, “Thane may still be alive and need your help. If we both stay here he won’t have a chance at all. You’ve got to go and help Thane.”

  
              Tam was bawling hysterically. What was she supposed to do? She didn’t want to be left alone and she certainly didn’t want another of her friends to die. How could this be happening?

  
              “Tam,” he pressed, “if you go there’s a chance we can both make it out alive. You have to get out and bring back help for me. It’s the only way.”

  
              Tam settled down a bit as she pondered what Dor had just said. Maybe he was right. Maybe Thane was still alive. If she found him then they could come back and get Dor. If she stayed there they would both die for no reason and she would never know. There was no choice. She slowly pulled herself away and looked down not wanting to see Dor’s face. She knew that if she saw his eyes she would not be able to do what she had to.

  
              Dor could sense the resolve in her and smiled weakly. There was more to this girl than he had ever realized. “Good,” he said. “Now, you take the water, it may be a longer climb than you think.”

  
              Tam just nodded and stood numbly as Dor made her put her leggins on and tied the blanket, with the food and water, around her waste. He rambled on about the cold above and the need for warm clothing while Tam tried desperately to steel her mind and body for what she was about to do. She pushed the thought away that she was leaving Dor behind and tried to replace it with the idea that she was going to get help. She tried to think how good it would feel to have saved his life three times now but she knew deep inside that she would never again be able to feel pride for something that should just come naturally.

  
              She suddenly realized that Dor had stopped talking and that she was ready. It was up to her now. She paused only briefly, and then, without so much as a good-bye, Tam stepped to the edge of the passage and reached up feeling for a handhold above. She felt Dor lift her foot to help her up but pushed any thoughts of him from her mind, concentrating instead, on the rock wall and the long climb.

  
              Dor sat for a moment watching her slowly ascend. “Good-bye, Tam,” he whispered and then slowly retreated back down the passageway trying to put as much distance between himself and the heat as he could.

  
              It seemed like only minutes until he was back at the entrance where not long before he had sidestepped another of death’s attempts to take him. The rats had quieted a bit but went into another deafening frenzy when Dor looked over the side as if daring them to try and reach him. He sat with his leg hanging over the edge as a constant taunt and thought of Tam. He knew she had what it would take to get to the top and out of this grave that had swallowed them, but he also knew there was no way she would be able to get back in time to save his life.

“It looks like you’ve finally got me,” he said out loud with a snicker.

                 Tam continued climbing, slowly feeling weaker with every change of handholds. She wanted to look down and see Dor climbing below her but knew she would be disappointed and probably freeze up in the process. She also knew that one small break in concentration, one tiny slip, and she would plummet to her own fiery death. She had to live. She had to get out alive. Without her, Dor didn’t have a chance. She thought it strange that she thought only of Dor and not of Thane. She guessed she was finally accepting the fact that Thane was lost to them forever. He would always be in her heart where he had always been but she knew she would never see him alive again. The thought made her want to start crying but she forced it away with great effort and then chided herself. “I’ve got to concentrate on what I’m doing.”

She looked up, searching for another hold to clasp onto when something suddenly caught her eye. Not too far above and over to the right she saw what looked like a ledge. Her heart
leaped and it was all she could do not to look down and call out to Dor. Taking a deep breath she calmed her excitement and emptied her mind of everything except getting to that outcropping. She pulled up and then shuffled to the side concentrating her strength that was quickly waning. The heat was getting to her now pulling her down like a drop of sweat. She wanted a drink but was only taunted by the water bags that hung at her side out of reach. She had to make it to the ledge first.

The climb was long and arduous but finally, without knowing quite how she had done it, Tam pulled herself onto a shelf. It was like a broken path that stretched out to the right, hugging the wall, as it ran halfway around to the other side of the cavern and then abruptly ended. She lay on her back in an exhausted heap realizing that if she had not made it to the shelf she surely would have fallen soon from simple exhaustion brought on by the stifling heat. She knew that she was not out of danger yet but she smiled anyway knowing she had at least made it past the first obstacle.