They dismounted and the centaurs galloped away. What next?
Dug, heedless of the scary depth, explored the verge. He walked east. Soon the nature of the chasm changed. The land did not drop straight down, but descended in a series of half-loops, so that it was possible to go down without falling. "We can handle this!" he said enthusiastically.
"But there is a dragon below," Nada warned him.
"You can be a big serpent and scare it off," he said.
"I can"t scare that dragon. Not the Gap Dragon. The only safe way to handle him is to avoid him."
"Well, we can have Sammy Cat show us a way down and across that will avoid the dragon." He was so confident that it was annoying.
"Perhaps," Nada said guardedly.
Kim could see that the naga princess had her hands full, trying to keep Dug out of trouble. She couldn"t even change forms both ways in his presence, because of the problem of clothing. It probably wasn"t much fun for her, being his Companion. But it might not be much fun for Jenny Elf, either, being Kim"s Companion, because Kim was impulsive too.
"This could be trouble," Cyrus said, glancing up.
Kim followed his gaze. An ugly little dark cloud was scudding from the north. "Is that who I fear it is?" she asked.
"c.u.mulo Fracto Nimbus," he agreed. "You encountered him before."
"I sure did! He always rains on the party."
There was a rumble of thunder. The others looked up. They shared glances of dismay.
"Hey, what"s the big deal?" Dug asked. "So a little cloud pa.s.ses. So it rains a bit. That won"t stop us."
"That"s Fracto," Nada said.
"Fractal?"
"Fracto, Xanth"s worst cloud. We had better get under cover."
"What"s all the fuss about one tiny cloud?" he demanded. "It"ll be gone soon enough."
"If you do not care to heed my advice, perhaps you should exchange me for Kim"s Companion," Nada said somewhat stiffly.
Dug looked surprised. Then he glanced at Jenny Elf, thoughtfully. "I guess maybe there"s something I"m not picking up on here," he said. "But as I see it, we can wait until an actual storm threatens."
But the others knew better. They were already hurrying to find the makings of a tent Kim went to a pie tree she had spied, to gather a good meal to eat while they waited for me cloud"s fury to expire. Jenny was going for pillows. There was no telling how long they would have to wait.
"I can"t believe this," Dug said. "One stupid little cloud! You"d think it was a hurricane or something."*
There was another rumble. The cloud was expanding, puffing itself up voluminously. A puffy face was forming on its surface. A chill gust of wind came down.
"What an ugly puss," Dug remarked, staring up at it.
Sammy meowed. Dug looked around. "I didn"t mean you," he said, flashing a smile. The cat relaxed.
"We could use some help on this tent," Sherlock called.
Dug finally realized that this was serious. He went to help pitch the tent.
The first fat drops of rain spattered down. Then their nature changed. "Hey, that"s sleet!" Cyrus exclaimed.
Kim held out her hand. Hard pellets bounced off it. "Sleet? That"s hail!" she said.
They got the tent finished, and piled unceremoniously into it as the hailstorm intensified. Bubbles and Sammy joined them, not wanting any part of the storm. The dog huddled close to Kim, nervous about the closeness of so many relative strangers, but not making any fuss. Kim was also highly conscious of Dug wedged on her other side.
Now the hail had become snow, piling down in turbulent flurries. They were safe under the canvas, and they had blankets too, so they were comfortable. Kim just couldn"t keep her awareness off her closeness to Dug, under a shared blanket. If only something like this could be real, as in a date!
"That"s more of a cloud than I figured," Dug said, paying her no attention. "Snow-on a warm day!"
"Not only that," Sherlock said. "It"s colored, if you"ll excuse the term."
Kim peered out. She saw pastel hues. The snow was all the colors of the rainbow! "It"s pretty," she said.
"Nothing Fracto does is pretty," Nada said darkly.
They ate the pies while the storm continued. "I wonder why Fracto came here right now," Jenny said. "How could he know we were here?"
"The game!" Kim exclaimed. "He was sent by the game! It"s another challenge."
