and four-foot-wide crevices; considerable jumps for one who was only three and a half feet tall. The Squad came to a narrow shelf on the face of a precipice; a chasm yawned bottomless to their right. They edged for scores of paces along the wall above the rift before coming again to a wide ledge. The chasm narrowed as they walked onward, and soon they were once again striding through an arched tunnel.
They had walked, leapt, scrambled, and sidled for three hours since leaving the Round Chamber, covering some six miles. At last they came to the Grate Room, a small round chamber to the north side of the main passage. Behind them the cavern split four ways: the left-hand way was wide and led down; the two middle ways were narrow and twisting- one up, one down; and the right-hand way was the one whence they had just come down. Before them the passage ran on downward, heading for the still-distant Dusk-Door.
'We are yet one and twenty miles from our goal,' announced Perry, 'but! think we must rest and eat before going on. Let us tarry in the Grate Room for a while.'
Lord Kian and the others agreed; they were indeed weary, for hiding in a crevice from squabbling Rucks had been nearly as tiresome as would running from a pursuing Spaunen Swarm. 'Take care not to step onto the old grillework,' cautioned Perry as they stepped through the door, 'for it is corroded and may crumble, and you would fall into the shaft it covers, said by The Raven Book to be in the center of the chamber floor.'
The room they entered was perhaps twenty feet square with a low ceiling-certainly the smallest chamber they had seen in Kraggen-cor. Centered in the room, a huge rust-stained chain dangled down from a narrow, grate-covered square shaft set in the ceiling, and passed through a like grate placed in the floor, the mighty links appearing out of the constricting blackness above and disappearing into the darkness of the, strait shaft below. Avoiding the rust-worn grille covering the ebon hole, Perry, along with the others, flung his pack down to be rid of the burden. He took some crue, and leaned back against his soft bedroll and sighed. After a bit he asked, 'What is the hour, Shannon?'
'It is nearly the middle of the night,' answered the Elf. 'We have just eight and forty hours before Durek tries the Door.'
'Two full days,' stated Kian. 'One to get there, and one to work on the Door. It is well that at Durek's Council we put aside a day in our plan to account for delay, for we have used it, and used it all. Now let us hope we meet with.no further mischance, else we will not arrive in time to aid Durek.'
Borin snorted in exasperation, 'Had we come to the Roupd Chamber just a quarter hour sooner we would not have been forced to sit in that dark crack for seven hours listening to stupid Okhs bicker. May such mishaps elude us in the future.'
'Ah, but there is the rub,' smiled Shannon. 'Perhaps all mishaps, accidents, or calamities could be avoided if only we knew when, where, or how they were to come about. Then we simply could be at a place a moment earlier or later or not at all; or we could change the how of things by moving, rtie rock that otherwise would be stumbled over; or we could tarn the blade a different way so that a finger would not be nicked; or we could do a multitude of other things to avoid all problems. But alas! it is not ours to know the morrow, and so only reasonable steps can be taken to turn aside misfortune. Of course, if we did know the future, life would be safe-but unspeakably dull.'
'Mayhap the next time there will not be so many Grg,' growled Delk, running his thumb along the blade of his'axe, 'and we can solve the problem with a few quick strokes, disposing of the evidence in nearby cracks and crevices.' Anval and Borin grunted in agreement.
'Let us rest an hour or so,' suggested Lord Kian, whose thoughts were focused on their mission, 'then press on westerly toward Dusk-Door. While we tarry, we will again use Bane as an early beacon of danger.''
At the mention of Bane, Perry sat up, startled: he had unconsciously sheathed the sword when he had taken off his pack. Quickly he pulled the blade free-and its jewel was silently shrieking, Spawn! the cobalt blaze blasting throughout the room as all the company started up. At that same moment the stone door of the chamber swung wide, and a torch-bearing Ruck poked his head through the opening and looked in upon the Squad. ' 'Waugh!'' he squalled and jumped backwards anrffled down the western passageway.
