“Careful,” the foreman warned, snatching a lantern from a spur of rock. “Don’t want you falling in.”
They descended the stairs gingerly, until they reached a small crowd of three foremen, one kneeling on the final step. Beyond that step, the rock floor vanished into darkness. The feeble light of the lantern barely even lightened the gloom.
“Fetch torches,” Khollo said. “And rope. And some willing explorers.” He looked around at the foremen, recognizing Tilfir and Hamon among them. “It looks like our project just got a lot easier. Or, at least, there will be less stone that needs moving.”
“What should we do with the men?” Hamon asked tentatively.
“Send them to the caves, and have them assist the others expanding those,” Khollo suggested. “Maybe they’ll end up digging into this cavern from the ground level. At any rate, we need everyone working, not standing around, and this may take a while to sort out.”
“I’ll handle that,” Tilfir offered. “Hamon, you’ll find our explorers?”
“And supplies,” the foreman grunted. “Wait here, chief. I’ll be back as fast as I can.”
Khollo settled down on the steps to wait with a sigh, gazing into the darkness. The remaining two foremen followed suit, gazing into the void with a strange fascination. They stayed there for several minutes, until Janis arrived with an armful of torches. His eyes widened when he saw the drop at the end of the half-finished staircase.
“Well, that’s dangerous,” he observed, setting the torches down. “Any idea how far down it goes?”
“We’re about to find out,” Khollo grunted, jabbing the head of one of the torches into the lantern’s flame. There was a pause, then the torch lit with a whoosh. Khollo held it a moment to make sure it had truly caught, then tossed it into the void.
The flames flickered and sputtered, dropping out of sight. Then, the torch stopped, about fifteen meters away. There it lay, its tiny light flickering in the gloom, illuminating a small patch of stone around it.
“Impressive,” Janis murmured. “And how far across, I wonder?” The lord of the West Bank picked up a small stone and threw it out across the cavern. There was a pause, then a loud clack as it struck the far wall.
“Doesn’t tell us much,” Khollo mused.
“It tells us enough,” Janis replied. “This cavern is huge! Why, we’ll have enough space for a dozen villages.”
“Maybe,” Khollo conceded. “But we need to explore it first, make sure it’s stable, get safe access to it, make it livable – ”
“All right, all right,” Janis agreed, holding up his hands in surrender. “You’re right, of course, there’s more work to do. But this is a momentous find.”
“Explorers, coming down!” Hamon’s voice boomed from behind the small group. The foreman moved to the edge a moment later, another lantern in one hand, a coil of thick rope over his shoulder. “What’s the plan, chief?”
“Explore the cavern,” Khollo said. “But be careful. I don’t want anyone getting hurt.”
“We’re on it,” Hamon promised. “Fallon, tie off the rope back at the arch. Anselm, Erton, tie some knots along its length so we can climb up and down. Desmon, prep some more torches. Quickly now, lads!”
“Aye, chief!” the workers chorused as they busied themselves at their tasks. Janis stood to the side as the crowded tunnel was suddenly filled with moving bodies.
“I’m feeling rather superfluous,” he observed to nobody in particular.
“Whatever that means, you just keep doing it over by yon wall and leave the work for us,” Hamon grunted, paying the rope out over the edge as Anselm and Erton tied knots at three foot intervals. “Fallon, have you tied it off yet?”
“Aye, give it a yank!”
Hamon tugged tentatively, then threw his weight against the rope. It held.
“Right, I’m first,” he announced, hefting a lit torch and gripping the rope with his other hand. “I’ll see you lot at the bottom.”
Before Khollo could stop him, the foreman was gone, moving down the rope in jerky, three-foot intervals, the torch bobbing and flickering around him as he held it out away from the rope. As he descended, all activity halted while the others watched. A couple minutes later, Hamon stopped, lifting his torch higher.
“Send more men!” he shouted. “And more torches!”
“I’m next,” Erton said eagerly, snatching up a bundle of unlit torches. “I’ll light these off of Hamon’s when I get there, that way you lot can just climb down.”
“Mighty good of you,” Anselm murmured as the other man disappeared over the ledge. He waited only a moment before following. Fallon went next, then Desmon, then the other two foremen. Suddenly, it was just Khollo and Janis sitting on the steps at the edge of the pit, which was now dotted with glowing torches. Khollo gazed at the rope wistfully, wishing he could join in but knowing he could not.
“Chief!”
“Yes?” Khollo shouted. “What is it, Hamon?”
The foreman waved his torch overhead. “I think we could use some more men.”
“Five more?” Janis asked. “Ten?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Hamon replied, laughter echoing through the cavern. “How about twenty or thirty? We’ll need every man we can get to map this out.”
Khollo shook his head in wonder. “I’ll fetch writing tools,” he told Janis, “Can you find thirty men?”
“Easily,” Janis replied. “But the moment you deliver those supplies, I want you to get some rest.”
“What?” Khollo demanded. “It’s probably not even dark out yet.”
“I know,” Janis replied grimly. “But I know you’re going to want to study the maps of this place the moment Hamon has them finished, and not a second later. And you’ll want to study them for hours, likely in the middle of the night. Which is why you need to rest now.”
Khollo relented. “Fine. But the moment those maps are finished, you better send for me,
