her Sabriel nget mentiohe happenings of the previous night when they awoke. Sabriel, bathing her seriously swollen nose in an inch of water from her teen, found that she didn』t particularly want to remember a waking nightmare, and Mogget was quiet, in an apologetic way. Despite what happened later, freeing Mogget』s alter ego, or whatever it was, had saved them from certairu by the wind.
As she』d expected, dawn had brought some light to the sinkhole, and as the day progressed, this had grown to a level approximating twilight.
Sabriel could read ahings close by quite clearly, but they merged into indistinct gloom twenty or thirty yards away.
Not that the sinkhole was much larger than that—perhaps a hundred yards in diameter, not the fifty she』d guessed at when she was ing down. The entire floor of it aved, with a circular drain in the middle, and there were several tunrances into the sheer rock walls—tunnels which Sabriel knew she would eventually have to take, as there was no water in the sinkhole. There seemed little ce of raiher. It was cool, but nowhere near as cold as the plateau near Abhorsen』s House.
The climate was mitigated by proximity to the o, and an altitude that could easily be sealevel or below, for in daylight Sabriel could see that the sinkhole was at least a hundred yards deep.
Still, with a half-full teen of water gurgling by her side, Sabriel was quite tent to slouch upon her slightly scorched pad apply herbal creams to her bruises, and a poultice of evilsmelling tanmaril leaves to her strange sunburn.
Her nose was a different matter when it came to treatment. It wasn』t broken—merely hideous, swollen and encrusted with dried blood, which hurt too much to off pletely.
Mogget, after an hour or so of sheepish silence, sauntered off to explore, refusing Sabriel』s offer of hard cakes and dried meat for breakfast. She expected he』d find a rat, or something equally appetizing, instead. In a way, she was quite pleased he was gohe memory of the Free Magic beast that lay withitle white cat was still disturbing.
Even so, when the sun had risen to bee a little disc surrounded by the greater circumference of the sinkhole』s rim, she started to wonder why he hadn』t e back. Levering herself up, she limped over to the tunnel he』d chosen, using her sword as a walking stid plaining quietly as every bruise reminded her of its location.
Of course, just as she was lighting a dle at the tunrance Mogget reappeared behind her.
「Looking for me?」 he mewed, ily.
「Who else?」 replied Sabriel. 「Have you found anything? Anything useful, I mean. Water, for instance.」
「Useful?」 mused Mogget, rubbing his back along his two outstretched front legs.
「Perhaps. Iing, certainly. Water? Yes.」
「How far away?」 asked Sabriel, all too aware of her bruise-limited mobility. 「And what does iing mean? Dangerous?」
「Not far, by this tunnel,」 replied Mogget.
「There is a little danger getting there—a trap and a few other oddments, but nothing that will harm you. As to the iing part, you will have to see for yourself, Abhorsen.」
「Sabriel,」 said Sabriel automatically, as she tried to think ahead. She least two days』 rest, but no more than that. Every day lost before she found her father』s corporeal body might mean disaster. She simply had to find him soon.
A Mordit, Shadow Hands, gore crows—it was now all too clear that some terrible enemy was arrayed agains