“Here, drink this.”

Feebly taking the waterskin Red held over to me, I struggled not to gag as I fumbled to gently trickle water passed my parched and swollen lips. I had no idea how long Red had been tending to me, nor how long it’d been since the snowballs. The burning pain in my lungs had completely destroyed my time sense, with each moment being an endless torment.

“Wha…,” was the only part of my questions which could escape my parched and blistered throat.

“They were more of the beetles,” Red informed me, wiping a damp and cool cloth across my eyes and forehead. “I don’t know what the white powder is that they were covered in, but it’s caustic to breath in. Luckily, I was back further than you, with my spear, and not as exposed to it as you.

“I’m afraid we don’t have much water left,” Red continued reluctantly, “but I had to wash it off you as quickly as possible.”

My vision was still blurry, and my lungs still throbbed with every breath I took. Not wanting to speak, I simply took Red’s hand and squeezed it slightly, in an attempt to show I understood.

“It’s been over a day,” Red reported, “and there’s been no trouble on this side of the door. I’ve cleaned your clothes as best I could, and they should be wearable when you want them. For now,” she told me, as I realized I was naked for the first time, “you should rest and heal.”

“Side.. Blu… H..lk…” I struggled to tell her to get the blue bottle from my side pocket, that it could help, but I couldn’t force the words up my blistered throat. Feebly straining so I could turn my head to look around, I tried to point towards where my backpack laid off to the side. “Lef… Blu..” Exhaustion overcoming my effort, I slumped back down into unconsciousness.

The next time I awoke, I was feeling much better. My throat no longer felt as if it was on fire, and hunger stirred deep in my stomach. Opening my eyes, the world was no longer a blur, as I stared at Red’s beautiful face as she slept facing me from inches away. Trying not to wake her, I eased up and looked around.

The door, was thankfully still shut, and we were laying in the mossy hallway outside it, with our clothes neatly stacked to the side. Red slept naked, sprawled out shamelessly, with the look of a pure angel about her. It’s a shame she’s not the lady, instead of Jewel. I think I’m seriously starting to fall for her.

Forcing myself to rip my gaze away, I found our packs and snatched mine up. Sitting down so close I could feel Red’s skin touching mine, I rummaged in my pack looking for something light on the stomach. Settling on a jar of canned peaches, I opened the lid and helped myself to a meal while gentle playing with Red’s long hair.

“Wake well,” I wished, leaning down and passionately kissing Red when she finally started stretching.

It took her a moment before she responded wholeheartedly to my kiss. “I have now,” she beamed afterwards. “Are you okay, Mi’Lord?”

“Much better now,” I promised. “You must’ve found my healing potion.”

Reaching up, Red wrapped her arms tight around my neck and pulled me down hard upon her. “I’ll have to check that for myself, Mi’Lord,” she whispered, kissing me all over.

I did my best to show her I was healthy as a horse.

Dressed and ready for anything, I slowly pushed the door back open. Once again, the sitting room was empty, with only some scattered traces of white powder scattered across the floor indicating the beetles had followed us all the way from the other hall.

Pointing down the left hall, I asked, “Dare we go back?”

Red replied to my question with a question. “Dare we not?”

Knowing she was right – we had no idea where the “heart” might be, and we couldn’t afford to leave it behind – I dug in my pack and pulled out my bandages. Wrapping them in several layers to cover my mouth and nose, I breathed deeply. “Smells like boobs,” I joked, ripping the bandages and holding what was left of the roll over to Red.

“Underarm sweat, more likely,” Red muttered, while wrapping several layers over her beautiful face.

Seeing when she was ready, I slowly led the way back down the left hall and around the first right corner. Moving slowly down the passage where we were attacked, I strained my ears for the sound of rustling leaves. Hearing none, I stopped to examine the white powder dusting the floor. Not snow, but more like flour or ground chalk, I had no idea what it actually was. Shrugging, I eased back up and slowly covered the rest of the distance to the next room.

The next chamber was a large square opening, with a dozen rusted frames lining either wall. The white powder covered everything in a layer about a half inch deep, and nothing was moving now.

“Barracks,” Red guessed. “For the miners.”

“Feathers,” I replied.

“Feathers?”

“The powder is probably decayed feathers,” I reasoned. “I don’t see any springs rusted if those are bed frames, so they probably had feather mattresses. Years of decay and the stoneroaches have powderized them.”

“And shit,” Red guessed. “Rotted feather and beetle shit.”

Just thinking about it, and the fact that I’d been breathing it, made me feel like throwing up. Seeing nothing here to really search, I quickly moved out of the room and in the other direction. “If these are barracks,” I reasoned, “all these side tunnels here are probably the same.” The opposite hall seemed a mirror image to me as this one, so I figured that was a reasonable deduction.

“We’ll clear them one by one, slowly,” I informed Red, “to make certain no stoneroaches can sneak up behind us once we open the other door.”

