The Magic Mines of Asharim

by Pauline M. Ross

  Then it struck me. They must already have passed through Crenton Port. I shivered. No one there would voluntarily give me away, I was sure. Everyone I’d spoken to was very clear on that: my past was unimportant to them. They kept no records, asked no questions. Yet my pursuers were here. They knew exactly where I was. They must have tracked me the full length of the canals, and come eventually to Crenton Port, where they discovered my whereabouts. So what did they do to get that information?

  But whatever had happened was done already and could not be undone. Setting it out of my mind, I waited for Petreon to understand.

  His face changed. “What will they do?”

  “Whatever they like. These are very powerful men we are dealing with. King Craxtor rules a good swathe of the inner canal system. Prince Kru Hrin – or his cousin, anyway – controls the flicker market at Hurk Hranda. Both have influence far beyond their home states. Between them they could make life very difficult for the mines.”

  Xando had said nothing so far, but now he leaned forward. “The mines have always been independent, have they not? The charter gives the Mine Office exclusive right to manage the mines as they see fit, so long as flickers and throwers are offered freely to all who want them.”

  “But that independence is a mirage,” I said. “Any of the canal towns or the Hrandish tribes or the city states could take over the whole operation in a heartbeat, if they so wished. Even the desert people could. Anyone with weapons and enough people trained to use them. The Mine Office itself is defenceless.”

  “Well.” Petreon ran a hand through his shaggy hair. “Take your point. Don’t quite see what we can do about it.”

  “Don’t you?” I said softly.

  “No.” Xando’s voice held a tremor of fear. “Absolutely not. You are not to hand yourself over to them.”

  “I must. What alternative is there? Am I to stay here, safe from harm, while these soldiers rain down devastation on who knows how many innocents?”

  “But you are an innocent!”

  “Am I really? You know nothing about it. You haven’t asked – neither of you has asked what happened, how it was that so many people died, how the fire started, was it an accident? Why don’t you ask? Don’t you want to know what I did?”

  “Doesn’t matter,” Petreon said stoutly. “Don’t need to know. Don’t want to know.”

  “I believe you are innocent in this,” Xando said quietly. “I cannot imagine that you would cause such destruction deliberately. It is unthinkable. I have no need to know any more about it.”

  “You are fools, then, but I suppose it hardly matters now.” I rose and smoothed the creases out of my tunic. “Obviously, I shall have to deal with the flickers first, but once that is done, I shall go to the wall and hand myself over to the gentlemen outside. You will have the winding handle available for the crane, Petreon.”

  He leaned back in his chair, his mind a maelstrom of conflicting emotions. He was terrified, clearly, and unhappy, but there was something unexpected: hope.

  “Actually… is a way out. Risky but… gives you a chance.”

  “Go on.”

  “They say…” He chewed his lip, not looking at me. “People say there is a way through the mine. Through the mountain. Past the pool. Lots of tunnels from there. Some lead to the other side.”

  “The other side of the mountain?” Xando said, his face brightening. “We could get right through the mountain?”

  “Yes. So they say. Don’t know anyone who’s tried, though.”

  I remembered the pool cavern, with its many fissures, man-sized gaps which perhaps became tunnels. I had been so mesmerised by the blue pool that I hadn’t taken any notice of the rest of the cavern.

  “We could also lose our way entirely,” I said. “Wait – there’s no ‘we’ about this. I’m the only one who has to leave.”

  “Nonsense,” Xando said. “I will come with you, of course. No, there can be no argument. Someone has to get you to the institute for thrower training.”

  That made me smile. “You are looking a long way ahead. First we need to work out if this escape route is feasible. We will need maps, to start with, and a navigation stone, lamps and chalk.”

  “Chalk?”

  “So we can mark our path as we go. That way, we will know if we have doubled back on ourselves. And we will have to dream up a plan to get rid of these armies.”

  “No need,” Petreon said. “They will get tired of the game eventually.”

