I got my daily
constitutional in before we reached the stairway. I began to
appreciate just how vast the hall at the heart of that fortress
was. My party dwindled into the distance. I observed, “This
thing has got to be a mile across.”
“Almost exactly. It’s a few yards under, according
to Soulcatcher. I don’t know why. I wish we had a torch. I
saw patterns in the flooring last time I was here, when there
wasn’t quite so much dust, but she wouldn’t let me
waste time looking at them.”
There was a lot of dust. There had been none outside. The plain
tolerated nothing alien except the corpses of invaders, evidently.
Even here, we had yet to discover any sign of the animals or
equipment that had accompanied the Captured south.
“How much farther?”
“Almost there. Watch for a drop-off.”
“A drop-off?”
“A step down. It’s only about eighteen inches but
you could break a leg if it surprises you. I turned an ankle last
time.”
We found the drop-off. I stopped to look back once I stepped
down. All sorts of genius was being invested in the assignments I
had given. Closer, Sahra and the Radisha and several others to whom
I had not given specific assignments had decided to follow me. I
said, “You’re right. It does look like there’re
some kind of inlays. If we have time, maybe we can take a closer
look.” I considered the edge of the stone. “This
curves. And it’s polished.”
“That part of the floor is a circle. And it’s almost
exactly one-eightieth of the diameter of the plain. According to
Soulcatcher. The raised part where the demon’s throne used to
sit is one-eightieth the size of this.”
“That’s probably got to mean something. It have
anything to do with the Captured?”
“Not that I’m aware of.”
“Then we’ll worry about it later.”
“The stairs start over here.”
They did indeed, right next to the wall. The crack in the floor
had extended clear through that. The wall’s partial collapse
had filled the gap there, then the material from the wall had been
pushed back up as the fissure healed itself.
The stairs simply started. There was a rectangular hole in the
floor. Steps went down, roughly paralleling the outer wall, away
from the crack in the floor, which had healed almost completely.
There was no handrail.
Twenty steps down we reached a landing eight feet by eight. The
descending steps led off from our right. This flight appeared to go
downward forever. Faint light crept up it, just strong enough so
you could see where to put your feet.
Sahra and the Radisha had caught up close enough that I could
hear them talking without being able to pick up specific words.
Both women sounded frightened by the immediate future.
I could sympathize. I was nervous about achieving my
life’s ambition myself. Just a little.
“You want to go first?” Swan asked. He lacked
considerable enthusiasm, I thought.
“Are there booby traps or something?”
“No. She probably wanted to, just in case somebody passed
this way someday, just for the sheer mean fun of it, but there
wasn’t enough time. She piddled around so much, for so long,
I didn’t really believe we’d ever get away. I’m
sure we wouldn’t have if she hadn’t been who she was.
She spun spells that chased the shadows away. She’d been in
there before. And she’d practiced.”
“There it is!”
“What?”
“Nothing. Just remembering something.” Stupid me.
All those years I wondered how Swan and Soulcatcher had found time
to bury the Captured without getting gobbled up by shadows and I
had overlooked the obvious, the fact that Soulcatcher was a major
sorceress and already had some experience manipulating shadows. You
can be screamingly blind to the obvious if you don’t realize
that you have not opened up all the doors of your mind.
Forgive me, O Lord of the Hours. Be Merciful. Be Compassionate.
I shall close the borders of my soul as soon as my brothers are
free.
At this point Swan had no incentive to steer me into danger. I
started downstairs.
The architects, engineers and stonemasons responsible had not
been determined to achieve geometric perfection. Though this
portion of the stairwell continued downward in a specific general
direction, it tended to meander from side to side of a straight
line. Nor were the steps of a uniform height. The builders had been
thoughtful enough to provide landings every little way, though. I
had a feeling those would seem to be miles apart once I started
climbing up again.
“If we have to bring One-Eye down here, we’re going
to have to carry him back up. He won’t survive the climb
otherwise.”
“You might want to organize what you’re going to do
before we go down there, then.”
“I can’t decide what has to be done until I see what
I’m dealing with.”
“You might call up your genie in a bottle. Get him to tell
you.”
“He’s never said much about the place where
he’s at. Not since he’s been in there himself.
