The tunnel twisted and turned and finally ended abruptly.
Simon entered another cave, this one much larger than the first. A high ceiling and distant walls made him feel as if he'd just stepped into an underground cathedral.
He walked forward a few steps and met Kronk, who was making a pile out of his dry branches.
“We are almost a hundred feet under the earth here, master,” the little guy told him. He reached down and patted the smooth, black floor. “The ground is not as cold here, so you can sit and rest once you have started a fire.”
Aeris floated past the wizard and dumped his load to one side.
“Start Kronk's pile first and I'll add pieces as it burns down,” he told Simon, who nodded.
“Sounds good.”
Simon lowered himself painfully, joints audibly creaking, and sighed with pleasure once he was sitting. He took off his gloves and touched the floor. Kronk was right. It wasn't exactly warm, but it wasn't freezing cold either. It was simply cool.
He focused on the pile of sticks and small pieces of wood and saw fire blaze in his mind. The dried wood ignited with a whoosh and a burst of heat flowed over Simon, making him feel as if he'd just slipped into a warm bath. He almost moaned aloud with pleasure.
For a few minutes, the wizard just sat with his eyes closed and basked in the warmth. He never knew that a fire could give him such simple happiness and comfort.
He could feel his body thawing out, one muscle, one joint at a time. As the fire burned, Aeris would carefully add a piece of wood to keep it going. The steady heat was definitely what Simon had needed.
When he felt warm enough, the wizard slipped off his boots and massaged his feet, finally regaining the feeling in his toes. Then he put them as close to the fire as he could and smiled weakly at the elementals.
“Thanks, guys,” he said. “You've saved my life, again. I don't think I could have gone on much longer.”
“You're welcome, my dear wizard,” Aeris replied. “But we aren't done yet. Those dragons could be above us right now. The wood is almost all gone and we have to keep moving. If Kronk is correct, we can reach the deep roads in a few hours. At least down there it will be warmer and you can get some rest.”
The idea of sleep was very appealing to Simon, but he knew the air elemental was right. The fire was dying and they were still in great danger.
He slipped on his boots, pushed himself to his feet and stretched to loosen up his stiff muscles.
“Okay then. Let's get to it. I feel better now and waiting around here for those damned monsters to sniff us out would be stupid.”
He slipped his gloves on and looked at Kronk.
“Can you take the lead again?”
“Of course, master. We can walk more normally now. The tunnel that leads from this cave slopes downward gently and you won't have to crawl again.”
He turned away and tip-tapped off into the darkness. Simon and Aeris exchanged a nod and the wizard followed the little earthen, his light floating along above him.
For the next few hours, Simon and the elementals descended deeper and deeper into the bowels of the world. One tunnel led to another and the only thing that kept the wizard moving his exhausted body forward was the danger from behind and the fact that there was no more wood to use for a fire. The air was still cold, although not freezing, and Simon knew that if he stopped and tried to rest, he would still be risking hypothermia.
There were occasional barriers to overcome. One tunnel had collapsed and the wizard had to squirm and claw his way through the rubble, Kronk and Aeris helping as much as they could.
In one small cave, there was a six-foot wide chasm that cut across the middle, leading down into the depths. Simon kicked a small stone into the gap and listened for a count of ten before he heard it hit bottom. It took him some time to screw up the courage to leap across it.
Kronk made the jump with ease, and Aeris casually floated over the drop.
How long it took them to reach the dwarven roads, Simon never knew. But at last, Kronk scurried ahead and his voice echoed back, tinged with excitement.
“We're here, master!” he shouted. “We've reached a dwarf tunnel!”
Simon, who'd been lost in a haze of exhaustion and was plodding along like a robot, lifted his head and stumbled to a halt.
“Did he just say...?” he asked Aeris, who floated forward to hover next to him.
The air elemental grinned widely.
“He did, indeed. We made it. Can't you feel the warmth in the air?”
