In the course of time, the narrow hall accessed another shaft that was wider and gave them the option of going either way. Deciding to keep the wind behind them they moved forward carefully but had not gone far when they were brought up short by a sound that stopped them both. It was a sort of bawl or moan from someplace deeper in the mountain like an animal feeling distressed.
“What was that?” Talon asked.
Aggie’s heart leaped into her throat.
“It’s the bear,” she said, “it made that sound when it thought I had escaped through the hole in your floor.”
The sound seemed to come from some place not that far away but not in the shaft they were in. Talon and Aggie sat motionless and listened.
“There it is again,” said Talon. “It sounds like it’s below us somehow.”
“It’s coming from behin
