Lord tedric, p.7
Lord Tedric, page 7
Their eyes were like huge, gaping pits. "They're blind," Tedric said, with a note of pity in his voice.
all jania laughed softly. "No, they can see you, right. Not with their eyes, but they can see."
"They're not human."
"They are."
"Not like you and I. Not men, not submen."
"Exactly the same.' ' '
The five creatures seemed disturbed, frightened. They waddled to and fro across the beam of Jania's light. And they cried out-shrill, frail, piercing cries.
Jania lowered the light until all they could see were shadows.
"That-that can't exist," said Nolan.
"But it does." Her voice was firm. "You saw it and I saw it. Are we to call our own eyes liars?" "But how? And why?"
"How? Through the workings of the generations. Child, after child after child buried in these deepest pits. A hundred years of children, with few living more than a dozen years. I know how it happened, but I don't know why. These are our real leaders.
These are physical representations of what we all will become someday."
Shielded from the li'ght that had frightened them, the creatures had resumed their wo'
rk. One clasped a pick in his huge hands and struck at the face of the rock. Another slapped at the broken stones with the butt of his shovel. The other three used their bare hands, tearing at the rocks with an intensity no human flesh could bear., And they continued to cry out, their shrill howls rising like a madman's song.
Tedric thought of an animal he had never seen, only read about. It had originated on Earth and spread quickly throughout the Empire of Man. Tedric thought of the rat. That was what these poor things were: rats in the pits. Children of the mines.
The rumbling of the earth caught them all by surprise. It began like the pounding of a giant's footsteps far in the distance but then grew closer. And louder. The rock at their feet began to tremble.
"Cave-in," Jania said softly. "Something's falling somewhere."
"But are we safe?"
Jania stretched out her arms and grabbed hold of both shaking walls as if to keep them from collapsing inward. "We won't know till it's over."
"When will it be over?"
"Shut up."
They waited. The rumbling grew more intense, hit a peak, then slowly subsided. Not until it was over and their tiny world was still again did Tedric realize that the entire sequence of events had taken less than a minute to complete.
As soon as the rumbling ceased, Jania was off and running. Tedric ran after her, keeping his head close to his chest until the tunnel allowed him enough room to stand upright. The four of them reached the traincar at the same time. From behind, the noise of falling picks and shovels went on. The creatures had neverstopped.
Throughout the quake, they had continued to dig, oblivious to the existence of any world outside their own.
They climbed into the traincar. Jania lowered the roof, then started the electric engine.
The car zoome o along the tracks, moving in reverse now, retracing their past trail.
Tedric thought about what might lie ahead, but he knew he would never forget what he had seen behind.
The traincar began to climb. Tedric, glancing over his shoulder to see ahead, noticed a thickness in the air. Jania confirmed his impression. "Dust. From the cave-in."
"Then it's close?"
"Or else damned big."
The traincar reached the end of its high descent, then climbed more gradually. Tedric thought he recognized the spot where they had first paused to watch the children at work among the thick gas. The car hurried past that point and went on.
"It may not have affected us at all," Nolan said. "The tunnels down here are like a thicket in a maze. If one passage is blocked, there's always another."
"Not this near the bottom," Jania said. "Down here, there's just one way out. Unless we cap break free of this main tunnel and reach the first branch."
"And how far is that from here?"
"Another hundred meters. No more."
"Then we might-"
But Nolan stopped. The traincar had swerved around a sharp corner. Jania jamnied on the brakes. The dust here was as thick as a blanket of fog.
Without a word, Jania edged the car slowly forward. They went ten meters, perhaps fifteen, and she stopped again. Reaching out, she turned the outside light to its highest intensity.
What lay ahead was plain to see. The dust, as thick as it was, failed to conceal the truth.
A wall of solid rock blocked their way.
CHAPTER 6
Premature Burial
The raft that crosses the River Bolla between the towns of Crux and Novale is crowded this night. Among those seated on the deck is an old beggar dressed in torn burlap who clutchesa long parcel wrapped in soiled cloth.
From a distance, the beggar appears to be asleep, his chin lolling upon his chest. But he is listening. Nearb , a nomadic trader is describing to a companion a strange sight he has recently seen.
The trader says, "At flrst I assumed it must be an i .nn or tavern, and since I was very tired, I decided to stop and see if I might flnd lodgings for the night. The house was very bright, with every window well lighted, so I knocked at the door and a young woman answered She was lean, beautiful, and meagerly dressed, so then I assumed the place must be a bawdy house. I asked after a room, and the woman smiled shyly and stepped back as if to let me pass. " "A nd did you actually go inside?" asked hisfriend. "I began to," the trader says, "until I noticed something that disturbed me. This was glowing. " He indicates a silver talisman around his throat. "It was given to my grandfather asa protection against evil. I had never known it to glow that way before."
"And then you ran away?"
"Then I stopped. No, it was what happened next that caused me to flee. I had come far enough inside to see beyond the door. There were more women, at least a dozen, all as beautiful as the first. Then I heard the scream. It camefrom above and was clearly that of a man. I've heard nothing so terrible in my life-it was the scream of a man imprisoned in hell. It went on and on, without end Then I ran."
