Through the night the glowing rim dropped toward them. With it came a breeze that pushed sulfa powder through their hair and made the edges of their nostrils sting.
The earth became scaley and rotten under their feet. Fatigue tied tiny knots high in their guts so that their stomachs hung like stones.
"I didn't realize how big the crater was," Iimmi said. The red glow cut off at the bottom and took up a quarter of the sky.
"Maybe it'll erupt on us," Urson muttered. He added, "I'm thirsty."
They climbed on. Once Urson looked back and saw Geo had stopped some twenty feet behind them at a niche in the ledge. He turned around and dropped back himself. There was sweat on the boy's up-turned face as the big man came toward him. He could see it in the red haze from the rim.
"Here," Urson said. "Give me a hand."
"I can't," Geo said softly, "or I'll fall."
Urson reached down, now, caught the boy around the chest, and hoisted him over the cropping of rock. "Take it easy," Urson instructed. "You don't have to race with anybody." Together they made their way after the others.
Iimmi and Snake cleared the crater rim first; then Urson and Geo joined them on the pitted ledge. Together they looked into the volcano as red and yellow light fell over their chests and faces.
Gold dribbled the internal slope. Tongues of red rock lapped the sides, and the swirling white basin belched brown blobs of smoke which rose up the far rocks and spilled over the brim a radion away. Light leapt in wavering pylons of blue flame, then sank back into the pit. Winding trails of light webbed the crater's walls, and at places ebon cavities jeweled among the light.