Chapter 25

They stood at the lip of the ramp as it descended into the earth. The white smoke was gravy thick, more viscous than honest wood smoke as it curled over the rim at the far end of the maw. The off-putting color reminded Aden of bleached bones in the desert.

“There is a deadness in the air,” Ezza said. “Change of plans: I see no advantage to sending in one of us first and many reasons why we should not separate. If this is a curse beyond wizarding, we might as well face it together.

Ezza dug his hand into his quiver and pulled out three squares of cloth. Once the fabric was wetted with water from the canteen, they each tied the cloths over their noses and mouths, leaving a corner dangling below their chins. Qasi drew his short sword and Ezza nocked an arrow, holding it in place with his index finger draped over it.

The years of daily wear from salt-bearing wagons coming up and going down the tunnel had worn a set of parallel ruts into the stony floor. Using the ruts as their guide, they followed the ramp into the darkness. The rock on either side had been carved with niches and short bins. A decaying harness for a draft animal lay on one shelf, coated in a layer of fine sparkling crystal. On the other side, tens of torches were standing in the bins, waiting for the next miner to snatch one up before traipsing further into the depths.

After sparking the torches with a clever little device that shot out sparks, all three men, started down the path. The smoke climbed past over their heads, clinging to the roof as if it was alive, or as Aden’s imagination nudged him, as if it had once been alive. The darkness closed in with only the flickering light of the torches to show the way. No one said a word.

A white statue appeared just before the ramp took a turn to the left. The head had long sharp ears and curving horns. The mouth was open, and an obscenely long tongue dropped below the chin where the end split into two barbs. As Aden came close, he scrutinized the flickering dance of his torch light off the salt crystals. “A salt demon,” he said. “To protect them or goad them, I wonder.”

He did not receive an answer. They continued downwards with the crunching of rock crystals under their feet, a layer of crystal dust had settled across the breadth of the tunnel. As they passed a section where a side had collapsed at an earlier time, small salt domes were clustered under glistening stalactites. “Water seeping down through the rock,” Ezza said. “There is a harbor out there above us.”

Qasi shivered as if the words hurt him.

A thrumming of a machine penetrated the silence. The bass had a sort of rhythm that seemed to catch every three or four cycles. When thrumming stopped for an instant only to restart, Aden’s breath would catch in the back of his throat. “This is not good,” he said.

“The smoke above our heads is thicker too,” Ezza said. “Is this vibration thing your black device?”

“The sound is certainly mechanical,” Aden said. “I am not a mechanic though and this device is not my machine, just to be clear. I know what it does, but I don’t know how it functions. I do know that shoving a sword into the guts of a machine usually sends a bolt of lightning through the sword into the sword bearer. When we find it, we must either disable the power source or find a lever that flips up-and-down or side-to-side. This is the extent of my knowledge.”

“Do you smell something burning?” Qasi said. “It’s smells like a forge but dishonest.”

Ezza squared his shoulders and pointed forward. “No more talking.” The three continued forward. As they rounded another bend, an eerie light, deeply orange, began to glow from further ahead. The walls were glistening with thin telltales of dangling soft rock or of salt pillars dripping myriads of drops, making the floor of the tunnel slippery in spots. The floor felt like cobblestones making the slickness more treacherous.

As they approached the light, the tunnel appeared to dip slightly and then open into a larger area. The smoke was roiling with unseen currents, crossing back and forth as it moved forward. The burning smell was stronger, almost singeing nostrils under the drying cloths. Slowly they crept into the room.

The room was wide enough to pace but the ceiling was still low enough that Aden had the urge to stoop. He bent a little from the neck anyways, shying away from murk above. The ceiling was a riotous bubbling of white and grey, as if two hands were stirring the murk to and fro. A huge column of the stuff was boiling off an unadorned tomb of an unidentifiable substance – hues of grey congealed in a glassy veneer. The side of the tomb was etched with a human skull with an X chiseled over it. Spiderwebs of cracks were blossoming across face of the tomb.

To the left of the tomb was a large black box. The side of box was glowing a mad red as if it was burning from the inside outward. The stench was acrid and hurt the back the throat. Unlike the cool of the tunnel, the room was sweltering. The vibrations hurt Aden’s teeth.

“Whatever is in that tomb is defeating the black box,” Ezza shouted. “What will happen when the black box is burnt through?”

“It explodes, we die and whatever is in that tomb escapes,” Aden shouted back. “What do we do?”

“Kill whatever is in the tomb,” Qasi said. “But I’ve got an itching that if those battle wizard-lords couldn’t kill it in their time, we may not do much better.”

“Can we kill it now with the machine still functioning?” Ezza asked.

“The tomb is not open,” Aden said. “Whatever is inside, it’s forced to boil off one layer at a time. They entombed it alive and used the black noise machine to keep it there.’

“The black machine is going to fail,” Qasi said. “Then what? We’ve got to act soon because the few teeth I got left are about to come loose.”

“Either we wait and attack what is inside when it escapes or turn off the machine and attack it now,” Aden said. “Ezza?”

“We cannot take much more of this machine before retreating to the tunnel,” Ezza said. “Then we will not be able take the entity by surprise. I suggest we fake the failure of the machine and ambush the thing when it emerges – it is our best chance.

“Aden, you know the most about the machine, which makes turning it off your task. Keep your sword at the ready though. Raise your hand and give us sign before you stop it. Qasi and I are going to stand at either end of the entrance, giving us enough clearance and a killing field.”