by Thomas Stone
Watching the figure closely, Harry stood up and put his gun to the side.
"What are you doing?" asked Fagen.
Harry waved a hand, indicating it was all right and stepped forward.
The darkened figure stood and moved toward them. It was Tringl. Yoni followed behind. Bobbie awoke and jumped up when she saw Yoni.
Yoni trailed slowly, afraid Harry was angry with him. Harry saw he was wary and hugged the Bedoran boy, all the while telling him everything was all right. When Harry released him, Bobbie grabbed the boy and gave him a long hug of her own.
To Harry, Tringl said, "I found him at a place where the Krits gather. We had to hide for a long time before they went away."
Tringl looked around. "Where are the others?"
"This is all that's left. We were attacked."
Tringl took the news stoically. "I think I am ready to leave this place."
"That's the plan. In the morning we're moving out."
Fagen lowered his weapon and watched the reunion carefully.
Yoni, as usual, said he wouldn't wander away again, but it was a good thing he had. "I found a place where the invisible things feed. There are many of them, but I think with the weapons you have, you could lie in ambush and get them all at once."
Harry signed negatively in Bedoran. "I wish we could, but our weapons are weak now. The Krits attacked us and we spent ourselves."
Yoni nodded gravely. "Then we must run or they will surely find us and kill us."
"We'll leave at first light."
Yoni was glad to hear it and was soon distracted by Bobbie. He sat next to her, running his fingers through her hair. After awhile, he stretched out with his head in her lap, and began to make a purring sound. Soon he was asleep.
Tringl stretched out as well and in no time, he began to snore.
Harry offered to sit up and take the first watch, but Fagen said he'd do it. "I want to think about a few things," he said.
Harry looked at him sidelong. "You're not thinking about copping out on me again, are you?"
"No, nothing like that. It's fine, I'm not going anywhere. Besides, I told you I wanted the ghlowstone." Fagen looked at Yoni. "How long has the boy been with you?"
Harry looked at Yoni and realized what Fagen was thinking.
Harry asked, "What about the radiation?"
"What do you mean? Inside the pyramid?"
"Yes."
"It should be contained behind the primary shielding. I'm not saying there's not a risk involved, but..."
Harry looked at Yoni and finished the sentence for Fagen. "It just might work."
Chapter 30
Yoni lowered himself into the hole and looked down the darkened tunnel. Beyond a few feet there was nothing to see. At the entrance, mortar and bricks lined the rounded walls. Yoni looked up at Harry.
"It's awfully dark."
Harry handed down a flashlight. Yoni took it, turned it on as Harry had shown him, and waved. His tail snaked up behind his head and signed, "See you soon."
Harry echoed the sentiment and Yoni slipped into the tunnel.
At the top, Bobbie turned away. Harry watched for a few seconds, but there was nothing to see and he too backed away. Fagen sat on the rock slab while Tringl sat away from them all, in a place that allowed him to keep watch. The sun hadn't cleared the trees, so it wasn't hot yet.
Harry felt like he should be doing something and then another pang of conscience hit him. He'd let Fagen talk him into using Yoni to explore the tunnel. Fagen had even told Yoni what he might expect to find. Yoni understood most everything but a couple of times he had to ask Harry to explain what Fagen meant. He'd been so excited by the opportunity to do something he accepted the idea immediately. And now Harry felt guilty. Not only had he let Fagen talk him into it, but he ended up aiding and abetting. He hoped the kid would be all right. He thought about projecting himself, but he'd only end up in Yoni's mind and that might be too much of a distraction for the boy. Perhaps he could drop into the boy's mind for a short while; if he didn't linger, possibly it wouldn't disturb Yoni’s concentration.
Meanwhile, Yoni crawled deeper into the tunnel. The dust was thick from the crumbling mortar and more fell upon him the deeper he went. Still, he kept moving, crawling on hands and knees, tail gripping the flashlight and aiming the beam forward.
