bobbing in the fiery waves. He squinted his eyes against the light to see what it was.
'A chest,' he gasped. 'Much smaller than the largest of the jewels, but a chest nonetheless.' He hesitated as he watched the small box bob on the slowly rolling surface, trying to remember why he was there.
He looked again at the chest. It might be the means for his freedom?and the treasure for the fair lady. The quests were still intertwined.
He hesitated for another moment, trying to anticipate the shock of contact, but his thoughts fused together in a sludge. He shrugged his shoulders and took a first step towards the very edge of the pool and then another.
The pain coursed through his palms and he felt the burning sensation creep down the nape of his neck and onto his back. He tried to shut his mind to the protests of his body and plod on to the edge. He concentrated only on raising one foot and extending it in front of the other. His supporting leg trembled with each step. His gait became a simple shuffle, each pace bringing him only inches closer to his goal. Finally he stood by the edge of the pool, feeling the angry waves of heat rise and bake his chest and thighs. He hesitated and then reached down into the lava to retrieve the small container from where it floated.
His hand screamed anew, not only skin but muscle and bone feeling the energy penetrate deep. Waves of heat pulsated up his arm and into his body. His flesh seemed to sear and his vital fluids boil as the feeling ripped through him. Alodar somehow ignored the pain and, clasping the small box as firmly as he could, he rose to stand erect.
The pain throbbed for several minutes more, and then was replaced by a deep numbness that ran the length of his arm. There was nothing left to stay for, he thought finally, and he turned and started to climb the tunnel to safety.
With great effort, he placed one foot up the incline and then followed with the other. Far more slowly than he bad descended, he struggled upward. His consciousness slid nearly away as visions of Iron Fist, Saxton's shop, Cedric's courtyard, Aeriel and the angry red walls hallucinated before him. To the small amount of reason that remained, it seemed that retreating from the heat should bring relief, but nothing seemed to change.
On and on he staggered, focusing only on the floor, not knowing if each step would be his last, and dimly not even caring. One weaving stride followed another up the passageway, and Alodar could not think clearly enough to recognize any of the natural features he had passed on the way down. After a countless number of steps, he began to realize that his torch was again of use and the fiery lava no longer lighted his way.
Some time later the pain lessened as he climbed, but he could not take heart, so weary were his limbs and lungs from the punishment they had received. His breath was forced, and every muscle throbbed from its abuse. Eventually the slope became less steep, but Alodar did not notice as he continued to plod onward. He saw the light flickering along the wall and he followed the guide-posts upward. Finally he looked forward and blinked at a large patch of rosy blue directly ahead, beckoning to him with whiffs of fresh air.
Alodar threw one leg over the lip of the opening and pulled himself out of the tunnel. Sliding down the outside of the slope, he tumbled into an exhausted heap in the midst of Basil's camp.
He looked slowly about and saw Basil on his knees in front of two large chests with their lids thrown open. The apothecary brought his hands upwards, filled with gems, and then let the jewels spill through his fingers. About ten paces behind, Rendrac stood, holding a large pole horizontally across his chest and pushing back the excited miners straining for a glimpse of the treasure.
'You return,' Basil said looking up from his play. 'By the laws, you return.' He looked quickly about the camp and then to the horizon. He turned back to Alodar with a smile. 'Yes, you return,' he said, 'just in time to begin your lifetime of service.'
Alodar sighed wearily and looked up into the first rays reaching over the horizon. 'My contract is not yet completed,' he said as he set the small chest aside and fumbled into the pouch at his waist. He grabbed a few of the small stones and flung them across the ground. 'With these gems, you are more than paid in full.' He looked down at the chest and reached into the bag again. 'And a fee for the rest since it is by your tunnels I obtained the treasure that is totally mine.'
Basil looked at the small jewels scattered at his feet and then down at Alodar's side. 'Well said, novice,' he replied. 'You as well as your master Saxton have a spirit I would love to break. But I am not a man for grudges. Give me that interesting item you extracted from the depths and you leave a free man, with whatever remains in your pouch, as well.'
