Another fifteen paces brought the pair to a ledge high in a vast chamber. The ceiling domed high above them, but what captured their interest was the floor twenty paces below them. Torches lit the room below them brightly, and people moved about in large numbers. MistyTrail crawled alongside Mistake, and they both stared down in wonder.
Tunnels ran out of the great chamber in many directions. In the center of the room was a huge horizontal wheel that was being rotated by large ape-like creatures. In the center of the wheel was a large hole in the floor of the chamber. Passing into the large hole was a loop of rope with numerous large buckets tied off at regular intervals. Above the wheel was a wooden tower with a large pulley for the rope and a wooden walkway that passed over the wheel to a flight of steps.
People wearing gray tunics and gray knit hats walked over the walkway and waited for a bucket going down. When the bucket came, the person stepped into it and held the rope. They disappeared through the hole in the floor as the rope descended. Mistake did not see any people coming up in buckets on the other side of the rope loop, but there were people constantly moving between tunnels.
A commotion came from one of the tunnels. The crack of the whip was loud, as was the cry that followed it. A small man ran from the tunnel and climbed the steps to the walkway. A large giant of a man followed and cracked the whip at the small man to make him move faster. The small man ran across the walkway and swiftly stepped into the first bucket available to him. He disappeared through the hole in the floor. The large man with the whip disappeared into one of the tunnels. Mistake tapped MistyTrail and moved back from the edge of the ledge.
“What do you make of this?” whispered Mistake. “What have we stumbled across?”
“I am not sure,” replied MistyTrail, “but I do not like the looks of it. I wish we had not come here.”
“At least we can leave,” declared Mistake. “I do not think those going down the rope have a choice. Come on, we will leave now.”
“No,” sniffed MistyTrail. “We cannot leave now.”
“Why not?” frowned Mistake. “This is obviously not the place to ask for directions.”
“Didn’t you see that last man that was forced to go down the rope?” questioned MistyTrail.
“The one who was whipped?” countered Mistake. “Of course I saw him. What about him?”
“Didn’t you notice anything strange about him?” asked MistyTrail.
“Strange?” frowned Mistake. “Not really. I was more focused on the big guy with the whip. He is not someone that I would like to meet. I bet he could wrestle with those large apes and win. What was so strange about the man he whipped?”
“He wasn’t wearing a hat like the rest,” answered MistyTrail.
“So maybe he lost it when he was whipped,” scowled Mistake. “What is wrong with you? You are starting to cry. Tell me what you saw that has distressed you so.”
“His ears,” sniffed MistyTrail. “He had pointy ears like us. We can’t possibly leave now.”
“No, we can’t,” Mistake said softly as she scurried to the edge.
MistyTrail wiped her eyes and scooted forward alongside Mistake. They peered down into the room looking for any other workers who were not wearing hats. They watched for hours, but there were none. Suddenly the wheel stopped moving. The ape-like creatures stopped pushing the wheel and strode off down one of the tunnels. There was no traffic passing through the room. MistyTrail tapped Mistake and moved back from the edge.
“You keep watch,” MistyTrail said. “I am going back to the cave to get some food. Is it alright if we just share one piece of meat?”
“That will be fine,” nodded Mistake. “Be careful.”
MistyTrail turned and left. Mistake crawled forward and kept watch on the chamber. She had not been watching long when she heard MistyTrail returning. She pushed back from the edge and was surprised to see that MistyTrail had brought the rope with her.
“What is that for?” asked Mistake as she accepted half of the dried meat.
“How else can we get down there?” retorted the Sakovan warrior.
“Get down there?” Mistake asked in horror. “Please tell me that you are joking. We are not going down there.”
“We said that we were going to look for our family,” pouted MistyTrail. “How can we not go down there?”
“So he has pointy ears,” argued Mistake. “Maybe he suffered the same quirk of fate that we did. His ears do not make him our relative.”
