We silently had breakfast the next morning. We continued our way below the mountain.

“We’re still heading south I think. And up isn’t that bad as well.” I leaned against the wall for a quick rest.

“I’m still worried. I want to see the sky again.” Loraline looked down and hung her shoulders.

“We all want to see the sky again.” Caroline sat down beside me.

“At least we’ve light for now.” Tilly looked at the amber.

“How is you waist doing?” Milly looked at me concerned.

“Don’t ask. It’s still a mess but the pain gets more bearable as we continue.” My shoulder and my waist were still killing me.

“Milly and Tilly still look like people who should be confined to a bed, but Lilly is worse.” Loraline frowned at us.

“A few days of rest would be appreciated. It would be a problem if our pursuers wait at exit of this tunnel. I like that there were no branches so far, but it also means that we have nowhere to go if the entrance is blocked.” I gave her a smirk.

A while later there was a small creek ahead, disappearing in a narrow crevice across the tunnel. The water was quite warm and got warmer as we continued to follow the tunnel. It was about lunchtime when we saw another cavern ahead.

“Let’s put out the light.” I deactivated the amber after a few moments.

Carefully we approached the entrance of the cavern.

“There’s faint daylight ahead!” Tilly exclaimed after a few moments as we adjusted to the darkness again.

There had to be a faint source of light somewhere in the cavern.

“Careful! There may be enemies ahead as well!” I tried to calm down the others.

After a few minutes we arrived at the cavern. Faint daylight came from far above. The creek came out of a small pool at the far side of the cavern which was about ten meters diameter. It narrowed down considerably at the far side.

“This looks like serious climbing.” Milly looked up at the small patch of blue.

“Let’s settle down for the day. We need serious rest before we could tackle that.” I entered the cave.

“Let’s have lunch, it’s about time. I have a look at the way ahead.” Caroline followed me close up.

“You three surely need some rest.” Loraline followed Milly and Tilly into the cavern.

There was a dry plateau next to the pool. The water was steaming hot which was nice as a source of heat.

After lunch Caroline and Loraline went to scout the way ahead.

“Take the amber and be careful, there is no need to risk more injuries today.” I handed the amber to Caroline.

“You three should rest as good at you can.” Loraline gave us a concerned look.

“We do.” I made myself comfortable.

They disappeared to the narrower part of the cavern.

Milly and Tilly made themselves comfortable beside me.

“The last day were daunting.” Milly leaned carefully against me.

“Good reaction with the stone Tilly, I’ve to apologize.” gave her a dejected smile.

“No Problem Lilly. You were scary though!” Tilly frowned at me.

“It’s great to see a patch of the sky again. I’d prefer to be closer.” Milly looked up.

“As long as the rock isn’t too smooth we can do it.” I carefully laid an arm around her shoulder.

“There is even enough water to take a bath.” Tilly longingly looked at he pool.

“It may be too hot.” Milly smiled at Tilly.

“We try later.” I felt at least some relieve.

Loraline came back after an hour or two.

“The crevice is quite climbable further in, the wall is rugged enough to climb to have many spots to put your hands and feet. We found no place to rest as far as we got.” Caroline sat down in front of us.

“It’ll take several hours of climbing. We should start this in the morning and with you in a better shape.” Loraline sat down right beside Caroline.

“We stay for day, and maybe longer. Could you make it up and down again in a day?” I looked at Caroline.

“Should be possible.” Caroline looked at me tilting her head.

“We could use the mirror to monitor the exit.” I smirked at Caroline.

“I can try it tomorrow. The climb seems easy enough with enough light.” Caroline smiled back.

“Sound good.” Milly nodded.

“We will know where the exit will be as well.” I laid my head on her shoulder.

We rested for the rest of the day. Loraline collected large rocks and used them to confine the water current to side of the pool.

“The pool will hopefully cool down enough for us to enter. We should wait a while though.” Loraline came back to the camp.

After dinner we got ready for the night.

We continued to normal watch schedule. It wouldn’t hurt to stay up for a while, even if didn’t feel like fighting the cavern was open enough to wake up the others.

Next morning, after breakfast Caroline left with the mirror. We could see the light of the amber while she climbed for a while. At some point the light vanished. I decided not to worry. Caroline would be as careful as she could.

