Page 38 of Katya and the Young God

It never does.

* * *

After everyone isacross without much in the way of problems, they start back up, and every step gives a shot of pain down Katya’s shoulder, arcing down her hand and her back, and it’s only because of sheer force of will that she doesn’t react, doesn’t throw down her pack and give up, doesn’t just sit down and refuse to go further.

But when they have to enter a narrow passageway, barely wide enough for her to wedge herself into it and shuffle along it, her bag by her side, she just wants to cry.

The pathway narrows, then abruptly stops at a crack in the wall, barely big enough for Katya to fit if she shuffles sideways.

The group pauses, lets Nathan step to the front, to the crack that must barely be a few inches wider than him, and he has his leader smile on. “Now, for this, we all had to go sideways, but it’s not a long crack, only about ten meters or so,” he starts, his eyes straying to the Golem. “There are more bones in there, and we try to not touch them for future anthropologists’ sakes, but it might be difficult to avoid it. But if I can fit through, most of you should have no trouble.”

Everyone looks to the Golem, whose stone face remains, of course, like stone.

“I can’t imagine you’ll fit,” Nathan says, sympathetic, and instead of the Golem responding, the small man that’s always next to him clears his throat.

“We can leave him here,” the Magician says, and his voice is as small as his stature. “He can wait for us on the return.”

“Will he, will he need any extra food?” Nathan asks, still not taking his eyes off of the Golem.

“It’s not actually alive,” the Magician says, boredom creeping into his voice. “I can always just make a new one.”

Katya looks up, and catches Feketer’s uneasy gaze at such a callous statement.

* * *

Once on the other side,the cool air hits her face again, and she takes a moment, waiting for the next person to shuffle through the crack, to sit and stretch her legs out, open her pack and count her weapons, laying her fingertips on them in what she knows is a nervous habit.

Her fingertips graze the handle of her service weapon with its copper bullets, and she breathes out, slowly, the rough grip soothing.

From the other end of the small antechamber, Pieter jerks his head up the moment she touches it.

She resists the urge to move her hand like some sort of scolded child, as he raises an eyebrow at her.

Instead she lets her hand linger against the grip, so familiar she swears her own hand has molded it over time, and just looks away instead.

* * *

After the crack,after they continue through the rough hike, the buzzing becomes so loud it’s almost physically audible, until they reach another great pit, with no ropes strung around it, just a few leading down.

Her shoulder aching with every step, Katya just looks at the rigging and breathes out hard through her nose.

“You won’t have to do any actual climbing, leave that to us,” Nathan announces, but even his voice is muted by the ever-present feeling of wrongness. “We’re just going to hook everyone into the harness, and then belay you down.”

She doesn’t want to go into the harness again, but neither does she really want to just wait here for everyone else to get back.

“The bottom is our stopping point for the night,” he says, and it’s so muted that she almost misses the connotation.

The seal is on the other side of this rope.

“It’s nice, it’s flat, there’s potable water with no impurities, and then we can be well-rested for whatever’s on the other end,” he says, and while Katya’s skin crawls at the idea of sleeping this far underground, her entire body is weary. “And it’s nice and quiet down there.”

The comment makes Katya raise an eyebrow, for except for their motions and the buzzing, the entire cave is quiet.

The same small caver goes down first, quickly disappearing and rappelling down the rope with no harness, her motions smooth and easy. Katya finds herself drawn to the sure motions of her hands, how she knows how to grab the rope perfectly, to the bunching of her muscles.

She’s clearly one of the more adept climbers, and it doesn’t take long for the thump of her footsteps to hit the bottom of the pit.

Just like last time, Pieter volunteers to be hooked into the harness first, and other than a little hesitation at going over the lip of the cave, he easily gets lowered down through a series of ropes strung through carabiners.

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