‘Bainisk — will this go back up?’
‘It will, if the water’s not too deep, it will, I promise.’
‘Why — why are you doing this? You should’ve just handed me over.’
Bainisk was some time before answering. ‘I want to see it, Harllo.’
‘You want to see what?’
‘The city. I–I just want to see it, that’s all. When I heard, well, it was as if every shy;thing fell into place. This was the time — our best chance — this close to the Settle.’
‘You’d been thinking about this.’
‘Yes. Harllo, I
‘The city.’
‘The city.’
Something clanged somewhere behind them — still distant, but closer than ex shy;pected.
‘Venaz! They’re after us — shit — come on, Harllo, we got to hurry.’
The water reached Harllo’s hips. He was having trouble working his legs. He kept stumbling. Twice he almost let his lantern sink down too far. Their desperate gasping echoed on all sides, along with sloshing water.
‘Bainisk, I can’t-’
‘Drop your light — just take hold of my shirt — I’ll pull you. Don’t let go.’
Groaning, Harllo let the lantern sink into the water. A sudden hiss, something cracking. When he released the handle the lantern vanished into the blackness. He took hold of Bainisk’s ragged shirt.
They continued on, Harllo feeling his legs trailing behind him but only from the hips — below that there was nothing. A strange lassitude flowed into him, taking away the icy cold. Bainisk was chest-deep now, whimpering as he sought to keep the lantern held high.
They stopped.
‘The tunnel goes under,’ said Bainisk.
‘Issallright, Bainisk. We gan stop now.’
‘No, hold on to this ledge. I’m going under. I won’t be long. I promise.’
He set the lantern on a narrow ledge. And then he sank down and was gone.
Harllo was alone. It would be much easier to let go, to relax his aching hands. Venaz was coming, he’d be here soon. And then it would be over. The water was warm now — that might be one way to escape them. Do what Bainisk had just done. Just sink away, vanish,
He wasn’t wanted, he knew. Not by his mother, not by anyone. And the one who’d come to find him, well, that man had died for that. And that wasn’t right. Nobody should go and die for Harllo. Not Gruntle, not Bainisk, not anybody. So, no more of any of that — he could let go-
Foaming water, thrashing, gasps and coughs. An icy hand clutched at Harllo.
‘We can get through! Harllo — the tunnel on the other side — it slopes upward!’
‘I can’t-’
‘You have to! The city, Harllo, you have to show it to me — I’d be lost. I need you, Harllo.
‘All right, but. .’ He was about to tell Bainisk the truth. About the city. That it wasn’t the paradise he’d made it out to be. That people starved there. That people did bad things to each other. But no, that could wait. It’d be bad to talk about those things right now. ‘All right, Bainisk.’
They left the lantern. Bainisk uncoiled some of the rope and tied the end about Harllo’s waist, fumbling with numbed hands on the knot. ‘Take a few deep breaths first,’ he said. ‘And then one more, deep as you can.’
The plunge into the dark left Harllo instantly disoriented. The rope round his waist pulled him down and then into the face of the current. He opened his eyes and felt the thrill of shock from the icy flow. Strange glowing streaks flashed past, possibly from the rock itself, or perhaps they were but ghosts lurking behind his eyes. At first he sought to help Bainisk, flailing with his arms and trying to kick, but after a moment he simply went limp.
Either Bainisk would pull them both through, or he wouldn’t. Either way was fine.
His mind began to drift, and he so wanted to take a breath — he couldn’t hold back much longer. His lungs were burning. The water would be cool, cool enough to quench that fire for ever more. Yes, he could do that.
Cold bit into his right hand —
Darkness, the rush and gurgle of water flowing past, seeking to pull him back, back and down. But Bainisk was tugging him along, and it was getting shallower as the tunnel widened. The black, dripping ceiling seemed to be sagging, forming a crooked spine overhead. Harllo stared up at it, wondering how he could see at all.
And then he was being dragged across broken stone.
They halted, lying side by side.
Before too long, the shivering began. Racing into Harllo like demonic posses shy;sion, a spirit that shook through him with rabid glee. His teeth chattered uncon shy;trollably.
Bainisk was plucking at him. Through clacking teeth he said, ‘Venaz won’t stop. He’ll see the lantern — he’ll know. We got to keep going, Harllo. It’s the only way to get warm again, the only way to get away.’
But it was so hard to climb to his feet. His legs still didn’t work properly. Bainisk had to help him and he leaned heavily on the bigger boy as they staggered skidding upslope along the scree-scattered path.