  “True, but it will be better to get rid of them sooner than that. It will be tricky, though. I shall have to consider this carefully.”

  ~~~~~

  I took Xando to the blue pool. He had never seen it before. He gazed at it, drawn to its iridescent perfection, as everyone was. Several of the children sat around the perimeter, eyes closed, faces an ethereal blue. One stood right on the edge, bare toes almost touching the water, one hand held over it as if absorbing some energy from it. Perhaps they did, these strange children. Perhaps it nourished them, as it did the flickers. And I thought of Helly, running away from his mother, so angry at being kept from the pool. Had he run in here and thrown himself into the life-giving water that night? If so, all trace of him was gone, clothes and bones and flesh sunk beneath that serene surface.

  “It reminds me of something,” Xando murmured into my ear. Somehow it felt natural to whisper here. “I have heard about something of this sort, I am certain of it. But what it was, I have no idea.”

  “I don’t recall reading anything about blue water at the Academia,” I said.

  “You have read every book there?” His tone was amused.

  “Of course not, but I have always read voraciously: histories, mythologies, all the sciences of the world.”

  “There is much that the Academia is not permitted to know,” he said quietly.

  “Not permitted!” For a moment I was speechless. The Akk’ashara might have to dance to the tune the Tre’annatha play, but there were not supposed to be any restrictions on our learning. The standard of research scholarship at the Academia was renowned all over the civilised world. Although perhaps the civilised world was not as extensive as it once was.

  “I know, I know,” Xando said, hands raised to deflect my anger. “My people are secretive by nature, it is true. Or untrusting, perhaps. But many records are held only in the Sraeh.”

  “And we lower forms of life are not permitted in the homeland.” I couldn’t keep the bitterness out of my voice. Xando’s charm had seduced me, but he was still Tre’annatha, he still had the arrogance of that race.

  “That is not my choice. Besides, I am not permitted there, either. I am an unregistered accidental. A rebel.”

  His face melted into that gentle smile, and my ill-humour dissolved instantly. He was beguiling, no doubt about it.

  “So if you are not permitted to enter the Sraeh, how do you know about all these secret records?” I was aiming for a stern tone, but my answering smile spoilt the effect rather.

  “There are copies at Mesanthia, in the Tre’annatha private libraries. Not everything, just a few key works. The blue water was probably mentioned in one of those. It had something to do with the dragons, I think.”

  “Dragons. Right. I don’t think that helps us much. Unless these tunnels are dragon-made, in which case we need not worry about getting lost. We need only wait for the morodaim to show up.”

  “The what? Oh, the dragon helpers?” He laughed, getting the joke. “I remember, they are reputed to show wanderers to the nearest way out. Well, it is a pity they are extinct, then, like the dragons.”

  “Is that really true? That the dragons are extinct?”

  “What do the Academia books say?”

  “That none have been seen since the Catastrophe.”

  “And the Sraeh scholars say the same. So it must be true.”

  He smiled again, and even though we were not touching, and his love was hidden, I felt a warm glow inside me. Was I falling in love
with him, this seductive Tre’annatha? Or was it just a faint echo of his feelings for me?

  I had been alone for too long, or I would never have been vulnerable to such a man. And then grief washed over me again. If only my father were here now, or my husband! Someone who understood me, someone I could talk to. I pushed the feeling down. There was no time to give way to emotion.

  He spun around, examining the rest of the cavern. “So where are these tunnels Petreon spoke of? Ah, I see them.”

  He strode off, and I trailed behind him, inching past the trance-bound children. There were nine fissures, and now that I examined them more closely, I could see that they were not natural. They lacked symmetry, but they were not the result of water or faults in the rock, nor could I imagine any animal making them. Each was a narrow cleft rising to several times the height of a man, the sides wavering as they rose, so that the outline was much like a flickering candle flame. Squeezing through one, I discovered that it opened to a wider, twisting passage leading off into the rock, smooth-floored and with a perfectly round arched roof which owed nothing to nature.

  Nine fissures, nine possible routes to freedom, and no way to gauge which one would lead us through the mountain.

