The Jewel cast a baleful light over any features I turned to scrutinize.
“Do you know how to use that stone?” Jurt asked me.
I thought back over my father’s story
“When the time comes, I believe that I will,” I said, raising the Jewel and studying it for a moment, then letting it fall again. I was less concerned with it than with the route we were following.
I kept turning my head as we made our way from damp grotto to high cathedral chamber, along narrow passages, down stony waterfalls. There was something familiar here, though I couldn’t put my finger on it.
“Anything about this place bring back memories?” I asked him.
“Not for me,” Jurt replied.
We kept going, at one point passing a side cave containing three human skeletons. These being, in their fashion, the first real signs of life I had seen since the onset of this journey, I remarked on it.
Jurt nodded slowly.
“I am beginning to wonder whether we are still walking between shadows,” he said, “or whether we might actually have departed that place and entered Shadow-perhaps when we came into these caves.”
“I could find out by trying to summon the Logrus,” I said, causing Frakir immediately to pulse sharply upon my wrist. “But considering the metaphysical politics of the situation, I’d rather not.”
“I was just going by the colors of all the minerals in the walls,” he said. “The place we left behind kind of favored monochrome. Not that I give a shit about the scenery. What I’m saying is that if we have, it’s a kind of victory.”
I pointed at the ground.
“So long as that glowing trail is there, we’re not off the hook.”
“What if we simply walked away from it now?” he asked, turning to the right and taking a single step in that direction.
A stalactite vibrated and crashed to the ground before him. It missed him by about a foot. He was back beside me in an instant.
“Of course, it would be a real shame not to find out where we’re headed,” he said.
“Quests are that way. It’d be bad form to miss the fun.”
We hiked on. Nothing allegorical happened around us. Our voices and our footfalls echoed. Water dripped in some of the danker grots. Minerals flashed. Our way seemed a gradual descent.
For how long we walked I could not tell. After a time stony chambers took on a generic appearance-as if we passed regularly through a teleportation device which rerouted us back through the same caves and corridors. This had the effect of blurring my sense of time. Repetitious actions have a lulling effect and-
Suddenly our trail debouched into a larger passage, turned left. Finally, some variation. Only this way, too, looked familiar. We followed our line of light through the darkness. After a time we went by a side passage to the left. Jurt glanced up it and hurried past.
“Any damned thing might be lurking around here,” he observed.
“True,” I acknowledged. “But I wouldn’t worry about it.”
“Why not?”
“I think I’m beginning to understand.”
“Mind telling me what’s going on?”
“It’d take too long. Just wait. We’ll be finding out pretty soon.”
We went by another side passage. Similar, yet different. Of course. I increased my pace, anxious to learn the truth. Another sideway. I broke into a run…
Another…
Jurt pounded along beside me, the echoes falling about us. Up ahead.
Soon.
Another turning.
And then I slowed, for the passage continued ahead but our trail didn’t. It curved to the left, vanishing beneath a big metal-bound door. I reached out to my right to where the hook was supposed to be, located it, removed the key that hung there. I inserted it, turned it, withdrew it, rehung it.
I don’t like this place, boss, Frakir noted.
I know.
“Seems as if you know what you’re doing,” Jurt remarked.
“Yep,” I said, then added, “Up to a point,” as I realized that this door opened outward rather than inward.
I caught hold of the large handle to the left and began to pull upon it.
“Mind telling me where we’ve wound up?” he asked.