Pip’s foot touched the exposed metal before Ysabet saw it move.
The blue chamber went white.
Not gone. Ysabet could still feel the knife in her left hand and lake water around her knees. But another place opened over it, immense and cold. Snow drove sideways across a ridge. Figures moved beneath it, too small to be the people she knew.
A creature crouched above them.
It was ragged, low to the ground, its broad body folded into a shape she almost recognized. There were six legs beneath the snow crust. One had been crushed. From its back rose crooked plates, incomplete shelter against a slope beginning to slide.
Someone laughed in terror.
The sound entered Ysabet’s chest with the force of joy. They had been found. A weight that could bury a whole column was coming down, and something had found them.
The old creature braced.