He bumped the ceiling with his back and an old brick, barely hanging in place after centuries, hung on for another two seconds before it toppled to the floor. The brick enlisted several of its neighbors and they too fell to the floor in a deafening shower. Instead of stopping, Yoni crawled faster until the noise stopped. When he turned to look, he saw that the tunnel was sealed.
Dust clotted the air. Even with the filter of the thick fur that covered Yoni's face and hid his nose, it was tough to breath. He was literally covered from head to toe. There was only one way to go and Yoni crawled on.
He kept his head down in an effort to keep the dust from his eyes, but even so he found himself momentarily blinded. As quickly as he could, he crawled from the cause of the dust storm. He never saw the step and tumbled headlong into darkness. The flashlight clattered against a brick floor and rolled to a wall, its beam cutting a swath across the darkness back toward Yoni. The boy sat up and rubbed his head.
Slowly, he raised his hands, feeling for the ceiling. It wasn't there. Getting to his feet, he shook himself off and a cloud of dust fell from his fur. Yoni cautiously crossed the distance to the light, picked it up and shined it around.
The room was small and square with two columns on either side of the tunnel opening and two more on the opposite side of the room. Yoni turned the light slowly, illuminating the walls, ceiling, and floor. There was little to see and nothing that pointed to an exit. The light played across something on the floor and Yoni guided the beam back to the spot. A broken Malaaz skeleton lay where it had fallen centuries before, a heavy stone atop the shattered skull. A shiver went up the boy's spine as he was reminded of the seriousness of his situation.
Neither Fagen nor Harry had said anything about the room in which he now stood, although they did say there would be doors and he would have to figure out how to open them by himself. He looked around again and saw nothing that resembled a door. On the side opposite the tunnel opening, a bare wall stretched between the two pillars. The other walls were equally blank.
Yoni had no idea of what to do. He couldn't go back the way he'd come and there seemed to be no other way out. With his hands, he felt along the walls for a hidden lever or switch, but his search was fruitless. He shined the light upward and looked over the ceiling. Like the walls, they were made from brick and were bare. A narrow ledge ran across the top of each wall, a foot from the ceiling, with no obvious purpose other than decoration. Yoni jumped and grasped the ledge. With his fingers, he felt along the bricks for any abnormality. Finding nothing, he let himself down, moved down the wall a little farther and tried again. He went around the room in that way, checking the ledge, trying to find anything that might conceal a hidden switch. At one point, he discovered a brick that moved down several inches when he put his weight upon it. When he released it and dropped back to the floor, the brick clicked back into its original place. Other than that, nothing else happened. Yoni jumped up and put his weight against the brick again. As before, there was a clicking sound, but nothing else.
On the opposite wall, he found another section that dropped a few inches when he hung from it. He released his grip and dropped to the floor. Automatically, the brick slid back up into place, accompanied by the same clicking sound.
Yoni sat down and pondered his situation. He shined the light on the ledge and wondered what would happen if he pulled on both loose sections at the same time. Unfortunately, they were too far from one another and he couldn't possibly reach both simultaneously. An idea came to mind.
He poked around the bones of the Malaaz skeleton and found one from the lower leg that looked about the right size. He took the
bone and went to the first section. When he put his weight against it, the brick clicked into place, as it had before. Yoni wedged the bone between the brick section and the ceiling until it stayed put. He dropped back to the floor and inspected his work: the bone held the brick in its lowered position. Turning, he crossed the floor to the opposite wall where the other levered brick was. He jumped, pulled, and the second section of ledge dropped into place. Yoni hung for a moment, then dropped to the floor. This time, the brick stayed in the down position.
At first, nothing happened, then, from a hidden mechanism within the walls, a sound started to rumble. Simultaneously, the wall between the two pillars slid up, revealing a long unused passageway. At the end of the passage was a faint glow illuminating the walls with an eerie half-light.
