Tink. Tink. Tink. Tink…
A pause, then a peculiar hissing sound, followed by the sound of stone falling on stone, breaking. And then the hissing voice, like another version of the sound they had heard first.
“Done…”
“Done. We have finished what we were told we must do in this work time.”
“I’m hungry.”
“There will be no food now.”
“But we will eat later.”
“How much later…”
“The Master will give us something in time. He gave us food not-long-ago.”
“That was good.”
“It was. And there’ll be much more.”
“There will be. When the work is done, there will be as much to eat as anyone wants.”
There was a kind of sigh from all of the speakers after this. Arhu moved a little forward, during it, and Rhiow cautiously went after him, slinking low, knowing that behind her the others were doing the same. The source of the light was getting stronger, rightward and downward: Rhiow could now clearly see Arhu silhouetted against it He was bristling.
“How much farther must we drive this tunnel?”
A silence, thensss, sss, sss,as if someone was counting.“Three lengths. Perhaps as many as four: there’s another chamber to meet, upward, and another baffle to put in place. Then the power-guide that supplies that gate will be cut off, and the guide can be redirected to meet the others, below.”
“Good, good,” the others breathed.
“That will be the last one for a little while. All the others have been damaged by the sundwellers. The Master must restore them. Then we may begin work again, and finish the new tunnels, and wall up the old ones. It’s for this we were given the Claw. The sundwellers will not comehereagain.”
There was much nasty hissing laughter at that. Arhu took the opportunity to move forward, very quickly, so quickly that Rhiow was afraid he was slipping on the steep downward slope. But he was well braced, so that when Rhiow came up against him, he didn’t move, and made no sound. Behind her, Saash and Urruah came up against Rhiow as welclass="underline" she braced herself so as to put no further pressure on Arhu. The four of them looked around the corner, into the red light.
Another of the spherical chambers lay around the comer of the passage. Or at least it had been spherical to start with. One side of it had been carved out into a perfectly smooth rectangular doorway, breaking through into another chamber off to Rhiow’s left as she looked through the opening. In that chamber, lying curled, or sitting hunched, were five saurians: two deinonychi and three smaller ones that looked like some kind of miniature tyrannosaur. Their hides were patterned, though with what colors it was impossible to tellinthis lighting. On the floor in front of them lay… Rhiow stared at them, wondering justwhatthey were. They were made of metaclass="underline" three of them looked like long bundles of rods, some of the rods polished, some of them brushed to a matte finish. A fourth device was a small box that was the source of the red light, without it being apparent in any way exactly how the light was getting out of it—the surface of the box was dark, but brightness lay around it.
The mini-tyrannosaurus nearest the carven door had been looking through the doorway into the darkness. Now it turned away and picked up one of the bundles of rods in its claws. As it did, the bundle came alive with a stuttering, glittering light, dull red like that which came from the box, though in a sharper mode: sparks of it ran up and down the metal rods. The saurian clutched the rods in one claw, ran its other claw down one of the sills of the door. More of that red light followed the stroke, as if it had flowed unseen through the body of the tyrannosaur and up to the stone; from the stone, a fine powder sifted down, remnants of some slight polishing of the surface. The other saurians watched, keeping very still but looking intent. From the rods came a soft, tiny sound:Tink. Tink. Tink. Tink…
The sixth claw…Arhu said silently. Rhiow looked where he did, and saw that other claw, the“thumb,” bracing the bundle of rods exactly as a human’s thumb would have. Her tail twitched at the sight of a saurian using a tool, something half-mechanical and, from the look of it, possibly half-wizardly.If anehhifcame in and found hishouffusing the computer,she thought, Ibet he would feel like this.… At the same time, she found herself thinking of many a pothole crew she had seen on the New York streets in her time—oneehhifworking, four of them standing around and watching him work—and suspected that she might have stumbled upon a very minor way in which her home universe echoed this one…
“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 willtake 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 anehhif’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.