«I am the smallest of all. I am of Peython's blood. And no one can say that I am at fault before the Law. So I am the best one to go down, and no one will stop me.»
When Kareena was naked, she bound her hair up, then let Blade tie the rope around her waist. When he'd done that, she picked up a rifle and vanished down the tunnel like a rabbit. They heard more curses and clatters and saw more clouds of dust. They also saw the rope vanishing steadily into the darkness. Then they heard Kareena's voice, distorted by the tunnel and by a spasm of coughing.
«I'm all the way-down. The fire jewels-by the Law, there must be thousands of them! Big stone in the tunnel, though. No one bigger than I-can get through. I'll try to move it.»
«Be careful, Kareena,» shouted Bairam. There was no reply, except more clattering stones. Dust poured out of the tunnel like smoke from a fire, and Blade started stripping off his own clothes. He might be the largest man in the group, but he was also the strongest and the most skilled in this sort of work.
Then Kareena's voice came again, even more broken by coughing. «Can't-move-it. Almost-but somebody-push from above.» She sounded as if she was about to strangle on the dust.
By now Blade was naked, wearing only his silver loinguard. Hota moved to block the tunnel, but Sidas and Bairam both stepped between him and Blade. Blade threw them both a look of gratitude, then got down on his hands and knees and started crawling. His natural caution over moving into the unknown fought with his desire to hurry to Kareena's rescue.
Stone by stone, Blade crept downward, the air growing thicker and the light fading with each foot he descended. He was in a weird sort of twilight by the time he came to what had to be the obstacle. It was another slab of concrete, tilted so that it left only about a two-foot space clear. Blade wondered how even Kareena could have slipped through, and hoped the stains on the slab were Saorm's blood and not hers.
Fortunately there was enough light to let Blade see how the slab could be moved out of the way. He crawled up onto the slab and shouted down into the darkness. «Kareena! Get out of the way. I'm going to be throwing the stones off the slab. Then you pull out the ones underneath.»
A choking «Yes, Blade,» from below reassured him that the girl was still alive and functioning. He started wrestling chunks of stone up over the lip of the slab and shoving them down into the lower part of the tunnel. As they crashed down, the dust rose about him until he was working more by touch then by sight, and he soon found himself coughing almost as hard as Kareena. Finally he'd cleared the top of the slab and scrambled back up to get a breath of fresh air and a crowbar.
It took Blade several tries before he found a position where he could pry up the slab without breaking either the crowbar or his back. Then he thrust the crowbar into place, waited until Kareena signaled she was ready, and heaved with all his strength.
Even Blade's powerful muscles nearly weren't enough. The slab was heavier than he'd expected. He had to lock muscles and joints, then press his back against the wall until he felt blood flow to keep holding it up. About all that kept him going was the knowledge that if he let the slab fall, it would squash Kareena like a cockroach.
Sweat oozed from every pore and his eyes nearly popped out of his head, but he held the slab long enough. Suddenly he heard Kareena's muffled, «All right, Blade. I'm safe.» He jerked the bar free and the slab fell with a crash. The tunnel vanished completely in dust, and there were so many more rattles and crashes that for a horrible moment Blade was certain he'd brought the whole tunnel down on himself and Kareena. Then the noise died away and Blade clawed his way down the slope, through a gap now large enough to pass three men abreast.
He found Kareena sprawled on the floor, writhing and half-choking. She'd put the last of her strength into the effort, and if she didn't get out to the fresh air soon she was going to be in even worse condition. Blade opened his dust-clogged mouth to shout, but only a croak came out. Before he could get the breath to try again, there was another avalanche of small stones and Sidas, Bairam, and Hota came tumbling down the tunnel. Hota was carrying another crowbar, Sidas a torch and flint, and Bairam-bless him! — a leather skin full of water.
Bairam took one look at his sister, propped her up with one arm, and offered her the water. She vomited up the first mouthful, but kept down the second and third. After the fourth, she felt well enough to use some of the water to wipe her face. This left her with a sort of dark mask on her otherwise completely dust-coated skin. Like Blade, she was so thickly coated with dust that you had to look twice to see that she was naked.
Blade drank water until he no longer felt the dust grinding between his teeth. Then he lit the torch and slowly walked around the underground storeroom of the fire jewels. They were there as Saorm and Kareena said, thousands of them. No, tens of thousands, Blade corrected himself. There were crates which must contain at least a thousand of the smallest power cells, or a hundred of the larger ones. There were covered racks of cells larger than any Blade had seen, and on the floor stood still more cells, each at least four feet high. If their power capacity was in proportion to their size, each of the big ones must hold enough power for a tank or even a small town! He was looking at nothing less than an Industrial Revolution for Kaldak, the saving of hundreds of lives and a whole generation on the road back to civilization…
Blade corrected himself again. He could be looking at all these things. He couldn't be sure, until he knew if most of these cells still held their power. Even after that, the Kaldakans would have to do some serious thinking about their Law before they could get the benefits of all this Oltec. Blade was sure there were far too many Kaldakans who would think like Hota, if you could call that «thinking» at all.
From the noise up above, it seemed that everyone in the expedition except the munfans wanted to come down the tunnel and stare at the Oltec. Kareena was now in shape to give orders again, and she kept everyone except Saorm and two men with rifles from coming down. «There is more Oltec here than we dreamed of,» she shouted. «Who knows what the Sky Masters may have left behind to protect it? Until we know, the fewer down here the better.»
Then, still naked, Kareena took one of the rifles. Slowly she raised it, and fumbled at the panel which covered the slot for the power cell. Saorm, Hota, and even Sidas stared horror-struck as she opened the panel and pulled out the old power cell. All eyes followed her as she stalked around the room, looking for the right size of power cell. She found an open crate, picked up a cell, blew the dust off, and held it up in the torchlight. It gleamed like new. By now even Blade was holding his breath.
Slowly, with trembling fingers, Kareena put the power cell in the rifle. It took her three tries before she could close the panel. She had to stop completely, her eyes closed and her breasts rising and falling, before she could raise the rifle.
Then in one smooth motion she raised it, aimed at the ceiling, and fired. The beam crackled across the room, dust and ozone stung Blade's nostrils, chips of hot stone stung his skin, and everything in sight turned a sickly green. He' still felt like cheering. Some of the storeroom's Oltec lived!
«Then-we can make dead Oltec live?» said Sidas. He looked surprised half out of his wits.
«Yes,» said Kareena. «The fire jewels are great Oltec. With their help-«