“Have you ever met anyone else who has ears like us?” asked MistyTrail. “Have you?”
“No,” admitted Mistake. “At least not until I met you, but that is no reason to do something foolish.”
“Just hold one end of the rope,” scowled MistyTrail. “You won’t have to go down.”
“No,” Mistake replied adamantly. “I spent my whole life searching for you. I will not let you throw your life away.”
“Fine,” retorted MistyTrail. “I will just hang from the ledge and drop.”
MistyTrail tried to move her legs to the edge, but Mistake grabbed her.
“Must you do this?” sighed Mistake.
“I have to,” sniffed MistyTrail. “I have to know who he is. Please help me.”
“But he is down the hole,” protested Mistake. “You can’t get down there without the apes.”
“I just want to get his hat,” explained MistyTrail. “He must have dropped it when he was whipped. The timing is perfect right now. There is no one around.”
“Alright,” Mistake shook her head. “You just grab the hat and get back up here. Do you promise?”
“I promise,” MistyTrail nodded vigorously as she grabbed the rope and began lowering one end to the floor below.
“Make it quick,” urged Mistake as she wrapped the rope around herself and found a rock to brace her feet on. “They probably stopped for the midday meal. They won’t be gone for long.”
MistyTrail grabbed the rope and swung her feet over the edge. She slid down the rope as fast as she could. When her feet hit the floor, she looked around nervously to see if anyone was nearby. Seeing no one around, she dashed for the tunnel that the man had emerged from. She peered along the tunnel and could not see the end of it. She ran into the tunnel.
Mistake watched her sister disappear into the tunnel. She chewed nervously on her lip as she waited. Suddenly, the whip man appeared out of one of the tunnels. Mistake cringed with fear. The man walked to the wheel and peered into the hole in the floor. He grumbled under his breath and stormed off down a different tunnel.
“Hurry, MistyTrail,” Mistake said softly to herself.
Mistake heard the whip man bellowing loudly and cracking his whip. The growls that followed let Mistake know that the apes were the targets of the man’s abuse. She began to sweat profusely as she silently urged MistyTrail to hurry.
Finally, MistyTrail emerged from the tunnel she raced across the floor, and Mistake felt the tension on the rope. Mistake held the rope tightly as her eyes remained glued on the entrance to the tunnel that the apes would use to return. MistyTrail pulled herself over the edge, and Mistake frantically pulled in the rope. She just managed to get the end of the rope as the apes stormed into the room. She exhaled her held breath, and turned to stare at MistyTrail.
“Did you find it?” she asked.
MistyTrail grinned and pulled the hat from her belt.
“Don’t ever do that to me again,” warned Mistake. “I would rather be in danger myself than fear for you when I cannot help. What do we do with it now that you have it?”
“We wait for him to return from the hole,” answered MistyTrail. “Maybe we can use the hat to signal him.”
“And hope that he doesn’t point us out to everyone else,” frowned Mistake. “I do not like this plan.”
Chapter 12
Pointy Ears
Mistake and MistyTrail watched the large chamber for hours. Most of the activity was centered around the large apes rotating th
e large wheel and people moving from one tunnel to another. Very few people made use of the bucket elevator until late in the day. When people did start to come up in the buckets, it was a steady stream. Over an hour passed before an empty bucket was seen coming up from below. They watched carefully for the man without a hat. As the stream of people riding the buckets turned into a trickle, MistyTrail sighed in frustration.
“Maybe he isn’t coming up,” whispered Mistake.
“He will be coming,” retorted MistyTrail. “We will wait. He may be our brother. We can’t leave him here.”
“Our brother?” asked Mistake. “Do you really think we could just accidentally end up in this cave and stumble upon our long lost brother? I spent years looking for you.”
“How else can you explain his ears?” countered MistyTrail. “It must be a family trait.”
“A family trait?” echoed Mistake. “Don’t be silly. He is probably just descended from the ancient elves like we are.”
