Chapter 25

Tom only slept for four hours, as he normally did.

He went to check on the pool and found it was full, and so was the little stream. He walked along the wavering, curved stream to the wall where the water was able to escape.

Tom inspected the vertical crack in the wall that the water was escaping through. The bottom of the gap had been filled in by rubble in the past. The top of the blockage that acted as a dam wall was only about 3cm below the height of the surrounding floor.

The water flowed over the 30cm wide dam wall and then disappeared into the fissure. Even if the amount of water that entered from the other end increased over time, the stream would continue to drain without flooding the cavern.

Tom was pleased that the stream was full, draining well, and the flow coming in was consistent. The shallow banks around the pool were wet, and he was surprised to see a dozen small shoots with red stems coming out of the ground near the pool’s edge.

He suspected that the Rocksbane sprouted from rhizomes in the soil. Kat had said that the plant was only found in caverns were crystals grew and that was active. Other than that, they had little knowledge of the growing conditions and the plant itself.

Tom now suspected that by providing water, heat, and fresh mineralised air was what had caused them to sprout. Putting his gloves on, he dug down a little way back from two sprouts but between them in the dry sandy soil.

He grinned as he found a thin stringer and pulled up a bunch of rhizomes that had not yet become wet. The rhizomes looked a lot like shrivelled kidney-beans that were linked together by the old stringer roots.

Tom reasoned that if the seedpods were supposed to be good, he was sure that rhizomes would be better. With the addition of the ones he had pulled up, he was sure he could make enough potion to use as he had mentioned earlier. He put the rhizomes in the pouch with the seedpods and leaves.

He now needed something to use to make the medical medallions. He decided a bit more snooping was required. He went and checked on Monte and found him fast asleep and curled into a ball. He still looked a little grey, so Tom decided to let him sleep.

He pulled out one of the bags of crystals from his magical box and tucked it into Monte’s chest and under his top arm. He then grabbed one of the energy bars that Kat had packed for them out of his pack and then shouldered his bag again.

He wandered off to see what else he could find while he munched happily on the bar.

Tom went back to the crystal cavern and walked around the wall.

He jumped over the small stream at one of the narrowest points and walked along the back section of the room that was still fairly dark. About halfway around, he found an area he felt was shielded and inspected the wall with his miners’ lamp.

He was rather surprised when he heard a soft feminine voice in his head ask him to, ‘Solve the puzzle with just four lines.’

Tom frowned and then noticed nine green dots that were about 1cm across and set 3cm apart appear on the wall. They formed a square with one mark in the middle. Tom had to grin, and he put his finger on the dot in the top-left point.

He ran his finger over the next two spots and past the last dot by the same space between them. He then drew the lined down diagonally until it passed through two marks and continued until his finger was now under and in line with the three leftmost dots.

He drew back up through the dots to the first dot and then diagonally down through the centre spot to finish on the last dot. He took his finger off and grinned as the dots flashed red and disappeared.

‘Please enter your access card into the slot provided,’ the voice said into his head.

“What? I don’t have an access card,” Tom complained.

‘Are you sure?’ the voice mocked.

Tom frowned and searched his pack for his wallet. He opened it and looked at the cards he had in it. Having no better idea, he pulled out his Go-Card. He looked at the wall and could now see a slot similar to those found on an ATM to put his card into.

Green lights flashed around the card-slot. Tom pushed his card in, but after it went in a third of the way the slot beeped a complaint as if he had put his credit card in backwards. So, he pulled out the Go-Card and turned it around and pushed it into the slot again.

This time, the slot sucked in his card and then happily beeped twice. The lights flashed red, and then the card was spat out again. Tom collected it and waited for what would happen next as he put it back into his wallet.

Tom was surprised when the voice told him he could now blink to the other side of the door. He then realised he had to transport himself and that only someone with strong magical abilities and knowledge could achieve this feat. He doubted that Monte could, even if he knew the spell.

Tom blinked and found himself on the other side of the wall. His presence had a cascade effect as lights on the ceiling and walls near him started to glow and brighten. Then like a wave, more lights brightened until the cavern was lit.

Tom gasped at the sheer size of the cavern and what was in it. “This is a bloody, great warehouse,” he said aloud and in shock.