It’s like he’s constrained against that. I dreamed
about it a few times but I don’t know how accurate my dreams
were.”
Swan groaned. “I really didn’t want to make this
trek.”
“Will it be that bad?”
“Not going down. But heading the other way is likely to
change your attitude.”
“I don’t know. I’m beginning to get a little
winded just going in this direction.”
“Then slow down. A few minutes isn’t going to make a
difference. Not after all these years.”
He was right. And wrong. There was no rush for the Captured. But
for us, with our limited resources, time was destined to become
critical.
Swan continued, “You need to slow down, Sleepy. Really.
It’s going to get a little bit hairy in a minute.”
He was absolutely right. But he understated the case
dramatically.
The stairwell did a meander to the right. It caught up with the
chasm caused by the earthquakes that had occurred during the reign
of the Shadowmasters.
There was only half a stairway there. It hung in the face of a
cliff. That left a whole lot of down on my right-hand side. And it
was down that was entirely too well illuminated by a reddish orange
light that may have come from the stone itself, since there seemed
to be no other obvious source. Though I did have trouble opening my
eyes wide enough to look. Wraithlike wisps of vapor wobbled upward
from somewhere down below. The air seemed wanner. I asked,
“We’re not heading into Hell itself, are we?”
Some Vehdna believe al-Shiel is a place where wicked souls will
burn for all eternity.
Swan understood. “Not your Hell. But I’d guess
it’s Hell enough for them that’re trapped down
there.”
I stopped on the remains of a landing. The steps narrowed to two
feet just below me. By leaning out slightly I could see clearly
that the stairwell had been constructed inside a larger bore at
least twenty feet in diameter. The shaft had been filled with a
stone darker than that through which it had been cut. Maybe the
bore had needed to be that big so Kina could be dragged down below.
I asked, “Can you imagine what an engineering project this
must have been?”
“People with plenty of slaves aren’t daunted by big
projects. What’s the matter?”
“I have a problem with heights. This next part is going to
take a lot of prayer and some outside encouragement. I want you to
go first. I want you to go slow. And I want you to stay where I can
touch you. I believe in meeting my fears eyeball to eyeball but if
it gets bad and I feel like I might freeze up, I want to be able to
close my eyes and keep going.” I was astounded by how calm
and reasonable my voice sounded.
“I understand. The real problem then is, who’s going
to keep his eyes open for me? Whoa! Don’t panic, Sleepy. I
was joking! I can handle it. Really.”
It was not the worst thing I ever dealt with. I never abandoned
rational thought. But it was difficult. Even when Swan promised me
that an unseen protective barrier existed on the abyssal side and
demonstrated its presence, the animal inside me wanted to get the
heck out of there and go someplace where the ground was flat and
green, there was a sky overhead, and there might even be a few
trees.
Swan assured me that I was missing one heck of a view,
especially as we approached the lower end of the gap, where the
light was brighter, revealing churning mists way below, mists that
concealed the depths of the abyss. I kept my eyes closed until we
were back into a closed cavern again.
I had started counting steps up top so I could get an idea of
how deep we went but I lost count while I was pretending to be a
fly crawling on a wall. I was too busy being terrified. But it did
seem like we had traveled a long way horizontally as well as
downward.
Almost immediately after I had that thought, the stair turned
left, then left again. The orange red light faded away. The stair
made a couple more quick turns into a total darkness, which aroused
whole new species of terrors. But nothing bit me and nothing came
to steal my soul.
Then there was light again, growing so subtly I was never really
aware of first noticing it. It had a golden cast to it but was
extremely cold. And as soon as I was aware of it, I knew we were
approaching our destination.
The stairwell passed right through a natural cavern. At one time
that had been sealed off but the quakes had toppled the responsible
masonry walls. I asked, “We here?”
“Almost. Careful climbing over the stones. They
aren’t very stable.”
“What’s that?”
“What?”
“That sound.”
We listened. After a while, Swan said, “I think it’s
wind. Sometimes there was a breeze when we were down here
before.”
“Wind? A mile underground?”
“Don’t ask me to explain it. It just is. You want to
go first this time?”
“Yes.”
“I thought you would.”
