When Dravidian awakened, he found the temperature had dropped still further and that he could now see his breath. He also found one more thing—which was that Shekalane was no longer by his side ... and, realizing the implications of this, he sat up with a start.
But though he scanned the chamber thoroughly, he saw no sign of her—although he did observe a darkened recess in the cavern wall that could have been a doorway. It was curious he hadn’t noticed it before.
He put on one of the great fur coats, shivering, and investigated—found that it was, indeed, a passageway. Moreover, it was a warm passageway—strangely, a hot wind blew through it—equally strange, it was illuminated, although the source of its red-orange light was clearly at a distance.
He hadn’t progressed far when he came upo