“Got it,” she agreed, gripping her spear tightly as we started our roach extermination plan.

Several hours and dozens of dead roaches later, Red and I took a break to eat and rest in the entrance room. “You weren’t kidding,” I griped, shaking the almost empty waterskin I was holding. “We really are almost out of water.”

“Enough for about a day left. Maybe two if we stretch it,” Red informed me, reluctantly.

“Then we’ve got two options,” I frowned, liking neither. “We can either turn back now, knowing we can refill at a stream outside, or we can chance exploring past the door. Miners slept here; it reasons some bathed and cooked here as well”

“I’ll do as Mi’Lord wishes,” Red promised, faithfully.

“Then we chance it,” I decided, heading to the door on the right. My mind was assuring me these miners had to have some source of water down here. At least, I hope. Pushing the door open before I could give in to self-doubts, I strode forward and into…

A large, ran down dining area!

Praise the gods! I was just thinking of one, and here it was! If the miners ate here, they had to have had water for cooking and cleaning the dishes. I was so happy, I had to restrain myself from laughing.

“Seems safe,” Red judged, scanning all around the area.

Broken tables lay haphazardly scattered around the room, with chairs splintered by time to become almost unrecognizable debris. Two sets of double doors led off to the left, with a single door at the corner of the wall opposite us, and near them. Another set of double doors was direct across from us, and there was no signs of the stoneroaches moving anywhere.

“First left,” I pointed, already moving that way. Given the chance, first left had became our habit down here as we’d explored. As always, Red was by my side as I pushed open the double doors and strode inside.

We were in what was undeniably a kitchen. Rows of stoves lined one wall, and a long washbasin lined the opposite, with a row of stone tables between the two. The other set of double doors from the dining room connected to the far side of our adjacent wall, and another set of double doors sat opposite both.

With nothing moving, a brief inspection seemed sufficient, so I moved ahead to the double doors in front of us. Moving into the next room, it was half the length of the kitchen and dining areas, but easily as long as both combined. No moss grew here, and the only light was from the fluorescent glow coming from the moss filling the globe of my lantern.

Ice layered everything, making the floors slick to walk on, while shadows danced and twisted all around, as light reflected back my lantern’s glow from the ceiling and walls. Hundreds of crates and barrels were frozen solid, leaving only small walking paths between them.

As I prepared to go back to the kitchen and leave this frozen storeroom, Red put a hand on my shoulder to stop me. “A moment, Mi’Lord.” Moving past my left side, she slashed out at the frozen wall with her spear.

“For this room to still be frozen,” she explained, “there has to be magic at work here. Normally, plain chill stones will be enchanted and sold by students at the schools, so they won’t last long before the magics fade. Nobody has been here for ages,” Red reasoned, “so the stones on these walls were probably created by a High Wizard. They’re quite valuable.”

Shrugging my shoulders slightly, I moved over to hack at the ice on a nearby wall as well. “What’s these chill stones look like?” I didn’t think we had any real need to worry about wealth, not with all the jewelry we’d recovered from the bandits when I’d rescued the girls, but I certainly wasn’t going to tell Red not to bother with it. If she wanted a chill stone from in here, I was going to get her one.

“Just small stones which aren’t part of the natural wall,” Red answered. “Really, they don’t even have to be stones – anything durable enough to hold an enchantment will do. Brass buttons, copper coins, metal bolts and nuts all work. Stones are usually used, however, so there’s no cost involved in making them, in case the apprentices fail the enchantment.”

“How about a steel marble?” Prying a metallic blue ball loose from the wall, a layer of thicker frost formed fresh on the floor the moment it fell on it.

Leaning over, Red barely touched the ball bearing with her fingertip. “Freeze off,” she commanded, before picking it up in her gloved hand. “The command words are usually very generic,” she told me, “so people can buy and trade them without worry.”

Opening a side pocket on her pouch, Red dropped the ball in it. “Let’s dig out a couple more real fast,” she suggested.

Shrugging, since I didn’t care one way or the other about collecting them, I moved a dozen steps down the wall and starting chipping away at the ice covered wall.

Returning back into the kitchens, Red tapped several ovens as we passed by heading to the other doors. “Flame on. Heat on. Fire high. Cook. Blaze. Ignite.” She tried dozens of command words, but none of the ovens ever warmed. If they were enchanted in the past, it probably wasn’t by the same person.

Past the other doors was a room identical to the last storage area, without any hint that ice magic had ever been at work in it as rot, mold, and fluorescent slime grew in thick layers over everything. As soon as we entered, the sound of buzzing echoed from all directions and the ground seemed to twitch and spasm in protest.

“It’s the nest!” Red yelled in warning, stabbing violently at a slime-covered roach as it threw itself at her.

“Back! Back!” Hacking at an insect flying by my face, I backed towards the still opened door we’d entered through. Seeing an opening, Red dashed out the door and then turned to cover my retreat.

