I. Parker - Island of Exiles

The makeshift doorway eventually gaped far enough to let them slip through. They pulled it back into place after them, hoping that their prying chisels had not left noticeable scars.

Starting forward slowly, they felt their way by moving along one of the walls with one hand stretched out in front to keep from running into sudden projections. They had progressed for some distance along the winding tunnel when Haseo stopped.

Akitada heard the sound of a flint, and then the rough tunnel walls lit up around them.

Taking a deep breath of relief, Akitada said, “Thank heaven for that. How did you manage both lamp and flint?” But Haseo was already moving on. “Took them off the guard, of course. It’ll make it harder for them to get out in the morning.”

Seeing their surroundings was not reassuring, however.

Cracked timber supports and large chunks of rock fallen from above marked this as a dangerously unstable section, and when the tunnel eventually widened and the ceiling rose so that they could walk upright, they found numerous branch tunnels, some of which they explored until they ran out. The air remained fresh and sweet, however. They spoke little, and then tersely and in low voices about their desperate undertaking.

“There are too many tunnels,” Akitada said after a while.

“We cannot waste time with all of them, and how do we know we’re in the right one?”

“Don’t know. Have to follow the air current.” Some tunnels were too small to consider. With the rest they checked the air flow, but could not always be certain, and in the end, they chose to stay in the largest tunnel.

“How far have we come?” Haseo asked at one point.

Akitada had attempted to count steps, short ones since their chains still hobbled them. He told Haseo, who muttered, “Got to move faster. Damn these chains,” and took such a large step forward that he fell flat on his face. The oil lamp flew from his hand and broke with a small clatter. Instant darkness enveloped them. Haseo cursed. When Akitada had helped him up, he said,

“Well, we’ll have to feel our way like blind men. But let’s take off these chains.”

“We have no light. It will be time enough when we get out.” Haseo protested, “But we need to get to the outside while it’s still dark and then run like demons. I tell you, this place’ll swarm with guards and soldiers as soon as it’s daylight.”

“What did you do to the guard?” Akitada asked again.

“Hit him with a piece of rock.”

“Did you kill him?”

“Maybe.”

They continued. The tunnel climbed upward, making several turns but still promising escape. It was nerve-racking work in the utter darkness. They groped their way, taking turns at going first, feet testing the ground, and hands stretched out to meet obstacles. Their inability to see seemed to magnify sounds, and small rocks kicked by their feet made them stop to listen, reminded of the constant danger of rock falls. The darkness raised vivid images of being crushed or, worse, becoming walled in alive. Each caught in his own nightmare, they stopped talking.

And then the tunnel ended.

Akitada had been in front for a while, moving more quickly in his impatience. He suddenly stubbed his toe, stumbled, and fell forward onto a pile of rocks.

“What are you doing?” Haseo asked. He came up and felt for Akitada.

“It’s a rock pile,” muttered Akitada, scrambling up it with some difficulty, because the rubble kept shifting under his feet and he kept slipping back down, causing small rock slides.

“Move aside.” Haseo passed him, having better luck.

“How much is there, do you think?” Akitada asked from below. He jumped aside when a low rumble announced another rock slide. When it stopped, he said, “Be careful or you’ll bring the whole mountain down on us.”

Haseo did not answer. Akitada could hear him sliding all the way down. “It’s the end,” Haseo said tonelessly, stopping beside him. “It goes all the way to the ceiling. If this tunnel ever led to the outside, the rock fall has filled it. Maybe that’s why they stopped working it.”

Akitada sat down next to him. He was very tired. “We must think,” he said.

Haseo gave a bark of bitter laughter. “You’re a fool. I told you so last night. We’ll die here.”

“We won’t die here. And if you thought it was so foolish, why did you come?”

Haseo did not answer that. Instead he said, “You’re right.

Let’s think.”

“We could go back and try the other tunnels. One or two seemed promising.”

But they did not have the heart for it. They had been so sure. Perhaps an hour passed while they rested, dozed, tried to gather their strength for the next attempt. Akitada was the first to stand up.

“Come on. There’s not much time. We must try another way.” Haseo staggered to his feet. “All right.” He started back, but Akitada caught his sleeve.

“Wait,” he said. “Do you hear something?” Haseo listened. “No. Nothing. Just the air.”

“Yes, the air. The current is still there. And it makes a whistling sound we did not hear before. Like the sound a flute makes when you blow it. Do you know what that means?”

“Forget it! You can’t go by air flow. See where it got us.”

“But the sound comes from the rock pile. Somewhere up there is a narrow opening letting in the air and that is why it whistles.”

Haseo pondered this. “Surely you don’t plan to move the whole rock pile?” he finally said.

“We’ve carried rocks before. Why not now when it may mean our freedom?”

“The whole thing may come loose and crush us.”

“Yes. But perhaps not.”

Haseo grunted and then climbed back up to the top, Akitada at his heels. He could hear him scrabbling about, and then a large piece of rock slid his way. He caught it barely before it would have crushed his fingers, and slid back down with it.

They worked on like this for what seemed like hours, sweat and stone dust crusting on their skin. Haseo grunted, cursed, and muttered, “Waste of time,” and “Stupid” under his breath, but he continued loosening rocks and passing them down by feel alone. Akitada was tiring. His excitement had carried him this far, but now his weakened body rebelled. After each stone he deposited below, it was a little harder to climb back up the few steps to where Haseo had made a foothold for himself. He was working much faster than Akitada could carry the rocks down.

Eventually Haseo was surrounded by a wall of rocks and stopped. “It’s no good,” he said. “There are too many for us to move. Let’s go back before we wall ourselves in.” Akitada listened. “The whistling has stopped,” he said.

Haseo listened also and started groping around again.

“Wish we had a light. I can feel the air in my hair. Wait a minute.” There was clatter, then the rocks beneath them seemed to come alive and shift.

“Watch out,” cried Akitada as he fell on his back and was carried downward. Haseo began to curse amid the rumble of falling rocks. When the noise stopped, Akitada cried, “Haseo?

Are you all right?”

“Yes. I think so.” Haseo’s voice came from somewhere beyond the rock pile.

“Where are you?”

“You were right. We’re through. The tunnel goes on from here.

Come on, but watch your feet. I got a nasty cut on my ankle.”

“Stand back in case it shifts again.” Akitada groped his way to the top of the pile carefully, found that he could wiggle through beneath the roof of the tunnel, then sat and slowly slid down on the other side.

Their success gave them new hope and they moved forward again. But soon the tunnel narrowed sharply and the ceiling dipped until they had to crawl again. It looked as though they were coming to the end of the lode. Haseo was in front, and when Akitada got down on his hands and knees, he felt something wet on the ground. He raised his hand to his nose and sniffed. Blood.