Darkvision - Bruce R. Cordell [67]
As soon as a crewman tied the skyship with stays and guy ropes, Sevaera appeared at Warian's side. His aunt touched his shoulder and said, "We're expected. Don't dawdle, Nephew."
"But I need my bag…" Warian trailed off when he saw a uniformed porter wheeling Aunt Sevaera's luggage, with Warian's own traveling bag atop the pile, after his aunt. Trust her to be efficient.
His aunt and the porter moved down the gangway and confidently onto the pier. Warian followed, more cautiously. He looked down as he traveled along the gangway. Vertigo clawed his spine as his eyes traced the vertical side of the tooth all the way down to the rocky ground far below.
Once they reached the sturdy stone ledge, they quickly moved into the main tunnel, heading toward the heart of Datharathi Minerals's enterprise in Adama's Tooth. The porter paused, allowing Warian to precede him. As Warian passed the man, the porter winked. A heartbeat's confusion gave way to recognition. Zel's really was a master of disguise.
The corridor walls were smooth and polished. Redstone squares tiled the floor. Smokeless torches alternated on either side, about every ten paces. Nothing but the finest for the Datharathis. Of course, this was the executive entrance to the mining headquarters-the lower shafts sunk through Adama's Tooth were as rough and crude, but workable, as might be found in any mine.
They reached the nexus, where several wide, well-lit passages met. Warian expected his aunt to take the passage that led toward family quarters, but she turned toward the lift tunnel.
"We're going down into the mine?" Warian questioned.
"Yes. Shaddon has moved his staging area closer to the location where the crystal is extracted. He's waiting for us."
Warian scratched his nose and said, "Porter, come with us, please. I have some items in my bag that I may want to ask my uncle about."
"Yes, sir," said the porter, his accent and tone completely unlike Zel's normal speech.
Sevaera cocked her head, but wasn't curious enough to say anything. Instead, she moved to the edge of the lift and addressed the lift operator, a burly half-orc.
"Drop us to the Fifth Deep."
The lift operator nodded and grasped a great wheel set into the wall. Warian knew the lift was raised and lowered through a series of counterweighted chains, and that the wheel didn't require much strength to turn. Those who traveled up and down the mine shafts were heartened to see a burly lift operator, nonetheless.
As the shaft's gray walls flowed past on all sides, to the accompaniment of clanking chains and creaking pulleys, Warian asked, "Fifth Deep? I thought there were only four-and the lowest was where Shaddon first found the crystal we're all so happy with." Warian pumped his prosthesis to demonstrate.
"We opened a new face on the dig."
"Really? I don't know how that's possible, unless you're actually digging below the base of Adama's Tooth. If that's the case, wouldn't it be easier to sink a new shaft from outside?"
"You'll see, Nephew. The Fifth Deep doesn't obey all the rules you're accustomed to."
"What?"
Sevaera merely smirked. She was too smug by half.
The long descent ended. A wide tunnel through the naked rock beckoned. They moved forward and, almost immediately, the nature of the tunnel changed. The lift shaft and all the tunnels above shared traits of recently excavated stone, with sharp edges, exposed facets, scratches, and blast marks. But the tunnel they now traversed was smooth, as if worn by extreme age or perhaps the passage of water. Stalactites reached down from above, white with calcite, and the left wall was thick with delicate boxwork, something normally found only in unworked caves.
"You've found a natural cavity!" exclaimed Warian.
"True, as far as it goes," replied Sevaera.
The passage opened into a wide, domed cavern.
"What's this? Is that a building?" asked Warian.
Ancient structures, half excavated, stood revealed in the light of brilliant