“How do you know? We were too busy trying to be quiet to listen,” Kindan countered.
Finally, just when she thought she couldn’t take it anymore, the noise stopped. The others joined them.
“There won’t be anyone at the bottom of the old shaft, will there?” Zenor wondered aloud.
“No,” Toldur replied. “It’s too risky for anyone to stay down here.”
After a moment, Nuella said, “Kisk could see anyone before they could see her, anyway.”
“Let’s go, then,” Zenor said.
Nuella and Kindan had already started moving, with Kisk between them.
“No blindfold this time,” Kindan murmured to Nuella.
“Which is a pity, because I could have used it for a dust mask,” Nuella replied.
“Hang on,” Toldur whispered from behind them. The group paused. “Yup, I thought so,” he said after rustling a hand about in his hard hat. “There are scarves in the hard hats. Pull them out, but make sure you keep your hat over your head—there could be loose rocks anywhere along here jostled from the cave-in.”
“Not that it’ll do much good,” Nuella grumbled as they set off once more.
“Then why’d you mention it?” Zenor muttered back.
Nuella sniffed and increased her pace.
“You are keeping count, aren’t you?” Kindan asked her after a moment.
“Yes,” she said immediately. “Aren’t you?”
“Third Street is twelve paces ahead,” Kindan said by way of confirmation.
“Nuella,” he asked as they passed Third Street, “what if we’re too late?”
“We won’t be,” she said fervently, wishing it to be true. “When did it happen?”
“About an hour before sunset,” Kindan said. In agony, he confessed, “Kisk was still asleep. There was too much light for her until the sun went down. We got to the mine as quick as we could after that.”
Kisk gave Nuella a disconsolate bleep.
Instinctively, Nuella reached out and patted the watch-wher’s side. “Not your fault, sweetie, you did your best.”
Beside her, Kindan took Nuella’s words to heart, as well.
“That’s nearly twelve hours ago,” she said after a moment. “How long can their air hold out?”
“It depends on the size of the tunnel that survived,” Toldur answered from behind them. “No more than a day, though. Maybe less.”
Maybe a lot less, Nuella guessed. Desperate to avoid thinking about it, she said to Kindan, “Did you know that a watch-wher takes its name from its human?”
“Really?” Renna asked from the rear of the group, rightly guessing that Nuella was trying to distract herself.
“Yes,” Nuella affirmed. “And that the more bonded a watch-wher is with its human, the more closely the watch-wher’s name matches the human’s.”
“Oh,” Kindan said. “So I would’ve been better off to pick Kinsk over Kisk?”
“I don’t know how much it’s a question of your picking as it is of her picking,” Nuella corrected. “And it’s not to say that a short name won’t mean a long bonding. Renilan and Resk have been bonded now for over thirty Turns.”
“Oh,” Kindan said more cheerfully. Then he nearly tripped on a rock. “Rocks ahead!” he called over his shoulder. “Everyone mind your step.”
“Everyone start counting your paces,” Toldur ordered. “We don’t want to get lost.”
Nuella called out from the left, “First Street,” at the same time that Kindan called out from the right, “Main shaft.”
“Eighty-three meters from here,” Toldur said quietly.
“Do you feel that?” Cristov asked. “I feel a draft—it must be the pumps.”
“In or out?” Zenor asked. “It feels to me like it’s blowing in.”
“Everyone freeze!” Toldur hissed.
“What’s wrong?” Nuella asked.
“Tank’s blowing air into the mine,” Zenor replied in a dead voice.
“We’ll have to turn back,” Toldur said.
“Why?” Nuella cried. “We’re almost there! We can’t stop now!”
“Nuella,” Zenor said slowly, “with the air blowing in—it’s like adding coal to a fire.”
“No, it’s exactly like adding air to coal-gas,” Renna corrected. “It could cause an explosion.”
“He’s not doing it on purpose is he?” Kindan asked. No one wanted to answer that question.
“Come on, we have to turn around,” Toldur repeated.
“Wait!” Nuella cried desperately. “If we can get the pumps to suck the air out, could we go on?”
“It won’t work,” Zenor said. “You’d have to get crews on both the old and the new shafts or it’d have pretty much the same effect.”
No one knew what to say.
“We tried, Nuella,” Kindan said as the silence dragged on.
“I’m not quitting,” Cristov announced. “I won’t leave them.”
“We can come back when it’s safe,” Toldur said.
“For the bodies?” Zenor cried.
“Wait!” Nuella hissed. “If we could get the pumps on both shafts to suck the air out, could we continue?”
“It’d be too risky,” Toldur said after a moment. “The air has been pumped in here for hours now. At any moment it could meet a pocket of gas and...”
Everyone shuddered at the thought of the fireball that would result.
“We could leave our picks here,” Cristov suggested. “That way we couldn’t possibly make any sparks.”
“We’d have to move the rocks by hand anyway,” Zenor agreed.
“We still don’t have any way to get the pumps manned,” Toldur pointed out.
“Oh, yes we do,” Nuella said, her heart lifting. “Kindan, can I borrow Kisk for a moment?”
“Sure,” Kindan said instantly. “Where are you going?”
“Nowhere,” Nuella said in a tone that discouraged further questions. She put her hands on Kisk. “Kisk, I need you to talk to Lolanth. Tell Lolanth to talk to me, please. It’s an emergency.”
Kisk nodded her head and blinked her eyes slowly. Then she chirped a happy acknowledgment and butted Nuella in search of affection. Nuella gave the green watch-wher a quick pat on the neck.
“Thank you Kisk,” she said. Then she continued, “Lolanth, please tell J’lantir that I need the pumps on both mines manned to suck the air out of the mines. Ask him to get the MasterMiner. Tell him I’m trying to save my father.”
J’lantir asks if you’re in danger, the dragon relayed.
“Only if we don’t get the air sucked out of the mine,” Nuella said aloud.
J’lantir says he will do it, Lolanth answered. He is very worried. I am very worried. We are calling Gaminth. M’tal comes. Ista comes. The miners have been told.
“If Tarik complains...” Kindan said, guessing what Nuella was doing.
“Are you talking to a dragon?” Zenor asked in amazement.
“Dragons will talk to anyone if they want to,” Kindan told him.
“Really,” Zenor muttered in amazement.
From above, they heard a chorus of dragon bugles loudly in the night.
The MasterMiner is here, Lolanth informed Nuella. He has started the pumps the right way. He is very angry with someone.
I am here, Nuella, the gentle voice of Gaminth called. M’tal wants to know where you are.
“We’re down here, in the mine,” Nuella answered aloud.
MasterMiner Britell is very worried, Gaminth informed her. He says you should come up immediately.
“I can feel the pumps,” Cristov said. “They’re pulling the air out.”
“The MasterMiner is here,” Nuella told them. “He says we have to leave.”
“We’re not going!” four voices responded in unison.
“Well, I can’t drag you all out by myself, and I won’t leave you,” Toldur said slowly. He said to Nuella, “If you can get a message to the MasterMiner, tell him what we’re hoping to do and ask if he has any suggestions.”
Nuella relayed the message. The MasterMiner says you should hope your luck holds, Gaminth reported.
“He says good luck,” Nuella told the others.
“Okay, let’s get going,” Kindan said. “It’s another eighty-six meters to Second Street.”