drawing ever closer to the camp. Thus far, it didn’t look as if they had noticed anything out of the ordinary.
As Riyan helped Bart drag one of the last remaining men into a tent, he said, “They may just be coming down to bring the crates to the top.”
“What’s your point?” Bart asked. At the tent flap, they dragged the man inside and laid him upon another that had already been deposited within.
“Just that, maybe Seth and Soth could make like they are in charge down here, load them up, and send them on their way,” he suggested.
“Don’t you think they’d be suspicious when they found only two others down here?” Bart asked.
Moving back outside, they saw the twins coming toward them. Off to their right, the legs of an unconscious man disappeared through a tent flap as Chyfe dragged the last of them inside.
“Suspicious of what?” asked Seth.
“They could tell them that everyone else was inside the mine bringing out more crates,” Riyan said to Bart.
“Who could tell who what?” Seth asked.
Bart thought for a moment as Riyan filled the twins in on their plan. “It might work,” he said.
“If it didn’t, Seth and I would be faced with a problematic situation,” Soth stated.
“First of all, they wouldn’t be expecting any trouble,” Riyan said. Turning to the twins, he indicated a stack of boxes at the foot of the steps. “Load them up as soon as they reach the bottom, and send them back to the top.”
Seth grinned at the plan and nodded. “Are they armed?” he asked Bart.
“Not that we could tell,” he said. “Kevik’s up at the entrance keeping an eye on them. If something began to develop, Chad would come and tell us.”
By this time, the five men had descended a quarter of the distance.
“Think you two can pull it off?” asked Bart.
Seth nodded again. “Sure,” he replied.
“Alright then,” Bart said. “While you two keep an eye on things here, the rest of us will hunt for the last segment.”
“Still no guarantee that it will be in there,” warned Soth.
“True,” replied Riyan. “But we have to check it out.”
“We’ll wait until you have the men on their way back to the top before beginning our search,” Riyan said. Then he turned to Bart. “It might be a good idea to give Soth the ring you use to communicate with Kevik.”
“Right,” he agreed. Removing it from his hand, he handed it over to Soth. “Just think of Kevik and speak what you want to say in your mind.”
Taking the ring, Soth slipped it onto a finger of his left hand. “Alright,” he said. Gazing at it, he looked almost as if he had expected the ring to do something and was disappointed.
“We better get out of here,” advised Chyfe. Glancing to the men on the steps, he added, “They’re getting close.”
“Okay, let’s go,” said Bart. With a last glance to Seth he said, “Be careful.”
“Of course,” replied Seth. “You too.”
Moving out, Riyan, Chyfe, and Bart hurried through the camp toward the mine.
As they neared the entrance, they could see Kevik still looking at the image in the bowl. Chad stood a few feet away and watched as they approached.
“What’s going on?” he asked as they came close. Riyan quickly filled him in.
All but Kevik stood just within the shadows of the entrance as they watched the men descending the steps. Kevik continued to keep an eye on the happenings at the top. It took the men another ten minutes to traverse the remainder of the steps and reach the bottom.
There, Seth came forward and began speaking with the men. Everyone held their breath as he spoke. At first it didn’t seem as if it was going to work. Then, the men went to the stack of crates at the foot of the steps. Each took one of the crates and positioned it upon their back, then began the arduous climb to the top. Once the last man had his crate in place and was climbing the steps, Kevik gasped.
Turning to the magic user, they could see the far away look on his face he always gets when conversing through the rings.
A moment later, Kevik’s eyes refocused. He held his hand to his forehead and groaned. “Everything went alright with the porters,” he told them. Then when he noticed their concerned looks, he added, “When Seth spoke through the ring, he broke my concentration with the far seeing spell which resulted in a magical backlash.”
“Are you okay?” Riyan asked, concerned.
Kevik nodded. “It’s beginning to fade,” he assured them. Gesturing to the mixture filled bowl, he asked, “Should I dump it out and take the bowl with us, or leave it?”
“I would think leave it,” replied Bart. “We won’t need it in there and I’d hate to waste it. Might need it when we return.”
“Very well,” stated Kevik. Taking hold of his staff from where it was leaning against the side of the entrance, he created his light spell.
“Let’s go,” Bart said. And with Kevik right behind him, he led them into the mine.
Chapter Twenty-Three
The mine looked recently excavated, maybe no more than a year earlier. New timber supporting beams indicated that more than anything else. A well worn path ran through the middle of the passage, testament to the number of trips men had taken in and out of there.
For a hundred feet, the passage continued before Kevik’s light revealed where it ended. As Kevik’s light better illuminated the far end, they could see that the wall was no longer that of excavated earth. Instead, it was much more uniform and flat. In fact, it looked to be a wall constructed of stone bricks set one upon another.
A hole, large enough for two men to walk through side by side, gaped in the center. The light from Kevik’s staff passing through the hole revealed an empty space. As they moved closer, the light reached through to another wall running parallel to the first.
Bart was the first to the opening and stepped through. He glanced down to the right and left but couldn’t see anything in the darkness. “Kevik,” he said as he turned back to the magic user. “Need your light.”
Kevik came to the opening and moved the glowing tip of his staff through to the other side.
The light revealed a manmade passageway extending into darkness to their left and right. The walls, ceiling, and floor were all worked in stone. Bart motioned for the others to come through and join him. Across from the opening was a spent torch resting in a wall sconce. Bart inspected it and found it to still be warm.
“Which way?” Chad asked.
With Kevik’s light, they could tell that the passage extending to the right showed a much greater degree of disturbance than did the one to the left. Bart pointed toward the right. “This way,” he said as he began following the passage.
Naught but the sound of their feet moving along the ground disturbed the silence of the underground passage. Not far from where they had entered this passage, it turned at a forty five degree angle to the left. No sooner had Bart turned the corner than a most unpleasant odor of rot and decay hit him. Ahead, a light glowed in the distance.
“Oh man!” he said as he brought his sleeve up to his nose in an attempt to filter out the odor.
Behind him, Riyan asked in a voice muffled by cloth, “What is that?”
“I would guess a corpse,” replied Chyfe.
Walking beside him, Chad nodded in agreement. “So would I.”
Keeping their noses and mouths securely covered by one form of cloth or another, they continued on. It wasn’t long before they came to the source of the light, a torch set in a wall sconce two feet from where a pit loomed in the floor before them. Four wide planks extended over the pit to allow safe passage across. It was from the pit that the smell was originating.