It took Aeris to point it out, but Simon realized that he hadn't been cold for some time. He slipped off his gloves and wiped his upper lip.
“You're right,” he said in weak amazement. “It's actually warm. Holy crap.”
A rush of excited strength allowed the wizard to move forward. He was still sore and tired, but a tiny glimmer of hope had now been lit inside of him.
They emerged into a massive tunnel. Very similar to the deep roads that Simon had explored months before, the tunnel was at least thirty feet wide and forty high. The walls were smooth and flat with small engravings and chiseled dwarven writing that he couldn't read.
Like those other tunnels, this one seemed ancient. Ruts had been cut into the surface of the road from centuries of traffic. There were pebbles and small stones scattered across the ground, fallen from the ceiling over years of the Earth's subterranean shifts and quakes.
Kronk stood in the middle of the road. He had cleared away a space on the road and gestured for Simon to join him.
“You can sit here, master,” the little earthen said. “The rock is warm and I think that we are as safe as we are going to be until we return home.”
Simon took off his coat and spread it out on the floor. Then he sat down on it with an exhausted sigh and stretched out his legs. His light hovered over him and he made a gesture at it so that it rose up about halfway to the ceiling, lighting the entire section of tunnel.
“Return home?”
The wizard shook his head and lay back on his thick coat. Just being off his feet was a huge relief.
“I don't know how we're supposed to do that, guys,” he said, closing his eyes. “We're on the other side of the world. I have no food, no water, no spells. Dragons are hunting us. I can't think of a more desperate situation.”
“Try sleeping on it, my dear wizard,” Aeris said in a unusually gentle tone. “Kronk and I will keep watch. Get your strength back and we'll figure something out.”
“Yeah, right. Figure something out.”
Simon drifted off to sleep at this absurd expression of confidence, too tired to argue anymore.
Chapter 3
When he woke up, Simon found himself lying in semi-darkness. There were dimly-glowing dwarven runes set every few paces along the tunnel walls but they illuminated very little. Obviously his Light spell had faded away while he was sleeping.
He cast a new one and sent the bright globe up to float about ten feet over his head.
There was no sign of the elementals and Simon went back into the narrow tunnel that had led them here and relieved his bladder. Then he returned to the main tunnel, grabbed his coat and listened intently for any sign of his little friends.
The quiet was absolute. There were no sounds of dripping water or creaking stone, and he heard nothing from either Kronk or Aeris.
Simon was reluctant to break the eerie silence by calling out to the elementals, so he turned to his left where the tunnel sloped gently downward, and began walking, careful to step over the bigger pieces of scattered debris along the way. His light trailed along above him.
A few dozen paces down the tunnel and the wizard reached a t-junction. The road split in half; to the right it dropped swiftly into darkness, while to the left it continued to slope downward, but at a more gentle angle.
Simon stared at the wall between the two roads and saw several lines of blocky, dwarven script cut into the stone. He was baffled by their meaning, but assumed that they
were directions of some kind. A street sign, perhaps.
As he mulled over the indecipherable language, it occurred to the wizard just how weird it was that he could actually speak to the dwarves, and the elves for that matter, and understand their language, but couldn't read it.
How does that even work, he wondered. And why is it only now, alone in the depths of the world, that it strikes me as odd?
He laughed a bit at himself and then stood there, arms folded around his coat, and tried to decide which way to go.
Well, I can't take a chance that I'll guess wrong, he thought. Like it or not, I'll have to try calling them.
Simon took a deep breath and then broke into a coughing fit as Aeris shot out of the steep tunnel to his right and slammed into his stomach, almost knocking him over.
“Gees, Aeris! What's wrong with you?” he finally managed to wheeze out as he caught his breath.
“Sorry about that,” Aeris said as he bobbed up and down in front of the wizard. “It looked like you were about to call out and I couldn't risk that.”
Taking a few more deep breaths, Simon glared at the elemental.
