CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
I woke up in mud again, this time to a baby crying. Malcolm.
I lay in a thin stream of mud that burbled gently around me. I spit out a glob of muddy, grainy lich water, then cursed when I realized that the water would soon be working on me. The last time I took a swim in a lich lake, it brought back an intense memory that I had forgotten about.
The water burned my lungs and started a slow, steady drumbeat in my chest.
I rolled over and squinted up into blinding light. Unlike the dark tunnels before, I was now in a radiant world—the sky was a swirling gradient of yellow, purple, and orange. It was sunless and endlessly bright. It looked like the Easter Bunny threw up down here. The muddy terrain was long and flat like that of an alien planet.
The crying continued. Ma
