The tunnels were penetrated by the flickering light, and silence broken only by the hollow echoes of their footsteps were starting to give the two a terrible headache. How much farther before they wandered out the other side of tunnel? They had thought they were very close to the exit the other time. Eventually, though, the tunnel before them emptied out into a barrel-shaped cavern, and Icelin heard the sound of rushing water. An underground river gushed over stones, and a forest of stalactites hung low over the water.
Chang Chang stared at the river, grateful for anything to look at besides dark tunnel walls. The water foamed around the stalagmites as if from the mouth of a crooked-toothed beast. Blue-green fungus grew among the rocks on the shoreline, and there were a few stepping stones out in the river itself, but these looked dangerously slick and barely large enough to hold one person.
