Robert Asprin - Tales From The Vulgar Unicorn

Smhee said softly, 'Ah!'

He pointed at the pool. She strained her eyes and then saw what looked like a swelling of the water in its centre. The mound moved towards the edge of the pool, and then it left the water. It clacked as it shot towards the river. Soon another thing came and then another, and all of a sudden at least twenty popped up and clattered across the rocks.

Smhee finally relieved her bursting question.

'They look like the bengil crab of Sharranpip. They live in that hole but they must catch fish in the river.'

'What is that to us?'

'I think the pool must be an entrance to a cave. Or caves. The crabs are not water-breathers.'

'Are they dangerous?'

'Only when in water. On land they'll either run or, if cornered, try to defend themselves. They aren't poisonous, but their claws are very powerful.'

He was silent for a moment, then said, 'The mage is using them to defend the entrance to a cave, I'm sure. An entrance which is also an exit. For him as well as for the crabs. That pool has to be one of his secret escape routes.'

Masha thought, 'Oh, no!' and she rolled her eyes. Was this fat fool really thinking about trying to get inside through the pool? SL. 'How could the mage get out this way if the crabs would attack Bum?'

'He would throw poisoned meat to them. He could do any number of things. What matters just now is that he wouldn't have bothered to bring their eggs along from Sharranpip unless he had a use for them. Nor would he have planted them here unless he needed them to guard this pool. Their flesh is poisonous to all living things except the ghoondah fish.'

He chuckled. 'But the mage has outsmarted himself. If I hadn't noticed the bengil, I would never have considered that pool as an entrance.'

While he had been whispering, another group had emerged and run for the river. He counted them, thirty in all.

'Now is the time to go in,' he said. 'They'll all be feeding. That crab you first saw was their scout. It found a good place for catching fish, determined that there wasn't any enemy around, and returned with the good news. In some ways, they're more ant than crab. Fortunately, their nests aren't as heavily populated as an anthole.'

He said, however, that they should wait a few minutes to make sure that all had left. 'By all, I mean all but a few. There are always a few who stay behind to guard the eggs.'

'Smhee, we'll drown!'

'If other people can get out through the pool, then we can get in.'

'You don't know for sure that the pool is an escape route!'

'What if the mage put the crabs there for some other reason?'

'What if? What if? I told you this would be very dangerous. But the rewards are worth the risk.'

She stiffened. That strange cry had come again. And it was definitely nearer.

'It may be hunting us,' Smhee said. 'It could have smelled the blood of the ape.'

'What is it?' she said, trying to keep her teeth from chattering.

'I don't know. We're downwind from it, butTt sounds as if it'll soon be here. Good! That will put some stiffening in our backbone, heat our livers. Let's go now!'

So, he was scared, too. Somehow, that made her feel a little better.

They stuck their legs down into the chilly water. They found no bottom. Then Smhee ran around to the inland side and bent down. He probed with his hand around the edge.

'The rock goes about a foot down, then curves inward,' he said. 'I'll wager that this was once a pothole of some sort. When Kemren came here, he carved out tunnels to the cave it led to and then somehow filled it with river water.' He stood up.

The low strange cry was definitely closer now. She thought she saw something huge in the darkness to the north, but it could be her imagination.

'Oh, Igil!' she said. 'I have to urinate!'

'Do it in the water. If it smells your urine on the land, it'll know a human's been here. And it might call others of its kind. Or make such an uproar the Raggah will come.'

He let himself down into the water and clung to the stony edge.

'Get in! It's cold but not as cold as death!' She let herself down to his side. She had to bite her lip to keep from gasping with shock.

He gave her a few hurried instructions and said, 'May Weda Krizhtawn smile upon us!' And he was gone.

10

She took a deep breath while she was considering getting out of the pool and running like a lizard chased by a fox to the river and swimming across it. But instead she dived, and as Smhee had told her to do, swam close to the ceiling of rock. She was blind here even with her eyes open, and, though she thought mostly about drowning, she had room to think about the crabs. | Presently, when her lungs were about to burst and her head I rang and the violent urge to get air was about to make her breathe, I her flailing hand was grasped by something. The next instant, she was pulled into air.

There was darkness all about. Her gaspings mingled with Smhee's.

He said, between the wheezings, 'There's plenty of air-space between the water and the ceiling. I dived down and came up as fast as I could out of the water, and I couldn't touch the rock above.'

After they'd recovered their wind, he said, 'You tread water while I go back. I want to see how far back this space goes.'

She didn't have to wait long. She heard his swimming - she hoped it was his and not something else - and she called out softly when he was near.

He stopped and said, 'There's plenty of air until just before the tunnel or cave reaches the pool. Then you have to dive under a downthrust ledge of rock. I didn't go back out, of course, not with that creature out there. But I'm sure my estimate of distance is right.'

She followed him in the darkness until he said, 'Here's another downthrust.'

She felt where he indicated. The stone did not go more than six inches before ceasing.

'Does the rope or your boots bother you any?' he said. 'If they're too heavy, get rid of them.'

'I'm all right.'

'Good. I'll be back soon - if things are as I think they are.' She started to call to him to wait for her, but it was too late. She clung to the rough stone with her fingertips, moving her legs now and then. The silence was oppressive; it rang in her ears. And once she gasped when something touched her thigh.

The rope and boots did drag her down, and she was thinking of at least getting rid of the rope when something struck her belly. She grabbed it with one hand to keep it from biting her and with the other reached for her dagger. She went under water of course, and then she realized that she wasn't being attacked. Smhee, diving back, had run into her.

Their heads cleared the surface. Smhee laughed.

'Were you as frightened as I? I thought sure a bengil had me!'

Gasping, she said, 'Never mind. What's over there?'

'More of the same. Another air-space for perhaps a hundred feet. Then another downcropping.'

He clung to the stone for a moment. Then he said, 'Have you noticed how fresh the air is? There's a very slight movement of it, too.'

She had noticed but hadn't thought about it. Her experience with watery caves was nil until now.

'I'm sure that each of these caves is connected to a hole which brings in fresh air from above,' he said. 'Would the mage have gone to all this trouble unless he meant to use this for escape?'

He did something. She heard him breathing heavily, and then there was a splash,

'I pulled myself up the rock and felt around,' he said. 'There is a hole up there to let air from the next cave into this one. And I'll wager that there is a hole in the ceiling. But it must curve so that light doesn't come in. Or maybe it doesn't curve. If it were day above, we might see the hole.'

He dived; Masha followed him. They swam ahead then, putting their right hands out from side to side to feel the wall. When they came to the next downcropping, they went through beneath it at once.