  ~~~~~

  “You need to head east,” Petreon said, for at least the fourth time.

  “We know. We’ve studied the maps,” I said wearily. His anxiety was beginning to get on my nerves.

  “But you take no notice!” he said petulantly. “You don’t want to get lost.”

  “We will try to go east,” Xando said, still patient, “but we may be constrained by the tunnels. Once we get out, that will be the time to head east and down to the river.”

  “Yes, but—”

  “We have a navigation stone. We will travel eastwards wherever we can, you may be sure.”

  Xando’s restraint was greater than mine, his voice calmly reassuring.

  Now that we had come to the point, my nerves were fraying. I had even begun to think again of giving myself up. It was not just the long trek through the mountain that worried me, or the prospect of a slow death in the tunnels if we got hopelessly lost. I was concerned for Petreon, and everyone in the mine, after I had gone. My plan was risky, and if the commanders outside the walls suspected anything, their retribution would be swift and terrible. It would almost be a relief at this point to end this siege in the simplest, most efficient way: by giving these men what they wanted.

  “You must go before brightmoon,” Petreon began again.

  “Enough of this,” I said briskly. “Stop worrying. Are you sure you know exactly what has to be done after we leave?”

  “Of course.”

  “And Chendria will be able to carry this off?”

  “She will.” There was a touch of pride in his voice. “You don’t get along, but she’s extremely capable.”

  I hoped he was right. The lives of all of them depended on it. And there was something else he should be aware of. “You’re fond of Chendria, I think?”

  “Of course,” he answered, lifting his chin. “Not my sister, but – like a sister.”

  “Do you realise that she would dearly love to be more than a sister to you?”

  His jaw dropped. He’d had no idea, that much was obvious. But I could see him begin to think about it. Perhaps, if he was open to the idea, he wouldn’t need to worry too much about a new companion-servant.

  ~~~~~

  We left in the middle of the evening. Where we were going, there would be no distinction between day and night, so we had no need to wait for morning. Besides, the sooner we were gone the better.

  We had made our farewells to most of the mine folk at evening table, after explaining the plan to them. Chendria was restrained but civil to me, no doubt glad to see me go. Kijana said nothing to me. I was sorry for it, because she had been almost the only friend I’d had, or at least the only one who’d expected nothing from me. But she was free now, and as soon as the mulers came she could leave.

  Rufin hugged me tight, his eyes bright with unshed tears. Impulsively, I kissed him quickly, and then, as he pulled back in alarm, held his face in my hands. He was not much taller than I was, so it was no stretch.

  “Good luck, Rufin,” I said quietly. “May your gods bless you and shield you from harm.”

  “Thank you,” he whispered. “Good luck to you, too. You’ll need it, where you’re going.”

  “I make my own luck, now,” I said. “I’ve learned to take my opportunities wherever I find them. Hiding away and being obedient doesn’t work, I’ve found. Sometimes you have to reach out and grab hold of what you want before it slips out of reach.”

  As soon as I released him, Janna grabbed him and pulled him away. His meekness still irritated me. And yet, I hadn’t been much different, always running, always avoiding notice. Well, no more. At last I had an objective in mind, and I would pursue it to whatever end. And perhaps I had sown a seed of doubt in Rufin’s mind, and one day he would have the strength to stand up for himself.

  I couldn’t regret our friendship, though, short as it was. He was sweet and gentle, and he had been one of the few here to accept me for who I was, without reservation, and I would always be grateful for that.

  ~~~~~

  Petreon was the only one who came with us to the mine entrance, the three of us striding through the empty streets side by side. The brilliance of the almost-full moon set the soft, golden stone of the buildings glowing as if afire.

  At the entrance, a great slash of darkness in the sparkling grey of the mountain, Petreon turned to us. He bowed formally to Xando, then opened his arms to me, before drawing back abruptly.

