Bryan Davis - Eye of the Oracle

Sapphira slid her finger along dark lines that represented the trenches. “This is an old drawing. We mined past the end of this before I got promoted to the control room.” She pointed at a spot off the map. “If you extended the drawing, the abyss would be about right here. It’s a deep hole, so deep I couldn’t see the bottom.”

“Then I guess you wouldn’t know what’s in it,” Elam said.

“Not for sure. We heard someone moaning, and I read something in a scroll that told me what might be down there. I assumed the scroll was right, so I never went back. One thing’s for sure; Morgan seemed interested in it.”

“Well, I don’t know about you girls,” Elam said, “but if Morgan’s interested in it, I want to know what’s going on.”

“What’s your hurry?” Sapphira asked. “It seems safe enough where we are.”

“Until we learn everything that’s going on here, I won’t assume we’re safe.” He picked up the lantern. “Anyone want to join me?”

Sapphira sighed. “I guess I should. I know exactly where it is.”

“No!” Paili shook her head and grabbed Sapphira’s hand. “Not the deep hole!”

Acacia gently pulled Paili away from Sapphira and hugged her close. “I’ll stay with the girls. If Mardon doesn’t know what’s in this chamber, maybe we should set up a home here.”

Elam nodded. “That sounds perfect.”

Sapphira picked up a scroll from the fire and tapped out the flames. “I’ll use this if the lantern fuel runs out.”

Sapphira and Elam hurried along the corridor, Elam staying a step or two in front. They passed the original portal chamber and wound through the meandering corridor that led to the laborers’ hovels. When they reached the lift platform, Elam paused and stared at the cudgel and metal plate hanging on the wall. “We don’t want to wake Chazaq, that’s for sure, but he might not be down there, anyway.”

Sapphira touched the warped plate, making it swing like a pendulum. “So we’re stuck?”

“Looks that way.” Elam tugged the pulley rope, but it wouldn’t budge. “It’s probably tied at the bottom.”

“Do you know another way to get down?”

“Sure. If you can climb down a rope.”

Sapphira tapped her foot on the platform. “You mean there’s room to squeeze between the wall and this board?”

“I’m not sure. I’ve never done it before. But once you get past the passenger platforms, there’s probably lots of room, and going down should be pretty easy.”

“True, but we also have to get back.” Sapphira laid the scroll down and grabbed the rope with both hands. She pulled herself off her feet and dangled in the air. Her arms weren’t as strong as when she was digging for magnetite and chiseling out chambers, but she felt pretty confident she could lower herself to the mining level. Dropping back to the platform, she pointed at the lantern. “What about our light?”

“Not a problem.” Elam unfastened his belt and looped it through the lantern’s handle, then tied it in place. “As long as we get down before it burns a hole in my clothes.” He pulled his sleeves over his hands, latched onto the rope, and began sliding down with his back against the side wall, but the lantern bumped against the platform, keeping him from descending.

Sapphira pushed against the side wall to make the gap wider. “Good thing you’re going first.”

After sliding down farther, he paused, his face now the only part of his body above the platform. As a breeze from below blew his hair into a frenzy, he smiled. “Don’t worry. If Nabal’s down there, I’ll chase him away with his own whip.”

He slid out of sight, and the lantern’s glow faded, leaving Sapphira in almost complete darkness. She groped for the scroll and tied it in her own belt, then copied Elam’s descent. Being smaller than Elam, she managed to squeeze herself and the scroll between the platform and wall without help.

When she slid into the gap between levels, only the glow from Elam’s lantern colored the darkness, providing just enough light to illuminate the rope that stretched between them. With a cool draft breezing up from below, she felt like a dim island in a blowing sea of blackness, following a guide she really barely knew at all. Of course she could trust him, couldn’t she?

Feeling exposed and helpless, she continued sliding, concentrating on a mental image of Elam’s noble face and chivalrous manner. This young gentleman wasn’t anything like the bestial monsters in Nimrod’s lust-filled temples. He would never entertain the idea of taking advantage of a girl.

Elam pushed each succeeding platform out of the way with his feet. When he finally reached the mining level, he swung off the rope and held out his hand to her. She took his hand, and when she planted her feet on the board, she kissed him on the cheek. “Thank you,” she said softly.

He untied the lantern and gazed into the mining cavern. “For what? Taking your hand?”

“That’s part of it.” Sapphira pulled the scroll from her belt. “It’s hard to explain.”

Without looking back at her, Elam nodded and walked out into the cool chamber. “I think I know what you mean.”

She pulled up alongside him and breathed at the lantern. “Time to sleep for a while,” she said. The wick immediately darkened, leaving only the billowing glow from the nearby magma river. She strode ahead and waved for Elam to follow. “No giants in sight. Let’s go.”

The two hustled along the trench, probing deeper into the dimmer recesses of the chamber. The coolness of the stale air chilled Sapphira’s hands and cheeks, and just when she thought about relighting the lantern, the distant radiance of the abyss caught her eye.

Sapphira slowed to a creeping tiptoe, Elam at her side. When they neared the edge, he laid a hand on her shoulder and took the next two steps alone, craning his neck forward to peek down into the strangely illuminated hole. Sapphira edged to his side again and peered down with him.

The streams of light that swirled to the surface looked like a morning mist caught in a gentle eddy. When the gemstones on the walls of the abyss absorbed the streams, the crystalline facets seemed to exhale them in a more consistent, static glow that rose toward the ceiling.

Elam whispered into Sapphira’s ear. “Only one way to find out what’s down there.”

“Talk to it?” she asked. The Ovulum began to warm in her pocket. “Are you sure?”

“Why not? If whatever is down there could get out, wouldn’t it have escaped a long time ago?”

“Good point.” The Ovulum grew so warm, it began to sting her leg. She took a step away from the pit. “But if it’s what I think it is, I’m not sure we should talk to it at all.”

Elam glanced back at her. “What do you think it is?”

“A bunch of evil spirits called Watchers. I read a scroll that said they would be sent to the abyss in the lowest realms.”

“How do you know they’re evil?”

“The scroll said so.”

Elam looked down at the ground for a moment, a pained expression on his face.

“What’s wrong?” Sapphira asked. “The song again?”

“I’m not sure.” Elam covered one ear with his hand. “It’s like the song’s stuck in my mind. I don’t know if it’s a voice or just a memory, but the words keep coming back.”

“And you can’t ignore it?”

“I’m trying to.” He uncovered his ear and stared at her, giving her a weak, forced smile. “Anyway, can you trust who wrote that scroll of yours? I mean, if Morgan told me something was evil, I would think it was probably good. How do you know what to trust?”

“I’ve thought about that too many times to count. I think ”

A low moan sounded from the abyss, growing in volume as voices of varying pitches joined in. One of the moans transformed into a string of words, lament streaking its tone.