Milly, Tilly and I spent the day resting. Loraline tended to our needs.

“I can see a tiny bit at least.” She smiled.

Caroline came back a while before dinner.

“I hadn’t climb up all the way to that spot of light.” She sat down next to me and handed back the amber.

“What did you find?” I sat up.

“There is a tunnel south after about two hours of climbing. It ends at the other side of the ridge, just above the glacier at the other side.” She handed me the mirror.

I could see the glacier below which was flowing in to a steep valley below. We would need quite some time to cross it, all in plain view from behind. On the other hand I had no real experience traversing glaciers. Crevasses would be an issue. An issue we could deal with. We had enough rope and we had Tilly’s spear.

“Looks promising, Unfortunately we can’t look behind” I handed the mirror to Milly.

“The people following us should have had issues with the storm.” Caroline looked at the mirror as well.

“We are going rest a day or two at least.” I looked at Milly.

“They’ve only a direction. How visible is the exit?” We locked our gazes

“I wasn’t outside to avoid leaving cracks. We have to remove some snow to use the exit. It’s well hidden.” Caroline smiled.

We had dinner a while later.

“The water seems to be decent now. We could try a dip.” Caroline stood beside the pool smiling.

We nodded at each other.

“Let’s put the weapons close to the pool.” I got to my feet.

“We change clothes after that. Let’s wash our current ones. I bring soap.” Milly started to rummage in her backpack.

After a few minutes we were all sitting in the shallow pool of hot water. We took our time to wash ourselves and our clothes, which out to dry thereafter.

After that we put on spare clothes and got ready for the night. We had a look at the mirror from time to time. There was not much to see after dusk though.

The next day we all used for our much needed rest. My waist was still a mess but it wasn’t much pain as long as I was careful. My shoulder seemed to have recovered mostly. We spent some time in the hot pool as well.

Milly checked the magic mirror frequently, but nothing suspicious showed up.

“Still nothing to see.” She put the mirror back into her backpack.

“Hmm. How would the situation look from their side? They will suspect us to cross the mountains here. The tremors from the cave-ins should have been noticeable. I wonder if they noticed the entrance of the cavern at all, as they’re no locals. Last but not least they have someone who’s able to point in our direction.” sat down with my back to wall.

“The location spell isn’t very accurate though.” Tilly came over and sat down beside me.

“I’d wait on the ridge itself as long as there are signs of life. Question is how long do they need to get there.” I looked at Loraline tilting my head.

“Depends upon what magic they have to help. Without help they need I think double the time we needed, about four day, to the base of the ridge. The ridge itself would take at least another day as they would have to search for a suitable route up.” Loraline was sitting on a blanket and was leaning herself against a backpack.

“There are at least two or three days of storm on top and they had at least a day to arrive at the point where we turned up to the ridge.” Caroline sat at the pool with her feet in the water.

“We could take another day of rest I think.” Milly sat down in front of me.

“We should make our first move on the glacier at night. Just in case there is someone watching from the ridge.” I smirked.

“White clothing would be neat.” Tilly scratched her chin.

“Unfortunately the merchants have closed.” I smirked at Tilly.

“We stay here tomorrow and leave for the exit the day after I propose.” Milly looked at me tilting her head.

“We should leave in the afternoon though to avoid unnecessary time resting near the surface. They have the magic pointer after all.” I nodded at Milly.

The rest nodded as well.

We spent the next day relaxing and healing. After lunch of the day after we started to climb up to the surface.

“We will need more time than Caroline.” I looked at the others.

“We will use a rope for this.” Caroline gave me a smirk.

We tied ourselves together and started to climb the rough rock face. We needed five hours to reach the tunnel south and reached the exit at the last signs of dusk.

We made short work of the snow at the exit and after tying us together in a line with a rope, we set out in the night for a few more hours. We put Tilly first to prod for crevasses. We crossed a few of them, making detours to find a spot to cross them save at the wider ones. Milly and Tilly had recovered mostly. I felt much better as well, but my waist was still quite sore.

It was past midnight as we made our camp on the ice. The night was cold, but we managed to get our sleep, cuddling for extra warmth.