Deeper into the cave
They did not rush it.
They patched what needed patching first. Tenebria cleaned the cut at Sameira's temple and bound it. Kenshin sat until the shaking left his arms, and the rest set to the great fallen serpent with knives, because the storm-being's lesson had not left any of them. They carved what good meat they could carry, steeped a share of it then and there in Axiom Force over a small fire, and ate in the soft ore-light with the body of the thing that had nearly killed them cooling at their backs.
Only when they were fed and steady did Erix stand and look again toward the dark at the back of the cavern, where the quiet pull still tugged at the edge of his sense.
"It is still there," he said. "Whatever the snake was sitting on. Come on."
They went together, past the coils, into a passage that narrowed and then opened a second time.
And there it was.
***