Cautiously, Yoni stepped inside.
The corridor stretched for twenty meters or so, ending at a split. Yoni looked at the choices. The two branching hallways were identical, both short with a corner at the end. Instead of proceeding down either of the two, Yoni retraced his steps, through the anteroom, back into the tunnel, and back to the point of the cave-in. He picked up as many bricks as he could carry and took them to the crossroads.
He set them down, kept one, and squatted on the floor. He set the brick in the left side hall and shoved it down the hall. Halfway to the end, the brick bumped into a wall, and, without warning, a huge granite boulder dropped from the ceiling, effectively sealing the corridor and raising another cloud of dust in the process. Yoni shook himself off again and turned to the right side hall.
As before, he took a brick, set it on the floor, and slid it down the hall. This time, no boulder thundered into the passage. Nothing happened at all. Yoni picked up two more bricks and scampered through. He rounded the corner and paused.
The passageway ahead looked clear, but farther on a new sound floated through, the sound of something passing quickly through air. Yoni knelt and shoved another brick down the passage. Nothing happened so he gingerly moved on. At the next corner he saw what made the noise.
Before him lay a walkway spanning a chasm, the bottom dark and formless. In the air above the walkway swung three huge pendulums, each timed differently so that at any one time, only one pendulum passed across the path. They swung easily, cutting through the air with a whoosh, barely inches above the granite walk.
Yoni watched with the keen eyes of a hunter, waiting to pick the opportunity to sprint across to the other side. Because the arcs of the swinging blades were staggered, he realized he'd have to go halfway across, pause, and then run again. He looked for another way to cross, but there was none. He took a deep breath, watched the first blade and ran just as it passed. The second blade came on fast, half a second behind the first, and missed Yoni by a hair. Wide-eyed, Yoni paused.
*
Harry couldn't wait any longer, he had to know what was happening, even if only for the briefest of moments. He moved away from the others, pretending to seek shelter under the trees. Not moving out of sight, he sat in the shade with his back against a tree trunk. Letting his mind relax, he sank into the necessary state and soon was flying down the darkened tunnel, tracing Yoni's path. His search stalled at the cave-in, then continued as Harry sensed the boy's presence and passed through the rubble. Harry flew through the empty anteroom and the corridor beyond until he reached the suspended floor. In the middle stood the boy, huge blades crossing both in front and back.
Harry couldn't help himself, his mind was directed to the boy's as if pulled by a magnet. Instantly, he was there, crowding into the Bedoran's thoughts, confusing the boy.
*
Suddenly light-headed, Yoni almost staggered into the third blade as it swept by so close he felt the air move as it passed. He leaped across its reverse path even before it had the time to stop and change direction. With a sigh of relief, Yoni started across the final section of the walk toward the continuing passageway. Before he could make it across, the floor section teetered and slanted to one side. Yoni had just enough time to leap before the section fell into the darkness below. He banged into the edge of the doorway and bounced off, barely managing to grab the ledge with his fingertips. As he hung, he heard the floor section crash far below.
He pulled himself up and looked back. The pendulums had slowed and, as Yoni watched, they stopped swinging altogether. When the great scythes were still, they were drawn up into the ceiling by an unseen mechanism. Yoni turned away to see what was next.
Still carefully picking his way along, he followed the hall, eased around a great column, and stepped inside a brightly lit room. He shaded his eyes and inspected his surroundings.
Surrounded by marble columns, the circular room was massive. At four different points, which the boy assumed were the points of the compass, ramps ran from the floor up to the slanting walls. The thing in the center was what gave off the light. It was bright and it was warm. Harry had told him the ghlowstone might look something like this.
Yoni approached the object with care, all the while shielding his eyes. He was able to see that the source was very small, but intense all the same. As he got closer, he saw something else, a kind of mesh metal ball surrounding the stone. The entire apparatus hung in the air, two meters above the floor, directly in the middle of the room.
