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.She didn’t know how she’d manage without it.And to make matters worse, perhaps the Gold Wizard was dead, under the pile of rocks.While he wasn’t very useful, she realized she didn’t want him dead either.He could be kind of endearing at times—sillier than Austyn, and just as bashful.The darkness didn’t clear, but eventually Reina cried herself out.She had no more tears left.Sniffling, Austyn curled up on her lap, and she leaned against a boulder and just sat.In the quiet, she felt a part of herself, deep within, gathering itself together.She couldn’t move yet, but she knew that soon she would.She would get up and look for a way out, because it had to be done, and if she didn’t do it, no one would.Reina stood up stiffly and with more care this time.“Austyn, you stay right here, I’m going to feel around again for a way out.”“I’m scared.” He grabbed her arm.“Don’t leave me.”“I’m not leaving you, but I don’t want to crash into a rock and get us both hurt.”“Don’t leave, don’t leave.”Although annoying, his panic steadied her.She had to be strong not just for herself, but for him too.Reina took his hand.“Okay then, hold onto me.Don’t you want to find a way out?”“Yes,” he whispered.Reina put his hand on the back of her shirt and used both her hands to feel her way forward.She took several cautious steps into nothingness and encountered nothing.She kept going until her hands brushed against stone.She’d found the collapsed wall of the cave.Working her way along it, she felt it from the ground to as high as she could reach.Austyn’s constant grip on her back slowed her down.After what seemed forever, her hand touched something soft.Exploring it carefully, she discovered it was the Gold Wizard’s tunic.“I’ve found him, Austyn.” She tried to sound calm.Reina shivered, afraid of what her hands might find next.Taking a deep breath, she followed his arm up to his face.Something wet and sticky met her fingers, perhaps blood.Her hands found his face.She leaned over, putting her ear above his mouth, and let out a sigh of relief when a faint puff of air moved across her ear.He was alive, but unconscious.Reina gently shook his shoulder, and he groaned.“Wake up,” she ordered.“Ouch, ouch, ouch,” he cried.“My leg! It’s crushed.” She felt up his leg as he kept moaning and discovered it was buried under the rocks.“Austyn, get on his other side, so I don’t hit you.”She heard Austyn move and started removing rocks and tossing them into the darkness on her other side to get them out of the way.The Gold Wizard screamed when she rolled a big one off of him and dragged himself backwards.He was finally free.“Ugh,” he muttered.“I hurt all over.”“Yeah, and you’ve trapped us in here,” Reina snapped.She felt her way over to him.“How’s the leg? Can you stand on it?”The Gold Wizard gasped in pain.“I can’t touch it,” he said.“Owww, oww, no, I don’t think I can walk on it.”“Then what do you propose we do?” Reina took a deep breath and counted silently to five, trying to get her temper under control.“Let me try to get up.Can you help me?”They missed each other a couple times in the dark before their hands connected.“Austyn, get his other hand.Okay, on three try to stand up, and Austyn, you pull with me on three.One.Two.Three.”Reina hauled on his hand with all her might, and she heard him stand up, scream, and sink back down.“No.” He gasped.“I can’t.Hurts too much.”“Great,” she mumbled.“Well, do you have any tinder or anything? Maybe we can light a fire.”“Lost my bag in the avalanche.At least we know this is a big cave we’ve been trapped in.”“We do?”“You heard how it echoed when I yelled.And the air is still fresh.If only I could walk, we might be able to find another way out.”Reina racked her brain.Sitting here, things would only get worse.They had only the food in her pack, which somehow she’d kept, if she could just find it in the dark again.It wouldn’t be much, and there wasn’t any water.They had to find a way to move the Gold Wizard.“I’ll see if I can find anything you can use as a stick, and then you can find a way to walk a bit.”The only answer was a groan.She wanted to feel his leg, to decide for herself if it was as bad as he thought, but she didn’t dare.She told Austyn to stay by him and went to feel her way around to see if she could find her pack.Her hands met only more rocks.She glared into the darkness but had nothing to orient her to which direction was which.The pack could be just inches away, and she’d never know.She pushed her fear and frustration aside.She could do this; she needed to do this [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]