sagged.Renn was puzzled, but Torak ignored her. If she got an inkling of what he meant to do, she'd try to stop him. "Get out of here," he told the boy. "Go back to Akoomik while you still can."Terror and ambition fought in the blubbery face. "I can't," he whispered."If you don't go now," said Torak, "it'll be too late. Your clan will make you an outcast. You'll never see them again.""I can't" sobbed the boy.From deep within the Eye, a voice boomed. "Boy! It is time!"142"I'll make it easy for you," snarled Torak. Wrenching the pouch from the boy's grip, he pushed him down the trail. "Go on, go!" He hoisted the pouch over his shoulder. "Renn, I'm sorry, but I've got to do this."Realization dawned in her face. "Torak--no--it'll never work; they'll kill you!"Turning his head, he shouted an answer to the Soul-Eaters. "I'm coming!"Then he raced up the trail and into the Eye of the Viper.143SEVENTEENAfter the twilit mountainside, the darkness hit Torak like a wall."Shut your eyes," said a voice in front of him. "Let the dark be your guide."Torak just had time to draw down his hood before a figure lurched toward him bearing a sputtering pine-blood torch.From the voice he expected a man, but when he stole a glimpse from under his hood, he was startled to see a woman.She was heavy and squat, with legs so badly bowed that she rocked as she walked. Her features were at144odds with the rest of her: small, darting eyes in a sharp-snouted face. Pointed ears that reminded Torak of a bat. He didn't recognize her clan; the spiky tattoo on her chin was unknown to him. What drew his gaze was the bone amulet on her breast: the three-pronged fork for snaring souls."You were a long time," said the Soul-Eater. "Did you get it?"Hiding his face, Torak held up the pouch. Inside, the owl wriggled feebly.The Soul-Eater grunted, then turned and hobbled farther into the cave.Glancing back, Torak saw that the last glimmer of daylight was far behind. He slung the pouch over his shoulder, and started after her.The Soul-Eater moved fast, despite her bowlegs, and in the swinging torchlight he caught only flashes as they went deeper. Ridged red walls like a gaping maw. A tunnel as pale and twisted as guts. Yellow handprints that flared, then faded in the gloom. And always the echoing drip, drip of water.As he stumbled on, the folly of what he'd done sank in. When the Soul-Eaters saw his face, they would know he wasn't the White Fox boy. Maybe, too, they would detect some trace of his father in his features. Or maybe they already knew who he was, and this was all a trap.Down, down they went. An unclean warmth seeped145from the rocks and clung to his face like cobwebs. An acrid stink stole into his throat."Breathe through your mouth," muttered the Soul-Eater.Fa used to give him the same advice. It was terrible to hear it repeated by the enemy.Above him, Torak saw thin sheets of reddish stone hanging down like flaps of bloody hide. In their folds, unseen creatures shrank from the light.His head struck a rock and he fell, crying out in disgust as his fingers plunged into soft blackness seething with thin gray worms.A strong hand grabbed his arm and hauled him to his feet. "Quiet!" said the Soul-Eater. "You'll startle them!" Then to the darkness, "There, there, my little ones." As if in answer came the squeak and rustle of thousands of bats."The warmth makes them wakeful," murmured the Soul-Eater. Laying her palm on the tunnel wall, she made Torak do the same.He recoiled. The rock had the lingering warmth of a fresh carcass. He knew only one reason for that. The Otherworld."Yes, the Otherworld," said the Soul-Eater, as if she'd heard his thoughts. "Why do you think we came all this way?" -He didn't dare reply, which seemed to irritate her.146"Don't let the bats see your eyes," she snarled. "They go for the glitter."Abruptly, the tunnel widened into a long, low cavern the color of dried blood. It had the eye-watering stink of a midden in high summer, and Torak's gorge
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