After an eternity of tortuous progress, he gained the far wall. Picking his way up the steep path, he reached the holes, farther above the roar and crash of the boiling river. The first tunnel that he reached itself fumed and steamed and he hurried past, but the next opening carried a welcome hint of cooler air. Once he was inside the temperature dropped rapidly. Pleased at this good sign, Fritti put distance between himself and the great cavern.
With several tunnel bends behind him, the sound of the river had decreased to its earlier muted throbbing. He flopped to the floor of the shaft, glorying for a moment in the relative stillness and cool. After a few breaths he applied his tongue to his soggy, matted coat.
"You there!" The voice slashed through the shadowy tunnel. Fritti leaped to his feet, his heart pounding louder in his own ears than the raging water.
"Sssstay!" hissed the voice. "Sssstay and have wordsss with Sskinwretch of the Toothguard!"
CHAPTER 26
Ah, yet would God this flesh of mine might be Where air might wash and long leaves cover me; Where tides of grass break into foam of flowers, Or where the wind's feet shine along the sea.
–Algernon Swinburne
Transfixed, Tailchaser stood as slow steps crunched down the tunnel toward him. He could hear the whistling breath of the approaching creature. A nearly overwhelming desire for flight struggled with a dull, unreal feeling of resignation, and he swayed gently in place.
"My companion and I want to ssspeak with you, ssstranger." Again, the hissing words, closer now.
Companion, Fritti thought. There are two of them. His legs trembled, and he drew his tail up between the hindmost pair and waited. From out of the darkness loomed the blind head of the Toothguard. His loose-skinned body tottered unsteadily. Fritti stared.
Where the huge nostrils had once flared in the Toothguard's eyeless face, there was only a scarred ruin of tattered flesh.
Skinwretch came shakily to a halt not a jump and a half away from Tailchaser, and his damaged snout poked questingly to and fro.
"Are you here?" queried the Toothguard. Tail-chaser's heart leaped, and he gave an involuntary squeak of relief. The thing had been wounded! It could not sense him, or at least not well.
"Ahhh," breathed Skinwretch. "There you are. I hear you now. Come, don't desssert usss. My companion and I have lossst our way." The blind thing moved closer, leaning an ear in Fritti's direction. "What isss your name?"
Tailchaser weighed again the possibility of making a dash for freedom. He decided against it. Here, perhaps, was a situation that could be turned to his advantage. It would be dangerous, of course, but everything here below the earth would be.
"Um… um… Tunnelwalker!" he blurted after a moment's hesitation.
"Ssssplendid. Your name soundsss asss if you will be aptly sssuited to aid usss. Are you of the Clawsss? Your voice sssoundsss very high."
"I am but a youngling," said Tailchaser quickly.
"Ahhh," breathed Skinwretch, satisfied. "Of courssse. With the final preparations, even the young are presssed into ssservice. Come, you mussst guide usss. Asss you sssee, I am sssuffering from a temporary infirmity." Mumbling, the maimed Toothguard turned and shuffled up the corridor. Fritti followed a short distance behind.
Final preparations? he wondered. What is happening?
"You mussst have come passst the Ssscalding Flume," Skinwretch called over his shoulder. "I ssshould never have come ssso clossse. The russhing of the water disorients me, I fear. It iss quite incredible, is it not?"
"Yes, yes, it certainly is," assented Tailchaser. "What brought you out to this lonely part of the mound?" He hurried forward to better hear the hairless creature's reply.
Skinwretch was quiet, then answered: "I am afraid that I have had a bit of a ssetback, you sssee. A youngling like YOU may not know it, but there is a great deal of unfairnesss-unfairnesss to folk like mysself. You sssee. I do not want to criticizzze, oh no, but I wasss punished unfairly because a prissoner escaped. Bui I wasss not even there-oh no, I merely passsed along some information to my massster, Lord Hisssblood. When the essscape occurred, he wasss punished by the Lord of All. In turn, I wass made to sssuffer. Unfairnesss, sssuch unfairnesss…" The Toothguard broke off with a little whimpering gurgle. Fritti realized with a thrill of fright-and pride- that it was his escape that Skinwretch spoke of.
After a moment, the Tooth broke off his keening and said: "My companion iss just ahead. I hope he hasss not left. He too hasss sssuffered injusticeness. Ah, I believe I can hear him!" Tailchaser had forgotten the companion, but now he too could hear the loud, sonorous breathing. As they turned a corner he saw a large, dark shape lying flat in the shaft. Skinwretch inched forward, testing before him with a great wrinkle-skinned paw. He pushed at the big, dark body.
"Get up, get up!" he shouted. "I've found young Tunnelwalker to help usss find our way back. Get up!" As the recumbent creature turned reluctantly over, Skinwretch said to Fritti: "Perhapsss you two know each other. My friend wasss an important figure in the-"
An all-too-familiar face, blocky and malformed, was revealed as the shape rolled over and cast baleful eyes on Fritti.
"Tailchaser!" howled Scratchnail, rising on his front paws. Before Fritti could move his stiffened body, Skinwretch had leaned over and flung a smacking paw at Scratchnail's face. The impact knocked the Clawguard off balance. He rolled back down onto the ground again, moaning.
"Sssilence, you fool!" snarled the Toothguard, and bobbed his blind head toward Tailchaser, who stood by, shocked into rigidity.
"Don't mind thiss one," he assured Fritti. "He isss not right in the head, I fear. The Lord of All dealt harshly with him over the matter of thisss sssame prissoner. Now, he sssees thiss fellow in every ssshadow.
It isss quite sssad, iss it not?" Indeed, Scratchnail was paying no attention to the actual Fritti beside him, but was rubbing his chin in the dirt, moaning Tailchaser's name over and over. Finally he stopped, and looked up at the Toothguard.
"Why were you gone… so long?" Scratchnail asked Skin wretch. Coming from that powerful body, the pleading tone seemed dreadfully unnatural. Fritti let out his long-held breath. The world underground, which had contracted into a stone-cold, heavy skin around him, expanded once more. Incredible! His luck was holding. To be this close to a Scratchnail who did not recognize him!
"Get up, you great lump!" Skinwretch snapped. The Clawguard's frightened mewing struck the lightheaded Tailchaser as almost comical. "I have found sssomeone to help usss find our way back to the main tunnelsss. We can find food there! Rissse." Scratchnail pulled his bulk erect.
"He iss not right in the head, asss I told you," Skinwretch apologized as the threesome started up the corridor. "He would have died, dessspite all hisss ssstrength, but for me." There was strange pride in the voice of the Toothguard.
Tailchaser now found himself in the unenviable position of being guide and companion to two creatures who wished him and his kind dead-leading them through tunnels with which he was completely unfamiliar, down to the secret center of the maze.