I got my daily
constitutional in before we reached the stairway. I began to
appreciate just how vast the hall at the heart of that fortress
was. My party dwindled into the distance. I observed, “This
thing has got to be a mile across.”
“Almost exactly. It’s a few yards under, according
to Soulcatcher. I don’t know why. I wish we had a torch. I
saw patterns in the flooring last time I was here, when there
wasn’t quite so much dust, but she wouldn’t let me
waste time looking at them.”
There was a lot of dust. There had been none outside. The plain
tolerated nothing alien except the corpses of invaders, evidently.
Even here, we had yet to discover any sign of the animals or
equipment that had accompanied the Captured south.
“How much farther?”
“Almost there. Watch for a drop-off.”
“A drop-off?”
“A step down. It’s only about eighteen inches but
you could break a leg if it surprises you. I turned an ankle last
time.”
We found the drop-off. I stopped to look back once I stepped
down. All sorts of genius was being invested in the assignments I
had given. Closer, Sahra and the Radisha and several others to whom
I had not given specific assignments had decided to follow me. I
said, “You’re right. It does look like there’re
some kind of inlays. If we have time, maybe we can take a closer
look.” I considered the edge of the stone. “This
curves. And it’s polished.”
“That part of the floor is a circle. And it’s almost
exactly one-eightieth of the diameter of the plain. According to
Soulcatcher. The raised part where the demon’s throne used to
sit is one-eightieth the size of this.”
“That’s probably got to mean something. It have
anything to do with the Captured?”
“Not that I’m aware of.”
“Then we’ll worry about it later.”
“The stairs start over here.”
They did indeed, right next to the wall. The crack in the floor
had extended clear through that. The wall’s partial collapse
had filled the gap there, then the material from the wall had been
pushed back up as the fissure healed itself.
The stairs simply started. There was a rectangular hole in the
floor. Steps went down, roughly paralleling the outer wall, away
from the crack in the floor, which had healed almost completely.
There was no handrail.
Twenty steps down we reached a landing eight feet by eight. The
descending steps led off from our right. This flight appeared to go
downward forever. Faint light crept up it, just strong enough so
you could see where to put your feet.
Sahra and the Radisha had caught up close enough that I could
hear them talking without being able to pick up specific words.
Both women sounded frightened by the immediate future.
I could sympathize. I was nervous about achieving my
life’s ambition myself. Just a little.
“You want to go first?” Swan asked. He lacked
considerable enthusiasm, I thought.
“Are there booby traps or something?”
“No. She probably wanted to, just in case somebody passed
this way someday, just for the sheer mean fun of it, but there
wasn’t enough time. She piddled around so much, for so long,
I didn’t really believe we’d ever get away. I’m
sure we wouldn’t have if she hadn’t been who she was.
She spun spells that chased the shadows away. She’d been in
there before. And she’d practiced.”
“There it is!”
“What?”
“Nothing. Just remembering something.” Stupid me.
All those years I wondered how Swan and Soulcatcher had found time
to bury the Captured without getting gobbled up by shadows and I
had overlooked the obvious, the fact that Soulcatcher was a major
sorceress and already had some experience manipulating shadows. You
can be screamingly blind to the obvious if you don’t realize
that you have not opened up all the doors of your mind.
Forgive me, O Lord of the Hours. Be Merciful. Be Compassionate.
I shall close the borders of my soul as soon as my brothers are
free.
At this point Swan had no incentive to steer me into danger. I
started downstairs.
The architects, engineers and stonemasons responsible had not
been determined to achieve geometric perfection. Though this
portion of the stairwell continued downward in a specific general
direction, it tended to meander from side to side of a straight
line. Nor were the steps of a uniform height. The builders had been
thoughtful enough to provide landings every little way, though. I
had a feeling those would seem to be miles apart once I started
climbing up again.
“If we have to bring One-Eye down here, we’re going
to have to carry him back up. He won’t survive the climb
otherwise.”
“You might want to organize what you’re going to do
before we go down there, then.”
“I can’t decide what has to be done until I see what
I’m dealing with.”
“You might call up your genie in a bottle. Get him to tell
you.”
“He’s never said much about the place where
he’s at. Not since he’s been in there himself.
