“There is nothing more to do here,” said one of the saurians who sat and watched.
“Yes. Let’s go back to where the others are and wait for them,” said another.
The mini-tyrannosaur, though, kept polishing the doorsill for a few more strokes. “This work gives me joy,” it said. “When it is done, the gates will all be ours and will be turned to the Master’s plan. When all is ready, he will lead us up out of the chill and wet and darkness, as he has done with others in the not-long-ago, up into the warmth and the light, and we will take back what was taken from us. The sundwellers may take our places down here, if they like. But none of them will; the Great One says they will all die, and there will be such a feasting for our people as has not been seen since the ancient days. I do not want to wait for that I want it to come soon.”
The others sighed. “The Leader, the Great One, he will know the way, he will show us…” they hissed, agreeing, but none of them got up to do anything further. Finally the mini-tyrannosaur lowered the bundle of rods, and the light of them went out.
“Let us go back, then,” it said. “We will come back after sleep and begin the next work.”
The saurians who had been relaxing on the floor got up, and picked up the other bundles of rods and the light box. The deinonychus with the box went first, and the others followed behind, hissing softly as they went. Slowly the light faded away.
What do we do? Arhu said.
Follow! Rhiow said. But be careful. It’s very hard to sidle down here, as Saash said: better not to waste your energy trying.
Should I make the light again ? They didn’t see it before.
Rhiow thought about that. Not if we have their light ahead of us. But otherwise, yes, as long as we can’t be seen from any side passages, she said. Normally they shouldn’t be able to see in our little light’s frequencies… but things aren’t normal around here, as you’ve noticed.
Arhu twitched his tail in agreement, then waited a few breaths before following the way the saurians had gone, out the opening in the far side of the spherical chamber, and farther down into the dark. Close behind, silent, using the warm lizard-scent to make sure they didn’t stray from the proper trail, Rhiow and Saash and Urruah followed.
Far ahead of them, over the next hour or so, they would occasionally catch a glimpse of that red light, bobbing through long colonnades and tunnels, always trending down and down. At such times Arhu would stop, waiting for the direct sight of the light to vanish, before starting forward and downward again. At one point, near the end of that hour, he took a step—and fell out of sight.
Arhu!
No, it’s all right, he said after a moment, sounding pained but not hurt. It’s what we went down the other day, in the Terminal—
?? Rhiow said silently, not sure what he meant.
When we went to see Rosie.
Stairs. Stairs? Here??
They’re bigger, Arhu said. Indeed they were: built for bipedal creatures, yes, but those with legs far longer than an ehhif’s. From the bottom of the tread to the top, each step measured some three feet. A long, long line of them reached far downward, past their little light’s ability to illumine.
Where are we in terms of the map? Saash said to Rhiow. I’m trying to keep track of where the catenaries are going to start bunching together.
Rhiow consulted the map and stood there lashing her tail for a few moments. My sense of direction normally isn’t so bad, she said, but all these new diggings are confusing me. These creatures have completely changed the layout of the caverns in this area. I think we’re just going to have to try to sense the catenaries directly or do a wizardry to find them.
As to the latter, I’d rather not, Saash said. I have a feeling something like that might be sensed pretty quick down here. You saw those tools. Someone down here is basing a technology around wizardly energy sources…
Yes, I saw that. Rhiow hissed very softly to herself.
So what do we do? Arhu said.
Go downward.
They went: there was not much option. The stair reached downward for the better part of half a mile before bottoming out in a platform before a doorway. Cautiously they crept to the doorway, peered through it. The saurians had passed this way not too long before; their scent was fresh, and down the long high hall on the other side of the door, the faint red light glowed.
Arhu stepped through it—then stopped.
What?
It’s not the same light, he said.
What is it, then?
I don’t know.
Slowly he paced forward, through the doorway, turning left again. Another hallway, again trending down, but this one was of grander proportions than the corridors higher up in the delving, and it went down in a curve, not a straight line. Rhiow went behind Arhu, once more feeling the neural-inhibitor spell in her mind, ready for use. Its readiness was wearing at her, but she was not going to give it up for anything, not under these circumstances.
They softly walked down the corridor, in single file. Ahead of them, the red light grew, reflecting against the left wall from a source on the right. This light was not caused by any box carried by a saurian: Arhu had been right about that. It glowed through a doorway some hundred yards ahead of them, a bloom of light in which they could now detect occasional faint shifts and flickerings. The box-light had produced none such.
About twenty yards from the doorway, Saash stopped. Rhiow heard her footfalls cease, and turned to look at her. The faintest gleam of red was caught in her eyes—a tiger’s eyes, in this universe, set in a skull with jaws big enough to bite off an ehhif’s head; but the eyes had Saash’s nervousness in them, and the tortoiseshell tiger sat down and had a good hard scratch before saying, I am not going through that door unsidled; I don’t care what it takes.
Rhiow looked at her, and at Urruah behind her.
Not a bad idea, he said. If I have to go out there visible, I can’t guarantee the behavior of my bladder.
Let’s do it, then, said Rhiow.
It was surprising how hard it was. Normally sidling was a simple matter of slipping yourself among the bunched and bundled hyperstrings, where visible light could not get at you. But here something had the hyperstrings in an iron grip, and they twanged and tried to cut you as you attempted to slide yourself between. It was an unfriendly experience. I think the hardboiled eggs in the slicer at the deli around the comer must feel like this, Urruah grunted, after a minute or so.
Trust you to think of this in terms of food, Rhiow said, having just managed to finish sidling. Arhu had done it a little more quickly than she had, though not with his usual ease: he was already padding his way up to the door through which the brighter reddish radiance came, and Saash was following him. I suppose, Rhiow added for Urruah’s benefit as she came up between Arhu and Saash, and peered through the space between them, we should think ourselves lucky there’s not a MhHonalh’s down here…