“Hold the door as long as possible!” Hacking and slashing at any insect that flew, crawled, scurried, or hopped in my direction, I frantically tried to stop the roaches from entering the kitchen. Much to my absolute surprise, Red turned and ran instead of fighting.

What the hell?! Was she abandoning me now, when I needed her most? Frantically hacking a roach off my leg as it bit deeply into my soft flesh, I couldn’t really blame her. If something happened to me down in these tunnels, she’d be free of one tie binding her soul. She’d still have to listen to Jewel, but one master had to be better than two. Right?

Just as I was thinking the worst, and getting ready to run for the safety of the metal doors at the entrance, Red dashed past me. Shoving open the other double door, she yelled wildly and flung a lantern into the storage room. Flames splashed across the moss and thick black smoke filled the room.

“Run,” Red screamed! Turning on her heels, she grabbed my arm and dashed past me again, pulling me along with her. Rushing blindly, we both dashed into the frozen storage room.

“Seal the doors,” Red yelled! Tossing her spear on the ground, she quickly yanked her pack off and started digging to a side pocket on it.

Grabbing my own pack from my back, I quickly scavaged the bandages and my last waterskin from inside. Cramming the bandages along the base of the door, I liberally doused water over them, hoping to keep the smoke outside. If the lantern fire catches that oily moss ablaze, it could burn and smolder for hours!

Tossing the metal balls we’d dug out of the walls onto the ground at the doorway, Red yelled, “Freeze On!” Almost instantly, the soaked bandages froze solid, and ice coated thick along the bottom of the door.

All that was left to do now was to wait. Wait, and try not to freeze to death until the fire burned itself out.

Teeth chattering like an insane skeleton’s, Red and I tried to resist the cold as long as humanly possible. Snuggling both our bodies as tightly together as possible, we wrapped both our blankets in layers over us. Rubbing my hands incessantly under Red’s skirt, I frantically struggled to keep my fingers, and her ass, both from freezing off.

In the end, we couldn’t hold out nearly as long as I’d hoped we would’ve. While chipping away at the ice and frozen bandages, my hands were so numb, I could barely hold the handle of my hatchet to work with. Retrieving the steel “chill stones” took forever, and trying to force open the frozen door was a truly Herculean task.

When the ice holding it finally popped and cracked, it was all I could do to fall out the swinging door. Crawling several steps away from the ninth level of hell, I groaned in agony as Red tripped and collapsed onto of me. Shaking with tremors from the cold, we instinctively wrapped ourselves as tightly around each other as possible.

A while later, after we’d both managed to get our teeth to stop chattering again, Red and I stripped each other and took stock of our injuries. Two of my toes on my left foot were bluing from the cold, and even after applying healing paste, they remained paler than the others and had a distinctive lack of feeling in them.

Red and I both suffered from frostbite to our ears and nose, and the cheap paste I owned wasn’t strong enough to heal either, even though we tried with liberal doses. Out of bandages, in the end, all we could do is shred one of the shirts which Red never seemed to wear, and wrap up our faces as best as possible.

Red’s entire midsection was of concern to me. Hips, waist, inner thighs, ass – all were exposed to the biting cold on her bare flesh under her thin skirt. Her soft and delicate skin was bright red, resembling a violent sunburn. Running out of healing paste, I thinly coated what looked the worst, but it didn’t seem to help much – if any – at all.

Down to one waterskin, out of bandages, with no other means of healing, and injuries we couldn’t fully recover from, we were in a sad state – both physically and mentally. Complaining over it, or giving in to it, however, could do us no good. Stoically and stubbornly, we forced ourselves to get dressed again and move on.

Though wisps of smoke still lingered when we pushed open the door to the storeroom, I couldn’t smell them. Most of the slime covered old crates and barrels had burnt, and carcasses of dozens upon dozens of the roaches laid strewn all about. Apparently Red had made the right call; the beasts seemed weak to smoke.

Having no other way to go, Red and I turned back and headed back into the dining area. Turning left, we traveled down the single passage nearest the kitchens, and followed a small side tunnel to what appeared to be an office and then led into another bedroom. Rusted bed springs twisted in the wreckage of what was left of the bed, leading us to conclude we had probably found the foreman’s living area. Thoroughly tossing the area, we found nothing that could possibly resemble a heart.

With no other place to go, Red and I went back to the dining area one last time. Pushing open the last set of double doors, we found a large room filled by a steaming pool. Natural or magically man made, I didn’t care. With no additional exits from here, we’d failed in our task. Apparently the heart of Widow’s Crypt lies down another passage in the labyrinthine shafts which we hadn’t explored yet.

Hearts heavy and completely dejected, we rested by the pool that night. Filling our empty waterskins the next morning, Red and I both were crying as we agreed we had to turn back. We simply weren’t in the condition to continue the hunt.

A single side trip to toss a roach carcass in each of our packs for later study, and we turned and limped homeward. The feeling of failure was dense all about.