Lord Kian sprang to the portal and looked along the corridor. 'The foe is upon us!' he barked, swiftly stepping to his pack. 'We musf fly from here!'
The Seven scooped up their weapons and packs and bolted through the door. They could hear the Ruck skreeking and see the bobbing firebrand as he ran to meet the distant torchlight coming up the west way. Kian quickly turned and scanned the four eastern passages. 'There! See! Torchlight also comes down the corridor from the Round Chamber!'
Once again they were caught between Rucken forces; this time, though, the Seven had been detected. There were three ways left to flee.
'Swift!' barked Kian, 'is there any reason why we should not take the left-hand way? It is wider and we can go faster.' He looked at each of the companions, and they said nothing. 'So be it! Delk, you lead, for again we must leave the Brega Path. Let us fly!'
They sprang into the left-hand tunnel and fled downward along the sloping floor; deeper they went under the mountain. The way was broad, but there were no side passages, and so they had no choice but to flee onward.
They had run but a short way when from behind they heard a raucous homcail, its blat echoed down the passage after them. There was an answering call, as if one Rupt force were signalling the other. Perry felt like a hunted fox, with braying horns and snarling dogs driving after him.
As they ran, Perry became aware of an unwholesome odor hanging faintly on the air. 'Lord Kian,' he panted, 'I just remembered. The Raven Book, Gildor. When the Deevewalkers came through Kraggen-cor, Gildor said he did not like this left-hand way, for it had the smell of a great viper pit, and so they turned back and instead took the other of his two choices. Now I smell something, something unpleasant-as if we are running toward a foul place..'
'We cannot turn back, or even aside yet,' rasped Kian, 'for surely the Yrm are now on our trail, and there have been no side passages.'
On they scrambled, downward, ever downward, down to the very roots of the mountain and beyond, and Perry felt as if he could hear the burden of the stone groaning above. At last they came to a cross-junction: The main path went straight, but within one hundred feet the corridor plunged under water. The fissure to the right bore upward. The crack to the left had a level floor. Neither the fissure nor the crack showed any sign of being delved. Delk turned down the left way. 'It bears westward, where lies the Door,' he stated, and onward they fled.
The crack under the mountain twisted, turned, rose, and plunged. Perry lost all sense of direction, and he felt as if they had been fleeing for hours. A wide ravine had been following along on their right, bordering their way from the moment they had entered this tunnel; up from its depths rose the churning sound of tumbling water. On they ran along this rough path, scrambling up ledges, leaping wide cracks, sidling along narrow shelves, sliding down rock-strewn slopes.1 Behind, they could hear horn blats, at times faint, at other times loud and echoing. Bane continued to blaze with a bright blue flame. Shannon estimated that the Spaunen were no more than a half mile behind, and gaining.
They had fled for more than five hours, covering just nine 3 miles, for the way was difficult, when at last they came to another junction in the cavern; it was only the second one they had encountered since their flight began. At this junction the water ravine ran on straight, but there was no footpath to follow; a cross-shaft confronted them: the right-hand tunnel passed over the ravine on a natural stone arch and ran on upward, disappearing around a curve; the left-hand way ran straight and down a gentle slope. Again Delk chose the-left- hand passage. 'It turns back towards the Brega Path,' he said simply.
Though it was not an arched, smooth corridor, the chosen
way was delved, for the walls and floor bore the marks of chisels, picks, and mattocks. 'This is an old mine shaft,' grunted Anval as he scurried over a large boulder blocking the way, 'one delved deeper than any I have ever known; and from the smell, something was uncovered that would have better remained buried.' All the time they had been running, the foetid odor hanging on the air had become stronger;.each of the companidns was now aware of the stench, though none knew what it was. But, odor or not, along the shaft they scrambled, for Rucken horns were sounding and faint torchlight could be seen shuttering down the passageway behind them: the maggot-folk were drawing nearer.
The Seven fled down this shaft for something under an hour, going some four miles on a downward but
