Nightshade - Laurell K. Hamilton [74]
Talanne had led them through empty corridors. She was no more eager to be caught than they were, perhaps less. Breck had been allowed on this expedition only because Talanne now considered him a member of the Federation party. It was still unsettling how easily Talanne and Breck accepted his new alliance. A complete change of loyalties, and as far as Troi could sense, neither Orianian thought it odd.
The corridors became rougher, mere blasted tunnels of rock. Worf had been forced to bend almost double. The Klingon made no complaint, but little grunts of effort came now and then.
Troi was a little tall for an Orianian but not much. And though all the borrowed clothing fit, it was still stiflingly hot. The farther into the narrowing tunnels they went, the hotter it became. The air, she noticed, was flat and stale, a touchable blanket that they were forced to wade through.
Talanne’s light made huge circular patterns on the narrowing walls.
The floor was bare rock, rubbed nearly smooth by the passage of many feet. “What were these tunnels originally for?” Troi asked. Her voice echoed, seeming to come from a different direction entirely. Troi swallowed and stared upward at the dark ceiling. If you became lost down here without a light, not even sound would help you. The echoes would trick you as surely as the darkness itself.
Talanne whispered, but the sound rushed and poured like water in the rock. “No one knows.”
Breck made a small sound, almost a laugh.
‘You have something to add, Breck,” Worf asked.
‘Only old warrior’s tales, Ambassador.” His voice was very close to Troi, as if in the pressing dark he, too, felt the need of comfort. “They say these were the tunnels of demons, destroyed before remembered history by our ancestors.”
‘Tales to frighten children, Breck, not warriors,” Talanne said. Her voice held the scorn her face could not show.
Breck did not rise to the taunting. He seemed faintly amused by the whole thing. Amused, and underneath that, nervous. Was he truly afraid of demons? Troi didn’t believe that, but for the first time she could feel unease from the man.
‘Breck,” Troi half-turned to him. “Are you afraid of the dark?”
She meant to keep her voice soft, but the echoes betrayed her, sending the whisper rushing through the narrow tunnel.
‘I am a Torlick warrior. I fear nothing that walks the ground or flies in the air.”
‘But do you fear demons?” Talanne called back, her voice soft and taunting.
‘I fear nothing.” His voice was very firm.
Troi was sorry she had spoken aloud. He was afraid-afraid of the dark and the narrow rock walls. Breck was claustrophobic but only in the dark. Troi had come across selective phobias before. People not afraid of heights unless in high manmade structures. It wasn’t that uncommon, but somehow the phobia made Breck more understandable. He seemed, for lack of a better word, more human.
‘One more short piece of tunnel,” Talanne said, then we go outside. Ambassador, Healer, follow me, do not tarry on the surface. The greatest danger is stray pockets of poison air. If we hit one, there is not much that will save us.”
‘Then why is there no easier way to the Greens?” Worf asked. His voice held just a hint of strain.
‘Few of our members would risk coming to a surface area that is not frequently traveled. We tend traveled areas and see they are clear of poison and other hazards. This stretch of deadly ground is the best guardian the Greens could have.”
The wall in front of Talanne seemed solid until she saw the light at a certain area. The shadows seemed to peel away and expose a small domed tunnel that was much smaller than the tunnel they were in.