Pathways - Jeri Taylor [176]
“Watch out—as soon as it’s out far enough, I’m going to let it fall onto the ground.” Kes backed away. The stone would be dangerously heavy.
Another few minutes of wedging each side of the stone and it came tumbling out of its housing, crashing heavily to the ground and throwing up plumes of dust. Kes waved her hand to dispel them as Daggin moved close to the opening he’d created and shined his lamp into it.
“What is it? What do you see?” Kes asked, almost dancing with impatience.
His smile was eager, excited. “Come up here.”
She scrambled up beside him and stood on tiptoe to peer into the opening.
She could see before her a round, darkened chamber, symmetrical to a degree that told her it had to have been constructed. She shone her lamp carefully around the periphery, and soon it revealed a long-unused control panel of some kind. And immediately adjacent to the panel was one of the most remarkable things Kes had ever seen: a staircase, old, rusting, dilapidated, leading upward.
Kes and Daggin exchanged glances, amazed. What could this be? Daggin extended his arm and ran his hand around the periphery of the opening on the inside of the chamber wall.
“There’s hardware on this wall. That’s what caused the rust stain.”
“What is this, Daggin? What are those stairs for?”
He looked down at the stone plug, now lying on the bottom of the cave floor. “We have to figure a way to put that back,” he said, and Kes was frustrated again.
“Why? Why can’t we go in there, see where those stairs lead?”
“Because they lead up—and up is where the surface is. And if we can come up those stairs, the Kazon can come down them.”
The Kazon again. Why was everyone so frightened of these mythical monsters? Who was to say they’d ever existed, much less lurked on the surface after so long a time? Wouldn’t it be better to find out if they were still a threat than to live one’s life in fear of the unknown?
But Daggin, for all his enlightened attitudes, apparently was just as cowed by the Kazon as everyone else. He was testing the weight of the stone that he’d pried out of its housing, and apparently found it daunting. “We’ll have to get some help with this. It will take three or four of us, at least.”
“Do we want others to know about this? Is that wise?”
Daggin pondered. She knew he realized she had a point. A discovery like this wasn’t the kind of thing one wanted to be general knowledge. Soon word of it would get to the Elders, and who knew what they’d make of it?
Kes decided to press the point. “Why not just leave it? It’s not likely that anyone’s going to wander this far from the city. In all this time, no one’s found it before—I think it’s safe to say no one else will.”
“It leaves us vulnerable if anyone were to come down that staircase,” mused Daggin, but she knew he was ambivalent.
“If anyone got that far, one small stone wouldn’t provide much protection. If the enemy comes for us, we’ll just have to fight.”
He glanced quickly at her, hearing the steely tone in her voice. He looked back at the fallen stone, then up at the opening in the wall. “All right,” he said uneasily. “But I want you to promise you won’t come back here by yourself.”
She hesitated. She had every intention of doing just that, and of climbing at least a little way up the staircase. But she couldn’t lie to Daggin, couldn’t make a false promise.
“I thought so,” he said knowingly. “Kes, what am I to do with you? Curiosity is one thing, and courage is certainly a virtue—but together they can easily turn to foolhardiness. You have to learn to temper your impulses. That’s what true wisdom is all about.”
Silently, Kes simmered, and blocked her mind so he wouldn’t sense her attitude. Who was Daggin to be lecturing her? Had he developed “true wisdom”? He was barely older than she.
He drew near her and took hold of her arms just at the shoulders, looking down at her with concern. “Please promise,” he said softly, and something in his voice caught her attention.