"A cloud sent to mess us up?" Dug asked. "But all we have to do is wait for it to peter out"
Sherlock shook his head. "I don"t know much about clouds or magic, but I"ll bet this is going to make a difference. For one thing, this chasm"s going to be twice as hard to cross, covered in snow."
Dug nodded. "You"re right. After the storm pa.s.ses, that funny snow will remain. It"ll slow us down."
"Slow us down?" Kim asked. "Maybe it will speed us up!"
The others looked at her. "We don"t want to jump into that blind," Nada said. "The smaller crevices will be covered up, and the slopes will be treacherously slippery. We should wait until it melts."
"But that could take days," Kim protested. "No, I"m thinking of skiing down on that snow. That would make a tedious trip easy."
"Skiing!" Dug said. "I tried to ski once, and almost broke my leg. That was just a little slope. This canyon"s a mile deep. Even a skilled skier could get himself killed."
He had a point Kim had skied, but she was no expert, and this would be no easy course. "Well, we could sled down it, maybe."
"Where"d we get sleds?"
Sammy stirred. He was about to head out into the storm when Jenny caught him. "Not yet, Sammy!" she said. "Wait till it stops snowing!"
Dug pursed his lips. "He can find sleds?"
"Sammy can find anything," Jenny said proudly. "Except home. So there must be sleds nearby."
"Can you be sure they are near?" Nada asked.
"Actually, I can"t," Jenny admitted. "Sometimes things are way far away. But I know he"ll find the closest sled there is."
"Okay, so we can get sleds," Dug said. "But sleds can be dangerous too, on an uncharted slope. I was ready to walk it, but I don"t know about this."
"Maybe Sammy can also find a safe route down," Kim suggested. Then we could follow on sleds."
"I wouldn"t let him go alone," Jenny said. "But maybe he could ride on a sled with me, and sort of indicate whether it was safe to go on. I mink that might work."
Finally the storm eased. Fracto"s rages were severe, but seldom endured long. But what damage they could do in a short time!
Kim and the others climbed out of the tent. The snow was several feet deep, almost burying the tent; they had almost to tunnel to the surface.
It was a changed world. Colored snow lay everywhere, changing the landscape. The nearby trees had piles of blue snow on their foliage, while bushes were buried under yellow snow. The level land was covered in brown, while the descending slopes of the Gap Chasm were clothed in black. But it was definitely snow; Kim dipped a finger and tasted it. Black icy flakes.
They foraged for heavier clothing. There were yellow jackets growing nearby, and the cold had frozen their stingers, so that it was possible to wear them. There was also a boot tree with a fine selection ranging from bootees to jack boots. Before long they were all suitably bundled up, looking like so many stuffed dolls.
Kim realized that all this was unlikely to be coincidence. The game had set up its challenge, with supplies in place, and moved in the storm when they arrived. They were not going to go hungry or cold. They merely had to make it down into the Gap Chasm.
"Now, Sammy," Jenny said. The cat bounded away, leaving pawprints in the snow. The dog, less adventurous, remained in the tent.
Jenny followed the cat, and Kim followed Jenny. Soon they came to a sled shed. Kim knew it was that, because mere was a sign on the door saying so. The cat bounded up to the door and waited until Jenny opened it. They went inside.
There were two big rounded devices. One was labeled ROBERT and the other ROBERTA. "But these aren"t sleds," Jenny said. "At least, not like any I"ve seen."
Sherlock arrived. "Those are bobsleds!" he exclaimed, amazed.
"They have nicknames?" Jenny inquired.
Now Kim recognized the type. She had seen them race in the Winter Olympics on TV. Horribly swift three- or four-man sleds. They were supposed to careen down into the chasm in these? "But we don"t know the first thing about handling a-a Robert sled," she protested weakly.
"Oh, I wouldn"t say that," Sherlock said. "I rode on one once. Course it wasn"t far or fast, just a little demo hill. I was the steersman. I probably couldn"t have steered it wrong if I"d tried, on that track, but I did sort of get the great feel of it. That"s the king of sleds, for sure."
