Song of the Saurials - Kate Novak [47]
Morala motioned over the water with her hands. Now she could see a second torch, held by a small figure walking beside Nameless. "Well, well. It must be our little halfling Harper," the priestess muttered. As she turned her attention back to Nameless, an angry look swept over the bard's face. "What's wrong, Nameless?" Morala mused aloud. "Where are you, and what are you up to?"
7
Beneath Finder's Keep
Finder cursed under his breath as he and Olive turned a corner of the underground tunnels and were forced to another halt. Olive sighed with resignation. Their way was blocked by a wall of rocks, dirt, and mud where the ceiling had caved into the passage. It was the fourth such obstacle they'd encountered. The first had been at the base of the stairs that led from the ruined manor house to the underground tunnels. It had taken them an hour to clear a hole through it. The second collapse hadn't been as severe, and within half an hour they'd wriggled their way through. When they came upon the third collapse, Finder had decided to backtrack to the stairs and try a different route through the maze of twisting tunnels. Now they had no choice but to start digging again.
"If I hadn't lost the stone, we could have taken a dimensional door into the workshop," Finder growled, kicking at the base of the pile of rubble.
Trying to keep Finder from dwelling on the loss of his stone, Olive remarked,
"Unless the roof in the workshop collapsed, too. Then we'd be transported beneath a pile of rubble and dead."
"No," Finder replied, shoving his torch into the base of the rubble. "Then the dimension door would leave us in the astral plane. The workshop will be fine, though" he said. "Nothing could have gotten in there."
"Half a ton of rock doesn't need a key," Olive pointed out, setting her own torch beside Finder's.
"True" Finder said. "but these ceilings haven't collapsed from anything natural." He pointed to a portion of the arched ceiling that was still intact.
It was lined with quarried stone, perfectly fitted. "We haven't found any of the quarried stone in the piles," he said.
"It would probably be at the bottom of the pile," Olive replied "We haven't dug that deep."
Finder shook his head. "Some of it would be on the edges. It's impossible for an arch to collapse unless some of the stone is removed." The bard pointed to the top of the collapsed portion. "It wasn't pried or chipped out, and it didn't fracture in a straight line. See how circular the collapsed parts are-making an arc right through the stones?"
"Yes," Olive said hesitantly, feeling a little nervous.
"It's been disintegrated," Finder explained.
"Oh, great!" the halfling muttered.
"Recently, too, I'd say, judging from the lack of water damage," the bard added.
"Probably by the same person or creature who dispelled the continual light enchantments that used to be on the archway keystones."
"Marvelous," Olive replied sarcastically. "And we're digging our way right toward whoever did it. Did it ever occur to you that this person or creature might have blocked the passages because he, she, or it wanted to be left alone?"
"I don't care," Finder snapped. "If it's there, it's in my home, and I'm going to get rid of."
"Right," Olive said without enthusiasm. "Suppose you get disintegrated first?"
"There's enough magic in my workshop to demolish an army. I created the finder's stone there," he said. He began pulling small boulders out of the rubble.
Olive scrabbled up the pile and began digging out dirt and mud with her tiny pack shovel. Finder had broken the handle using it as a wedge on a boulder in the first pile of rubble they'd dug through, so now only Olive could use it comfortably. "You mean," she corrected the bard, "that that's where you altered the stone's already magical nature with a piece of enchanted para-elemental