They concealed themselves behind an outcropping of rock and waited, intently watching the cave-mouth faintly visible in the light of the stars. ‘It may be some time before they open their door, my Queen,’ Engessa noted.

‘Engessa-Atan,’ Betuana said firmly, ‘I have long thought that this formality of yours is out of place. We are soldiers, and comrades. Please address me as such.’

‘As you wish, Betuana-Atana.’

They waited patiently, watching the sizeable peak and the dark mouth of the cave. Then, like a deep, subterranean thunder, a stunning sound shattered the silence, shaking the ground, and a great billow of boiling fire blasted out of the cave-mouth, searing the few scrubby thorn-bushes growing nearby. The fire spewed out of the cave for what seemed hours, and then it gradually subsided.

Engessa and his Queen, shocked by that violent eruption, could only stare in wonder. Finally, Betuana rose to her feet. ‘Now I have seen air burn,’ she noted in a cool sort of way. ‘It was worth the wait, I suppose.’ Then she smiled at her still-shaken comrade. ‘You lay good traps, Engessa-Atan, but now we must hurry to rejoin the Trolls. Ulath-Knight says that we must reach Cyrga by morning.’

‘Whatever you say, Betuana-Atan,’ he replied.

‘When I say, “lift”,’ Sparhawk instructed, settling his hands into place around the ring, ‘and don’t let it clank when we set it down. All right, lift.’

Kalten, Bevier, Mirtai, and Sparhawk all rose slowly, straining to lift the rusty iron plate up out of its place among the worn cobblestones.

‘Be careful,’ Talen said to Mirtai. ‘Don’t fall in.’

‘Do you want to do this?’ she asked.

The four of them shuffled around slightly and moved the ponderous weight to one side so that the large square hole was partially uncovered. ‘Set it down,’ Sparhawk said from between his clenched teeth. ‘Easy,’ he added.

They slowly lowered the cover to the stones.

‘It’d be easier to pick up a house,’ Kalten wheezed.

‘Turn your backs,’ Flute instructed.

‘Do you have to do that?’ Talen asked. ‘Is it like flying?’

‘Just turn around, Talen.’

‘Don’t forget the clothes,’ Sparhawk told her.

‘They’d just be in my way. If you don’t like it, don’t look.’ Her voice was already richer.

Bevier had his eyes tightly closed, and his lips were moving. He was obviously praying – very hard.

‘I’ll be right back,’ the Goddess promised. ‘Don’t go away.’

They waited for what seemed to be hours. Then they heard a faint splashing down below. The splashing was accompanied by muffled laughter.

Talen knelt at the edge of the rectangular shaft. ‘Are you all right?’ he whispered.

‘Im fine.’

‘What’s so funny?’

‘The Cyrgai. You wouldn’t believe how stupid they are.’

‘What did they do now?’

‘The water comes from a large artesian spring right near the outer wall. The Cyrgai built a sort of cistern around it. Then they built a tunnel that goes under the inner wall to carry water to a very large pool that lies underneath the mountain they’ve built their main city on.’

‘What’s wrong with that?’

‘Nothing – as far as it goes. They seem to have realized the same thing that Bevier did. Their water-source is a weakness. They very carefully built a stone lattice at the mouth of the tunnel. Nobody can get into the tunnel from the cistern.’

‘I still don’t see anything to laugh about.’

‘I’m just coming to that. This shaft that leads down to the tunnel seems to have been added later – probably so that they could get into the tunnel to clean it.’

‘That doesn’t sound like such a bad idea. It is supposed to be drinking water, after all.’

‘Yes, but when they dug the shaft, they forgot something. The other end of the tunnel – the one that’s inside their second wall – is completely open. There aren’t any bars, no lattice, no chains, nothing.’

‘You’re not serious!’

‘May muh tongue turn green iff’n I ain’t.’

‘This is going to be easier than I thought,’ Kalten said. He leaned over and peered down into the darkness. ‘Is that current very swift?’ he called down softly.

‘Swift enough,’ Aphrael replied. ‘But that’s all right. It speeds you right straight through, so you won’t have to hold your breath so long.’

‘Do what?’ His voice was choked.

‘Hold your breath. You have to swim under water.’

‘Not me,’ he said flatly.

‘You do know how to swim, don’t you?’

‘I can swim in full armor if I have to.’

‘What’s the problem, then?’

‘I don’t swim under water. It sends me into a panic.’

‘He’s right, Aphrael,’ Sparhawk called down softly. ‘As soon as Kalten’s head goes under water, he starts screaming.’

‘He can’t do that. He’ll drown.’

‘Exactly. I used to have to stand on his chest to squeeze the water out of him. It happened all the time when we were boys.’

‘Oh, dear,’ she said. ‘I hadn’t counted on this.’

Chapter 29

The moon was almost full, and it stained the eastern horizon before it rose in a pallid imitation of dawn. It slid slowly into view, rising ponderously above the brittle white salt-flats.

‘Good God!’ Berit exclaimed, staring at the horror all around them. What had seemed to be round white rocks by the faint light of the stars were revealed as bleached skulls, nesting in jumbles of bones and staring in mute accusation at the heavens.

‘It looks as if we’ve come to the right place,’ Khalad observed. ‘The note Sparhawk left us talked about a “Plain of Bones”.’

‘It goes on forever!’ Berit gasped, looking off toward the west.

‘Let’s hope not. We have to cross it.’ Khalad stopped, peering intently toward the west. ‘There it is,’ he said, pointing at a gleaming spot of reflected light in the center of a low range of dark hills some distance beyond the ghastly plain.

‘There what is?’

‘Our landmark. Sparhawk called it the “Pillars of Cyrgon”. Something out there’s catching the moonlight. We’re supposed to ride toward that spot.’