“Risk it? Risk what?”
“I don't know.” The elemental looked around and seemed to shiver. “I don't trust this place. Anything could be out there. So I stopped you from yelling, just in case.”
“Okay, I guess that makes sense.” Simon rubbed his stomach gingerly. “So where have you been? And where's Kronk?”
“Kronk's scouting.”
At Simon's look of surprise, Aeris shrugged.
“Yes, I know that's usually my job, but this is his natural environment. He can travel faster inside the stone than on top of it, and he can't be seen by others while he's doing it.”
Simon tossed his coat to the ground and sat down on it. He hugged his knees and watched Aeris intently.
“That's logical, I suppose. But what is he scouting for?”
“You will need water soon, my dear wizard. If we were outside, you could simply melt some snow. But down here, water is precious and rare and, as a living creature, you won't last long without it. I know that humans can live for many days without food if they must, but water? It is essential.”
As the elemental spoke, Simon realized that his lips were a bit cracked and his throat was sandpaper dry. He swallowed painfully.
“Thanks, I appreciate that.”
“Part of our jobs as your servants,” Aeris said with an exaggerated bow.
“Stop that,” Simon said with a light laugh and the elemental grinned at him.
“While you were sleeping, Kronk went off on his search and I back-tracked, checking to see if we were being followed. Fortunately there was no sign of any enemies back there, so I think we're safe, at least from that direction.”
“Followed by whom? The dragons?”
Aeris snorted.
“Hardly. If they were going to try to dig down here after you, we'd likely hear them from miles away. No, I've been thinking about our 'friend', the paladin and what her part in this whole thing was.”
“Liliana? You think she betrayed us? Why?”
“Have you forgotten your old neighbor, Heather? She made a deal with the primal green and was granted power by its masters, the dark gods. Perhaps this woman did the same.”
Simon rested his chin on his knees, eyes closing for a moment.
“I don't want to believe that, Aeris. I really don't. Like you, I've thought about her since we were attacked. Personally, I think that her offer of a meeting was genuine and that she was chased off by a patrolling dragon. It probably swept around the area and spotted us when we Gated in.”
Aeris looked skeptical.
“Perhaps,” he said. “I hope you're right. We are short on allies, and our enemies seem to grow by the day.”
The wizard's reply was cut off by a soft, distant sound.
He cocked his head to the side and Aeris copied him. They both frowned in concentration.
It was a quiet rumbling sound, slowly building up as it approached.
Oh crap, Simon thought. Not an earthquake. Not now!
But the air elemental's eyes widened and he smiled.
“I'd know that sound anywhere, my dear wizard. Kronk's on his way back.”
Simon scrambled to his feet and picked up his coat.
“Really? Is that what he sounds like when he travels underground? Cool. I never knew that.”
“It's the sound he makes when he's not worried about being heard. I assume that means that we're safe, at least for now.”
A minute later, the little earthen popped up from the road near Simon, leaving a small hole in the rocky floor.
“Hello, master. Did you sleep well?” he asked brightly.
“Hey Kronk. Fine, thanks. Aeris said you were scouting?”
The little guy nodded vigorously.
“Yes master, I was. And I have some encouraging news.”
Aeris lowered himself to hover just above the ground and stared at Kronk.
“Encouraging news? Good, we could use some.”
The earth elemental smiled slightly at Aeris and looked up at Simon.
“If you follow that road there, the steep path, you will eventually come to a...I don't know what to call it. A niche? A way-station, perhaps?” He shrugged. “There is a small chamber off the main road. The dwarves dug a well there. It is ancient, but the water is good. I made sure of that.”
Simon perked up.
“Excellent news, my friend. How far?”
“I'm afraid it is a long way, master. Many miles. If we move at a steady pace, it will take perhaps four hours to get there.”
The wizard groaned softly. Four hours? Gees.