'You have already been paid,' Alodar said. 'You have no just claim to anything more.'
Basil looked quickly about the camp. 'Perhaps I do not,' he admitted, 'but then Rendrac is not so principled as I. His impulses cannot always be controlled, although when he apologizes to me with small gifts such as these, all is forgiven,' He again ran his hands through the chests and motioned Rendrac forward with a wave. 'Take the small chest,' he ordered. 'The treasure from the depths. I want it all.'
'Well enough,' Rendrac growled, stepping forward. 'Let us see what this novice can do without a protector standing at his side.' With a frown of irritation, he wiggled both arms stiffly in a shimmer of opalescence in the rays of the rising sun. He grimaced and reached up to pull at his cheek, frowning with the effort.
Alodar struggled to his feet and tried to force his senses alert. He looked at the giant striding forward and he sighed with his fatigue. 'Cedric says that you will not win unless you think that you can,' he muttered, but other thoughts brushed his concentration aside. For months he had received less than a good night's sleep, and in the past day none at all. Whatever energy he had left seemed boiled away in the depths of the mountain. His arms and legs were no more than dead limbs on a burnt-out tree, hollowed to the core. And Rendrac had pummeled him into the corner of Saxton's shop with ease when he was fresh and alert. What chance had he now? But it was for vengeance he had come, and it must be seen through to the end.
Alodar drew his sword and tensed, ready as he could be. He breathed the sweet air deeply, trying to force life back into his tired limbs as Rendrac unsheathed his blade and slowly swung his arm back for the initial blow.
Alodar dully watched the tip of the sword as it cut through the air in the backward swing and then reversed direction to begin its journey forward. He turned to the side and presented his own sword as guard, wincing in anticipation of the shock of contact. He blinked once, but the blow did not come.
In disbelief, Alodar looked to Rendrac's face and then back to the weapon still in midswing. As Alodar watched, it slowed to a crawl and then stopped motionless.
Almost simultaneously, the big man uttered a weak yelp, and his free hand slowly rose with a spasm of effort from his waist to a mouth held rigidly open under eyes filled with fear. For a second, nothing happened and then, like a silver statue, Rendrac toppled to the ground with a loud clang.
Alodar moved to the prostrate form, its limbs still in the rigid position they had held when erect. He reached out and touched the hand that held the blade and felt a deep coldness, rock-hard and smooth, Alodar struck down with his own sword, pommel first, onto an outstretched rigid arm. The now inert form rang from the contact.
'The ointment,' Alodar murmured. 'It was meant to be used sparingly and burnt off. Rendrac was too greedy and applied too much. And now it has degraded with age and entrapped him.'
Basil's jaw dropped in stunned disbelief, but he recovered and turned to the miners cautiously pressing closer behind. 'After him,' the apothecary shouted. 'His blade can touch but one or two, and we will have his treasure to add to our own as well.'
The miners hesitated, and Alodar saw his opportunity. With his last burst of energy, he sprinted forward and tipped over the chests at Basil's feet, sending a cascade of brilliant jewels rolling down the hillside.
The advancing miners paused, then spun around in pursuit of the treasure as it tumbled by. In a moment, they were racing pell-mell after the speeding stones as they fell. Basil hesitated a moment more, eyeing first Alodar and then the gems cascading away.
'Stop, you wretches!' he yelled at last. 'Unhand what is rightly the property of Basil the apothecary.' The men paid him no heed and raced onward, stooping and picking up the gems as they went.
'Stop, I say!' Basil called out as he pursued, pulling the magic dagger from his belt and waving it high in the air. With a vicious swing, he whacked at the neck of the slowest moving henchman as he stooped, and kicked out at another as he halted to consider which path downward to follow.
In an instant Alodar was alone, with only dim shouts and an occasional cry to break the stillness. He sat wearily down at last to collect his thoughts and decide what to do next.
The sounds grew fainter, and he decided that Basil and the others would not soon return to bother him. He looked about and retrieved from the hillside the small chest he had found and gently cradled it in his hands.
The deeper he went, the bigger had been the gemstones; and this was the deepest of all. Jewels for a royal
