“I am not dissolving, thank you very much!” Chaska yelped, jumping up and shaking a pound of loose snow out of her collar while Lilt gave a startled hiss and flattened her ears. “And that went right down my back!”
Even Ashaun let out a short, rough snort of amusement as she helped Chaska brush the powder off her shoulders with her right hand.
Satisfied that humans remained solid when packed in snow, Pip gave a single pleased click of its blunt tooth plates, picked up the mouse’s scrubbed wooden box by its rope loop so Osha could lash it safely atop the archive pack, and trotted into the warm mouth of the cavern with Suth’s carved wooden beetle marching beside its feet.
Fifty paces inside the limestone arch, the blue daylight from the frozen waterfall faded to a dim gray smudge behind them, and the bitter mountain cold vanished completely.
The air inside the tunnel was as warm and damp as a laundry house on boil-day. Ysabet unfastened the top button of her wool coat with her left hand, grateful that the moist warmth eased the tight, cramping ache in her bruised left ribs. Ahead of her, Osha and Ashaun struck sparks to the wicks of two shielded brass oil lamps and raised the shutters.
