“We’ll stop here and let the wizard work,” Bahbaz said to the other dwarves.
They sat on the stone and began eating. Zollin shrugged off his pack and took a long drink from the canteen. The water wasn’t cold, but it was still refreshing. The heat in the cavern was much greater than in the tunnels. He decided to repair the old bridge rather than build one from scratch. He pushed his magic into the molten rock and pulled it up. This magma was heavier, and Zollin could feel that the stone had a high mineral content. As his magic probed the bridge he was surprised to find the ends of the ruined stone walkway seemed almost splintered. Zollin had thought that the molten rock spewing up might have caused the bridge to melt away, but perhaps it just grew weak and collapsed, he thought.
He worked on the bridge for half an hour, then slumped down beside the others.
“Finished already?” Bahbaz said.
“Yes,” Zollin said. “I just rebuilt the fallen portion of the old bridge and made a heat shield underneath.”
Bahbaz and the other dwarves went to inspect Zollin’s work. Brianna brought over a small loaf of bread that was round and flat. She handed it to him and smiled.
“There’s also some crumbly cheese they make out of goat’s milk, and some meat. How does that sound?” she asked.
“Great, I’m starving.”
He ate quickly. The dwarves returned and were ready to push on. Zollin couldn’t tell what time it was or whether it was day or night. His body was tired and his feet ached. He sipped arkhi from a canteen that Bahbaz had given him, and they continued their journey. The tunnels they followed rose and fell, sometimes curving and even switching back to head in the opposite direction. There were forks in the tunnels and sometimes the tunnels crossed other tunnels, usually in the larger caverns. Zollin knew he was totally dependent on the dwarves to lead him and Brianna out of the maze of caves.
Finally, they decided they had gone far enough for the day and stopped when their tunnel opened up to a cavern that was so immense that the ceiling and far wall were swallowed in an inky darkness that seemed thick and alive. Zollin felt a strange sensation, as if the darkness were pulling him. It reminded him of being near a sharp drop and the way in which looking down made him feel as if the empty space were pulling him down. They came to a small pool of water, and the dwarves lay down on the hard, stone floor.
“Is there any need to keep watch?” Zollin asked.
A strange look crossed Bahbaz’s face, and then he shook his head.
Zollin felt relaxed from the arkhi. He gave the canteen to Brianna and unfolded a blanket from his pack which he spread out on the floor. The dwarves watched them curiously. Zollin spread another blanket for Brianna. They nibbled a bit of dried meat as they lay down, but soon they were too tired to talk or eat or even think. Zollin slept soundly until Bahbaz woke him.
“Time to get moving,” said the dwarf.
Zollin had no idea how the dwarves kept track of time, but he stretched and got to his feet. He shook Brianna awake and then folded the blankets. They refilled their canteens with water from the pool. Then they set out again, circling the pool to continue on their journey. As they came to the pool’s farthest point from the wall they had been following, they discovered that the water was running out of the pool and falling off a ledge. Zollin saw the gaping abyss and wished more than ever that they were back by the wall.
“What is this?” Brianna asked, peering over the ledge.
“Just a hole,” Bahbaz said.
“What’s down there?”
“Nothing good.”
They waded across the edge of the pool and then circled the far side back to the wall. The rest of the morning they spent traversing the huge, underground cavern. The blackness felt heavy, and Zollin thought it was hard to breathe, as though the weight of the mountains were bearing down on them. He was ready to be back out in the open, to see the sky and feel the sun on his skin.
When they left the big cavern Zollin and Brianna both welcomed the close confines of the tunnel. It took another hour to reach the next Stepping Stone, as Bahbaz called them. This cavern was smaller, and the floor was littered with small rocks. There was no sign of a bridge, so Zollin started from scratch. Once again the dwarves, who were stoic little people, sat and ate while Zollin worked.
He had the arch built when he noticed a change in the magma. It was beginning to churn and Zollin hesitated, watching the molten rock.
“Something’s happening,” he said.
The dwarves moved quickly past Zollin.
“What is it?” Brianna asked.
“I’m not sure.”
“Is it going to erupt?”
Zollin let his magic probe into the magma and felt something strange. The molten rock was still churning, but he could feel something in the pool. It was large, even though it seemed to blend perfectly into the magma.
“There’s something in it,” Zollin said, noticing the dwarves give each other nervous glances.
“What do you mean?” Brianna asked.
“I can’t tell what it is, but there is something moving in the magma.”
“Something like. .?”
“Like a creature.”
“You’re saying there’s something alive down there? In the lava?”
“Yes,” Zollin said.
“It’s a luggart,” Bahbaz said. “A rock monster.”
“You know what it is?” Brianna asked. She was stunned by the idea that anything could be alive in molten rock.
“Aye, lass, we know,” said one of the other dwarves.
“And we know how to fight it,” Bahbaz said.
“Do we have to fight it?” Zollin asked.
“We can run, but we’ll just have to go back the way we came,” Bahbaz explained. “You agreed to rebuild the bridges. We can deal with this luggart.”
Zollin didn’t know what to think. He felt fear digging a sharp talon into his guts. He wanted to move away from the monster instinctively. He felt trapped by the cave. There was no place to hide. He didn’t want to be in the tunnel. He had made that mistake with the dragon and it had almost crushed him.
“Come on,” he told Brianna. “I don’t want to be in the tunnel.”
They moved out into the cavern, edging slowly away from the tunnel.
“Don’t go too far, I won’t be able to protect you if you don’t stay close,” Bahbaz said.
They watched as the molten rock seemed to bubble and even leap up in bright yellow arcs. The heat in the cavern rose, and Zollin had to wipe the sweat out of his eyes. Then the luggart appeared. It looked like a huge, glowing worm. It flopped up and then fell on the cave floor, sending drops of molten rock flying around the cavern. The dwarves all had short-handled hammers that were shaped like mallets. They brandished the hammers like weapons, each of them swaying on their short legs like runners at the start of a race.
The luggart opened a gapping maw, revealing a wicked-looking eye that focused on the dwarves and several tongue-like appendages. The luggart gave a loud, cough-like roar and then one of the tongues whipped out. It reminded Zollin of a frog’s tongue that could shoot out and capture flying bugs that came too close. The tongue hit Bahbaz, knocking the dwarf off his feet. The tongue stuck to him and began pulling him toward the creature’s open mouth, but the dwarf next to Bahbaz slammed his hammer down on the tentacle-like tongue. The blow made a sickening, wet thud, and Bahbaz was thrown back as if a blast of air had blown him backwards.
Another tongue shot out and the process repeated. It went on and on, the dwarves hammering the luggart’s tongues until finally the giant, worm-like creature retreated back into the molten pool.