The air was charged, like land that has suffered numerous lightning strikes during a thunderstorm, causing the fur on Yoni’s body to stand on end. Now he stood an arm's length away from the ghlowstone. It shimmered and gave off heat and for the first time since he'd entered the pyramid, Yoni felt fear. Harry said the stone could be dangerous, that its power was great. Would it kill him? Harry didn't know. Yoni had to decide for himself.
He felt all right so far and he presently stood next to it. He took a breath and reached for the fist-sized cage holding the ghlowstone. As his fingers touched it, there was a brief shock, like needles, but he didn't back away. He closed his hand around it and drew the stone to him. It came away without resistance.
When he took it from its place, a rumble started up, accompanied by the clatter of chains. At the top of one of the ramps, a portion of the wall slid up. Sunlight streamed inside.
The ghlowstone was hot in his hands, but not uncomfortably so. The sensation of being pricked continued as well. Oddly, it was a discomfort that had no real accompanying pain.
Cautiously, he climbed the ramp toward the sunlight. Holding the ghlowstone out like the prize it was, he exited the pyramid. Outside, Harry and the others greeted him with a combination of relief and excitement.
Chapter 31
Harry reckoned the hike back to Minerva would take no more than two hours. They'd been hacking their way through the bush for a quarter of that time and so far he'd seen no sign of the Krits. At the moment, the Krits were Harry's main concern. He turned and looked back at Fagen.
Fagen and Bobbie carried the stone between them in a sling they'd fashioned from tree branches. Earlier, Fagen rummaged around in the wreckage of the anti-grav jeep and found enough pounded lead shielding to wrap the ghlowstone.
"I don't know how much good it'll do, but it's bound to cut the radiation some."
Harry glanced at Yoni. "How much do you think the boy got?"
Fagen shrugged. "No way to know until we get to Minerva. She can tell in nanoseconds."
Harry watched Yoni for any signs of illness, but the boy acted fine, even eager to get going again. At the moment, he was somewhere in the brush ahead of Harry, scouting. Although Harry was reluctant to let him out of sight again, Yoni had shown his worth and done what the rest of the civilized and superior bunch of humans hadn't been able to do.
Although he wouldn't admit it, Fagen was tired. When Harry offered to help carry the ghlowstone, Fagen didn't argue. He let Harry take his end of the sling and walked along behind Bobbie. Tringl followed at the rear, watching for an attack from the Krits.
"How far?" Bobbie asked.
"I'd guess less than a kilometer now," said Harry.
"I have no idea. One thing's for sure, though, the way they treat outsiders, it's a sure bet they've been entrenched in this area for a long time."
"I've got a theory," volunteered Fagen. "Maybe they were brought by whoever decided to store the ghlowstone inside the pyramid. I mean, I've never seen anything quite like them and, as far as I know, there's no other animal on Bedor-2 that comes close to being similar."
"Do you believe the True Ones brought them here?" asked Bobbie.
"I don't even know if it was the True Ones who hid the ghlowstone. Whoever it was, I think the Lost City was already pretty old by the time they got here."
"Why would they hide the ghlowstone?"
Fagen shrugged. "Beats me. Maybe this place is like a storage facility, or a beacon for space travelers..."
"Maybe," said Harry, "or maybe the ghlowstone was never meant to sit in one place for so long."
"What do you mean?"
"Could be something happened to whoever put it there and they weren't able to retrieve it."
"But why?"
"Who knows? Could be something happened to them. Home planet wiped out by a nova, plague, or an invasion."
"Maybe they just forgot where they put it." suggested Bobbie.
The comment raised laughs and for the first time in the entire trip, Harry breathed easy. The moment was short-lived.
Up ahead, Yoni stepped out of the brush. Harry saw that the boy was agitated by the way his tail twitched. He crouched and waited for the others to reach him, all the while throwing glances at the surrounding jungle.
"Hold it," said Harry, "there's Yoni."