“It appears that the Lisharithada want to make sure we are not able to interfere.” Rokhaset sat down slowly. “They have deliberately sealed off Nowëmosdet between our area and theirs. While we can, especially with the power of H’adamant, pass through, they will doubtless have forces waiting there to slow and harass us. There is no way that a Tennathada could possibly reach them.”
The room that had been optimistic a moment ago now seemed utterly sunk in gloom. After a few moments in silence, Rokhaset forced himself to his feet. “I must take the H’adamant to my people. It may not suffice, but I must at least make the attempt, and none of my people can come here to fetch it. It requires quite extraordinary efforts by myself and the makatdireskovi to maintain my communication at all. Others of my people would be crippled in the attempt. Farewell, Clinton Slade, Jodi Goldman, and all of your kin.”
Something was nagging at me as he left, but it refused to gel. The door closed.
Grandpa slammed a hand on the table so hard it upset three glasses. “Damnation! So close!”
Mamma sighed. “I suppose we shall have to prepare for the worst now. If only there was another way.”
Suddenly it clicked. Another way! I raced out the door. “Rokhaset! Wait!”
He turned, a dark shadow with faintly glowing eyes. “What is it, Clint?”
“Listen, some people have had a theory for a while now that most if not all of the caverns in this state, maybe farther, are connected somehow. Would you know if that’s true?”
He nodded. “It is true, Clinton Slade, though finding the connections could be difficult for your people, and not all connections are direct. Why?”
“Then we come at them from a different direction, if you can tell us the right route to take! Mammoth Caves, Rokhaset—if there’s a route through there, we can hit ’em from behind!”
He stood very still for a moment. “It is possible. Barely possible, Clinton Slade, for the route shall be long even if I can find such a route that you can pass, but . . . it is worth a try. Get out all the information you have on these ‘Mammoth Caves’ while I deliver the H’adamant. I shall return and we will see if, perhaps, there is one last chance for us all.”
10. Paging Arne Saknussemm . . .
“I really don’t know about this,” I found myself saying for the twentieth time.
Rokhaset waved a hand at me to be quiet, so I shut off the transducer that bounced my voice into his range and turned to Jodi. “I meant Mammoth Caves as an example, I guess. I mean, look how far away it is. You know how long it takes to get through anything except a tourist section of a cave—a lot of the time you wouldn’t measure things as miles per hour, but more like hours per mile. Or hours per hundred yards, in really hairy terrain.”
Jodi nodded. “But Rokhaset has some idea of what we’re able to handle, I’m sure. He’s not narish. Maybe he knows something we don’t and that’s why he asked for more maps.”
“Maybe. But I think I’d best make sure.” I got up and went over to where the High Spirit was standing, seeming to look into thin air, and turned the transducer back on. “Rokhaset—”
“A few more moments, Clinton Slade, and then I will answer your questions.”
Rokhaset was actually looking at our maps, which hadn’t been easy to arrange. Once more, the fact that the makatdireskovi allowed us to talk as though we both actually understood each other’s language had tripped us up. We’d gathered all the info we had on Mammoth and other, more nearby, caves, only to realize—the next day, when he arrived—that Rokhaset could neither see the pictures and diagrams nor read the words on paper. It had taken a couple hours of panicked discussion, and then a few more of hours of jury-rigging by Jodi, to arrive at a solution. But with the help of an old video camera and some low-power broadcast kit-bashing, Jodi had made it possible for Rokhaset to receive images of the books and maps in the same way they had been intercepting transmissions all along. Another hour had been required to help Rokhaset interpret the diagrams in a way analogous to our own so that he could then try to coordinate what he was seeing with what his people knew about the underground world. Now the High Spirit was trying to put together what he knew with what we knew and see if there was, indeed, any chance of us reaching the Lisharithada’s domain in time via another route.