“Elves?” questioned MistyTrail. “What are you talking about? There are no elves.”
“Maybe not,” responded Mistake, “but there used to be.”
“You are crazy,” MistyTrail shook her head. “You are beginning to sound like HawkShadow. He always used to tease me about being an elf. There is no such thing.”
“You can’t just wish away history,” retorted Mistake. “The elves may indeed be long gone, but they did exist. I have read ancient scrolls in Fakara that speak of them.”
“They are probably just stories made up for children,” argued MistyTrail.
“Hardly,” countered Mistake. “They are the same scrolls that talk about the Torak, the Astor, and the Star. Do you believe those are just tales for children?”
MistyTrail’s face clouded in confusion. She remember when she first heard the reading of the Scroll of Kaltara and thought it was just a story, but then Lyra came to the Sakova and became the Star. How could she dismiss ancient scrolls after that?
“What did the scrolls say?” asked MistyTrail.
“The elves used to trade with the humans at Angragar,” recalled Mistake. “In fact, it was the elves who created the Qubari Jungle to hide the ancient city. They had been attacking it when they found out who their real enemy was.”
“They created the jungle?” MistyTrail asked skeptically. “That is hard to believe.”
“Perhaps for you,” conceded Mistake, “but I have been there. I entered the ancient city of Angragar. The city was partially destroyed by large siege engines, just like the scrolls reported. The city was guarded by hellsouls, just like the scrolls said. I also met trolls in the jungle who thought I smelled like an elf. They had no reason to lie, MistyTrail.”
“Smelled like an elf?” echoed MistyTrail. “What does an elf smell like? Do you think that you are an elf?”
“I think we are probably descended from the ancient elves,” nodded Mistake. “It would be strange for all of the elves to die at the same time. Some of them must have had families that lingered for years. I guess one of them was an ancestor of ours.”
“That still leads to the man without a hat being a relative,” MistyTrail pointed out.
“No,” countered Mistake. “It only means he might also be descended from some ancient elf. I am sure there must be plenty of people around with pointed ears.”
“How many have you known?” inquired MistyTrail.
“None,” conceded Mistake before she quickly added, “but that does not mean that they don’t exist.”
“We will wait,” MistyTrail said with determination.
Mistake shrugged and watched the scene below in silence. What bothered her most was not the wasted time spent to find the man with the pointy ears. What she was concerned about was the depression MistyTrail would go through when she found out the man was not her brother. Mistake had experienced enough of that to know the feeling.
“There he is,” MistyTrail whispered excitedly.
Mistake saw the man coming up in a bucket. She stared at his pointy ears and felt excitement course through her body even as she tried to tell herself that he was just a man.
“What are you going to do?” asked Mistake. “He will not be in this room for long.”
“You will see,” grinned MistyTrail as she watched the man step out of the bucket onto the walkway. “I have experience in playing with people from guarding the Sakova.
Mistake looked at MistyTrail with concern on her face.
MistyTrail wove an air tunnel and positioned it near the bottom of the stairs from the walkway. She waited anxiously for the man to approach it.
“Stop,” MistyTrail whispered through the air tunnel as the man stepped off the stairs. “Where is your hat?”
Mistake giggled softly as the man turned and looked around. His hand subconsciously went to his head to confirm the absence of his hat. His mouth opened to speak.
“Silence,” ordered MistyTrail. “You will not speak until I direct you to. Walk to your left slowly.”
The man stood and rotated slowly to find the person talking to him. He shook his head in wonder, but he followed the instructions. A few other workers came up on buckets and immediately left through one of the tunnels, but the man without a hat walked slowly to his left.
“Make another left,” ordered MistyTrail.
Again the man searched for the person giving him directions, but he complied. He ended up directly below Misty Trail.
“Stop,” she ordered. “What is your name? Say it softly.”
“Eltor,” the man said softly.
“What are you?” asked MistyTrail.
“I am a miner,” answered the man. “I have lost my hat. Can I go now?”
