The passage winds and bends, twisting like a thing alive, until finally opening onto a long cavern. The floor seems to be some kind of pale, pebbled stone, but when I step on it it crunches softly, and a cloud of pale gray dust puffs up around me. I immediately start coughing.

Delkash pulls me back into the corridor. “Careful,” he says. “Look before you step.”

I feel my face burning, angry with myself for blundering into the cavern, but it is some moments before I can catch my breath. The gray dust has settled back to the floor of the cavern, and I move out as far as I dare, holding my torch aloft.

What I took for pebbled stone is actually some kind of mushroom, growing thick and dense on the floor and lower walls of the cavern. No surface is uncovered; it carpets the entire floor in a seemingly solid mass. The gray dust must be their spores, ejected when they were crushed by my foot. Lifting my torch higher, I look for any hint of a way across. Nothing manifests. I can’t even make out the far side of the cavern. My Sight is of no help here; the mushrooms have no mystical origin.

I think for a moment, then pet Rigi gently on his back. “Rigi,” I say to him. I try to picture in my mind what I wish of him, before putting it into words. “Fly to the far side and back.”

He considers me skeptically.

“Fine,” I say. “I have some berries in my pack. I’ll share them with you, if you do this.”

Rigi hoots once before leaping off my shoulder and flying into the darkness of the cavern. I hold my torch up for him, giving him what light I can. I hear his wings flap a few seconds later as he turns around, and then he is gliding down to perch on my arm.

“Your owl likes berries?” Delkash asks.

“Among other things.”

“I thought owls were carnivorous.”

“Oh, he’ll eat mice and snakes and such when he can,” I say. “But he’s quite fond of berries.”

Delkash nods. “Interesting. But now I guess we know the cavern isn’t especially deep, yes?”

“Right. Rigi flew it in just a few seconds. We could probably run it in not much longer.”

“But can we outrun the spores?”

I chew my lip and consider. “Maybe? We’d need to run side-by-side; if we go single-file, the person in the rear will almost certainly be breathing them.”

Delkash leans against the passage wall and silently considers the cavern. I do the same, wondering how we can get through this.

As simple as running would be, I have to admit that it really isn’t an option. Even the slight taste I received of the spores was enough to leave me gasping. The cavern is only a few seconds across at a sprint, and we could easily hold our breath for that long…but we don’t even know what’s on the other side. What if we need to spend a minute or two looking for the exit? What if there is no exit? Relying on holding our breath seems fraught.

I wipe my face absently on my sleeve, and am struck by a sudden thought. I set my pack down and rummage through it, first pulling out a few berries for Rigi, and then pulling out a spare tunic. It isn’t fine linen by any means, but it is well made, and clean.

I hold it over my mouth and nose and try breathing through it. It takes a bit of effort, but is doable. I remove the tunic from my face and look up at Delkash.

“I’m going to try something,” I say. “Will you hold your staff out for me to grab onto, in case I’m not able to get back on my own?”

He nods. “I will.”

Taking a deep breath, I stand up, put the tunic back over my mouth and nose, and step out onto the mushrooms. Immediately, the gray spores burst up around me, enveloping me in a gray cloud. I find myself holding my breath, and force myself to inhale tentatively.

Aside from an oddly sweet smell, I feel nothing untoward. I take a deeper breath, and then another.

I step back into the passage remove the fabric from my face. “I think this will work,” I say. “Do you have anything you can use to cover your face?”

Delkash nodes and pulls a square of cloth from a pocket on the inside of his cloak. “This should do. What about your owl?”

Again, I picture in my mind what I wish Rigi to do, and then say, “Wait here until you hear me call. Then fly to me. Okay?”

Rigi blinks once before hooting softly, and I set him down carefully on the floor of the passage.

“Okay,” I say, setting the cloth in place over my mouth and nose. I look to Delkash and see that he’s doing the same. “Here we go.”

The gray spores billow around us as we walk gingerly through the mushroom field, trying to disturb them as little as possible. The soft crunch of the mushrooms bursting beneath our feet is simultaneously unsettling and pleasant in a way that is difficult to describe.

I needn’t have worried about struggling to find the exit—it rises in plain sight before us as we draw near to the far side of the cavern. It is wide and about a foot above the floor of the cavern, high enough that the mushrooms haven’t taken root at all there. Delkash and I clamber up into the passage and wait a moment for the spores to subside.

Then, removing the fabric from my face, I whistle for Rigi. There is a flapping of wings from the darkness, and a moment later he is gliding down to land on my forearm.

“Nicely done,” says Delkash.

I feel inordinately pleased at his praise, and wonder why that should be so. “Let’s keep going,” I say.