  He pointed to my thrower’s coat. “Will I squash them? If I hug you?”

  I shook my head. “They like being squashed.” As I’d found out when I’d sat on one accidentally, and he’d responded with an almost sexual thrill.

  Petreon enfolded me in a tight embrace. “Good luck,” he whispered, as he let me go. “And – thank you.”

  “Whatever for? Getting you into this horrible mess?”

  “For – being kind to me. You know.”

  And I did. “It was a pleasure.” That was true enough. I’d never minded the sex with him at all. He’d relieved my own need as much as his own.

  I stretched a little to kiss him on the lips, and he smirked and hung his head, as embarrassed as a boy. Sometimes I swear men never grow up. And the irony wasn’t lost on me, that I was making my escape with a man who perhaps would never grow up fully, would never be truly a man. Well, at least I was free from men’s lust for a while, for we would meet no one in the tunnels. Unless I touched Xando, I was free from all outside emotions, trapped in my own self like a normal person. What a strange concept.

  Xando lit the lamp, and we turned and walked into the mine.

  I’d never entered through the surface opening before, but the tunnel and sun room were locked at night to keep the extracted flickers safe. I was surprised to find that it was like any other natural cave: dark, echoing and unpleasant. Water dripped loudly somewhere. The floor was uneven and gravelly, so we had to step carefully. There were patches of sand here and there, with small footprints visible, so clearly this way in was used by the children, even though the women preferred the easier route of the tunnel.

  At the far side of the opening cave was an archway of dressed stone, with a wooden door standing open. Beyond, a rounded tunnel led straight onwards, a slight glow visible at the far end.

  As we walked forwards, the glow increased and before long we were standing in the flickers’ cavern. The air was quite blue, but very clear, like looking through glass that enhances vision. The flickers were very active and lively, pleased to see us, some peering out of their holes as we passed by. I could barely remember how disgusted I had been when I’d first seen them do this. Now, it seemed quite charming. They were intrigued by our own flickers, who responded with something that, if audible, would have been squeals of glee. I wondered i
f they recognised each other or if their pleasure was a simple knowledge of their own kind.

  The short tunnel beyond led us to the blue pool, and here there was a shock for us. The placid, smooth surface had gone and the whole pool roiled and writhed as if it wanted to escape. It was a deep, angry blue and puffs of vapour rose from the depths at intervals, so that the cavern seemed heavy with fog.

  Fear clutched at me. What if the bloom was about to happen, right now? It was almost brightmoon, and although it wasn’t expected for a couple more days, the bloom had been known to arrive early. If we were caught in it, that would be the end of us.

  “Let’s get out of here,” I said.

  Xando made no response. He stood as if frozen, gazing into the swirling waters.

  The blue was getting more intense, but the puffs of vapour had stopped. Even the movement was settling. The blue was deeper, deeper… the surface flattened and then began to swell upwards in the centre.

  “Xando! Come on. We must leave – now!”

  No reaction.

  I pulled at his sleeve. “Xando!”

  Very slowly, one hand lifted until it was held horizontally in front of him. Just like the child we’d seen. Xando was mesmerised, trance-like. The flickers too, I realised. They’d gone quiet, in some kind of blissful dreamy state, drawn by the blue pool. And they were drawing me with them, drawing me towards the pool.

  Perhaps having only eight flickers meant I was less affected, or maybe my terror of the bloom was too strong to be overcome, but I was able to shake off the pull of it, and remember what we were there for.

  “Xando!” I yelled. When that didn’t work, I moved round in front of him and slapped his face, hard.

  He gasped, and stepped back, but he was awake, alert at last.

  “What did you do that for?”

  “Quick, we have to leave. Now!”

  The swell had become a dome, almost man-high.

  “Oh. Yes. Where? Which tunnel?”

  From deep below the water came an unnerving sound, like two great rocks grinding together. Within a few heartbeats, it rose in pitch, becoming an unearthly shriek.