“I wondered where you"d gone, my love.”
“One last sniff of fresh air before the descent into Hell,” I replied.
“This is Hvit, not Hell.”
“Thank you…Verstra?”
“Serstra,” he corrected.
“Any chance of the pair of you wearing name tags?”
“I don"t think our mother would be too happy about that,” the other twin replied.
“Parents can be such a chore.”
“Indeed,” Grella mused. “Please be careful, these ice steps can be perilous at times.” He cast back a withering look from below to make certain of my attention.
“Might I ask how far we descend?” I threw it out as a general question and then gave the tunnel the once-over in preparation for an answer: steps about as wide as an average man lying down; tunnel about the same in height, which accounted for my stooped posture; the whole thing of a
