'It would seem that the persuasion of pain might reveal what is missing,' Cedric said. 'And then one could in a trice have what has taken years to find.'
'For one formula, perhaps,' Alodar said, 'but the varying repertory of even a modestly successful alchemist runs to thousands of formulas and activations.'
'Yes, but as I have noticed,' Cedric said, 'nothing these brewers produce seems to last for long.'
'It is true,' Alodar admitted, 'that the virtue of the powders and elixirs does fade quickly; and the more potent the effect, the sooner it is gone. Only true magic can be permanent; magical armor is proof against all blows forever. But the toil of magicians is not easily come by.'
'Vendora could make good use of more than one such shirt of mail,' Cedric said. 'Bandor still runs wild in the west and several of the neighboring barons have joined him in his rebellion. It is no longer a simple matter of one recalcitrant lord.'
'I have not heard,' Alodar said. 'Between my efforts here and in Saxton's shop, I have had time for little else. But how could Bandor attract any to his cause? It was even rumored that his madness was no less than demon driven.'
'According to Kelric, the court sorcerer, it is no rumor at all. In his trance of all seeing, he finds no mind of man stoking the fires of revolt. Some of the nobility still refuse to believe it of one of their own. But what in truth pushes Bandor and how he persuades others is of little matter. The west acts in concert against the queen and she must respond. Even now the armies speed homeward from their idle swordwaving in the south so that they can bite real flesh in true defense of her crown.'
'Then the sooner I am proficient, the sooner I can aid,' Alodar said.
'And the alchemy?' Cedric asked. 'Do you labor at night as hard as you do here by day?'
'As hard,' Alodar said, 'although the effort by itself will not be sufficient. We must travel this noon to Basil's mines in the Fumus Mountains to barter for more ingredients for our craft.'
'Well, your enthusiasm does arouse curiosity, Alodar,' Cedric said. 'Perhaps enough that I will visit my cousin one of these days to see first hand what all this fuss is about.'
Alodar started to smile but Cedric cut him short. 'Look, young Solidar arrives early for his instruction. You wish not to waste your time with rest; then swing your mace in challenge. I will wait here and then instruct him when he is sufficiently limber.'
'By the amulets, Rendrac, not so fast,' Saxton said. 'You know every turn in the passageways and the torchlight is sufficient. But this heat addles my brain and I must concentrate to keep from tripping over the rubble directly underfoot. I cannot be looking ahead twenty feet to follow which side tunnel you duck into.'
'You said you had urgent business with Basil,' Rendrac growled back, his deep voice echoing off the tunnel walls. 'He will not be out of the mine before nightfall and so I lead you to him. But know that I am hired not merely to run errands for whomever might ask. Be thankful that my own work takes me close by and accept the pace with which I choose to reach him.'
Alodar squinted at their guide and saw only a hulking silhouette against the flickering torchlight. The form hunched over to avoid a descending ceiling, burying his head between boulder-like shoulders that brushed the narrowing walls on either side.
He followed Saxton through the constriction and then around a sharp corner into a dazzle of light. He blinked his eyes and looked out a large jagged hole in the smooth stone wall that admitted a flood of afternoon sun.
'A gas bubble popped through here,' Rendrac grunted as Alodar moved to the opening to look outside. 'We connected through to the passageway we just traversed because it was convenient.'
Shielding his eyes with his hand, Alodar looked down the gentle slope of the mountain, barren of plant life and strewn with dark basaltic rocks, streamlined from their molten passage through the air and pockmarked from the gases which bubbled from them as they cooled. Standing on tiptoe, he looked to the left and saw in the distance the snakelike walls which wound their coils around the city of Ambrosia. He exhaled the heavy sulfurous vapors of the interior and for the first time noticed the detail of the tunnels in which he and Saxton had stumbled for the better part of an hour.
