Douglas Niles - Secret of Pax Tharkas

“Where we go in this goofar place?” demanded Slooshy, splashing at the water.

“Down!” he replied, before another surge of water splashed into his face.

Everything goes down.

Gus remembered the drain where they first plummeted under the ground and realized with some shock that the tunnels were actually beneath the Urkhan Sea. Yet they still plunged deeper and deeper, farther away from his home than he could ever have imagined. When he looked around for his companion, he could see no sign of her.

“Slooshy!” he cried. There might have been an answering cry from somewhere upstream, but he couldn’t be sure.

Where was she? He struggled through water and surged and rolled with a powerful current, but the surface was relatively smooth, without the white churning froth that had choked him before. Keeping his head out of the water was easy, and he peered anxiously upstream and down, looking for a strand of scraggly hair, a flailing hand, any sign of Slooshy.

For two minutes he floated along, peering despairingly across the smoothing waters. The current was fast but no longer as crushing, and he started looking around for some way to pull himself out of the flow. A narrow ledge appeared along one side and quickly vanished behind him, and he realized that he was looking the wrong way. Turning around, he faced the direction in which he was being borne by the current.

Two seconds later another ledge came into view on the left side, and Gus kicked his way toward it-but the current shoved him past before he could grab the lip. Still, he was close to the side of the huge shaft, and when the next dry perch hove into view, he was ready. His strong fingers grabbed the edge, slipping along but finally grasping tight.

With a strong kick, Gus pulled himself up and out of the water, collapsing on the surprisingly wide shelf of flat stone, just about two inches above the level of the still-surging water. For two long minutes, he lay there, quaking first in fear then from the cold, keeping his eyes open as he studied the water for some sign of Slooshy floating past.

But there was only that cold, flowing water.

Shivering, he sat up and took a look around. Almost immediately he spotted an opening in the side of the water cavern. It was a corridor leading away from there! The ceiling was just high enough for Gus to step along without stooping, and the passageway was wide enough for him to stretch out his arms and just barely touch the-thankfully dry! — walls to either side.

He strolled along jauntily, rather pleased to have survived such an adventure. He recalled Slooshy with a pang but knew she must be dead by then. And he was still alive! Though sodden and chilly, he could walk, and he even allowed himself a glimmer of enthusiasm as he wondered if he might not discover some food somewhere along the dark pathway. Things were indeed looking up! In fact, although it might have been his imagination, he grew cheerful at the vague sense that the air around him was getting warmer.

Gus wandered along the dark corridor, not sure if he was climbing or descending, for at least two minutes. He realized he had been right about one thing: it was definitely getting warmer! His sodden garments gradually dried, and he no longer squished and splashed with every step. The narrow escape from a watery tomb and the loss of his companion left no lingering trauma, forgetfulness being one of the finely tuned coping mechanisms of the Aghar race. Indeed, he pursed his lips and whistled a merry tune as he trekked along, feeling as though suddenly he didn’t have a care in all Krynn.

Then he remembered Slooshy again with a sudden hollow feeling in his middle. The sound of her voice calling “Help!” left a weird echo in his head, and though he tried to knock it out, all of his beating against his temples only seemed to make his head hurt more. And there was that continuing strange pain in his belly every time he recalled her, remembering the feeling of her arms around him, her hand clutched in his.

Thinking of the pain in his belly, he realized he was pretty hungry. He didn’t know if he was walking in the right direction toward food or any place safe, but he wasn’t about to go back and jump in the river, so he was doing the only thing he could think to do which was to keep walking along the underground passage.

If he had taken a little more time to inspect his surroundings, he might have noticed that the corridor was straight and level with stone arches at regular intervals. That was clear proof that he wasn’t in a natural cave, but rather was following a route carved by dwarves at some point in the unknown past. Gus’s nose was paying more attention than his brain, sniffing at the air, seeking low and high, right and left, for any morsel of food.

A cave grub, exuding the characteristic musty stink of its species, could not elude his notice. He dug the plump creature out of a narrow crevice in the cavern wall and popped it into his mouth, smacking his lips delightedly as he savored the gooey juice and chewy membrane. Recalling his thrilling ride down the subterranean flume and finding that surprising delicacy, Gus beamed. It was looking like his lucky day!

As a result, the pudgy Aghar had a certain spring in his step as he continued along his way. He almost swaggered as he savored the last creamy swallow of slug. His big eyes, attuned to perfect darkness, took in the smooth walls, the perfectly level floor, the arrow-straight course of the passage before him, and he felt as though he could walk that nice path across the whole of Thorbardin. There was nothing to stop him.

As was his wont, his mind wandered. What would it be like to be highbulp of all the Aghar, master of the under-dwellers, a gully dwarf so important that he held a great seat at the council of thanes? But why stop there, at mere highbulp? What if he, Gus, were to become high king of all the dwarves? Now that was a dream worth imagining!

What would his house be like? Splendid, of course. What would he wear? Why, anything he wanted. He’d have a full closet of at least two nice outfits. What would he-he gasped at the possibilities-what would he eat? The question was full of such boundless appeal, such unlimited possibility, that it took his breath away. What, indeed, would he eat, if he had all the power of the high kingship? Well, he would probably start with fish eggs, the roe of the cave salmon that he had sampled once or twice, when he had dared to root through the garbage outside of an upscale Theiwar inn. After that, he would have… well, why not have two more salmon eggs? Why, as high king, he could live on salmon eggs, and nobody could tell him otherwise!

But a king needed a queen, didn’t he? He sniffled suddenly, remembering Slooshy again. Too bad she wasn’t alive. He would have kind of liked the chance to offer her a seat on the throne of the dwarves… and also a dish of salmon eggs, all her own to eat.

His thoughts meandered through a menu of other treats as he swung along the corridor. His imagination was so active, he could practically smell the delicate salmon eggs, feel them bursting on his tongue, taste the salty nectar within. Thus it was he didn’t notice the dark figures lurking in the corridor until he almost walked right into then.

Then he had to notice. He froze, one foot in the air in the middle of a step. There were three of them, big and burly dwarves, dressed in black cloaks that masked their facial features and concealed their limbs and torsos. They stood side by side, blocking the corridor completely, motionless and silent as they regarded the approaching gully dwarf.

Immediately, a lifetime of survival instincts took over Gus’s mind and body. He gulped loudly even as he spun around on his planted foot. The mysterious figures had offered no ominous sound, no gestures indicating menace, but any Aghar who lasted to adulthood did so by not taking chances. Any nongully dwarf encountered anywhere in Thorbardin, at any time, under any circumstances, as likely as not possessed murderous intentions. At least, that’s what the survival-minded Aghar was forced to assume.