It’s like he’s constrained against that. I dreamed
about it a few times but I don’t know how accurate my dreams
were.”
Swan groaned. “I really didn’t want to make this
trek.”
“Will it be that bad?”
“Not going down. But heading the other way is likely to
change your attitude.”
“I don’t know. I’m beginning to get a little
winded just going in this direction.”
“Then slow down. A few minutes isn’t going to make a
difference. Not after all these years.”
He was right. And wrong. There was no rush for the Captured. But
for us, with our limited resources, time was destined to become
critical.
Swan continued, “You need to slow down, Sleepy. Really.
It’s going to get a little bit hairy in a minute.”
He was absolutely right. But he understated the case
dramatically.
The stairwell did a meander to the right. It caught up with the
chasm caused by the earthquakes that had occurred during the reign
of the Shadowmasters.
There was only half a stairway there. It hung in the face of a
cliff. That left a whole lot of down on my right-hand side. And it
was down that was entirely too well illuminated by a reddish orange
light that may have come from the stone itself, since there seemed
to be no other obvious source. Though I did have trouble opening my
eyes wide enough to look. Wraithlike wisps of vapor wobbled upward
from somewhere down below. The air seemed wanner. I asked,
“We’re not heading into Hell itself, are we?”
Some Vehdna believe al-Shiel is a place where wicked souls will
burn for all eternity.
Swan understood. “Not your Hell. But I’d guess
it’s Hell enough for them that’re trapped down
there.”
I stopped on the remains of a landing. The steps narrowed to two
feet just below me. By leaning out slightly I could see clearly
that the stairwell had been constructed inside a larger bore at
least twenty feet in diameter. The shaft had been filled with a
stone darker than that through which it had been cut. Maybe the
bore had needed to be that big so Kina could be dragged down below.
I asked, “Can you imagine what an engineering project this
must have been?”
“People with plenty of slaves aren’t daunted by big
projects. What’s the matter?”
“I have a problem with heights. This next part is going to
take a lot of prayer and some outside encouragement. I want you to
go first. I want you to go slow. And I want you to stay where I can
touch you. I believe in meeting my fears eyeball to eyeball but if
it gets bad and I feel like I might freeze up, I want to be able to
close my eyes and keep going.” I was astounded by how calm
and reasonable my voice sounded.
“I understand. The real problem then is, who’s going
to keep his eyes open for me? Whoa! Don’t panic, Sleepy. I
was joking! I can handle it. Really.”
It was not the worst thing I ever dealt with. I never abandoned
rational thought. But it was difficult. Even when Swan promised me
that an unseen protective barrier existed on the abyssal side and
demonstrated its presence, the animal inside me wanted to get the
heck out of there and go someplace where the ground was flat and
green, there was a sky overhead, and there might even be a few
trees.
Swan assured me that I was missing one heck of a view,
especially as we approached the lower end of the gap, where the
light was brighter, revealing churning mists way below, mists that
concealed the depths of the abyss. I kept my eyes closed until we
were back into a closed cavern again.
I had started counting steps up top so I could get an idea of
how deep we went but I lost count while I was pretending to be a
fly crawling on a wall. I was too busy being terrified. But it did
seem like we had traveled a long way horizontally as well as
downward.
Almost immediately after I had that thought, the stair turned
left, then left again. The orange red light faded away. The stair
made a couple more quick turns into a total darkness, which aroused
whole new species of terrors. But nothing bit me and nothing came
to steal my soul.
Then there was light again, growing so subtly I was never really
aware of first noticing it. It had a golden cast to it but was
extremely cold. And as soon as I was aware of it, I knew we were
approaching our destination.
The stairwell passed right through a natural cavern. At one time
that had been sealed off but the quakes had toppled the responsible
masonry walls. I asked, “We here?”
“Almost. Careful climbing over the stones. They
aren’t very stable.”
“What’s that?”
“What?”
“That sound.”
We listened. After a while, Swan said, “I think it’s
wind. Sometimes there was a breeze when we were down here
before.”
“Wind? A mile underground?”
“Don’t ask me to explain it. It just is. You want to
go first this time?”
“Yes.”
“I thought you would.”