The horses were standing on the other side of a shimmering pool of water lying in a triangular dip at the centre of a large chamber formed by the junction of six pipes all as big as the one from which we had emerged. The water shone with the familiar yellow glow of the taint-devouring creatures the wolves called dryka. Seeing steam rising from it, I went to the edge of the pool and leaned over it, trying to see if there was a crack in the pipe, for how else could spring water have got in? But the metallic plast shone in a way that made it impossi ble to see clearly. Yet there was simply no other way the creatures could have got into the pipe. The upheavals that had wrenched the smaller pipes out of place must have left a fracture through which the water had seeped, carrying the eggs of the dryka. Jak had told me the eggs of the taint-devouring creatures would go into a forced hibernation if deprived of anything they needed, and that they could lie dormant in that state for a very long time and still hatch, once conditions were right.

‘Elspeth, can we light a fire and make a meal?’ Analivia asked, as Ahmedri and Swallow went to divest the horses of their burdens and give them some food.

‘I don’t think a fire will be a problem since the water is giving off heat and light, but I am not sure about cooking, given that the creatures hunt by scent as well as hearing, and are probably beginning to come out of their deepest sleep,’ I said, stifling a yawn. ‘Let me go and ask the wolves if the smell of boiling vegetables or campbread will bring them down on us. Don’t light a fire until I come back. There is no point in wasting wood if we can’t cook.’

‘Better take some food for the wolves,’ Swallow advised. ‘They may hunt their food when we are outside, but there is nothing in here for them.’ He threw me several packages of a hard biscuit Katlyn had produced when she had been trying her hand at developing travel food.

The wolves were just far enough along the next pipe to be outside the arc of brightest light, but there was still enough light to see Descantra, who lay nearest of all the pack to me. She bared her teeth as I set down the packets of biscuit, but when I straightened, Rheagor was coming towards me.

‘Rest and sleep while tha has the chance for tha must move more swiftly on the morrow,’ the pack leader sent, sniffing at the packets. ‘This one will come for tha when the sun do be rising.’

I felt him beginning to withdraw and said quickly, ‘Can we cook food?’