Lissie put her fingers to her mouth. The blood was flowing from three of them like a river.
I barely felt it.
She knew only one thing that sharp. Black Ice. Niko was calling to her, but she took another step forward. She patted the ground from above, slowly. Her hand came down on a wooden edge. She felt along the wood, and slid her palm until it hit jagged stone on the side. It cut her palm.
She could see. It was a woman carrying the sword. Her white hair was cropped short. She was a Nomad. There was another woman walking in front of her, in a black robe. The tunnels leading from the room matched the dark tiled cavern. The room was lit with torches on the outside walls. On the floor the tiles formed a picture that Lissie craned to see. She just caught a glimpse of fur and blood before cold hands on her shoulders brought her back.
“I thought I lost you.” Niko’s breath was in her ear. The darkness had returned.
Lissie asked, “Niko, do you have the rope? How many paces?” Her breath was coming fast.
“I had to drop the rope. I lost count.”
“Me too.” Lissie wondered if his hand was getting colder. She squeezed it with her good hand.
Niko’s hand twitched. “You are bleeding. What did you find?”
Cora yelled, “What happened? You dropped the rope?” The call echoed in the cavernous space.
“I tripped on something and I found a black ice blade. I let go of the rope when I kicked it. I lost count of my steps.” The silence grew as she talked and hung between them.
“Riley, Alexander, come back along the wall, then walk straight out. Lissie, Niko, hold tight. We are going to sweep for you.” Cora’s calm voice of reason. “Do not move.”
Lissie sat on the floor, bleeding on Niko’s hand. She could hear her heart in the darkness. She tried to tell the blood to slow, but she felt trapped in herself. The blood poured faster. Her heart pounded and she took a shuddering breath and let it out when Niko held her shoulder tight.
She waited.
Alexander and Riley were chatting, calling. Lissie had trouble raising her voice above a whisper. Niko yelled, “Here. Here. Here.” He repeated the word like a chant. Lissie felt that it was a mantra against that sense of disembodied floating.
Riley’s voice was closer now. “Here?”
“Yes,” Niko replied.
When Lissie was a girl, they had played a game where they would all get blindfolded in the castle. Riley always won, but she never could find Lissie then. She took a breath and called, “Over here!” She was going to be found this time.
Lissie felt the rope on her face first. She didn’t want to let go of Niko’s hand to grab it, so she called, “Follow the rope back, I feel it. The rope is touching me. Don’t step on the sword.”
She felt Riley’s hand graze her hair. She stood up and said, “I cut myself on the blade. Be—”
Lissie started coughing. All around her they were coughing. Her tongue tasted like vinegar and acrid metal. She heard retching. The mournful sound of Ruskin choking.
Cora was yelling, “What’s going on?”
Alexander was close, and Lissie listened for him. But he did not reply, or could not reply over his gagging.
Niko said, “I taste rotten fruit, rotten meat. I have never tasted them together before.”
“Everyone back! Follow the rope!” The evenness was gone from Cora’s voice. She sounded very far away.
Lissie followed the rope. She tried to hold it in her thumb and palm, but was afraid of dropping it. She could hear the blood pattering as she walked.
She stepped on something small and hard. She had to twist her ankle to keep from crushing it. Lissie bent and picked it up, holding the rope in the bad hand. She slipped the object into her pocket and hurried to catch up with the group.
Back at the entrance to the room, Lissie found herself pulled into the huddle.
She muttered, “I found something. Small.”
Cora said, “Roll call.”
“Nikolai is here.”
“Alexander, in Gallia in spirit.”
“Riley!”
“Lissie, here.” Lissie felt at what she had found in her pocket. The blood from her hand had made it tacky.
The box unsealed in her pocket and she realized what it was.
“I found a Dust Box. It uh, just unlocked in my pocket.” Her voice cut the silence. “Could someone open it for me?”
She felt a small, soft hand on her arm and knew it was Cora before she spoke. “I’ll open it.”
Cora did not lift it from Lissie’s palm. Lissie could feel it balanced there. She felt her feet balanced against the whole world. She swayed.
The lid eased open and Cora removed her hand. Lissie closed her bleeding fingers, looking for the dust.
Dahla said the Dust could heal. Maybe it will help.
Her fingertips eased into the box, and she felt prickles. Lissie kept herself from recoiling, and buried her fingers deeper. The things felt like fingernails. It felt like it was stuffed with nail clippings. They spilled out onto her palm. She felt a tooth.