“No,” frowned MistyTrail. “Why do you have pointy ears?”
The man looked around again, but he did so in frustration. MistyTrail could see his hands clenching in anger.
“Answer the question,” MistyTrail said forcefully.
“All elves have pointy ears,” snapped the man. “Where are you? Who are you?”
“You must release him,” warned Mistake. “The whip man will back soon. The apes are beginning to look around like the work day is done.”
“I am a friend,” MistyTrail whispered into the air tunnel. “Are you free to return here tonight?”
“You don’t sound like a friend to me,” snapped the elf. “If I am found here standing idle I will be whipped.”
MistyTrail bit her lower lip as she contemplated her next move. Mistake nudged her to urge her to finish the conversation. MistyTrail sighed and dropped the hat into the large chamber.
“Do not look up,” she warned. “You will expose us. Come back here tonight when the room is empty.”
Mistake could tell that the elf wanted to look up really badly, but he didn’t. The hat floated down and landed a few paces away. Eltor walked swiftly to it and picked it up. He placed the hat on his head and walked hurriedly into one of the tunnels. MistyTrail collapsed the air tunnel.
“What if he betrays us?” asked Mistake as she heard the bellowing of the whip master approaching.
“He won’t,” MistyTrail said hopefully. “He is an elf.”
“So he says,” frowned Mistake. “I am not sure that I believe him. Even so, he does not know that we are truly friendly to him. We are taking a big chance here, MistyTrail. We don’t even know if he can return here tonight. They may keep the workers in cells for all we know.”
“If he does not come, I will go looking for him,” declared MistyTrail.
“You can’t,” frowned Mistake. “Suppose he is an elf. That means that the elves still exist. It means there is even less of a chance that he is a relative. I think if he doesn’t show we should leave this place.”
“Look,” argued MistyTrail, “our purpose was to find out where we are. Why do we need to risk going into a city when Eltor can tell us?”
“Alright,” conceded Mistake. “We will wait to see if he shows, but you are not going down there again
. Promise me that, or I am leaving with the rope.”
The whip man entered the chamber and looked around. He shouted to the apes, and they all moved away from the wheel. They shuffled into the entrance to one of the tunnels, and the whip man stormed into a different one. The chamber was empty.
“I promise that I won’t go down there without asking you first,” declared MistyTrail. “That is the best I can do. Do not abandon your sister.”
Mistake appeared angry at first with MistyTrail’s response, but she soon chuckled.
“That is so much like a ploy that I would try on you,” she grinned. “We are very much alike. We will stay together.”
* * *
LifeTender and StarWind accompanied the Star of Sakova to the schoolhouse in Alamar. They tied their horses to a tree next to the building and walked in the front door. The students turned to see who was entering, but the Sakovans ignored them and walked along the corridor to the dining room. The room was empty, but the door to Temiker’s office stood open. StarWind moved swiftly to it and peered inside. She grinned broadly and waved the others over. Lyra and LifeTender entered the office. Temiker sat behind his desk and FalconEye dosed in a chair before it. Temiker rose to his feet and bowed slightly to his niece.
“You have arrived safely,” the Omungan mage greeted the Sakovans. “Did the Imperial Guards question you at the gates?”
“Not at all,” answered StarWind as LifeTender moved next to FalconEye. “Should they have?”
“Things are tense in Alamar now,” sighed Temiker. “General Manitow’s men brought the ambushers back to the city. It was an ugly affair. The citizens mobbed the soldiers and tried to snare the men from Okata. The Imperial Guards had to fight them off. There were quite a few wounded.”
“Then the people really are dissatisfied with things in Alamar,” mused the Star of Sakova. “Where does the mayor stand in all of this?”
“Mayor Reaker is a good man,” shrugged Temiker. “He really does care for his people, but he understands that all power stems from the Katana. He will try to talk to the people and calm them. If he cannot, he will utilize General Manitow and his men.”
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