Kim felt a sinking sensation. They were going to do it! Go down into that dread chasm on bobsleds!
They hauled the sleds back to camp. "Look what we found," Nada said, pointing.
Kim looked. There were two clearly shaped trails down into the chasm, with square signs posted where each divided.
"How did those signs get there?" Kim asked. "I don"t see any tracks in the snow, and they weren"t there before it snowed."
"Must be game magic," Dug said. "We really have to sled down those trails."
"But how will we know which way to go?"
"I see the signs say RIGHT and LEFT," he said. "So all we have to do is follow those road signs."
"What kind of challenge is that?" she demanded. "I don"t trust this."
"Ah, you"re just chicken to take the ride."
"You bet I"m chicken," she retorted, nettled. "Why would they go to all this trouble to set up a challenge, then tell us how to get through it?"
"To get us quickly down to the bottom, where we"ll have to figure out how to avoid the dragon."
It did make morbid sense. But still she didn"t trust it This whole business was just too elaborate.
"Well, let"s do it," Dug said. "Sherlock and Nada and I can take Robert, and Cyrus and Jenny and Kim take Roberta. We"ll race each other down to the dragon."
"Who will men eat the first arrival, so the second can get through," Kim said acidly.
That finally made him pause. But he recovered. "We"ll tackle that problem when we get there."
He was hopeless. And she was hopeless, to be so intrigued by him. But she reminded herself that it was only a game. The worst that could happen was that they would wash out and be back in Mundania.
Or was it? What would happen to the others, if the Players disappeared? The Companions would be all right, probably, but the others-Cyrus, Sherlock, and Bubbles- could be stranded in the snow, in the Gap, with a deadly dragon coming.
The game was no longer the fun it had been. But what could she do? Skip out on a challenge? She was stuck for it.
They hauled the bobsleds up to the ends of the two trails. Sherlock showed Cyrus how to steer. "It"s mostly leaning, actually," he said. "But you have to time it right, and pull on these handles, here." Then Sherlock went to the other sled and got in. Nada got in behind him, and Dug was ready to push and jump in at the back.
Their own sled had Cyrus, Jenny with Bubbles and Sammy, and Kim as the push-off rider. They got set. "Do we really have to race?" Kim asked. "Maybe it would be better to have one sled try it first"
"It is set up like a race," Jenny said. "Probably it"s better to race."
There was just no getting out of this. Kim got set to push off. She looked across at Dug.
"On your mark," he called. "Get set. GO!"
Kim pushed. The sled tipped over the rim and started down. She leaped onto the back and hung on. It felt exactly like falling.
In half a moment they were zooming toward the fork. The sign said LEFT. "Sammy says go right!" Jenny screamed. Indeed the little cat was almost scrambling out of the sled on the right side.
So Cyrus steered it right. They entered a slanting ledge overlooking a sheer drop into the chasm, then threaded past an outcropping into a kind of narrow valley. There was another fork, with another sign: LEFT.
"Go left!" Jenny cried, as the cat scrambled left.
They went left. Kim looked back, and saw that the path of the right fork turned and went directly down the face of the chasm, an impossible drop.
They came to a third fork and sign. This one said LEFT again. "Right!" Jenny cried, and they went right The trail looped around, found a channel, and debouched on a large level ledge. The sled slid to a halt. They got out.
Kim"s heart was thudding. "Two of those signs were wrong!" she said, outraged. "One of them would have dumped us into the chasm!"
Cyrus and Jenny looked back up the trail, "You"re right," Cyrus said. He looked shaken. "We can"t trust the signs. All of them said LEFT, but we had to go right twice. We couldn"t just do the opposite of what they said, because one of them was correct. So there"s no consistent pattern."
"Where is the other sled?" Jenny asked.
Sammy jumped from her arms and bounded along the ledge. They followed. Soon they spied it: jammed in a dead end about halfway between the ledge and the top. Its occupants seemed to be all right, though disheveled and annoyed.
"The middle sign was wrong?" Kim called.