Chapter 4

Jax sat on a rock and guzzled from her water flask.

She didn’t wish to admit that she was lost, but she estimated it had been two days since she lost the Burgis men in the tunnels. She had been heading down for most of the day and was worried that she wouldn’t find an up passage soon.

She had managed to find a small trickle of water running down one wall of a lava tube that she was in. The wall had cracked under the pressure of the water behind it. She had been able to drink some and refill her flask.

Jax closed her eyes and sent out her feelings to search for an indication of which way to go. She had two choices in front of her. She felt a tug to her right, so the decision was made.

She corked her flask, placed it back in the holder on her hip and stood. Readjusting the backpack, she trudged off in that direction with her magical hat lamp bobbing along with her, showing her the way.

As she proceeded, Jax felt the air getting warmer as she descended and wondered just how deep she was. She was still going down as well, which worried her more than she wished to admit.

A little while later, Jax noticed that that the walls of the crevice she was traversing were easier to see. She hurried a little as she got closer to the light source, hoping she had stumbled into an area of the mine her people were working.

The crevice led her down into a massive chamber. When she stepped into the room, she had to gawk at the array of crystals over her head. This chamber was huge, being a good 60m across and half as high.

The roof seemed to curve, forming a dome over her head, and the floor was flat and even. Someone had to have done that as it wasn’t natural. She wandered around the warm room and found six areas with low bund walls, each surrounding a pit.

The pit that she looked into was very deep, and the heat and slightly sulfuric smells were coming from it. The magma in it was sluggish but still active. She found that two pits were active, and the other four had solidified lava in the bottom of them.

In the middle of the room was a dais that was three steps from the floor. On top, it was 6m across. About half a meter in from the edge was a dark metal ring that was 15cm wide.

An odd pattern, in small blue and white tiles, was set in the middle. Obscuring most of the design was a layer of green-yellow dust. The dust and tiny sulphur crystals were everywhere in the room.

Jax walked around the room but couldn’t find another exit. She even touched the walls hoping to find some magical switch that she could trip. She had read about them in one of the books she had found in the old library.

She was relieved when about a third of the way around the room, from the tunnel she came in from, she found a spot that made her hand tingle. Jax performed an ‘Open door’ spell.

She was delighted when she perceived a section of the wall shimmer into a doorway. Her delight was short-lived. After she walked through, she found the tunnel ended abruptly after 10m. At some time in the past, a quake had collapsed the tunnel.

Jax couldn’t find any other doorways in the section of the tunnel that was left standing. Disappointed, she walked back into the main cavern and continued her search.

About a third of the way from the lava tunnel entrance in the other direction, one section of the wall had a rockslide blocking where she had a feeling another door might once have been.

A 20m wide section of the curved ceiling to the side wall that had been at least 15m above the floor at one time had cracked away and slipped to the floor. To her surprise, the rubble had chunks of crystal protruding from it.

Jax opened her pack and found the two small sacks she had brought to put crystals in, and she also pulled out her three pairs of long socks. Since she had found some crystals, she might as well collect as many as she could.

She proceeded to fill the bags and the socks with the crystals she could dig out.

To her delight, Jax also found some other rather interesting rocks.

She picked up one and examined it. She was sure that her father had told her that these were raw diamonds.

Quaz crystals tended to be squarish in shape and a dark green when not charged. The crystals lightened to yellow and then to a transparent white when fully charged, and then they would glow.

The gem in her hand was not shaped the same. The ones that she thought were diamonds were more octahedral in shape. They were less transparent and reflected or refracted light rather than glowed.

Some of the new gemstones were smoky grey, some an unusual reddish pink and others were olive green. Jax knew that jewellers cut these gems into pretty shapes. Diamonds, in particular, were very popular gems to own.

Her medallion had one on it, and she knew they had magical properties too. The men loved finding special crystals and other gemstones because they were worth nearly as much as the Quaz crystals. Not that anyone had located those unique crystals on this island other than herself.

Jax used her magic to locate the gemstones in the rubble by having them glow for her. She spent some time digging in the side of the slip that contained the other part of the volcanic pipe that had broken off in the quake.

She ended up filling a sock with the special gemstones that she found. She didn’t bother collecting too many of the smallest crystals for her other socks and sacks, except as space fillers.