"And these women made no effort to prevent you?" "Oh, they tried. They tore at me with flngers like claws. I still bear the scars of several of my wounds. Still, the talisman seemed tofrighten them. I think it saved my life. But it was not them I most feared. It was whatever lay above, upstairs. I could sense its presence the whole time-a dark, filthy, horrible thing. I don't know what it was."
"Excuse me." The beggar, suddenly awake, leans close. "Could you please tell me exactly where to flnd this house?"
" You? You?" The trader laughs in a burst. " Why would you ever want to know that?"
"Because I intend to go there," says Lord Tedric of the Marshes, "and kill the dark, horrible thing you have described."
You know what it is?"
'Sarpedium, the black wizard of death.
Jania dropped stiffly back in the seat. She raised her hands, placed them a ainst her cheeks, and
drew the fingers slowly down the ridges of her face. It was the only outward indication of emotion she gave. She neither lamented nor raged.
Tedric pointed at the dashboard. "I think we ought to use the radio."
"Throki ,gh this mountain of rock?" She lifted a hand toward the obstruction ahead.
"We're going to need help to get out of here." "Yes.I suppose you're right." She shrugged. "All right, I'll try."
"Go ahead."
In the back, Nolan and Keller seemed too stunned to speak. Tedric was glad of that. He and Jania were having enough trouble keeping their own emotions from showing. The addition of two more frightened voices would help no one.
Jania concentrated on the dashboard controls. She turned dials and adjusted levers.
There was a shrill whistling noise, like steam escaping a kettle, then a burst of static.
And finally a voice-a whisper, barely audible. Jania turned up the volume control. "This is Jania speaking. Can anyone hear me? Answer if you can. This is an emergency."
"Jania." The voice now came with startling clarity.
"Is that you, Carla?" Her tone remained deliberately cool.
"Yes, it's Carla. Jania, then it is you. We all thought-we'd assumed you were dead."
"There was an accident. A cave-in. The prisoners are with me and fine. Now listen carefully. We are located on level fourteen of the lower tunnel, approximately three hundred fifty meters above gas leak seven. The tunnel ahead is apparently blocked completely. What we need is help from your side. Any help. Anyone who can dig us out."
"Jania, we don't The voice seemed unex-
pectedly tense and uncertain. "We can't do that." "I know it's impossible, but you can try.
We don't want to just give up and die."
"You don't understand. Jania, it's not a cave-in. It's everywhere-we've been attacked.
They've bombed us-all the tunnels are ruptured. Jania, we're buried alive."
Jania hunted for something to say and, when it became obvious no words would do, reached out and quietly severed the connection. Turning, she glared at Tedric. "I suppose you heard."
He couldn't help feeling at least a measure of the guilt she clearly expected him to bear.
"I heard."
"Is it possible? Would you really do such a thing?"
"They might, yes."
"Then they did." Suddenly she laughed, but there was no pleasure in the sound.
"They've buried you, too, you see? You must be expendable, Tedric. When they come down here and dig up our bones, you'll be just the same. Death is the great leveler."
Tedric shook his head, unable to respond. In the back, Nolan was cursing in a soft, emotionless voice' Keller had not uttered a peep.
Jania clicked on the radio. She said, "My suggestions are as follows. Contact the imperial cruiser in orbit above. Ask to speak directly to the captain and-"
"The operations officer," Tedric said. "The operations officer. Speak to him, find out their terms, haggle where you can, then accept them. Some will be saved. Maybe you. Not me. We
thought they'd care enough not to kill us and we were wrong. Now cut our losses. Do as I say."
"All right, Jania," said the soft voice on the other end of the radio.
"And, Carlal@"
"Yes .
"Don't let them know you're afraid. Be proud, if you can. Don't give them all the satisfaction."
"All right."
"Goodbye, Carla."
"Goodbye, Jania."
She cut the connection and leaned back in her seat. For the first time, Tedric thought, she seemed on the verge of letting something show. He saw tears in her eyes.
Tedric faced ahead. A ton of rock. Two tons. Ten or maybe even twenty. There was no way out. He thought of the Scientists and their carefully conceived plans. How could they have foreseen something like this? The answer was that they had not, and their plans-along with his life-seemed doomed by circumstances.
Nolan tapped Tedric on the shoulder and, when he turned, said, "Then I guess this at least answers any questions we might still have had."
"Such as?" said Tedric, who was willing to accept any explanation to avoid thinking about those tons of rock so close ahead.
"Why Carey wanted to send us down here. We were diversions-I think that's obvious now. He sent us down here to be captured, to take their minds away from the cruiser up above, and then he dropped his bombs. He murdered us. Too bad he won't pay. We will."
"Does it matter?" Tedric asked.
"Does it?" Nolan stroked his chin and laughed. "Hell, who knows? I enjoyed being alive.
I guess I never thought I'd live forever."
"You seem willing to give up rather easily."
"What else do you have in mind? Are you going to move those rocks all by yourselp Or will the Scientists help you?"
