"Brian, do you think you can get back across the river?" asked Dragon Leader. The boy nodded.
"Your plan?" Bal-Simba asked Dragon Leader.
"The boy can go where my riders cannot. We must know more about this cloud and how far it extends."
"A dangerous mission for a child," Arianne pointed out.
"I’m almost thirteen!" Brian said and then blushed again as the others looked at him.
"Almost old enough for the apprentice squadron," Dragon Leader said.
"If he cannot carry magic, the boy cannot communicate with us once he is out there."
"I know," Bal-Simba said. "It will have to be in and out."
"I can do that, My Lord," Brian said enthusiastically.
"Very well," Bal-Simba said finally to Dragon Leader. "Take the cub, outfit him warmly and tell him what to look for. But no magic, mind!"
Dragon Leader put his hand on the beaming page’s arm and guided him from the chamber.
"The shifts we are driven to!" Bal-Simba sighed when they were out the door. Arianne laid her hand on the wizard’s shoulder. "I believe you are the one who said we do what we must."
Bal-Simba reached up and patted her hand. "That does not mean we have to like it."
SEVEN
TROUBLE IN THE TUNNELS
In spite of his concentration Wiz nearly ran into Malkin when the tall thief stopped suddenly. Almost instinctively the others clustered around her. Malkin peered ahead intently. "I think there is a light at the end of this tunnel."
"Daylight?" Danny whispered.
"More likely a gorilla with a flashlight," Wiz whispered. The others looked at him oddly. "I mean, let’s be careful about this."
Malkin in the lead they crept down the tunnel, with the rest of the party following in a tight knot. Before they had gone another twenty paces Wiz was sure there was light ahead. Another hundred and the glimmer had resolved itself into an eerie blue glow.
Malkin looked over her shoulder at Wiz and raised her eyebrows in silent question.
"I don’t know," he whispered. "I don’t remember anything like this." He turned to the others. "Stay close and stay cool, people. And don’t make any noise." Cautiously the party crept up the tunnel toward the glow, Malkin flitting along without a whisper of sound and the others coming as quietly as their natures permitted. Wiz tried to watch where he put his feet, keep up with Malkin and not make any noise. He winced every time one of his companions made a scrape or dislodged a loose rock with a clatter.
There was no sign of life ahead, just the glow which gradually got stronger as they approached. It filled the tunnel with a soft cool radiance mat seemed to radiate evenly from the top third of the tunnel. There was no sound and not so much as a breath of air moving. But there was a smell that reminded Wiz somehow of the basement of an old house, musty without being damp.
At last they stepped out into a section of tunnel with a flat floor and walls that looked as if the rock had been adzed smooth. At this distance they could detect irregularities in the glowing surface as if it had a somewhat lumpy undercoat. There was still no sign of life.
Wiz motioned Danny forward to take a reading with the magic detector. The younger programmer came up beside him and swept his talisman over the glowing surface. "I’m not getting any magic from it," Danny whispered. Wiz reached out and touched the glow. It felt like dry wood pulp and some of the glow came off on his hand. "It’s fungus," he said quietly. "Nothing but fungus."
"Hmmf!" said Glandurg, striding up and yanking off a large handful of the glowing material. The move filled the air around him with dust and he sneezed thunderously. "All that over a little fox fire."
"Quiet," Malkin hissed.
"Bah!" the dwarf roared. "There’s nothing here but some fungus."
"And whatever planted it," Malkin said quietly. "Something has been bringing it wood to feed upon."
"And what," demanded the dwarf," do you suppose this oh-so-dangerous farmer of fungus might be?"
Wiz saw indistinct shadows moving in the blueness ahead. "I think we’re about to find out."
An ant! was Wiz’s first thought. But it wasn’t. It was insectile and proportioned something like an ant, with divided body and long, spindly legs. But ants don’t walk erect. Nor are they six feet tall. True, some ants do have oversized heads with enormous pincers that open and close reflexively, but Wiz had never heard of an ant with polished steel blades riveted to its pincers. The thing came on, stopping every couple of steps, to swing its head this way and that as if testing the air. Wiz and Malkin began to creep backwards, one slow step at a time. The ones behind them backed up as well, to the end of the smoothed part of the tunnel and then into the unworked portion.
It was then that Glandurg’s undwarf-like clumsiness betrayed him. He put his root down on a loose rock, which went scooting out from under him, taking his foot and leg with it. Glandurg went down with a crash and a curse and the ant-thing lowered its head, opened its pincers and charged.
"Drop!" Wiz yelled to Malkin and hurled a lightning bolt at the attacker. The bolt struck home and the creature shriveled and blackened under the impact. The fungus-impregnated wood pulp around it began to smolder, releasing clouds of noxious black smoke. Malkin rolled past Wiz and bounced to her feet, rapier and dagger ready. Beyond her the light from the tunnel was blocked off as a mass of ant-things swarmed toward the intruders.
"Let’s get out of here," Wiz shouted.
No one needed a second invitation. They turned and ran with Wiz bringing up the rear and throwing lightning bolts to slow down pursuit.
Another ant-thing appeared out of a side tunnel. It barely had time to open its jaws before Danny dropped it with a fireball. Two others poked their armored heads out of side crevices as the party fled past. Wiz struck one with a spell and Malkin cut the forelegs out from under the other with a deft stroke of her rapier. The thing stumbled, rebalanced itself on its remaining legs and came on after them.
Wiz cast his anti-friction spell on the tunnel. The creatures slipped and slid, but they were more nimble than a dragon and they kept coming, skating down the tunnel toward their fleeing prey.
Wiz stopped dead in the middle of the tunnel and took a deep breath.
"Are you mad?" Malkin yelled. "Come on!" But Wiz ignored her, raised his staff and began to chant.
There was a rumble and a shiver and the loose rocks began to move. At first they shook where they were, as if the earth was quaking. Then they began to move. Gradually at first and then faster and faster the rocks flew down the tunnel like a reverse explosion. Two boulders tried to get through a space not quite big enough and caught. Three other smaller pieces piled up against them and then a host of rocks from pebbles to boulders jammed against them blocking the tunnel solid.