“But I have some other news that might make the trip more bearable, master,” Kronk said brightly. “I found some signs of recent activity. I believe that the dwarves passed through that area not too long ago.”
Simon looked at the earthen in surprise.
“Really? But I thought that they didn't use these roads anymore? Now that the magic is back and they can travel in their drilling machines, haven't they ignored these tunnels?”
Kronk looked a little mystified.
“So I thought as well, master. But I found a fire-pit near that well that had ashes in it. The ashes were no more than a few days old. Perhaps the dwarves used it to burn some trash. I do not know. But if they did pass by there, they may again.”
“Hmm. Well, it may have been a one-time thing, but it's a positive sign anyway.”
Simon shrugged into his coat, leaving it open in the warm air.
“Well, a long walk or not, I definitely am going to need water soon, so let's get to it. Lead the way, Kronk.”
“Yes master. Follow me.”
The earthen tip-tapped away, easily negotiating the steeply sloping tunnel. Simon followed as best he could, careful to avoid any rubble that would make him slip and land on the hard ground. His globe of light followed along dutifully, illuminating the way. Aeris brought up the rear.
The journey was indeed a long one. Kronk kept up a steady, but not too fast, pace and Simon stopped every hour or so to rest. He was thirsty, but he didn't want to exhaust himself, so he made sure to take his time and conserve his strength.
The tunnels were quiet and became boring very quickly. An occasional engraving would catch Simon's eye, the legacy of some long-forgotten dwarf. Some were quite beautiful. For the most part though, traveling the road was simply dull and the wizard had to grit his teeth and think of the water source ahead to keep himself moving forward.
After several hours, Kronk called back and reported that the location of the well was just up ahead.
Simon, who had been tromping along staring blankly at the ground beneath his feet, looked up in surprise. He shook his head to clear it and then increased his pace, encouraged by the earthen's announcement.
The alcove was off to the right of the tunnel they were following. Perhaps thirty feet square, it consisted
of a hole in the floor rimmed with a foot-high lip of rock. A chain hung down into the black hole from a metal rod across the opening, with a crank on one side.
Simon took off his coat with relief, it had become hotter as they'd traveled deeper along the tunnels, and tossed it on the ground next to the well. He knelt down on it and began to turn the crank. He felt as dry as sand and eagerly looked forward to some relief of his thirst.
The chain tinkled and clinked as he turned the handle of the crank and it seemed to take forever to draw up some water.
“Deep well, master,” Kronk said, stating the obvious, and Aeris rolled his eyes. Simon just nodded and kept cranking.
Finally, a bucket made of some dull metal appeared at the end of the chain and Aeris flew over to it and carried it out of the well to set it down beside the wizard.
Simon wiped his grimy hands on his robe and reached for the bucket. He hesitated and looked at Kronk.
“Are you sure it's safe?” he asked.
“Oh yes, master. I can sense any impurities in water that is beneath the earth. It is clean. You may drink it without harm.”
Reassured, the wizard gave Kronk a grateful smile and began drinking handful after handful of water.
Nothing had ever seemed so delicious. The water was cool but not cold and was free of any mineral taste. To Simon's parched throat, it tasted better than the finest wine.
“Easy there, my dear wizard,” Aeris cautioned. “You haven't had anything to drink for quite some time. If you overdo it, it may all come back up again.”
Simon paused and looked at him. Then he sat back with a relieved sigh.
“You're right. I'll take my time.”
He cleared his throat and swallowed, pleased that it didn't feel like his mouth was full of dust anymore.
After he'd slowly drunk his fill, Simon retrieved another bucket of water from the well and clumsily splashed it over his head and face, trying to wash away some of the road dirt. He was sorry that he didn't have a rag or towel so that he could do a proper job and ended up spraying the excess water across the room as he whipped his long hair from side to side. Then he pushed it back off of his face, stood up slowly and looked around the chamber.
Tales from the New Earth: Volume One Page 81