Like the boulders outside, the walls were smooth and firm, melted and scoured by the hot vapors that forced their way upward through not quite solid rock. He stepped back and looked down the passageway from which they bad come and saw it heave and fall and then twist from sight, like a gigantic wormhole that wandered randomly through loose-packed earth. He ran his hand along the glassy wall and felt an occasional indentation that caught his fingertip or snagged his palm.
'Matrix for the gemstones,' Rendrac said. 'Some of the first ones found. But all such have been taken out ages ago.' Rendrac waved his arm about the chamber and then ran his hand down stubble-pocked cheeks. His hair was cropped short and unkempt, sprouting from his head like coarse grass, woven by the wind. Cruel, dark eyes capped square jaws that merged into the sinews of a stumpy neck fully as wide as the head it supported. A thin, sweat-soaked tunic covered a barrel-like chest above thighs as big around as a smaller man's waist.
Banging his sword against the stone wall as he turned, he motioned them forward and started down the passageway on the otherside of the opening. Saxton took a deep breath, coughed, and then pushed Alodar ahead, placing a hand on his shoulder as he scrambled by. The tunnel dipped down a steep slope and the air immediately turned oven hot. Alodar dug in his heels to control his descent and felt his throat prickle from the irritants that he scooped in with each shallow breath.
Downward they descended at a cruel pace, and Saxton's hand on Alodar's shoulder became an aching wetness that gave fresh irritation with each step. His tunic clung, and his eyes stung from the salt deposited by the steady trickle from his sweating brow. He felt a weakness soak into his body, and his arms flopped limply at his sides, far wearier than they had been after a full day in Cedric's courtyard.
'Enough, we will see him another day,' Saxton croaked at last, but Rendrac did not reply. He continued on for another thirty feet and pointed to a dim opening to his left. Alodar and Saxton stumbled forward and looked inside.
'Rendrac,' a voice called out of the side passageway. 'It took you long enough to arrive! No one will try any further. They claim that imps are popping through the torch flames in much greater numbers, and that the petty tricks destroy what little concentration they have for their tasks. And not only the simple imps but sprites as big as a fist, and through common flame at that. I explained that some sulfur must have been burnt accidentally, but they would not listen. I think that your logic may well succeed where mine does not.'
'I was delayed by the two who came with me, Basil,' Rendrac said as he ducked into the passage. 'I will take care of the others in but a moment. A few broken limbs and a jarred brain or two, and they will know what they must do.'
'But remember what you are about,' Basil warned. 'They are of no use if they cannot still swing the chisel and carry the pouch. The last two you persuaded were able to crawl down the mountainside free men because I could no longer profit from their effort.'
'I will be careful,' Rendrac growled as he moved past Basil. 'So long as they do what I say, then their pain will be but little.'
Basil turned and frowned for a moment as Rendrac disappeared into the gloom, but then shrugged his shoulders and continued forward.
'Why, Saxton,' he said as he approached and saw the alchemist standing in the torchlight. 'What ever could compel you to seek me here? I thought you far too lazy for such exertion. Are you so anxious to repay the brandels that you cannot wait yet another day?'
'You judge me correctly,' Saxton gasped. 'It is not for your repayment that I would endure such as this. But the brandels I do not have and the days remaining before they are due are precious few; I must use them efficiently.'
'An extension, then.' Basil suddenly broke into a toothy smile. 'Ah, Saxton, you have made my afternoon. Each time in the past you have somehow come through and settled your contract. Each time I have looked forward to the day I would have your labor all the more. An extension, yes, I can arrange it. Say another month against two years of service rather than one.'
'It is not for an extension,' Saxton continued weakly as he ran his hand over his head. 'By the laws, Basil, cannot we proceed upwards and talk as we go? If we do not, then you will soon have to carry me instead.'
Basil waved Saxton's words aside. 'It is only your first time and you are not used to it,' he said. 'It is the lower levels which really test one's mettle. If you descend deep enough, the tunnels run together; no one can say that