"Let's not argue," Jania said. She seemed to have recovered her composure. "Maybe we won't die. Maybe your friends will come and free us once they've got what they want."
"Tedric and I have no friends."
For the First time, Keller spoke. "I believe there may be a way out," he said.
The other three stared at him. "What can you know about that?" Jania asked derisively.
Keller flared, showing real anger. "I can know exactly as much as you know. Look, whether yo i like it or not, whether you're angry or bitter or full of hate because I refused to stay here and rot with the rest of you, whether you want to call me your husband or some blathering madman who likes to pretend he is,I don't care what you say or how you feel. But I lived here. I worked here. And I left. What did you want? Should I have stayed and ended up as you think, with no eyes or legs, buried deep in a tiny cavern, scraping away at the rocks with my bare fingers?"
"You could have refused to serve those who sent us here," @she said stiffly.
"I serve no one but myself. I serve the P-mpire, and the Empire sent no one here. Have you forgotten? It was our parents. Our dear mothers and sweet fathers. They signed the papers. They Collected the fees. It was them, no one else."
"Then you could have done what you promised. You could have saved your wages and bought my freedom too. Do you know how many sisters and wives and daughters have rotted down here, waiting for some man to return and save them?" "I wouldn't know, and I wouldn't want to guess. That's because it's a lie, Jania. I'm not paid. In everything but name, I'm still a slave. No one escapes from the Imperial Navy any more than they do from the mines of Evron. But at least in space I can breather don't have a million tons of rock over my head. And that's something. That's a sort of life."
"For you. Not for me."
My wife," he said, as if it were a taunt. "I She turned her head and for the first time looked squarely at him. There was a measure of defeat in her voice but also relief. "My husband."
Nolan cleared his throat. "I don't mean to interfere but, Keller, you did mention something about a way out. I wish you'd expand on that."
"Gladly, sir," Keller said, all business again, his anger and bitterness apparently forgotten. "What I was referring to is something Jania seems to have forgotten. They're called escape vaults and I know they reach all the way down to the bottom of the mines.
If we could get to one of them and get inside, it could be a way of reaching the surface again."
"Well?" said Nolan, looking at Jania.
She was thinking. "Keller is right. But the vaults have been closed for ages."
"We played in them when we were children," Keller said.
"But the compression. And the pressure. If we tried to go up from this far down, we'd never survive the shock."
"What if we did it the way we did as kids? You know, slowly. In stages."
Again she thought, and suddenly a smile flashed across her face. "You know, it just might be worth trying."
Now, finally, with something resolved, Tedric decided to intervene. "Will one of you please tell me and Nolan what it is exactly that you're talking about?"
"Jania, you tell him," Keller said. "No, you," said Jania. "You remember better than I."
So it was Keller who explained what the escape vaults were and how they offered an opportunity for four doomed creatures to think of life once again.
Keller said, "The vaults were dug originally in the first years of the mines, when the lodes were big and easily found. There are four of them, east, west, north and south.
Each vault is nothing more than a long vertical tunnel stretching all the way from the surface down to the deepest pits kilometers below. Each vault operates on air pressure. They were used originally to bring up ore without having to use the trains. When the first big
ave out and more tunnels were dug, the lodes g
vaults were used much less. By the time Jania and I came here, when we were just children and hardly married a few months, the vaults were seldom used. In fact, we found out about them only by accident."
"We saw a sign," Jania said.
"That's right," Keller said, his eyes burning with a curious, excited light that seemed to show in Jania's as well. "We were riding a traincar to the northern sector when we both decided, without even talking, that we couldn't stand to work another minute and we hopped off the train when it slowed for a curve and ran away before anyone could see we were gone."
"They punished us."
"Locked us up and beat us half to death," Keller said, laughing, "but we really fooled them. We ran into a side tunnel and followed it, using our lights, and that's when we saw the sign."
"We could have gotten lost," Jania said. By now, the two of them spoke more to each other than to Tedric or Nolan. "It was very dangerous to wander in the side tunnels, especially then, when we were relatively new to the mines. I've known people to get lost and die and it's months before their bodies are found. We were young then. I don't think we were really afraid of anything."
"But we didn't get lost."
"No," she said, "because we saw the sign. There was an inscription printed in Galactic but we couldn't read that. There was an arrow, too, which pointed-"
"Painted red," Keller put in.
"That's what we followed. The arrow led us into another side tunnel, where you could hardly stand. We found the door. It was a heavy steel thing, but we were curious. At first we couldn't budge the lock, but Keller found a sharp rock and we managed to pry it open."
"I don't think we even looked through." Keller laughed. "Hell, if we had, we would have gone running back, because it was just a drop, kilometers below. Jania went through first andI heard her scream. First a scream, then she was laughing, and I was already in after her. At first, I fell too, but when she went flying past me, I knew it was all right.
Then I was flying, too."
"You caught a handhold."
He nodded. "That was me. When I started shooting up through the air, I panicked a little and started waving my arms and that's how I ran into the handhold. They're long rubber pikes set perpendicular to the wall at every door. You wrap your body around one when you go past. I grabbed the first one by accident, but after that we knew what to do."
